Patch notes

The Cursed Apple is ever changing, and these streets are nothing like you remember. A massive visual update to the map and neutrals, six new heroes, HUD updates, numerous quality-of-life additions, accessibility options, and more.

Check out everything that's new at: https://www.playdeadlock.com/cityneversleeps

We also wanted to take this opportunity to talk about where we are with the development of the game and what to look forward to in the future. Our team has been incredibly happy and surprised with how passionate and supportive the community has been the past couple of years; every day someone shares something cool they've seen from the community with the rest of the team, and we are thankful for the constant support and useful feedback, despite the game being unfinished. We think building a multiplayer game is very hard and risky, and the best way to minimize that risk to make sure that we are able to have it in players' hands from an early state to help us shape it and tell us what is fun and what isn't. So, we wanted to give you all more insight into what we've been focusing on internally, as part of developing this game with your help and guidance.

After the Old Gods New Blood update, we felt that there was still a good amount of work we wanted to do on the core game itself before we moved onto more polish phases of the game development (like updating older hero artwork). Unlike previous updates where our efforts were more singularly focused on the key parts of that update, this year we've been working on several different things in parallel. A good number of those are things you can see in today's update. Some others are things we've been working on in the last few months alongside this update. This even includes things like progression and hero/hideout customizations, as we feel those are features we want to be able to adjust and significantly change based on feedback before the game is fully released. There are also other things we've been working on recently that are more speculative (as in we aren't 100% sure if they will be released or not based on how playtesting goes, though results so far have been promising) like large item redesigns/additions and alternate game modes that expand the scope of the game.

Then there are other things like Midboss (both the model and the layout to a degree), Guardians and Walkers, which we do consider important but just haven't gotten to yet and will be focusing on for upcoming updates. On the other hand, things like hero remodels were in our heads as something we'd get to later, towards the end of early development, after other core aspects of the game were more fleshed out. That doesn't mean we don't think they are important by any means, just that they are more of a known quantity to us that don't necessarily need to be done earlier than other things. That being said, we will likely be gradually working on them in the near future for inclusion in upcoming updates alongside other work.

We hope you will like this update. Thank you all for your continued support so far during development, and don't forget to Vote!

The city & its haunts

A massive visual update to the map and neutrals, six new heroes, a mysterious figure known as The Broker, HUD updates, numerous quality-of-life additions, accessibility options, and more.

The neutrals you know have been replaced by a variety of creatures with new behaviors.

Uptown

Our first stop on the tour. If you need to get going somewhere, this is your quickest route to where the action is.

Times Square

The beating heart of the city. Everyone should see it at least once in their life, and hopefully not just this once.

Downtown

The busiest stop in town. Citizens of the Cursed Apple have been reporting strange rumblings coming from deep beneath the subway line.

Specimen

Some call it magic, others call it science. It doesn’t matter what you call it when it’s a disembodied hand crawling on your kitchen floor in the middle of the night.

Umbria University

Home to the nation's finest Bibliomancy program, Umbria offers an elite occult education.

Central Park

300 years old and still growing. This aptly named Hangman’s Elm has been in the city longer than almost any other living creature.

The Brownstones

Visit the Brownstones for some quality family time, and if you’re lucky, a history lesson worth not repeating.

Gutter Ghouls

All those dark and dirty thoughts that humanity would prefer buried and thrown away, given form.

Stock Exchange

See the high-stakes financial playground where the warlocks of Wall Street ply their trade making trades.

Seaport Dock

Preserving New York City’s maritime heritage hasn’t quite been the same since this vessel docked at Pier 16.

Old Fairfax Factories

The beating heart of the Occult Industrial Complex comes from humble beginnings.

Barrel Mimics

Gunpowder was originally invented while on the search for an elixir of immortality. The spirits seem to make good use of both.

Past Dues

A good story can bring respite in trying times. For those less inspired, the pages of a book may serve better as a sleep aid.

Venture off the beaten path

Hidden between the main city streets are the 4 Districts to explore with a little something for everyone. The Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot, and Plaza make up the more “lively” corridors of the Cursed Apple.

Stage Hands

Graceful bodies floating across the stage can be mesmerizing. In such a historic theater, one couldn’t be blamed for wanting to leave their bloody mark all the way across the deck.

Crabbage Pots

People always tell you there’s something in the water whenever anything bad happens. There’s a ritual going on outside. Something’s in the water.

Festival Spirit

Souls are kindled with hopes and dreams of the wishes they may light into day. You never think about how some of those hopes and dreams are violent and want to kill you.

Shrooms

New York is a melting pot of families from across the globe. It just so happens that when you combine a family of fungi and demonic energy at high temperature, it starts to walk.

Underhands

Grasping hands always find their ways into unexpecting pockets. While the ritual burns high in the sky, some decrepit souls can’t help but stay low.

Gameplay & objectives

Sunken Plaza

Shrouded beneath this districts main square lies the city’s Sunken Plaza. With high risk comes high rewards because as you descend to its depths, the sounds of the outside world fade away along with your stamina.

Bell Tower

Ascend to the top of the Chinatown Bell Tower for a highly concentrated soul hotspot. Keep in mind that while collecting your rewards the bell will ring loudly throughout the map.

Tough Crates

These Tough Crates require a Heavy Melee to break open, but the extra souls will make it worth your while.

Buff Containers

Revamped golden statues now also include Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range, and Move Speed as permanent bonuses.

Healing Snacks

Hidden around the map, these healing snacks allow keen-eyed players to heal up in a pinch.

Steam Vents

Duck in and out of veiled cover with your team to navigate the city streets in refreshing secrecy. Provides invisibility and a small amount of regen while standing on it.

The Broker

What is the deal with this guy?

New York has something for everybody... For those in search of truly terrifying power, there’s a guy...a mysterious merchant known only as the Broker.

One day, you might find him uptown operating from the end of a dark alley, a few months later occupying an abandoned storefront in Chinatown. Nobody knows where he’ll appear next, but he won’t stay long as his supply of demon-touched items and modifications are banned in New York.

For a price, the Broker can turn the mundane into the extraordinary, but buyer beware, the Broker’s wares always come with a cost and it’s rarely measured in mere souls.

Exchange Your Items

While supplies last, you can exchange your high tier items for a Corrupted version. While his exact arrival time varies, his first shipment is stocked around 30 minutes. Additional Corrupted Items can be collected, on average, every 15 minutes after that.

Here’s The Catch...

Each match, all corrupted items are assigned random negative attributes from a predefined set. The degree of negative and positive attributes have a small amount of variability, however they are the same for all players in a given game.

He Comes And Goes

Corrupted Items are banned on the streets of New York. He’ll only be around for a few days, as authorities will be out in full swing once the first new hero makes their arrival.

New heroes & voting

• Nurse Harrow
• Deadman Danny
• Baba
• Solomon
• Rat King
• Violet

Two heroes release a week on Tuesdays and Fridays @ 2:00pm PT

Voting Now Live - First Release October 2nd

Vote in Pregame

All voting is now done in the new Pregame lobby. Convince your allies to make the only correct choice. The winning team’s votes will count as double.

First Win of the Day

Your first win of the day gives you double the votes.

New Hero Priority Tokens

Starting with the first hero release, playing will earn you priority tokens.

Campaign Posters

Demonstrate your support for your favorite upcoming hero.

New healthbars

Player Names

Find your party members quickly in the heat of combat.

Rejuvenator Indicator

An icon appears when they have a Rejuvenator use available.

Ultimate Indicator

Know in the moment when that Singularity is going to hit.

Current Health Value

As you deal damage, you’ll see their health value decrease in real time.

Stamina Tracking

When it seems like they never stop dodging, you’ll know when it’s time.

Critical Health Status

Once they’re critical, you’ll always want to hunt ‘em down.

More Haunt Information

See the soul value and comparative difficulty of NPC’s.

Objectives get ‘em too!

Gain a better understanding of just how tanky those guys are.

Damage Number Options

Enable cumulative damage totals and other options within Settings.

HUD enhancements

A number of user interface improvements aimed at improving game readability

Ally Indicators

You can now more easily see your allies, no matter how far away they are.

Improved Stats

Gain a better understanding of your power level throughout a match.

Push it to the limit

Provides a quick view of your relative investments and lets you see more clearly when you hit your spike.

Better Combat Awareness

Get a clearer picture of how your stats are impacted in the heat of battle.

Shop Stats

While shopping, see the impact of your purchases in real time.

Build-ups and Durations, Under Your Thumb

You’ll be able to see that pesky Love Bites build-up more easily.

Targeting Mode

A cleaned up targeting mode means less UI getting in the way between you and your prey.

Event Feed

A new way to look at important moments during a match.

Killing Blow Information

The Event Feed now displays a breakdown of what Item or Ability landed the killing blow.

Bounties

Players can now see what the full bounty of a target is, as well as their personal share of the kill.

Soul Bags

Don’t forget to secure the Soul Bag from your kills, before your ally does it for you.

The shop & builds

The Shop

An improved shop to help players find what they need, when they need it most.

Popular Items

Not sure what is trending on your hero? Using live player data, the shop now narrows down the options to their most frequently purchased items. The item tooltips include how often the item is purchased and at what phase of the game.

Item Filters

Filter the shop down to only see the stats that you’re looking for. Mix and match filters to enhance your build with the stats and modifiers you want the most.

Shop Settings

Improved shop search, focus, scrolling, new options and overall navigation. Pressing 1-6 by default in the shop will navigate to different shop tabs.

Build Improvements

Updated Build Browser Interface for better previews, Build Copy/Pasting, Instant Category Resizing, and many other bug fixes and QOL improvements.

Pings & communication

Pings & Communication

Quickly share a gameplan with your team with the reworked ping system.

Cursor Hints

The new state on the cursor will let you know which UI elements are pingable.

Stay up to date while shopping

You can now see the Kill Feed, Incoming Chat, and push to view the Scoreboard in the shop.

Minimap Wheel

Expanded interactive map pings.

Topbar Wheel

Say more things about the heroes in your match.

Ability Ping Information

Detailed dynamic ability pings to track important cooldowns.

Typing Indicator

Let your allies and enemies know what’s on your mind.

New Pingable Targets

Troopers, Neutrals, Ziplines, Rift, Bridge Buffs, Shop, and more now react to pings.

Updated Ping Lines

Over 15,000 new and updated pings.

Item Pinging

Ping items in the shop to indicate your intent to buy them, or signal to others that you’ve already bought the item.

Enemy Ping Information

Relay important information about enemies like their critical health, death status or if they are about to respawn.

Clustered Minimap Enemies

Pinging an enemy in a cluster on the minimap will now call out the quantity of enemies there.

Voice & accessibility

Character Voice Lines

Listen to every word each hero has to say.

New Voice Lines Added

Pre-match conversations between new and existing heroes increased from over 700 to 1500. Added over 10,000 non-ping voice lines.

New Dialogue Player

Browse and listen to all of the available VO in the game from your favorite Heroes and Patrons.

Commends Counter

A convenient way to see your tally after each match. Clicking on a hero commends that player back.

In-World Respawn Timers

You can now see when Haunt camps or Midboss will respawn when you are near their spawn area.

Minimap Location Label

Callouts for each Lane and District on the map.

New Veils

Updated rendering and VFX for veils around the map.

Updated Barrier Treatment

Barriers applied to yourself have a cleaner look.

Parry Cooldown

While your parry is on cooldown, it is now displayed near your reticle.

Trooper Improvements

Improved trooper behavior, animations, and performance.

Topbar Midboss Timer

The Topbar now shows a timer for Midboss respawn.

Permanent Buffs

Added a postgame graph to track all permanent buffs players collected during the game.

Expanded Custom Lobbies

Expanded parties to support 8 spectators in custom lobbies.

Custom Hideout Camera

Zoom out for a better look at your hero.

Overhead Buff Display

Picking up a permanent buff now displays the pickup type above your hero.

Accessibility Features

Dedicated accessibility settings for visuals, audio, and controls.

Enemy UI Color

Modify the colors used for certain elements in the UI.

VO Subtitles + Customization

When enabled, subtitles will appear for in-game dialogue. Players can also customize the size, colors, and font.

Auto Move

Double-tap Move Forward to keep moving forward without holding the key. Move Forward or Move Back to stop.

Auto Fire

Your weapon fires continuously without holding Fire. Press Fire to stop shooting, and press it again to resume.

Auto Mantle

Automatically mantle onto ledges you walk into while moving forward on the ground, without pressing Jump. Works the same while moving backward.

Reduced Camera Shake

Reduce camera shake from impacts, explosions, and other effects.

Reticle Updates

Customize the fill and border colors.

Testing tools

Advanced Tools

New and improved testing tools to hone your skills.

Bot Recording

Record and playback bot actions for easier testing.

Easier Bot Testing

Record and playback your bot actions to test more complex behavior.

Share Recordings

Easily share your bot recordings online and with friends.

Loop Bot Recordings

Have your bot endlessly loop your recorded sequence of actions.

Combat Log

Detailed breakdown of actions you’ve taken against a bot.

Track Damage Events

See an exact breakdown of every damage instance and type dealt between you and your target.

Buffs and Debuffs

See a clear list of all modifiers that were applied during combat.

Speed Graph

Displays a real-time graph of your movement speed.

Speedometer

Graph the differences in movespeed during varied combat scenarios and movement techniques.

Mobility Tracking

Learn how different forms of CC exactly affect your hero’s movement.

Map Routing

Use this feature to test different routes around the city for the most efficient routes.

DPS Meter

Shows your DPS and total damage dealt.

Track Your Damage

Combat ends 3s after your last hit, and the result stays on the screen until you deal damage again. Shows your DPS and Total Damage dealt.

Comparing Builds

Test out and compare different builds to optimize your choices.

Other Tools

Additional testing tools and quality of life additions to improve the Sandbox.

Hero Controls

Numerous new options to set your hero’s state for testing.

Tooltips

Added tooltips to all the options in the sandbox for clearer results.

Permanent Buffs

Grant yourself permanent buffs through the testing tools.

Falloff Guides

Show where your weapon damage starts to fall off, and where it bottoms out. See how much damage is reduced when firing.

Menu Pin & Free Cursor

Keeps the testing tools on screen after you let go of the scoreboard key. Toggle unlocked cursor for persistent mouse control.

Shop Modifiers

Show detailed information about item types like Enhanced, Legendary, and Corrupted.

Map Spawn Toggles

Turn on or off regular map spawns while testing.

Force Spawn Menu

Force spawns for different objectives, breakables, enemies, and more.

Camera Lock

Move the camera around your hero freely to capture the right moments.

Hide Interfaces

Hide the UI and Health Bars for capturing the content you want.

Target Actions

Kill or heal a target under your cursor directly.

Bot Fine Tuning

Set various attributes on the target dummy for more precise gameplay testing.

Navigate Uninterrupted

Make everything in the map ignore your hero and give your hero a speed boost.

Bot Actions

Command your bot to do any action, ability or item casting. Put them on loop for easier testing.

Hotkeys

Actions that you may want to toggle on and off quickly like no-clip can now be bound to keys within the testing tool.

Reorganized Layout

Testing tools got an organizational revamp to make it easier to find what you need.

Free Shopping Mode

Toggle free shopping mode on and off.

Behavior & reporting

Behavior & Reporting

Flag toxic or rule-breaking behavior during and after a match.

Report Notification

You now get notified when an action was taken on a player you reported.

In-Game Comms Ban

If a player is reported during a match and found to be abusing comms, they will be muted for the rest of the match and issued a 30 day comms ban.

Settings

New Settings Features

More customization options and requested features.

Keybind Map

See every key and mouse button you have bound, which are free, and what each does.

Additional Keybinds

Added keybinds for previously non-bindable actions.

Hideout Customization

Added camera settings and keybinds to use while in the hideout.

Bind By Key

Added a new way to set keybinds by clicking an available key and assigning a command.

Shareable Settings

Copy your reticle and keybind settings as a code to share with other players, or apply a code from someone else.

Share Your Setup

Added a button for creating and applying a shareable Deadlock settings code.

Reticle Share Code

Added a simple single-reticle-code sharing in the Reticle settings section.

Preview and Undo

Preview the settings from a code before applying it, or even undo the changes afterward.

Spectator Settings & Hotkeys

While spectating or watching a replay there are now hotkeys for jumping to each hero on the top bar.

Free Cam While Paused

Spectator camera can now fly around while a replay is paused.

Spectating Keybinds

Cycle through players while spectating or watching a replay using customizable hotkeys.

Advanced Spectator Camera

You can now adjust camera fading and the spectator and replay camera in the Game Settings.

Player View Toggle

Toggle for whether the spectator camera turns back to the spectated player's view.

Fade Opacity Controls

Adjustable fade opacity and distance for the viewed hero and for other characters when the camera gets close.

Spectator Camera

Override the camera's position, pivot and field of view while spectating or watching replays.

Health and Damage Options

You can now choose whether health bars should display health numbers, how to display damage dealt cumulatively, and others.

Health Numbers

Choose to display health numbers inside health bars.

Cumulative Damage

Choose the way you see ongoing damage dealt to targets.

Ally Health Numbers

Added an option to show health numbers on allied heroes’ health bars when they take damage.

Other Settings

Explore numerous other options to customize your experience

Defaults Indicator

Individual settings now visually indicate when they have been changed from their default values.

Device Recognition

Newly connected or disconnected speakers, headsets, and microphones now reflect immediately in the Settings menu.

Hero Settings

Numerous settings can now be customized on a per hero basis. Hold TAB in the Settings menu to highlight them.

Improved Reticle Previews

Allow reticle pips to move as you fire, and let reticle components react to zooming, accuracy effects, and hero abilities.

Scroll Wheel Binds

Added support for mouse scroll wheel binds for previously button-down only keys.

Settings Memory

The menu now remembers where you were across play sessions and reopens your most recent location.

Preview Video Settings

New option to preview video changes instantly, making the settings menu briefly transparent so you can see the effects of the new configuration.

Mouse Cursor Size

You can now customize the cursor size.

Hero Selector

The settings menu now has a hero selector in the nav bar, making it easy to cycle between heroes to compare or adjust their settings.

Individual Setting Resets

Individual settings now have reset buttons when they have been changed.

Global Settings Reset

A new global settings reset popup allows you to reset all settings or even pick and choose which ones to reset in one go.

Improved Color Selection

Individual red/green/blue color sliders have been replaced by color spectrum sliders with color pickers that allow fast and easy color customization.

International Keyboard

By default, or when auto-detect is selected in the dropdown, we attempt to determine the user's actual keyboard shape and layout and represent it.

IME Support

Users playing in Japanese, Chinese or Korean can now use IME input to type text to highlight heroes.

Cloud-Save Settings

Numerous settings that were previously not cloud-saved are now being saved so they can be persistent across different machines. Multiple players from the same PC can now have different settings.

Additional update notes

• Updated engine code to the latest version of Source 2
• Improved anti-cheat
• Network prediction improvements
• Rendering performance improvements
• Audio performance improvements
• Localization additions and improvements
• Updated item art
• New SFX for all hero Heavy and Light Melee
• Ability/Item use is now instant the moment the button is pushed instead of waiting for the next 'window' which could make the button feel unresponsive
• New and improved SFX
• New death, respawn, and killstreak music tracks
• Various updated animations across old heroes
• Numerous Sinclair bug fixes
• New footstep sounds for Billy, Mina, Drifter, Silver, Victor, Venator, Apollo, Graves, Celeste, Doorman, Paige, and Rem
• New drop shadows that go directly down rather than through the sunlight. Improves performance and also helps you track enemies better.
• Added options for rebinding the Avoid Hero command for players using a mouse without a middle button.
• Street Brawl grants you a corrupted item after the item draft in Round 5
• Street Brawl bug fixes
• New hit registration effects
• Successfully parrying objectives no longer resets your Parry cooldown
• Sinners Sacrifice have variable timings to get the bonus
• Doorman bug and abuse cases improved
• Heroes will now look at points of interest in the Hideout
• Various response rule improvements / bug fixes for in game VO
• Walkers no longer keep firing their fireballs after dying
• Fixed for Yamato flying strike failing to create paths against targets that are solid to the player (Turrets, Shrines and Objectives).
• Fixed issue where holding a modifier key like Ctrl to crouch would prevent other keybind chords from working
• Fixed issue where secondary keybinds required the same modifier set for the primary keybind
• Bots now spawn facing the player
• Graves can now destroy Venator's traps with her gun
• Dynamic Walker attack and stomp range indicator that appears as you get close instead of permanent ground displays
• Fixed Hidden King, Archmother and Target's minimap views not showing heroes or objectives while spectating a live match
• In both Sandbox and Explore NYC have the first spawns on crates/neutrals at 5s instead of 30
• Added the various new objectives to the Sandbox Map.
• New point of view when spectating the Patron.
• Added support for Japanese kinsoku shori rules for line breaks
• Added localized hero logos for Korean
• Added an inset HUD option when playing in 21x9
• New settings options now show an indicator on the row until the new setting notification has been dismissed
• Added a pip to sliders in the Settings menu indicating the default value for that setting
• And many other misc changes...