Complete guide to Deadlock’s 21+ heroes with abilities, upgrades, and expert playstyle recommendations
Introduction to Deadlock’s Hero Roster
Valve’s Deadlock boasts an expanding hero lineup that continues to grow during early access, currently featuring 21 fully realized characters with more being added regularly. This comprehensive guide breaks down every confirmed hero, their abilities, optimal upgrade paths, and strategic applications to help you dominate matches.
Understanding hero synergies and counter-picks is crucial for success. The roster divides into three primary archetypes: tanks/bruisers who excel at frontline engagements, damage dealers who eliminate priority targets, and support heroes who enable their team through healing and crowd control.
Tank & Bruiser Heroes
These durable characters thrive in close-quarters combat, controlling space and disrupting enemy formations.
Abrams – The Unstoppable Brawler
Abrams dominates close-range engagements with incredible sustain and crowd control. His kit revolves around diving enemy backlines and creating chaos while being nearly unkillable with proper ability usage.
Pro Tip: Time your Seismic Impact to counter enemy ultimates, as the Level 3 upgrade provides complete CC immunity during casting.
- Drain health from enemies around you while they are in the radius
- Level 1: -20 second cooldown
- Level 2: +2 second duration
- Level 3: +40 damage per second
- Charge forward, colliding with enemies and dragging them along. Hitting a wall will Stun enemies caught by Abrams. Speed increased after colliding with enemy heroes.
- Level 1: -20 second cooldown
- Level 2: +0.5 second duration
- Level 3: +5.5 weapon damage for 8 seconds after colliding with enemy
- Regenerate a portion of incoming damage over time.
- Level 1: +1.5 health regen
- Level 2: +150 HP
- Level 3: +9% damage regenerated
- Leap high into the air and choose a ground location to crash into. When you hit the ground, all enemies in the radius are damaged and stunned.
- Level 1: -40 second cooldown
- Level 2: Gain 100 max HP and 15% fire rate per hero hit. Lasts 25 seconds
- Level 3: On cast, become immune to Stun, Silence, Sleep, Root, and Disarm. Expires 3 seconds after landing
Damage & Assassin Heroes
These high-impact heroes specialize in eliminating priority targets and controlling engagements through precise positioning and timing.
Grey Talon – The Precision Sniper
Grey Talon dominates long-range engagements with devastating charged shots and area denial. His kit allows for safe positioning while applying constant pressure to enemy formations.
Advanced Technique: Use Rain of Arrows to reposition during team fights while maintaining offensive pressure. The airborne multishot can devastate grouped enemies.
- Charge up a powerful shot that pierces through enemies.
- Level 1: +1 Charge
- Level 2: +65 damage
- Level 3: Improved damage scaling and -3 second charge delay
- Launches you high in the air, allowing you to glide slowly. While airborne, you gain weapon damage and multishot on your weapon.
- Level 1: -15 second cooldown
- Level 2: While airborne, +7 weapon damage and weapon applies 40% movement slow for 1.5 seconds.
- Level 3: While airborne, +50% bullet lifesteal and +50% spirit lifesteal
- Throw out a trap that begins to arm itself. Once armed, the trap will trigger when an enemy enters its radius, immobilizing them.
- Level 1: -20 second cooldown
- Level 2: +2 second slow duration
- Level 3: Grey Talon deals +30% more bullet damage to enemies hit by immobilizing trap for 10 seconds
- After 1.5 second cast time, launch a spirit owl that you control that explodes on impact, damaging and stunning enemies. Gain 5 permanent spirit power for each hero killed with Guided Owl.
- Level 1: +100 damage
- Level 2: -50 second cooldown
- Level 3: After hit, kills enemies that are below 22% health
Support & Utility Heroes
These team-focused heroes enable their allies through healing, crowd control, and strategic utility that can turn the tide of battle.
Dynamo – The Ultimate Support
Dynamo represents the pinnacle of support design with unmatched team fight control and sustain capabilities. His Singularity ultimate can single-handedly win engagements when properly executed.
Strategic Insight: Coordinate Quantum Entanglement with high-damage allies to maximize team-wide fire rate bonuses. The repositioning utility also provides crucial escapes.
- Release an energy pulse that knocks enemies up into the air.
- Level 1: Hit enemies are fire rate and movement slowed by 40% for 4 seconds
- Level 2: Dynamo deals 30% more weapon damage to enemies hit for 8 seconds
- Level 3: +125 damage
- Dynamo briefly disappears into the void and then reappears a short distance away. On reappearing, your weapon is reloaded and has a fire rate bonus for the next clip. Can be cast on nearby allies as well, giving them half the (25% base) fire rate bonus.
- Level 1: +4 meter cast range
- Level 2: +25% fire rate bonus
- Level 3: On reappearing, +120% base ammo
- While channeling, restore health over time to you and any allies nearby.
- Level 1: Gain +4 meters per second movement speed bonus for 8 seconds if Aurora is fully channeled. Gained instantly at Level 3 upgrade.
- Level 2: -15 second cooldown
- Level 3: Full move and ability use while channeling and additionally heals +4% max health per second
- Create a singularity in your hands that pulls in nearby enemies and damages them. Once it’s finished, enemies get knocked into the air.
- Level 1: +2 meter Singularity radius
- Level 2: +0.75 second duration
- Level 3: Singularity takes 3.8% of enemies’ max health each second
Newly Released Heroes (October 2024)
The October 24 patch introduced several new heroes that expand strategic options with unique mechanics and playstyles.
Holliday – The Strategic Sheriff
Holliday brings precise crowd control and setup potential with her lasso and explosive barrel mechanics. She excels at creating pick opportunities for her team.
Combo Potential: Use Powder Keg to zone enemies into favorable positions for your lasso, creating guaranteed pick opportunities when coordinated with teammates.
- Place a barrel that explodes when shot, or on landing after launched via melee attack or bounce pad. Has a minimum arm time before it can explode
- Level 1: +1 charges
- Level 2: +140 explosion damage
- Level 3: -10 cooldown no arm time
- Throws out her hat to strike enemies, slowing and revealing them through walls.
- Level 1: +50 damage
- Level 2: -10 second cooldown
- Level 3: +30% movement slow
Hero Lab Characters
Hero Labs provides access to experimental characters still in development, offering unique mechanics that may evolve before full release.
Viper – The Lethal Assassin
Viper specializes in mobility and execution with venom-based abilities that scale with enemy missing health. Her slide mechanics provide unprecedented positioning flexibility.
Advanced Play: Master slide-canceling to maintain bullet evasion while repositioning. Viper’s effectiveness scales dramatically with mechanical skill.
Leaked Heroes (Development)
Several heroes have been discovered through game files that may eventually join the roster. These represent works-in-progress and their final implementation may differ significantly.
Important Note: These heroes are not guaranteed to release and their kits are subject to complete overhaul. Testing them requires console commands and they lack proper visuals and balancing.
Accessing Leaked Heroes
To experiment with these developmental characters, access the in-game console by pressing F7 and type ‘selecthero hero_[name]’. Available names include Seven, The Boss, and several others with varying completion states.
The development heroes showcase Valve’s experimental approaches to hero design, including unique mechanics like The Boss’s gangster summons and Seven’s area denial capabilities.
- N/A
- Level 1: -30% weapon damage
- Level 2: Ignore channel slowdown
- Level 3: +67% increased damage share
- N/A
- Level 1: +20% of The Boss’ health to Gangested Health
- Level 2: +45 gangster DPS
- Level 3: +1 gangsters summoned
- N/A
- Level 1: +60% weapon recoil, -60% move speed reduction when shooting
- Level 2: +40% bonus crit damage
- Level 3: +360 bullet shield health
- N/A
- Level1: -20 second cooldown
- Level 2: +175 meter range
- Level 3: +200 damage at the center
No reproduction without permission：Game Guides Online » Deadlock hero roster: All confirmed and leaked characters Complete guide to Deadlock's 21+ heroes with abilities, upgrades, and expert playstyle recommendations