Event Treasures and Collector's Caches: A Dota 2 Timeline
From Diretide 2012 to the Trove of Terror: how Dota 2 event treasures, Battle Pass chests and Collector's Caches changed, and what each era left on the market.
Dota 2's cosmetics calendar has been rebuilt three times. First came holiday events that minted new item qualities. Then a decade of Compendiums and Battle Passes built around The International. Since 2023, it has been standalone treasures and themed events. Each era left a different kind of supply on the Steam Market, and that still shapes prices today.
Era one: holiday events, 2012 to 2014
The early events didn't just add items. They added qualities that still mark copies from those months:
- Diretide 2012 gave Golden Baby Roshan couriers to players who set the fastest Roshan kills in its Sugar Rush mode.
- Diretide 2013 introduced the Cursed quality and awarded Platinum Baby Roshans to that year's Sugar Rush Hall of Fame.
- Frostivus 2013, the Wraith-Night event, created the Frozen and Corrupted qualities.
- New Bloom 2014 brought the Auspicious quality.
These prefixes show up on thousands of items today. The dota2skins.gg catalog counts 5,765 Corrupted and 1,895 Auspicious entries.
Era two: Compendiums and Battle Passes, 2013 to 2022
In May 2013 Valve released the Interactive Compendium for The International 2013, with 25% of each purchase going to the prize pool. The model grew each year, took the Battle Pass name in 2016, and helped push TI prize pools past $40 million in 2021.
Cosmetics came in three main streams.
Immortal Treasures
Numbered Immortal Treasures (I, II and sometimes III) arrived through each Battle Pass summer, earned with levels or bought outright. They were never sold again after their pass ended.
Collector's Caches
By 2017 the Collector's Cache was a fixture: a roughly $2 treasure for Battle Pass owners, filled with community-made Workshop sets chosen by player votes. The International 2017 cache held 23 aquatic-themed sets. Its regular sets couldn't be traded or marketed but could be gifted once, while its ultra-rare set was marketable.
The International 10 cache in July 2020 followed the same pattern at $2.49, on sale for 30 days, with 18 voted sets. Its ultra-rare Mirana item was promised to become marketable only after The International 11. A quarter of each sale went to the prize pool.
Off-season Battle Passes
Valve also ran Battle Passes outside the TI cycle, such as Aghanim's Labyrinth and Nemestice in 2021, each with its own Immortal treasure. Here is how their chests compare with two TI-season treasures:
| Treasure | Steam ask | Steam listings |
|---|---|---|
| Immortal Treasure I 2017 | $1.78 | 357 |
| Aghanim's 2021 Immortal Treasure | $3.50 | 411 |
| Nemestice 2021 Immortal Treasure | $2.59 | 313 |
| Immortal Treasure II 2022 | $3.63 | 691 |
Prices are as of October 14, 2026. Hundreds of listings each, years after retirement, show how much supply that era produced.
Era three: standalone treasures, 2023 to 2026
In 2023 Valve dropped the Battle Pass, saying most players never bought one and that the development time was better spent on updates everyone could play. What replaced it is a steady run of treasures and events.
2023
- March: the Dead Reckoning mini-game added the Dead Reckoning Chest.
- August 30: the 2023 Collector's Cache launched as a standalone $2.49 purchase, no Battle Pass required.
- September 27: the TI 2023 Compendium launched at $7.50, or $30 for the premium version, with 25% still going to the prize pool. It had no Immortal Treasures and no Arcanas. The prize pool ended near $3 million, the lowest since 2013.
- December 15: the Frostivus 2023 Treasure Chest added King Kringle, a Wraith King set that includes his Arcana.
2024
- February 8: the Lunar New Year Dragon's Hoard introduced the Ancient Dragon King, the first Ancient cosmetic.
- April 18: Crownfall began. It ran until February 6, 2025, with Crownfall Treasures I to III, two Crownfall Collector's Caches and purchasable Arcanas for Vengeful Spirit and Skywrath Mage.
- Late summer: the TI 2024 Compendium again offered no Arcanas.
- December: the Winter 2024 Heroes' Hoard arrived, with Windranger's Fluttering Breeze as its top prize.
2025
- August: the TI 2025 Compendium was free. Strong predictors earned an Arcana Token for an Arcana of their choice, but those copies can't be traded or marketed.
- September: as TI 2025 ended, the Cosmic Heroes' Hoard brought back Earthshaker's Planetfall inside the Intergalactic Orbliterator set, with escalating odds.
- Winter: the Winter 2025 Collector's Cache followed. According to Liquipedia, its ultra-rare item became tradable only after June 1, 2026.
2026
- August 13 to 23: TI 2026 in Shanghai produced the Treasure of the Crimson Witness 2026. Like every Crimson Witness treasure, it went to in-person attendees rather than the store, and it listed at $166.95 across 168 listings on October 14, 2026.
- October 7: the Trove of Terror added Tidehunter's first Arcana, a returning Drow Ranger Arcana and 15 Immortal sets. It also gave milestone rewards after 12 and 40 openings.
Most of the era three supply is still young. Crownfall Treasure II listed at $1.30 with 841 copies on Steam on October 14, 2026.
What changed for traders
The biggest shift isn't the branding. It's tradability. Each release sets its own flags, and those decide whether an event adds any market supply at all:
- Collector's Cache regular sets have generally been untradable and unmarketable but giftable once.
- Ultra rares have moved from marketable at launch (2017), to marketable after a delay (TI10, Winter 2025), to cases where players reported they weren't marketable at all (Crownfall's caches in 2024).
- Heroes' Hoard prizes reached the market after a delay. Fluttering Breeze became marketable on July 1, 2025.
- Reward tokens such as the TI 2025 Arcana Token create no market supply.
Before you value anything from a recent event, read its description for "Tradable after" dates and gifting limits. Two items from the same event can follow different rules.
Using the timeline when you trade
The calendar is a useful pricing tool:
- Era two chests are retired and thinning slowly, but most still have hundreds of listings.
- Era three items often reach the market in waves as delayed tradability dates pass, which can push prices down when they land.
- Crimson Witness treasures are the one series with supply fixed by event attendance from the start.
The treasure catalog lets you browse all of them, and the market cap and trending page shows which ones currently hold the most listed value. Steam price history on the site is still backfilling, so pair the charts with this timeline rather than relying on them alone.
