Deadlock just released 4 new characters to cure your seasonal content drought

Even though Deadlock has yet to be officially announced by Valve, the game soared into the scene when the Alpha version became public to most players. While recent releases have shifted focus away from the third-person MOBA and hero shooter, four new characters are bringing players back.

The four fresh characters are Holliday, Vyper, Calico, and The Magnificent Sinclair, which long-time players may recognize from the game’s Hero Labs. This is a feature created by the Deadlock developers to test out concepts for different heroes before they’re officially added to the game.

Hero Labs runs every day for just a few hours so the developers can collect data on potential new characters, change abilities on the fly, and iron out any pesky bugs. Now that these four new characters are making it into the game, players can select them during both casual and ranked play.

The character release was announced via a blog post by the developers on Steam. The post included some minor details about each character’s motivations and lore and also announced that the game’s winter event has finally concluded. Unfortunately, the Deadlock developers failed to include a list of the new character’s abilities in their post. This confused many players, considering these heroes have had many different playstyles and abilities throughout their time in Hero Labs.

Thankfully we have you covered, and you can read about the abilities and playstyles of all four of the new heroes below.

Holliday is from the Wild West and uses her trusty revolver to deal damage and dispense justice to ne’re-do-wells. If you’re playing this cowgirl, prepare to launch yourself around the map and explode waves of minions with rolling barrels.

• Powder Keg – Throw out an explosive barrel that arms after a short delay. Once armed, the barrel can be shot, meleed, launched, or detonated by another barrel to cause an explosion that deals ability damage.
• Bounce Pad – Place a bounce pad that can launch any hero. Upon landing, you’ll explode in an AoE, dealing ability damage.
• Crackshot – Your headshots deal additional weapon damage and inflict a slow. This ability can only occur every 20 seconds.
• Spirit Lasso – Throw your lasso to deal ability damage and stun the first enemy hit. You can then drag the enemy behind you for 2.5 seconds.

Vyper is a slippery reptile that can slide around the map and poison his foes. While sliding in Deadlock, all heroes gain infinite ammo, making Vyper a fantastic choice for players looking to deal weapon damage:

• Screwjab Dagger – Throw a dagger that applies a fading slow and deals ability damage.
• Lethal Venom – Inject a target with venom, which deals damage after a delay. The damage is increased based on the target’s missing health.
• Slither – Vyper has increased slide distance, can slide up hills, and turns faster while sliding.
• Petrifying Bola – Throw a bola that, on a direct hit, deals ability damage and petrifies the target. Petrified enemies are turned into stone and can’t move for two seconds.

Calico is a stealthy assassin who travels around the map with her trusty feline companion. She is capable of dishing out a high amount of damage, and then slinking back into the shadows:

• Gloom Bombs – Throw a cluster of bombs that detonate after a delay, dealing ability damage.
• Leaping Slash – Dash forward and slice all enemies in a circle with melee damage, if the ability hits an enemy, restore a portion of health.
• Ava – Possess your cat, Ava, and become invisible and undetectable on the minimap for 20 seconds. During this period, attacking will break the invisibility.
• Return to Shadows – Instantly become untargetable, deal 150 ability damage, and gain movement speed. After three seconds, you’ll return from this state and deal another instance of ability damage.

The Magnificent Sinclair is a strange magician who mystifies his opponents with curved projectiles, summoned assistants, and dastardly hexes. Sinclair can even use his enemies’ abilities against them:

• Vexing Bolt – Fire a bolt that deals ability damage and applies a fire rate slow. Recast the ability to make the bolt travel to your cursor location. If you have summoned a Spectral Assistant, it will also launch a Vexing Bolt.
• Spectral Assistant – Summon an Assistant at a targeted location. The Assistant attacks whenever you fire your weapon, dealing ability damage. You can reactivate the ability at any time to swap places with the Assistant.
• Rabbit Hex – Transform an enemy into a rabbit for a short duration. Rabbits are faster, but take 25 percent increased damage and can’t attack or use abilities.
• Audience Participation – Copy the ultimate of an enemy hero. Recasting the ability uses the copied ultimate.

While the announcement didn’t include any details about future balance patches for the game, it looks like the developers are still hard at work at making Deadlock a compelling experience.