posted by NanaKrustofski,
The 2020 Summer Event "Aghanim's Labyrinth" is finally in-game and playable. After a seemingly endless period of waiting, Valve finally released the 2020 Summer Event on Wednesday. Gather three of your most skilled friends and practice your strategies, because you can also win prizes in the event.



How do you play?



Standard mode



Aghanim's Labyrinth is free to play, meaning you do not have to own this year's Battle Pass to explore the maze. It is a four player co-op mode, so you can either queue as a party or play with randoms. There are four difficulties you can choose to queue for, but you will have to unlock them one after another.

Similar to previous Dota events, you can choose from a small assortment of heroes and have to fight your way through different areas of a giant map, where NPC creep waves and heroes spawn. In this mode, you have to choose which room you want to advance to next. After completing a room, you can buy items and also select one out of three potential perks, for example shorter cooldown for a skill or more magic resistance. By leveling up and paving your way through the labyrinth, you will become stronger so you can eventually face the final boss, which is obviously Aghanim himself.



By playing the mode, you will find and collect Arcane Fragments which are basically a currency. You can unlock Blessings by spending the fragments which give you permanent advantages in Aghanim's mode. For example, the first blessing that you have to activate gives an additional charge to your Bottle. You can then develop your own strategy and unlock more Blessings.



Aghanim's Trials



Once a week, the special Aghanim's Trial is available. There you can play the mode on a randomly generated labyrinth which will be the same for everyone who takes part in the challenge. The more points you score, the higher you will place on the global leaderboard.

You will not only fight for fame and glory, you can also win prizes in this mode. The Tier 1 reward is a Interdimensional Baby Roshan. For Tier 2, Valve embraced the meme surrounding Kunkka's shoes and added special Waterlogged Shies that leave watery foot steps behind the Admiral. The next reward is a random Arcana, and the final prize is an in-game Aghanim's effect that gets unlocked when beating the first boss.



What's the lore?



Those who are not on Jake 'SirActionSlacks' Kenner's level of lore enthusiasm and simply play the game casually might not have heard of Aghanim's backstory, so let's do some Dota homework.

Aghanim is the powerful wizard whose abilities "approached that of a demi-god" according to lore. He is the creator behind the Aghanim's Sceptre, the mighty staff that upgrades your ultimate. But even this godlike mage apparently was not invincible and eventually found his end – even though the circumstances are unclear, as Grimstroke's in-game response to Rubick entails: "Is it true about Aghanim's demise? I've heard conflicting reports."



And if you are wondering, why Grimstroke would say that to Rubick and why social media comments are floored with mentions of the spell-stealer at the moment: Aghanim is Rubick's father and passed his Scepter onto his son after his death. Rubick now guards his father's secrets, but still lives in his shadow as he is less powerful than him.

There are not only rumours about Aghanim's death, but also about his return: As Reddit user sheepando found out, there is an unused voiceline in Earthshaker's Planetfall skin, where he talks about "the wizard's return". Aghanim's is currently discussed to be a potential new hero that might be coming into the game next.

Apart from theories about Aghanim, the Dota community was already quick to puzzle out a greater, overarching storyline from different lore fragments of previous skins, events and voicelines. Reddit detective tylerhk93 assembled a compliation of crucial lore information that might hint to "something big will come to the world of Dota 2", as heroes are starting to prepare for a huge event.



What do you think of the Aghanim's Summer Event? Are you hyped or will you stick to your normal pubs?



Photo credit: Valve

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