Did Valve finally fix the Hand of Midas bug in Dota 2?

Dota 2 players are calling for the Hand of Midas item to be removed due to a game-breaking bug, even as Valve may have fixed it.

As one of the longest-running MOBA titles in the industry, Dota 2 has gone through its fair share of balance issues over the years. Typically, these have revolved around imbalanced heroes, especially if they just debuted. However, some balance issues stem not from design flaws but from exploitable bugs and items.

In August 2024, some players found an exploit for the Hand of Midas item. The item grants players the Transmute ability, which instantly kills a non-hero target while providing 160 gold and 2.1x experience. Typically, this should come with a cooldown, but players found a bug that essentially broke the game.

What is the Hand of Midas bug in Dota 2?

Players can simply drop the Hand of Midas, buy another copy, sell it, and then pick up the original item to instantly refresh the cooldown period. That meant players with fast hands could start farming large amounts of gold and XP effortlessly, snowballing their hero and their team. The reduced creeps also meant lane pushes went harder, and some heroes could deny enemy junglers their neutral creeps.

Many players reported the bug immediately, calling for Hand of Midas to be banned until it was fixed. Instead of locking out the item, Valve attempted to fix the bug by not allowing it to be sold for full price. The bandaid fix did little to stem the exploiters. These players simply found new ways, with the help of couriers, to circumvent Valve’s hotfix attempt.

Criticism from players only heightened after these meager resolution attempts. Given the multiple exploits consistently found by players for Hand of Midas, many players agree that disabling the item altogether is the smartest solution. 

While Valve hasn’t revealed the nature of the final fix yet, some players have already offered their solutions. Reverting Hand of Midas to its original single-charge usage would circumvent the exploit but make it a less popular choice. Others have suggested making it a passive item instead, but that presents its own share of balance issues. Too much benefit and it becomes core to too many builds, but too little and nobody will ever use it. 

Although Valve has a shiny new game in Deadlock, Dota 2 fans hope they remain a priority in the studio’s eyes, especially with bugs like these continuing to crop up.