New Haunt
Watch out for
Specimen
Some call it magic, others call it science. It doesn’t matter what you call it when it’s a disembodied hand crawling on your kitchen floor in the middle of the night.
September 29, 2026 update
City Never Sleeps — Deadlock major update
The Cursed Apple is ever changing, and these streets are nothing like you remember.
A massive visual update to the map and neutrals, six new heroes, a mysterious figure known as The Broker, HUD updates, numerous quality-of-life additions, accessibility options, and more.
Presenting
An updated visitor’s guide to New York City
Blue LaneBreak a leg on
1Uptown
Our first stop on the tour. If you need to get going somewhere, this is your quickest route to where the action is.
2Times Square
The beating heart of the city. Everyone should see it at least once in their life, and hopefully not just this once.
3Downtown
The busiest stop in town. Citizens of the Cursed Apple have been reporting strange rumblings coming from deep beneath the subway line.
Green LaneGet to know
4Umbria University
Home to the nation's finest Bibliomancy program, Umbria offers an elite occult education.
5Central Park
300 years old and still growing. This aptly named Hangman’s Elm has been in the city longer than almost any other living creature.
6The Brownstones
Visit the Brownstones for some quality family time, and if you’re lucky, a history lesson worth not repeating.
New Haunt
They’ll try to get ya
Past Dues
A good story can bring respite in trying times. For those less inspired, the pages of a book may serve better as a sleep aid.
You’ll just love
7Stock Exchange
See the high-stakes financial playground where the warlocks of Wall Street ply their trade making trades.
8Seaport Dock
Preserving New York City’s maritime heritage hasn’t quite been the same since this vessel docked at Pier 16.
9Old Fairfax Factories
The beating heart of the Occult Industrial Complex comes from humble beginnings.
New Haunt
Get mixed up with some
Gutter Ghouls
All those dark and dirty thoughts that humanity would prefer buried and thrown away, given form.
New Haunt
Don’t mind the
Barrel Mimics
Gunpowder was originally invented while on the search for an elixir of immortality. The spirits seem to make good use of both.
While you’re here, you’re perfectly welcome to
Venture off the beaten path
These back alleys and side streets were made for action.
The 4 Districts
Hidden between the main city streets are the 4 Districts to explore with a little something for everyone. The Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot, and Plaza make up the more “lively” corridors of the Cursed Apple.
The world is a stage in
1Theater District
New Haunt
Get tangled-up with
Stage Hands
Graceful bodies floating across the stage can be mesmerizing. In such a historic theater, one couldn’t be blamed for wanting to leave their bloody mark all the way across the deck.
It’s going down in
2Chinatown District
New Haunt
Get into the
Festival Spirit
Souls are kindled with hopes and dreams of the wishes they may light into day. You never think about how some of those hopes and dreams are violent and want to kill you.
New Haunt
Don’t feed the
Crabbage Pots
People always tell you there’s something in the water whenever anything bad happens. There’s a ritual going on outside. Something’s in the water.
Watch your step
3Haunted Lot District
New Haunt
Warning: Non-edible
Shrooms
New York is a melting pot of families from across the globe. It just so happens that when you combine a family of fungi and demonic energy at high temperature, it starts to walk.
Get to the bottom of
4Plaza District
New Haunt
Allegedly, not here
Underhands
Grasping hands always find their ways into unexpecting pockets. While the ritual burns high in the sky, some decrepit souls can’t help but stay low.
There’s a lot going on around here
The new Must-Do’s of the City
Assorted gameplay updates
Don’t blow your cover
Sunken Plaza
Shrouded beneath this districts main square lies the city’s Sunken Plaza. With high risk comes high rewards because as you descend to its depths, the sounds of the outside world fade away along with your stamina.
Found in Plaza
Or DO blow your cover
Bell Tower
Ascend to the top of the Chinatown Bell Tower for a highly concentrated soul hotspot. Keep in mind that while collecting your rewards the bell will ring loudly throughout the map.
Found in Chinatown
Smash open
Tough Crates
These Tough Crates require a Heavy Melee to break open, but the extra souls will make it worth your while.
Also smash
Buff Containers
Revamped golden statues now also include Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range, and Move Speed as permanent bonuses.
Take a bite out of the Big Apple
Healing Snacks
Hidden around the map, these healing snacks allow keen-eyed players to heal up in a pinch.
Get excited for
Steam Vents
Duck in and out of veiled cover with your team to navigate the city streets in refreshing secrecy. Provides invisibility and a small amount of regen while standing on it.
What is the deal with this guy?
New York has something for everybody... For those in search of truly terrifying power, there’s a guy...a mysterious merchant known only as the Broker. One day, you might find him uptown operating from the end of a dark alley, a few months later occupying an abandoned storefront in Chinatown. Nobody knows where he’ll appear next, but he won’t stay long as his supply of demon-touched items and modifications are banned in New York. For a price, the Broker can turn the mundane into the extraordinary, but buyer beware, the Broker’s wares always come with a cost and it’s rarely measured in mere souls.
Exchange Your Items
While supplies last, you can exchange your high tier items for a Corrupted version. While his exact arrival time varies, his first shipment is stocked around 30 minutes. Additional Corrupted Items can be collected, on average, every 15 minutes after that.
Here’s The Catch...
Each match, all corrupted items are assigned random negative attributes from a predefined set. The degree of negative and positive attributes have a small amount of variability, however they are the same for all players in a given game.
He Comes And Goes
Corrupted Items are banned on the streets of New York. He’ll only be around for a few days, as authorities will be out in full swing once the first new hero makes their arrival.
In New York for a limited time...
He comes around with unthinkable upgrades...
...but there’s always a catch
And now ...
Meet the Locals
Introducing six new heroes
As with previous hero releases, you vote on the release order
Two heroes release a week on Tuesdays and Fridays @ 2:00pm PT
Voting now live — first release October 2nd
New Vote in Pregame
All voting is now done in the new Pregame lobby. Convince your allies to make the only correct choice. The winning team’s votes will count as double.
Returning voting mechanics
First Win of the Day
Your first win of the day gives you double the votes.
New Hero Priority Tokens
Starting with the first hero release, playing will earn you priority tokens.
Campaign Posters
Demonstrate your support for your favorite upcoming hero.
The picture of health
New Healthbars
Player Names
Find your party members quickly in the heat of combat.
Rejuvenator Indicator
An icon appears when they have a Rejuvenator use available.
Ultimate Indicator
Know in the moment when that Singularity is going to hit.
Current Health Value
As you deal damage, you’ll see their health value decrease in real time.
Stamina Tracking
When it seems like they never stop dodging, you’ll know when it’s time.
Critical Health Status
Once they’re critical, you’ll always want to hunt ‘em down.
Know your surroundings
HUD Enhancements
A number of user interface improvements aimed at improving game readability
More Haunt Information
See the soul value and comparative difficulty of NPC’s.
Objectives get ‘em too!
Gain a better understanding of just how tanky those guys are.
Damage Number Options
Enable cumulative damage totals and other options within Settings.
Push it to the limit
Provides a quick view of your relative investments and lets you see more clearly when you hit your spike.
Find your Friends
Ally Indicators
You can now more easily see your allies, no matter how far away they are.
Investments! Buffs! Debuffs!
Improved Stats
Gain a better understanding of your power level throughout a match.
Better Combat Awareness
Get a clearer picture of how your stats are impacted in the heat of battle.
Shop Stats
While shopping, see the impact of your purchases in real time.
Build-ups and Durations, Under Your Thumb
You’ll be able to see that pesky Love Bites build-up more easily.
Lock in
Targeting Mode
A cleaned up targeting mode means less UI getting in the way between you and your prey.
Wait. Who did what?
Event Feed
A new way to look at important moments during a match.
Killing Blow Information
The Event Feed now displays a breakdown of what Item or Ability landed the killing blow.
Bounties
Players can now see what the full bounty of a target is, as well as their personal share of the kill.
Soul Bags
Don’t forget to secure the Soul Bag from your kills, before your ally does it for you.
The Shop
An improved shop to help players find what they need, when they need it most.
Stay up to date while shopping
You can now see the Kill Feed, Incoming Chat, and push to view the Scoreboard in the shop.
Popular Items
Not sure what is trending on your hero? Using live player data, the shop now narrows down the options to their most frequently purchased items. The item tooltips include how often the item is purchased and at what phase of the game.
Item Filters
Filter the shop down to only see the stats that you’re looking for. Mix and match filters to enhance your build with the stats and modifiers you want the most.
Shop Settings
Improved shop search, focus, scrolling, new options and overall navigation. Pressing 1-6 by default in the shop will navigate to different shop tabs.
Build Improvements
Updated Build Browser Interface for better previews, Build Copy/Pasting, Instant Category Resizing, and many other bug fixes and QOL improvements.
Pings & Communication
Quickly share a gameplan with your team with the reworked ping system.
Cursor Hints
The new state on the cursor will let you know which UI elements are pingable.
Minimap Wheel
Expanded interactive map pings.
Topbar Wheel
Say more things about the heroes in your match.
Ability Ping Information
Detailed dynamic ability pings to track important cooldowns.
Typing Indicator
Let your allies and enemies know what’s on your mind.
New Pingable Targets
Troopers, Neutrals, Ziplines, Rift, Bridge Buffs, Shop, and more now react to pings.
Updated Ping Lines
Over 15,000 new and updated pings.
Item Pinging
Ping items in the shop to indicate your intent to buy them, or signal to others that you’ve already bought the item.
Enemy Ping Information
Relay important information about enemies like their critical health, death status or if they are about to respawn.
Clustered Minimap Enemies
Pinging an enemy in a cluster on the minimap will now call out the quantity of enemies there.
Character Voice Lines
Listen to every word each hero has to say.
New Voice Lines Added
Pre-match conversations between new and existing heroes increased from over 700 to 1500. Added over 10,000 non-ping voice lines.
New Dialogue Player
Browse and listen to all of the available VO in the game from your favorite Heroes and Patrons.
More Features
Commends Counter
A convenient way to see your tally after each match. Clicking on a hero commends that player back.
Trooper Improvements
Improved trooper behavior, animations, and performance.
Minimap Location Label
Callouts for each Lane and District on the map.
New Veils
Updated rendering and VFX for veils around the map.
Updated Barrier Treatment
Barriers applied to yourself have a cleaner look.
Parry Cooldown
While your parry is on cooldown, it is now displayed near your reticle.
In-World Respawn Timers
You can now see when Haunt camps or Midboss will respawn when you are near their spawn area.
Topbar Midboss Timer
The Topbar now shows a timer for Midboss respawn.
Permanent Buffs
Added a postgame graph to track all permanent buffs players collected during the game.
Expanded Custom Lobbies
Expanded parties to support 8 spectators in custom lobbies.
Custom Hideout Camera
Zoom out for a better look at your hero.
Overhead Buff Display
Picking up a permanent buff now displays the pickup type above your hero.
Accessibility Features
Dedicated accessibility settings for visuals, audio, and controls.
Enemy UI Color
Modify the colors used for certain elements in the UI.
VO Subtitles + Customization
When enabled, subtitles will appear for in-game dialogue. Players can also customize the size, colors, and font.
Auto Move
Double-tap Move Forward to keep moving forward without holding the key. Move Forward or Move Back to stop.
Auto Mantle
Automatically mantle onto ledges you walk into while moving forward on the ground, without pressing Jump. Works the same while moving backward.
Auto Fire
Your weapon fires continuously without holding Fire. Press Fire to stop shooting, and press it again to resume.
Reduced Camera Shake
Reduce camera shake from impacts, explosions, and other effects.
Reticle Updates
Customize the fill and border colors.
Advanced Tools
New and improved testing tools to hone your skills.
Bot Recording
Record and playback bot actions for easier testing.
Easier Bot Testing
Record and playback your bot actions to test more complex behavior.
Loop Bot Recordings
Have your bot endlessly loop your recorded sequence of actions.
Share Recordings
Easily share your bot recordings online and with friends.
Combat Log
Detailed breakdown of actions you’ve taken against a bot.
Track Damage Events
See an exact breakdown of every damage instance and type dealt between you and your target.
Buffs and Debuffs
See a clear list of all modifiers that were applied during combat.
Speed Graph
Displays a real-time graph of your movement speed.
Speedometer
Graph the differences in movespeed during varied combat scenarios and movement techniques.
Mobility Tracking
Learn how different forms of CC exactly affect your hero’s movement.
Map Routing
Use this feature to test different routes around the city for the most efficient routes.
DPS Meter
Shows your DPS and total damage dealt.
Track Your Damage
Combat ends 3s after your last hit, and the result stays on the screen until you deal damage again. Shows your DPS and Total Damage dealt.
Comparing Builds
Test out and compare different builds to optimize your choices.
Other Tools
Additional testing tools and quality of life additions to improve the Sandbox.
Hero Controls
Numerous new options to set your hero’s state for testing.
Map Spawn Toggles
Turn on or off regular map spawns while testing.
Permanent Buffs
Grant yourself permanent buffs through the testing tools.
Camera Lock
Move the camera around your hero freely to capture the right moments.
Hide Interfaces
Hide the UI and Health Bars for capturing the content you want.
Shop Modifiers
Show detailed information about item types like Enhanced, Legendary, and Corrupted.
Bot Fine Tuning
Set various attributes on the target dummy for more precise gameplay testing.
Force Spawn Menu
Force spawns for different objectives, breakables, enemies, and more.
Target Actions
Kill or heal a target under your cursor directly.
Hotkeys
Actions that you may want to toggle on and off quickly like no-clip can now be bound to keys within the testing tool.
Navigate Uninterrupted
Make everything in the map ignore your hero and give your hero a speed boost.
Bot Actions
Command your bot to do any action, ability or item casting. Put them on loop for easier testing.
Tooltips
Added tooltips to all the options in the sandbox for clearer results.
Reorganized Layout
Testing tools got an organizational revamp to make it easier to find what you need.
Free Shopping Mode
Toggle free shopping mode on and off.
Menu Pin & Free Cursor
Keeps the testing tools on screen after you let go of the scoreboard key. Toggle unlocked cursor for persistent mouse control.
Falloff Guides
Show where your weapon damage starts to fall off, and where it bottoms out. See how much damage is reduced when firing.
Behavior & Reporting
Flag toxic or rule-breaking behavior during and after a match.
Report Notification
You now get notified when an action was taken on a player you reported.
In-Game Comms Ban
If a player is reported during a match and found to be abusing comms, they will be muted for the rest of the match and issued a 30 day comms ban.
New Settings Features
More customization options and requested features.
Keybind Map
See every key and mouse button you have bound, which are free, and what each does.
Additional Keybinds
Added keybinds for previously non-bindable actions.
Hideout Customization
Added camera settings and keybinds to use while in the hideout.
Bind By Key
Added a new way to set keybinds by clicking an available key and assigning a command.
Shareable Settings
Copy your reticle and keybind settings as a code to share with other players, or apply a code from someone else.
Share Your Setup
Added a button for creating and applying a shareable Deadlock settings code.
Reticle Share Code
Added a simple single-reticle-code sharing in the Reticle settings section.
Preview and Undo
Preview the settings from a code before applying it, or even undo the changes afterward.
Spectator Settings & Hotkeys
While spectating or watching a replay there are now hotkeys for jumping to each hero on the top bar.
Spectating Keybinds
Cycle through players while spectating or watching a replay using customizable hotkeys.
Free Cam While Paused
Spectator camera can now fly around while a replay is paused.
Player View Toggle
Toggle for whether the spectator camera turns back to the spectated player's view.
Fade Opacity Controls
Adjustable fade opacity and distance for the viewed hero and for other characters when the camera gets close.
Advanced Spectator Camera
You can now adjust camera fading and the spectator and replay camera in the Game Settings.
Spectator Camera
Override the camera's position, pivot and field of view while spectating or watching replays.
Health and Damage Options
You can now choose whether health bars should display health numbers, how to display damage dealt cumulatively, and others.
Health Numbers
Choose to display health numbers inside health bars.
Cumulative Damage
Choose the way you see ongoing damage dealt to targets.
Ally Health Numbers
Added an option to show health numbers on allied heroes’ health bars when they take damage.
Other Settings
Explore numerous other options to customize your experience
Improved Reticle Previews
Allow reticle pips to move as you fire, and let reticle components react to zooming, accuracy effects, and hero abilities.
Defaults Indicator
Individual settings now visually indicate when they have been changed from their default values.
Device Recognition
Newly connected or disconnected speakers, headsets, and microphones now reflect immediately in the Settings menu.
Hero Settings
Numerous settings can now be customized on a per hero basis. Hold TAB in the Settings menu to highlight them.
International Keyboard
By default, or when auto-detect is selected in the dropdown, we attempt to determine the user's actual keyboard shape and layout and represent it.
IME Support
Users playing in Japanese, Chinese or Korean can now use IME input to type text to highlight heroes.
Mouse Cursor Size
You can now customize the cursor size.
Scroll Wheel Binds
Added support for mouse scroll wheel binds for previously button-down only keys.
Hero Selector
The settings menu now has a hero selector in the nav bar, making it easy to cycle between heroes to compare or adjust their settings.
Settings Memory
The menu now remembers where you were across play sessions and reopens your most recent location.
Preview Video Settings
New option to preview video changes instantly, making the settings menu briefly transparent so you can see the effects of the new configuration.
Cloud-Save Settings
Numerous settings that were previously not cloud-saved are now being saved so they can be persistent across different machines. Multiple players from the same PC can now have different settings.
Individual Setting Resets
Individual settings now have reset buttons when they have been changed.
Global Settings Reset
A new global settings reset popup allows you to reset all settings or even pick and choose which ones to reset in one go.
Improved Color Selection
Individual red/green/blue color sliders have been replaced by color spectrum sliders with color pickers that allow fast and easy color customization.
Additional Update Notes
- Updated engine code to the latest version of Source 2
- Improved anti-cheat
- Network prediction improvements
- Rendering performance improvements
- Audio performance improvements
- Localization additions and improvements
- Updated item art
- New SFX for all hero Heavy and Light Melee
- Ability/Item use is now instant the moment the button is pushed instead of waiting for the next 'window' which could make the button feel unresponsive
- New and improved SFX
- New death, respawn, and killstreak music tracks
- Various updated animations across old heroes
- Numerous Sinclair bug fixes
- New footstep sounds for Billy, Mina, Drifter, Silver, Victor, Venator, Apollo, Graves, Celeste, Doorman, Paige, and Rem
- New drop shadows that go directly down rather than through the sunlight. Improves performance and also helps you track enemies better.
- Added options for rebinding the Avoid Hero command for players using a mouse without a middle button.
- Street Brawl grants you a corrupted item after the item draft in Round 5
- Street Brawl bug fixes
- New hit registration effects
- Successfully parrying objectives no longer resets your Parry cooldown
- Sinners Sacrifice have variable timings to get the bonus
- Doorman bug and abuse cases improved
- Heroes will now look at points of interest in the Hideout
- Various response rule improvements / bug fixes for in game VO
- Walkers no longer keep firing their fireballs after dying
- Fixed for Yamato flying strike failing to create paths against targets that are solid to the player (Turrets, Shrines and Objectives).
- Fixed issue where holding a modifier key like Ctrl to crouch would prevent other keybind chords from working
- Fixed issue where secondary keybinds required the same modifier set for the primary keybind
- Bots now spawn facing the player
- Graves can now destroy Venator's traps with her gun
- Dynamic Walker attack and stomp range indicator that appears as you get close instead of permanent ground displays
- Fixed Hidden King, Archmother and Target's minimap views not showing heroes or objectives while spectating a live match
- In both Sandbox and Explore NYC have the first spawns on crates/neutrals at 5s instead of 30
- Added the various new objectives to the Sandbox Map.
- New point of view when spectating the Patron.
- Added support for Japanese kinsoku shori rules for line breaks
- Added localized hero logos for Korean
- Added an inset HUD option when playing in 21x9
- New settings options now show an indicator on the row until the new setting notification has been dismissed
- Added a pip to sliders in the Settings menu indicating the default value for that setting
- And many other misc changes...
Images and videos — © Valve Corporation. Original: playdeadlock.com/cityneversleeps
Did the patch shake the meta?
While everyone else adjusts to the new numbers, a booster raises your rank, or a coach shows you how to play after the changes.