Valve knows how to design characters. From the unmistakable silhouettes of the Team Fortress crew to GLaDOS’s stint as a potato in Portal, every Valve game has some of the most memorable visuals in the medium. Even the Left 4 Dead gang all feel wildly distinct, despite each finishing their day job to shoot zombies in the head. Unsurprisingly then, Valve knocked it out of the park with Deadlock earlier this year. You’ve got a gargoyle that sprang to life, a goopy sea anemone, a handful of robots, and a whole lot more. There are even a few more heroes yet to make it to the full roster, each with a great design, and now you can try them out with almost no limitations.
Even though the official Deadlock release date is a while away, Valve is still massively updating its upcoming MOBA. The map, heroes, balancing, matchmaking, and more are constantly in flux, as the game is still at an early stage of development despite its popularity. That’s why I wouldn’t get too comfortable with your favorite character, because you never know how Valve will change them. Besides, you can now try out the extra in-development heroes across the whole of the weekend (instead of at the normal, more limited times), so you might find your new Deadlock darling anyway.
Typically, your access to the Deadlock hero labs mode, where these in-development heroes are found, is limited. Not only do you need to play 50 standard games to unlock it, but the testing hours are only between 6 and 8pm PST. That’s changed until Monday November 25, however, as Valve has unlocked testing hours for the Deadlock hero labs for the whole weekend.
This means you can play as seven heroes that aren’t a part of the normal 22-character roster. In hero labs, you can access Calico, Fathom, Holldiay, Magician, Viper, Trapper, and Wrecker. All of these heroes are still in early development so their names, abilities, and assets could all change dramatically before they’re added to the main roster.
Valve hasn’t just unlocked hero labs for a limited time, either, as the team dropped a colossal patch on Thursday November 21. The patch contains some substantial improvements to the matchmaking systems alongside a slew of hero, map, and balance changes.
After a lot of feedback on Deadlock’s matchmaking woes, Valve made some big changes to how Deadlock MMR (matchmaking rating) works in this patch. “Each player will have a ‘core’ MMR and your MMR per hero will be offsets of your core MMR,” Valve writes. This means if you queue with a hero you’ve barely used, you’ll be put in an easier match than what you’re used to while you get to grips with the hero’s mechanics. Valve will then judge your skill level with that hero based on your 20 most recent games with them. You can read the full patch notes here.
If you’re unsure who to play as in regular matches we’ve got you covered with an extensive Deadlock characters tier list, alongside a breakdown of Deadlock ranked play.
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