Welcome to the Jungle: Getting Gold and Levels in the Woods

So far we know about all the different lanes and how to go about exploiting the resources available within them. But beware, for there is a "fourth lane" for teams to take advantage of, should they have a hero on-hand who can properly exploit it: the Jungle.

The Jungle takes up the north and south quadrants of the map, between the mid lane and the two teams' safe lanes (lanes with the shortest distance between the creep line and their first tower). Inside the Jungle are numerous "neutral" camps of monsters, each rated one of four difficulty classes based on which specific groups of monsters can appear there.

Heroes can enter the jungle and do battle with the monsters within as an alternative to getting gold and experience in the lane, but doing so is usually impractical early on for many heroes. Usually, the only heroes "jungling" at early levels have exceptional self-healing abilities or the power to summon minions to take the hits for them, as there are no lane creeps to soak the damage these monsters inevitably deal. As the game hits its midpoint and jungle monsters grow steadily weaker in comparison to the heroes fighting them, generally anyone can jungle.

Every minute, the game checks to see if any camps are empty, and spawns a new band of monsters within if it is. This is done regardless of whether the previous camp is actually, you know, dead. Getting a camp's attention and drawing it out of its hidey hole to "trick" the game into spawning a new camp is a valid tactic called "camp stacking," used by DotA 2 players at all levels of play. It is especially effective when used with one specific level of jungle camp: the Ancient camp.

Unrelated to the game-defining buildings of similar name, Ancient creeps are unique in that they are totally immune to the majority of hero abilities -- meaning that certain heroes are incapable of fighting them efficiently. A properly "stacked" Ancient camp is nearly impossible to besiege normally. One of the few heroes who can do so is Tidehunter, whose damage-reducing Anchor Smash ability, coupled with his inherent bulk, makes quickly obtaining his one core item (the Blink Dagger) a breeze.

The Jungle is dangerous early on and has taken the life of more than one unwary hero. For those who know how to properly eploit its resources, however, it is one of the most reliable sources of gold and experience in the game.