Deadlock has 44 heroes, not 38, and Valve has not reworked a single one of them. Between 12 February 2026, when Apollo finished the six-hero rollout that took the roster to 38, and 20 October, when Nurse Harrow arrived, Valve posted 25 announcements on Steam. In those posts the word “reworked” is attached to the Urn, the boon reward table and one item, never to a hero. What did change is the objective system, a handful of map pieces, the matchmaking and the roster itself, and this tracker sorts it by system so you can see what to relearn.
Every number below is Valve’s, taken from its Steam posts; the ones we cite are listed in Sources. We did not measure anything in-game. The hero line counts are our own tally of those posts, and the method is stated where they appear. The notes are current to the 20 October 2026 announcement, the newest one in Steam’s feed on 29 October.
What should you read first in the Deadlock patch notes?
Read four posts, in this order, and skip the other 21 unless you main a specific hero.
- 30 June: the Unstable Rift and Urn rebuild is the objective system you play against today.
- 16 September: the comeback-bounty and slow changes decide how games swing back.
- 29 September: the City Never Sleeps post holds Valve’s own list of what is still unfinished.
- 30 July: the Matchmaking Update if you want to queue for Ranked.
Deadlock patches since the 38th hero, in order
The biggest single post was 6 March, which carries four patches inside it; the biggest system change was the Urn, which Valve rewrote in May and June.
| Date (2026) | What changed |
|---|---|
| 6 Mar | Gameplay Update: shrine HP, Mid Boss HP, new neutral camps at two Walkers, the mid-lane bridge moved. Holds the 7, 10 and 21 Mar patches. |
| 30 Apr | Gameplay Update: base health per boon down 7, Walker bullet resistance 15% to 25%. |
| 22 May | Gameplay Update: shrines invulnerable until a pair of Base Guardians falls, Mid Boss spawned from the start, first replacement Urn (an experiment). |
| 25 May to 11 Jun | Urn drop-off moved (25 May), Urn turned into a capture point (4 Jun), give-up timer cut (11 Jun). |
| 30 Jun | Unstable Rift renamed and split from the Urn; bounty and ultimate-cooldown cuts. |
| 1 to 28 Jul | Shiv change reverted (1 Jul), Urn runner sprint trimmed (9 Jul), item tuning (28 Jul). |
| 30 Jul | Ranked mode and Standard mode. |
| 12 and 22 Aug | 13 heroes retuned on 12 Aug (post); Celeste alone on 22 Aug (post). |
| 16 Sep | Comeback bounties trimmed, slows cut about 20%. |
| 29 Sep | City Never Sleeps: new look for the map and neutrals, six new heroes queued. |
| 2 to 20 Oct | One new hero every Tuesday and Friday, plus follow-up patches on 5 and 14 Oct. |
Why was the Deadlock Urn rebuilt three times?
Valve replaced the original Urn rules three times between 22 May and 30 June, 39 days apart, and the third design is the one live now. The table shows what each design asked a team to do.
| Version | How the Urn worked |
|---|---|
| 22 May | Melee the Urn to pick it up, drop it on the mid-map bridge, then wait out a depositing timer of 3, 5 or 10 seconds (favored, neutral, unfavored). The enemy can heavy-melee it to flip the claim and add 1.25 seconds to their own timer. |
| 4 Jun | Delivery starts a king-of-the-hill circle with a 20m radius. Both teams can progress at once, and it is claimed when one team is alone in the circle. Progress takes 6, 12 or 18 seconds. |
| 30 Jun | The Urn is its own objective: it spawns at either end of the map and is carried to the opposite end, with instant deposit. A melee hit, stun or death drops it. The runner earns 250 plus 70 per minute. |
The notes never state Valve’s reasons, so this part is our reading. Each version removes the previous version’s sticking point: the 4 June post says delivery no longer uses “melee to flip the urn back and forth”, and the 30 June post says the Rift “no longer requires an Urn delivery to trigger”. The king-of-the-hill objective was renamed Unstable Rift the same day, and the Urn stopped being its trigger.
Two things from the 30 June post catch players out. The Urn runner is no longer revealed, disarmed or silenced, and cannot parry. And the Urn bounty starts decaying 45 seconds after pickup, so a slow carry is worth less than a quick one.
Did the Deadlock map change in 2026?
The map got a new look and a few moved pieces, but the lane count stayed at three. Valve cut the lanes from four to three in the February 2025 Map Rework Update, and none of the 25 posts we read mentions a lane being added or removed. The structural edits since are small:
| Date | Map change |
|---|---|
| 6 Mar | Neutral camps (2 Normal, 3 Weak) added at the Hidden King Park and Archmother York Walkers; the mid-lane bridge above the Hidden King base entrance moved toward the middle. |
| 22 May | Two outward-pointing jump pads near the middle removed; Mid Boss now spawned from the start of the game. |
| 30 Jun | Jump pads on top of the double sinner buildings removed. |
| 29 Sep | Valve: “a massive visual update to the map and neutrals”. |
For the 29 September update, PCGamesN goes further than Valve and calls it “a much more substantial upgrade to the visuals and layout of the map”. It lists new neutral camps per region, a Plaza mist that drains stamina, and crates that need a heavy melee. Neither source describes a different lane structure.
The objectives you push through changed more than the terrain. The first shrine went from 8,100 HP to 5,000 and the second to 10,000. Base Guardians went from 5,500 to 4,000 HP on 10 March. Mid Boss went from 11,900 to 13,000 HP and its bounty from 2,000 to 3,000. The bounties for the first two lane objectives moved twice:
| Bounty | 6 Mar | 30 Jun |
|---|---|---|
| Guardian | 1,000 to 1,500 | 1,500 to 1,250 |
| Walker | 3,500 to 4,000 | 4,000 to 3,500 |
The Walker bounty ended June exactly where it started in March, and the Guardian bounty ended 250 higher. On 16 September Valve added 10% to the Guardian bounty and 5% to the Walker bounty on top.
The same 29 September post carries Valve’s own admission about the rest: Midboss “(both the model and the layout to a degree), Guardians and Walkers” are things it considers “important but just haven’t gotten to yet”. Valve gives no date, but its own note points there next.
Were any Deadlock heroes reworked in 2026?
No hero got a rework in the posts we read, but four abilities were rebuilt hard enough to relearn:
- Paradox, Paradoxical Swap (7 Mar): damage changed from 10% of current health to a flat 125 with 1.1 spirit scaling, then raised to 150 on 22 May.
- Mirage, Traveler (6 Mar): it became a delayed teleport instead of a channel: a 3 second wait, and damage interrupts it with a 6 second cooldown. The 21 March patch cut those to 2 and 4 seconds.
- Apollo, Disengaging Sigil (11 Jun): all three upgrade tiers were rewritten, and you can now steer the launch with A, D, W and S.
- Shiv, Slice and Dice (30 Jun, reversed 1 Jul): it became light melee damage with a damage amp, then went back to spirit damage and a spirit resistance cut, with damage 60 to 75.
The 6 March post also renamed six abilities (two each on Ivy and Paige, one each on Mirage and Yamato) and an item, Backstabber, now Stalker. Renames matter if you search old guides for an ability by name.
Every one of the 38 older heroes was touched at least once. In the 25 posts we read, about 2,300 bullet lines in all, we counted the lines that begin with a hero’s name: about 1,600. This counts attention rather than nerf size, and it includes nested lines.
| Most-touched heroes | Lines (posts) |
|---|---|
| Shiv | 78 (9) |
| McGinnis | 74 (6) |
| Doorman | 73 (8) |
| Mirage | 69 (5) |
| Viscous | 64 (8) |
| Least-touched heroes | Lines (posts) |
|---|---|
| Bebop | 7 (3) |
| Sinclair | 9 (1) |
| Venator | 11 (4) |
| Vyper | 12 (5) |
| Grey Talon | 14 (3) |
Sinclair’s nine lines come from one post, 5 October, and every one is a nerf. Bebop got seven lines across three posts, all between 6 March and 11 June, and none since. If your main is on the second list (Sinclair excepted), the numbers you learned in spring are probably still close. If your main is on the first, they are not.
How did Valve retune the six new heroes?
It retuned three of the six within eight days and has not touched the other three yet. City Never Sleeps released a hero every Tuesday and Friday from 2 October, chosen by player vote (Valve reports over 110 million votes), and the roster reached 44, which the Deadlock Wiki confirms.
| Hero (release) | First retune |
|---|---|
| Rat King (2 Oct) | 5 Oct: Rule, Ratannia! cooldown 130 to 160, total damage reduction 35% to 25%. |
| Baba (6 Oct) | 14 Oct: Baba’s Brew barrier scaling 1.2 to 0.7, and 7% less base bullet resistance. |
| Solomon (9 Oct) | None posted by 20 Oct. |
| Deadman Danny (13 Oct) | 14 Oct: base health 680 to 730, Strix Salvo cooldown 30s to 25s. |
| Violet (16 Oct) | None posted by 20 Oct. |
| Nurse Harrow (20 Oct) | None posted by 20 Oct. |
Two mostly-nerf retunes (Rat King’s also carried two small buffs, to Scrap Grenade damage and Rat Swarm cooldown), one buff and three untouched. As a rule of thumb (our heuristic, not Valve’s), treat the numbers on any hero less than a week old as provisional. Sources for the releases: Rat King, Baba, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Violet and the 14 October patch.
How does Deadlock Ranked work now?
Ranked launched on 30 July 2026 beside a new unranked Standard mode, and its first season now runs to 5 November. The Matchmaking Update sets the entry bar: 60 wins in Standard, at least 3 heroes unlocked, and only heroes you have won 15 Standard games with. Ranked is solo or duo only, and you play 8 calibration games, from which you can exit no higher than Oracle VI.
The season was due to end on 7 October. The 6 October post pushed it back to Thursday 5 November at 2pm PDT, with the next season starting straight after. Each win or loss moves you about 250 Rank Points, and a sub-rank costs 1,000 points (2,000 for the last sub-rank before a new rank).
What should you relearn first?
It depends on when you stopped playing. Find your row.
| You last played | Read first |
|---|---|
| Before 6 Mar | The 6 Mar General section (shrines, Guardians, Mid Boss), then the Urn table above. |
| Spring | 30 Jun Urn and Unstable Rift, then 16 Sep. |
| August | 16 Sep comeback changes, then the 29 Sep post. |
| Last month | The six-hero table and the 14 Oct patch. |
The right order also depends on who you are. A brand-new player should skip the history and start with our Deadlock beginner’s guide, which explains the invite wall and souls; its hero count of 38 is now six short. A Ranked climber should read the 16 September comeback changes and the Ranked rules above. A hero main should look up their name in the counts and read the posts that name them. And if you use our Deadlock tier list, know that it ranks the 38-hero roster and was last checked against the 30 June patch, so it knows nothing of the six new heroes or the changes since.
Deadlock patch notes FAQ
How many heroes are in Deadlock right now?
There are 44. The wiki counts 44 playable characters and tags six as added in City Never Sleeps. A figure of 38 was only right from 12 February to 1 October 2026, so a guide quoting it predates the new releases.
Did Valve rework any Deadlock heroes?
No, and the difference matters. A rework replaces what a hero does; Valve’s 2026 changes rewrote upgrade tiers and numbers, and in a few cases how an ability works (Mirage’s Traveler, Shiv’s Slice and Dice), but none replaced a hero’s kit. Apollo’s three Disengaging Sigil tiers are one example, and the ability still launches him out of a fight.
Is Deadlock still invite-only?
Yes. Valve’s store page says access is “limited to friend invites via our playtesters”, with no release date. The 29 September note itself calls the game “unfinished”, so do not read the six-hero update as a launch signal.
Where are the official Deadlock patch notes?
On the game’s Steam news page. Most balance patches are titled “Gameplay Update” or “Minor Update” with a date, while the Matchmaking Update, City Never Sleeps and the hero releases have their own titles. Check the date in the title, not the post date: the “Minor Update – 10-14-2026” post went up at 03:11 UTC on 15 October.
Sources
- Valve. Old Gods, New Blood. Steam announcement, 22 January 2026
- Valve. Apollo – A Cut Above. Steam announcement, 12 February 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1824459501608168)
- Valve. Gameplay Update – 03-06-2026. Steam announcement, 6 March 2026; also holds the 7, 10 and 21 March patches (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1826362059925616)
- Valve. Gameplay Update – 04-30-2026. Steam announcement, 30 April 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1831432155569981)
- Valve. Gameplay Update – 05-22-2026. Steam announcement, 22 May 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1833334318572828)
- Valve. Minor Update – 05-25-2026. Steam announcement, posted 28 May 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1833968530888746)
- Valve. Minor Update – 06-04-2026. Steam announcement, 4 June 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1834602721188293)
- Valve. Minor Update – 06-11-2026. Steam announcement, 11 June 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1835236783562074)
- Valve. Minor Update – 06-30-2026. Steam announcement, 30 June 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1836506165563227)
- Valve. Minor Update – 07-01-2026. Steam announcement, 1 July 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1836506165566600)
- Valve. Minor Update – 07-09-2026. Steam announcement, 9 July 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1836506165584438)
- Valve. Minor Update – 07-28-2026. Steam announcement, 28 July 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1839041357039193)
- Valve. Matchmaking Update. Steam announcement, 30 July 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1839676055886206)
- Valve. Minor Update – 08-12-2026. Steam announcement, 12 August 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1840944183775204)
- Valve. Minor Update – 08-22-2026. Steam announcement, 22 August 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1841579228672283)
- Valve. Minor Update – 09-16-2026. Steam announcement, 16 September 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1844115010490072)
- Valve. City Never Sleeps. Steam announcement, 29 September 2026, including the development note (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1844751498235383)
- Valve. Listen up, Crumbums! Your King is here.. Steam announcement, 2 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1845383656387709)
- Valve. Minor Update – 10-05-2026. Steam announcement, 5 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1845383656394833)
- Valve. Mind the Birds!. Steam announcement, 6 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1845383656397580)
- Valve. Make Your Move.. Steam announcement, 9 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1846018067934643)
- Valve. Fairfax Industries Employee Spotlight. Steam announcement, 13 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1846018067945303)
- Valve. Minor Update – 10-14-2026. Steam announcement, posted 15 October 2026 (UTC) (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1846651706676198)
- Valve. Paint the Town. Steam announcement, 16 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1846651706683085)
- Valve. Shh… This Won’t Hurt a Bit.. Steam announcement, 20 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1846651706696737)
- Valve. Map Rework Update. Steam announcement, 25 February 2025 (https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1422450/view/1792116353369036)
- PCGamesN. After an eight month wait, Valve’s massive Deadlock update feels like the spark that begins its unstoppable rise. 30 September 2026 (https://www.pcgamesn.com/deadlock/city-never-sleeps-update)
- The Deadlock Wiki. Heroes. retrieved 29 October 2026 (https://deadlock.wiki/Heroes)
- Valve. Deadlock. Steam store page, retrieved 29 October 2026 (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1422450/Deadlock/)
I've been playing video games for over 20 years, spanning everything from early PC titles to modern open-world games. I started Switchblade Gaming to publish the kind of accurate, well-researched guides I always wanted to find — built on primary sources, tested in-game, and kept up to date after patches. I currently focus on Minecraft and Pokémon GO.