Souls Souls are a crucial element in Deadlock, serving both as currency and experience points (XP) for heroes. Players collect souls by various means, including shooting soul orbs released when certain entities die, last-hitting enemy Troopers, taking Guardians/Walkers, killing enemy players, and finding unsecured souls in boxes or crates. Unsecured souls are added to your total immediately but can drop upon death for other players to collect.

Soul released by the trooper.
A weakened trooper.

Soul Orbs

Many killed targets will not give souls to the killer on death, but will instead release souls in a Soul Orb. These orbs may be attacked in melee or with guns to "confirm" the souls and grant them to the attacker. If they are not attacked, then the souls will be granted to the killer automatically after around 3 seconds.

An opposing player may deny these souls by attacking the Soul Orb instead. These will grant the souls to the attacker and not the original killer.

Soul Orbs can be divided into "local" and "global" soul orbs:

Local
These orbs grant souls to the killer/attacker and are shared with any nearby allies. These are the most common kind of Soul Orb and are gained from killing Troopers and players
Global
These orbs grant souls to the entire team of the killer/attacker, often with a boost to the last-hitter. These are earned from destroying Guardians and Walkers as well as turning in the Soul Urn

Gathering Souls

Hero Kills

  • Souls from player kills are influenced by the team's overall soul count: teams with fewer souls gain more from kills.

Last Hitting

  • Souls are only gained when the player lands the "Last hit" on a target that kills them. Troopers that are killed by other troopers or structures award no souls
    • After a Trooper reaches 0 HP, there is a very short time where a Last Hit may still be landed by a hero's attack.
    • Players cannot "deny" a last hit on a minion by killing their own minions, but they can deny the Soul Orb.
  • Soul orbs are released by dying entities and can be shot to collect souls. If not collected, the orbs eventually expire, awarding the same amount of souls automatically.
  • Shooting these orbs will Deny the kill and steal the souls from the orb for yourself.

Lane Soul Distribution

Before 10 minutes

  • When the game begins, each lane is "designated" as either a 1-player (Solo) lane or a 2-player (Duo) lane.
  • When a Trooper is killed, the killer will receive half of the Trooper's souls at once, then half again when the Soul Orb is destroyed by themselves, an ally, or it expires.
  • For Duo lanes with two players in it, Souls from Troopers are 'duplicated' between both players (about 50m from the kill). This means a Trooper kill worth 50 souls will grant 50 souls to each player.
  • If 3+ players in a Duo lane OR 2+ players in a Solo lane attempt to receive souls from a creep, the killer will receive the full Trooper value, while all other players will equally divide the duplicated amount.
    • For example: for a Trooper creep worth 50 Souls in a lane of 3 heroes in a Duo lane, the killer will receive 50 Souls and both other players will receive 25 Souls each. [1]

After 10 minutes

  • After 10 minutes, trooper souls are divided evenly among nearby players. There is no longer any "duplication" of Souls.

Denizens (Jungle Creeps)

  • Jungle camps contain Denizens that give souls to players on kill. They do not release soul orbs.
    • In order for jungle creeps to give souls to both players, both players must deal damage to the creep.
    • Souls from jungle creeps are split between all allied players who dealt damage to said creeps.
  • Souls from Denizens are Unsecured souls

Breakables

  • Breaking the wooden crates scattered throughout the map will have a chance to spawn some souls.
    • Chance for any given crate to drop souls when broken is approximately 40%
    • Amount of souls dropped is a function of in-game time:
      • [Souls Dropped] = 45 + 3*([Game Time in Minutes) - 3)
      • For example: At 25:00 game time, a broken crate will drop 111 souls.

Be aware that soul orbs can be denied from events like Soul Urn turn-ins, Guardian destruction, or Sinner's Sacrifice Safes.

Unsecured Souls

Souls earned from killing Denizens are Unsecured. These souls will be dropped on death and may be collected by any player

Unsecured souls are converted into Secured souls at a standard rate, meaning they will not longer be dropped on death. They are converted at a rate of 1 Soul / Second per 100 Unsecured Souls (EX: 500 Unsecured souls is converted at 5 souls/second)

Unsecured Souls may be spent in the shop, but are spent after Secured souls.

Leveling Up

Gathering souls will directly "level up" your Hero to gain skill points, Boons and other upgrades. See leveling up for more information.

Soul Values

  • Soul Value: Value of the target at the time = 0m
  • Soul Gain: How the value changes over the time of the match, measured in minutes
  • 10m/20m/30m: Value of the target at certain game times
Source Soul Value Soul Gain (/m) 10m 20m 30m 40m 50m
Trooper* 75 +1.10 104 118 133 147 162
Small Denizen 44 +0.528 49 54 59 65 70
Medium Denizen 88 +1.06 98 108 118 130 140
Large Denizen 220 +2.64 246 273 299 328 352
Sinner's Sacrifice 330 +3.96 369 409 449 488 528
Soul Urn 2500 +100 3500 4500 5500 6500 7500
Guardian 275 N/A 275 275 275 275 275
Walker 700 N/A 700 700 700 700 700
Crates 36 +3s 66 96 126

* Troopers gain +19 soul value at the 10 minute mark

References

  1. https://youtu.be/4I1YH4xNxfA?t=230 - Timestamped video showing Trooper soul split in lane before 10 minutes