This comes up often enough in Dota 2 that it deserves a straight answer rather than a thread to scroll through.

Short answer

Do the simple thing first. It is correct more often than the complicated thing people recommend instead.

The accepted community answer is broadly right and wrong in a specific way that matters here. Most of the disagreement online comes from people describing different versions of Dota 2. The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice.

When the usual advice fails

Testing this yourself takes a few minutes and settles it definitively. Nothing here depends on a setting you are unlikely to have. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. It is worth separating what the game does from what players have concluded it does.

Edge cases are genuinely rare, which is why the simple answer is usually the correct one. Most of the disagreement you will find online is two people describing different builds. The mechanic behind it is simpler than the discussion around it suggests.

Worth knowing alongside this

Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Everything below is framed around the current state of Dota 2 rather than a launch-week impression.

  • Try the straightforward approach before the elaborate one.
  • Test it yourself where testing is cheap.
  • If a menu path does not exist for you, your build is older or newer than the one described.
  • Note the exception cases — they are specific rather than vague.

What to do instead

Half the pages on this topic were written for a build that no longer exists, which is why they stop matching what you see. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over.

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why. Dota 2 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

The practical answer

A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later. If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it.

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Why it works this way

Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of.

Where people go wrong

  • Assuming a guide from an older season still describes the current version.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.
  • Copying a setup wholesale from a streamer without understanding what each part does.

Dota 2 FAQ

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

Does this work the same on console and PC?

The logic is identical. Menu paths and button prompts differ, and any real difference is flagged above.

What if none of this works for me?

Then something in your setup differs from the assumption — version, region or platform. Check those three before anything else.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.