Deadlock Beginner's Guide: Essential Tips to Improve Fast

Overview

Deadlock has a significant learning curve due to its depth, but the rewards for learning and gaining experience are substantial.

In this Deadlock beginner's guide, we won’t cover every single mechanic but will focus on the most important foundational aspects to help you improve more efficiently.

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Before diving into our tips, please ensure you’ve gone through the clips and tutorials in the Learn to Play section. Additionally, we recommend playing at least one bot game.

Learn to Play Section

If you haven’t yet, no worries, but we strongly recommend going through it after reading this guide. Let’s dive into our tips!

1. Learn to Play as and Against Heroes Effectively

One of the most challenging (and fun!) parts of learning a new hero-based game is understanding what each character can do.

How to Learn Heroes

Unlike other games where you can start with a single hero, Deadlock requires you to choose a minimum of three heroes to enter the standard match queue.

Three-Hero Minimum Roster

To start, we recommend reaching a comfortable skill level with at least three heroes. How should you choose these three?

Quick Start: Pick a character that looks interesting to you.
In-Depth Approach: Read through their subtitles and playstyle summaries. For example:
- McGinnis – "Controls the battlefield with turrets."

Once you’ve picked a hero, jump into Sandbox or a bot game to get familiar with their abilities, try out their build, and get a feel for their gameplay style.

Repeat this process until you’re comfortable with three core heroes. At this point, consider choosing heroes with similar archetype roles, for example:

Abrams, Kelvin, and Warden are tanky frontliners.
Haze, Seven, and Wraith use rifles and have long-range skills.

Choosing similar heroes can help you develop overlapping skills faster, but you can also opt for three vastly different characters. It depends on your playstyle and knowledge level, but having fun with the heroes you choose will make the journey easier.

How to Play Against Heroes

While you’ll want to focus on mastering your chosen heroes, understanding every opponent's abilities can be overwhelming. Start small and gradually build mental notes for each character.

Example: Bebop

Level 1 (Beginner): Bebop has a hook; save your stamina and movement abilities when he’s near.
Level 2 (Intermediate): His ultimate is a powerful laser beam, but he struggles to turn it quickly.
Level 3 (Experienced): His bombs grow stronger with each hit on a hero. Avoid them during the laning phase to slow his scaling.

If you’re struggling against a specific hero, try playing as them for a few games. This will help you understand their weaknesses and leverage that knowledge when you face them.

2. Understand Build and Itemization Basics

Knowing how to select and follow a build is one thing, but understanding the fundamentals of builds and items is crucial.

Types of Items: Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit

Weapon

Items that enhance your primary weapon’s properties, such as firing rate, range, and damage output.

Each weapon item adds Weapon Damage

Vitality

Items that boost defensive stats like health, resistances, and survival capabilities.

Each vitality item adds Base Health

Spirit

Items that improve abilities, affecting cooldown, duration, and the number of charges.

Each spirit item adds Spirit Power

Total Item Slots: 16

At the start of each Deadlock game, you have 12 item slots available (4 for each of Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit).

As the match progresses, you can unlock 4 additional Flex Slots that can be filled with any item type.

Flex Slots are unlocked by completing specific objectives, detailed in our Flex Slots guide.

Active Items: 4 Slots

You can equip up to 4 active items that function as additional abilities and can be activated with key bindings. For example, Warp Stone allows you to instantly teleport forward, useful for both engaging and escaping.

When you buy an active item, choose the key it will be bound to. Active items and their cooldowns appear to the right of your main abilities. To rearrange their order, open the shop and drag them.

3. Gradually Learn Stamina Mechanics

One of Deadlock’s core features is its stamina-powered mechanics, which all heroes can access.

Current Stamina Level Displays Near the Crosshair

After using a stamina mechanic, the bar refills and appears in yellow.

List of Stamina Mechanics

Double Jump: 1 bar
- Space after the first jump (initial jump doesn’t use stamina)
Dash: 1 bar
- Left Shift in any direction
Air Dash: 1 bar
- Left Shift in the air in any direction
- Tip: Press Ctrl twice in the air to fast-fall
Dash Jump: 2 bars
- Dash, followed by Space (time it when the stamina bar turns blue)

Stamina mechanics are paired with Sliding, which doesn’t consume stamina. You can slide by pressing Ctrl after dashing, air dashing, or going downhill.

Pro Tip: Shooting while sliding doesn’t use ammo, so take advantage of this to maximize damage.

Key Takeaways

Learning Stamina Mechanics by Levels:

Level 1 (Beginner): Get comfortable with double jump, dash, and air dash.
Level 2 (Intermediate): Add sliding to your skill set.
Level 3 (Advanced): Master dash jump and fast fall.

Some heroes have different base stamina levels:

Most have 3 bars.
McGinnis and Vindicta start with 2 bars.
Ivy starts with 4 bars.

Use this knowledge in the laning phase to gauge advantages or disadvantages against certain heroes.

4. Explore and Learn the Map

Even if you’ve played other MOBAs, Deadlock’s map can be challenging to learn. It features buildings with rooftops and entrances, subways, alleyways, teleporters, jump pads, and more.

Exploring the Deadlock Map Without Bots

Press F7 to open the console.
Enter map street_test.

Once loaded, choose a hero or enter Spectator mode. Choosing a hero is recommended to practice abilities, items, and stamina mechanics while exploring.

Recommended Map Exploration Priorities

Level 1 (Beginner): Locate Shops, Guardians/Walkers, Shrines, Spirit Urn, and Mid Boss.
Level 2 (Intermediate): Find neutral camps and the Sinner’s Sacrifice (slot machines).
Level 3 (Advanced): Discover teleporters, ropes, and jump pads.

5. Know What to Focus on in Early, Mid, and Late Game

One challenge in Deadlock is understanding what to prioritize during different phases. With an average game time of about 30 minutes, it helps to divide it into the Early, Mid, and Late Game phases.

Early Game (0–10 Minutes)

The early game sets the tone for the match, significantly impacting the mid and late phases.

Key Objectives:

Maximize your farm and avoid early deaths.
Common Mistake: Focusing on killing your lane opponent, which can lead to falling behind in farming.
Tip: Focus on last-hitting souls and denying your opponent. Once you’ve obtained a few items, you can start engaging and target the Guardian.

Important: Try not to die early. If you need to return to base to heal, kill as many Troopers as possible to push the wave forward before leaving.

Pro Tip: Don’t use your Zip Line boost immediately at the game’s start; save it for a quick return if needed.

Mid Game (10–20 Minutes)

The mid game begins when the first Guardians start to fall.

Actions:

If both Guardians are still in your lane, continue playing as in the early game but be cautious of ganks from other lanes.
If you’ve destroyed your lane’s Guardian, assist other lanes in destroying theirs.
Once all Guardians are down, a Flex Slot is unlocked.
Continue farming Troopers, clearing neutral camps, and helping your team contest the Spirit Urn.

Late Game (20–30+ Minutes)

The late game begins when one team pushes into the enemy base.