Dota 2’s first-ever collab is here, and it’s so close to greatness

Dota 2’s first-ever collaboration with the Monster Hunter franchise is an unexpected event for Valve’s MOBA. While Dota 2 has had small crossovers in the form of announcer packs and couriers, Capcom’s IP has a dedicated event and full-fledged skins attached to it.

Naturally, the prospect of merging Dota’s world with Monster Hunter’s iconic creatures and thematic armour generated massive amounts of hype. However, the event itself feels incomplete and filled with many missed opportunities. The idea for the collaboration is genius, but the execution is a disappointing slap in the face in a year with almost no updates.

Dota 2’s collaboration with Monster Hunter has free content for every player who is willing to grind, while the rest is locked behind the Expedition Pack (~$15). Six heroes in Dota 2 received Monster Hunter armour sets directly inspired by and modeled after Capcom’s games.

The standout set is Dragon Knight wearing the crimson Rathalos armour, with the additional cosmetic of transforming into the flagship monster when using his ultimate, Dragon Form. Techies also get a complete makeover as a Palico trio (Felyne companions), yet uncannily retain their grating voice instead of the cute meows and purrs from their game.

Windranger gets Zinogre’s lightning-themed armour, Anti-Mage’s persona gets a Kirin set, Sniper suits up with an intimidating Odogaron gear, complete with a bowgun, and Beastmaster wears the Bone armour set.

Lastly, there’s also a Palico courier to deliver your items and Poogie the Pig that hangs around your base.

Valve made the base version of each set free for all players. You unlock them by hunting marked heroes, then individually crafting parts of the set, which seamlessly integrates into regular gameplay. 

At the start of a match, every player picks an enemy hero as their “hunt” target. By playing matches and defeating your marked heroes, you earn special crafting materials. Winning a game yields the most materials (with a smaller reward if you lose), and if you manage to take down your target before they can eliminate you, you get bonus resources. 

These resources are Monster Hunter crafting components that you can use to forge the new cosmetic sets in the in-game armory. Again, the base versions of all six heroes are free to grind during the event, but the extra three variations are locked behind a paywall.

Tying all these pieces together is the Hero Atlas, a special event interface that tracks your hunting progress and even provides snippets of lore for each hero, narrated by Axe’s trusty scribe, Goodkind. 

This Atlas gives the event a bit of narrative framing, introduced by a comic scene of Axe and Goodkind venturing into Monster Hunter’s world, and keeps players informed of which heroes or items to “hunt” next. Playing, encountering, and winning with an undiscovered hero will fill up their icon and progress, even giving out additional crafting materials on completion.

For those willing to open their wallets, Valve also released an Expedition Pack that expands the experience. This pack includes a bundle of additional crafting materials, a Monster Hunter music pack (replacing in-game music with MH soundtracks), and a set of limited seasonal sprays characters from the franchise.

Most notably, the Expedition Pack unlocks Dragon Knight’s Rathalos Dragon Form and a Bullfango reskin for Beastmaster’s boar companion.

To understand the anticipation and disappointment, it helps to recall Dota 2’s approach to special events and crossovers. Dota 2 has a rich history of cosmetic updates and seasonal events that have waned in recent years, but cross-franchise promotions have been extremely rare. The last crossover was over seven years ago, when they added the grim announcer from Darkest Dungeon.

Dota 2’s biggest yearly events used to be centred around its Battlepass, used to finance the International’s ridiculous prize pools. When Valve stopped working on the annual Battlepass and fell short of its promise for regular updates, Dota 2 has been relatively dry on updates, occasionally receiving a huge patch.

In 2025, Dota 2 received two big patches with the Wandering Waters update (7.38) and Spring Forward (7.39) in the first half of the year, then received basic balance patches after that. There were also no announcements to look forward to after The International, and by the looks of it, no new hero coming during the year.

After the success of Crownfall, Dota 2 fans hoped that it would be the standard moving forward. But instead, players are treated the same way as Valve’s other child, Counter-Strike, where adding skins and cosmetics is enough for an update.

Therefore, when Dota 2 unveiled its first-ever major collaboration with Monster Hunter of all franchises, the hype was immeasurable. The thematic integration of the event has been handled with care. 

Dota 2’s fantasy world has always featured beasts and otherworldly creatures, so the Monster Hunter content doesn’t feel out of place. If anything, it’s a natural crossover that aligns well with Dota’s existing roster.

By and large, the Dota 2 x Monster Hunter collaboration delivered exactly what was advertised: a trove of Monster Hunter looks and a grindy but somewhat decent progression system to obtain them. Yet, beyond the surface excitement, many in the community started to ask whether this crossover could have been much more than just a collection of skins.

The core issue is that the collaboration never moves beyond cosmetics and negligible in-game challenges. Once the main mechanic of hunting other heroes is over and done with the first kill, there’s nothing else to do related to the event but win your game. 

Fans were hoping for a PvE mode similar to Aghanim’s Labyrinth, but replaced with monsters from the franchise. At the very least, reskin Roshan into something equally huge like Zorah Magdaros.

The biggest missed opportunity is that Monster Hunter is most known for the actual monsters, and every player has their favourite monster to fight. Dota 2’s roster is filled with so many heroes ripe for a Monster Hunter skin. For example:

Players who play both games can come up with even more than these examples. In a game where hunting large monsters is the main purpose, it’s a shame these creatures were set aside in their own collaboration.

Meanwhile, Monster Hunter is known for taking the extra effort in collaborations. Final Fantasy fans love their difficult take on Behemoth and Omega Planetes, and no one expected MH World to go the extra mile to recreate a Witcher-style quest for their Leshen hunt. Capcom sets the bar high for collaborations, and it would be great if Valve could at least try to match the effort.

Dota 2’s collaboration with Monster Hunter will go down as a milestone; it’s easily the largest crossover event in Dota’s history, uniting two huge gaming franchises. It delivered high-quality cosmetics, thematic sets, and a few months of fresh goals for players to chase. 

However, the event’s shortcomings have been just as notable. By limiting the crossover to cosmetic content in a dry year of gameplay updates, Valve missed the chance to achieve something truly legendary. No epic monster fights, no new game mode, no heroes, no monster representation, and a sense that the whole affair was a bit one-note kept it from reaching its full potential.