Pudge is a unique hero thanks to his Meat Hook ability which allows him to pull enemy heroes toward himself from a great distance. He is one of the strongest gankers in the game, however, because Meat Hook is a hard to land skill shot, he is somewhat unreliable.  As a result, Pudge is rarely a competitive pick. Nonetheless, he is the most popular hero in pubs. This happens for a reason - if you learn to play him well, it could be incredibly fun and rewarding.

Firstly, as we mentioned Pudge is a very good space creator. This means that picking him when you have a better late game (strong carries in your team) is generally a very good idea. Even if the Pudge isn’t too successful in his ganks, he will end up forcing the enemy team to deal with him rather than invest resources in stopping your carry from farming. This means that the game will more easily reach the stage where your carry will be able to take over.

Flash-farming carries are usually also quite good at pushing-out the waves and split-pushing. This means that even if your ganks on one side of the maps are unsuccessful and you die, your opponents wouldn’t be able to take objectives out of this because they will be forced to deal with the threat of your split-pusher.

Secondly, Pudge is relatively good with strong pushers. If the enemy team wants to defend the push, enemies will have to come close to the tower and will be easy Hook-targets in this position. This means that stalling pushes with spells becomes incredibly dangerous versus a Pudge. The hook is also great defensively for your front-line pusher.

Lastly, Pudge is quite a potent ganker, so if you want to punish a slow late game lineup that needs space and farm (split pushers and hard agility carries), you can combine him with other potent gankers (Nyx, Beast Master, etc.) and take all map control away from your opponents.

A roaming Pudge aims to utilize his ganking potential from the very start of the game. Using the fog of war, Smokes and Obs ward vision is absolutely crucial to your success.

Your main goal as a roaming Pudge is to hit a Hook, get an enemy out of position and with the help of Rot AND YOUR ALLIES to secure a kill. Getting solo kills is unlikely because you will be low level, so when drafting a pos. 4 Pudge you need to have allies with decent kill potential.

Pudge is very level dependent. All he needs in order to be able to start pressuring the enemy team and getting solo kills is a fast lvl6. This means that even provided he actually loses his lane and is unable to take much farm, he will be happy with this outcome since he has gotten the full solo XP and has his kill potential online.

The key is that Pudge needs to be able to stay in the lane. If he gets harassed out of the lane or zoned out, he will have huge problems in the game. If the enemy solo mid is a very hard lane dominator (e.g. QoP, Viper, Razor), you should consider playing your Pudge as a roamer in this game.

Even though solo mid was the usual position for the hero, nowadays it is very unorthodox because the mid lane is usually used for heroes who scale way better with items. Moreover, he is a weak laner, which means his development could be stopped easily with lane pressure. That being said, a mid Pudge for a fast level 6 could still work in some specific games.

Good friends to have are:

Weak Against:

Strong Against:

Both Rot and Hook are amazing in the early game, so it is hard to choose which one to prioritize. One gives more nuke damage, the other – more sustained DPS and chase potential.

You need to decide whether to take a point into Flesh Heap from earlier than usual. This will make you less efficient in ganking, so it is usually not a good idea to do it if you are doing fine. If the game is going badly, however, and you are having trouble surviving in fights, a point into Flesh Heap might force your opponents to use more resources to kill you off, which might give a few seconds to your teammates to turn the fight. Nonetheless, if you haven’t got any kills, Flesh heap won’t grant you any extra Strength but only very little magic resistance.

If you are laning, you usually want to put your first skill point into Rot. If you are supporting or roaming right from the start of the game, you could choose to put your first skill point into Meat Hook. Usually, you have to save your point until you see what exactly you need – the slow from Rot or the repositioning from Hook.

The suggested build focuses on two things - mobility and sustain. It accommodates roaming around the map very fast to easily get in position for ganks. The high MS is also valuable when chasing with Rot. The Tranquil + Soul Ring combination give you a high level of HP and mana sustain which means you will have to go back to base less often.

Getting an Urn is always good for you since your main goal is to create space by ganking. Upgrading to Spirit Vessel is not mandatory but can be really good in some games (against healers, for example). Afterward, you go for Aether Lens (you can switch Aether Lens with Rod of Atos here if you are snowballing) and Blink, which will allow you to initiate more easily.

In the late game, you go for Aghanim`s so even if you miss some Hooks, you can try again in just 3-4 seconds. You want one of your last items to be a mana sustain item since you have Aghanim`s and you want to throw as many Hooks as possible. Soul Ring won't be enough at this point. In this example, you go for Shiva`s but you can go for Hex too or even Orchid/Bloodthorn. Getting a BKB  before or after the Aghanim’s is a good idea if you are facing heroes that interrupt your Dismember easily.

To last-hit more efficiently you can use Rot just as you are swinging for the last hit. This will increase the overall damage you do to the target creep and will help you get most last hits even if your opponent is trying to deny.

When farming with Rot a trick you can use is to move your Tranquils to the backpack so that they don’t break and then to move them back once you are done farming so that you can start regenerating life ASAP.

Harassing isn’t your strength. You are a melee hero, you don’t have a spammable nuke and whenever you are trading harass, you might end up losing more HP than your opponent since you have low armor and you damage yourself with Rot.

Remember that most of the time you can get a kill on your opponent even from full HP if the positioning after Hook is good, so harassing in order to set up a kill attempt is rarely needed.

The more levels in Hook and Rot you have, the more dangerous you are. Nonetheless, even at lvl1, you can secure kills with some help from your teammates. Needless to say, lvl2 is key because you will have both your Hook and Rot. Having your ultimate also, not surprisingly, increases you kill potential a lot.

Your kill attempts have two key moments: landing the Hook and chasing down with Rot. To be successful at landing the hook you need to abuse vision. Your opponents should not be expecting you. Relying simply on out-skilling your opponents and predicting their jukes when you are seen is a bad strategy because it will result in much more missed hooks.

Chasing down with Rot after a successful Hook is easier, but you need to make sure you don’t let your target get out of the Rot range. If you don’t have a significant MS advantage, don’t attack your target, simply follow it with Rot and let your allies finish the job.

In case you are pushing with multiple heroes, it is more important to position yourself for a Hook Shot provided an opponent comes rather than deal damage to the tower with hits. Hitting heroes as they TP is relatively easy, as you know where they will show up – you need to simply time the Hook well.

Using Observers, Smokes and even Sentries to deward is more important for Pudge than for any other roamer. The success of your ganks depends greatly on you surprising your target.

Levels: Lvl2, when you have both the displacement of Hook and the damage and slow from Rot, is key for attempting kills. Lvl6 is also very important because your kill potential skyrockets and getting even solo kills becomes possible.

Night time: If your opponents don’t have lane wards, it will be much easier for you to stay out of vision and surprise them with a Hook. Bear in mind that you will sometimes also have trouble seeing your opponents at night, so it could be a good idea to place a lane ward of your own, especially on the mid lane HG.

Runes:  if you are lucky to get a Haste rune, you can attempt a rotation right away. The haste synergizes very well with your Rot – you can run in, slow heroes and use Hook to finish them off. The invisibility rune is also a good one – you can get close to your potential target and use your spells straight away.

Pushes: you should rotate to push with your team – the threat of a Hook-initiation during the push early on will make it very hard for enemies to position themselves properly to defend. Even though you are a ganker, you are not a bad 5-man fight hero whenever you are the one to get the initiation (but you are terrible when they initiate on you, so positioning is key).

Your priority in the laning stage should be to constantly pressure the enemy lanes and hopefully setup some kills with the help of your allies.

Always try to counter-gank. You should use TP if you feel that you can help your teammates or you can score a kill. Hook is great both for saving your ally or for getting a trade by pulling an enemy under the tower.

Take runes. Since you will roam around the map you should always try to take the Bounty runes and not only them - if you get lucky and find Haste or Invis this could almost ensure a kill. Remember that you can use hook on runes. Hook them near you and after this pick them, by doing this you will not lose mana but your Hook will be on cooldown.

Always ward and deward as efficiently as you can. Vision is the key to the success of your rotations.

He starts the game in the offlane where he tries to harass with Hook while leaching some XP. Notice how he uses the cover of fog to hit his Hooks right away. The first successful Hook on Phoenix shows how much harass damage it can deal when combined with a few right-clicks.

On lvl two he attempts his first rotation mid, unsuccessfully. Nonetheless, it's a good attempt - e.g. he could have found a more useful rune that would help him secure the kill.

On 02:50 in-game time he secures a kill on the enemy carry with the help of Veno.

When he respawns, Qupe TPs top. Notice that he not only TPs out of vision, but makes sure not to show himself at all (he walks through the woods and even cuts a tree) until he's very close to the enemy Axe, which secures him the kill.

On 06:15 in-game time he notices that the BS is missing from lane. This most probably means he is farming the jungle - he manages to find him and secures a solo kill.

On 07:30 he secures another kill on the BS and shows a very well-timed deny with Rot.

Because of his successful rotations he is a pretty high level for a roaming Pudge, allowing him to play aggressively and constantly pressure the enemy mid and safe lane.

Your number one priority is to get lvl7 as quickly as possible so that you can become a threat to your opponents and start roaming. Contest last hits, but be careful not to get harassed too much and zoned out of the lane. Finally, whenever you see an opportunity, you should attempt a kill on your lane opponent. When you get to lvl6 or ideally lvl7, you need to capitalize on your huge kill potential- rotate out of the lane to gank or attempt further kills on your lane opponent.

Even though you are rather tanky, you are relatively susceptible to ganks. The reason is that you are quite slow, and you are a melee hero, which means that you will have to go near the creep wave to take last hits.

Consequently, it is a good idea to stay on your high ground whenever possible, and if heroes are missing, you might want to miss a few last hits while you are making sure you are not getting ganked.

In case you get initiated upon, try to reach your tower. Because you are a fat hero, it will take your opponents time to bring you down to low HP, so you might get a chance to simply walk away from the gank.

If you see that you are not going to make it, you can try to deny yourself with Rot.

At higher levels (4, 5, 6), when you are getting ganked by lower level supports, you can try to kill off one before you die. A high lvl Hook into Rot and one or two right clicks might be enough to kill a lvl 3 or 4 support before you die.

In the mid lane, the best way to set up a solo kill is to get a Hook when you are on the high ground and your opponent doesn’t see you.

In order not to get your hook blocked by a creep, it is a good idea to throw it a bit from the side.
This way not only will it be much harder to dodge (since the opponent doesn’t see you casting it), but if you succeed, you will have much more space to chase with Rot.

Provided the creep equilibrium isn’t in your favor, you can still pull the opponent in the river and chase with Rot. The chances of success will be smaller; nevertheless, you shouldn’t restrain yourself from attempting Hooks. Sometimes, even if you are in vision, your opponent wouldn’t have quick enough reactions to dodge - he might be concentrated on getting the last hit or even checking the runes or other lanes with his camera.

Remember that for your opponent a lane where he is forced to dodge multiple Hooks is going to be much harder than a lane where he doesn’t have to dodge any.

After lvl6, of course, your kill potential increases immensely. At lvl6 or 7 you can generally solo kill most heroes on the map, so you need to capitalize on that. You should either attempt kills in the lane or rotate to another lane with smoke and TPs.

The laning outcome for Pudge doesn’t change what you want to do, but how you want to do it. If you are leading in terms of XP and are in position to get solo kills, you can roam on your own and solo gank, taking more risks since your kill potential allows you to do so.

Provided the laning stage went badly and you find no kills, however, you need to understand that you are not in a position to play the same way. Since you are mainly good at ganking, you should still do it, but you should get help. If an ally or two with kill potential are roaming with you, you could more easily bring down solo targets with the damage from both. In addition, you will be safer whenever you get counter ganked. If your ganks are successful, this will help you get back into the game.

Your option is to position yourself close to the push but outside of vision so that you are ready to Hook an approaching opponent who wants to defend. This will help you start the fight on your terms and could, in fact, make it a 5v4 situation right from the get-go. In case you miss with the hook, it might be better to back as a team and wait for the Hook to get off cooldown; then, go push again.

When it comes to split pushing, Pudge is a bad hero to do it with. He is better at punishing split pushers rather than split pushing as he pushes relatively slowly and has no tool with which to escape a gank.

Even when you are not a support, vision for you is one of the most crucial things. It is a great idea to buy a set of wards every now and then and put them in key locations for ganking. This could give you the information you need and allow you to capitalize on a lot more ganking opportunities.

Getting a gem is also a good idea as you will be able to see if the enemy team has wards and is watching you.

Ganking for you is quite straightforward. Firstly, you must think about vision along the way of the gank - Smoke up if you are unsure whether your opponents have Observers or not. The alternative is to TP to a tower when the creep wave is away so that you don’t get spotted by the enemy creeps. Then, you should think where you want to position yourself for the Hook - ideally outside enemy vision, behind trees, on a high ground or something of that sort. In the end, you just need to execute your combo - Hook into Dismember and Rot.

It is generally a good idea to bring some help with you. This way if you get the initiation on a tankier target, your ally will be able to help secure the kill by providing more damage. Ideally, you want your target to be dead before the Dismember ends so that it gets no time to use any escape spells (escape mechanisms mainly).

If you have a Blink Dagger, you have the option to jump in and initiate directly with Dismember + Rot. It is a good idea to do this on elusive targets so that you don’t give them any time to use their escape mechanisms. In case you do that, it will be best if there is an ally with you that can follow up on your initiation with further disables and damage. As a result, you can kill the target off before it has a chance to recover.

You usually want to start every team fight with a Hook attempt. Therefore, the first thing you should think about is positioning - hide outside enemy vision and be ready to execute your combo.

Provided the Hook attempt is successful, you could eliminate a target before it has contributed to the fight. If it wasn’t, but the fight has already started, you have two basic choices. Whenever you are farmed enough and tanky enough, you should run in (or jump in if you have mobility items) and try to contribute with Dismember, attacks and Rot on the right target. If you are not, however, it might be better to wait for the Hook cooldown to get another attempt. While you are doing this, you can fake running in and change directions or run backward just so you pressure your opponents into reacting.

When you are inside the fight, be careful how you use your Dismember. If you use it right away and it gets instantly interrupted, you will not get a lot of value out of it. So, try to judge your situation. In case there are heroes who can easily interrupt you, keep track of their cooldowns and use the ult after those opponents have used these abilities, or use the ult on the target that can interrupt it.

Also, remember that in the later stages of the game the main use of Dismember is to allow your allies to focus down a target. Using it on the enemy carry (you can cast it through BKB) therefore, is generally the best alternative. Nevertheless, doing so will be hard without a BKB and Blink Dagger if you don’t get the Hook initiation. Sometimes it might be better to take another hero out of the fight and leave your team to deal with the carry.

In this video, Iceberg manages to initiate a team fight by surprising the enemy WR with a Force into Hook. After they kill her, he continues chasing and manages to pull Lifestealer. Finally, he showcases how a fat Pudge with BKB can easily afford to stand at the front lines.

When it comes to farming, you use right clicks and Rot. The one thing to keep in mind is how much damage you take from the creeps and the Rot. Don’t get in a position where you are farming while waiting for something to happen (a fight, ganking opportunity) and when it happens, you don’t have enough HP to participate. Take only damage that you can recover.

If you are flash farming with the idea to get some item, taking more damage is acceptable since you can return to base, heal up and be ready to fight afterward.