Patch NotesDeadlock

Deadlock Minor Update Patch Notes (28th July 2026)

A sweeping rebalance targets spirit-heavy builds and item synergies, with particular pressure on Haze's fixation stacking and Spirit Burn's area damage.

Nathan Lees29 July 20268 min read

Valve's 28 July update pulls hard on spirit scaling across both heroes and items, signalling a deliberate shift away from the stacking damage patterns that have dominated recent weeks. This is not a light trim. It's a structural rebalance that will force players to reconsider how they itemise and which heroes remain viable in their current form.

The most visible casualty is spirit-scaling damage. Haze takes the heaviest hit: Sleep Dagger's spirit scaling drops from 2.8 to 2.2, and its wake-up time scaling halves from 0.003 to 0.002. Her talent tree reshuffles too. T2 and T3 swap their cooldown reduction and sleep duration bonuses, meaning the cooldown reduction now lives in T3 rather than T2. This matters because it delays when Haze players can spam Sleep Dagger in mid-game fights; the build path becomes slower to come online. Drifter's Rend spirit scaling also falls from 1.8 to 1.7, and Ivy's Stone Form T3 drops from 1.7 to 1.5. These are not typos. They are targeted nerfs to heroes whose spirit itemisation has been too efficient.

Items themselves face a larger overhaul than the changelog's line-by-line format suggests. Spirit Burn no longer hits in a 12-metre radius and now affects only the primary target; its explosion damage plummets from 110 to 50, and the cooldown moves from item-based to target-based, meaning you cannot spam it on multiple enemies in rapid succession. Cursed Relic loses its innate damage penalty and now applies a temporary debuff instead, which sounds like a buff until you realise the debuff only lasts 3.25 seconds. Much shorter than before. Slowing Bullets loses its weapon damage bonus entirely, and Weighted Shots drops from +40% to +30%. These changes dismantle the synergies that made spirit-heavy, slow-firing builds so punishing: you no longer stack damage on top of utility as freely.

Some heroes gain breathing room in exchange. Restorative Locket's heal per boon jumps from 0.32 to 0.5, and Diviner's Kevlar gains +5 spirit power. Frenzy now includes +10% bullet lifesteal innately, and Fury Trance's active grants movement speed and removes the shooting penalty. These are quality-of-life changes that smooth out gameplay friction for sustain-focused builds, but they do not compensate for the raw damage loss elsewhere.

The stamina bucket 3 heroes, the slowest movers, gain 0.02 seconds on both ground and air dash times, a marginal buff that barely registers. More substantially, the Orb Spawners in base now split souls to nearby players on expiry, meaning you cannot hoard them solo anymore. This is a team-play enforcement change, not a power shift. What is conspicuously absent is any adjustment to Haze's Fixation stacking itself, only her scaling off it. The core mechanic survives; the damage output does not. That distinction will matter for how the hero feels in practice.

Full Patch Notes

▲ Buff▼ Nerf✓ Fix◆ Tweak

[ General ]

Stamina bucket 3 heroes (slowest) have their ground dash time increased from 0.7s to 0.72s and air dash time from 0.49s to 0.51s
The Orb Spawners in base that give 10 souls on hit now split to nearby players on expire
Fixed the party member / team mate audio volume slider for voice communications

[ Items ]

Crushing Fists: Max stacks stun duration increased from 0.5s to 0.75s
Crushing Fists: Bullet Resist reduction increased from -4% to -5% per stack
Cursed Relic: No longer has -14% Damage Output innate
Cursed Relic: Now applies a -25% Damage Output debuff for the 3.25s duration
Diviner's Kevlar: Spirit power increased from +35 to +40
Echo Shard: Now has a 0.5s post-cast time
Echo Shard: No longer grants +5% Fire Rate
Echo Shard: Cooldown increased from 35s to 30s + the cooldown of the imbued ability
Ethereal Shift: Cooldown increased from 35s to 37s
Frenzy: Now has +10% Bullet Lifesteal as an innate
Fury Trance: Active now grants +1m Move Speed
Fury Trance: Active removes move speed penalty when shooting (like Fleetfoot)
Lifestrike: When hitting a trooper and a hero at the same time, it now always prioritizes healing off the hero (same change for Melee Lifesteal)
Mystic Shot: Cooldown reduced from 9s to 8s
Mystic Shot: Spirit scaling reduced from 1.2 to 0.9
Restorative Locket: Heal per boon increased from 0.32 to 0.5
Scourge: No longer grants +17% Debuff Resist innate bonus
Scourge: Active now grants +20% Debuff Resist (retroactive on application)
Scourge: Max Health per second reduced from 2.5% to 2.3%
Slowing Bullets: No longer grants +15% Weapon Damage
Weighted Shots: Weapon Damage reduced from +40% to +30%
Spiritual Overflow: Now provides a bonus +10% Spirit Lifesteal on proc
Spiritual Overflow: Ability Duration reduced from +15% to +13%
Spiritual Overflow: Fire Rate reduced from +32% to +30%
Spirit Burn: No longer hits enemies in a 12m radius, only affects primary target now
Spirit Burn: Changed from the cooldown being on the item to being target based
Spirit Burn: Removed half cooldown against NPC
Spirit Burn: Explosion damage reduced from 110 to 50
Suppressor: Duration reduced from 5s to 4.5s
Tankbuster: No longer procs off of items

[ Heroes ]

Apollo: Riposte base stun duration increased from 0.6s to 0.8s
Apollo: Riposte T3 changed from +1.6s Stun Duration to +60% Bullet, Spirit and Melee Lifesteal against the target for 7s
Billy: Rising Ram T3 reduced from 8% Max Health to 7%
Calico: Ava T2 reduced from +45% Move Speed to +40%
Calico: Ava T3 reduced from +20% damage amp to +18%
Celeste: Shining Wonder radius increased from 16.5m to 17.5m
Celeste: Shining Wonder damage increased by 10%
Celeste: Shining Wonder buffer duration increased from 3s to 3.25s
Doorman: Bullet damage rescaled from 26 + 1.19/boon to 24 + 1.25
Doorman: Call Bell Charge Time increased from 6s to 7s
Doorman: Doorway duration reduced from 20s to 15s
Doorman: Doorway T1 duration increased from +15s to +20s
Doorman: Doorway T3 range reduced from +45m to +40m
Doorman: Luggage Cart damage reduced from 80 to 60
Doorman: Luggage Cart T1 increased from +60 Damage to +80
Doorman: Luggage Cart range reduced from 25m to 20m
Doorman: Luggage Cart T2 increased from +20m Cast Range to +25m
Drifter: Rend spirit scaling reduced from 1.8 to 1.7
Drifter: Rend T3 silence duration reduced from 2.3s to 2s
Dynamo: Singularity cooldown reduced from 265s to 250s
Haze: Sleep Dagger wake up time spirit scaling reduced from 0.003 to 0.002
Haze: Sleep Dagger damage spirit scaling reduced from 2.8 to 2.2
Haze: Sleep Dagger T2 changed from “-17s Cooldown and Applies 15 Fixation Stacks” to “+1s Sleep Duration and Applies 15 Fixation Stacks”
Haze: Sleep Dagger T3 changed from “+1s Sleep Duration and -50% Move and Dash Speed for 3s on wake-up” to “-17s Cooldown and -50% Move and Dash Speed for 3s on wake-up”
Haze: Fixation T3 reduced from +0.14 per Stack to +0.11
Haze: Fixation T3 now also scales with Weapon Damage (0.0003)
Ivy: Stone Form T3 spirit scaling reduced from +1.7 to +1.5
Kelvin: Frozen Shelter cooldown reduced from 195s to 185s
Lady Geist: Life Drain changed from 75% Damage to Heal to 100%
Lady Geist: Life Drain DPS reduced to provide the same effective heal as before but with less DPS
Lady Geist: Malice Damage amplification reduced from 8% to 7%
Lady Geist: Malice T3 increased from +7% Damage Amp to +8%
Mina: Sanguine Retreat recast time increased from 3.5s to 4s
Mina: Sanguine Retreat T3 cast range increased from +3m to +4m
Mirage: Fire Scarabs duration reduced from 7s to 5s
Mirage: Fire Scarabs T2 reduced from +2 Charges to +1 Charge
Mirage: Fire Scarabs T2 now also increases duration by 2s
Mirage: Dust Devil T3 no longer increases Lift Duration by +0.3s
Mirage: Fixed Djinn's Mark T3 still being -1s Cooldown instead of -0.75s
Mo & Krill: Burrow cooldown no longer starts after the conclusion of the ability, now starts immediately
Mo & Krill: Combo now lets you cast items while using it
Paige: Rallying Charge cooldown reduced from 220s to 210s
Pocket: Flying Cloak T3 reduced from -11s Cooldown to -10s
Pocket: Affliction DPS reduced by ~6% (also reduces the spirit scaling and the upgrades)
Shiv: Stamina regen increased from 5.5s to 6s
Shiv: Killing Blow recast window reduced from 20s to 16s
Silver: Gun falloff range reduced from 20m->46m to 17m→42m
Silver: Slam Fire now does 100% bonus damage against NPCs (troopers and neutrals, not objectives)
Silver: Lycan Curse precast time increased from 0.2 to 0.3
Silver: Lycan Curse precast movespeed reduced from 7.6m to 2.5m
Silver: Lycan Curse T1 reduced from +20% Resists to +15%
Venator: Sprint speed reduced from 1.5m to 1m
Venator: Bullet falloff range reduced from 20m-51m to 18m-47m
Venator: Ira Domini cooldown no longer starts after the conclusion of the ability, now starts immediately
Venator: Ira Domini blessed stakes damage increased from 100 to 115
Viscous: Splatter damage reduced from 70 to 55
Viscous: Splatter spirit ratio reduced from 0.8 to 0.7
Viscous: Splatter base bounce count increased from 1 to 2
Viscous: Splatter T3 bounce count reduced from +2 to +1
Viscous: The Cube T3 reduced from -25s Cooldown to -20s
Viscous: Puddle Punch slow duration reduced from 4s to 3s
Viscous: Puddle Punch slow increased from -20% to -30%
Viscous: Puddle Punch cooldown reduced from 24s to 21s
Viscous: Goo Ball T2 increased from +10% Resists to +20%
Yamato: Flying Slash T2 reduced from +40 Spirit Power to +35
Yamato: Flying Slash T3 charges from +2 to +1
Yamato: Flying Slash T3 Charge Time increased from 4s to 5s

Sources

forums.playdeadlock.com

Tags:Patch Notes Deadlock Valve

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Written by

Nathan Lees

Gaming journalist and founder of XP Gained. Covering patch notes, breaking news, and updates across 160+ games.