The first part of “The Dark Carnival”—a story-driven event with rewards—has been released in Dota 2

Does it annoy you, too, when you wake up in a prison car, with no memory of how you even got there, unable to find a way out, and realizing that you’ve become a pawn in the hands of a mad puppet master and his pact with an ancient evil that enslaves worlds? Yeah, yeah, totally relatable—we get it.

We’re excited to raise the curtain on “The Dark Carnival,” a new long-running event in the Dota universe. In its first part—“Night Escape”— — you’ll follow Tresdin and Prokhvostka as they attempt to escape a giant spider-legged train filled with deadly robots, heart-wrenching secrets, unique rewards, and fully voiced dialogue.

In today’s update, you’ll find five new Automaton skins (mechanical reimagining of classic heroes with new animations, effects, icons, and more), 20 new item sets (available in the new treasure vault, on the map, and in the event storyline), and much, much more. If you’re interested in the backstory, we’ve prepared a comic for you.

But if, just like Tresdin and Prokhvostka, jump right into the thick of the action without getting bogged down by tedious flashbacks about why you ended up on the Master of the Arena’s train, then the first stage of “Night Escape” is already available in the game completely free for all players. And this is just the beginning: plenty of surprises await you on your path to escape, so… let the show begin!