Deadlock is Valve’s upcoming game, a mix of MOBA and hero shooter, that is currently in an invite-only closed testing state. Despite that, Deadlock continues to dominate the Steam charts, while also sustaining a budding competitive scene. With new players flooding in and wanting to learn not just the game’s basics, but also the best heroes to use in the game and dominate. So, we have tested the characters to compile this Deadlock tier list, which includes the best characters depending on their place in today’s meta.
Editor’s Note: last updated on May 11, 2026. Our Deadlock tier list has been updated based on the 30th April 2026 patch notes.
Deadlock Tier List
The last patch has heavily nerfed lifesteal for all Deadlock characters, while also decreasing the gun damage for select characters. It has introduced a powerful new vitality item, and overall, it changed the meta quite a bit.
So, here is the complete Deadlock tier list for May 2026:
Tier Heroes S Dynamo, Mina, Lady Geist A Venator, Mirage, Apollo, Kelvin, Silver, Vyper, Victor, Abrams, McGinnis, Wraith, Doorman, Yamato, Ivy, Grey Talon B Warden, Lash, Seven, Infernus, Drifter, Paradox, Pocket, Billy, Sinclair, Bebop, Mo & Krill, Shiv, Viscous C Vindicta, Paige, Calico, Graves, Rem, Celeste D Haze, Holliday
S Tier Deadlock Heroes
The S-tier characters in our Deadlock tier list are the best in the current meta. These characters can turn a game around and provide insane value to their teams. However, they aren’t unstoppable, and you can still counter their abilities, but don’t think you won’t lose games while playing them. If not for the hero, players make other common mistakes that they can fix to stop losing in Deadlock.
Dynamo
Dyanmo continues to be the most overpowered character in Deadlock with the strongest Ultimate ability. His Ultimate can single-handedly turn a losing game around, making him the game decider in most matches. But that’s not all, Dynamo’s Kinetic Pulse also deals high Spirit damage in a massive area.
His second ability, Quantum Entanglement, allows him to remove debuffs from allies while also making them immune to damage and targets for a couple of seconds. Finally, Dyanmo can also heal himself and allies around him. All of this makes him a complete all-rounder in terms of damage output, game-changing ability, and support.
Mina
Mina is one of the strongest damage-dealing characters in Deadlock, with insane damage output from the start of the match. Her entire kit revolves around her passive ability, Love Bites, which eats away a massive chunk of health when procced. This can make it almost unplayable to be in a lane with her, especially while playing a character of a bigger size.
Her Ultimate is also super strong, completely silencing enemies while building Love Bites, dealing serious damage in a short time. Pair that with her Sanguin Retreat ability, which allows Mina to teleport while making her invulnerable for a brief second. With this kit, Mina Ha is one of the most annoying characters to deal with in the game.
Lady Geist
Lady Geist is currently the strongest carry in Deadlock. She has good weapon and spirit scaling, can amplify damage on enemies with her Malice stacks, and is hard to kill due to her Life Drain and Soul Exchange abilities.
She can regain her entire health when at the brink of death by exchanging the health of her enemies, which continues to be one of the most fearsome Ultimates in the game.
Due to her self-harming nature and low cooldown abilities, Lady Geist can utilize the full potential of Berserk and Spellslinger weapon items in Deadlock. This makes her gun build very powerful in the current meta, while also allowing her to deal a fair amount of spirit damage with her Essence Bomb.
A Tier Deadlock Heroes
The A-tier characters are really strong in the current patch, but they are still behind S-tier heroes in Deadlock. However, the difference is small, and every character here has solo carry potential or can provide tremendous value to their teams.
Venator
Venator is one of the stronger gun characters in Deadlock with a versatile kit. Firstly, he completely scales on weapon damage, making him fairly simple to build. Next, his first ability, Consecrating Grenades, applies 30% healing reduction from the start, upgrading to 50% with the tier 3 upgrade. This makes him one of the only three characters in the game with passive healing reduction in the kit.
Next, Venator’s second ability, Gutshot, can stun enemies by pushing them on the walls, making his Melee builds not only viable but also incredibly strong. However, the best part about this character is his Ultimate ability, which deals Pure damage to enemies. Pure damage is currently only possible for Venator, and it ignores all enemy resistances to deal damage, making it hit hard at any moment of the game.
Mirage
Mirage is one of the strongest characters in the meta currently. His gun and Djinn Mark have always been strong, but the recent changes to his Fire Scarabs ability have allowed him to truly shine once again. Now, Mirage is more tankier in the early game, allowing him to take on many more head-on fights and build Djinn Marks on enemies.
With the additional Tornado on the Tier 3 ability upgrade and a faster Ultimate, Mirage’s rotation and retreating abilities have also been greatly increased. All of this has made him shoot up in ranks in our Deadlock tier list.
Apollo
Apollo is probably the strongest early-game damage dealer, closely following Mina. His first ability, Disengaging Sigil, can take away huge chunks of health from enemies. His third ability, Flawless Advance, deals a fair amount of damage while healing him, and his Ultimate curses enemies while dealing double damage to those with lower than 50% HP. This makes Apolo an absolute nightmare to fight in the early to mid-game.
However, the biggest reason why Apollo is so strong is that all his abilities are tied to movement, making him hard to pin down. Pair that with his second ability, which can parry anything in the game, while stunning the enemy, and you easily have one of the strongest forces to deal with in Deadlock.
Kelvin
Kelvin has always been one of the strongest characters in Deadlock, always placing quite high in the Deadlock tier list. With recent tweaks to his kit, he is even stronger and relevant to the current meta.
Kelvin’s Frost Grenade now heals allies from the start, making him one of the strongest healers in Deadlock. But healing is not even the most important part of Kelvin’s abilities. His Arctic Beam constantly slows down enemies while dealing a fair amount of damage, while Ice Path gives him incredible mobility to constantly gank everywhere on the map.
Pair that with the Frozen Shelter Ultimate, and Kelvin becomes one of the best ‘picks’ in Deadlock. He can isolate any enemy inside his Ultimate, creating an incredibly favorable situation for himself and his allies. The dome can also be used to freeze objectives or prevent allies from dying in clutch moments.
Silver
Silver is another strong damage dealer in Deadlock. Her Ultimate has the perfect mix of offense and defense, even overshadowing Yamato’s Ultimate. It literally transforms her into a Werewolf for a brief time, completely changing her abilities and allowing her to deal incredible damage at close range.
In the Ultimate phase, she can also apply Disarm on enemies, which is quite useful when jumping on gun characters with a soul lead and a ton of items. She can also heal with her first ability in the Werewolf form, and can close large distances quickly.
Silver’s kit mostly revolves around her Ultimate, which is why it has such a shorter cooldown. Still, her base form can do a fair amount of gun damage, and her Bola ability can silence all movements abilites on enemies, making him a really good pick character.
Vyper
Vyper is the strongest gun character in Deadlock’s meta. She is currently in the best possible position after multiple patches of nerfs and buffs since her overpowered release. Vyper can have infinite ammo for most of the game, as she can constantly slide on the ground. She is also the only character that can slide uphill, making her very hard to catch.
Her gun damage is off the charts, and she doesn’t even need that much soul investment to destroy her enemies. Furthermore, Vyper can passively apply healing reduction with her second ability, and it also does increased damage the lower the enemy’s health. This makes Vyper one of the best characters to confirm kills, which is incredibly strong in the laning phase.
Furthermore, Vyper’s Petrifying Bola, her Ultimate, can freeze all enemies in an area. This makes her one of the strongest abilities for securing the mid-boss rejuvinator in Deadlock.
Victor
Victor is a powerful character with incredible healing and damaging abilities. His Ultimate allows him to revive once after death, making him one of the hardest characters to kill in Deadlock.
Pairing that with his third ability, Aura of Suffering, he can constantly deal damage around him in an area. However, this ability also self-harms Victor for a portion of the output damage, but he can easily sustain it with life-stealing items after jumping on enemies.
Victor’s second ability also gives him healing, while increasing his Debuff Resistance by 50%. His first ability charges based on the damage he takes and deals a fair amount of damage to enemies when used. With the T3 upgrade, the first ability also heals Victor, further increasing his self-sustaining potential. Overall, a late-game Victor can be a nightmare to fight, making him an easy pick for our A-tier in the Deadlock tier list.
Abrams
Abrams is the poster boy in Deadlock, appearing as the face of the game on every promotional material, and for good reason. There has never been a time when Abrams was unplayable in the game, as he has always been consistently good throughout the game’s history. He is a classic frontline tank who primarily deals Melee damage by stunning enemies with his Shoulder Charge.
His first ability constantly deals Spirit damage around him, while having an 70% life steal, which is incredible for sustaining in fights. Abrams’ third ability converts a portion of damage taken into healing regeneration, making him quickly regain health after a close fight. His Ultimate ability is a big AoE stun, which allows him to stop multiple enemy abilities. The T3 upgrade to his Ultimate also gives Abrams Unstoppable for a couple of seconds, allowing him to charge into battle and throw punches without worrying about getting parried.
McGinnis
McGinnis is a highly versatile character with strong support, damage-dealing, and crowd control abilities. She can summon turrets, which constantly target nearby enemies without holding back. It deals fairly good damage, while being very annoying to deal with. After her recent buffs, McGinnis’s Ultimate does insane damage while having a very short cooldown.
Pair that with her second ability, which heals allies in an area while giving Spirit Resist, and her third ability that creates a massive wall, and she is an ally you always want on your side.
Wraith
Wraith is the strongest carry in Deadlock in the current meta. She deals insanely high numbers of damage with her cards and gun once her items are properly built. Her third ability gives her increased fire rate, while also giving unlimited ammo for a brief time after the T3 upgrade. Pair that with her first ability, which allows her to chuck homing cards at enemies to deal massive damage, and you have one of the most fearsome characters in the game.
Her Ultimate is also very strong for 1v1 scenarios, allowing her to Silence an enemy while bringing them closer. She is also one of the strongest characters for taking down objectives and comes with a teleport away ability to get her out of trouble when needed. The only reason Wraith is not in S-tier in our Deadlock tier list is that she is still very squishy in the early game, and it takes her a fair amount of farm to start becoming a real threat.
Doorman
Ask every Deadlock player who is the most annoying character to deal with in the game, and most will say it’s the Doorman. Being a literal god with control over different dimensions, he can create doorways that can be used to teleport from one end of the map to the other. Although this ability is incredibly strong defensively, it is also perfect for kidnapping enemies by using it with the Luggage Cart ability.
Doorman’s Ultimate can literally send one of his enemies to another dimension, making it perfect for shutting down enemy Ultimates or hard-to-deal-with enemies. On top of all that, his first ability allows him to throw ‘Bells’ that detonate and deal high AoE spirit damage.
Yamato
Yamato is a solid frontliner who can also carry with really good damage out. Her Ultimate is one of the scariest in the game, greatly diminishing the damage she takes while amplifying her damage output. Her Powerslash is incredibly strong both in the early game and late game, and she can use her Flying Slash ability to chase down foes from half the map away.
On top of all that, Yamato’s third ability can heal her HP based on enemies hit, giving a ton of sustainability during fights. After the Mystic Reverb rework, Yamato has found his footing again in the meta, jumping up to the A-tier in our Deadlock tier list.
Ivy
Ivy is an incredible support and ganking character in Deadlock. She has insane mobility due to her Ultimate, which lets her fly at high speed. Due to a low cooldown, she has her Ultimate for most of the time, which can be used to quickly gank enemies on the other side of the map or save an ally from the enemy’s jaws.
Her Kudzu Bombs are also very strong for pushing lanes and dealing damage in a team fight. It literally makes it impossible to fight against her in a closed area. But that’s not even her best ability, which is Stone Form that makes her invulnerable for a few seconds and allows her to stun everything in a small area, while also healing a portion of her missing health. Ivy can also heal fairly well using her second ability, which tethers to nearby allies and shares her healing with them.
Grey Talon
Grey Talon is currently in the best position of his Deadlock life in the Deadlock tier list’s history, finally becoming a viable backline damage dealer. His Charged Shot continues to deal insanely high spirit damage, even reducing the strongest of tanks to low HP after a couple of well-aimed shots. This burst damage is very serious when hunting for enemies. However, the highlight of his kit is his Ultimate, which allows him to fly a bird-shaped nuke across the map, which kills any enemy with less than 22% of their max HP at T3.
Killing enemies with his Ultimate also grants him 10 spirit power per kill, further increasing his overall damage output with every stack. His Spirit Snare ability can apply Curse on enemies, which can be used to stop most Ultimate abilities in the game. Grey Talon can manually trigger the snare using his charged shot, allowing him to even stop flying enemy abilities if correctly timed.
B-tier Deadlock Heroes
The B-tier heroes in Deadlock are those who are good only in specific builds or playstyles. They no longer have an overbearing advantage on their opponents, either due to new counter-strategies or nerfs.
Warden
Warden continues to be a strong gun carry in Deadlock, but he has definitely been out of the meta compared to other gun characters recently. With better options being available, Warden has dropped to the B-tier. Still, he is a good character that brings not only damage, but also a ton of crowd control to fights. Warden’s Ultimate is still one of the scariest in Deadlock, and his third ability applies Silence on caged enemies at T3 upgrade.
Lash
Lash is currently in the worst state of his life, as there are multiple counters that can completely render his kit useless. From Counterspell to Ethereal Shift, or stunning items like Knock Down, Curse, or such, had already made it difficult for Lash players. But with the recent new item ‘Indomitable’ added to the game, Lash receives yet another upset in fights.
However, Lash’s Ultimate, when it strikes properly, can still change the entire game in seconds. His ground slam and flog damage are still good, and catching him is still one of the hardest tasks in Deadlock, putting him easily in the B-tier of our Deadlock tier list.
Seven
Seven is one of the easiest characters to play in Deadlock, and he offers massive damage output and crowd control. His Ultimate controls an entire area and is one of the strongest abilities to use during an ongoing team fight. Other than that, Seven comes with an in-built stun with his second ability, and his farming speed is unparalleled.
However, he is placed in the B-tier due to his low HP and lack of retreating abilities. Seven is very easy to punish early on, and building Knockdown or any other long-range stun can make his Ultimate useless in fights.
Infernus
Infernus continues to be a strong character in Deadlock, and his damage output is incredibly strong. Most of his damage comes from Afterburn and his Flame Dash. The Afterburn is a DoT ability that builds on enemies when shooting at them. This is very strong against enemies who have a larger body and are easier to hit.
Other than that, Flame Dash is also a very strong offensive and defensive ability. It provides a ton of mobility, while also becoming the perfect ability to initiate a fight. Infernus’ Ultimate does a big stun in an area, healing him based on the damage, and is really good for stealing the mid-boss rejuvinators. Overall, he is a solid character, but there are a ton of counters for him now in the game, which keeps him in the B-tier.
Drifter
Drifter is one of the few characters that forces you to be extra aggressive while playing him. His weapon damage increases based on isolated enemy kills in his vicinity, making him always on the lookout for his next prey. His damage early on can be a bit lacklustre, and his gun’s range is terrible at the beginning. However, once Drifter starts getting his stacks, he can become almost unstoppable in the late game.
Paradox
Paradox is one of the best utility characters in Deadlock, and he is perfect for picking enemies for easy kills. His Kinetic Carbine ability can slow an enemy by 99% for a brief second, which can then be followed up with his Ultimate to swap both of their positions. This makes Paradox perfect for chasing down enemies or picking out characters out of position.
Although Paradox is a solid character, she is still mostly a utility character with good damage output. There are many better characters with upfront damage over her, making her fall to the B-tier in our Deadlock tier list.
Pocket has one of the scariest Ultimate abilities in the game that can render all enemies hit to 1 HP within seconds. He has incredible mobility and can run away from most fights using his Flying Cloak ability. Pocket’s third ability also lets him avoid almost every damage the game can throw at him. However, his biggest downside is the base -15% spirit resist and low health that makes him very squishy once you stop his mobility.
Billy
Billy is another good frontliner who can constantly steal health from enemies using his punches, which also reloads his gun. His Ultimate is also very strong, restricting all enemy movement abilities and drawing them close to him. However, buying a rebuttal can very much negate most of his build, and his damage is not on par with most of the other characters in this patch.
Sinclair
Sinclair is a character that can very well be S-tier when against certain opponents. He is the best disruptor in Deadlock and can steal enemy Ultimate abilities to use them as his own. This makes him extremely strong against teams with good Ultimate characters, while a bit useless against teams without them. Still, Sinclair is a very good objective pusher because of his teleport ability, and can steal mid-boss with his third ability.
Bebop
Bebop is currently going through a bad phase in the current meta. His gun damage was nerfed this patch, making him rely on his bomb build, which was not very good to start with. Most of Bebop’s usefulness comes from his hook. If he cannot land a hook in a match, he is pretty much terrible in fights. But a good Bebop player can be outstanding at picking enemies out of their comfort zone and into your jaws.
Mo & Krill
Mo and Krill is a solid tank in Deadlock with the highest scaling health stat in the game. His biggest strength is disrupting enemies by using his Sand Blast that applies Disarm, and using his Ultimate to completely stunlock one character in place. His second ability allows him to move freely, and he is one of the new player-friendly characters. However, as his Ultimate can become useless if the enemy builds debuff resistance, we have put him in the B-tier in our Deadlock tier list.
Shiv
Shiv has one of the highest skill ceilings in Deadlock. He can deal insanely high damage while surviving in the correct hands, or feed endlessly. That’s mostly the duality that Shiv players face in Deadlcok. Everything in his kit is perfect for taking down enemies, but once his mobility is tied down, he is quite easy to kill.
Viscous
Viscous is one of the best supports, who can also disrupt enemies constantly. His second ability can cube an ally, making them immune to damage, while healing them and removing any debuffs on them. However, Viscous is also a high skill ceiling character, with much of his usefulness tied to his movement. He also has fairly low damage compared to other characters in his role.
C-tier Deadlock Heroes
C-tier characters are those that are badly nerfed in the current meta or have limited usefulness compared to those above. This includes Vindicta, Paige, Calico, Graves, Rem, and Celeste. All of them can still be useful in games, but they have a ton of drawbacks. Vindicta, for one, is very squishy and can be targeted easily in a match.
Paige is definitely useful, but her damage is severely lacking compared to other supports. That also goes for Rem, who basically becomes an Ultimate-using character after 15 minutes, and even that is not as useful as Dynamo or Lash’s Ults.
Calico and Graves can still carry matches, but the amount of effort it requires from them is nowhere close to that of other carries. Finally, Celeste is an extremely high skill ceiling character. Those who can play her and stay above ground will dominate, while others, which accounts for most of the player base, will struggle.
D-tier Deadlock Heroes
These are the absolute worst characters in the current meta. Our Deadlock tier list only has two D-tier characters, Haze and Holliday. Holliday has been a terrible character for a while, completely becoming useless after the laning phase. However, Haze is a new entry after her recent Ultimate nerfs. She is very squishy in the current meta and requires a ton of support to get fed.
Carry
‘Carry’ is a role that prioritizes farm over anything in a match, scaling faster and better than any other character in the game. This allows them to dominate fights in the late game and is often the winning factor in a match. Although you can carry with every character in Deadlock, some are built to do it specifically. Here are the best carries ranked in Deadlock:
Tier Hero Reason for S Lady Geist Insanely high hybrid damage with very good sustaining abilities. S Victor Can revive after death and deal damage to everyone around him. S Wraith Very high damage, can retreat from fights, and shreds through objectives. S Vyper Highest raw gun damage with unlimited bullets from sliding. S Seven Can farm extremely fast and deals very good damage with Power Surge and Ultimate. S Venator Deals damage ignoring resistances, can apply AOE healing reduction, and scales completely on weapon investment. S Drifter Very high ganking potential. Deals more damage as he gains stacks, making him incredibly strong in the late game. A Yamato High spirit burst damage and good sustainability. A McGinnis Strong AoE Ultimate, turrets deal very high damage, and very good objective pusher. A Mirage Strong mix of gun and spirit burst damage. Can rotate very fast. A Mina Insane burst damage from the very beginning, has high mobility, and can apply silence. A Abrams Unkillable when fed, can stun repeatedly and deliver punches. A Silver Insanely strong Ultimate that can kill multiple enemies at one time. A Infernus Very good DoT, and he is very hard to catch. A Haze Unkillable when fed, can stun repeatedly, and deliver punches. A Graves Very good late-game gun and spirit hybrid damage A Warden Incredibly strong gun damage, can apply silence, and has a powerful Ultimate. A Apolo Incredibly high damage from start to mid game, very good mobility, and can apply Curse on enemies.
Frontliner / Tank
Frontliners or Tanks are those characters who initiate a fight and try to keep attention on themselves, so that their allies can pick on enemies one by one. These characters are very hard to kill, and they mostly dictate when and where to take fights in a match. So, here are the best frontliners or tanks in Deadlock in the current meta:
Tier Hero Reason for S Victor Very hard to kill due to self-healing abilities, and can revive once after death. S Abrams Strong health regeneration and lifesteal. Can stun enemies with multiple abilities. S Yamato Ultimate increases Spirit and Bullet resist, making her quite tanky. S Apolo Can self-heal, has very good movement, and can parry any attack. S Lady Geist Very tanky character and has ton of life steal. A Dynamo Decently strong frontliner with heals and passive Bullet resist. A Billy Very good frontliner and is hard to kill. A Mo and Krill Highest health scaling in the game, has passive spirit and bullet resistance in his second ability. A Shiv Can defer damage taken, making him very tanky in fights. A Silver She is basically unkillable in her ultimate form. A Infernus (Dash) Very good disruption, can stun with Ultimate, has good life steal with correct items.
Pick / Crowd Control / Utility
This role in Deadlock is a mix, but it mostly accounts for those who can heavily crowd-control enemies, either using their abilities or through items. Characters who are great for picking individual enemies out of their favorable positions are also part of this group. So, find the best pick, crowd control, or utility characters from our Deadlock tier list here.
| Tier | Hero | Reason for |
|---|---|---|
| S | Dynamo | Ultimate can stun an entire team for a couple of seconds. |
| S | McGinnis | Her turrets apply slow, the wall can cut off enemies, and Ultimate can apply slow, while utilizing Lightning Scroll. |
| S | Kelvin | Arctic beam and Frostnades apply slow, and Ultimate can isolate enemies. |
| S | Ivy | Tethers enemies with Kudzu and can stun with Stone form. |
| S | Applies healing reduction and massive DoT to all surrounding enemies. | |
| S | Mo and Krill | Can stunlock an enemy for a brief time. |
| S | Doorman | Kidnaps enemies and can send them to another dimension. |
| S | Lash | Ultimate can displace and stun the entire opponent team. |
| S | Abrams | Can stun enemies with shoulder charge and Ultimate. |
| S | Paradox | Applies 99% slow with her Kinetic Carbine, can swap enemies with her position, and her wall applies silence on enemies. |
| A | Seven | Can stun enemies with his ability. Massive AoE control with Ultimate. |
| A | Viscous | Can throw around enemies with Puddle Punch and can stun with his Ultimate. |
| A | Infernus | Can stun all enemies in an area. |
| A | Graves | Roots players and the Ultimate gives very good area control. |
| A | Drifter | Can blind up to three enemies. |
| A | Holiday | Ultimate can grab an enemy and stunlock them for a brief time. |
| A | Bebop | Can hook enemies from a great distance. |
| A | Paige | Roots multiple enemies in one location with her third ability. |
| A | Rem | Can put all enemies to sleep in an area. |
| A | Sinclair | Can turn enemies into bunnies in an area. |
| A | Vyper | Her Ultimate can freeze all players in an area for a few seconds. |
| A | Billy | His Ultimate stops movement skills on enemies and doesn’t let them run away. |
| A | Venator | Can stun enemies and place traps that can stop enemies from moving. |
Healer / Support
Finally, the healer or support role is generally for those who strictly try to keep their teammates alive in the harshest of fights. These are clutch characters who you should always pay your respects to if you want to survive the next fight. Here are the best healer or supports in Deadlock:
Tier Hero Reason for S Kelvin Insanely high healing from Frostnades and Ultimate. S Rem Very good burst healing and gives Spirit resist to allies. S Paige On-demand shields. S Dynamo Can heal all around him and remove debuffs from enemies using his second ability. A McGinnis Can heal in a wide area, which also applies spirit resist on allies. A Ivy Shares her healing with allies she is tethered to. A Viscous His cube nullifies damage on enemies while removing their debuffs and healing them.
What did you think about our Deadlock heroes tier list? Which Deadlock character would you rank higher and why? Tell us in the comments below.
