win.gg
Win.gg Dota 2 A game-breaking bug lets Lone Druid keep Divine Rapier forever

A game-breaking bug lets Lone Druid keep Divine Rapier forever

Steven Rondina
Steven Rondina Published 22/03/2021

Lone Druid has always given Dota 2 developers fits, as the hero constantly seems to be the source of serious game-breaking bugs. Things are no different these days, with another new bug popping up.

A serious new bug has been discovered with Lone Druid’s bear that makes the summonable unit wildly overpowered. A strange oversight allows the Spirit Bear to equip a Divine Rapier in its neutral item slot. Not only that, but doing so will prevent the Divine Rapier from dropping to the ground upon death, which ensures that the item can’t fall into enemy hands.

On top of all that, this bug isn’t even difficult to execute. It just needs the player to shift around their items a bit. Here are the required steps:

  1. Purchase Divine Rapier
  2. Move Divine Rapier from Lone Druid or Courier to stash
  3. Drag and drop Divine Rapier from stash to Spirit Bear’s neutral item slot

This bug is very easy to pull off and requires no special tools to use. All one needs to do is acquire the Divine Rapier, move it into the stash, and drag and drop the item into the neutral item slot of the Spirit Bear. Testing shows that the Spirit Bear will not lose the Divine Rapier no matter how it dies, whether through its own death or the death of Lone Druid.

Divine Rapiers left in the normal item slots will still fall as one would expect.

The Divine Rapier can’t be moved into the neutral item spot in any other way. Attempting to move it from the regular item slots, backpack, or from Lone Druid onto the bear will yield the normal result when trying to move a regular item into a neutral item slot.

This bug can be used on any other item, and it will behave normally. Items like Heart of Tarrasque will still offer bonus stats while Black King Bar will be usable as normal, albeit with its hotkey mapped to the neutral item slot. 

This bug is an incredibly useful tool in late-game situations, even without using Divine Rapier. With teams only being given four tier-five neutral items, this guarantees that both Lone Druid and his Spirit Bear can be fully kitted. The ability to have a Divine Rapier without the downside of it being potentially stolen by the enemy team is just a particularly strong wrinkle to this bug.

Lone Druid has had many game-breaking Dota 2 bugs

Lone Druid having a serious issue isn’t a new phenomenon. The hero has been a constant thorn in the sides of Dota 2 developers.

The worst bug came several years ago when Lone Druid players could crash servers and make it so that games don’t count by moving items such as Black King Bar back and forth between the hero and his Spirit Bear. More recently, the neutral item Magic Lamp had an unintended interaction where the item would keep the Spirit Bear alive even if Lone Druid died, which was a powerful exploit as it allowed players to buy back without having to worry about the summoning cooldown for the Spirit Bear. This was never fixed, and was eventually addressed by Magic Lamp’s complete removal from the game.

Is Lone Druid good?

Lone Druid has fallen out of favor in the current meta, but still inhabits a unique niche. Because of how Spirit Bear works, the hero is arguably the strongest late-game hero in the game because of how he can become effectively “12-slotted,” making use of more items than any other hero in Dota 2. With this bug, he can even become 13-slotted.

Steven Rondina Steven Rondina
About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

View full profile
Read Also
Yandex to repeat?: BLAST SLAM VIII preview, predictions, and more Dota 2
Yandex to repeat?: BLAST SLAM VIII preview, predictions, and more Michael Hassall If you can believe it, we’re already on the eighth edition of BLAST SLAM, as BLAST SLAM VIII kicks off tomorrow (Sep. 29) pitting 16 of the world’s best Dota 2 teams against each other in what promises to be the first big challenge of this young season. Let’s face it: At PGL Wallachia, we were missing a lot of the heavy hitters. No TI15 champs, no PARIVISION, not BetBoom, ...
Unstoppable Yandex crush NAVI in one-sided PGL Wallachia finals Dota 2
Unstoppable Yandex crush NAVI in one-sided PGL Wallachia finals Michael Hassall Team Yandex has swept the grand finals of the PGL Wallachia Season 9 Dota 2 tournament, defeating Natus Vincere (NAVI) in a 3-0 drubbing this past weekend (Sep. 27). As predicted, the revitalized Yandex, hot off the signing of former Team Falcons star Ammar "ATF" Al-Assaf, crushed their youthful opponents in a three-game sweep in the best-of-five finals. Here’s how it happened: After upsetting the star-studded LGD Gaming roster (albeit ...
Team Yandex to win it all? PGL Wallachia Season 9 Finals preview and predictions Dota 2
Team Yandex to win it all? PGL Wallachia Season 9 Finals preview and predictions Michael Hassall The first big event after TI15, PGL Wallachia Season 9, wraps up this Sunday, Sep. 27, and it’s set to be a hell of a show. After a solid week of action, with some surprise eliminations along the way, we’re down to just three teams from the original 16. Team Yandex, LGD Gaming, and Natus Vincere (NAVI) remain, having battled through some big upsets to get there. Yandex are hot ...
MidOne to Play for Team Liquid at BLAST Slam 8, Replacing Nisha: Permanent or Stand-in? Dota 2
MidOne to Play for Team Liquid at BLAST Slam 8, Replacing Nisha: Permanent or Stand-in? Owen Harsono Like most other Dota 2 teams, Team Liquid have also undergone roster changes after The International 2026, replacing Ace for Wisper. However, a swap in offlaners wasn’t the end, as veteran mid-laner MidOne has been registered under the team ahead of BLAST Slam 8, taking Nisha’s spot. Is MidOne only acting as a stand-in, or is this going to be a permanent move? Here’s what we know. On September 25, ...
PGL Wallachia Season 9 Playoffs preview and predictions Dota 2
PGL Wallachia Season 9 Playoffs preview and predictions Michael Hassall PGL Wallachia Season 9 is the first major tournament since the 2025/2026 Dota 2 season came to its conclusion at TI15, and with the roster shuffle still, well, shuffling, and top teams skipping the event while they get things finalized, it’s been an unusual tournament so far. With some surprising names in the playoffs (especially if you’ve been following the scene for the rest of the year) and the absence ...
ESIC hand down ruling in EWC Dota match-fixing case: Lifetime ban for coach as DarkMago gets a nickel Dota 2
ESIC hand down ruling in EWC Dota match-fixing case: Lifetime ban for coach as DarkMago gets a nickel Michael Hassall South American Dota 2 player Gonzalo "DarkMago" Herrera will be banned for five years from competitive Dota 2, with his coach Juan "Vintage" Angulo banned permanently, following the results of an The Esports Integrity Commission (ESIC) investigation. ESIC handed down the findings and rulings from its investigation into match-fixing allegations leveled at members of South American Dota 2 team PlayTime during the Esports World Cup on Sep. 10, in a ...
Polystrike Turns a Dota 2 Mod Into a Standalone Tactical Shooter News
Polystrike Turns a Dota 2 Mod Into a Standalone Tactical Shooter Hannan Mundia After the community-made mod found success within the community, developer and publisher Robin Entertainment has decided to turn Polystrike into a proper standalone game. Community-made mods of games finding success within the respective game’s community is nothing new. However, only a handful of those mods are able to go on and become a standalone game. One of the more recent examples is The Forgotten City, which started as a mod ...