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* [ Hero Profile ]
* [ Hero Skills ]
* [ Recommended Items ]
* [ Playstyle Guide ]

IO is a Standard Hero (Non-Patreon) who takes control over hostile creeps. He uses gold to buff the attack damage, health, armor, and attack speed of the control creep. IO retains all stat upgrades when leaving a controlled creep.
IO's inventory is blocked since he has no physical form. This means that IO cannot pick up enemy drops, buy items, use hero essences, or complete quests.
IO excels at early game and late game farming since he acquires the stats and abilities of jungle and lane creeps. It can be argued that IO becomes easier to play as the difficulty increases since he gains the same bonuses as creeps.
**Affiliations/Buffs:**
IO is too greedy to have friends.
**Quests/Secrets:**
IO is not related to any quests or secrets.
**IMBA Stat Changes:**
Every week, one hero is selected to be IMBA and has its abilities overly buffed. This also tends to come with a rework of the hero. This hero received the following changes during its IMBA status:
May 2020 (Unofficial) - A change to reliable gold in Dota 2 caused passive gold earned to not be spent on ability cast. Effectively after 1000 passive gold was earned, all of IO's abilities were free to upgrade. This caused the community to dub him the IMBA of the week as there was not currently one at the time.

Special thanks to BVH for creating this in-depth guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHg5SJYRHA0

IO does not have the ability to pick up items for quests or hero changes.
Keep this in mind before selecting IO in the hero selection screen.
**Background Information:**
+ IO requires constant farming to meet his level requirements.
+ If IO falls behind, then he will not be effective against bosses
+ If you plan to play with IO, make sure your team understands
   that you are possibly the greediest hero in the game.
**Starting Information:**
+ As soon as the game starts head towards the Spider Region (hyperlink).
+ Take control of an Acarid (hyperlink) it had the best stats at lvl 1.
+ If you are below immortal, take mid. If immortal, its best to jungle.
+ If you die mid, don't panic. Simply go get another Acarid. It common to see
   IO's panic control Necromancers (hyperlink). This just makes last hits harder to get.
+ Because you are going to control creeps with higher health,armor,and dmg, it is not worth specing into
   these abilities until later on. Spend your gold on attack speed (increases dps) and movement speed
   (increases movespeed between farming camps)
**Bosses:**
+ IO is relatively bad at fighting bosses early on.
+ Acarid's miss chance and Attack Speed Upgrade's sub-skill can help your teammates tank boss hits
+ IO is not the best tank. A team member buying vlads can allow IO to participate in team fights.
**Level 10:**
+ At level 10, take the XP-Talent and un-control your current creep. Level up your control skill.
+ Immediately head towards the River Region (hyperlink) and take control of a Watermelon
+ On Legend difficulty and above, immediately head South-West and destroy the Sniper Barracks.
   This will stop the alliance camps from sending waves and stop the Sniper Boss from spawning.
+ Farm the Spider Region if your current comp allows it.
+ Take the level 15 XP-Talent.
**Level 20:**
+ Take level 20 XP-Talent (I think you are getting the trend here)
+ Head towards the Human Region and take control of a Legioner (hyperlink)
+ Farm the River Region (hyperlink) and the Sea Region (hyperlink) to farm as quick as possible
+ Begin putting 10 points into every ability to gain useful sub-skills
**Level 50:**
+ Take control of a Skeleton King (hyperlink). Congratulations, you can now farm the map.
+ Farming in the Human Zone will give the most xp/stats/gold per minute
**Level 60:**
+ Take control of a Water Elemental and begin farming the Undead Region (hyperlink)
   and Human Region (hyperlink).
+ The first stats you should max are Move Speed followed by Attack Speed.
+ Continue farming until you max out all stats
+ Solo final boss