Valve has finally announced their new MOBA Hero Shooter, Deadlock. With the closed beta being accessible through Valve sending invites or getting invites from your friends, the game has gained a lot of popularity. Deadlock is a MOBA Third-Person Hero Shooter in a Victorian and Steampunk setting. The game is straightforward to understand for those who have experience playing MOBAs, such as DOTA 2 or League of Legends. However, if you only have experience playing shooters, don’t worry, here's a guide on the basic mechanics of Deadlock to better understand the heroes, the games' objectives and how to utilize every aspect of the game when you hop on your next match.
Table of Contents
Heroes
Like other Hero Shooters, at the start of the game, you’ll need to pick your character. In Deadlock, there are 21 heroes to pick from. In the game, you'll need to choose at least 3 as your top picks, and you’ll be assigned one when the match is found. To easily access your favorite heroes, the game has a priority feature for heroes you main or really want to play.
Deadlock's Heroes have 3 abilities and 1 ultimate ability. The game also features Ability Upgrades. As you play the match, you can gather Ability Points to use towards your upgrades when you receive Souls. Your Hero's abilities can be upgraded 3 times, and it’ll cost you 1 AP for the first upgrade, 2 AP for the second, and 5 AP for the last. The Ability Upgrade feature encourages players to upgrade their abilities based on their playstyle, but in no way forces them to make upgrade choices.
Additionally, the game will indicate which Heroes are good for beginners. This is a great way to have players try out different heroes and make it easier for them to start a game.
Objectives
Deadlock's objectives are easy to understand. The game is a 6v6 match, with the team needing to take down the enemy's Patron to win. The map of the game features 4 lanes that are color-coordinated for easier comms with your team. To reach the Patron, you and your team need to go on each lane, push them simultaneously, and fight off the enemy team and their minions.
It won't be as easy as it sounds because each lane has a Guardian, a Walker, and 2 Elder Guardians that will protect the enemy's side of the map. You need to defeat all of them before reaching the 2 Shrines guarding the Patron. Once these two strongholds are destroyed, the Patron will be weakened, allowing the team to take it out and secure a win.
The game needs your team's full cooperation when accomplishing the objective. It isn't about getting the most headshots or kills. It's about you and your team working together to ultimately take down the opposing side’s Patron.
Lanes
Deadlock has four lanes that are color-coded: Yellow, Orange, Blue, and Purple. The lanes feature a zipline that starts from your team's base and takes you as far as your team has lane control. The zipline doesn’t provide invincibility, meaning the enemy team can still shoot you while you're on it.
At the start of the game, you’ll start on the zipline leading you to a lane. There are 2 duo lanes and 2 solo lanes. At the start of the game, for the first 10 minutes of the match, if you’re on the duo lane or have a lane partner, you'll both receive an entire Soul when killing enemies, as long as you’re near each other.
After you and your teammates have positioned yourselves on the map, you can farm the jungle creeps and look for urns to receive Souls to upgrade your Heroes. Creeps and Items will spawn at specific times in the match: 2 Minute Mark, 3, 7, 10 , and 15. Be prepared to take advantage of those times to farm for Souls.
Souls
Souls are Deadlock's currency to receive upgrades and purchase items from the Shop. Souls can be acquired by killing enemy minions or defeating enemy heroes, which are called Secured Souls. You can also get Souls from boxes and urns across the map in the jungle and in neutral camps, which are referred to as Unsecured souls. The enemy can take the Unsecured Souls when you die and dropthem. To prevent the loss of your Unsecured Souls, you can spend them first when buying items in the Shop or wait for the Unsecured Souls to slowly turn into Secured ones.
In the game, you can deny the enemy from acquiring a soul when they take down minions. Minions drop a Soul Orb when they die, which will float on top of them. Shoot the Orb first so that you can take the soul instead. Make sure to take full advantage of denying the enemy team from acquiring Souls. This game feature not only allows you to interfere with the farming of the enemy team, but also allows you to buy more upgrades and items at the shops.
Shop
Deadlock's Curiosity Shop is where you can upgrade your Hero's abilities and purchase items to get additional spells or effects. The Curiosity Shop is available at your team's base and your Guardian's lane, but remember that once your team's Guardian is defeated, you won't have access to that Shop anymore.
To purchase upgrades and items, you’ll need Souls. The items provided at the start will only cost you 500 Souls. When the game progresses and you need better items, you’ll need to unlock the other tiers. The second tier will cost you 1,250 Souls, the third 3,000 Souls, and the fourth 6,300 Souls. The items you acquire can give you a passive effect to improve your Hero's stats or give you an active spell to use.
Aside from your item's tiers, there are also categories. There are 3 categories, and you can hold 4 items of each category. These categories are Weapon, which will provide upgrades for your Bullet Damage or shooting in general; Vitality, which will provide Health and resistance from Spirit and Buller Damage; and Spirit, which increases your spirit power, allowing you to increase your damage when using your Hero's abilities.
Players can also unlock flex slots when they complete achievements. The flex slots allow you to add items from any of the 3 categories. You'll need to defeat an enemy Walker to unlock the first slot. For the second, you’ll need to take down all four enemy Walkers. For the third, you’ll need to defeat an Elder Guardian. Lastly, you need to destroy an enemy Shrine for the fourth slot.
As you continue to play Deadlock, you’ll get more of a feel for the game. Remember to complete the needed objectives to have lane control and secure the win.
