To create a lobby in Dota 2, click "Play" in the lower right corner, choose "Create Lobby", open "Edit" to set the game mode, server, bots and whether cheats are allowed, then invite friends and start the match. A private lobby is the place to practice spell combos, test builds and damage, learn the map, and spawn heroes, Roshan or the Tormentor with chat commands. The steps and the core commands are below. For a broader overview of the mode, see our Dota 2 lobby guide.
Why create a lobby?
Many heroes have complex mechanics or need precise inputs for their combos. Beginners should not jump straight into online games without learning their hero first: play a couple of games with bots and get used to the controls, the neutral camp locations and so on. You can also look for new ward spots, practice creep blocking, pulling and stacking, and work on last-hitting creeps.
A lobby lets you:
Spawn enemy and allied heroes, control them and give them items.
Experiment with item builds and check damage on heroes.
Learn spell combos on Invoker and other complex heroes.
You can also play a match with friends and no outside players, setting your own rules with cheat commands, which can be allowed or disabled in the settings.
How to create a lobby?
To create your own match:
Click "Play" in the lower right corner of the screen.
Find and click "Create Lobby". It sits in a separate category of the same name.
To change the rules of the game, open the "Edit" section, which holds a wide range of settings.
Once the lobby is created, invite friends from your list or share the lobby name and password so they can join. Both are set in the "Edit" tab.
Besides the standard modes, you can launch a custom game:
Open the Custom Games tab.
Pick the custom game you want.
Click "Create Lobby".
Custom games cannot be configured like a regular lobby, but you can play unusual modes with your friends and no strangers.
How to create Roshan
Some heroes can kill Roshan alone, but it takes practice; a classic example is Huskar toggling Armlet. Dying to a mistake in a ranked game is costly, so it makes sense to train in a lobby. For that you need the command that respawns Roshan; without it you have to wait out the full respawn timer, which is slow and unproductive.
To spawn Roshan in a lobby, use one of these commands:
-createhero Roshan spawns an allied Roshan (you cannot attack him);
-createhero Roshan enemy spawns an enemy Roshan (you can damage him);
Backup commands in case those do not work: -createhero npc_dota_roshan, -spawnroshan, -createunit npc_dota_roshan. Add enemy at the end of each command if you want an enemy NPC.
You can control him, use his abilities and even give him items. It is also a good way to prank a friend by sending Roshan after their Ancient, or simply to kill time while you queue for a ranked game.
How to create a target
There used to be a -createhero dummy enemy command that spawned a target dummy with a DPS counter, but it no longer works in the current version of Dota 2. You can check damage on enemy heroes, but there is a more convenient method:
Open the "Heroes" tab.
Select the hero you want.
Click the "Demo Hero" button.
A small map opens where you can spawn a target dummy that counts DPS and damage taken.
It is a convenient way to test new builds and skill combinations. Just like in a lobby, you can spawn allied and enemy heroes there and control them.
How to create an enemy or ally
In a lobby you can spawn enemy units and fully control them. Use the "-createhero" command followed by the hero name and "enemy". Examples:
-createhero abaddon enemy.
-createhero arc_warden enemy.
Replacing "enemy" with "neutral" creates a neutral hero you cannot control, and creeps or other NPCs spawned this way are neutral too. Without a suffix, spawned heroes are allies.
The command can also spawn buildings and various NPCs from events, even ones still in development. The full list is on the Dota 2 Wiki.
Keep in mind that heroes spawned by command do not use the bot AI you can enable in the lobby settings: they only attack the nearest enemies.
How to create a team
Filling a full team in a lobby is easy. If no friends are around, bots can take the empty slots for a match that loosely resembles a regular game. To do this:
Before starting the lobby, open "Edit".
Find the bot setting and enable it.
Bots are, of course, very different from real players. They do not stack camps or coordinate, but they suit beginners who want to learn the basics without stress. You cannot control AI bots; for that, spawn a unit yourself with a command.
How to create a tormentor
The Tormentor was added to Dota 2 in 2023, and many players still do not know how to spawn it. There are two ways:
With the command -createhero npc_dota_miniboss neutral.
Wait for it to appear on its normal timer. This option is less convenient.
You can practice killing it early with different builds, or the old way with Huskar and Armlet.
Basic commands in the lobby
You can spawn almost anything in a lobby, from towers to a fountain, and also grant experience and gold or change stats. First, remember to enable cheats in the lobby settings before launching it. Commands go into the chat, either all chat or team chat. This is not the same as the game console: see how to enable the console in Dota 2 and the list of Dota 2 console commands.
Core commands:
-gold *number* gives gold to your hero.
-respawn brings you back from the fountain to the battlefield.
-refresh restores HP and mana and resets cooldowns of all your abilities and items.
-spawncreeps creates a wave of creeps on all lanes.
-lvlup *number* increases your level.
-killwards destroys all observer and sentry wards.
-spawnneutrals respawns all neutral units (including ancients and other jungle creeps).
-levelbots *number* raises the level of all bots.
-item *id* gives you the specified item. The list of item IDs is on the Dota 2 Wiki.
-startgame starts the game and sets the game timer to 0:00. Often used in 1v1 lobbies to skip the wait for the first creep wave.
-tp moves you to the cursor location.
