Play Dota 2 offline/LAN

DotA is a popular RTS game amongst the gaming community and it was easily playable on LAN as Warcraft III supported it. The rise of Dota 2 is equally related, but many gamers suffer from multiple issues while trying to enjoy the game:

• No Steam connection - Steam is barred in the college/university.
• Slow Internet - Especially in 3rd world countries.
• Data limit/Internet charge - Downloading GBs of update is never easy.
• No Internet - You cannot create a Local Lobby while offline!

So the listed problems are mostly because of the dependency of Dota 2 on Internet/Steam. How to bypass it?

Download the Hacked version (non-updatable)

If you or your game-pals do not have Dota 2 (Steam version) then you may download the game from other users' upload. Download from here.

Hack a Steam version of Dota 2 (updatable)

If you have a Steam copy of Dota 2 then you may use this method to run Dota 2 offline and share with your friends in a copy-paste fashion.

1. Copy the folder dota 2 (or dota 2 beta) from your Steam directory (C:\Program Files\Steam\SteamApps\common). Name this folder dota 2 offline.
2. Download revLoder (offline Steam emulator): Download from the official thread of revLoader.
3. Extract the ZIP/RAR package contents. Copy contents of dota 2 (extracted from revLoader package) and paste in dota 2 offline folder.
4. Download items_570.bin from latest post and overwrite the contents inside dota 2 offline/platform folder.
   
5. Look for revLoader.exe in dota 2 offline. Run it as Administrator.
1. If revLoader.exe does not exist, download previous versions from here and extract revLoader.exe in your dota 2 offline folder.
2. This is because the EXE is not updated, it is only the Steam emulation files and items_570.bin (for new items) which are updated on new release of Dota 2.
6. Dota 2 should be up and running without Steam.
7. Distribute dota 2 offline to your game-pals and be ready to host a LAN game. 

Dota 2 Reborn

Similar steps as above. A detailed discussion here.

Commands for hosting a LAN game

Use the following commands thru the game console (Press backslash '\' to open console in-game).

For Host/Server

1. Edit rev.ini in dota 2 offline, add switch +ip <YourIPAddress> to the ProcName param. E.g.: ProcName=bin/win32/dota2.exe -steam -novid -console +ip 192.168.43.49 +maxplayers 11 +dota_wait_for_players_to_load 1 -silent /help
2. Start the game using revLoader.exe and type the following in-game commands in the console:

dota_bot_set_difficulty 3

map dota.bsp 

dota_bot_populate (after all Clients have connected)

For Clients

Run revLoader.exe as Admin and use connect command in the console:

connect <ServerIP:Port>
E.g.: connect 192.168.173.91:27015
jointeam good/bad (Radiant/Dire)
E.g.: jointeam good

Enjoy!

Do post your queries in the comment section as I shall try to troubleshoot. Here's a list of console commands for the geeks to explore.