The creeps in Dota 2 can be classified as any form of non- player controlled character you'll find on the map. These creeps are then broken down into Lane and Neutral creeps. Lane creeps fight for a cause, spawn at each players base and only attack members of the opposing faction. Neutral creeps have no loyalties to anyone and will attack if attacked first. You can find several varieties of neutral creeps located throughout the map, mainly in jungle camps. Although they are all different in a variety of ways, one thing each creep shares is that they will continue to respawn until the end of the match and therefore are a great source of gold and experience.

Lane Creeps

Lane creeps are the cannon fodder of your team. They spawn from each teams barracks and then make their way down lane, attacking any enemy creeps, players, or buildings they come in range of. There are three different types of lane creeps, the melee creep which has more health but deal little damage, ranged creeps which deal more damage but have little health, and siege creeps which only spawn every 7th wave and have a lot of health and do a lot of damage. A new wave of creeps is dispatched from each bases lane every 30 seconds until the game ends.

All of the lane creeps become gradually more powerful as the game progresses. Another way to significantly increase the strength of your creeps is to destroy the enemy teams barracks. When you destroy an enemy barracks in a lane, the creeps that spawn in that lane become "mega" versions of themselves boasting increased health and attack power. Each lane has 2 barracks, one for melee and one for ranged. Destroy the ranged barracks to "megify" your ranged creeps , and melee for the melee creeps.

At 17:30, 34:00, and 50:30 an extra melee creep is added to each wave of creeps, with an extra ranged creep being added at 45:30. At 48:30 two siege creeps are sent out every seventh wave.

Last hitting a creep gives the player a bounty of gold. The exact amounts received from each type of creep varies and is covered in our Farming Tips Guide!

Neutral Creeps

Neutral creeps don't fight for the Dire or the Radiant but will attack any hero that attacks them first. You will find the neutral creeps in camps located throughout the jungle. The different varieties of neutral creep can be placed into 5 categories: Small, Medium, Large, Ancient and of course Roshan. Each team's jungle has 1 Small Creep Camp, 2 Medium Creep Camps, 2 Large Creep Camps, 1 Ancient Creep Camp.

Why bother with neutral creeps? If you're a jungler they are your primary source of XP and gold. If you're not and you're losing your lane, they can be a great source of supplemental gold and experience.

Neutral creep camps spawn every 1:00 so long as the camp is empty (there are no remaining creeps in the camp area). Some players use this to their advantage by pulling an entire group out of their camp right before the next minute hits to spawn a whole other camp, giving them double the gold XP when killed. This practice is referred to as Creep Stacking.

Small Creeps

The small creeps are of course the weakest of the creep camps and thus, give the least amount of gold and XP. However this weakness does make them perfect as a start point for junglers which can use them to level up enough to move on to the large camps. They give an average of 60-90 gold per camp and 120 - 140 experience.

Medium Creeps

Next up are the medium creeps. These guys are only a little more challenging than the small camps and have more health and do more damage. With increased risk comes increased reward however, and these camps give 100 - 180 gold and 145 - 210 experience.

Large Creeps

This is where things start to get more difficult as the large creeps have substantially more health and do more damage than their medium counterparts. In addition to this, they also have abilities both defensive and offensive they can use against any attacking heroes. The rewards for taking out a camp are around 125 gold and 200 experience.

Ancient Creeps

Only surpassed in power by Roshan himself, the ancient camps have ability wielding creeps that also have very high magic resistance and health. They do give the greatest bounty though, with an average of 265 gold and 355 experience.

Roshan

The big guy himself, Roshan is the most powerful creep in the game and in most cases can only be killed by a well equipped team working together. If he is successfully felled the rewards are great. On average he gives 475 gold and 1775 experience along with the Aegis of the Immortal. For teams that manage to kill him 3 times in a single game he will also drop the Cheese, a powerful consumable item that restores health and mana.