◈ Navigation Index ▼
- 01 Deadlock Overview
- 02 Early Game (Laning Phase) Strategies
- 03 Mid Game Tactics
- 04 Late Game Objectives and Teamfights
- 05 Movement and Map Traversal
- 06 Combat and Hero Mechanics
- 07 Resource Management and Economy
- 08 Teamwork and Communication
- 09 Itemization and Builds
Comprehensive Guide: Deadlock Tips and Tricks for Mastering Valve's MOBA Shooter
Deadlock, Valve's new multiplayer game, is a third-person hero shooter with core Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) mechanics. In each 6v6 match, two teams compete to destroy enemy defensive structures and ultimately defeat the opposing team's Patron, an extravagant brassy orb that serves as the final objective. The game is currently in a closed beta and is invite-only.
The game map is divided into three main lanes, with two players typically assigned to each lane, battling for territory and objectives. Success in Deadlock hinges on accumulating 'souls,' the primary currency and experience, which allows players to purchase items and enhance their heroes.
Early Game (Laning Phase) Strategies
The initial 5-10 minutes of a Deadlock match are crucial for setting up your game. Your primary focus should be on efficient 'soul' acquisition and lane control.
Prioritize Trooper Kills: Concentrate on eliminating enemy troopers (minions) and collecting the soul orbs they drop. Troopers are your most consistent source of souls in the early game.
Target Healing Minions: Always aim to eliminate the healing minion first in the enemy wave during the laning phase. This significantly reduces the enemy's sustain and pushes your wave more effectively.
Use Skills Freely: Unlike many MOBAs, Deadlock heroes primarily use cooldowns for abilities rather than mana. Don't hesitate to use your skills to poke enemies, clear waves, or create minor inconveniences, forcing enemies to retreat.
Strong Early Melee: Melee attacks are particularly potent in the early game. If you have the opportunity to land a charged melee attack, it can deal substantial damage. You can also dash to troopers and parry for easy early kills.
Stay in Lane & Sustain: Aim to remain in your lane for as long as possible to maximize soul and experience gain. Avoid unnecessary trips back to base, as this can cause you to fall behind. Consider purchasing items that provide health regeneration to maintain your presence.
Deny Enemy Souls: Be aware that you can deny enemies souls by destroying their dropped soul orbs.
Push Waves Actively: Pushing your minion waves forward creates space on the map and allows you to pursue other objectives or farm jungle camps between waves.
Avoid Unnecessary Fights: In the early game, avoid engaging in unnecessary fights, especially if you are not strong enough. Focus on farming and staying alive.
Mid Game Tactics
As the game progresses into the mid-game (roughly 10-25 minutes), the focus shifts to a balance of farming, objective control, and team engagements.
Balance Lane Pressure and Objectives: Alternate between clearing minion waves, helping in team fights, capturing objectives, and jungle farming. Maintain lane pressure even in the mid-game, as trooper waves remain a primary source of income.
Jungle Farming: Utilize jungle camps for additional souls. Farm them in between waves, when your lane is pushed, or while roaming to other lanes. However, prioritize lane waves as they typically offer more souls and are easier to clear.
Rotate and Support: If you've successfully destroyed a Guardian in your lane, look to assist other lanes in taking down their Guardians. Be prepared to rotate and aid with the Mid Boss objective, which spawns every 10 minutes in the center of the map and grants a revive.
Map Control through Pushing: Pushing lanes creates map space for your team and forces enemies to reveal their positions to defend. Conversely, leaving a lane uncontested can allow enemies to easily push and take objectives.
Adapt to Lost Guardians: If your lane's Guardian is destroyed, continue farming cautiously, being mindful of enemy pushes without your defensive structure.
Late Game Objectives and Teamfights
The late game (25+ minutes) is characterized by a strong emphasis on major objectives, decisive team fights, and overall map control. Hero kills become much more impactful due to longer respawn timers.
Focus on Objectives: The ultimate goal is to destroy the enemy Patron. This requires taking down Guardians, Walkers, Base Guardians, and two Shrines before the Patron becomes vulnerable.
Capitalize on Kills: Prioritize eliminating enemy heroes and then immediately push buildings while they are on their lengthy respawn timers.
Team Coordination: Maintain strong awareness of your teammates' lanes and look for opportunities to support them in late-game team fights. Make cohesive decisions with your team to push lanes, secure the Mid Boss, or capture the Soul Urn when enemies are down.
Aggressive Play: In the late game, with builds coming online, you can adopt a more aggressive mentality, making decisive moves, flanking, and committing fully to team fights. Utilize your ultimate abilities and other skills frequently.
Counter Enemy Builds: Adjust your item build to effectively counter the enemy team's compositions and items.
Maintain Composure: Do not become complacent if you are ahead, and conversely, do not give up if you are behind. The late game can be volatile, and strategic decisions can turn the tide.
Movement and Map Traversal
Deadlock features an advanced mobility system that is key to efficient play.
Dash-Jump Mastery: Every hero can dash, but mastering the dash-jump (jumping at the right moment during a dash) covers significantly more distance and is crucial for quick traversal and stamina conservation. Some items even provide buffs after a dash-jump.
Strategic Sliding: Incorporate sliding into your movement, as it temporarily grants unlimited ammo, allowing you to maintain fire while repositioning. This is particularly effective for high-mobility heroes.
Utilize Ziplines: Each lane features ziplines for rapid rotation across the map, offering excellent ganking and pushing potential. Be mindful to jump on or off ziplines to avoid being stunned. You can even use a speed boost on ziplines after 6 minutes.
Wall Jumping: Learn to wall jump to reach ledges and navigate vertical terrain without expending stamina, which is vital for escaping or repositioning.
Wind Fans: Use environmental wind fans as jump pads to propel yourself quickly and conserve stamina.
Lean and Camera Advantage: Lean from cover to minimize exposure to enemy fire. Utilize the third-person camera perspective to your advantage, peeking around corners and farming jungle camps without taking damage.
Combat and Hero Mechanics
Effective combat in Deadlock requires precise aiming, strategic ability usage, and an understanding of hero interactions.
Headshots Matter: Aim for headshots to deal significantly more damage to enemies.
Tower Parry: With practice, you can parry tower attacks by going into melee range and timing your parry, temporarily preventing the tower from attacking.
Parrying Melee Attacks: Learn to effectively parry heavy melee attacks from enemy heroes. You can also 'flick' your melee direction to avoid being stunned by an enemy parry.
Maximize Melee Damage: For maximum damage output, integrate shots between your heavy melee attacks. Using heavy melee around corners can also create surprise attacks.
Hero Specialization: Experiment with all heroes to understand their unique strengths, weaknesses, and playstyles. Focus on learning 3-4 heroes initially to better grasp their abilities.
Ability Usage: Leverage passive abilities with cooldowns strategically and coordinate with your team to maximize ability usage in engagements.
Shop Harassment: Use Area-of-Effect (AOE) abilities to target enemies at the shop for surprise damage.
Resource Management and Economy
Managing your 'souls' and other map resources is fundamental to gaining an advantage.
Soul Sources: Souls are earned by eliminating troopers, killing enemy heroes, destroying structures, completing objectives, clearing jungle camps, and destroying environmental objects like boxes and figurines.
Soul Orbs: When troopers die, they drop soul orbs that must be collected or confirmed to secure the reward. Souls obtained from sources other than shooting waves are considered unsecured and will drop if you die.
Soul Urn: The Soul Urn appears at 10 minutes and every 5 minutes thereafter. Depositing it grants a significant amount of souls, a golden statue buff for the team, and a skill point for the deliverer. Deliver it strategically.
Destroy Map Objects: Always remember to destroy boxes and figurines scattered around the map, including on roofs, as they provide additional souls.
Steal Enemy Camps: Make it a habit to try and steal jungle camps from enemies to deny them potential souls. Conversely, leaving one jungle mob alive can delay enemy camp respawn timers.
Track Enemy Resources: Monitor enemy resource management to identify windows of vulnerability.
Teamwork and Communication
Deadlock is a team-based game, and effective communication is paramount for victory.
Coordinate with Team: Engage in team fights with a focus on hero synergy and coordinated ability usage.
Map Pings and Drawings: Utilize the in-game ping system and drawing tools on the map to communicate enemy movements, objective priorities, and warnings to your teammates. Indicate missing enemies to prevent ganks.
Stick Together in Late Game: During the late game, it's crucial to stick with your team to avoid getting caught out, as lengthy respawn timers can be devastating.
Itemization and Builds
Strategic item purchases and build paths are essential for optimizing your hero's performance.
Plan Your Build Path: Develop a clear plan for your item purchases to maximize efficiency and adapt to the game's flow.
Experiment with Builds: Don't be afraid to experiment with different item combinations and builds to discover what works best for your hero and the current match. Understanding the fundamentals of itemization is key.
Customize Controls: Customize your key binds for optimal ability usage and consider setting quick cast options for faster ability deployment.
Tune Against Enemies: In the late game, be prepared to adjust your build to specifically counter the items and heroes on the opposing team.
By incorporating these tips and tricks into your Deadlock gameplay, you can improve your performance, contribute more effectively to your team, and increase your chances of securing victory in Valve's new MOBA shooter.