Dota 2 Dark Carnival End Date and Full Schedule

Dark Carnival End Date — What Valve Has Actually Confirmed

As of August 23, 2026, Valve has published no official closing date for the Dark Carnival event. The Dota 2 news page and Steam community announcements contain no announcement specifying when the event will stop awarding tickets, when the Candyworks shop will close, or when Carnival progress will be locked.

This is consistent with how Valve handled Crownfall in 2024. That event ran for approximately five months (April through August/September 2024) with no official countdown visible in the client at launch. Valve quietly announced the Crownfall end date about two weeks before closure, after which it was prominently displayed in-game. The same pattern is expected for Dark Carnival.

What we do know is that the event launched on June 22, 2026, has run through TI 2026 (August 13-23 in Shanghai), and has shown no signs of content exhaustion. Three chapters are available, all major content drops have shipped, and no new chapters have been announced. The event is in its final content phase — the question is whether Valve extends it another few weeks post-TI or closes it promptly after the Grand Finals.

Full Dark Carnival Schedule: Act by Act

The Dark Carnival has followed a chapter-based rollout structure, dropping new acts approximately every 3-4 weeks after the initial launch. Here is the full confirmed schedule based on Valve’s own Steam announcements and community patch tracking.

All three chapters are currently live and accessible. If you have not started or completed earlier chapters, you can still unlock everything — the event is not gated by the original release date of each chapter. Starting today (August 23, 2026), you have access to the complete Dark Carnival content.

What “Chapter” vs “Act” Means for Ticket Spending

Valve uses both “chapter” and “act” terminology interchangeably in community posts and in the in-game UI. For practical purposes they refer to the same thing: a new section of the story map with new nodes, new dialogue, and new reward unlocks. Chapter 3 / Act 3 is the final released content segment. There is no Chapter 4 on the map at this time, and dataminers have found no hidden chapter awaiting unlock.

This is a relevant signal for the end date question. When Crownfall’s final act dropped, the event ran for approximately 5-6 more weeks before Valve announced the closure. If Dark Carnival follows the same pattern, and Chapter 3 launched around July 24, you would expect the event to close sometime in late August or early September 2026. That window aligns with TI 2026 ending today (August 23) and Valve’s tendency to wrap seasonal events shortly after their flagship tournament.

The Patch 7.41e and Summer Scrub Connection

Valve released Gameplay Patch 7.41e alongside the TI 2026 content bundle on July 29, 2026. This patch included balance changes and the Summer Scrub — a large collection of bug fixes and QoL improvements across heroes and mechanics. Crucially, the patch did NOT include any announcement about extending or ending the Dark Carnival. This suggests the event’s end is a separate decision from the balance schedule, and the timing is likely tied to TI 2026’s conclusion rather than any specific patch cycle.

When Will Dark Carnival Actually End? The Community’s Best Estimate

No official date, so let us look at the evidence. The community consensus, cross-referenced against Valve’s own announcement cadence for prior events, points to a window of late August through mid-September 2026.

If Valve follows the Crownfall playbook exactly, the Dark Carnival end date would fall somewhere in late September to early October 2026 — giving the event roughly the same 5-month total run. However, there is another scenario: Valve announced there would be no traditional TI Compendium for 2026. The Dark Carnival itself appears to be filling the TI engagement role. If the event is also serving as the TI 2026 engagement vehicle, Valve may close it more promptly after the tournament ends to prevent ticket hoarding ahead of a new patch or season.

What Valve’s Own Language Tells You

The original Dark Carnival announcement from June 22 used the phrase “ongoing event in the Dota universe” — not a fixed-duration event with a posted end date. This is standard Valve hedging language that leaves room for extension. It does not mean the event lasts forever. It means Valve had not committed to a specific end date at launch and wanted flexibility to extend or close based on player engagement and the TI schedule.

When TI 2026 supporter bundles were announced (July 29 patch), the patch notes did not mention the Dark Carnival closing. They focused on TI predictions, fantasy, and supporter items. This is another data point suggesting Valve intended the two to run concurrently through TI, with Dark Carnival closing via a separate announcement after the tournament wraps.

What Happens to Your Carnival Tickets When the Event Ends

Carnival Tickets are event-specific currency. They do not carry over to future Dota 2 events, future seasons, or your account wallet. When the Dark Carnival closes, any unspent tickets disappear with the event. Valve has been consistent about this policy across all event currencies historically — they close with the event and are not refundable or transferable to any future event.

The practical takeaway: any item you want from the Candyworks shop needs to be exchanged before the event timer reaches zero. Items already in your inventory are safe. Items you are still working toward by earning tickets are at risk if you run short on time. Audit your current ticket balance and remaining wish-list items today.

How to Earn Carnival Tickets Before the Event Ends

The Dark Carnival uses three methods to earn tickets. Understanding the rates matters when you are calculating how many more items you can unlock before the event closes.

With Regular games yielding 2 Scrap each and 6 Scrap converting to 1 Hero Ticket, you need 3 Regular games to earn 1 Hero Ticket. If you have 20 hours remaining before the event ends and average 45 minutes per game, that is roughly 26 games — around 8-9 additional Hero Tickets. Plan your remaining purchases around that math.

Weekly Ticket Earning Limits

The Scrap ticket system introduced in the July 1 patch operates under a weekly earning cap that resets on Thursdays. The original event ticket mechanics (story node unlocks, in-map discovery) were uncapped. If you are close to the event end, check your in-game event tracker for your current Scrap balance and whether the weekly cap has been hit. Spreading your remaining farming sessions across the week maximizes your total ticket output before the closure window.

Combining Ticket Farming with Rank Progress

The smartest approach during the final stretch is to align your ticket farming with heroes and roles that also benefit your ranked climb. Valve rewards the same ticket rate whether you win or lose, which removes the urgency to “win-farm” — but your MMR is still affected. If rank progress matters to you this season, consider booking a session with one of our Dota 2 boosting specialists to recover any MMR dropped during the event grind, or read our complete MMR guide for hero and role choices that stack both event efficiency and win rate. Players who combine event grinding with even basic coaching from our vetted Immortal coaches tend to exit event seasons with better rank outcomes than those who grind blind.

Every Reward Worth Getting Before the Clock Runs Out

The full per-hero Candyworks priority breakdown is covered in our Dark Carnival rewards guide (see related links below). For players focused specifically on the end-date urgency, here is the priority order from highest to lowest value-per-ticket.

Priority 1 — Automaton Personas (Cannot Be Obtained After Event)

The five Automaton Personas launched with Chapter 1 are the highest-value Dark Carnival items. They are complete hero re-imaginings with new animations, effects, ability visuals, and voice lines — not cosmetic skins that re-use base animations. Once the event closes, these Personas will not be available in the Dota 2 store, in treasures, or via any other mechanism unless Valve re-releases them in a future event (which they have not done for event-exclusive Personas historically).

Of the five, the Axe Automaton Persona ranks highest in community demand due to Axe’s universal bracket playability. Legion Commander, Hoodwink, and Bristleback follow based on the hero’s popularity at each MMR range. Oracle and Morphling Automaton Personas are specialists-only — only prioritize them if those are heroes you actively play at high MMR.

Priority 2 — Story Node Cosmetics via Seeing Stones

Seeing Stones are earned through Co-op Bot Matches on Hard and Unfair difficulty and are used to unlock cosmetics hidden in the event story map. These items are unavailable through any ticket purchase or Candyworks exchange — they require story exploration. If you have not yet explored all three chapters of the story map, prioritize this before your final ticket spending, since story items cannot be obtained any other way once the event ends.

Priority 3 — Candyworks Hero Cosmetics for Your Main Heroes

The Candyworks shop offers hero sets and cosmetic items in exchange for Carnival Tickets. Identify which of your most-played heroes have Candyworks items available and calculate whether you have enough tickets to obtain them before closure. Do not hoard tickets chasing items that require more tickets than you can realistically earn — make peace with the math and spend what you have on your best available options.

How to Track the Dark Carnival End Date When It’s Announced

Valve will announce the Dark Carnival end date through the Steam community announcements for Dota 2 (store.steampowered.com/news/app/570). The announcement will also appear as a news item in the in-game client news ticker. Once the closure is announced, a countdown timer typically appears in the event UI in the Dota 2 client itself.

This page will be updated as soon as Valve confirms the date. Bookmark it, and check the Dota 2 news page directly if you want to be first to know. The community will also discuss the announcement immediately on the Dota 2 subreddit and Steam discussion boards — those are typically the fastest informal sources after the official announcement drops.

FAQ — Dota 2 Dark Carnival End Date