Deadlock "City Never Sleeps" Update: 6 New Heroes, New Map, The Broker, and Everything We Know

Intro

Deadlock's “City Never Sleeps” update is live now. Valve dropped the massive patch on September 29, 2026 — the game's first major content update since January — and the community showed up: Deadlock surged past 228,000 concurrent players, an all-time high, within hours of launch.

The headline acts: a full New York City map overhaul, six new heroes whose release order players will vote on, creepy new neutral creatures called Haunts, and a mysterious black-market merchant known as the Broker. Here's the full breakdown.

Six new heroes — you decide who arrives first

City Never Sleeps introduces six new faces to the roster:

• Nurse Harrow — a strict, terrifying medical-themed hero with a glowing syringe (“strict, terrifying, savior”)
• Rat King — a crowned rat, complete with a pizza-rat supplicant; the early fan favorite
• Solomon — a chess-themed strategist always looking to put opponents in checkmate
• Deadman Danny — a skeletal daredevil packing a jetpack and explosives
• Baba — a little old lady who hangs out with pigeons; babushka granny representation at last
• Violet — Deadlock's first painter hero, a MOBA staple

They won't all drop at once. Valve is reprising its popular hero-vote system from summer 2025: players vote on the release order, with two heroes releasing per week.

How hero voting works

• Voting now happens directly in the pregame lobby — discuss picks with your team before the match
• Votes from the winning team count double; your first win of the day also grants double votes
• New heroes arrive Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM PT, starting with the first on October 2, 2026
• Playing earns priority tokens to help you actually get your hands on new arrivals
• You'll need 15 wins in Standard before a new hero is usable in Ranked

The Cursed Apple gets a full overhaul

The map is now a stylized, spooky take on early-to-mid-20th-century New York City — “The Cursed Apple.” Lane visuals give each district a distinct style, and level geometry has been reworked with redesigned passageways, cover spots, and primary teamfight areas.

Farming is more varied too: instead of identical neutral creeps everywhere, districts are populated with unique creature types, so your jungle route depends on where your team is positioned.

Meet the Haunts

The old neutrals are gone, replaced by nine new creatures:

• Specimen — a disembodied hand in a jar
• Past Dues — library-inspired spectral creatures
• Gutter Ghouls — cyclopian walking trash bags
• Barrel Mimics — barrels (and exploding barrels?) with limbs and tire irons
• Stage Hands — marionettes controlled by ghostly hands
• Crabbage Pots — a New York cryptid with Little Shop of Horrors energy
• Festival Spirit — souls inhabiting Chinese lanterns
• Shrooms — chill fungi wizards
• Underhands — gargoyles who might just be pickpockets

New objectives and tricks around the map

• Sunken Plaza — a hidden area beneath the main Plaza District; the deeper you go, the more isolated you become. High-risk, high-reward, and stamina management matters
• Bell Tower — a Chinatown tower holding a huge stash of Souls, but grabbing them rings the bell loud enough to alert the whole map
• Tough Crates — need a Heavy Melee attack to break, but drop more Souls
• Buff Containers — the golden statues are redesigned, with new permanent bonuses: Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range, and Move Speed
• Healing Snacks — healing items hidden around the city for sustain on the move
• Steam Vents — stand on one for invisibility plus a little regeneration, perfect for repositioning

The Broker and Corrupted items

The update's spiciest addition is the Broker, a hidden merchant selling extremely powerful Corrupted items — enhanced versions of high-tier items that come with a mandatory negative effect. Trade defense or health for massive burst damage and close out stalled games faster.

Catch him while you can: he's a temporary addition, and his location shifts — an Uptown alley one appearance, an abandoned Chinatown storefront the next. His demonic goods are illegal in New York, after all.

Everything else in the update

• Updated shops, health bars, and pings, plus improved communication tools
• New accessibility options and interface improvements
• Testing tools and anti-cheat improvements
• HUD updates and numerous quality-of-life additions across the board

Valve also used the announcement to talk about the game's future: large item redesigns and alternate game modes are in playtesting, with the team “happy with Deadlock's progression” as it continues building the game alongside the community.

Day-1 hotfix (September 29)

Valve followed the update with a same-day hotfix addressing four issues:

• Shop exploit fixed — Wraith Cards, Shiv Rage, and lifesteal no longer scale up by shooting the shop.
• Outer ziplines sped up — hero zipline speed on outer lanes increased 20% relative to inner lanes.
• Faster first respawn — initial respawn time reduced from 12 seconds to 8 seconds.
• Soul Urn vs. Mirage — the Soul Urn now drops when teleporting with Mirage's Traveler, closing the objective-teleport strategy.

FAQ

When did the Deadlock City Never Sleeps update release? September 29, 2026 — it's live now.

How many new heroes are in City Never Sleeps? Six: Nurse Harrow, Rat King, Solomon, Deadman Danny, Baba, and Violet. Players vote on the release order.

When does the first new hero release? October 2, 2026, with two heroes per week after that (Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM PT).

How do I vote for the next Deadlock hero? Voting happens in the pregame lobby. Votes from the winning team count double, and your first win of the day grants double votes.

What are Haunts in Deadlock? The new neutral creatures replacing the old creeps — nine unique types spread across the map's districts, from Gutter Ghouls to the Crabbage Pots.

Who is the Broker? A temporary hidden merchant selling powerful Corrupted items with mandatory drawbacks. He's only around for a few days and his location changes.

Is Deadlock still in beta? Deadlock remains in development (invite/playtest phase) — Valve is building it publicly with community feedback, and this update pushed it to an all-time peak of 228,000 concurrent players.

Did Valve hotfix the update on day one? Yes — a September 29 hotfix fixed the shop exploit, sped up outer ziplines 20%, cut the initial respawn to 8 seconds, and made Mirage's Traveler drop the Soul Urn.

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Back in the Cursed Apple tonight? Add Deadlock to your backlog on Neetter — track it, rate the update, and argue about which hero deserves your vote. Neetter is live on web and iOS.

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