Deadlock Heroes: All 21 Playtest Characters & Abilities Revealed

Valve's upcoming hero shooter hybrid, Deadlock, has been shrouded in mystery, with only a select few granted access to the playtest. But now, the veil is lifted! This article unveils all 21 playable characters and their unique abilities, giving you a glimpse into the diverse roster of heroes ready to battle it out in this intriguing new game.

Deadlock promises a thrilling blend of MOBA and hero shooter gameplay, boasting a diverse roster of characters, each with a distinct playstyle and a unique set of abilities. While the official release date remains unknown, the current playtest provides valuable insights into the game's mechanics and the potential strategies that players can utilise.

Let's dive into the character roster, exploring each hero's unique abilities and potential for team compositions:

Abram: "Charges into close combat"

Siphon Life: Drains health from enemies in front of Abram while they are in the radius.

Shoulder Charge: Charges forward, colliding with enemies and dragging them along. Speed increases after colliding with enemy heroes.

Infernal Resilience: Regenerates a portion of incoming damage over time.

Seismic Impact: Leaps high into the air and slams into a chosen ground location, damaging and stunning all enemies within the radius.

Bebop: "Hooks an enemy for a knockout combo"

Exploding Uppercut: Deals Light Melee damage to nearby units, sending them flying back and causing area damage where they land. Does not damage allies.

Sticky Bomb: Attaches a Sticky Bomb to a nearby target, dealing explosive damage after a short fuse time. Gains +2.5% bomb damage for every enemy hero hit.

Hook: Launches a hook that grabs and reels in the first enemy or friendly hero it hits, dealing damage if the target is an enemy.

Hyper Beam: Charges up a laser to unleash a powerful torrent of energy, dealing damage and slowing enemies. Reduces movement and turn rate for the duration. Hovers while unleashing the beam if activated in the air.

Dynamo: "Locks down the enemy team"

Kinetic Pulse: Releases an energy pulse that knocks enemies into the air.

Quantum Entanglement: Briefly disappears into the void and reappears a short distance away, reloading Dynamo's weapon and granting a fire rate bonus for the next clip. Can be cast with [M3] to bring nearby allies and give them half the fire rate bonus.

Rejuvenating Aurora: Restores health over time to Dynamo and nearby allies while channeling.

Singularity: Creates a singularity in Dynamo's hands, pulling in nearby enemies and damaging them. Enemies are knocked into the air when it finishes.

Grey Talon: "Delivers long range skill shots"

Charged Shot: Charges up a powerful shot that pierces through enemies. Hold [1] or [LMC] to hold the shot.

Rain of Arrows: Launches Grey Talon high in the air, allowing them to glide slowly. Gains Weapon Damage and multishot on their weapon while airborne. Press [SPACE] to cancel the glide.

Immobilizing Trap: Throws a trap that begins to arm itself. Once armed, the trap triggers when an enemy enters its radius, immobilizing them.

Guided Owl: After a 1.5s cast time, launches a spirit owl that the player controls and explodes on impact. Hold [LMC] to accelerate the owl. Press [SPACE] to release control.

Haze: "Sneaks in and sprays bullets"

Sleep Dagger: Throws a dagger that damages and sleeps the target. Sleeping targets wake up shortly after being damaged. Throwing a Dagger does not break invisibility.

Smoke Bomb: Fades out of sight, becoming invisible and gaining sprint speed. Attacking removes invisibility. Close enemies can see through Haze's invisibility.

Fixation: Shooting a target increases bullet damage on that target. Gains one stack per bullet hit, two if the hit is a headshot.

Bullet Dance: Enters a flurry, firing Haze's weapon at nearby enemies with perfect accuracy. Gains a fire rate bonus and evades some incoming bullets during the flurry.

Infernus: "Lights up enemies and watches them burn"

Catalyst: Spews napalm that slows enemy movement and amplifies the damage Infernus deals to them.

Flame Dash: Moves forward at high speed, leaving a flame trail that burns enemies. Hold [LMC] to dash faster.

Afterburn: Infernus's bullets build up to apply a burning effect on enemies. Infernus's bullets and abilities refresh the duration.

Concussive Combustion: Turns Infernus into a living bomb that explodes after a short delay, stunning all enemies in its radius.

Ivy: "Sets up a power duo with a lucky ally"

Kudzy Bomb: Summons a patch of choking vines that damages and slows enemies in its radius.

Watcher's Covenant: Gains bonuses and automatically connects with a nearby ally to share them. Healing is replicated among all connected. Connection requires line of sight.

True Form: Turns Ivy into impervious stone and smashes into the ground, stunning and damaging enemies nearby. Heals Ivy for a percentage of their max health. Some air control is available before falling.

Falling Grace: Jumps into the air and starts flying for a short time. Deals damage based on flight duration and gains a regeneration boost upon hitting the ground. Can end the flight and dive early by pressing [LMC].

Kelvin: "Freezes enemies in their tracks"

Frost Grenade: Throws a grenade that explodes in a cloud of freezing ice, damaging and slowing enemies.

Ice Path: Creates a floating trail of ice and snow that grants movement bonuses to Kelvin and allies. Kelvin gains 50% slow resistance for the duration. Enemies can also walk on the floating trail. Press [LEFT SHIFT] / [LEFT CTRL] to travel up or down while on the Ice Path.

Arctic Beam: Shoots freezing cold energy out in front of Kelvin, damaging and slowing anything it touches. The slow increases in strength with each hit and applies disarm at maximum strength. Kelvin has reduced movement speed while using the Arctic Beam, but this reduction is removed if using Ice Path.

Frozen Shelter: Kelvin freezes the air around them, creating an impenetrable dome. Allies rapidly regenerate health and enemies are slowed while in the dome.

Lady Geist: "Sacrifices health then drains it back"

Essence Bomb: Sacrifices some of Lady Geist's health to launch a bomb that deals damage after a brief arm time. Self damage type is Spirit and can be mitigated.

Life Drain: Creates a tether that drains enemy health over time and heals Lady Geist. The target must be in line of sight and within max range to drain. Lady Geist can shoot and use other abilities while draining, but their movement speed is reduced by half. Press [2] to cancel.

Malice: Sacrifices some of Lady Geist's health to launch blood shards that apply a stack of Malice. Each stack slows the victim and increases the damage they take from Lady Geist. The slow effect decreases over time.

Soul Exchange: Swaps health levels with an enemy target. Activation requires the enemy to have higher health than Lady Geist. There is a minimum health percentage that enemies can be brought down to.

Lash: "Dives down to stomp his foes"

Ground Strike: Stomps the ground beneath Lash, damaging enemies in front of them. If performed while airborne, Lash quickly dives towards the ground.

Grapple: Pulls Lash through the air towards a target, granting a weapon damage bonus. This bonus stacks independently. Using Grapple also restores one stamina charge and all air jumps and dashes.

Flog: Strikes enemies with Lash's whip, stealing life from them.

Death Slam: Focuses on enemies to connect whips to them. After channeling, connected enemies are lifted and stunned then slammed into the ground. Victims and any enemies in the landing zone are damaged and slowed. Press [LMC] to throw connected enemies early.

McGinnis: "Controls the battle with combat turrets"

Mini Turret: Deploys a Mini Turret that automatically shoots enemies. The turret expires after a limited lifetime. Turrets gain 40% of McGinnis's max health and have 60% Spirit Resist. They deal reduced damage to troopers and objectives.

Medicinal Specter: Deploys a spirit that heals nearby units.

Spectral Wall: Creates a wall that divides the terrain in half. Deals damage and applies slow to enemies nearby on creation. Press [LMC] or [3] to erupt the wall early after casting.

Heavy Barrage: Unleashes a volley of rockets that home in on a targeted location.

Mo & Krill: "Burrows underneath his opponents"

Scorn: Deals damage to nearby enemies and heals Mo & Krill based on the damage done. Heals stronger against enemy heroes.

Burrow: Burrows underground, moving faster and gaining spirit and bullet armor. Damage from enemy heroes will reduce the speed bonus. Knocks enemies into the air and performs a spin attack that damages and slows when jumping out. The cooldown starts when Burrow ends.

Sand Blast: Sprays sand that disarms enemies in front of Mo & Krill and deals damage.

Combo: Holds a target in place, stunning them and dealing damage during the channel.

Paradox: "Manipulates Space and Time"

Pulse Grenade: Throws a grenade that begins pulsing when it lands. Each pulse applies damage, movement slow, and stacking damage amplification for Paradox against the victim.

Time Wall: Creates a time warping wall that stops time for all enemy projectiles and bullets that touch it. Enemies that touch the wall will take damage as a percentage of their max health and be briefly slowed.

Kinetic Carbine: Starts charging Paradox's weapon and gains increased movement speed once it's fully charged. The next shot releases the energy, dealing spirit damage and applying a time stop to the enemy hit. Damage dealt is an amplification of Paradox's current weapon damage. Can slow time on Paradox by pressing [RMC] while an empowered shot is available.

Paradoxical Swap: Fires a projectile that swaps Paradox's position with the target enemy hero. Gains spell lifesteal while the effect occurs, and the enemy takes damage over time.

Pocket: "Infiltrates and disrupts the backline"

Barrage: Channels to launch projectiles that deal damage and apply movement slow around their impact point. Each projectile landed on a hero grants Pocket a stacking buff that amplifies all of their damage. If cast while in the air, Pocket floats and maintains any horizontal momentum they started with.

Flying Cloak: Launches a sentient cloak that travels forward and damages enemies. Pocket can teleport to the cloak's location as it travels out, ending its lifetime early.

Enchanter's Satchel: Escapes into Pocket's suitcase. Deals damage to nearby enemies when the duration ends. Duration can be ended early by performing any action.

Affliction: Applies damage over time to all enemies nearby. Affliction's damage is non-lethal and does not apply item procs.

Shiv: "Bleeds out foes, then goes in for a kill"

Serrated Knives: Throws a knife that damages and slows an enemy. Each additional hit adds a stack and refreshes the debuff duration, causing the damage to increase per stack. While rage is full, knives will ricochet to another enemy and apply a slow to enemies they bleed.

Slice and Dice: Performs a dash forward, damaging enemies along the path. While rage is full, an echo of Shiv retraces the dash path after a short delay, damaging enemies again.

Bloodletting: Takes only a portion of incoming damage immediately, deferring the rest to be taken over time. Activates to clear a portion of the deferred damage.

Killing Blow: Activates to leap towards an enemy hero and instantly kill them if their health is below the kill threshold, otherwise deals 200 damage to them.

Seven: "Electrocutes crowds of enemies"

Lightning Ball: Shoots a ball of lightning that travels in a straight line. Damages all targets in its radius. Slows down when damaging enemies and stops if it hits the world.

Static Charge: Applies a charge to a target enemy hero. After a short duration, the static charge stuns and damages enemies within the radius.

Power Surge: Powers up Seven's weapon with a shock effect, causing their bullets to proc shock damage on the target. This shock damage bounces to enemies near the target. Occurs once per burst shot.

Storm Cloud: Channels an expanding storm cloud around Seven, damaging all enemies within its radius.

Vindicta: "Snipes the unsuspecting"

Stake: Throws a stake that tethers enemies to the location where the stake lands. Enemy movement is restricted to the length of the tether.

Flight: Leaps into the air and flies. While in flight, Vindicta's weapon deals bonus spirit damage.

Crow Familiar: Vindicta's crow familiar deals impact damage and applies a bleed that deals damage based on the target's current health.

Assassinate: Uses Vindicta's scope rifle to fire a powerful shot over long distances. Deals bonus damage to enemies with less than 50% health remaining. Landing a killing blow on a player with Assassinate grants bonus souls.

Viscous: "Rolls around deflecting bullets"

Splatter: Throws a ball of goo that deals damage and leaves puddles of goo behind that apply movement slow to enemies in the radius. Goo puddles linger on the ground and apply a movement slow to enemies walking on them.

The Cube: Encases the target in a cube of restorative goo that purges debuffs, protects from damage, and increases health regen. The target is unable to take any new actions while cubed. Can be used on self. Press [SPACE] to escape early.

Puddle Punch: Materializes a fist in the world that punches units in the area and sends them flying. Enemies are dealt damage, have their dash distance reduced for a brief moment, and have their movement slowed.

Goo Ball: Morphs Viscous into a large goo ball that deals damage and stuns enemies on impact. The ball grants large amounts of Bullet and Spirit resist, bounces off walls, and can double jump.

Warden: "Weakens his enemies and chases them down"

Alchemical Flask: Smashes an alchemical flask at Warden's feet, damaging, slowing, and reducing the weapon damage of any enemies caught in the radius.

Willpower: Gains a spirit shield that provides bonus movement speed while active. The shield also blocks spirit damage-based effects.

Binding Word: Curses an enemy hero. If they don't move away from their initial position within the escape time, they will be damaged and immobilized.

Last Stand: After charging for 2.2s, releases pulses that damage enemies and heal Warden based on the damage done.

Wraith: "Melts isolated targets"

Royal Flush: Telekinetically throws cards that hit random targets around Wraith.

Project Mind: Teleports to the targeted location.

Full Auto: Temporarily boosts Wraith's fire rate. Nearby allies receive half the fire rate bonus.

Telekinesis: Lifts an enemy hero into the air, interrupting them and preventing ability and item use for a short time. When the lift ends, the target receives Telekinesis damage.

Yamato: "Delivers charged attacks with finesse"

Power Slash: Channels to increase damage over 1.5 seconds, then releases a fully-charged sword strike. Press [1] or [LMC] to trigger the strike early, dealing partial damage.

Flying Strike: Throws a grappling hook to reel Yamato toward an enemy, damaging and slowing the target when they arrive.

Crimson Slash: Slashes enemies in front of Yamato, damaging them and slowing their fire rate. If any enemy heroes are hit, Yamato heals.

The diverse roster of characters, coupled with the unique blend of MOBA and hero shooter mechanics, promises a dynamic and exciting gameplay experience in Deadlock. With a wide array of abilities, players can experiment with different team compositions and strategise to outsmart and outmaneuver their opponents in this exciting new title. As we eagerly await the official release, the revealed roster and abilities offer a tantalising glimpse into the thrilling world of Deadlock.