Last Hit

A last hit is the finishing blow that kills an enemy or neutral unit and secures its gold bounty for the player who delivers it. In lane, the term usually refers to finishing enemy creeps.

What is Last Hit in Dota 2?

Last-hitting is the basic farming technique of timing an attack or ability so that your damage delivers the final blow to a unit. When players talk about last hits during the laning stage, they usually mean enemy lane creeps because securing those kills is a primary source of reliable gold. Last hits can also be taken on neutral creeps, enemy heroes, and buildings, although those situations are usually discussed more specifically.

The key distinction is that the finishing blow determines who receives the unit's last-hit gold bounty. Experience follows its own rules and is not simply awarded only to the player who gets the last hit. This is why a player can miss a creep's gold while still receiving experience from the lane.

How Last Hit is used in a match

Cores practice last-hitting because small differences in creep gold accumulate into major item timing differences. Players watch the health of enemy creeps, their own attack damage, allied creep attacks, and incoming harassment to decide when to strike. Abilities may be used to secure an important creep when a normal attack would be too slow or risky.

For example, if two enemy creeps are about to die at nearly the same time, a player may attack one and use a low-cost ability on the other. The decision is about converting a short timing window into as much farm as possible without taking unnecessary damage.

Do not confuse Last Hit with...

A last hit is performed on an enemy or neutral target to secure its bounty. A deny is the finishing blow on an allied unit to reduce what the enemy receives. Creep Score is a statistic used to summarize last hits and, depending on context, denies.