Common Deadlock Mistakes New Players Make (and How to Fix Them)

If you keep asking yourself why do I keep losing Deadlock games that felt close, the answer is usually not your aim. It's a handful of quiet Deadlock beginner mistakes that bleed away small advantages until the enemy Patron is suddenly at your door. The good news: every one of these bad habits has a clean, immediate fix, and none of them require mechanical genius to correct.

Mistake 1: Constantly leaving your lane

You see a fight two lanes over, you rotate to help, and by the time you arrive it's already over — but your own lane spent 20 seconds pushed under your Guardian with nobody to defend it. This is the single most expensive habit new players have. Every second you're jogging across the map, you earn zero souls and your Guardian takes free damage.

Mistake 2: Over-brawling instead of farming

Deadlock feels like a shooter, so new players fight constantly — poking, dashing in, trading shots for the fun of it. But this is a game where souls decide who wins the late game, and every trade you take is time you're not last-hitting. A hero like Abrams can get away with brawling early because his kit heals and sustains through it. A hero like Haze cannot; she needs farm to come online, and if you play her like a brawler you'll be a wet noodle at 20 minutes while the enemy carry one-shots your team.

• Denying an enemy last-hit is worth almost as much as taking your own — you gain souls and starve them at the same time.
• A missed trooper is a permanent loss; those souls don't come back.
• Winning a duel but taking 60% damage often means you now have to back off and miss the next wave — a net loss.

Mistake 3: Greedy, all-damage builds

It's tempting to pour every soul into damage and imagine yourself deleting the enemy team. What actually happens is you become a glass cannon who dies in one engagement and hands over a bounty. Deadlock's shop is split across Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit categories for a reason — Vitality items keep you alive long enough to use all that damage. Skipping them entirely is one of the most common Deadlock mistakes to avoid.

1. 1
   Grab early sustain first

   Pick up a cheap Vitality item like Healing Rite in your opening buys. That out-of-combat heal lets you stay in lane through pokes instead of walking back to base and missing waves.

2. 2
   Layer in survivability as you scale

   As the game opens up, add health and resistances so you don't evaporate the instant a fight starts. Being alive for the whole teamfight is more damage than a bigger number that dies in two seconds.

3. 3
   Buy for the actual threat

   If the enemy carry is shredding you with bullets, buy bullet resist. If a Spirit-heavy hero is bursting you, buy spirit resist. Reactive defensive buys win far more games than a locked-in dream build.

Mistake 4: Ignoring the map and objectives

New players tunnel on the enemy in front of them and forget the game has a win condition made of buildings. Guardians, Walkers, and eventually the Patron are how you actually close a game. Getting three kills means nothing if nobody takes the objective those kills opened up. When you win a fight, look up: there's almost always a Walker or a Guardian sitting there for free.

1. Early
   Laning phase

   Farm your lane, deny the enemy, chip your Guardian when it's safe. Your world is small on purpose — master your own patch of the map before worrying about the rest.

2. Mid
   Lanes collapse

   Guardians start falling and the map opens up. Group with allies, keep farming the jungle and troopers between fights, and start converting won fights into Walkers.

3. Late
   Patron push

   Fights decide the game. Don't throw a won game by chasing one last kill into the enemy base — take the objective, then reset. Greed at this stage loses more leads than anything else.

• I stayed in my assigned lane through the laning phase
• I prioritized last-hits and denies over free poke
• I bought at least one early sustain item and reactive resistances
• I converted won fights into Guardians, Walkers, or the Patron
• I didn't chase a kill into a losing position