Mechanics
Mechanics in Deadlock are a combination of third-person-shooter and MOBA mechanics. Broadly speaking, the macro mechanics are akin to a MOBA, whereas micros are that of a TPS.
Overview
Macros
Laning
Laning is the process of fighting in your lane, collecting souls from creeps, and pushing the lane to the enemy Patron.
There are 4 lanes. From left to right they are York (yellow), Orchard (orange), Broadway (blue), and Park (purple). Any part of a lane controlled by the opposing team will be red on your map.
Troopers
A wave of troopers are spawned at each team's side every 30 seconds. They ride the zipline until it stops being supported, or if they are damaged by an enemy, and then continue on foot in the lane. They stop and fight if they encounter an enemy. It takes roughly 4 seconds for a squad to reach the standard start of the lane. Every wave of troopers has a healer, and 3 ranged troopers.The healer has a flag on its back and heals all nearby friendly units every few seconds. Ranged troopers target the nearest enemy with each shot. This is speculation, but they seem to preferentially target enemy troopers.
When you score the last hit on a trooper, you gain some souls, and a green blob is spawned at the trooper's location. The blob floats upward until it is shot or hit hits the auto-collection ceiling, roughly 4 meters above where blob spawned. The souls gained from the floating blob are the same as the last hit. If you last-hit a trooper with a melee attack, no floating blob is spawned, you just get the souls automatically.
A trooper's health bar becomes lighter and starts flashing the lower health they are. troopers self destruct at 10% health and deny any souls they would have given.
If an enemy last-hits one of your troopers, they gain souls, and an orange blob is spawned that functions like the green ones. You can shoot souls of any color to collect their soul value. If the soul reaches the auto-collection ceiling, the souls it contained are credited to the player who last hit the trooper that spawned the soul. Shooting the souls of an enemy team is called a "deny," as you are denying them some souls.
Souls can be used to purchase items at your shop, there is one behind every first Guardian in each lane on both teams, if the Guardian is killed the shop closes permanently.
The further your troopers are able to travel down the lane, the further your zipline is active.
Breakables
Breakables are found all around the map in the form of a crate or a golden Buddha statue. Break them for a power up or a trooper's worth of souls.
This is speculation, but the power ups last the whole game and can seriously buff your character if you're hitting all of them.
Lane Objectives
Guardian
The first objective of the lane is the Guardian, who has a laser attack, a melee attack, and a slam attack.The slam attack does AoE damage to enemies near the Guardian.
This is speculation, but it seems that the laser attack is recasted every few seconds. It channel on the original target until it dies, or the channel ends. It will recast and select a new target in both cases.
This is speculation, but it seems like the Guardian doesn't preferentially target heroes unless they get into melee range.
This is speculation, the guardian will use a melee attack if enemies are in close range. This attack does not seem parryable in sandbox mode.
Walker
The second objective of the lane is the Walker who has a laser attack, a Volcano Salvo, and a slam.
The Walker's Slam does damage and stuns enemies for X seconds within a large radius. This ability has a cooldown.
This is speculation, but the laser attack works similar to the guardian.
The volcano attack is where the walker throws fireballs randomly around itself. This attack will be stopped by any buildings in the trajectory of the fireball.
The Walker fires X attacks in one Volcano Salvo.
When the first enemy Walker on the map is defeated, everyone on your team gains a Flex Spot in their Inventory.
When all enemy Walkers on the map are defeated, everyone on your team gains a Flex Spot in their Inventory.
Double Guardians
The Third objective of the lane is two Guardians that are stronger than the first one. They use the same attacks as the first Guardian but are beefier.
When both of these enemy Guardians fall in a lane, the zipline for allies in that lane becomes significantly faster. When all enemy Guardians on the map are defeated, everyone on your team gains a Flex Spot in their Inventory.
Shrines
The fourth objective is the Shrines, they have no attacks. There are two shrines, the two leftmost lanes lead into the left shrine, the two rightmost lanes lead into the right shrine. They both need to be destroyed in order to weaken the Patron, allowing you to kill it and win the game.
Patron
The fifth and final objective is the Patron, which ends the game. It has two modes, normal and weakened. You can not damage a patron in its normal state, it must be weakened by killing both shrines in the base.
The Patron also has 2 phases. The first phase it is upright and firing lasers and such at people. The second phase is just the head and it lands in the pit in the enemy's base, which also uses laser attacks.
Jungle
Jungle is the general term for neutral creep camps. Neutral creep camps are located across the map and are denoted by one to three small cyan triangles. The more triangles, the more difficult the creeps.
When in lane you want to secure as many souls from each wave as possible. If you can get out and take a jungle camp as well that's a nice bonus.
Mid-Boss
The mid boss is located in the center of the map and is quite strong. It needs x attacks per second to be damaged.
When the mid boss dies it drops the Rejuvenator. You must use a charged melee attack to collect it (hold Q). If you die with the Rejuvenator you revive in 5 seconds at the same spot. Securing the Rejuvenator also buffs friendly troopers for a limited duration, helping to push the lanes.
Ganking
Ganking is the act of moving from one lane to another to help kill enemy heroes who are over extended, or who are simply ripe for the picking.
The process of organizing players in the laning phase (see: "Strategy").
Team Composition
The process of choosing which heroes to play.
Item Management
The process of forming an item build.
Micros
Uptime
Uptime relates to farm camps (either Troops or Neutrals), to advancing lanes, to harassing enemies, to taking down towers etc. Everything that doesn't make you idle and generate value could be considered Uptime;
Space
- Creating space will define which areas are controlled by your team, which Neutral camps are safe to farm, the length of your Zipline, the vision you have on your map etc. This concept is really broad, but what is important to understand is using Space in your favor and deny any enemy advance of Space;
- During the Laning phase, this concept is even more important, since Space will define how far your Troops advance, it will impact ultimately on your last hits/denies and hero killing opportunities;
Line of Sight
Famous LoS of shooters, meaning the ability of the enemy to target you on their screen; Being in LoS of the enemy is dangerous in many situations and will create kill opportunity for the enemy team. This can be denied by using Corners and Walls (in most of cases);
Cover Usage
Like any shooter, using corners and walls allows you to be covered against almost all skills and items, since most of them require Line of Sight to be activated our cause damage. In other words, corners and wall usage can be translated as unbreakable shields for both Weapon and Spirit protection;
Target Prioritization
This concept is situational and depends on different factors. The main idea here is to focus your fire on the most important part of the fight. Some examples:
- Heroes with a number of unsecured Souls, since they can turn the table in team fights. Additionally, the reward for killing this hero will be greater;
- Heroes with disruptive ults - like Dynamo's, Pocket's etc - should be a primary target to either prevent the usage of these abilities or to force them to use in a not-optimal situation for the enemy;
- Heroes with low HP, since allowing them to live will prevent your team to get souls and will allow the enemy to have uptime;
Distance Management
Understanding heroes (and abilities) which work in short range vs long range is key. Some examples:
- Pocket's shotgun will do huge damage from short range, while almost zero damage from mid/long range;
- Vindicta's ult can target long range target without significant damage fall off. Same happens with Grey Talon's first ability;
Aiming
Some heroes require more accuracy and skill expression regarding aiming - such as Vindicta -, but overall aiming is a crucial part of Deadlock.
Cooldown Management
Ideally, skill and item usage should be maximized, since they bring a big advantage in gaining souls and gaining Space. At the same time, cooldowns are your way to create space, to secure kills and escape from dying. So, Cooldown management is key to finding a balance between soul farming usage and enemy hero usage;
Map Knowledge
Crucial for many aspects in the game. Learning veil locations, Rune locations, Teleport locations, which buildings can be camped from rooftop etc., is a huge advantage for farming, securing kills, escaping, pursing enemies and so many other aspects of Deadlock.
Rotations
Can be defined as the creation of opportunities by surprising the enemy. A terminology from Dota calls Gank the art of appearing from a fog of a jungle to surprise - and potentially kill - enemies, but rotations are broader than that and can be related to creating space in different lanes and other related concepts;
Movement
- The process of moving and positioning your hero.
- Involves ziplines and stamina usage in addition to sliding.
Troop Management
- The process of killing enemy troopers whilst denying the enemy from getting souls from yours.
- Can also be referred to as Creep Management.
Creep/troop denial is a crucial part of the game's laning phase and involves shooting the souls of one's own trooper when they are killed. This prevents enemy laners from obtaining soul orbs by killing troopers.