Valve reveals two new Dota 2 heroes

Valve surprised fans at The International 7 yesterday by revealing two new Dota 2 heroes: one acrobatic, pangolin-inspired* swordsman and a pink fairy. The reveal trailer shows the swordsman rolling between enemies and speaking in an accent that's halfway between Puss in Boots and Zorro.

The fairy—who holds a lantern with a menacing, flying creature inside—seems to match the description of an upcoming hero uncovered in game files from an update from May, called Sylph.

The files suggested Sylph would have abilities called Flash Powder and Shadow Realm. Valve hasn't confirmed the names or skills of the new heroes, but the fairy's appearance in the video fits with those ability names (and a sylph is an air spirit, which ties it all together).

Both heroes will arrive in the Dueling Fates patch, although there's no word on when that's coming out yet. The duo will provide a welcome roster refresh: Valve hasn't added any new heroes to the game since Monkey King in December last year.

Check them out in the video below:

*I initially wrote that the swordsman was armadillo-inspired, which is incorrect (and I clearly need to read up on my mammals!). Thanks to the eagle-eyed commenters that pointed the error out.

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Samuel is a freelance journalist and editor who first wrote for PC Gamer nearly a decade ago. Since then he's had stints as a VR specialist, mouse reviewer, and previewer of promising indie games, and is now regularly writing about Fortnite. What he loves most is longer form, interview-led reporting, whether that's Ken Levine on the one phone call that saved his studio, Tim Schafer on a milkman joke that inspired Psychonauts' best level, or historians on what Anno 1800 gets wrong about colonialism. He's based in London.