Deadlock research

· lumb's blog

Written by lumb

Introduction to the game #

The Ultimate Beginners Guide for Deadlock - New Player Tips and Tricks

The BEST and WORST Deadlock heroes to play as a new player!

Description of how to play the game #

💫 Deadlock is a MOBA shooter game that relies heavily on the fundamentals of MOBAs such as character selection, doing tasks, laning, killing enemy players and enemy mobs and item purchasing and knowledge. The aspects that make it unique are it's integration with higher level knowledge required to play in shooters. This is often skills in dexterity of accurate shooting, character knowledge in skills, map awareness, map knowledge, and advanced movement tech.

General Tips #

Basic information #

There are 3 types of modifiers/item modifiers:

  1. Gun
  2. Health
  3. Spirit

Reviewing your games #

Deadlock features some pretty robust methods of reviewing your games.

End of round #

At the end of every round, you'll get a breakdown of both sides, who got MVP or other accolades. You'll get a scoreboard section which will break down information per player like you would normally see in a shooter(Kills, Deaths, Assists, Damage) As well as Items collected and the skills that were leveled up. You're even given the option to save your item set as a loadout.

Characters #

Character Archetypes #
Big BenDL classifications #

Every Deadlock Hero Archetype Explained - 8 Core Playstyles

  1. The Carry

    1. Descriptor
      1. Characters that are not very good early and mid game but through item purchases are great late game
      2. They will often require laning and then jungling for most of the game
      3. Many characters can become carrys if the conditions are right
      4. We have many different types of carries: Gun carries, Tank carries, spirit carries
    2. Goals
      1. Soak up souls through jungling in order to get items
    3. Stages
      1. Early game
      2. Mid game
      3. Late game
    4. Subcategory
      1. Hard Carry
        1. Ex. Seven, Wraith
      2. Optional Carry
        1. Ex. Ivy, Drifter

  2. The Tanks

    1. Goals
      1. Soak and deal Dmg
      2. Allow backline to CC & get pickups
    2. Stages
      1. Early game
      2. Mid game
        1. Initiate fights
        2. Push objectives
        3. harass enemy carries
      3. Late game
        1. Stay with team
        2. Larger team-wide fights
        3. Take aggro in fights
        4. Peal for carries if dove
        5. Don't do as much damage as you once did
        6. Rely on carry to do that damage
    3. Subcategories
      1. Initiators
        1. Causes trouble
        2. Can use skills to halt or prevent characters from enacting something
      2. Frontliners
        1. Often just to soak damage for backline carry

  3. The Assassins

    1. Descriptor
      1. High burst damage
      2. High mobility
      3. High Precision
    2. Goals
    3. States
    4. Subcategories
      1. Stealth Ambushers
        1. Ex. Pocket - Dive-Kill-Dip
      2. Brawl Burst Damage Dealers
        1. Ex. Holiday - Dive-Grab-Dip-Kill

  4. The Supports

    1. Descriptor
    2. Goals
      1. Provides:
        1. Heals
        2. Buffs
        3. Stun and Detain
        4. Allow other to Damage
    3. States
    4. Subcategories
      1. Healers
        1. Ex. Kelvin, Lady Geist, Dynamo, Green boi
      2. Enablers
        1. Ex. Paige, Ivy

  5. The Bruisers

    1. Descriptor
      1. Decently high health pool
      2. High dmg output
      3. Usually has life steal built into kit
      4. movement ability used to engage.
    2. Goals
    3. States
    4. Subcategories

  6. The Off-carrys

    1. Descriptor
      1. Ranged Dmg
      2. Need to land combos
      3. Scared of close engagements
    2. Goals
      1. Acts a lot like a carry however they are not aiming to be leading with souls or kills
      2. They very much can should a carry fall behind however
    3. States
    4. Subcategories

  7. The Controllers

    Disrupters / Zoners

    1. Descriptor
      1. Good Lane
      2. Good Midgame
      3. Great Endgame
      4. Doesn't Scale
      5. Usually slow
      6. Teamplay Reliant
    2. Goals
      1. Shape the fight
      2. Push objectives or defend objectives
    3. States
    4. Subcategories

  8. The Specialists

    The Weirdos

    1. Descriptor
      1. Highly unique play styles
      2. Often has skills no other character has
    2. Goals
    3. States
    4. Subcategories
Every Character explained #

Every Deadlock Character Explained | Full Roster Beginner Guide

Metro's classifications #

Every Deadlock Character’s REAL Role (5 Role System Explained)

  1. Carry
  2. Initiator/Assasin
  3. Tank
  4. Off-carry
  5. Support
  6. Hybrid
Character playing tips #

Victor

Pocket

Items #

How to BUILD like a PRO in Deadlock

Counter building #

A generalist guide to counterbuilding in deadlock

- YouTube

Top5 couter items

  1. Counterspell
    1. Allows you to counter abilities with a parry
  2. Debuff remover
    1. Active, use to remove debuffs(duh)
  3. Return Fire
    1. Good when you are losing gun fights often. Returns some bullets back to the enemy
  4. Healbane
    1. Cheap
    2. If the enemy has great healing, then return spirit damage they do back to them
  5. Spellbreaker
    1. Reduce the next instance of high spirit damage done to you. Reduces the risk of spirit nukes

Laning tips #

Laning Is Losing You Games. Let's Fix That

Some basics:

Laning is really important early game and is mostly considered how you play early to mid game. Laning isn't always just going for kills but a focus on acquiring souls through taking out mobs, jungling when tasks are done(and when it's appropriate for a character) and yes getting kills which grant a good amount of souls to the winner of a fight. Lanes are won, lost, and sometimes have no clear winner/a trade off in terms of souls gained from that lane.

How to Lane like an ETERNUS in 2026 | Comprehensive Deadlock Lane Guide

4 Essential asks to be making while lanning: #
  1. Checking Health
  2. Checking Items
  3. Checking Souls
  4. Checking Ults
Lanning phase timers #

How to lane better in Deadlock

Movement tech #

Overview of tech #

Deadlock Movement Wiki

Why You Should STOP HOLDING W | Deadlock Movement Essentials Guide

Deadlock 2026 Movement Guide (Featuring Leif)

Routes #

YOU SUCK AT RUNNING AWAY! - Deadlock Movement & Rotation Guide

Escape Jumps and Rotations for Every air vent in Deadlock! | Advanced Movement

Deadlock Advanced Movement Tech #1 - How to NEVER miss this vent wallbounce

Coming back from losing early game #

Losing lane ≠ losing game in Deadlock

Mechanics

2 types of rebound mechanics #

When a team is behind on Souls, there are some mechanics that come into play to allow the losing team to catch up. 

  1. Comeback Mechanics
    1. Killing an enemy Hero will award more Souls if the player's team is behind.
    2. Killing an enemy Hero that has a Kill Streak will reward a "Bounty" of extra Souls.
    3. The losing team gains up to 30% more souls from troopers, neutrals, vaults, and objectives, based on how behind they are (peaks at 20% max net worth difference). The first 3k in net worth difference is ignored.
      1. Just farm, don't die
    4. The Soul Urn drop-off location is located in the side lanes if teams are even, but located on the losing team's side if they have significantly less total souls (10% or more difference).
      1. Biggest boost to rebound
  2. Catchup
    1. The two players on each team with the lowest net worth have a passive gain of souls per second based on the total souls gathered by the team(2% and 1% for the lowest and second lowest player, respectively), This occurs after laning phase(8 min~)

Keybinds #

Nana's current configuration #

Skills

Items

Communication

Movement

Macro #

Tips for the game that cover a variety of smaller items.

deadlock macro for moron

System settings that can be changed #

UI changes #

5 Settings That Instantly Make You Better At Deadlock

Higher level tips #

Deadlock Guide For My Employed Friends