Valve released a Dota 2 update on July 1 that reworks the Dark Carnival event's ticket system and cleans up a batch of hero bugs, arriving roughly a week after the seasonal event went live.
Scrap Tickets ease the grind
The headline change targets complaints about how hard it was to earn Dark Carnival tickets. A new currency called Scrap now drops from every match played, win or lose. Regular matches pay out two Scrap, while Turbo games award one. Once a player banks six Scrap, it can be exchanged for a Hero ticket of their choosing, giving players a guaranteed path to the reward they actually want instead of relying purely on random drops or wins.
Seeing Stones return to co-op bots
Valve also reversed an earlier change that had stripped Seeing Stones from Co-op Bot Matches. Players queuing into Hard or Unfair bot difficulties will once again earn Seeing Stones, restoring a reward path that had been pulled during the event's run.
Event quality-of-life pass
A handful of smaller fixes smooth out rough edges in Dark Carnival's systems. The Hero Filter button now displays a tooltip showing what's needed for the next reward ticket, and Candyworks now flags items a player has already collected so they're not left guessing. The Ticket Trader feature, previously unavailable to unlocked players, has been restored, and both Ability Draft and co-op bot matches now correctly grant tickets after matches. Valve also fixed the Dark Carnival Pies item, which had been bugged to reveal the identity of illusions.
Role Queue gets more flexible
Outside the event, ranked play saw a change to Role Queue: players now only need to lock in one high-demand role rather than two to avoid burning a Role Queue Game. The adjustment is aimed at reducing friction for those who consistently want to play popular positions without being forced to also flex into a second contested role. Soul Ring also received a visual tweak — the temporary mana it grants now appears as its own distinct segment on the mana bar while active, making it easier to track at a glance.
Hero bug fixes
The patch closes out several hero-specific issues that had been affecting competitive integrity and clarity. Shadow Fiend can no longer stack souls infinitely through a combination of Feast of Souls and Octarine Core. Storm Spirit's Overload interaction with Aghanim's Shard has been corrected, with the bonus damage instances reduced from six down to the intended three. Oracle's level 25 talent no longer wrongly pierces Debuff Immunity, and Lone Druid's Spirit Bear can no longer die when resummoned while already in its wraith state. Tinker's Keen Conveyance talent at level three was mistakenly targeting friendly heroes instead of returning the player to the fountain; that has been fixed. Valve additionally improved the range display shown when hovering over area-of-effect abilities, making targeting ranges easier to read before casting.
Broader impact
Taken together, the update addresses two separate pain points: a Dark Carnival ticket economy players found overly restrictive, and a set of hero interactions that had drifted from their intended behavior. The Scrap Ticket system in particular gives every match played during the event tangible value toward rewards, regardless of outcome. With Dark Carnival now a week into its run, this patch functions as a course correction — smoothing the event's reward pacing while tidying up hero-specific bugs that had crept into ranked play.
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