Deadlock goes full second breakfast by having another, secret playtest tucked inside the first one—with all-new heroes and a redesign of everyone’s favourite gargoyle gal

If you’re at all familiar with Deadlock, you might remember some hullabaloo about its ‘open secret’ status during early testing. Valve’s new MOBA/shooter was kept very much under wraps, with the company playing coy right up until the finish line. Even now, it’s still invite-only. Why? Beats me, since getting a pass to go play isn’t really hard.

Valve really likes its secret playtest servers, though, as a top Deadlock streamer by the name of Deathy accidentally popped open the wrong client while on Stream. They quickly deleted it, mind, but the internet is forever, and players with a quickdraw print-screen snapped some images (via Eurogamer).

What those images reveal is that Deadlock now has a second, more secret playtest tucked inside the first one. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a third, even more occult playtest you had to access by blending and drinking a piece of Gabe Newell’s yacht, or something. How far down does this thing go?

In terms of revelations, there’s a bunch of great-looking heroes to look forward to: The Scholarly-looking “Bookworm”, a straight-up bellboy “Doorman”, and the “Drifter”, who is smiling at me in a way that better not awaken anything in the darker parts of my soul.

There’s also apparently a second Lash dubbed Skyrunner—likely just placeholder art. In fact, some of the thumbnails for existing heroes are completely different. Abram’s grown some stubble, McGinnis has traded her welding mask for a Rosie the Riveter-style bandanna, and Ivy is suddenly, uh, less scrungly.

In case you’re unfamiliar, Ivy is a gargoyle gal from Deadlock who quickly became a fan favourite and the subject of much fanart, thanks to her sweet personality and appeal to—let’s call them ‘monster girl appreciators’. Some of the art is tasteful and impressively-rendered, other pieces are… less tasteful, and still somehow impressively rendered. No judgement here, artists gotta make a living.

A constant through-line of this fanart was that Ivy was rendered in a cuter, more cartoon style, while her in-game model’s a lot crunchier-looking. Well, this test server sees her undergoing some major stonework surgery, taking a chisel to her fangs, bringing her eyes more central to her face, and giving her big, floppy ears.

She’s definitely more appealing, but I can’t help but feel like some of the magic’s been lost—players fawning over a hunchbacked goblin creature with a heart of gold felt somehow more pure than this made-for-market Ivy. Still, this is a test server for a reason, and nothing about the above can be considered final. Even the main game’s unrecognisable from when I last played it—the work is, ostensibly, in progress.