A now patched bug was giving Dota 2 players Vambrace, a Tier 2 neutral item, for free. Here’s how it worked:
Dota 2 always has a few bugs, and sometimes they’re ripe for exploiting, as was the case with this recent Vambrace bug. Diligent players had discovered that they could spawn the Tier 2 neutral item into their neutral item slot immediately, and give their team members the item for free.
The bug worked by moving a Vambrace onto your quick buy hotbar. Then, by clicking the item, it would appear in your Neutral Item slot. This was because the item didn’t have a cost. As a result, you’d receive the item, and even be able to send it to the neutral stash. Less than a minute in and the whole team could have Tier 2 neutral items.
The Vambrace was a particularly dangerous item for players to have early, as it effectively gave them an item of similar use to Power Treads, a 1400 gold value item, at the start of the game. Below, a clip from popular streamer Singsing shows the bug in action.
Vambrace bug quickly hotfixed
However, if you were looking to abuse this bug, you’ve already missed your change. Early on Dec. 17, Valve dropped a small update that fixed the Vambrace bug, making it impossible to get for free. Valve likely made the hotfix due to the widespread knowledge of the method, thanks to Singsing’s stream and others.
Overall, this is a pretty cut and dry case of a bug appearing, being spotted, and quickly removed. But we have to question, just how long has this been something in-game that we’ve not noticed? And does it work with any other neutral items. We’d hope that Valve has double checked the quick buy feature now, but ultimately we won’t know until another bug appears.