Valve has updated Dota 2 to version 6.83 today, bringing with it a slew of small but significant changes to the popular action RTS game.

The Shifting Snows update brings holiday cheer with it, adding a winter theme to the game's map, new treasures to earn in-game and several new vanity item sets that can be purchased for your favorite heroes like Drow Ranger, Luna and Sniper. Adding the winter map and new items is a way for Valve to thank its fans and make up for the cancellation of its annual winter event Frostivus, which needed to be scrapped with a major engine overhaul being the development team's main priority.

Game tempo and strategies will also be getting a boost from some alterations made in 6.83. Bounty runes will now spawn for booth runes at the beginning of games that offer double the effectiveness, granting more bonus gold and experience points earned  than they normally do, which should provide many more 0:00 first blood kills and team clashes. Other small changes that may have a significant long term impact is the reduction of gold reward from barracks to 100-150 gold with a 125 gold being rewarded for melee barracks and 75 gold for ranged barracks to all players on your team. The heroes Bloodseeker and Techies have both been added to Captains Mode and will now be available for competitive use.

You can checkout the Shifting Snows update and the complete changelog for version 6.83 changes by visiting the game's official website. Dota 2 can be played for free now by downloading it from Steam.