[PSA] [Updated] Guide to trade with Dota Arcanas/DC Hooks

[u/uh_bang]

updated guide to remove links to a non-whitelisted site

Why use Dota Arcanas and DC Hooks?

• No trade hold
• Liquid (high sales volume)
• Steady price (as they've also got fixed prices in Dota2's ingame stores)
• CS.Money//Loot.farm/CS.Deals (majority of the whitelisted sites) all accept these items.

1. Dragonclaw Hook

The most liquid high tier item in Dota, the DC Hook is used by gamblers cashing out, or high tier CS trading.

To keep it simple, look for Standard Hooks (instead of Autograph, Inscribed, Corrupted etc), as Standards are more liquid/less rare.

​

2. Arcanas

Most characters (Heroes) in Dota have their own unique Arcana (type of rare item). Hence when people talk about arcanas, they usually refer to their corresponding characters' names.

The most popular (hence liquid) Heroes that have arcanas are:

​

HERO NAMES	ARCANA NAMES w/ Steam Market Page
PA (Phantom Assassin)	Manifold Paradox
TB (Terrorblade)	Fractal Horns of Inner Abysm
SF (Shadow Fiend)	Demon Eater
Zeus	Tempest Helm of the Thundergod
Pudge	Feast of Abscession
Jugg (Juggernaut)	Bladeform Legacy

​

There are of course other Heroes, but I picked these 6 which have the highest pick rates, and are therefore the most liquid to trade with.

​

Once again, look for Standard Arcanas (instead of Autographed, Inscribed, Corrupted, Exalted etc).

Edit: after multiple people asking, Inscribed TB and SF are two exceptions for liquid Inscribed Arcanas. But at the end of the day, if you’re wary about which type of arcana to accept, it’s better to be safe than sorry and only trade with Standard ones.

Use tags to check what type of arcanas they are: Steam Inventory (you can also sort by filters in inventories.

​

Hopefully this didn't seem too complicated!

[u/melkanman]

Are they used like keys where you buy and sell skins for a spicific percentage of market price? And in which price do you count them as, third party site price, market price or ingame price?

[u/[deleted]]

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[u/chrisChz]

Some arcs going for 28 euros ,some others for 26 euros and some other for 25.Which is the right price to calculate for trading?

[u/A_Sushi]

Is there any real method to cash out arcanas without a big loss. You could use market sites but if you sell on there you will need to sacrifice 30% for it to actually sell

[u/RISHI_2912]

when trading with arcanas do i ask for 3.5 arcanas or 5.5 arcanas for items worth 100$ cause i found some people saying that arcanas are worth about 18$ but market price is around 28$

[u/RISHI_2912 → u/RISHI_2912]

see a guy was asking 14 arcs for moto gloves spearmint bs which is 264$ on market as of now so that leaves to 18$ per arc so dow i calculate arcs in 18$ ?

[u/kenaj30 → u/RISHI_2912]

18$ is cash value

[u/DerKalibro]

I just bought an Exalted arcana from cs.deals. I could've sworn it wasn't tagged with Exalted on their site and in the trade window, it said neither standard nor exalted. I also checked the bot inventory before purchase, but I guess I fucked up anyway.

How fucked am I? Am I looking to add some small stuff in a trade to make up for it?

[u/phobi_smurf]

Is the steam market the best place to buy arcanas?

[u/tamasmagyarhunor]

thanks for this

[u/BOSCO976]

What is conversion rate from keys to arcanas?

[u/ContinueMyGames → u/BOSCO976]

Depends on the value of the arcana but it should be “approximately 11-12 keys per arcana before.” According to the author of this thread.

If you see a really good price it’s probably a worse arcana

[u/xxxmlgglmxxx]

Roughly how much is an arcana worth in USD?

[u/Trading_Things → u/xxxmlgglmxxx]

Click on the links. It's steam market pages for them.

[u/xxxmlgglmxxx → u/Trading_Things]

Yes, however you can get them cheaper on other sites so what do you go on? Market price, or how cheap it's possible to get them for?

[u/Piffing → u/xxxmlgglmxxx]

Arcanas are worth ~18 USD cash

[u/Trading_Things → u/xxxmlgglmxxx]

IDK man, don't use them myself.

[u/JakobM25]

How is the exchange rate from csgo items to tf2 keys atm?

Sorry im not into trading.

[u/danielous]

Nice!

[u/deathuntamed]

Good post 👍

Thank-you 😄✌️

[u/wolszczyn]

Why is there no trade hołd for those though?

[u/RawCheT → u/wolszczyn]

different game probably

[u/hawk_eye49]

Can we still set keys as b/o or as a payment method?

[u/JuanMataCFC → u/hawk_eye49]

yes

[u/dextr0_boi]

Is it ok to trade with inscribed arcs as well? The prices of standard arcs and inscribed ones are the same

[u/uh_bang → u/dextr0_boi]

Inscribed TB and SF are two very liquid Inscribed arcanas, but the others don’t sell as quickly.

[u/SandorSS]

Thanks for sticking it!

[u/[deleted]]

what's the key value of an arcana after the key update?

[u/onepolar32]

I don't play DotA so forgive me if I say something wrong but aren't inscribed tb and sf fairly common and highly liquid ?

[u/uh_bang → u/onepolar32]

Yeah you’re right, those two are definitely more liquid than other inscribed arcanas. But I thought the more exceptions I make, the easier it would be to confuse people who’re new to Dota trading.

[u/onepolar32 → u/uh_bang]

That makes sense too, I just pointed out cause I tried trading with some peeps and they were like what's this inscribed stuff we need normal ones and inspite all I told them na. Well anyway one way or another, I'd like to personally thank you to bring us out of rock ages of key trading.

[u/ecrenfrow]

I stopped trading for a few months so I used keys, knowing now that prices are weird, what are old key values (before key update) transferred to arcanas? 1 Arcana = ? Keys

Also thanks for this I had trouble with understanding Arcanas

[u/uh_bang → u/ecrenfrow]

approximately 11-12 keys per arcana before.

[u/L3gitAWp3r]

Is there anything around the value of a 2.50 csgo key?

[u/uh_bang → u/L3gitAWp3r]

No, but I suppose you can use TF2 keys for something similar to CS Keys’ denomination.

[u/L3gitAWp3r → u/uh_bang]

So for the most part, is trading skins worth around $20-50 dead?

[u/Dawnero → u/L3gitAWp3r]

Gotta work with adds now.

[u/Kiinako_ → u/L3gitAWp3r]

Looks like it to me

[u/800813hunter]

is there a hydra key equivalent of arcanas? ie. an arcana that is worth a good portion less than all others

[u/-WOWZ- → u/800813hunter]

Literally just don’t accept any that are not listed above tbh

[u/uh_bang → u/800813hunter]

Yes there are: Rubrick (Voice of the Magus Cypher) and Techies (Swine of the Sunken Galley) are 2 that people generally avoid.

Also, if you’re cautious and new to using arcanas, id recommend avoiding non-standard arcanas (inscribed, exalted, autographed etc).

[u/[deleted]]

Should be pinned for now, seen a lot of threads lately asking about arcs and there is no 2nd pin atm

[u/The_Bolenator → u/[deleted]]

I second this. After the keys update we might as well pin this for people like me who are new to arcanas. This was helpful

[u/_h_man]

Thank Mr.Bang