Halfway through the six heroes: Solomon has the worst start on record, Baba went from 44% to 56%

Three heroes out of six are out. Solomon wins 43% of his matches, the worst first day of the last fifteen heroes, and loses nearly two times out of three to Rat King and Baba. Baba, who started almost as low on Tuesday, is already fourth in the game. Here are the numbers.

Valve wrote it on Friday when Solomon released: we're halfway through. Three of City Never Sleeps' six heroes are playable, and they are everywhere: since Friday night, Rat King and Solomon have each been in 87% of matches, Baba in 64%. We pulled their numbers day by day. They tell three very different stories.

Solomon: the worst first day of the last fifteen heroes

Released Friday at 2 pm Pacific, Solomon played 66,307 matches in twenty-four hours and won 43.0% of them. None of the fifteen heroes released since August 2025 had done worse: Silver started at 43.9%, Apollo at 44.1%.

Win rate of the last fifteen heroes over their first twenty-four hours. Solomon and Baba hold the two bottom spots.
Win rate of the last fifteen heroes over their first twenty-four hours. Solomon and Baba hold the two bottom spots.

Since release he ranks 40th out of 41 by win rate (43.5% over 108,309 matches), ahead of Shiv alone. In ranked it is worse: 40.6%. And player skill doesn't help: the higher the rank, the more he loses. Initiates win 44.8% of their matches with him, the middle of the ladder sits between 38 and 42%, and Eternus players are at 35% (over just 409 matches, with a 4.8-point margin).

He loses to almost everyone, most of all to the other two newcomers

Out of 40 possible opponents, Solomon has only one matchup above 50%: Mirage, at 50.8%. His two worst are the other two new heroes: 36.2% when Rat King is on the other team (43,531 matches), 37.6% against Baba. They are also the two heroes he runs into most often.

Solomon's win rate by opposing hero: his four hardest matchups and his three best.
Solomon's win rate by opposing hero: his four hardest matchups and his three best.

His style does look like Rat King's: few kills (4.0 per match, against 6.5 on average), a lot of assists (13.0). The difference is elsewhere: he collects 7% fewer souls than the average hero (37,600 vs 40,400), where Rat King collects as many as everyone else. His game runs through his pieces: the bishop he plants ahead of him (Setup Bishop), the knight that protects his allies (Kingside Knight), the rook that charges in (Rook Battery). For now, that converts into neither kills nor souls.

Baba: from 44% to 56% in four days

Baba started at the very bottom too: 43.7% over her first twenty-four hours, on Tuesday, and 39% in ranked. It was then the worst start in our series, before Solomon took the spot.

Then she climbed without stopping: 47.9% on day two, 52.0% on day three, 55.6% on day four, 56.4% on day five, still in progress. Since Friday night she has been the fourth-best hero in the game (55.9%), behind Paige, Graves and Rat King.

Valve announced nothing for her. The two silent updates of October 6 and 7, which we had read in the game files ([patch 55](/patches/55), [patch 56](/patches/56)), mostly fixed bugs and even trimmed her barrier. The only real buff, her melee lifesteal now scaling with healing bonuses, came [with Solomon](/patches/57), when she had already gained back eight points. Most of the climb comes from players: Baba takes learning.

Ranks point the same way. She wins between 52 and 56% of her ranked matches from Initiate to Phantom, but 59.6% in Ascendant and 58.6% in Eternus: the top of the ladder is where she pays off most. Only one hero beats her, Paige (47.0%).

Rat King: steady at 56% since his nerf

Nothing new for him, and that is the news. Since his ultimate was nerfed on October 5, Rat King has hovered between 55.5 and 56.9%: six days without moving. His seventh day, still in progress in [our Friday review](/news/deadlock-rat-king-one-week-review), ended at 56.9%. He is still third in the game, and still played just as much.

What past launches say for Solomon

The four heroes in our series that started below 47% all held or climbed by their seventh day: Apollo by 4 points, Silver by 3, Rem by 2, Venator flat. Baba just gained twelve in four days. Solomon gained 1.4 points between his first and second day: he is climbing, but slowly.

We won't give a number this time: our Rat King forecast got the direction wrong. Two things can move it. Players first: a hero played by placing pieces takes time. Valve second: the team nerfed Rat King three days after release, and a hero at 40% in ranked calls for the opposite decision.

The fourth hero releases Tuesday, October 13 at 2 pm Pacific. Nurse Harrow, Deadman Danny and Violet remain; the order still depends on the players' vote.

Methodology. Ranked and unranked matches in normal mode, pulled on October 11, 2026 around 8:40 pm UTC from the public data of deadlock-api.com. Days = 24-hour slices since each hero's release (9 pm UTC); each hero's last day is still in progress at the time of the pull. Standings, presence, matchups and ranks: since Solomon's release (October 9, 9 pm UTC), about 125,000 matches. Presence = matches with the hero divided by the number of matches. Matchups = the hero's win rate in matches where the named opponent was on the other team. Ranks = the player's displayed rank in their ranked match history. First day of the twelve earlier heroes = 24 hours starting from the first hour in which they reached at least 300 participations (October 3 pull).

Sources

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