Dota 2 Item Qualities: Inscribed, Genuine, Corrupted and More
What each Dota 2 quality prefix means, where it comes from, how gems change it, and how much quality really adds to price, using live Steam data.
Search the Steam Market for Legion Commander's Arcana and you'll find the same blades listed five ways: plain, Exalted, Inscribed, Autographed and Auspicious. Same model, same effects, different names, colors and prices. The word in front is the item's quality, and it's one of the most misunderstood labels in Dota 2 trading.
Quality is not rarity
Rarity belongs to the design. Blades of Voth Domosh is an Arcana no matter who owns it. Quality belongs to a single copy and describes how that copy was obtained or modified. In game it shows up as a name prefix and a name color.
Quality has no effect on gameplay. A Corrupted weapon hits exactly as hard as a plain one. Collectors care about it, though, so each quality variant gets its own market entry and its own price.
The qualities you'll actually see
The counts below are catalog entries on dota2skins.gg as of October 14, 2026. Origins follow the community-maintained Dota 2 Wiki.
| Quality | Where it comes from | Entries |
|---|---|---|
| Standard (no prefix) | The default for most copies | 13,585 |
| Autographed | An Autograph Rune socketed into the item | 7,646 |
| Inscribed | An Inscribed gem that tracks an in-game stat | 7,516 |
| Corrupted | A Foulfell Shard, from the Frostivus 2013 event | 5,765 |
| Heroic | Drops while spectating big professional games | 1,931 |
| Auspicious | Commemorates New Bloom 2014 | 1,895 |
| Frozen | Commemorates Frostivus 2013 | 1,785 |
| Cursed | Commemorates Diretide 2013 | 1,388 |
| Genuine | Promotions such as store offers and tournament bundles | 995 |
| Unusual | An Ethereal gem's particle effect, almost always on couriers | 176 |
| Legacy | Very early Unusual couriers that rolled unique colors | 54 |
| Infused | Upgraded ambient effects, added in October 2015 | 42 |
| Ascendant | Ascendant gems recording beta-era milestones | 41 |
| Exalted | Bought from the store during an item's launch window | 32 |
| Elder | Formerly called Vintage; limited releases | 30 |
You'll also see Gold, Glitter and Holo, which are sticker variants rather than cosmetic qualities.
Keep in mind that these are catalog entries, not copies. Autographed has the most entries because an Autograph Rune can go into almost any item, and every item that has an autographed copy gets its own Autographed entry. Exalted has only 32 because it exists on about a dozen Arcanas, their bundles and a handful of other store items. How scarce a particular copy is shows up in its listing count, not in these totals.
Two of these deserve extra explanation.
Exalted is a first-edition label for Arcanas. A copy bought before a cut-off date got the prefix automatically. For Legion Commander that date was January 3, 2014, and for Terrorblade it was February 20, 2014. No gem or tool can add it later, so the supply is permanently capped.
Heroic, formerly called Tournament, came from drops while spectating professional matches with large live audiences. That's why Heroic copies exist of items that were never sold that way.
Gems can change quality
Several qualities come from gems, so socketing one can rename an item. The wiki lists a priority order. Genuine, Exalted, Frozen and the other event qualities rank highest, followed by Unusual, then Corrupted, Autographed, Ascendant and Inscribed.
In practice:
- An Autograph Rune socketed into an Inscribed item turns it Autographed.
- The same rune socketed into a Genuine item leaves it Genuine.
The wiki flags this table as needing more testing. If you're paying extra for a specific prefix, check the copy you're buying rather than relying on the rule.
What quality does to price
Here are the five Blades of Voth Domosh variants, as of October 14, 2026:
| Version | Steam ask | Listings | Top buy order |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | $40.99 | 17 | $33.38 |
| Exalted | $38.20 | 11 | $34.43 |
| Inscribed | $35.44 | 37 | $33.32 |
| Autographed | $38.82 | 14 | $27.17 |
| Auspicious | $39.67 | 12 | $30.64 |
The asks spread from $35 to $41, but the buy orders, which show what someone will actually pay, sit between $27 and $35. The Exalted copy has the highest bid of the group and still lists below the standard Blades of Voth Domosh. For this Arcana the quality premium is close to zero.
Terrorblade's Fractal Horns of Inner Abysm shows a modest premium instead. The standard copy listed at $41.99, Inscribed at $43.43, Autographed at $45.23, Exalted at $51.10 and Corrupted at $51.47.
When the prefix seems to matter a lot
Some listings suggest huge quality premiums. Look closer before you believe them.
- Corrupted Dragonclaw Hook was listed at $680.76, nearly double the standard hook's $351.76. But only two copies were listed, and the best Corrupted buy order was $241.84, below the standard hook's $316.50. Buyers weren't paying a premium. One seller was asking for it.
- Auspicious Fractal Horns had a single listing at $1,092.21 against a best buy order of $112.71.
- Frozen Beard of Weeping Scorn, a Common Necrophos item, had one listing at $1,800, the maximum Steam allows for a single listing, against a buy order of $0.24.
There are real premiums. Lina's Fiery Soul of the Slayer had standard buy orders around $24.75, while Heroic copies drew 213 buy orders topping out at $134.18. When buyers queue up at a higher price, the premium is real. When only the ask is high, it isn't.
Shopping qualities sensibly
- Start from the standard price. Treat any quality as a premium on top of it, and measure that premium with buy orders, not asks.
- Count the listings. Under five listings, one seller can set the quote.
- Decide whether you care. If you only want the look in game, the cheapest quality gives you the same model and effects.
- Compare outside Steam. Quality variants with thin Steam books sometimes trade more sensibly elsewhere. The marketplace comparison shows where each version is listed.
- Browse by hero. The Legion Commander wearables page puts the variants side by side.
Quality is history attached to an item: when it was bought, what event it came from, what gem sits inside it. Sometimes buyers pay for that history. Often the prefix only changes the name.
