Dota 2 “Emojis in the dark” joke patch notes troll community

Michael Hassall

Michael Hassall

Hope you speak emoji? Dota 2’s latest patch notes were released in emoji format, and now the community is attempting to translate!

It’s time for another Dota 2 patch, but rather than make it easy for us, Valve has decided to make waiting for the release just that little bit more “fun” with a page full of emoji riddles. Released on the morning of August 8, the blog post, entitled Emojis in the dark, listed all of Dota 2 patch 7.34’s notes, but hidden behind symbolic emojis. 

The blog post’s name is a reference to the Riddles in the Dark blog post which came out ahead of the massive 7.33 New Horizons Dota 2 patch. That post hid several details of the upcoming patch behind riddles, which were quickly solved by the community.

Similarly, this type, posted by unofficial Dota 2 spokesman Wykrym Reddy, the Emojis in the dark post has encoded the patch notes with emoji simples.

Dota 2 Emoji in the dark solutions?

Just for fun, we’ve translated some of the Emoji in the dark notes. For example: 

Under the 🎒 section (items)

🩸💣: 💰🔻 6️⃣5️⃣ ➡️ 5️⃣0️⃣

🩸💣: 🎒🔝🔻 3️⃣ ➡️ 2️⃣

🩸💣: 🆕📦🔻 3️⃣ ➡️ 2️⃣

🩸💣: ⏳🔺 1️⃣2️⃣0️⃣s ➡️ 1️⃣8️⃣0️⃣s

Is 

Blood Grenade

  • Cost reduced from 65 to 50
  • Inventory limit reduced from 3 to 2
  • Max stack reduced from 3 to 2
  • Duration increased from 120s to 180s

Under the Neutral Items section (😐🎒)

🐖🎋: 🌈🆙 🔻 +6️⃣ ➡️ +5️⃣

Is 

Pig Pole

  • Main attack damage reduced from +6 to _5

And under the heroes section

🌍👻: 🥌👊🐺💥 🔼 1️⃣.2️⃣5️⃣ ➡️ 1️⃣.4️⃣

🌍👻: 🌀🥌 🔛 🔛🌍👻 🚫🎯🔝🎯 🛡️🚫🔄 🌀. 🌍👻 🔙 🛡️🔛 ⏲️⚡

🌍👻: 1️⃣0️⃣ 🎭🌟 ➕8️⃣% ➡️ ➕1️⃣0️⃣%

🌍👻: 1️⃣5️⃣ 🎭🌟 🧲💥 & ⌛ 🔼 ➕2️⃣5️⃣% ➡️ ➕3️⃣0️⃣%

Is 

Earth Spirit 

  • Boulder Smash Creep Damage Multiplier increased from 1.25 to 1.4
  • Rolling Boulder Changes to how Rolling Boulder targets opponents, and a change to duration
  • Level 10 Talent Changed from +8% Spell Amp, to +10%
  • Level 15 Talent Magnetize damage increased from +25% to +30%

We’ve opted not to translate every single one, as that takes out a lot of the fun. If you’re looking to enjoy the translation, check out TeaGuvnor’s stream where the on-air talent is attempting to translate the lot:

Alternatively, here’s a Reddit thread where translations are taking place!

When will Dota 2 patch 7.34 come out and where are the real patch notes?

When the Riddles in the Dark blog post was posted, 7.33 released around 24 hours later. We expect that Dota 2 patch 7.34 is likely to arrive at end-of-day PT time, so approximately 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. PT. 


Stay tuned to esports.gg until then and we’ll be breaking down the Dota 2 patch notes as and when they’re released!