Lane Creeps

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Lane creeps are a type of creep that automatically moves down the three lanes towards the enemy faction's Ancient. Each and every 30 seconds a new group (the creep wave) spawns for each faction at each of their barracks, but the number in the group and their stats eventually change, as the game progresses. Lane creeps engage any hostile unit nearby, but when left unattended, the opposing creeps end up clashing each other in the lanes on their way towards the enemy base.

Like other creeps, lane creeps are vitally important to a hero's progress because they grant resources, allowing for an advantage over the enemy team. They give experience to nearby enemies when killed – as well as gold to heroes who deal the last hit they take. Allied creeps can also be denied by their team, preventing the enemy from getting their gold bounty, and halving the experience gain from them. To get as many last hits as possible, players often manipulate creep position in the lane by abusing their simple AI, gaining an advantage and disrupting the pace of the battle into their favor. Creep control techniques include disruptively pushing forward into towers, pulling neutral creeps for allied lane creeps to fight, or aggroing enemy melee creeps to change their target.

Lane creeps (while controlled by the AI) are the only units capable of disabling Backdoor Protection. However, once taken over by a player, a lane creep no longer disables the protection.

Types

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There are four types of lane creeps: Melee, Ranged, Flagbearer, and Siege. Melee creeps spawn in larger numbers and have more health and less attack damage than ranged creeps. Ranged creeps have lower health, but deal more damage per attack to creeps, and are able to attack from a distance. However, their attack type causes them to deal less damage against heroes and buildings. Flagbearer creeps are identical to melee creeps, but have higher magic resistance, carry an aura that grants nearby allies health regeneration, and grant their gold bounty to every enemy within an area around them when killed. They start spawning at the fifth creep wave and spawn on every second wave from that point on, replacing one melee creep in those waves. Siege creeps spawn in every tenth wave. They have high health and high magic resistance. They have a long ranged attack which deals significantly more damage to buildings, but less to other units. They also prioritize buildings over other units when in range.

Destroying either of the enemy team's melee or ranged barracks causes the destroying team's respective lane to begin spawning super creeps instead of regular creeps. Super creeps are stronger versions of regular lane creeps that give less gold and experience to the enemy when killed. When all enemy barracks are destroyed, mega creeps begin to spawn from all lanes and siege creeps gain additional damage. Flagbearer creeps do not get upgraded.


Lane Creeps Attribute Table
Unit Model Health Armor Attack Damage BAT Attack Range Acquisition Range Vision Gold XP
Siege Creep 935 0 35‒46
Reinforced 		3 RangedRanged 690 (800) 800 750
750 		59‒72Gold
(66 Gold) 		88 ExperienceExperience
Super Melee Creep 700 3 36‒44
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		20‒26Gold
(23 Gold) 		25 ExperienceExperience
Mega Melee Creep 1270 3 96‒104
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		20‒26Gold
(23 Gold) 		25 ExperienceExperience
Super Ranged Creep 475 1 41‒46
Piercing 		1 RangedRanged 500 (600) 600 750
750 		19‒25Gold
(22 Gold) 		22 ExperienceExperience
Mega Ranged Creep 1015 1 131‒136
Piercing 		1 RangedRanged 500 (600) 600 750
750 		19‒25Gold
(22 Gold) 		22 ExperienceExperience
Super Siege Creep 935 0 51‒62
Reinforced 		3 RangedRanged 690 (800) 800 750
750 		59‒72Gold
(66 Gold) 		88 ExperienceExperience
Mega Siege Creep 935 0 51‒62
Reinforced 		3 RangedRanged 690 (800) 800 750
750 		59‒72Gold
(66 Gold) 		88 ExperienceExperience
Flagbearer Creep 550 2 19‒23
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		34‒39Gold
(37 Gold) 		57 ExperienceExperience
Super Flagbearer Creep 700 3 36‒44
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		20‒26Gold
(23 Gold) 		25 ExperienceExperience
Mega Flagbearer Creep 1270 3 96‒104
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		20‒26Gold
(23 Gold) 		25 ExperienceExperience
Melee Creep 550 2 19‒23
Runty 		1 MeleeMelee 100 (500) 500 750
750 		34‒39Gold
(37 Gold) 		57 ExperienceExperience
Ranged Creep 300 0 21‒26
Piercing 		1 RangedRanged 500 (600) 600 750
750 		43‒52Gold
(48 Gold) 		69 ExperienceExperience

Spawning

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Spawn location of Radiant and Dire lane creeps, bot mid and top
Spawn timing

Lane creeps spawn the first time as the game timer reaches 00:00, right after the game horn sounds. After that, they spawn every 30 seconds. While melee and ranged creeps spawn on every wave, flagbearer creeps and siege creeps are delayed and do not spawn on every wave. Flagbearer creeps first start spawning on the fifth wave, and then every second wave, meaning they spawn every minute, with the first ones spawning at 2:00. When Flagbearer creeps spawn, they replace a random melee creep in that wave, so that they do not increase the number of creeps in those waves. Siege creeps start spawning on the eleventh wave, and then every tenth wave, meaning they spawn every 5 minutes, with the first ones spawning at 5:00.

Initially, a creep wave consists of 3 melee creeps and 1 ranged creep (and 1 siege creep every 10th wave). As the game progresses, their quantity gets upgraded:

  • 31st wave and onwards (15:00): All lanes get +1 melee creep. Total count of melee creeps is now 4 for all lanes.
  • 61st wave and onwards (30:00): All lanes get +1 melee creep. Total count of melee creeps is now 5 for all lanes.
  • 71st wave and onwards (35:00): All lanes get +1 siege creep. Total count of siege creeps is now 2 for all lanes.
  • 81st wave and onwards (40:00): All lanes get +1 ranged creep. Total count of ranged creeps is now 2 for all lanes.
  • 91st wave and onwards (45:00): All lanes get +1 melee creep. Total count of melee creeps is now 6 for all lanes.

As mentioned before, flagbearer creeps replace a random melee creep when they spawn, keeping the total count of creeps the same.

After the 45th minute, a creep wave consists of 6 melee creeps (or 5 melee creeps and a flagbearer creep every second wave) and 2 ranged creeps (and 2 siege creeps every tenth wave), resulting in a total of 8 (10 with siege creeps) creeps per wave.

Spawn locations

Lane creeps spawn close to the lanes' barracks. There is however some minor adjustment for each lane, so that they meet at certain points of each lane if they are not interrupted or distracted.

Lane Faction Radiant side Faction Dire side
Top Creeps spawn slightly behind the barracks, right at the center of the triangle formed by the barracks and the effigy building below. Creeps spawn in front of the tier 3 tower, right at the edge of the ramp.
Middle Creeps spawn between the melee and ranged barracks, on the circle between them. Creeps spawn right in front of the tier 3 tower, slightly behind the edge of the ramp.
Bottom Creeps spawn right in front of the tier 3 tower, right at the edge of the ramp. Creeps spawn slightly behind the barracks, right at the center of the triangle formed by the barracks and the effigy building above.

The spawn locations do not change throughout the entire match. The creeps spawn so that the ranged creeps are always behind the melee creeps. However, the siege creeps spawn between the melee creeps.

Stats

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Every 7 minutes and 30 seconds, melee and ranged creeps gain a permanent upgrade to their health and attack damage, as well as an increase to their bounties. The following bonuses are applied:

  • Melee creeps: +12 health, +1 attack damage, +1 gold bounty
  • Ranged creeps: +12 health, +2 attack damage, +3 gold bounty, +8 experience bounty
  • Super melee creeps: +19 health, +2 attack damage, +1.5 gold bounty
  • Super ranged creeps: +18 health, +3 attack damage, +6 gold bounty
  • Mega melee creeps: +1.5 gold bounty
  • Mega ranged creeps: +6 gold bounty
  • Siege creeps: only gain one upgrade, and that is +16 damage upon destroying their respective lane's ranged barracks
  • Flagbearer creeps: follows the logic of melee creeps upgrade. Additionally, Inspiration Aura's magic resistance bonus upgrades by 4%, up to 15 times.

These health and damage upgrades are applied a maximum of 30 times, while the gold and experience bounty upgrades have no limit. This means their health and damage are fully upgraded at 225:00 in-game time, which is 3 hours and 45 minutes. The total values on each upgrade cycle can be seen in the following table.

Flagbearer creeps do not get upgraded and stay the same throughout the entire match. Although Super and Mega versions of them exist, only the default Flagbearer Creeps spawn, even when other creeps use their super and mega forms.

Mega creeps do not grow stronger, but have their bounties increased over time.

Time Wave Upgrade number HP melee DMG melee Gold melee HP super melee DMG super melee Gold super/mega melee HP ranged DMG ranged Gold ranged EXP ranged HP super ranged DMG super ranged Gold super/mega ranged
0:00 1 0 550 19‒23 34‒39 700 36‒44 20‒26 300 21‒26 43‒52 69 475 41‒46 19‒25
7:30 16 1 562 20‒24 35‒40 719 38‒46 21.5‒27.5 312 23‒28 46‒55 77 493 44‒49 25‒31
15:00 31 2 574 21‒25 36‒41 738 40‒48 23‒29 324 25‒30 49‒58 85 511 47‒52 31‒37
22:30 46 3 586 22‒26 37‒42 757 42‒50 24.5‒30.5 336 27‒32 52‒61 93 529 50‒55 37‒43
30:00 61 4 598 23‒27 38‒43 776 44‒52 26‒32 348 29‒34 55‒64 101 547 53‒58 43‒49
37:30 76 5 610 24‒28 39‒44 795 46‒54 27.5‒33.5 360 31‒36 58‒67 109 565 56‒61 49‒55
45:00 91 6 622 25‒29 40‒45 814 48‒56 29‒35 372 33‒38 61‒70 117 583 59‒64 55‒61
52:30 106 7 634 26‒30 41‒46 833 50‒58 30.5‒36.5 384 35‒40 64‒73 125 601 62‒67 61‒67
60:00 121 8 646 27‒31 42‒47 852 52‒60 32‒38 396 37‒42 67‒76 133 619 65‒70 67‒73
67:30 136 9 658 28‒32 43‒48 871 54‒62 33.5‒39.5 408 39‒44 70‒79 141 637 68‒73 73‒79
75:00 151 10 670 29‒33 44‒49 890 56‒64 35‒41 420 41‒46 73‒82 149 655 71‒76 79‒85
82:30 166 11 682 30‒34 45‒50 909 58‒66 36.5‒42.5 432 43‒48 76‒85 157 673 74‒79 85‒91
90:00 181 12 694 31‒35 46‒51 928 60‒68 38‒44 444 45‒50 79‒88 165 691 77‒82 91‒97
97:30 196 13 706 32‒36 47‒52 947 62‒70 39.5‒45.5 456 47‒52 82‒91 173 709 80‒85 97‒103
105:00 211 14 718 33‒37 48‒53 966 64‒72 41‒47 468 49‒54 85‒94 181 727 83‒88 103‒109
112:30 226 15 730 34‒38 49‒54 985 66‒74 42.5‒48.5 480 51‒56 88‒97 189 745 86‒91 109‒115
120:00 241 16 742 35‒39 50‒55 1004 68‒76 44‒50 492 53‒58 91‒100 197 763 89‒94 115‒121
127:30 256 17 754 36‒40 51‒56 1023 70‒78 45.5‒51.5 504 55‒60 94‒103 205 781 92‒97 121‒127
135:00 271 18 766 37‒41 52‒57 1042 72‒80 47‒53 516 57‒62 97‒106 213 799 95‒100 127‒133
142:30 286 19 778 38‒42 53‒58 1061 74‒82 48.5‒54.5 528 59‒64 100‒109 221 817 98‒103 133‒139
150:00 301 20 790 39‒43 54‒59 1080 76‒84 50‒56 540 61‒66 103‒112 229 835 101‒106 139‒145
157:30 316 21 802 40‒44 55‒60 1099 78‒86 51.5‒57.5 552 63‒68 106‒115 237 853 104‒109 145‒151
165:00 331 22 814 41‒45 56‒61 1118 80‒88 53‒59 564 65‒70 109‒118 245 871 107‒112 151‒157
172:30 346 23 826 42‒46 57‒62 1137 82‒90 54.5‒60.5 576 67‒72 112‒121 253 889 110‒115 157‒163
180:00 361 24 838 43‒47 58‒63 1156 84‒92 56‒62 588 69‒74 115‒124 261 907 113‒118 163‒169
187:30 376 25 850 44‒48 59‒64 1175 86‒94 57.5‒63.5 600 71‒76 118‒127 269 925 116‒121 169‒175
195:00 391 26 862 45‒49 60‒65 1194 88‒96 59‒65 612 73‒78 121‒130 277 943 119‒124 175‒181
202:30 406 27 874 46‒50 61‒66 1213 90‒98 60.5‒66.5 624 75‒80 124‒133 285 961 122‒127 181‒187
210:00 421 28 886 47‒51 62‒67 1232 92‒100 62‒68 636 77‒82 127‒136 293 979 125‒130 187‒193
217:30 436 29 898 48‒52 63‒68 1251 94‒102 63.5‒69.5 648 79‒84 130‒139 301 997 128‒133 193‒199
225:00 451 30 910 49‒53 64‒69 1270 96‒104 65‒71 660 81‒86 133‒142 309 1015 131‒136 199‒205
Melee creeps
  • When fully upgraded, regular melee creeps have almost as much health as super melee creeps with 11 upgrades.
  • When fully upgraded, regular melee creeps have almost as much attack damage as super melee creeps with 6 upgrades.
  • After 30 upgrades, super melee creeps' gold bounty exceeds that of regular melee creeps with the same amount of upgrades.
Ranged creeps
  • When fully upgraded, regular ranged creeps have a bit more health than super ranged creeps with 10 upgrades.
  • When fully upgraded, regular ranged creeps have as much attack damage as super ranged creeps with 13 upgrades.
  • After 30 upgrades, super ranged creeps have about the same gold bounty as regular ranged creeps with 26 upgrades.

When fully upgraded, super creeps are as exactly as strong as mega creeps, but this does not automatically make them mega creeps. All barracks must be destroyed to get mega creeps. But at this point, the only difference between super and mega creeps is their visual appearance.

Bounties

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When a lane creep gets denied by one of its allies, it grants 50% of its experience value to enemies. Enemies may only get full experience when the creep dies to them, or when a neutral creep kills it. Gold bounties are only granted to the enemy player who gets the last hit on the creep.

Flagbearer creeps still grant their kill bounty to the killing player normally, on top of granting the area gold bounty. This means the killing player may get twice the gold from them if they have a hero within range 3 range of the creep upon killing it. The area gold is not granted if the creep gets denied.

Abilities

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Flagbearer creeps possess an aura that grants nearby allied creeps health regeneration and magic resistance.

Inspiration Aura
Pierces Debuff Immunity sources. This ability is not bestowed by Illusions. Fully disabled by Break.
Affects
Allies
The Flagbearer inspires all allied creeps, granting them bonus health regeneration and magic resistance, the latter upgrading on each creep upgrade cycle.
Radius: 700
Health Regen Bonus: 3
Base Magic Resistance Bonus: 0%
Magic Resistance Bonus per Cycle: 4%
Max Cycles: 15
Aura Linger Duration: 0.5
The Flagbearer Creep carries a higher bounty. When killed, the killing player, as well as all enemy heroes within range get bonus unreliable gold.
Radius: 1500
Base Bonus Gold: 10
Creep Bounty as Bonus Gold: 100%

Behavior

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  • Lane creeps have a set path in their lane which they follow. They walk down the lanes aggressively, attacking any enemy that comes within their acquisition range.
  • Creeps will never choose alternative paths unless they are forced to (i.e. their gets obstructed).
  • If a creep starts chasing an enemy and leaves its lane, it will remember the exact spot of within the lane they left of.
    • Once the creep stops chasing the target, it will try to return to that exact spot it remembered.
    • This means the creep does not just seek out the closest way to re-enter its dedicated lane, but will try to use the exact spot it left from.
    • However, if — while moving towards the remembered spot — the creep happens to enter its lane, it starts walking down its lane again.
    • Creeps will never join other lanes. Even if they happen to enter another lane, they will ignore it and move to their own lane.
  • If completely undisturbed by other factors, a creep will chase its current attack target indefinitely.
    • If the target enters the Fog of War, the creep moves to the last spot at which its target was still visible.
    • If it cannot see its target again after reaching that spot, it returns to its lane.
    • It also stops chasing immediately if its target becomes attack immune, turns invisible or dies.
    • It also stops chasing immediately if its target teleports a distance greater than 1600.
  • Newly spawned lane creeps cannot be aggroed until the game time reaches 05:00.
    • This aggro restriction is lifted once the creeps come within 1500 range of their Tower (Tier 1).
  • If a lane creep gets disarmed, it stops moving and stands still until the disarm expires.
    • It completely ignores everything in this state. This prevents the creep from walking past towers if disarmed while at a tower.

Attack Priority

[edit]

Lane creeps follow the basic auto-attack behavior, using the following conditions to determine the next attack target:

Condition 1 - Distance
  • In any case, a creep will attack the first enemy that comes within its acquisition range (see table above).
  • If no other factors are in play, the creep will stick with its current target.
  • Even if another valid target moves closer to them, they will not switch targets.
    • However, if the current target moves outside of the creep's attack range, and forces the creep to move as well, instead of moving, it rather switches to the next closest valid target within its attack range.
    • This means the distance check only happens while the creep is actively moving, and not while it is standing and attacking.
    • An already started attack on the current target is not interrupted, the creep switches once the current attack finishes.

Condition 1 - Unit type
  • Lane creeps continuously check the unity types of all valid targets within their attack range.
  • The creeps have the following unit type priorities:
    1. Heroes and non-hero units alike
    2. Siege Creeps
    3. BuildingsBuildings buildings
    4. These summons are usually, but not necessarily, immobile and are immune to almost every ability.These summons are usually, but not necessarily, immobile and are immune to almost every ability. ward-type unit
  • For siege creeps, the priorities are significantly different:
    1. BuildingsBuildings Buildings
    2. Non-hero units, including Creep-Heroes
    3. Siege Creeps
    4. Heroes, including Illusion Properties. Illusions and Clones are identical to the main hero, with certain exceptions. Clones
    5. These summons are usually, but not necessarily, immobile and are immune to almost every ability.These summons are usually, but not necessarily, immobile and are immune to almost every ability. ward-type unit
  • Unlike the distance check, this check happens while standing and attacking as well.
    • This means if a unit of higher priority enters its attack range, the lane creep will switch to that unit.
    • Like with the distance check, an already started attack is not interrupted and is finished first.

Condition 3 - Threat level
  • Lane creeps also check for the target's current threat level:
    1. Units that directly attack the creep
    2. Units that attack an ally of the creep
    3. Units that are idle or are casting abilities
  • The threat level is checked at the same time as the distance check.
    • This means, like the distance check, if the creep is already standing and attacking, it will not switch targets based on threat level.
    • However, once it is forced to actively move, it will choose the target based on its threat level.
    • If multiple valid targets have the same threat level and are of the same unit type, the closest of them will get targeted.

Special behavior - Protective creeps
Actively drawing creep aggro
  • lane creeps are coded to protect heroes from other heroes. There are 2 types of protection.
Type 1: Attack order
  • Issuing an attack order on an enemy hero will draw the aggro of lane creeps within 500 range of the aggressor hero.
    • An attack order alone is enough to trigger this, the attack itself does not need to be initiated.
    • This aggroing only happens once upon issuing the order, it does not happen continuously.
      • This means if the order was given outside of range, moving past creeps does not draw their aggro.
    • The target of the attack order must be an enemy hero, illusion, clone, or a Spirit Bear.
    • The distance of the targeted enemy does not matter, as long as the target is an enemy hero.
    • Only a hero, illusion, clone, or the a Spirit Bear can draw aggro this way.
    • The order must be an active attack order (right-click or A-Target). This does not trigger if auto-attack chose the target on its own.
    • This aggro system has a cooldown of 3, preventing them from aggroing again for a short while.
      • This cooldown always triggers, even if no creeps were nearby to get aggroed.
    • Creeps stay aggroed for up to 2.3 seconds, during which they will chase the hero no matter what.
    • After this duration, the creeps return to their default behavior.
Type 2: Ongoing attack
  • If an attack is initiated and enters its animation phase, creeps within 500 range of the attacking hero are aggroed.
    • This triggers whenever a new attack is initiated on the enemy hero, effectively making this continuous.
    • Just like before, the target must be a hero, illusion, clone, or a Spirit Bear.
    • However, the alliance of the target does not matter, attacking an allied hero triggers this as well.
    • Unlike before, creep-heroes may draw aggro this way too.
    • Also unlike before, it does not matter how the attacks were initiated, be it via direct orders or via auto-attack.
    • However, it does rely on the attack animation, so instant attacks do not trigger it, since they do not use attack animations.
    • Unlike type 1, type2 does not trigger the cooldown, nor does it force creeps to chase the aggroing hero.
      • However, if the aggro cooldown was triggered by a type 1 aggro, type 2 does respect the cooldown.
      • Similarly, if creeps are forced to chase due to a type 1 aggro, type 2 respects that as well.
    • Type 2 has a lower priority than type 1, a creep that is already aggro via type 2 will switch if type 1 is triggered by another player.
Ways to circumvent creep protection
  • The lane creeps' protective behavior only reacts on attacks, they completely ignore ability cast.
    • This means even single-target abilities cast on enemy heroes does not draw aggro of nearby lane creeps.
    • Manually casting active attack modifier does not aggro them either, as they register this as an ability-cast, rather than an attack.
    • The act of manually casting active attack modifiers is referred to as orb walking.
    • However, if auto-cast is used instead, the creeps will register it as an attack and get aggroed.

Invincibility

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Glyph of Fortification and Roshan's Banner grants invincibility to Lane Creeps. Their HP can't drop, but they can still be killed by some abilities.

Instant Killing Creeps Abilities
2b Requires Aghanim's Shard.
4 Instantly kills the target if their current health is below the threshold.
5 Instantly kills the launched unit upon landing if it is not a hero or a clone.

A controlled creep can't gain a new invincibility effect, but the effect received before taming will stay.

Instant Killing Creeps Abilities4
4 Instantly kills the oldest captured unit if the max amount of units gets exceeded.

Death

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Upon dying to a player-controlled unit, lane creeps are knocked up to 200 range away from the damage source, in an arc with up to 50 range upwards. The distance and height get higher, based on the damage instance that killed them (capped at 500), but are still randomised, so that equal damage instances do not result in always the same distances. The knockback duration ranges between 0.4 and 0.6 seconds. Damage below 100 does not cause a knockback. The knockback itself is mainly for aesthetic purposes, but might also affect some abilities. For example, Thunder Strike and Leech Seed follows the corpse of the unit with their effects.

Despite what the death animation of siege creep suggests, siege creeps are knocked back as well. This is because their death animation stays where the unit initially died, and does not follow the unit's actual location.

The knockback does not happen when the creeps are killed by units not controlled by any player.

Wave stats

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Trivia

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Recent Changes

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Description
7.40
(2025-12-15)
  • Increased Melee Creep upgrade gold from 0 to 1.
  • Inspiration Aura
    • Allied aura
      • No longer affects heroes, illusions, or creep-heroes.
      • Now also grants magic resistance, starting at 0% and increasing by 4% with every lane creep upgrade cycle.
      • Magic resistance bonus upgrades a maximum of 15 times.
    • Bonus Bounty
      • The killing player now always gets the bonus gold, even when outside the radius or when killed with summons.
      • The gold is now classified as creep bounty gold, instead of ability gold. [?]
      • Increased radius from 1200 to 1500.
7.39
(2025-05-21)
7.32e
(2023-03-07)
[edit]

See Also

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