Nearly a month after Deadlock developer Valve stated that another patch wouldn't be coming to its MOBA shooter "for some time" following fans' requests, six new heroes and more have been unveiled as part of a new update.
Valve reveals as much in a recent post on Steam, detailing the Deadlock update and what it brings to the limited-access game. "Six new heroes have been spotted on the streets of the Cursed Apple: Mina the vampire, Billy the demonic goat, Paige who can bring books to life, The Doorman who's always at your service, Victor the monster who can't be stopped, and Drifter who terrorizes the city," reads the dev's announcement.
Players with access to Deadlock won't be able to use all six heroes immediately, however. "Rather than enabling all these new heroes at once, we're trying a new approach where we'll be staggering their release, unlocking one every other day, with the first starting today. From there, you'll help decide which hero unlocks next by casting votes in the new pre-game lobby called 'The Hideout.'" This "Hideout" replaces Deadlock's starting zone.
"The Hideout replaces the existing Dashboard UI and is your personal area to play around in while waiting for a match," as Valve describes. "You can invite friends to your hideout, or join them in theirs. We hope it will be a fun place to spend time as well as provide future opportunities for personalization, achievements, and events."
The six characters and Hideout feature aren't the only changes coming to Deadlock, either. The game's map is also being revamped, with "various visual improvements and lighting changes" – and that's not all. Valve has "a lot more map improvements planned in upcoming updates" for the map, too.
Joining the patch is a visual overhaul to the hero selection screen, with new artistic updates to the characters themselves to boot. As for the new heroes, the first to drop is Mina, the vampire – a so-called "glass canon" with quick ranged attacks.
After Mina, the other new Deadlock heroes will be released on a strict schedule. A character is set to join the cast every two days – "on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday both this week and next" – with "balance adjustments" coming after.
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