Active items are the ones you press, on Z X C V by default. You can carry four at most, so choosing them is one of the biggest decisions in a build.
How to use actives well
- Bind your most important active to a mouse button. Escapes and saves have to come out instantly. See controls and keybinds.
- Track cooldowns, yours and the enemy’s. If the enemy carry just used Metal Skin, now is the time to shoot them.
- Use cleanses before the big stun, not after. Dispel Magic and Unstoppable can’t be used while you’re already stunned or asleep.
- Pick one escape and one fight-winner. Most builds want an escape or defensive active plus something that wins fights.
Every active item
Tier 1 800 souls
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Golden Goose Egg Hold it and it grows in value over time; activate to hatch it for souls and permanent buffs. Also a little sprint and regen, at the cost of 15% damage. -
Grit Activate for a 200-point barrier that lasts 4 seconds. -
Healing Rite Give yourself or an ally 300 health over 20 seconds plus sprint speed. Damage from enemy heroes or objectives cancels it. -
Rusted Barrel Activate on an enemy to cut their fire rate and bullet resist for 5 seconds.
Tier 2 1,600 souls
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Cold Front Activate to release an expanding ice blast around you that deals spirit damage and slows heavily. -
Fleetfoot Removes the move-speed penalty while shooting. Activate for a burst of speed and 40% slow resist for 5 seconds. -
Guardian Ward Give an ally (or yourself) a 250-point barrier and a burst of move speed. The cooldown halves when you cast it on someone else. -
Restorative Locket Stores a stack each time an enemy uses an ability near you. Activate to spend the stacks for healing and up to 3 stamina. -
Return Fire Activate for 6.5 seconds of automatically shooting back at anyone who damages you, returning a share of their damage. -
Slowing Hex Activate on an enemy to slow them, cut their dash distance and silence their movement abilities and items. -
Spirit Sap Activate on an enemy to cut their spirit resist and spirit power for 12 seconds. -
Split Shot Activate to fire five bullets per shot for a few seconds. Hitting more than one hero stacks bonus weapon damage.
Tier 3 3,200 souls
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Alchemical Fire Throw a flask that creates a burning area for 5 seconds, dealing rising spirit damage and lowering enemy bullet resist inside it. -
Blood Tribute A toggle: drain your own health for big fire rate, debuff resist and move speed while it’s on. -
Cultist Sacrifice Activate on an enemy trooper or camp to consume it for 170% of its souls and a long-lasting buff to damage, health and range. -
Decay Activate on an enemy to make them lose a percentage of their health over 12 seconds and receive 50% less healing. It can’t kill on its own. -
Disarming Hex Activate on an enemy to disarm them for about 4 seconds and cut their bullet resist. -
Dispel Magic Activate to remove every non-ultimate debuff on you; if it removed anything, you also heal 250 and gain move speed. It can’t be used while stunned or asleep. -
Fury Trance Activate for 6.5 seconds of fire rate, 40% spirit resist and move speed with no shooting slowdown, but you’re silenced and can’t use stamina. -
Healing Nova Activate to heal yourself and every nearby ally. -
Heroic Aura Passively gives nearby allies bullet resist. Activate to give your team move speed and fire rate for 7 seconds; troopers get double. -
Knockdown Activate on an enemy to stun them after a 2-second delay. The stun lasts longer if they’re in the air. -
Majestic Leap Activate to launch high into the air with a 200-point barrier; activate again to drop faster. Disabled for 5 seconds after an enemy hero hits you. -
Metal Skin Activate to become immune to bullets for 5 seconds, at the cost of some speed. -
Rescue Beam Channel to heal an ally and yourself for a share of max health, and pull the ally towards you once during the channel. -
Shadow Weave Activate to turn invisible for up to 13 seconds. Attacking from stealth starts an ambush, briefly boosting fire rate, spirit power and melee damage. -
Silence Wave Activate to send out an expanding wave that damages and silences enemies it hits. It doesn’t stop channelled abilities. -
Warp Stone Activate to teleport a short distance forward and gain 30% bullet resist for a few seconds.
Tier 4 6,400 souls
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Arctic Blast A bigger Cold Front that freezes enemies for a second before slowing them and freezing their stamina regen. -
Capacitor A stronger Tesla Bullets, plus an active projectile that damages, heavily slows and silences the target’s movement items and abilities. -
Colossus Activate to grow larger for 7 seconds, gaining big bullet and spirit resist and melee damage, while nearby enemies are slowed. -
Cursed Relic Activate to curse an enemy for about 3 seconds: they’re interrupted, silenced, disarmed and can’t use items, and lose non-ultimate buffs. You deal less damage meanwhile. -
Divine Barrier Cleanse an ally’s non-stun debuffs and give them a 600-point barrier and move speed. Half the cooldown when cast on someone else. -
Echo Shard Activate to reset the cooldown of one chosen non-ultimate ability. The shard’s own cooldown grows with that ability’s cooldown. -
Ethereal Shift Activate to become invulnerable for 4 seconds, then gain spirit power, spirit resist and move speed. -
Focus Lens Activate to silence an enemy. When the silence ends, a portion of the damage they took during it hits them again. Also cuts their spirit resist and power. -
Infuser Activate for 7 seconds of huge spirit lifesteal (70%) and 30 spirit power. -
Magic Carpet Activate to summon a carpet that flies you away, immune to slows. Doing anything dismisses it. Also health, spirit power and ability duration. -
Phantom Strike Activate to teleport to an enemy, pull them to the ground, damage them, slow them and disarm them. -
Refresher Activate to reset the cooldowns of all your abilities and restore every charge. 300-second cooldown. -
Scourge Activate on yourself or an ally to give spirit resist and debuff resist, plus an aura that burns nearby enemies for a percentage of their max health. -
Unstoppable Activate to become immune to stun, silence, sleep, root and disarm for 5.5 seconds. It can’t be used while already stunned or asleep. -
Vampiric Burst Activate for 5 seconds of huge bullet lifesteal (70%), fire rate and bonus ammo that can exceed your magazine size. -
Vortex Web Throw a grenade that pulls every nearby enemy into a small area and applies Slowing Hex. Alt-cast to target one enemy directly.
Numbers on this page are checked against the game and the community-run Deadlock Wiki. Spotted something a patch changed? Tell us.