Deadlock's First New Hero Arrives Today, Chosen by Player Vote

Valve dropped the City Never Sleeps update on Deadlock on September 29, and it is comfortably the biggest patch the game has had since Old Gods, New Blood roughly eight months earlier. We have spent the last few evenings wandering a rebuilt New York, and today the update's second act begins. According to Valve's official page, the first of six new heroes goes live on October 2 at 2:00 PM PT, and the player base, not Valve, decides which one.

If you have an invite, this is the week to log back in. If you do not, keep in mind that Deadlock is still invite only. Valve's site describes it as a multiplayer game in early development, with access limited to friend invites from existing playtesters, and the Steam announcement says plainly that the game remains unfinished.

Six heroes, one vote, two releases a week

The six newcomers are Rat King, Violet, Deadman Danny, Baba, Nurse Harrow and Solomon. None of them were playable when the update landed on Monday. Instead, Valve brought back its voting system: all voting now happens in the new pregame lobby, the winning team's votes count double, and your first win of the day doubles your votes again. Campaign posters let you show support for your favourite, and from the first hero release onward, playing earns priority tokens. Valve has not said how those tokens will be spent, so we would not read too much into them yet.

The schedule is simple once you know it. Two heroes release per week, on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM PT, starting today, which puts the full roster expansion on track to finish in the second half of October if nothing slips. The in-lobby vote is the only official source for the order, and it was still open when we checked, so we are not going to guess at the winner. Whoever it is, the arrival has a side effect: Valve says the Broker, the update's limited-time merchant, will pack up and leave once the first new hero appears, because the authorities will be out in full swing. If you want to try his Corrupted items, which trade high-tier gear for stronger versions with random negative attributes, you have hours, not days.

A rebuilt New York, Haunts and a lot of quality of life

The headline change is visual. The map is now presented as an updated visitor's guide to New York, with Uptown, Times Square and Downtown on one lane, Umbria University, Central Park and the Brownstones on the other, and four side districts, Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot and Plaza, between the main streets. Every old neutral camp has been replaced by Haunts, new creatures with their own behaviours such as Gutter Ghouls, Barrel Mimics, Stage Hands and Shrooms. New spots include a Sunken Plaza that drains your stamina as you descend, a Chinatown Bell Tower soul hotspot that rings across the whole map when looted, and Steam Vents that grant invisibility and a little regen.

The rest of the patch is the kind of list only Valve ships. New health bars with real-time values, an event feed that shows what landed the killing blow, a shop that surfaces popular items from live player data, a reworked ping system, pre-match conversations up from over 700 to 1,500, subtitles, auto move, auto fire, shareable settings codes, and in-game comms bans for reported abuse. The engine has also moved to the latest Source 2 code, with anti-cheat and performance improvements alongside.

Our take

The update is excellent, and the hero drip feed is a smart way to keep people playing through October rather than burning through six new characters in a weekend. The catch is the same as it has been for two years: most people still cannot get in. Valve's announcement lists progression, hideout customisation and alternate game modes as things it wants to adjust before full release, which reads to us like a studio in no hurry, and one with plenty else on its plate, including the Steam Machine reservation queue it promised to clear by the end of 2026. If you have an invite, enjoy the vote. If you do not, this is a game to watch rather than one to plan around.