Dota 2 community makes its own tutorial ahead of anime premiere

Who calls the Dragon Knight?

Netflix’s Dota 2 anime debuts for the public later this week, and with it, there will probably be at least a few people jumping into the game for the first time. Learning Dota 2, as many will tell you, is pretty tough; so some modders and community members have banded together to create their own tutorial.

Under the custom game title “Dota Tutorial,” you can simply install it through the Steam Workshop or in-game through the Custom games tab, and you’re off to the races. The project was launched as an IndieGogo campaign and has made almost 300% of its targeted goal by the time of this writing, with still 11 days left in the campaign. It features voice acting, scripted tutorials, little minigames, and even links to resources for further learning.

And I have to say, as someone with currently way, way too many hours played in Dota 2, it’s a really good starting point. Hosts SunsFan and SirActionSlacks walk you through everything from simple moving and attacking to last-hitting, stacking creep camps, and denying allied units. There are even a few pretty good jokes, and plenty of cameos from popular community members and esports casters.

By the end of it, they even touch on some deeper facets of the game, like hero attributes and positions on a team. Mostly, it’s encouraging and well-paced. In lieu of any official tutorial from Valve, playing through this makes the learning a little more engaging, and will definitely save your Dota friends some breath in explaining all the spinning cogs happening in a single match. Dota 2 has a massive knowledge barrier for new players, and this tutorial certainly eases the curve.

It does have one major snag though: currently, Valve places a limit on accessing custom games until your account has played 30 games of Dota 2. While that makes sense to block off bot accounts, it’s a little counterintuitive to play that many Dota 2 matches before getting into the basics of the game.

The mod makers are petitioning for an exception to the rule, and we’ve reached out to Valve for comment on the matter.

Right now, it’s a little bit more of a quaint, fun romp for veterans who might not have played in a while. (It will certainly help if you’re coming back after a year or more away and are confused by those weird outposts.) Hopefully it can get an exception though, as any onboarding will definitely help everyone across the board.

The Dota 2 anime, meanwhile, premieres on Netflix on March 25.