A new Deadlock update reworks the Urn into a more chaotic, powerful comeback engine

Valve’s new Deadlock update reworks the Soul Urn, lowers everyone’s health, and makes pushing into the enemy base a little bit harder.

A new Deadlock update is here, and as ever the Valve MOBA is packing in plenty of changes. This is largely more of a balance pass than anything, but there are a couple of particularly notable extras. The first is an experimental redesign for the Soul Urn, which the developer is eager to hear your feedback on, and the second is a new Vitality item, Grit. Alongside that, the latest Deadlock patch notes are filled with number adjustments across heroes and items, plus some smaller tweaks designed to encourage more early aggression but slow down base pushing later on.

The biggest inclusion in these patch notes is the Urn rework. It's long been a strong (if often undervalued) way to swing Deadlock matches in your favor, but it's about to get even more so. You must now melee it to pick it up, instead of just standing on it. Carrying the Urn no longer silences you (although it does disarm and prevent movement skills), but neither does it offer 30% Bullet and Spirit Resist. Holding onto it for too long now deals far more damage, stripping 5% of your max health per second, and can even be fatal.

The dropoff point is shared, on top of the bridge in the middle of the map. Once placed, the Urn goes into a 'depositing' phase, during which time the enemy team can heavy melee it to switch it to their side. All souls are provided instantly once it completes. Here's the kicker: not only is the deposit time dramatically lower for the favored team, but that losing side will also get a massive 50% Bullet and Spirit Resist buff in a 60-meter radius around the Urn, wherever it is. Combine those, and it's sounding like more of a must-have than ever if you're on the back foot. Valve notes that the thresholds for a favored state remain the same: 15% behind the enemy for the first, or 10% for subsequent Urns.

As for everything else, starting at the very top of the list is a small reduction to base health and HP per boon for all heroes, which should slightly drop time to kill across the board. All Guardians get extra bullet resistance, but the first set will take more damage in the early game. Breakables like boxes won't show up until the three-minute mark, but medium neutrals spawn a little earlier. Also arriving ahead of schedule is the Midboss, which will now appear right from the start of a match. Shrines have been made invulnerable until one pair of Base Guardians fall, and the backdoor linger effect has been reduced from 20 seconds down to 14.

On the movement side, sliding no longer resets sprint speed, and stamina regeneration gets a 25% penalty for five seconds after using a wall jump, although this latter change only applies while in combat. Two outward-facing jump pads near the middle of the map have been removed, making it slightly harder to zoom to the left and right lanes. The visual effect of parrying has been adjusted so it should now more accurately match its active duration, hopefully preventing you from being parried when you thought it had come to an end.

Medic trooper heals now take twice as long to apply (four seconds instead of two), and the total amount has been increased a tiny bit. When picking multiple heal orbs, they will now extend the heal's duration rather than stacking on top of each other. Bullet Velocity now stacks additively rather than diminishingly, while Total Damage Reduction debuffs move in the opposite direction.

The new tier-one Vitality item is Grit, which provides one combat regen passively, with an active granting you 200 barrier for four seconds, with a 60-second cooldown. It's not the most thrilling addition in Deadlock history, but does build into most other barrier-related items. Beyond that, there's a wealth of balance changes in store, ranging across both items and heroes.

Of note among the former, Weakening Headshot and its upgrade Crippling Headshot now affect NPCs, so can be used to help with farming. Shadow Weave now lasts longer, providing more Fire Rate, Spirit Power, and Melee Damage upon a successful ambush. Toxic Bullets can no longer proc from melee attacks. The Spirit Lifesteal on Spiritual Overflow has been slightly reduced, but it's now an innate rather than an active bonus.

Lifesteal items in general get some love, presumably to counteract the dropoff after recent nerfs. Magic Carpet now offers -15% Gravity and +25% Air Control as innate benefits. Arctic Blast hits across a bigger radius and increased height, and while it loses its damage amp, it now immobilizes victims for slightly longer, and freezes their stamina regen for the full four seconds of its slow.

On the hero side, winners include Rem, who gets a long list of welcome buffs. Tag Along can now be cast through walls, moves to allies 50% faster, benefits from friendly auras, has less of a lockout after ejecting, and can even zoom to secondary allies to apply the burst heal. Yamato benefits from more Power Slash spirit scaling and more consistency landing Crimson Slash. The patch is also good news for Paradox's Time Wall, Graves players will enjoy faster sprint speed and several bug fixes, and Billy gets tankier.

Regular troublemakers Apollo and Celeste have both been made easier to hit, and the former no longer automatically dashes when using Riposte. While he can still do so by targeting an enemy, it'll make it tougher for him to rely on it as an escape tool. Additionally, Riposte's effect no longer triggers from objective damage or auras like Flame Dash. A newly implemented cooldown stops Doorman from immediately closing his doors after placing them, and the ability can now also be silenced.

This Deadlock update is live now. As things stand, you do still technically need an invite to join Valve's ongoing 'closed test,' but they aren't hard to come by - any friend you know with access can help. If no-one in your circle is already playing, you can look to community sites like Reddit for threads where invites are easily accessible.