Game-breaking Sand King bug causes infinite Epicenter pulses

Sand King is already a strong hero, but the Spring Cleaning patch accidentally buffed him to infinity thanks to a new bug.

A new bug caused Sand King’s ultimate ability, Epicenter, to last indefinitely. While it usually deals heavy area-of-effect damage for a brief period of time, a strange interaction caused it to never end for the entirety of the match.

The bug appears to have surfaced in the recent Spring Cleaning update, which was actually meant to remove several bugs and unintended interactions. Valve has already fixed the glitch, but that doesn’t make it any less hilarious.

According to fan analysis, the bug was actually related to Sand King’s Agahnim’s Shard ability. Normally, the item causes an Epicenter pulse whenever Sand King moves 700 total units. Avid players have theorized that a bug causes the movement to be tied to Sand King’s position relative to enemy units, not his previous position. As long as Sand King is 700 units away from an enemy, he will automatically emit an Epicenter pulse.

This led to some funny moments where teams got wiped seemingly from out of nowhere. Sand King was temporarily disabled from matchmaking after Valve discovered this bug. This has since been fixed and the top-tier offlaner has since returned to the pick screen.

What bugs were fixed in the Spring Cleaning update?

Sand King’s infinite Epicenter bug got fixed in a small patch shortly after the release of Spring Cleaning, but it’s not the only one. Dota 2’s newest update repaired a ton of unintended interactions and bugs.

One of the biggest fixes is aimed at neutral items. Before the Spring Cleaning update, they could be combine-locked. This could lock them into the neutral stash with no way to get them out. Several ability cooldowns were also changed to their intended durations like Tusk’s Walrus Kick and Terrorblade’s Metamorphosis.

Valve also targeted several visual bugs. Phantom Lancer illusions will now fully copy all cosmetics items, unlike before where they could give away the real hero’s position. Incorrect heal numbers are also now rectified by including healing amplification. Several skins were updated to prevent textures from glitching out all over the camera, which was particularly notorious on Invoker.

In addition to explicit bugs, Valve also made several quality-of-life changes that should make gameplay more consistent. For example, Boots of Travel will now prioritize structures over lane creeps in ambiguous situations. Lifestealer’s hotkey to escape Infested units is also now consistent across all units. While the Sand King infinite Epicenter bug managed to slip through the cracks, most Dota 2 players should appreciate the massive amount of bug fixes included in Spring Cleaning 2022.