How to use Dota 2 courier? [duplicate]

dota-2

I am searching the internet for hours but I can't find a step by step guide on how to use the dota 2 courier. All guides begin without showing its usage for a newcomer to the game. Any ideas or links? Thank you.

Solution 1:

Summary

The courier is an entity which is allowed to carry items for players of one team, it is usually bought by a support in a team. It can retrieve enemies from your stash or buy items at the shop. This allows you to spend more time on the lane to get experience and gold.

Interface

Press F3 to select the courier (F1 to select back your hero). When you select the courier, the interface presents you with several buttons/options:

Move the courier to fountain
Move the courier to the secret shop
Put back the items in your stash
Take your items from stash
Give to you your items that are in the courier
Speed boost, for the upgraded courier, you can get a temporary speed boost
In addition you can move the courier like any unit, by right clicking the map or terrain, the courier can also pickup items by right clicking the item and it can drop items/give items manually on the ground/to a character by dragging the items from its inventory to the ground/a character

Default shortcuts have been listed by Samthere in another answer but you can change them in the interface. Default layout is the standard Q, W, E, R, T, Y setup with the top keys at least on an UK and US keyboard with the corresponding locale.

Practical situations and tips

Usually, you may want to not monopolise the courier for small things that you do not need immediately if you lane and the courier is used by mid. If you have to interrupt an order given by a teammate, it is good to tell him to requeue his order: you can use SHIFT to queue orders to the courier like (retrieve and then give me my items in my stash).

Although magic immune, couriers can be killed by the enemy for a lot of gold, and it is wise to upgrade it early as it reduces the likelihood of it being intercepted and helps more your team. Therefore try to not put the courier in danger, especially if the enemy team has a Furion for example. Courier gives 175 gold to every enemy upon death, this represents 175 x 5 = 875 gold, which is really a lot of gold !

In addition to the gold lost, items which were carried by the courier are stuck until the courier respawn (although the courier does not drop the items upon death).

You can use the shift key to force the courier to use a certain path, this allows you to make the courier fly over trees during most of its path which will prevent the enemy to kill it. The shift key allows you to do useful things like refuelling a bottle, picking up items and get them back to stash.

Upgraded couriers can be used also to spot wards hidden in trees, after you put a sentry nearby, as they have aerial vision which is not blocked by trees.

One very important thing to know about couriers, is that you can buy them without being at the fountain and drop them from your stash. After this anybody going by the fountain can pick up the dropped courier and activate it for the team. This is useful if your support forgot to buy the courier and needs to do it but does not want to get back to the fountain.

Dota2 allows you to use skins for couriers.

Typical Use

Typical use is one of the following:

Buy Items in your stash
When you need them press F3 to select courier
Shift click (or shift + key shortcut) Get Items from stash and Give me the items

The courier will go to fountain, get the items and travel to you and give you the items.

If you need special items at the special shop, you can move the courier there and buy the items while selecting the courier (the items will be on the courier) and then tell the courier to give you the items.

Solution 2:

Basic Use

In general, the functionality described in this section is both the quickest and easiest to use, and the least likely to cause issues between the team.

In the bottom-right of the UI, beneath the quick-buy area, are several courier-related buttons. If there is no courier on the team, no buttons will be here, and if the courier has been killed there will be a timer until it respawns.

The first button, which shows a donkey's face, allows you to select the courier. Most of the time you will be ignoring this, but see the Advanced Use section for more information.

If the courier is flying, the second button will show a boot, or a timer. This button activates the courier's speed boost, or shows the cooldown.

The next button (also bound to F3 by default) calls the courier to deliver items to you. If it is not carrying any of your items, it will first go to spawn and pick them up. If someone has called the courier using this button, then pressing the button will do nothing for anyone until the courier has delivered the items (or stopped for some other reason). This prevents people accidentally calling the courier away from someone else, though you can still override orders to the courier by selecting it directly (see below).

The portrait to the right of the delivery button shows the face of the character currently using the courier. By getting into the habit of checking this portrait, you can see if the courier is in use, and you won't accidentally override other people's orders. You can also make sure the courier is heading to you when you expect it.

Advanced Use

You can select the courier by clicking on it, or by pressing F2 (by default). You can then issue movement commands to it in the same way that you would control a hero. Remember to select your hero again (F1 by default) after you're done issuing commands to the courier! The courier also has several abilities that can be queued (by holding shift while activating them) or activated while it is selected:

Q: The courier will go directly to your team's spawn.
W: The courier will go directly to your team's secret shop.
E: The courier will go directly to your team's spawn and return any items it is carrying to the owners' stashes.
D: The courier will go directly to your team's spawn and pick up as many items as it has room for from your stash.
F: The courier will go directly to your hero and transfer as many of your items to you as you have room for. If no other command is queued, it will then head back to your team's spawn.
R (flying courier only): The courier will gain a significant speed boost for a short time (40s cooldown).

While the courier is near the shops and selected, you can buy items directly into its inventory. You can drag items from the courier's inventory to the ground or to a hero to have it drop or transfer that item. You can also drag individual items from the stash to the courier, enabling you to have it carry only one item if you have several. The courier can use healing salves and clarity potions on allied heroes, and can activate smoke of deceit to shroud nearby heroes.

Heroes can also drag items from their inventory to the ground or the courier. The courier can pick up items from the ground in the same way that a hero can.