Deadlock Corrupted Items and The Broker: What Now?

No. As of October 3, 2026 you cannot get a Corrupted item from The Broker, because he is no longer in the game. The limited-time merchant arrived with the City Never Sleeps update on September 29, 2026 and was gone by October 2, 2026, the same day Rat King became playable. What is worth keeping: how the exchange worked, every downside it could roll, and where a Corrupted item can still reach you.

When The Broker Actually Ran

Valve never gave him a calendar date. The page gave players the opposite: his window ends when the first new hero arrives. The six City Never Sleeps heroes were released two a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00pm PT with the first slot fixed for Friday October 2, so the expiry date was knowable the moment the patch landed. The hero release schedule has the six-slot table.

Official source: City Never Sleeps update page — "Corrupted Items are banned on the streets of New York. He'll only be around for a few days, as authorities will be out in full swing once the first new hero makes their arrival."

Three days was not a bug. It was the design.

How The Exchange Worked

A merchant who appears at random spots around the city and, while supplies last, exchanges high-tier items you own for a Corrupted version: many numbers pushed past what the normal item gives, plus one randomised penalty from a fixed pool, rolled per match and identical for every player in it.

From Valve's page, and from IGN's summary of it:

• First shipment stocked around the 30-minute mark of the match.
• Additional stock on average every 15 minutes after that.
• Two stalls per map, mirrored on each team's side. The community wiki places them right of the Blue lane Walker, one per team; TheGamer described the minimap marker as a circular icon with a hat and sunglasses.

Did it cost souls? No. Valve's page never mentions a price; TheGamer and a game-file reading by Deadlock Labs both say the swap costs nothing beyond owning the item.

Could you take more than one? Sources disagree. TheGamer wrote you can only buy one at a time; the community wiki describes two stalls reopening every 15 minutes; a player in a bot match on the Sept 29 build reported taking two in the same window, one from each side. Treat "one per match" as a media read, not a rule.

The Downside Table

This is the part that did not expire with the merchant. Valve has never published the pool, so these numbers are community-sourced, from the community wiki's Broker page as it stood during the Sept 29 to Oct 2 window. Tier 4 penalties are consistently the larger.

Deadlock Labs published a different cut of the same pool: eleven drawbacks with equal odds, single values per tier, weapon damage -40%/-55%, max health -350/-550, move speed -2 m/s/-2.75 m/s, and fire rate -20%/-25% where the wiki lists stamina recovery. Some items can never roll certain drawbacks. Two databases reading the same three days did not produce identical tables, so treat any single figure as approximate.

What Corruption Actually Changed

The Game Haus published a per-item list of possible Corrupted changes during the window, not guaranteed rolls:

• Arctic Blast: +30 Slow, +15 Spirit Resist, +125 Damage, +0.5s Freeze Duration, -10s Ability Cooldown.
• Decay: +195 Health and +22 Spirit Power, paid for with -25% Healing Received and -25% Health Regen.
• Burst Fire: +40 Slide Scale, +10 Fire Rate, +33 Activated Fire Rate, +1.25 m/s Move Speed.

Valve showcased Corrupted versions of Ricochet and Rapid Recharge on the update page, and the Rapid Recharge example is the cleanest illustration of the trade: extra strength bought with a -1 stamina roll. A player recording from the Sept 29 build showed a Corrupted Burst Fire at the stall, roughly double the slide distance and fire rate of the normal item, against -350 max health.

The stat panel at the stall shows exactly what you are offered, so the question was never "is this item good" but "is this roll good for this hero, right now".

Can You Still Get Corrupted Items?

On the live map, no. In the 2026-10-03 playtest build there is no Broker stall, no minimap marker, no menu entry for the exchange. What survives is the item type and one delivery route:

• Street Brawl grants you a Corrupted item after the item draft in Round 5. That line is in Valve's City Never Sleeps notes and is the only documented way to receive one in the current build. The Street Brawl rules page covers the mode.
• Sandbox still knows the type. The Sept 29 sandbox tools toggle detailed information for item types including Enhanced, Legendary and Corrupted, so the data is in the build even with no vendor selling it.
• A return is possible but unannounced. Valve stresses that his location changes and nobody knows where he appears next; the community wiki reads that he may return months later.

If you were saving up for one, farm what is there now: the new Haunt camps in the City Never Sleeps breakdown and their tiers in the Haunt reference. If you never met him, Rat King is live and the Rat King guide covers his kit.

The Part Players Argued About

On r/DeadlockTheGame the recurring complaint was variance rather than power: "there are games where I don't take any because the negatives completely tank my character", with the proposed fix being "if it was just specific broker items that you can only buy from him, without any of the RNG". Either way, the tier 3 and tier 4 numbers above are the baseline any rebalance is measured against.

FAQ

Can I still get Corrupted items in Deadlock right now? Not from The Broker. He was removed on October 2, 2026 when Rat King released. The only route in the current build is Street Brawl, which grants one after the Round 5 item draft.

Was The Broker really only in the game for three days? Yes, September 29 to October 2, 2026. Valve had said from the start he would leave once the first new hero arrived.

Did Corrupted items cost souls? No. Neither Valve's page nor any in-game text mentions a price.

Are there 90 Corrupted items? There are 90 shop items that can take a Corrupted configuration, all tier 3 or tier 4. Valve published no count, so both the 90 and the 30/31/29 split come from community databases.

Will The Broker come back? Nobody knows. Valve says only that his location changes and he never stays long; the community wiki suggests he may return months later.

Related Guides

• Deadlock Street Brawl: 4v4 Mode Rules and Rounds — still hands you a Corrupted item in Round 5.
• Deadlock City Never Sleeps Update: Full Breakdown — the patch that added him.
• Deadlock Rat King Guide: Kit and How to Play Him — the hero whose release ended the window.
• Deadlock New Hero Release Schedule (Oct 2026) — the cadence that set his expiry.
• Deadlock Souls Guide: Farming, Last Hit and Deny — reaching the tier 3 and tier 4 items.