Start Here

1. Get Into the Game

Deadlock is currently in invite-only playtest on Steam. If you don't have access yet, ask a friend who plays — existing players can invite others. Once you're in, install it and run through the tutorial match. It's short and teaches the absolute basics: moving, shooting, and buying items.

2. Settings to Change First

• Set Casting Mode to Quick Cast. Abilities and items can be Instant Cast, Confirm Cast, or Quick Cast — Quick Cast fires the moment you release the key, so you can hold it to check the range first, then let go. It's the best of both worlds and saves a click in every fight.
• Lower your mouse sensitivity if you're overshooting targets. Most new players run it too high. Start around 800 DPI with moderate in-game sensitivity and adjust from there.
• Enable the minimap ping sounds. Audio cues for pings and objectives will save your life.
• Learn your item shop hotkeys. You'll be buying mid-match while moving — fumbling through menus gets you killed. Learn the shop open key and the quick-buy slots.
• Bind your item active slots somewhere reachable. Active items (the ones with an on-use effect) live in your inventory slots — put them on keys your fingers can hit without looking.

3. Pick a Beginner Hero

Don't random. For your first games, pick someone forgiving:

• Abrams — tanky brawler, hard to kill, simple gameplan: run at people.
• Dynamo — great support, high win rate, Singularity wins fights almost by itself.
• Seven — strong carry, consistent damage, straightforward abilities.
• Wraith — solid all-rounder with an escape, good for learning positioning.

Browse all heroes → · See the current tier list →

Go to Your Lane

You'll spawn at your base and the game will place you in a lane — there are three: York Ave (yellow), Broadway (blue), and Park Ave (green, also called Greenwich). Two heroes per lane. Head to your assigned lane and stay there. If a teammate agrees, you can swap lanes with them — but don't wander the jungle yet.

Last-Hit Troopers, Collect Soul Orbs

Waves of troopers march down each lane and fight each other. When one dies, its souls split in two: a floating orb worth 40% of the bounty that either team can shoot — yours are green, theirs are orange, so shoot their orange orbs to deny them — and a ground orb holding the rest, which you pick up by walking near it and enemies can't touch. Melee-killing a trooper skips the floating orb entirely and hands you those souls instantly. Orb control wins lanes.

Pro tip: melee the low-health troopers. It secures the contestable souls instantly and there's nothing for the enemy to shoot.

Watch for Medic troopers — killing one drops a healing pack that restores health to you and nearby allies. Free sustain, don't leave it on the ground.

Stay behind your troopers. They tank the Guardian's laser — you don't want to.

Spend Your Souls

Once you have 800+ souls, head to the shop right by your Guardian — there's one near each lane's starting area, so you don't have to go far. Buy your first items there. Don't sit on unspent souls — souls in your pocket do nothing. Only head back to your home base to buy if you're really hurt and need to heal anyway.

Safe first buys: a cheap Weapon item for damage, a Vitality item for health, and Extra Stamina for mobility. Check the item database for what each tier offers.

Poke the Enemy, Poke the Guardian

Start trading damage with enemy laners when they go for orbs. When your trooper wave is pushed up to their Guardian, help damage it — but let troopers go first so they eat the laser.

Teleporters have been available since the match started — two pairs sit by the underground Secret Shops. They take a few seconds to channel and give you a small speed boost after, so use them to join fights across the map, not to wander.

Group Up for Walkers

Around now, teams start grouping for Walker fights. If your team pings a Walker, go help — don't keep farming alone. Walkers need the team, and every enemy Walker your team destroys unlocks one of three Extra Item Slots for the whole team — free inventory space that wins late games.

Grab the Soul Urn

At 10:00 the first Soul Urn spawns (a new one every 5 minutes after). It's worth 250 souls + 70 per minute of game time, locked in when it spawns — so the 10:00 urn is worth 950. Pick it up with a melee attack and carry it to the drop-off on the opposite side of the map.

While carrying it you move faster and shrug off slows, but you can't ride ziplines or use teleporters, and a melee hit or stun knocks it loose. If you hold it too long it starts decaying — deliver it fast. The payout drops as soul orbs your team secures, so it's free team-wide souls. If your team is behind, the urn pays a comeback bonus, making it even more valuable.

1. Keep one stamina pip banked. Always. That's your dodge, your escape, your life. Arriving at a fight with zero stamina is how you die.
2. Don't chase kills into the fog. If you can't see what's behind them, don't follow. It's a trap more often than it's a kill.
3. Look at the minimap every few seconds. It's showing you where everyone is. Glance at it like you'd glance at your mirrors while driving.
4. Buy items constantly. Every time you pass a shop with 800+ souls, stop and spend. A small item now beats a perfect item later.
5. It's okay to back off. Low health? No stamina? Enemy missing? Walk away. Dying sets you back minutes; retreating costs you seconds.

Lock In One Hero

Don't bounce between all 42 heroes. Pick one beginner hero and play them for your next several games — you'll learn matchups, item timings, and lane patterns ten times faster. It also unlocks your future: Ranked Mode requires 60 Standard wins, plus 15 wins each on 3 separate heroes. Every game on your main counts toward both.

Use Street Brawl as a Lab

Street Brawl is 4v4 on a single lane with no farming — each round hands you randomized item builds and it's best-of-five. It's the fastest way to practice a new hero's abilities, test fights, and build confidence without a 40-minute commitment. It doesn't affect your matchmaking rating, so there's no pressure.

Steal a Build, Then Learn It

You don't need to understand items yet — you need a working build while you learn. Grab a build code for your hero from the Builds page, load it in the in-game Build Browser, and follow it. Once you've played it a few games, start asking why each item is there — that's when the item system clicks.