In the latest Wandering Waters update, Dota 2 has introduced a new crafting system for Neutral Items. This new system drastically changes how Neutral Items function in the game, shifting the focus from Neutral Tokens to separate components that can be forged into an item via Madstones.
This is everything you need to know about how Madstones work.
Dota 2 Madstones, explained
Madstones are a new form of crafting currency in Dota 2. With the release of Patch 7.38 and its varied map and hero changes taking the limelight, it’s easy to overlook Neutral Item changes. Gone are the days of Neutral Item Tokens dropping since they have been replaced by Madstones, a new resource used to forge and customize your Neutral Items.
Madstones drops from neutral creeps. Every time you fully clear out a jungle creep camp, you will earn Madstones—two for you and one for a random allied hero. You can start earning Madstones after five minutes of in-game time have passed, as opposed to the older system, which started dropping tokens after seven minutes.
Tier one Neutral Items require only five Madstones to craft. So you should be done after clearing up to three jungle camps regardless of the difficulty of the camp. The Madstone cost of Neutral Items will keep increasing every tier, and you will be notified about how many you need at any point.
Now that you know how to acquire Madstones, you will need to know how to use them to craft your own custom Neutral Items.
How to forge custom Neutral Items in Dota 2
First, collect five Madstones and then click on the new Neutral Item crafting button highlighted above. You should find it above your Neutral Item slot. Clicking on it will show you the two types of components you will need to successfully craft a Neutral Item—Artifacts and Enchantments. Each component will add a different effect to the Neutral Item you want to craft.
Artifacts will add an active ability or passive effect to the Neutral Item, while Enchantments will add various stat increases. You can combine familiar old items with new effects to create customized Neutral Items. Mix and match different effects and you might come up with a powerful combination.
For example, you can pick Orb of Destruction Artifact for its armor reduction effect and combine it with different Enchantments. You could pick the Alert Enchantment if you want more attack speed to keep the debuff on for as long as possible or the Tough Enchantment for more damage with the armor reduction.
You could also add defensive Enchantments like Brawny if you want more health or resource Enchantments like Mystical for mana regeneration. There is no limit to what you can create, so pick whatever you think is best for the hero you’re playing and the current state of the game when you acquire the item.
If you want to keep the Neutral Item you have for the next tier as well, you can recraft it with the same Artifact combined with new Enchantments so that it will scale appropriately over time.
Additional tips for crafting Neutral Items
You can only craft Neutral Items in the proper tier order, starting with a tier one Neutral Item. Once you have a tier one Neutral Item, wait for the game timer to hit 15 minutes and only then can you craft a tier two Neutral Item. This rule stands for the subsequent tiers as well, going up from tier one to tier five Neutral Items after 60 minutes.
Neutral Item timings have been changed as well. As of Patch 7.38, these are the timings to look out for when you want to farm the required Madstones.
- Tier one: Craftable at five minutes. The Madstone cap is five.
- Tier two: Craftable at 15 minutes. The Madstone cap is 15.
- Tier three: Craftable at 25 minutes. The Madstone cap is 25.
- Tier four: Craftable at 35 minutes. The Madstone cap is 35.
- Tier five: Craftable at 60 minutes. The Madstone cap is 45.
Once the game timer crosses 70 minutes, there is no Madstone cap. So if one of your teammates is lacking a tier five Neutral Item, you can clear a few camps in no time to give them what they need to scale up. Madstone timings are also halved if you’re playing Turbo games, so they will start dropping after the first two and a half minutes pass.
For a full list of Artifacts and Enchantments, check out the Wandering Waters update page.
