Dota 2 Ranks Explained: MMR, Medals & Behavior Score
Updated June 2026 · reflects the live unified-MMR system · last reviewed
Most Dota 2 rank guides explain the medals and stop there. They miss the thing that actually decides your games: Dota 2 runs two separate ranking numbers, not one. Your MMR (and the medal it earns you, Herald up to Immortal) measures skill. Your Behavior Score measures conduct, and it quietly controls who you get matched with and whether you can queue ranked at all. You can be a 4,000-MMR Divine player and still get dumped into miserable lobbies because your Behavior Score slipped. This guide covers both: how MMR and the eight medals work in the live 2026 system, the real map from each medal to its MMR band and player percentile, how Behavior Score works and where the danger line sits, plus calibration, deranking and seasonal resets. Every number here is from the current Glicko-based system, not the old dual-MMR rules Valve retired. No invented percentages.
Dota 2 Rank Order & Mechanics
The 8 medals, Herald to Immortal
1. Herald
2. Guardian
3. Crusader
4. Archon
5. Legend
6. Ancient
7. Divine
8. Immortal
The two numbers that decide your Dota 2 games
Before the medals, get the framing right. Two hidden-ish numbers run your ranked experience, and they move on completely separate tracks:
- MMR (Matchmaking Rating) is your skill number. Win and it goes up, lose and it goes down. Cross certain thresholds and it earns you a medal, the badge from Herald to Immortal that everyone shows off. This is what people mean when they ask "what's your rank?"
- Behavior Score is your conduct number, on a 0 to 12,000 scale. Abandon games, get reported, or rack up a low communication score and it falls. Let it drop too far and you land in the low-conduct pool with the griefers and abandoners, no matter how high your MMR is.
The reason this matters: grinding MMR does nothing for a broken Behavior Score, and a high Behavior Score won't climb your MMR. They are two ladders, and a lot of players only discover the second one exists after their queues turn toxic. The rest of this guide treats them as the two systems they really are. First the skill side, then the conduct side that no other game in the genre tracks so openly.
Every medal, its MMR and where you really stand
Here is the question every Dota player eventually asks: what MMR is Archon, and what percentile does my medal actually put me in? Valve doesn't publish exact thresholds, so the bands below are the community-tracked estimates, and the percentiles come from the public seasonal distribution. Read the right-hand column as "you're roughly better than this share of ranked players."
| Medal | Approx. MMR | You're better than |
|---|---|---|
| Herald | 1 – 769 | entry tier (bottom ~14%) |
| Guardian | 770 – 1,539 | ~18% of players |
| Crusader | 1,540 – 2,309 | ~38% of players |
| Archon | 2,310 – 3,079 | ~57% of players |
| Legend | 3,080 – 3,849 | ~73% (top ~27%) |
| Ancient | 3,850 – 4,619 | ~84% (top ~16%) |
| Divine | 4,620 – 5,419 | ~92% (top ~8%) |
| Immortal | ~5,420+ | top ~1–2% · leaderboard |
A couple of things jump out. By the percentiles in the table, the median player sits in upper Crusader, around 2,300 MMR, so reaching Archon (2,310+) already puts you above roughly 57% of the ladder — comfortably above mid-table. Each medal from Herald to Divine then splits into five stars (Archon 1 through Archon 5), and Immortal drops the stars entirely for a raw leaderboard rank once you're high enough on the regional board. The jump that feels hardest is usually Legend to Ancient, where the lobbies sharpen fast. If you're stalled inside one medal, a targeted 1,000 to 3,000 MMR boost moves you between any two ratings with every game visible in your dashboard.
How MMR and calibration actually work in 2026
This is where most old guides are simply wrong. Dota 2 used to run two separate MMR numbers, one for core roles and one for support. Valve scrapped that in patch 7.33 (April 2023) and moved to a single, unified MMR driven by a Glicko-style rating system. There is no "core MMR" or "support MMR" any more. One number, one medal, whatever role you play.
New accounts (and returning ones each new season) go through calibration: a short run of placement matches, after which the system hands you a starting MMR and medal based on how you performed and the hidden uncertainty it has about your skill. Glicko matters here because the system tracks how confident it is in your rating. When it's unsure, your MMR swings harder per game, which is why a strong calibration run can launch you several brackets in just a few matches. After that the swings settle to the familiar 20-to-30 MMR per win or loss, adjusted for the rating gap between the teams. Fresh off a reset and want the medal your gameplay deserves without grinding placements blind? A Herald to Divine MMR boost covers any starting point up to 5,000 and beyond.
Behavior Score: Dota 2's hidden second ladder
This is the system almost no other competitive game exposes, and the one this guide exists to put on the table. Behavior Score runs from 0 to 12,000 (Valve raised the ceiling from 10,000 when it split out a separate Communication Score). It tracks your conduct: abandons, reports from team-mates, and a low communication score all drag it down; clean games and commends pull it back up. You can check it any time through the in-client Player Behavior Summary (formerly the Conduct Summary) on your profile, where it sits as your lifetime Behavior Score next to your Communication Score. It recalculates in batches over your recent games, not instantly after each match.
Why it matters more than people expect: matchmaking pairs you with players near your Behavior Score, not just your MMR. Let it fall and your team-mates get worse to play with, win-rate drops, and MMR follows. Valve doesn't publish an exact unlock table, but these are the consistently-reported bands:
| Behavior Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| Below ~3,000 | Low-conduct pool — matched with abandoners and griefers; ranked effectively off-limits |
| 3,000+ | Ranked matchmaking unlocked |
| ~5,000+ | Most restricted features return (pausing, map drawing) |
| ~8,000+ | Full communication restored (text and voice) |
| 10,000+ | Top conduct band — cleaner lobbies, coaching and ping features |
The takeaway: if your games suddenly feel cursed, check your Behavior Score before you blame your MMR. Digging out of the low-conduct pool by yourself can take dozens of clean games. A dedicated Dota 2 Behavior Score boost rebuilds it back into a healthy band so your normal MMR climb actually sticks.
Promotion, derank and the seasonal reset
There are no fixed promotion games in modern Dota. Your MMR just moves after every ranked match, and once it crosses a star or medal threshold the badge updates with it. Climb past 3,080 and Legend 1 becomes yours; slide back under and you drop a star. Win streaks and big rating-gap upsets move you faster in both directions, which is why a good night can carry you a full star and a bad one can give it straight back.
The seasonal reset is the part players forget. Roughly every six months Valve starts a new ranked season and recalibrates everyone: you replay a short set of placement games and get re-seeded near your previous MMR, but you do have to earn it back rather than keeping the badge automatically. The medal you ended last season with is a starting point, not a guarantee. Long inactivity has a similar effect, nudging you back into recalibration when you return. Holding a high medal, in other words, is something you keep paying for in games played, not a trophy you unlock once.
Roles, position and why support feels different to climb
Since the move to a single MMR, your role no longer earns a separate number, but it absolutely changes how the climb feels. Carry and mid (positions 1 and 2) put your MMR in your own hands: farm well, snowball, and you can hard-carry a game. Support (positions 4 and 5) leans far more on your cores converting the space you make, so your results swing on team-mates you can't control. That's why two players at the same MMR can have wildly different climb experiences, and why support mains often describe the grind as streakier.
It also explains a quirk of boosting pricing: a core-role climb is more directly carry-able than a support one, so the difficulty (and the work involved) differs by position even though the MMR ladder is shared. If solo support queue is fighting you, Dota 2 Duo Queue puts a high-MMR player in your own games on your account, so you climb together without ever sharing a login.
Is Dota 2 boosting safe for your account?
The honest version: Dota 2 has no anti-cheat ban for playing well, only for cheating software, which our boosters never touch — they climb on mechanics and game sense alone. Across more than 50,000 completed orders in our records we've recorded zero bans traced to our services. Every piloted order runs behind a region-matched VPN, mirrors your usual hero pool and play hours so your activity pattern reads normally, and keeps your conduct clean so your Behavior Score isn't put at risk. If you'd rather not share a login at all, Duo Queue lets you play your own account alongside the booster while the MMR climbs, with no credentials handed over in either direction.
Where boosting fits
If you've read this far, the honest catch is clear: a Dota 2 rank is two grinds, not one. You keep your MMR up by playing through solo-queue variance, and you keep your Behavior Score up by surviving other people's worst games. That's the gap boosting closes. Our Dota 2 MMR boosting puts an Immortal-level player on your exact rating and lands you at the medal your gameplay already deserves, every match visible in your dashboard. Stuck in the low-conduct pool instead of a low medal? A Behavior Score boost fixes the number that's quietly ruining your queues — the half of the Dota ranking system almost everyone forgets.
Dota 2 Rank System FAQ
No. Valve retired the dual core/support MMR system in patch 7.33 (April 2023). Since then there is a single, unified MMR and one medal, whatever role you queue. Old guides that talk about a separate "core MMR" and "support MMR" are describing a system that no longer exists. Your role still shapes how easy the climb feels, but it no longer earns its own number.
Valve doesn't publish exact thresholds, but the community-tracked bands are roughly: Herald 1–769, Guardian 770–1,539, Crusader 1,540–2,309, Archon 2,310–3,079, Legend 3,080–3,849, Ancient 3,850–4,619, Divine 4,620–5,419, and Immortal around 5,420+. Each medal from Herald to Divine then splits into five stars. By those percentiles the median player sits in upper Crusader, around 2,300 MMR, so reaching Archon already puts you above roughly 57% of the ladder.
Behavior Score is Dota 2's conduct rating on a 0–12,000 scale, separate from your skill MMR. It drops when you abandon, get reported, or run a low communication score, and rises with clean games and commends. It matters because matchmaking groups you with players near your Behavior Score — let it fall and your lobbies fill with abandoners and griefers regardless of your MMR. You can check it in the in-client Player Behavior Summary (formerly Conduct Summary) on your profile.
You generally need to stay above roughly 3,000 Behavior Score to access ranked matchmaking comfortably. Below that you fall into the low-conduct pool, where ranked is effectively off-limits and you're matched with other low-scoring players. Higher bands progressively restore features: around 5,000 brings back pausing and map drawing, around 8,000 restores full text and voice, and 10,000+ is the cleanest conduct tier. Valve doesn't publish an exact table, so treat the band effects as well-reported estimates.
It depends what you're comparing to. By the seasonal percentiles the median player sits in upper Crusader, roughly 2,300 MMR, so Archon (2,310+) already puts you above about 57% of the ladder. Legend (3,080+) puts you in the top ~27%, Ancient (3,850+) in the top ~16%, and Divine (4,620+) in the top ~8%. Immortal — open leaderboard territory above ~5,420 MMR — is the top ~1–2%. So "good" really starts around Legend, and Divine or above is genuinely strong.
New and returning-season accounts play a short run of placement matches. The system then seeds your MMR and medal based on your performance and how uncertain it is about your skill. Because Dota uses a Glicko-style rating, that uncertainty makes your MMR swing harder early on, so a strong calibration run can place you several brackets higher than a weak one. Once your rating stabilises, gains and losses settle to the usual 20–30 MMR per game.
Yes. Roughly every six months Valve starts a new ranked season and recalibrates everyone. You replay a short set of placement games and get re-seeded near your previous MMR, but you have to play your way back rather than keeping the medal automatically. Long inactivity triggers a similar re-placement. Your end-of-season medal is a starting point for the next season, not a permanent badge.
Yes — abandons and a string of reports can pull it down fast, and it recalculates in batches over your recent games rather than instantly, so a bad week can sink it before you notice. Climbing back is slower than falling: it takes a run of clean, report-free games to rebuild, which is why players who hit the low-conduct pool often find it takes dozens of matches to escape on their own.
Immortal is the top medal, and unlike the others it has no stars. Once you're high enough you're shown a raw leaderboard rank on your regional board instead, and the very top players sit well above the ~5,420 MMR where Immortal begins. There's no hard MMR cap above that — the ceiling is just how high you can climb the leaderboard.
There's no fixed number of games. Each win or loss moves your MMR by roughly 20–30 points (more during calibration or on big upsets), so crossing a full medal can take dozens of evenly-matched games on your own. Solo-queue variance and your role both stretch that out — supports in particular climb in streakier bursts because their results lean on team-mates. A high win-rate run shortens it, but most players move in fits and starts.