All Deadlock Guides

Deadlock is Valve's unreleased third-person 6v6 hero-shooter MOBA set in a 1920s alternate New York. Here is what actually happens in a match.

Deadlock is still invite-only. Get in via a Steam friend invite, the Reddit invite megathread, or the Discord invite channel when invites fail.

Sending a Deadlock invite is two clicks in the game, but the mail lands in your Steam account email and can take hours. Here is the exact flow.

What to actually do in your first three Deadlock matches: secure orbs in the first ten minutes, buy the cheap item, learn the heavy melee timing.

Souls come from kills, from shooting orbs, and from denying your opponent's. What actually pays, why orbs feel broken at high ping, and when to deny.

Stamina, dash into slide, slide hop, mantle and wall jump - the movement tech that decides fights, explained as mechanics.

Three lanes, four new Districts between them, and the Haunts that spawn in each. What City Never Sleeps changed about where you fight.

Haunts replaced neutral camps in the Sept 29 patch. Nine families across roughly 40 camps, three tiers, and the in-game respawn timer added this update.

The Broker ran Sept 29 to Oct 2, 2026 and is gone with Rat King's release. What Corrupted items were, what they did, and what to do now.

Destroy Guardians, then Walkers, expose the Patron, and burn it down. Why the Archmother pit punishes grouped pokes.

Street Brawl is 4v4 best-of-five with no soul farming, a three-item draft each round and an exclusive legendary pool. How a round is won.

How many heroes Deadlock has right now, who the 2026 vote rounds added, and how to pick a role instead of memorising a tier chart.

You cast one hero vote per Standard or Street Brawl match at the Pregame ballot box. The winning team counts double, first win of day doubles again.

Rat King is live since Oct 2, 2026. What Scrap Grenade, Swarm of Rats, Royal Pestments and Banner of Rattania actually do, and where he fits.

Rat King landed Oct 2. The next five City Never Sleeps heroes drop Tuesdays and Fridays at 2pm PT through Oct 20, in the order players vote.

Valve's Sept 29, 2026 major patch: rebuilt map and four new districts, Haunts replacing neutral camps, The Broker, six voted heroes, HUD and QoL work.

Ranked landed in July 2026. How the badge tracks hidden MMR, what placements cost you, and why a 45% winrate still climbs.

Deadlock is CPU-bound on Source 2. Shader cache, launch options, and the graphics settings that actually move teamfight frames.

Deadlock is free to play, unreleased, invite-only and unfinished. What that means for whether your time is well spent.

A comparison table on match length, economy, map pressure and required skill, plus who Deadlock actually loses to.

Every tier list is stale within a patch. How to judge strength from mobility, damage and role fit instead of copying a chart.

Startup crashes, random freezes mid-wave, black screens and the access-violation crash - an ordered fix list, cheapest step first.