Deadlock New Hero Release Time: The Full October 2026 Slot Table

Rat King has been playable since Friday, October 2, 2026. The other five City Never Sleeps heroes land on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM Pacific, which is 21:00 UTC, running through Tuesday, October 20. The order is not on any public list: it is decided by the in-game vote and only becomes knowable when each slot opens.

As of October 3, 2026, exactly one of the six slots is decided.

• Six slots in total, every one of them at 2:00 PM PT (PDT, UTC-7), every one of them equal to 21:00 UTC.
• October 2 is locked: Rat King, confirmed by Valve in an announcement published at 20:59 UTC that same day.
• October 6, 9, 13, 16 and 20 are decided by the vote. Nobody can name the hero in those slots ahead of time.
• Valve published a rule, not a calendar. The six dates below are arithmetic on that rule.

The six City Never Sleeps release slots

The pattern is the entire scheduling rule: two heroes a week, Tuesday and Friday, 2:00 PM PT, starting Friday October 2. Six heroes at two a week fills three Tuesdays and three Fridays, which is why the last slot lands on October 20 instead of spilling into November.

Official source: City Never Sleeps states "Two heroes release a week on Tuesdays and Fridays @ 2:00pm PT" alongside "Voting Now Live - First Release October 2nd".

What 2:00 PM PT is where you actually live

Searches for this schedule are mostly people converting the clock rather than reading the date. Every row below is the same instant, seen from a different offset.

One slot is locked and five are not

Rat King is the only confirmed name in the table. Valve posted his announcement at 20:59 UTC on October 2, one minute before the 21:00 UTC slot, and it closed by promising the next one: "our next hero will be joining us on Tuesday at 2pm PDT." That sentence is the October 6 row above, stated by Valve itself.

The other five are Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Solomon, Baba and Violet, joining a roster that stood at 38 confirmed heroes before this patch. Valve has shown their portraits and nothing more: no ability kits, no roles, no numbers, no individual dates. Any site showing a filled-in order for October 9 onward is showing a projection, not a schedule.

How the January 2026 round ran

The Old Gods, New Blood round used the same machine with different weekdays: "Two heroes release per week MONDAYS & THURSDAYS AT 2PM PST STARTING JANUARY 26TH". Rem went out January 26, Graves January 29, Silver February 2, Venator February 5, Celeste February 9 and Apollo February 12, all at 2:00 PM Pacific, all in vote order.

Two habits carry over. The hero always lands at the top of the hour in Pacific time, regardless of weekday. And the queue only advances when the vote closes, not when you cast a ballot, so voting early locks nothing in for you personally.

Five minutes before a slot opens

If you are standing in the client at 13:55 Pacific on a Tuesday, the routine is short:

1. Open the vote box in the Pregame lobby and read the current order. Voting moved into Pregame with City Never Sleeps. The Hideout ballot booth instructions still circulating on older guides are from the January round and no longer apply; the hero vote guide walks through the current version end to end.
2. Spend any priority tokens you have. Playing started earning them with the first hero release.
3. Remember the two doublings: the winning team's votes count as double, and your first win of the day doubles that again.
4. Watch the hero select at 2:00 PM PT sharp. The Rat King announcement ran a minute early at 20:59 UTC, so do not treat 13:59 as late.
5. If you plan to queue with the new hero in Ranked, you still need 15 wins with it in Standard first. New arrivals do not get that requirement waived.

Where this schedule comes from

Three tiers, and the difference matters when a source disagrees with you:

• Valve, official. The Tuesday and Friday 2:00 PM PT cadence, the October 2 first release, voting in Pregame with the winning team doubled, and the October 2 Rat King confirmation.
• Derived. The five remaining dates, calculated from that cadence plus a six-hero count. Verified against Valve's own "first release October 2" statement and the Tuesday promise in the Rat King post.
• Media, corroboration. Shacknews on October 2 for the October 6 vote deadline, and KeenGamer's patch guide for the same six-row grid including the 21:00 UTC column.

The Rat King announcement itself is the one to bookmark: Valve posts every unlock there, and it is the only place the next hero gets named in advance.

FAQ

What time is the next Deadlock hero? Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 2:00 PM Pacific. That is 5:00 PM Eastern, 10:00 PM in the UK, 11:00 PM in Central Europe and 21:00 UTC.

Is the hero after Rat King already announced? No. As of October 3, 2026 Valve has published portraits for Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Solomon, Baba and Violet and nothing about their kits, roles or dates. Their order comes out of the vote.

Can I predict the October 9 hero before October 6? No. The vote for that slot closes at 2:00 PM Pacific on October 6 and the winner is named when it does. Treat anything published before that as a guess.

Does Deadlock need to be bought to get the new heroes? No, and access did not change with this patch. The Steam store page still lists the release date as to be announced, the game cannot be purchased, and entry is still limited to friend invites through playtesters. The invite guide covers the routes people actually use.

How long does the October schedule run? Three weeks, from October 2 to October 20, covering all six heroes at two per week.

What happens to the Broker when the heroes start landing? The Broker was a limited-time part of the same update, framed by Valve around the first new arrival. Whether that window is still open for you is covered in the Corrupted items and The Broker guide.

Related Guides

• Deadlock Hero Vote: How Voting and Unlock Order Work — the mechanic that decides which hero takes which slot, plus how the January round set the precedent.
• Deadlock Rat King Guide: Kit and How to Play Him — the only hero in this table whose ability kit is actually public.
• Deadlock Heroes List: Full Roster and Roles — where the roster count stands after the City Never Sleeps additions.
• Deadlock City Never Sleeps Update: Full Breakdown — everything else in the September 29 patch, including what Valve says is still unfinished.