5 things you might have missed in Deadlock gameplay (early development)

Deadlock, Valve’s upcoming third-person MOBA shooter, is all the hype in the gaming community. It is still in very early stages of development, and a lot of refinement is yet to be made before its final release. The developers, however, have released Deadlock for playtest through Steam, and are looking for feedback. To test the gameplay, at the moment, you will need to ask someone who already has access to send an invite via Steam.

Here are a few things that you might have missed while playtesting the Alpha version of Deadlock.

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5 things players might have missed in early Deadlock playtest

1) Infinite ammo while sliding

Any type of special ammo preservation/reload mechanic in a shooter game always proves to be beneficial. Movement in Deadlock is very complicated and specific for each hero. However, you can compare the basic movement mechanics to Apex Legends, which involves a lot of sliding.

In case you missed it, you are rewarded with infinite ammo for the entire duration of your slide. This, especially, comes in clutch while taking down guardians and patrons.

A useful tip to remember while playing the game is that you are free to use your abilities while reloading.

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2) Spirit Power

Deadlock is a hero-based shooter, which means it is filled with abilities, and being a MOBA, you get the option to upgrade them as you progress. There are four categories of upgrades for Spirit power, which is what essentially improves your abilities.

However, not all abilities are affected in the same way. To find out what each upgrade does and how much it affects each hero’s abilities, Valve has conveniently provided the Sandbox mode. You can check out each hero individually, and next to their abilities, there will be a purple star marked with a multiplier that indicates how much the ability improves per upgrade.

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3) Soul steal mechanic

‘Souls’ is the game's currency. To maximize your chances of winning, you need to create the best builds that require you to collect souls. This currency is available through various methods, such as clearing jungle camps, carrying urns, and killing mid-bosses.

Most importantly, you earn souls by killing minions in your lane, and this is where the ‘soul steal’ mechanic comes into play. Whenever you kill an enemy minion, it spawns an orb that, when shot, earns you the currency. However, enemies can also shoot the orb, thereby stealing souls.

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4) Health minions

Minions are an extremely important part of the game. You should always prioritize killing enemy minions if you wish to win your lane on Deadlock.

Minions spawn in waves, and with each wave, there is always one ‘health minion’ that is recognizable by the banner it carries with a ‘plus’ symbol. This minion has the ability to heal other minions as well as players and should be killed as soon as possible.

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5) Underground shop

In Deadlock, shops are where you can purchase upgrades and create builds. They are situated in your base and in your lane, which is guarded by a guardian. If your guardian is killed, you lose access to that particular shop. However, with the availability of underground shops, you do not have to go back to spawn every time you wish to upgrade.

Note that in the vicinity of shops, there are wooden boxes and artifacts scattered around. Take a few seconds to destroy them, as they may sometimes reward you with souls or even permanent buffs.

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Valve's new Deadlock has seen a steep rise in concurrent players since playtest servers started. Many content creators have already shown their interest in the game and are slowly migrating to Valve’s new third-person MOBA shooter.