DRAFT GUIDE - DO NOT PUBLISH THIS YET.

This is a Techies guide meant for higher-level games. I've played hundreds of games with Techies for the past two years, played against warders, gem holders and map hackers, and still feel that for Techies to be used in a tournament game, it requires a much better playstyle than what is commonly seen out there. Via this guide, I hope to share some of the ways I've played Techies, as well as to inspire more players to try him out, and last but not least, to get people to come up with new ways to play with this versatile hero.

LVL 1 - 6
Just like Chess, there are a variety of starting moves you can make as a Techies player. Here's the ones that I currently know (lanes stated are based on assumption that you're playing on Sentinel):

-- BEFORE I CONTINUE --
If you're one of those who buy 9 clarities and a TP scroll at the start of the game, please, please, PLEASE I BEG OF YOU - STOP DOING IT. A clarity potion lasts 30 seconds, and you only have 2 minutes of pre-game time. You may be thinking of planting 9 mines from -2:00 through 2:30, but seriously, you're better off getting a Sobi Mask and having your Soul Ring ready ASAP.
-- OK LET'S CONTINUE --

STARTING MOVE 1: The Secret Shop Bomber
Plant at one of the entrances of the secret shop on one of the side lanes. Emerge / shoot at creeps from the entrance to the forest, so enemies would think that you've been planting there instead of on the lane.

STARTING MOVE 2: The Forest Protector
Plant at one of the entrance from the lane to the forest, but appear behind creeps in lane (opposite of SM1).

STARTING MOVE 3: Where did all the NCs go?!
Prevent NC spawn by placing a land mine near the spawn area for all NC camps of the enemy team. For the exact area a land mine must be in, search for neutral creep guides on PlayDota.

STARTING MOVE 4: So Near, Yet So Far
Plant land mines on a rune spawning spot.

STARTING MOVE 5: Where those come from?
Plant land mines on the middle lane away from the creep path, then appear in one of the side lanes (again, it's to give the illusion that you've been planting elsewhere)

STARTING MOVE 6: Osama in Disguise
Assuming you buy Sobi Mask, Soul Ring recipe, 2 Clarity Potions and 1 GG branch, leave 1 clarity potion in base. Add Suicide as your first skill. Stay on lane with the creeps, and use your clarity potion right before the first creep waves meet and make sure no enemy heroes saw you before that. Now, this requires some co-ordination with your lane ally. With your clarity potion activated, walk up to the enemy heroes (DO NOT TARGET A HERO WITH SUICIDE). Basically, we're trying to trick them that you've added Land Mines as your first skill and don't have Suicide yet. If they do not retreat, and instead try to dispel your clarity potion and kill you, surprise them with a Suicide and have your ally to sweep in for a first blood or even a double kill.

If they do retreat, just stay in lane, add Stasis as your next skill and plant a few near the creep path (but make sure you have 100 MP for Suicide). Very effective against melee heroes who needs farm.

STARTING MOVE 7: TROLLOLOL NC-PULLER
I'm gonna elaborate on this one, since this is what I use most often. I leave the base with a Soul Ring recipe, a Sobi Mask and 2 Clarity Potions and a GG branch (603 gold exactly). You plant 4 mines on the path an enemy hero will take to go from the lane to the NC camp which you'll be pulling creeps to. By the time you plant the 4th one, the creep waves should already have met on the lane. If you see STR heroes with a Bracer or two, it's safer to plant a 5th Land Mine to secure your kill later.

As for creep pulling, it would be best if you could do a double-pull (aggro NC at :52/:22, run in the direction of your throne), so that on the next pull (Aggro at :15/:45 for Sentinel, :13/:43 for Scourge), you can:

1. Deny the entire wave because 2 sets of NC > 1 early game creep wave
2. The enemies would DEFINITELY know you're pulling NC

Once someone's curiosity got better of them and fall for it, you get first blood. Now, this is not the time to celebrate, because now you're probably LVL 2 and there's just one other enemy hero on the lane - this is your only time to score an easy double kill. Make sure you have around 215 MP at this point in time (you need 225 MP to execute this). However, note that if you've planted 5 land mines earlier on, you definitely won't have enough MP for this.

Since you just pulled NC when the first guy died, the creep waves are probably near your tower. If the other guy is still farming on the lane, first make sure the next enemy creep wave has arrived, then sneak behind him via the forest exit nearest to the river end, plant a land mine around the center of the lane and start running towards him. Do not, I repeat, do not click on Suicide and then click on him, because telling him that "we come in peace" would only alert him to your suicide attempt. Right-click on the ground right behind him and once you're close enough, press C and left-click the same spot (or your portrait) immediately. If you're lucky, he would just die from the Suicide damage. If not, he would probably retreat, land on your mine and die anyway. Note that you need to do this fast enough, as otherwise the following wave of enemy creeps would walk over your land mine instead. Against better players, they would notice that you've planted a stray mine earlier on and would walk away from it. The only way to counter this is to time your Suicide such that around the time he starts retreating, the following creep wave would activate the mine while he's within the partial damage AoE (500) and kill him.

If they're smart enough to avoid being the curious cat, just keep pulling and denying creeps until you reach LVL 2. If you do a single-pull, typically you would level up on the first pull once the entire NC camp is dead, unless it happened to be a LV 5 + LV 2 Centaur NC, or that your ally was being an asshole leeching your XP - in that case, hide behind the trees to leech some XP when the enemy creeps are near your tower until you're LVL 2). Then just do as what was mentioned earlier - sneak behind them to perform a Suicide, and you would just get your first blood anyway.

Of course, for trickier heroes (e.g. blinkers and disablers), you would need some help from your lane ally to set-up the Suicide.

For blinkers, I would ask my lane ally to go aggressive on the blinker. Then they would be forced to either kill my ally for first blood, or blink backwards and retreat. Either way, I'll be sneaking from the back to catch the blinker in time, or just run up to them while they're busying dishing damage on my ally and try to score a double kill.

For disablers, it would depend on whether my lane ally has a disable skill himself, as otherwise there would be little chance of landing a Suicide with a kill unless your ally has did a good job of lowering their HP considerably by harassing them on lane. If conditions are not optimal, I would just stick with pulling NC and denying XP from the enemy heroes.

If everything goes well, your lane ally should be able to hit LVL 6 earlier than the hero in mid-lane (I've managed to do this a couple of times already). Again, if he has a damaging AoE ulti, it would be a good time to go for another Suicide again (make sure to co-ordinate this well with your ally).

STARTING MOVE 8: The Revenge of the NCs
Plant near the NC camp where creeps are pulled to (make sure it's not too close to prevent spawn), so that the moment they try to pull, you get 410 gold delivered to your pocket. However, this is risky as you might encounter enemy heroes while planting.

STARTING MOVE 9: Ok, fine, 9 clarity potions, so be it.
Plant 2 piles of land mines.

LVL 6 - 11
Now, regardless of whether you got 5 kills earlier on, or just screwed up and Suicided twice without kills, it's time to stay in lane and gain XP until LVL 6. Try to get a Soul Ring ASAP, and plant land mines on the side of the lane where the creep waves don't cross and especially at narrow sections, preferably away from sight (most heroes: 1800 AoE (~1 screen height) during day, 800 during night. creeps: 850 AoE during day, 800 during night). A pile of 3 LVL 2/3 land mines would score a kill for you easily.

Once you're able to add Remote Mines (hero LVL 6), you would typically plant sets of 3 or 4 remote mines. So a set of 3 would kill anyone with 675 HP and below (pretty common for AGI and INT heroes at LVL 6-8 since they're not always at full health), and a set of 4 would do those with 900 HP and below in (sure-kill for most AGI and INT heroes at LVL 6-8).

HOWEVER, you may want to consider planting Land Mines depending on your location since at LVL 4, they deal around 400 DMG per mine after reduction from (low) armor and 25% magic resistance, for 205 MP (Remote LVL 1 costs 200 MP and deals 225 DMG after reduction).

BLAHBLAHBLAH

LVL 11 - 16
BLAHBLAHBLAH

LVL 16+
BLAHBLAHBLAH

Facts you MUST know by heart
Remote mines damage on heroes (25% magic resistance)
LVL 1 = 225 (222) DMG
LVL 2 = 337.5 (333) DMG
LVL 3 = 450 (444) DMG
LVL 4 = 562.5 (555) DMG
Numbers in bracket for easy memorization. Scepter adds 1 LVL to Ultimate.

Land Mines and Suicide are of Mixed damage type (reduced by armor AND magic resistance), but go through magic immunity and can be triggered by and damages invisible units. If you see a black Naix or a spinning Juggernaut approaching your land mines after he discovered that you've been planting them at a particular spot, start laughing crazily.

Stasis Traps take 2 seconds to plant, 1 second to go live (not sure about this yet - I just posted a topic on PD regarding this one), and 2 seconds to activate once triggered. Stasis Traps are not triggered by invisible units, but can stun them if they are within the stun AoE when the trap is activated.