Updated on November 8, 2026. Ranked Beta Season 2 started on November 5 with a lighter rank reset, four hero bans instead of three and fewer loss shields. A day earlier Valve shipped a balance patch that trims Baba, Celeste and Deadman Danny and gives Rat King and Nurse Harrow a little more punch.
This page tracks every Deadlock patch and every new hero in one place, newest first. I update it once a week from Valve's own posts on Steam, so nothing here comes from leaks or datamines. Deadlock is still an invite-only playtest with no release date, and Valve has not said otherwise.
Latest update: Ranked Beta Season 2 and the November 4 patch
Season 1 ended on November 5. Everyone who played it gets a Hideout plaque of the highest rank they reached. Season 2 runs for four months, until Thursday, March 11, 2027. What changed for ranked players:
- Smaller soft reset. On average you drop about one badge, and last season's win rate shifts you another 1-2 subranks. Valve also redistributed the whole rank curve first, so some players actually start higher than they finished. No new calibration if you played Season 1.
- Fewer shields. Phantom, Ascendant and Eternus lose rank protection entirely. Everyone else gets 3 shields on a full badge (was 5) and 1 on a subrank (was 2).
- More points per match. A game is worth 350 points instead of 300, and the jump from the last subrank to a new badge costs 1500 instead of 2000.
- Four hero bans per match, up from three.
- Hero unlocks by points. 35 points to unlock a hero for ranked, 2 for a win and 1 for a loss. At a 50% win rate that is quicker than the old 15 wins.
- Leaderboards per season. You need 50 ranked matches in the last 30 days to appear, or 15 on one hero for that hero's board. Placements now go as high as Ascendant I, up to Ascendant III for strong Season 1 results (the cap used to be Oracle VI).
The patch from November 4 is short, 34 lines, and almost all of it is heroes:
- Nerfed: Baba (less spirit resistance scaling, Baba's Brew on a 28s cooldown, Granny Long Legs resists down to 25%), Celeste (Shining Wonder cooldown 170s, shorter silence on Dazzling Trick), Deadman Danny (Close the Deal bonus against low-health targets down from +75% to +55%) and the Healbane item.
- Buffed: Apollo (Riposte pommel hit now disarms), Mo & Krill (bigger Burrow radius, 50 health per Combo kill), Nurse Harrow (+8% bullet damage, faster fear from Lurking Terrors) and Rat King (26 ammo, Rule, Ratannia! T1 now cuts the cooldown by 25s).
Baba has now been toned down in three patches in a row (October 14, October 30 and November 4). Rat King went the other way. I read that as Valve still tuning the City Never Sleeps heroes rather than reacting to one bad week.
Heroes added
City Never Sleeps (September 29, 2026) promised six new heroes, released on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2pm PT in an order players voted on. All six are out, and Deadlock has 44 heroes. Valve has not announced the next one. Valve does not label heroes by role, so the second column is my short reading of each hero's kit from the launch post.
| Hero | What the kit does | Added |
|---|---|---|
| Nurse Harrow | Support: Leech Therapy drains enemies, Wretched Vapors boost allies, Healing Needles heal teammates | October 20, 2026 |
| Violet | Gunner: Living Ink empowers her bullets, Flow State for damage or escape, Abstract Landscape ultimate | October 16, 2026 |
| Deadman Danny | Flying rocket damage: Chimera Mk1 jetpack, Strix Salvo missiles mark targets, Close the Deal finisher | October 13, 2026 |
| Solomon | Summoner and control: chess pieces, Setup Bishop damage dealers, Kingside Knight shield, Develop Queen lockdown | October 9, 2026 |
| Baba | Spirit brawler: Threadsap steals enemy spirit, a walking park bench, Baba's Brew burn | October 6, 2026 |
| Rat King | Frontline: Scrap Grenade, Rat Swarm, damage reduction from Royal Pestments, Banner of Ratannia | October 2, 2026 |
New heroes go to the top of this table on the day Valve releases them.
How to get into Deadlock
There is still no buy button and no sign-up. The only way in is an invite from a Steam friend who already has the game: they open Deadlock, click Invite Your Friends in the main menu and pick you. Codes and "invite links" sold on marketplaces are a scam. If your Steam account is limited (under $5 spent), let the other person send the friend request.
The full walkthrough, with what to check when the invite does not show up, is in my Deadlock invite guide. I also invite readers myself: send your Steam friend code (the number, not a profile link) to [email protected].
Update log
Player count is holding up well after the hero run ended. The first week of November peaked between 199 and 263 thousand a day on SteamDB, below the record of 303,347 from October 16 (Violet's release day) but far above anything Deadlock saw in 2025.
- November 5, 2026. Ranked Beta Season 2 starts, ends March 11, 2027. Details above.
- November 4, 2026. Minor update: Baba, Celeste, Deadman Danny and Healbane nerfed; Apollo, Mo & Krill, Nurse Harrow and Rat King buffed.
- October 30, 2026. Halloween 2026 + Gameplay Update, about 260 lines: the mid boss gets +20% health and drops three Rejuvenator crystals, its reward goes from 3000 to 1500, the six new heroes can be banned in ranked, candy cauldrons on the map until November 2. Our breakdown.
- October 20, 2026. Nurse Harrow, the last of the six City Never Sleeps heroes.
- October 16, 2026. Violet. Same day the game set its concurrent record, 303,347. Our news.
- October 14, 2026. Minor update: Baba weakened (spirit resistance, Threadsap cooldown 28s), Deadman Danny strengthened.
- October 13, 2026. Deadman Danny.
- October 9, 2026. Solomon.
- October 6, 2026. Baba.
- October 5, 2026. Minor update: Rat King tuned (Scrap Grenade up to 70 damage, Rule, Ratannia! cooldown up from 130s to 160s), trooper walking speed bug fixed.
- October 2, 2026. Rat King, first of the six new heroes.
- September 29, 2026. City Never Sleeps: the map rebuilt as New York, new neutrals, the Broker and Corrupted Items, HUD and accessibility updates, hero voting.
For everything before City Never Sleeps, from the 2024 leak to the 2025 slump, see how Deadlock changed in two years.
Sources
Valve, Deadlock announcements on Steam: Ranked - Beta Season 2 (November 5, 2026), Minor Update - 11-04-2026, Halloween 2026 + Gameplay Update, hero posts from October 2 to October 20, 2026, and the City Never Sleeps page. Player counts: SteamDB, checked November 8, 2026. Images: Valve (Deadlock store page, City Never Sleeps page and the Season 2 announcement).
