What Is Deadlock? Valve's MOBA Shooter Explained

Deadlock is a team game from Valve, the studio behind Dota 2, Counter-Strike and Half-Life. It mixes two genres that rarely go together: the third-person shooter, where your aim matters, and the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena), where you farm, buy items and push lanes toward the enemy base.

Two teams of six fight across a supernatural, 1920s-style New York nicknamed the Cursed Apple. Each team serves a mysterious Patron, and the match ends when one team destroys the other’s.

How a match works in 60 seconds

1. You pick a hero. Each one has a gun, four abilities (the fourth is an ultimate) and a role, such as tank, assassin or support.
2. You go to a lane. The map has three lanes. NPC soldiers called troopers march down each lane in waves and fight automatically.
3. You farm souls. Killing troopers, jungle monsters and enemy heroes gives you souls, the game’s only currency. Souls level up your hero and pay for items.
4. You buy items. The shop has three item categories: Weapon (gun damage), Vitality (health and survival) and Spirit (ability power).
5. You push objectives. Each lane has a chain of defenses: a Guardian, then a Walker, then Base Guardians. Behind them are two Shrines and the Patron itself.
6. You destroy the Patron. Take down both Shrines, then kill the Patron through both of its phases to win.

What makes Deadlock different

Your aim matters, and so does your farm

In most MOBAs, you click on a target and your hero auto-attacks. In Deadlock you aim every bullet yourself, and headshots deal more damage. But a well-aimed player who is 10,000 souls behind will still lose the fight. The best players combine both skills.

Movement is a skill

Deadlock heroes can sprint, slide, dash, double jump, wall jump and ride ziplines that run the length of each lane. Good movement lets you dodge abilities, escape ganks and reach fights first. See our controls guide for the basics.

Melee and parry

Every hero has a light melee and a heavy melee, and everyone can parry an enemy’s heavy melee. A successful parry stuns the attacker for 2.75 seconds, which is often a death sentence.

Shooting the souls

When a trooper dies, half its souls drop as a glowing orb that floats into the air. Shoot it to secure the souls for yourself, or shoot an enemy’s orb to deny it. This last-hitting minigame decides a lot of lanes.

The map at a glance

The map has three lanes, named after New York streets:

Lane	Colour	Notes
York	Yellow	Side lane: Stock Exchange, Seaport, Fairfax Factories
Broadway	Blue	Middle lane and the shortest route to the enemy base
Greenwich	Green	Side lane: Umbria University, Central Park, the Brownstones

Between the lanes are four districts (Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot and Plaza) full of jungle camps, crates and shortcuts. Under Broadway, in the sewers, lives the Mid Boss. Killing it drops the Rejuvenator, which either team can grab with heavy melee. It gives your team up to three revive credits for three minutes: a teammate who dies with a credit gets back up on the spot, at full health, three seconds later.

Game modes

• Standard (6v6). The full experience described above, with ranked and unranked queues.
• Street Brawl (4v4). Added in January 2026, it’s a best-of-five series of short rounds with no soul economy. You draft items each round instead of buying them. It’s a great way to learn heroes quickly, and it doesn’t affect your rank.

Is Deadlock finished?

No. Deadlock is still in a closed playtest. Valve says it’s in early development, with “lots of temporary art and experimental gameplay”. Big updates have changed the map, the shop and the hero roster more than once, most recently with City Never Sleeps in September 2026. That’s why every page on this site shows the patch it was last checked against.

Where to go next

• How to get access to Deadlock
• Deadlock glossary: every term you’ll hear
• Your first 10 matches: a beginner’s roadmap