Dota's navigation grid, aka "please show me all juke/hiding spots on the map"

##The fuck is this post all about?

Two days ago, /u/JeffHill gave a [fairly elaborate reponse](https://www.www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/43ii8k/massive_pathfinding_problem_or_just_me/czipo3l) to a post about a potential pathfinding problem, and told us a little about *how* the pathfinding in dota works. The most interesting thing in his post, in my opinion, was how you can [view the navigation grid](http://imgur.com/aj8Bztc.png) (which I'll be calling a [navmesh](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navigation_mesh) for the rest of the post) of the Dota map while in a practice game. It essentially shows you **every single** pathable spot on the entire map, even in-between trees.

Now, you may be thinking *"That sounds technical/boring/useless, why should I care?"* Well, remember those times where you have tried to hide in trees somewhere, only to be found and consequently die (or you've died while trying to chop your way out in a random direction)? Yea, there are a lot of the "classic" hiding spots you can escape from just by removing a single *specific* tree.

I "only" have 1400 hours logged in Dota and I calibrated at [3.5k^(not even reddit level, scrub!) MMR](http://imgur.com/qksbDrT.png) a bunch of months ago ^^fuck ^^ranked ^^:D , so I'd say I have a bit of experience with Dota. Even so, I found a lot of interesting jukespots I have never seen used and figured I'd share ^^|(sorry, ^^everyone ^^whose ^^secrets ^^I'm ^^revealing).

Oh yea, when I say "share", I don't mean to just *tell* you about all of the places ^|(some, ^maybe, ^but ^not ^all). That'd be too easy, wouldn't it?^(and everyone immediately goes (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

Instead I'm going to tell you how *you* can get to play around with the navmesh activated, and tell you what to use it for. Not only will it be more fun for you, I also personally believe it's easier to remember such things when you find them for yourself ^((and you may find places I didn't ^weee^eeee^eeee )^) .

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#Enabling and using the navmesh

Let's get started.

1. Before you load up Dota ^((you already did, didn't you?)), make sure you have [the console enabled](http://dota2.gamepedia.com/Console#Access).

2. When you have enabled the console, load up Dota and fire up the console if it doesn't show up automatically.

3. In the console, type ["dota_gridnav_show 1"](http://imgur.com/iotK0J0.png) and hit enter. The message should show up at the top of the console with no errors. Close the console.

4. Now [create a lobby](http://imgur.com/S6BZlcr.png), then edit the [lobby settings](http://imgur.com/PpZuHSi.png) and set *Server Location* to *Local Host* and remember to *[Enable Cheats](https://www.www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/2s1k1y/w33haa_cheating_on_eel)^(:D)*.

5. Start the game and study your [awesome loading screen](http://hydra-media.cursecdn.com/dota2.gamepedia.com/c/cf/Cadenza_Magic_Master_Loading_Screen_16x9.png).

6. When the game finally loads^(damn you, everyone who has an SSD :/), pick whatever hero you feel like. For some reason, I like to choose Mirana for this kind of stuff, despite me being completely unable to land arrows^((but incredibly good at catching them)^), but any hero will do. When you've chosen your hero, you may have to wait for the timer to run out. Dunno why, but that's how it works for me when I have the navmesh enabled.

7. When you load in, you'll be greeted with [this chaos](http://imgur.com/bhHlIsN.png). Don't worry, it's easy to understand. The green tiles indicate where a unit can actually **stand**, the red tiles indicate where a unity **cannot stand** ^((no, flying != standing)^). If the sides of two green tiles are touching, a unit can walk from one to the other. If two green tiles are only connected diagonally ([only corners are touching](http://imgur.com/lXAf3Dx.png)), units *cannot* walk from one to the other. You'll see that the tiles are on the actual height of the terrain, which is why the navmesh looks completely borked in some places.

**Note:** Trees make up a 2x2 area of red tiles

8. Open the chat^^|(you ^^know, ^^the ^^one ^^you ^^use ^^for ^^~~flaming~~ ^^communicating) and write the following commands:

-lvlup 25

-wtf

-gold 900000

This'll set you to level 25, give you infinite mana and no cooldown on abilities/items and give you a ton of gold. Buy a [couple of items](http://imgur.com/E8DCjWW.png) (I suggest bringing either Quelling Blade, Iron Talon or Battlefury for woodcutting purposes and Blink Dagger for getting around) and you're ready to explore the lovely map of dota.

9. Start running around the map ^(very specific step, I know). As you do, pay attention to where the [green tiles are forming paths into the woods](http://imgur.com/aj8Bztc.png). These places form paths you can use to hide, juke or get lost in. You guys probably know a lot of these paths, but the new Radiant jungle holds some very interesting spots that you may not be aware of.

10. Whenever you find some place where you meet a dead end, take a look at the surrounding trees. Are there any that could be [chopped down](http://imgur.com/tuUm8Fe.png) in order to [open up new paths](http://imgur.com/quuLwA4.png)? You'd be surprised how often one or two trees is everything that seperates you from death and ^^^(potential) escape.

That's all the steps I'm going to provide you with. I'm going to leave the [trailblazing](https://www.www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzq8212yMpY) to y'all. My suggestion is to try to find a couple of easy-to-remember spots and use them when you play against other people, then build up from there. Do remember that a lot of them need a way to chop down trees, but hey, Timbersaw will thank you for that.

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#Interesting places

I said I wouldn't tell you about *all* the spots I found, but I am going to share some. Some of these I didn't know about before I started, others I did but rarely ever thought about. For these places, I'll say where it is, then provide a screenshot with the high-lighted tree in question and a screenshot showing the area after the tree has been removed.

* Dire Bot T1 Tower: I often see people try to hide on the north-eastern side of the river down here, only to die. But again, there's a [tree you can remove](http://imgur.com/ncDD9j6.jpg) in order to [create a path](http://imgur.com/sBY1Z.jpg) to the juke area right next to the tower itself.

* Dire Top T1 Tower: Like the Radiant safelane tower, there's a huge area for juking up here. And like the Radiant area, you're likely to die if your enemies follow you. You do have a chance if you remove [this tree](http://imgur.com/MB9xdJW.jpg), as it leads into a [decently sized area](http://imgur.com/mlpOK6T.jpg) from where you can remove [yet another tree](s.jpg) in order to [fully escape](http://imgur.com/KTHHhll.jpg)^((better pray they aren't waiting for you hers in the woods just below the bot tower. You may also know about the other area just to the right of that, where you sometimes can hide. Unfortunately, if you are seen going in here, you will probably die. But there are [two trees](http://imgur.com/k3CWQ4C.jpg) that can be removed to [connect these two parts of the forest](http://imgur.com/EvCHXkW.jpg), which I wish I'd known about all the times I've died in either place.

* Radiant Top T1 Tower: If you are being chased from the tower to the secret shop (or back), you can cut down [this tree](http://imgur.com/S6mTMPc.jpg) in order to [open up](http://imgur.com/DVX2p8s for escape.

* Radiant Jungle, Medium Camp near Mid T1 Tower: You ever gotten stuck in the trees just up the ledge from the medium camp near Radiant's T1 mid tower? Cut down [this tree](http://imgur.com/FSNdIet.jpg) and you can [run right out](http://imgur.com/s baffled.

* Radiant Jungle, Medium Camp: The other medium camp has a [single tree](http://imgur.com/VnTvnz4.jpg) that can be removed in order to open up a pats right out in the back](http://imgur.com/OOtQoK6.jpg) of that cluster of trees.

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#Final notes

I know this guide isn't on the level of our favourite guide maker /u/leafeator and I know it's unlikely that people will spend a lot of time playing around with the navmesh enabled. But I do hope this post will help some people learn more about the map we all spend so much time [derping](http://favoritememes.com/_nw/3/63492701.jpg) around in.

**TL;DR** [Fuck **you**, tree](http://images-cdn.9gag.com/photo/6430334_700b.jpg), I need to escape.