Deadlock Patch Notes: Every 2026 Update So Far

Valve has published 19 Deadlock patch notes posts in 2026 as of October 10: two major overhauls — Old Gods, New Blood on January 22 and City Never Sleeps on September 29 — the July 30 Matchmaking Update that added Ranked Mode, and 16 balance patches in between. Nine hero releases landed alongside them.

• The two big ones: Old Gods, New Blood (Jan 22) and City Never Sleeps (Sep 29)
• Ranked Mode arrived July 30; Beta Season 1 now ends November 5, 2026
• June 30 rewrote the soul economy; September 16 cut move slows by about 20%
• Newest patch: Minor Update - 10-05-2026, mostly Rat King and Sinclair nerfs

Every Deadlock patch in 2026

Dates are the day Valve posted the announcement (UTC). Every patch title links to the official Steam announcement, which is the authoritative version of these notes.

January and February: Old Gods, New Blood

The year opened with a named overhaul on January 22. Valve's own summary: "Overhauled Patrons and bases, six new heroes, a fast-paced game mode 'Street Brawl', HUD updates, many quality-of-life additions, revamped postgame with an MVP screen and more."

Street Brawl is the 4v4 best-of-five side mode where each round starts with equal resources, no farming, and a random item draft that adds three items to your inventory per round. It has been patched repeatedly since — see the Street Brawl mode guide for how the round rules work today.

The six Old Gods heroes then rolled out in vote order, two a week: Rem (Jan 26), Graves (Jan 29), Silver (Feb 2), Venator (Feb 5), Celeste (Feb 9) and Apollo (Feb 12). That roster push took the confirmed hero count to 38. Valve closed the event with the vote totals: 60,776,963 votes cast, exactly 600 people who voted only for eventual winners every round, and a largest winning margin of 11% (Venator over Celeste).

Official source: Old Gods, New Blood — Valve, January 22, 2026

March 6 and April 30: the balance groundwork

The March 6 Gameplay Update was the heaviest pure balance patch of 2026 — a changelog of 92,167 characters. Changes you still feel: Walker health rescaled to 6000/9000/12000, crowd-control resistance raised from 8%/24% to 10%/30%, you can now jump during a slide, dash jumps gained a brief window of 30% increased air control for 0.25s, and Shrines became invulnerable until one pair of Base Guardians falls. Movement details are in the movement tech guide.

April 30 went after stats and items: base health per boon reduced by 7, weapon and vitality investment bonuses rescaled across all ten steps, Walkers moved from 15% to 25% Bullet Resistance, Guardians and Shrines gained 10%, the new T4 Vitality item Indomitable arrived (upgrading from Reactive Barrier), and Shadow Weave dropped from T4 to T3 with its ambush numbers cut.

May 22 to June 11: the Soul Urn experiments

Valve rebuilt the Urn three times in three weeks, and every patch notes post from late May carries a chunk of it:

• May 22: you now pick the Urn up with a light or heavy melee instead of channeling, it always drops on top of the mid-map bridge, depositing runs on a 3s/5s/10s Favored/Neutral/Unfavored timer, and after 35 seconds aggregate holding the carrier takes 5% max HP per second — and urn damage is lethal.
• May 25: drop-off moved under the side-lane bridge, deposit timers went to 5/10/15s, the comeback aura fell from 50% to 35%, and the runner keeps their sprint.
• May 28: spawn intervals slowed to 12/18/24/30s and the trailing-team runner now gets the resist aura personally instead of a team aura.
• June 4: delivering the Urn turned into a king-of-the-hill capture point — 20m radius, 6/12/18s to finish, and if it stays contested past 75s the souls burst into orbs.
• June 11: give-up time cut to 60s, Urn bounty down 10%, kill comeback bounty up 8%, and Street Brawl ability/item ranges reduced 10%.

The same May 22 patch also introduced the item Grit (200 barrier for 4s, 60s cooldown), cut 10 base HP from every hero, redrew the investment bonus tiers at 4.8k / 6.4k / 8k / 11.2k / 16k souls, made a Wall Jump cost you 25% stamina regeneration for 5 seconds, and stopped slides from resetting sprint speed. The full current Urn rules are in the Soul Urn guide.

June 30: the soul values reset

The biggest numbers patch of the year landed June 30, and it is the one that rewrote how souls flow. All official, all from that day's notes:

Movement got the same treatment in that post: dash jump distance 18m to 19m, input window 0.2s to 0.25s, vertical impulse 400 to 425. Soul income and item breakpoints after these changes are walked through in the souls economy guide.

Official source: Minor Update - 06-30-2026 — Valve (IceFrog)

July 30: Ranked Mode arrives

The Matchmaking Update split the game into Standard Mode and Ranked Mode. Official requirements: 60 wins in Standard to queue for ranked, heroes you have won at least 15 games with, at least 3 eligible heroes, an 8-game calibration phase you play solo (you cannot party during calibration), and solo or duo queues only — a duo must be within one rank of each other.

The ladder runs Obscurus (uncalibrated) through Eternus with 11 ranks and 6 subranks each, promotions cost 1000 Rank Points (2000 at the last subrank before a new rank), and Valve's post put average gains at about ±250 points per match with 5 games of loss protection on a full-rank boundary. The full ladder and climb rules are in the ranked and MMR guide.

Official source: Matchmaking Update — Valve, July 30, 2026, season date moved in Mind the Birds! — Valve, October 6, 2026

September 16: the pass before the rebuild

Two weeks before the overhaul, IceFrog's last minor patch of the summer adjusted how fights turn: all move slow values reduced by roughly 20% globally (ground dash slows about 10%), slows now also affect air drag by 35% of the slow value, parrying pauses your reload instead of letting it continue, and getting stunned pauses rather than restarts it. Objectives got stingier too — the share of objective bounty for nearby heroes dropped from 30% to 25%, respawn time at 20 minutes went from 35s to 38s, and Golden Goose Egg now pays 80 souls per minute instead of 90.

September 29 and October: City Never Sleeps and the hero drops

City Never Sleeps (September 29) is the biggest content patch of the year: a rebuilt map with named locations and four districts, neutral camps replaced by Haunts, the limited-time Broker exchanging high-tier items for Corrupted versions, a full HUD pass, and engine work (latest Source 2 build, network prediction, rendering and audio performance, "improved anti-cheat"). One feel change stands out: ability and item use now fires the instant you press the button instead of waiting for the next window. The complete breakdown lives in the City Never Sleeps update guide.

After the rebuild come the six vote-released heroes, Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM PT: Rat King (Oct 2), Baba (Oct 6), Solomon (Oct 9), with three slots left through October 20 — the release schedule tracker has the slot table. Between them, Minor Update - 10-05-2026 fixed troopers walking too slowly in lane and cut Rat King down: Rule, Ratannia! lost cooldown (130 to 160), damage reduction (20% to 15%), radius (24m to 20m) and charge duration (12s to 10s), while Scrap Grenade's damage went up 65 to 70. Sinclair took hits across his gun falloff, Rabbit Hex radius and Audience Participation duration.

Official source: City Never Sleeps — Valve, September 29, 2026, Minor Update - 10-05-2026 — Valve (IceFrog)

FAQ

How many patches has Deadlock had in 2026? Nineteen patch notes posts through October 10, 2026 — two named overhauls, one matchmaking update, and 16 balance patches — plus nine hero-release announcements.

When did Deadlock get ranked mode? July 30, 2026, in the Matchmaking Update. You need 60 Standard wins and three heroes with 15 wins each before ranked unlocks.

What was the biggest Deadlock patch of 2026? For balance, March 6 — 92,167 characters of notes touching the whole roster. For content, City Never Sleeps on September 29, which rebuilt the map.

Did the September 29 update change the whole map? Yes. The city was rebuilt with new named locations, four districts, Haunts replacing neutral camps, and a new HUD. Old four-lane map guides describe a map that no longer exists.

When does the current ranked season end? November 5, 2026 at 2:00 PM PDT, per Valve's October 6 post — the July 30 announcement originally said October 7.

Related Guides

• City Never Sleeps Update: Full Breakdown — everything inside the September 29 rebuild, including what Valve says is unfinished.
• Ranked and MMR System — ranks, calibration, Rank Points and the season dates.
• Souls Economy Guide — how soul income works after the June 30 reset.
• Movement Guide — dash jump, slide and wall jump values as patches have shaped them.
• New Hero Release Schedule — the October slot table and how the vote sets each order.