The Dark Carnival

Don't you hate it when you wake up in a prison car with no memory of how you got there and, worse, no way to escape, only to discover you've been captured by an evil puppet-man as part of some dark bargain with an ancient world-conquering evil? We've all been there.

We're pulling back the curtain on the Dark Carnival, a new ongoing event in the Dota universe. This first part, "Midnight Run", lets you navigate Legion Commander and Hoodwink through a massive, fully-voiced Dota story featuring a spider-legged convoy of deadly robots, heartstopping secrets, and unique rewards.

Today's update features five all-new Automaton Personas (mechanical reimaginings of classic Dota heroes with new animations, effects, icons, and more), 20 new hero sets (some in a brand new treasure, and some that can only be earned by exploring the map and story), and much more. There's a comic if you're the kind of person who likes backstory.

But if, much like Legion Commander and Hoodwink themselves, you'd prefer to be thrown into the action without a lot of pesky memories of how you wound up in Ringmaster's prison train, the first stage of Midnight Run is now live in-game and free for all players. This is just the beginning: There are plenty of surprises in Midnight Run, and we're just getting started.