Deadlock has just had a makeover with the City Never Sleeps update, which makes now a good time to jump in if a friend has sent you an invite. Valve’s game mixes two genres that rarely meet: the third-person shooter and the Dota-style team battle arena. It can be bewildering the first time you load it up, between the lanes, the souls, the shop and the objectives you need to bring down. This guide covers the basics for getting started on the new map, drawing on Valve’s official information and the game’s community wiki.
At a glance
Two teams of six fight across three lanes to destroy the enemy Patron, at the heart of their base.
Souls are the currency: you earn them by killing troopers, creatures and opponents, then spend them on items.
The sandbox and the Street Brawl mode let you learn without the pressure of a full match.
How a game of Deadlock works
According to the community wiki deadlock.wiki, Deadlock pits two teams of six players against each other. You aim and shoot as you would in a shooter, but you also push lanes, clear waves of troopers and buy items, as in a Dota-style game. You win by destroying the enemy Patron, a giant idol sitting at the centre of the opposing base.
To get there, each lane is defended first by Guardians and then by Walkers, huge structures that fire lasers and slam the ground. You have to bring them down in order before you can threaten the base. The same wiki says a match can last anywhere from about 20 minutes to over an hour, so a bit of patience helps early on.
Souls, the currency of every match
Everything you do in Deadlock earns souls, the currency of a match. Killing troopers in the lane waves, clearing creature camps tucked in and on top of buildings, taking down opponents: it all feeds your total. The more souls you collect, the more items you can buy, and the stronger your hero gets as the match goes on.
The City Never Sleeps update adds a detail worth knowing: when you kill an opponent, they drop a soul bag. Grab it quickly, or a teammate will do it for you. Tough crates, meanwhile, need a heavy melee attack to break open, and they hold extra souls.
What the new Deadlock map means for you
The map has been completely repainted as an occult New York. The three lanes now have names: Broadway for blue, Greenwich for green and York for yellow. The minimap also labels each lane and district, which makes your teammates’ callouts much easier to follow.
Several landmarks are useful from your very first matches, according to the official update page. Steam vents make you invisible and heal you slightly while you stand on them, which makes them handy hiding spots. Hidden snacks restore health, and golden statues grant permanent boosts to resistance, range or speed. The Chinatown bell tower holds a lot of souls, but its bell tells the whole map that someone is helping themselves. We covered the rest of the changes in our story on the latest Deadlock update and its six new heroes.
Shopping without getting lost
The Deadlock shop is often what puts new players off most, given how many items there are. Valve has reworked it for this update. It now shows the most-bought items for each hero, based on live match data, along with how often they’re bought and at what stage of the match.
Filters let you show only the stats you care about, and the 1 to 6 keys jump between tabs. While you shop, you can also see the kill feed and the scoreboard, so you’re not left blind to what’s happening on the map. When you’re starting out, following the popular items is the simplest way to avoid mistakes.
Practise before you take on other players
Deadlock has a very thorough sandbox, expanded in this update: a damage-per-second meter, a combat log, guides showing the range at which your shots lose damage, and bots you can program. The first creatures now spawn after five seconds instead of 30, so you can get straight to it.
Street Brawl is another good way into Deadlock. It pits two teams of four against each other in a best-of-five match with rounds lasting a couple of minutes, and everyone starts each round with the same resources. For comfort, accessibility options let you move, fire or climb ledges automatically, and tone down camera shake.
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