Deadlock got two new heroes this week, and each one pushed the game to a new all-time player peak on Steam. Baba, the pigeon lady from Central Park, arrived on October 6 and the evening peak hit 236,730. Solomon, the chess player, followed on October 9, and SteamDB logged 262,145 concurrent players. The previous record, 228,208 from October 2, lasted four days.
All of this is happening in a closed test. You still need an invite from a friend to play, and Valve has not given a release date. Heroes from the City Never Sleeps update (September 29) come out one at a time, on Tuesdays and Fridays, in an order players vote on. Three of the six are out now.
Baba: tea, yarn and a park bench with legs
In Valve's telling, Baba is a New York fixture: she sits on her bench in Central Park, sips tea and talks to her birds. Tourists ignore her. The locals always suspected there was more to it, and they were right.
- Threadsap. A chaotic spool of yarn she throws at enemies. It drains their spirit and makes her stronger.
- The bench. Her legs are not what they used to be, so the bench creaks to life and does the running, jumping and kicking for her. The announcement does not give this ability a name.
- Baba's Brews. Tea, splashed on whoever is nearby. Valve hints that some brews are sweeter than others.
- The Birds. Her ultimate. Tea time is over, out come the pigeons.
Valve called the vote that picked her "a close contest". The same post moved the end of the first Ranked season to Thursday, November 5, 2026 at 2pm Pacific, with season two starting right after.
Solomon plays the city like a chessboard
Every one of his abilities is a chess move. Valve released him on October 9 and pointed out, with some pride, that he made it just in time for National Chess Day.
- Setup Bishop. He plants his own damage dealers ahead of him and slides them along the streets.
- Kingside Knight. The defensive piece: protects allies and lets him pull back when a fight goes wrong.
- Rook Battery. A heavy charge that stops enemies in their tracks.
- Develop Queen. The ultimate. It locks enemies down, checkmate style.
Reading the kit, he looks like a control hero who works through his pieces rather than a duelist. That is my guess from the announcement, though. Valve has not published ability numbers, and the first proper player breakdowns will take a few days.
Three heroes, three player records
Rat King on October 2: 228,208. Baba: 236,730. Solomon: 262,145. Both of this week's peaks landed at exactly 21:00 UTC, the hour the hero went live. On the days in between the game sits around 155,000.
For an invite-only test with no release date, that is a lot of people.
October 5 patch: Rat King gets cut down
A small patch landed between the two heroes, and most of it is about Rat King. He had been in the game for three days.
- Rule, Ratannia! Cooldown up from 130 to 160 seconds, damage reduction down from 20% to 15%, radius from 24m to 20m, charge duration from 12s to 10s, and the bonus move speed no longer scales with Spirit.
- Its upgrades. T1 no longer takes 20 seconds off the cooldown (total goes from 110s to 160s), T2 no longer adds 8 seconds of charge (total from 20s to 10s), T3 gives 10% damage reduction instead of 15% (total from 35% to 25%).
- The small buffs. Scrap Grenade damage 65 to 70, Rat Swarm cooldown 28s to 24s.
- Sinclair. Base HP regen 2 to 1, bullet damage 17.76 to 16.5, Vexing Bolt does half damage to objectives, Audience Participation copies an ability for 9 seconds instead of 12.
Valve also fixed troopers walking too slowly in lane.
Who is next and when
Nurse Harrow, Deadman Danny and Violet are still waiting, and the vote decides who goes first. The next one arrives on Tuesday, October 13 at 2pm PDT (21:00 UTC). Solomon brings the roster to 41; after all six it will be 44.
If you missed how the game got here, from the 2024 playtest to the New York map, I went through it in how Deadlock changed over two years.
Sources
Valve on Steam: Mind the Birds! (Baba, October 6), Make Your Move. (Solomon, October 9), Minor Update 10-05-2026. Hourly player counts: SteamDB. Hero art from Valve's announcements.
