update · July 9, 2026
DEADLOCK Balance Update Adjusts Urn Runners, Rift Troopers, and Hero Kits
A balance pass for DEADLOCK alters Urn Runner mobility, strengthens Rift Troopers with resistances, and tunes dozens of heroes including Doorman, Drifter, and Shiv.
A sweeping balance update for DEADLOCK shakes up match pacing by dialing back Urn Runner mobility, bolstering Rift Troopers, and recalibrating damage scaling across a large roster of heroes.
Urn Runner Adjustments
Urn Runner movement mechanics see heavy nerfs. Sprint bonuses are down from +2m to 0, with trailing bonuses dropping from +7m to +5m. Move speed bonus drops from +3.5m to +2m, though stamina recovery gets a buff from +15% to +25%. Urn audio cues are also more frequent and louder, talking every 6 seconds instead of 8 with increased sound distance.
Rift Troopers and Objectives
Rift Troopers now feature 30% to 45% Spirit Resist scaling by level, alongside a flat 25% Melee Resistance. Their spawn interval is staggered slightly from 0.3s to 0.5s, max comeback count increases from 12 to 14, and the comeback resist aura radius expands from 20m to 35m. Additionally, objective bounties split for nearby heroes drop from 40% to 30%, shifting a larger portion of the bounty team-wide.
Hero Balance Changes: Doorman, Drifter, and Graves
Doorman's base bullet damage shifts to 26 + 1.19 per boon, crit scaling drops to -30%, and Hotel Guest T3 cooldown on failure increases to 15s. Drifter sees reduced bullet damage per boon (+0.49), a weaker Bloodscent T3 (+11%), and Stalker's Mark cooldown increased to 24s. Graves gains faster Jar of Dead build-up from neutral creeps and melee proc for Essence Theft, but suffers a shorter 1s immobilize on Grasping Hands.
Hero Balance Changes: Shiv, Mirage, and Others
Shiv's Serrated Knives and Slice and Dice spirit scalings are reduced, Bloodletting cooldown increases to 25s, and his Killing Blow threshold drops to 18%. Mirage receives spirit scaling nerfs to Fire Scarabs and Dust Devil alongside faster Djinn's Mark cooldowns. Scourge, Billy, Haze, Holliday, Pocket, Silver, Victor, Viscous, and Yamato also receive various scaling and cooldown tweaks.
Why this patch matters
This patch targets outlier mobility and forces players to rethink routing and hero builds with widespread scaling adjustments across the entire roster.