Deadlock is Valve’s new MOBA 6v6 third-person shooter where you have to take down the opposing team’s Patron. You start weak and as the game progresses you get stronger through buying upgrades and taking down enemy buildings. Today I’m going to cover the basics of Deadlock, run through my beginners guide plus also some tips and tricks.

Before we jump into the guides it’s worth noting the game is in alpha, and is being updated almost daily based on player feedback and additions Valve want to make. Therefore the info in the guide is subject to change.

How to get access to Deadlock

At the time of making this guide Deadlock is in closed Alpha, meaning you have to get an invite to play from someone already in the playtest. You have to be on their Steam friends list to receive an invite. If you have the game you can invite your friends on the home screen. Right now Deadlock is only available on Steam via PC.

How to play Deadlock

Deadlock is a 6v6 third person shooter, where the objective is to eliminate the opposing team’s Patron. All players start the match weak and as the match progresses you’ll become more powerful by gathering resources and completing objectives. How you upgrade is down to you. You could focus on gathering resources by shooting smaller PVE enemies, or team up with your friends to take down PVP opponents and buildings.

To win a match you have to destroy your enemies buildings, push into their base and kill the Patron. Your Patron is the voice talking to you and your team throughout the match. The map is symmetrical and split into 4 lanes, and you can see your map on the bottom right hand corner of the screen and the lanes are indicated by the different coloured lines.

Each lane is defended by buildings and in each lane waves of smaller PVE enemies constantly flow out of the enemies base to attack you. Killing these enemies rewards you with Souls, the main currency in Deadlock, and you can use these Souls to buy upgrades from the shop to get more powerful.

Each match, you have a couple of important objectives:

• Kill enemies and gather Souls
• Destroy enemy buildings
• Defend your side of the map
• Push into your enemy’s base
• Kill the Patron

Before you start

There’s a tutorial to go through in Deadlock, which currently is very simple, but it’ll give you the basic knowledge you need to compete in matches. I would recommend playing a few bot matches at the start to get used to your character. There are many characters to choose from, and it can be overwhelming in the beginning, however Valve has indicated some heroes as ‘good for beginners’. I would try out a couple in a bot match, get to know one or two characters and then stick with them for a little while before moving onto another one.

Basic controls

It’s a standard WASD control system.
Shoot with left mouse
Zoom with right mouse
Q is your melee attack
F parries a melee attack
Each hero has 3 abilities and one super, you unlock these over the match and they are mapped to 1,2,3, and 4 keys. Unlock abilities with unlock points and they can be upgraded 3 times in a match
Dodge with shift

Shop basics

While you are learning the basics, it’s a good idea to get used to the shop. There is a shop in your base, but there are also shops out on the battlefield. Find a shop, and press B to open the shop. There are 3 categories of items: Weapon, Vitality and Spirit.

Weapon: Increase weapon damage and improve weapon states like reload and rate of fire.
Vitality: Increase health, regen, resistence and shields
Spirit: Increase spirit damage you deal with abilities, reduce cooldowns, slow enemies and loads more.

There are 4 tiers of items and they get progressively more expensive. Your inventory has 4 spaces per category. Complete objectives throughout the match to unlock flex slots, which can be filled with an item from any category. The objectives you need to complete for flex slots include:

• First Walker Destroyed
• All Walkers Destroyed
• All Enemy Lane Guardians Destroyed
• First Shrine Destroyed

Many items are passive, meaning you don’t have to do anything to get the benefits. However, some items are active, meaning you have to activate them.

Builds

Deadlock is all about build crafting, meaning you can mix and match items to create a more powerful hero. In the shop you are shown recommended items for your hero. Also, there are community builds, sorted by favourite. Popular builds are helpful for beginners.

That wraps up the basic info you need to know. Now it’s jump to jump into a match with other players.

Getting started

When you select play match you’ll see the list of heroes to select. Heroes are allocated based on preference, therefore select at least 3 heroes and rank them in order of preference. At the start I’d recommend the Valve recommendeed heroes. You are going to have to play a few matches to discover which hero you like and don’t be put off if you don’t like a certain hero, you can play again and select someone else. Personally, I liked Seven, Infernus and Kelvin when I was starting out.

On the hero select screen you can click on a hero to select them into your roster, then right click to indicate priority or high priority. You’ll have a higher chance of playing as your priority character, but it’s unlikely you’ll get to play as your favourite hero every time, therefore I would recommend trying out a few.

After you have selected your character, you’ll be there with your teammates and you can unlock your first ability.

Early game

Load into a match and you’ll automatically be placed on a zipline, on your way to the action. You’ll get randomly allocated to a lane, either solo or with someone else. The colour of the zipline corresponds to the colour on the map. Deadlock does try and match you with someone of similar skill level in your lane. When you’re on the zipwire, you get the option to speedboost, save this for when you have low energy and need to make it back to base.

Even though you are assigned a lane, you can switch at any moment. But your objective is to hold the lane and ideally push back your enemy towards their base, collecting souls and getting more powerful as you go.

Laning

When you arrive at the end of the zipwire and drop off you’ll be joined with PVE friendly troopers. The enemy will arrive opposite you, also with troopers. The first thing you want to do is start shooting enemies and collect their Souls. You get Souls if you are the last person to damage the enemy before they die. You’ll notice orbs spawn from enemies when they die, and you’ll want to shoot these too for additional currency. In the early laning stage you’ll share Souls with any nearby teammates. After 10 mins, you’ll only get Souls from shooting Soul orbs.

Denying

When an enemy kills your troopers, orange orbs appear above them. Shoot them and deny your enemy Souls. Enemy heroes will also be trying to deny your Souls too when you kill enemies, so make sure you not only shoot enemies to get their souls, but also get shoot the orbs too, this is all in an effort to get as many souls as possible, so you can go back to the shop and spend them to get more powerful as early as possible. You can also melee attack a trooper to get their Souls, and when you melee you’ll automatically collect all Souls, they don’t float up after they have died. Denying is an important part of gathering Souls, so try and get the last shots and deny as much as possible.

Laning tips

• Keep an eye on your health
• You won’t regenerate health automatically, unless you have specific abilities to do so
• There is a friendly trooper who helps regenerate health in each wave who does heal at random moments, so try and target enemy healing troopers
• Check your position when you are gathering Souls and don’t stand in the open, use cover
• Dash using shift to jump out of the way if you are getting shot at. You only have a limited number of dashes, indicated by the green around your crosshair

Guardian

The first building you come across is the Guardian. Buildings are defences blocking your progress in each lane. This is a large robot-like structure that has a lot of HP, and it’s dangerous if you get near it. You’ll want to take this down by teaming up with your teammates and unleashing as much damage as possible. They are immune unless enemy troopers are close-by.

Shops near Guardians

There is a shop in your base. But there are also shops on the battlefield and the first one is next to your Guardian. The early game items, or items that cost 500 are good to start with. You’ll want to buy one of these as soon as you can afford it. Either buy at the shop on the battlefield, or go back to your base using the zipline to buy in relative safety.

Unlock abilities

You start the game with one unlock point, but you’ll get more as matches progress. Gather souls and complete objectives to get more unlock points. The flask on the left hand side shows how many Souls you have before you reach your next unlock or upgrade.

When laning keep an eye on your enemies Souls (indicated below their name at the top of the screen). When they get 400 and 1.5k they unlock new abilities.

Pushing a lane

Troopers on both teams are equally strong, but the heroes are the difference makers.

You’ll want to defeat as many enemy Trooper as possible, but keep an eye on your ammo. Defeating the enemy troopers will allow your friendly troopers to push the lane and advance forward. Push with them and get closer to the enemy buildings and start damaging them, starting with the Guardian.

While you are pushing you want to make sure you’re defending your Guardian too, and defend for as long as possible.

Pushing the lane and damaging the enemy Guardian is good for you and your team, but you want to try and not get killed or loose to much health in the process. Focus on getting as many Souls as possible by killing enemies and if you can get close to the Guardian, then start doing some damage.

End of laning

The laning phase ends after 10 mins into a match. At that point you no longer share Souls with nearby teammates and you have to shoot Soul Orbs to get Souls.

Laning tips

• Try and get the last hit on Troopers to get the Souls
• Shoot the orbs above once you have defeated them for extra Souls
• Shoot the orbs from defeated Troopers on your team to deny the enemy
• Purchase items from the shop as soon as you have 500 Souls
• Damage and kill the enemy as much as you can
• Try to get close to the enemy Guardian and start dealing damage to it, ideally taking it down.

Mid game

Laning ends when your Guardian or your enemy Guardian is destroyed. After this point heroes will start to move around and group up to push lanes and complete objectives, all the while looking for team advantages.

After the Guardian, the next building is The Walker. You have to be within 32m of the Walker to deal damage to it. It’s a large mech with 4 legs and deadly weapons, so keep your distance, otherwise it’ll stomp you. It’s less exposed compared to a Guardian, often in an enclosed street and it’s closer to the enemy base. Ideally you want to team up with other heroes on your team to take it down. It’s worth taking down the Walker quickly because you’ll be rewarded a flex slot for one Walker and another flex slot for all Walkers.

Neutral Camps

Neutral Camps are indicated on the map by triangle icons. Here neutral PVE enemies are hanging out and they react to all heroes. Similar to troopers, they grant Souls when destroyed.

Neutral Camps spawn after 7 mins into a match
Netrual Camps with red circles are harder to defeat
If you are struggling pushing a lane, then try attacking a Neutral Camp

Mid-Boss

In the middle of the map there’s a building with an enemy called Mid-Boss, they spawn in after 10 mins into a match. When the mid-boss is defeated a crystal spawns
Melee the crystal with Q to get the Rejuvenator buff. This lasts for a short time and grants a near instant respawn. It also makes your Troopers stronger, so it’s a big team advantage to kill the mid-boss.
Mid-boss has a lot of health so you’ll likely need to team up with your teammates to take it down.
When it hits a certain health then it cries out, which can be heard throughout the map, so the enemy team is likely to notice and head for the mid-boss location to try and steal the buff.

Crates and Statues

Around the map you’ll find crates and statues. Break them and you’ll find extra Souls, plus sometimes you’ll find bonus upgrades for your heroes. Here are some of the available buffs:

+2 Spirit
+1.5% Fire Rate
+3% Ammo
+15 Max HP (most common)
+0.5% Cooldown Reduction
+2% Weapon Damage

Temporary powerups

There are raised circular grates across the map and they grant temporary buffs including:

Gun: +30% Clip and +20% Fire Rate for 100s
Survival: +400 Max HP and +1% HP Regen for 100s
Casting: +20% Cooldown Reduction and +25 Spirit for 100s
Movement: +2 Stamina, +2 Sprint and +30% zipline boost for 100s

Soul Urn

The Soul Urn has a huge amount of Souls, however, you have to transport it across the map to access them. Stand on top of the Soul urn to pick it up and then try and find a way across the map. You can’t use your weapon while you have it, but you can drop it. Be aware though, it’ll slowly start going back to it’s starting position.

The zone where you place the Soul urn is a coloured square. If the enemy has taken the Soul Urn then yours will show up as red. Deposit the Soul Urn and it will release the Souls. Shoot them to claim or deny them. The team that’s behind in net worth receives a +2 sprint buff while carrying the urn, so this can be a decent catch up mechanic.

Mid-game tips

Your specific job in the mid game is going to varying relative to how strong you are vs other players, how strong your team is vs the opposing team and how many buildings remain on the map. Ideally you should be pushing, killing enemies, farming Neutral Camps and destroying buildings to get closer to the enemy base. But you can’t do all of this.

Some heroes are stronger than others in terms of being able to solo enemy heroes. If you are feeling confident then you can try taking on other heroes 1v1. Make sure you’ve unlocked and upgraded your abilities and look for opportunities to help your team.

Keep an eye on the mini map, and know where your teammates are and the status of your lanes. Also watch out for how many enemies are visible on the map, if enemy players aren’t indicated on the map then it’s going to be more dangerous to go into enemy territory.

Late game

The late game starts when the Guardian and Walkers in a lane have been defeated and one team can start attacking the enemy base directly. There are two shrines in the base, one on each side. They have to be destroyed for the Patron to become vulnerable. The shrines cannot attack you, but the Patron will defend them.

Once the shrines are destroyed then it’s time to attack the Patron. The Patron will transform into it’s weakened form and go down into the pit near the spawn points. When it’s in the weakened state, you can only damage the Patron when you are in the pit. Be careful of being killed in the late game, as the respawn timer is longer in the late game. This can sometimes be the difference between a win and a loss. Keep focused on damaging the enemy Patron, and you’ll win the match when you kill the Patron.

At first it’s pretty complicated, and there’s a lot of information to take in when you first start out. My best advice would be to play a few matches and get used to the systems, terminology and heroes, and it will click after a little while. Feel free to refer back to this guide if you need to.

Deadlock general tips

Check out your team’s net worth at the top of the screen. You can also see the enemy team’s net worth too. It’s a pretty good indicator of team strength and progress.
You can ping heroes and objectives with the middle mouse button
Ping an enemy hero helps you keep track of them, which is useful when you’re in a fight with other heroes on your team
There’s a secret shop in an underground area in the middle of the map.
Souls farmed from the Neutral Camps are unsecured, meaning if you die they drop on the ground and they can be claimed by the enemy. Unscured Souls appear as little cirlces on the mini-map.
Standing on rooftops can cause damage over time, but you can stand on lower platforms to get an advantage, you can access these from ropes or jump pads.
You can get shot from a zipline a few seconds after joining it, if you fall you’ll be stunned
Slide by pressing crouch while running
You automatically start running faster if you’re not taking damage. If you shoot or get shot then you’ll lose your sprint.
You can see what your teammates are up to by pressing function and F1, F2 or F3 etc it’s a good way to gather intel
The shimmering doorways are one way that block the vision from one direction, they allow you to look out by enemies can’t look in
Use teleporters to move between lanes quickly. There are pairs of teleporters on both sides of the map that allow you to move between the purple and yellow lanes. There is also a diagnonal teleporter in the middle of the map. They unlock after 10 mins into the game.

Let me know in the comments what you think.