Deadlock beginner tips: What every new player should learn first

So, you’ve jumped into Deadlock and crashed headfirst into its difficulty and complexity. Don’t be so discouraged by its steep learning curve, as Valve’s 6v6 blend of hero shooter and MOBA is a unique and fun experience when it finally clicks.

This Deadlock guide for beginners recognises that players want to take their game to the next level. These practical Deadlock tips for beginners aren’t high-level strategies, but good habits and repeatable actions that every player should learn first.

Deadlock’s laning phase is a solid 10 minutes of your game. The sooner you develop a consistent laning phase, especially during disadvantage, the better you’ll set yourself up for the rest of the match. In most lanes, focus on clearing troopers instead of wasting time brawling with the enemy. 

This is the best time to master how to secure and deny soul orbs reliably, before peppering in harass using your abilities. Remember that you still need to grab the other portion of the souls that drop on the ground. Play with terrain and don’t overexpose yourself by using a third-person view.

Against difficult and aggressive lanes, you’ll want to avoid interacting with the enemy, but don’t let them have a free Guardian. Buy items that will help you clear Troopers faster, like Monster Rounds, and keep shoving the wave with your partner.

One last and very important tip is that you want to stay in the lane as long as possible. Avoid going back to base, as you’ll fall behind in items and experience. Buy items that will give you regen, like Healing Rite, while taking down the healing Trooper to top up your health.

Leaving the laning phase doesn’t mean you should start ignoring the waves. In fact, you should prioritise them even during the midgame. Trooper waves are your main source of income in Deadlock. 

Economically, Trooper waves give so many more souls compared to clearing camps. They’re effortless to clear, and you’ll even heal up when attacking the healing trooper. Don’t compare them to Dota 2; jungle camps are supplementary souls that can take some time to clear, depending on the character, plus they take a long time to respawn.

Practically, catching waves and slightly pushing open up more space in the map for your team. Enemies will be forced to show up to defend, revealing their location. Letting a wave push uncontested is just a bad habit since it will allow an enemy to swoop down from the zipline and easily take down a Guardian or Walker.

The best practice is to clear your wave, then farm a jungle camp only if you have downtime. While we’re at it, make it a habit to try to steal camps away from your enemies to deny them potential souls.

In Deadlock’s mid-game, there will be multiple minor and major objectives that will help you reach the Patron. Bridge Buffs, Soul Urns, Guardians, and Walkers will help your team push deeper into the enemy’s territory, but don’t forget Golden Statues and Sinner’s Sacrifices to power up as an individual.

Golden Statues are small breakables scattered around the Cursed Apple. These breakables start spawning at the two-minute mark and respawn every three minutes after being broken. They have a chance to drop permanent stat buffs that stack and really add up over time.

Meanwhile, Sinner’s Sacrifices are vending machines that arrive at the eight-minute mark and respawn every five minutes once broken. Heavy melee these machines to receive souls and master the timing to hit the jackpot, granting you four Golden Statue buffs. 

Map objectives are important but require team commitment to execute. Cracking (or better yet, stealing) Sinner’s Sacrifices can be done individually and quickly to get an edge.

Moving skillfully is Deadlock’s biggest skill gap, and getting comfortable with the game’s intuitive movement system will enable so many plays that you couldn’t otherwise do. 

First, get comfortable with the dash jump. Every hero can dash, but if you jump at the right moment during a dash, you’ll perform a dash-jump that covers a huge distance. Additionally, items like Arcane Surge and Kinetic Dash are conditional buffs that activate after dash jumping.

Next, incorporate sliding into your organic movement like it’s another direction button. Sliding temporarily gives you unlimited ammo for the duration, while keeping you mobile. This is even more important when using characters with fast movement speed like Seven and Vyper.

Finally, take advantage of ziplines and air vents throughout the map. These let you move between objectives lightning-fast and are the cornerstone of efficient macro gameplay. Ziplines should be used much more often outside of moving into the lane. Learn to carry the speed boost and momentum to reach vantage points like side shops or roof buildings faster.

Compared to other MOBAs like League of Legends and Dota 2, Deadlock has more item slots that even increase as the match goes on. There’s no one-size-fits-all build in Deadlock, so adapt your item purchases to counter the enemy team.

As a new player, it can feel unfair when heroes like Seven wipe your whole team with one seemingly unstoppable ultimate. Or, when a decently fed Victor turns on his Aura of Suffering and starts running down the team without dying. The truth is that all of Deadlock’s heroes have the potential to become overpowered when left uncontested. 

Deadlock’s robust item shop gives you all the tools you need to succeed, and it’s the biggest hurdle for a newbie relying on guides to become someone who plans ahead in Deadlock. But for now, here’s a quick cheat sheet to countering common obstacles in Deadlock:

In Deadlock, have a general idea of what your core items are and what you’re building toward, but always be flexible enough to purchase counter items and defensives along the way. This also includes itemising into a different role entirely when the situation calls for it. 

Deadlock might throw a lot at you up front, but mastering the fundamentals is all it takes to start climbing. As a beginner, don’t sweat stuff that will prevent you from having fun, like forcing yourself into heroes you don’t like, but make sure to drill down good habits in every game.

Individual skills will come with more playtime, but macro takes up active thought. Even if you’re not racking up kills, playing with purpose goes a long way. Everything you do should be toward building up a soul lead while also preventing the enemy team from playing a free game.

With time and these basics down, Deadlock’s chaos will start to feel like second nature.