Last hit — a mechanic in which the gold for killing a creep or enemy hero goes to whoever landed the final blow that killed the unit. This is one of the basic mechanics of Dota 2, on which the game's economy directly depends: the more gold a hero collects, the faster they buy items and become stronger.
The term comes from the MOBA genre, where lanes are filled with neutral creeps that are killed wave after wave. Creeps have varying amounts of health, which gradually decreases from hero attacks and damage from allied creeps. The player's task is to calculate the moment when the unit has exactly enough health left to be finished off with one hit, without letting that final hit go to the enemy or to one's own creep.
How it works in practice
Battles between creep waves happen constantly in the lane. While creeps exchange blows, the player watches the enemy unit's health bar and attacks that specific creep at the right moment to claim the gold. If you hit too early, the creep won't die and the gold won't be credited; if you hit too late, someone else will finish it off.
The ability to consistently secure last hits is considered one of the first skills that separates an experienced player from a beginner. It determines who gets their power-defining items sooner in the fight.
Deny and related concepts
Besides the regular last hit, there is also the deny — finishing off one's own creep or building so that the enemy doesn't get gold and experience for it. Together, both mechanics form what is called denylaning — the fight for resources in the lane at the start of the match.
Similar logic applies in other games of the genre, although the term is primarily associated with Dota 2, where early solo farming in the lane and precise last hit counting have historically been considered a marker of a player's mechanical skill.