Deadlock’s new heroes: Diverse playstyles and meta shake up

Valve has introduced a slew of new heroes into its secretive hero shooter, Deadlock. Six new characters will be available in the coming days, and they will be drip-fed into the game to allow each one time to breathe.

The gaming giant has also chosen to introduce a voting system in “The Hideout”, which allows players to choose by ballot which character will be introduced into the game next. This feature seems to be a permanent addition to the game, with the future possibility of it becoming a “fun place to spend time” with options for “personalization, achievements, and events,” according to a Valve blog post.

The first of the new heroes has launched, though there’s more to come in the next two weeks.

These are the new heroes added to Deadlock over the coming weeks, with them being added one by one. The only one to have been released so far is Mina, who is a DPS burst character with huge damage potential.

Deadlock’s selection of new characters will be added one-by-one, with a two-day gap between launches. Below, we’ve noted all the dates the new characters will be added. However, it’s still to be decided the order each hero will be added, thanks to the community voting system that’s been implemented.

The first of the new heroes to be introduced is Mina, a metropolitan, upper-class vampire who married into royalty. Seething with fury and machinations of revenge after her lover’s murder, she seeks out immortality and vampirism with the help of her parents.

Mina is a DPS character with extraordinarily high damage potential, but all the vulnerabilities of a glass cannon. Her passive ability, Love Bites, leeches away at opponents’ health, using this to grow her vampiric abilities. She’s well equipped with fast escapes, which come in the form of her bat transformation, and this culminates in her Ultra, Nox Nostra, a giant swarm of bats that pokes and mutilates enemies.

Billy the Goat is a punk-rocker goat wielding a spiky baseball bat, “furious at the very notion of … something”, as his Hero Spotlight puts it.

His first ability, Bashdown, slams his bat into the ground and throws enemies up into the air. His next ability, Rising Ram, charges head-first into enemies to throw Billy and his enemies into the air. His third is Blasted, which gives Billy enhanced movement speed at the same time as passively collecting ammo from melee attacks.

Billy’s unique movepool quickly asserts him as a great crowd-control hero.

Paige is an avid reader with the ability to bring books to life. Little is known about her character, even less so than Billy, though leaks and datamines have suggested that her abilities will fit into a summoner-support role.

Early 3D models shared on Discord linked to her character suggest she can summon a dragon, a knight riding a horse, a sword and shield, and a pile of rocks – the latter far less mythical than the others.

The Doorman was playable through console commands in a previous build of the game. According to the leaks, spoken about on the leakers Discord, his second ability placed portals (that apparently function just like the portals in Valve’s Portal series) that transport enemies.

A video has also recently emerged on Reddit, which showcases what could be The Doorman’s ultimate. The video appears to show Billy the Goat trapped inside a nightmare realm, an impossible reality reminiscent of Itachi’s genjutsu, with The Doorman laying down psychological taunts tailored towards the hero he has trapped.

“Billy, I would take this time to confront your inner demons,” he says in the video.

A door sits at the end of the corridor, with no other means of escape aside from falling to your death.

Nothing much is known about Victor. Perhaps named after Victor Frankenstein, or his monster, he’s likely going to be a heavy tank character capable of eating up damage and dealing it out equally aggressively.

Little is known about Drifter as he has featured in few leaks. One of his passive abilities displays a visible trail behind enemies on low health, allowing him to poach easy kills. When Drifter is “satiated”, he gains damage and movement speed bonuses, but when he is “hungry”, he sees damage and stamina debuffs.

The upcoming Deadlock heroes promise to shake up the current meta with new, diverse playstyles. Mina introduces a high-risk, high-reward return through her glass cannon DPS, and her life-steal looks to leap over the existing DPS characters, such as Grey Talon and Seven. With this, she’s going to adopt a role as a vital carry character due to her passive Love Bites extending her presence on the map.

Billy the Goat adds in disruptive melee brawling and crowd control, sharing similar potential as Infernus and Warden. However, with enhanced mobility, he’s going to sit nicely as a frontline bruiser. Paige, on the other hand, offers a unique summoner-support role, expanding her area control through her summons. The potential for terrain and environment metaforming is also an interesting new addition.

Meanwhile, The Doorman offers tactical depth with portal placement. His mechanics seem unlike anything seen in Deadlock so far, though if Marvel Rivals’ Doctor Strange character is anything to go by, he’s going to be a pesky, irritating hero to face up against.

Drifter is going to thrive on executions, quickly manoeuvring the stage to finish off vulnerable enemies. His “satiated/hungry” states will allow him to quickly snowball damage, but played in the wrong hands, he could become a distinct liability for team play.

The introduction of these six new characters brings the total playable hero count to 36, a staggering amount for a hero shooter that hasn’t seen an official release. For example, Overwatch 2 has 39, while Marvel Rivals has 41.

Valve has tested and developed at least 89 different heroes, each of which has been found through datamining. If it finishes anywhere near that total, Deadlock will undoubtedly become one of the most diverse hero shooters out there – at the ultimate risk of oversaturation, perhaps?