Dota 2 stole all the Halloween Candy and is hoarding it behind low drop rates and a paywall in Diretide

On the back of a shaven beard, Diretide arrived in Dota 2, bringing season’s “Greevilings.” This year’s Diretide is noticeably different from the previous iterations as it also features some elements from the Frostivus event. Diretide matches generally last less than 20 minutes and feature some epic teamfights, but the game mode has been overshadowed by how difficult it has been to farm Candies.

The Diretide shop, Candyworks, is the bread and butter of the event, as it allows players to unlock various cosmetics with their hard-earned Candy. In the 2022 iteration of the event, Candies can only be earned through Candy Sacks which are obtained in two ways.

The first way to unlock Candy Sacks is through playing Dota. Each normal or ranked match awards players with 40 percent progression, while losses reward players with 20 percent. Turbo and Diretide matches, on the other hand, reward 20 percent progression for wins and 10 percent for losses. When your Candy progression bar hits 100 percent, you’ll unlock a Candy Sack that contains only one Candy.

Players are only eligible to unlock five candies per week with the first method. This makes the event relatively unfriendly to free-to-play users since the second method goes through the battle pass.

Candy Sacks are also awarded to players for reaching certain tiers on the battle pass, and leveling the battle pass through challenges is a challenging feat. According to community calculations, free-to-play players can mathematically level up their battle passes by 113-180 levels without investing additional money. This also requires a considerable time investment from them, and only playing 10 to 15 matches a week would be nowhere enough to get a battle pass off the ground.

Considering the limited number of available Candy Sacks in the battle pass, one would need to continue purchasing battle pass levels to keep Candy Sacks flowing. Valve’s stingy approach to distributing the Diretide Candy has already caught the Dota community’s attention, with some players even questioning whether there’s a point in playing Diretide. 

Generally considered the ultimate game mode to earn Candies, 2022’s Diretide offers no advantages to players who only want to farm Candy. With most Dota 2 matches lasting around 35 minutes, playing normal and ranked games have been the better choice for accumulating more Candy. Since you can only earn five a week, fans who aren’t big on grinding or looking to spend more money on the battle pass have already crossed off the event.