Minor Update - 09-16-2026

Deadlock patch notes for 2026-09-16: 47 buffs, 58 nerfs, 1 rework, 4 fixes, classified change by change. Heroes changed: Abrams, Celeste, Graves, Haze, Holliday, Ivy, Kelvin, Lady Geist, Lash, Paige, Paradox, Rem, Shiv, Silver, Venator, Viscous, Vyper, Warden, Wraith, Yamato. Items changed: Weakening Headshot, Hollow Point, Toxic Bullets, Shadow Weave, Cultist Sacrifice, Ballistic Enchantment, Spiritual Overflow, Restorative Locket, Trophy Collector, Veil Walker, Fortitude, Lifestrike and 10 more.

Measured impact 14 days after the patch

Win rate of each changed hero before and after the update, on every match played. The noise threshold, the largest swing among the 18 heroes this patch did not touch, is 1.08 points.

• Warden (nerf): 53.44% → 47.91% win rate, -5.54 points, beyond the noise
• Silver (buff): 44.48% → 47.11% win rate, +2.63 points, beyond the noise
• Viscous (nerf): 48.28% → 45.76% win rate, -2.53 points, beyond the noise
• Lady Geist (buff): 49.86% → 52.33% win rate, +2.47 points, beyond the noise
• Celeste (nerf): 51.48% → 49.15% win rate, -2.33 points, beyond the noise
• Yamato (buff): 48.07% → 49.91% win rate, +1.84 points, beyond the noise
• Haze (buff): 51.39% → 53.19% win rate, +1.8 points, beyond the noise
• Abrams (change): 50.55% → 52.34% win rate, +1.79 points, beyond the noise
• Wraith (nerf): 50.62% → 48.85% win rate, -1.77 points, beyond the noise
• Vyper (nerf): 50.59% → 48.83% win rate, -1.76 points, beyond the noise
• Paige (buff): 55.24% → 56.82% win rate, +1.58 points, beyond the noise
• Shiv (buff): 47.8% → 46.46% win rate, -1.35 points, beyond the noise

Every change in this update

• Unstable Rift comeback resist max values now scale over the course of the game. Previously the max values were 35%. Now it is 10% + 1% per minute (around ~20% for the first one), with an upper limit of 40% at 30 minutes. (change)
• Removed a fixed amount of extra bonus souls you would get for being behind even a very slightly amount in net worth for both hero kill bounties as well as Unstable Rift bounties (this had a larger impact on the early to mid game) (nerf)
• Slightly reduced comeback bounties in general (this is in addition to the above change) (nerf)
• A portion of the comeback souls earned by players above enemy teams average net worth is instead distributed via the tick gold system that is given to the lowest 2 players (70% of the extra comeback value goes to them) (change)
• Guardian bounty increased by 10% (buff)
• Walker bounty increased by 5% (buff)
• Share for objectives bounty to nearby heroes reduced from 30% to 25% (the remaining gets split between all 6 players) (nerf)
• Respawn Time at 20 minutes increased from 35s to 38s (does not affect the max values later on, just a little higher earlier) (change)
• Using parry now pauses reloading (change)
• Parrying while doing a regular dash will now cancel the dash (and momentum) and parry on the spot (change)
• Getting stunned now pauses your reload rather than restarting it (buff)
• Breakables in the underground tunnels initial spawn time increased from 3m to 5m (change)
• Breakables in the underground tunnels respawn rate increased from 3m to 5m (change)
• All move slow values reduced by ~20% globally (nerf)
• All ground dash slows reduced by ~10% globally (nerf)
• Slows now also affect air drag by 35% of the slow value (convar citadel_enable_slows_affect_air_drag to toggle the slow drag behavior on and off) (buff)
• Dashes and light melee's no longer pause your gun's cycle time (this is a general change that affects high-cycle time weapons the most like Silver or Abrams) (buff)
• Abrams — Infernal Resilience T3 increased from +8% to +9% (buff)
• Abrams — Seismic Impact T3 reduced from 6s Unstoppable to 5s (nerf)
• Celeste — Stamina cooldown increased from 5 to 5.3 (nerf)
• Celeste — Light Eater spirit lifesteal reduced from 20% to 18% (nerf)
• Celeste — Light Eater T3 decreased from +25 to +22 (nerf)
• Celeste — Dazzling Trick cooldown increased from 34s to 38s (nerf)
• Celeste — Radiant Daggers T2 reduced from +80 to +70 (nerf)
• Celeste — Shining Wonder radius reduced from 16.5m to 15.5m (nerf)
• Celeste — Shining Wonder T3 Max Bounces reduced from +8 to +6 (nerf)
• Graves — Health per boon increased from 33 to 35 (buff)
• Haze — Fixation headshot stack count increased from +2 to +3 (buff)
• Haze — Fixation T3 weapon scaling increased from 0.0003 to 0.00035 (buff)
• Holliday — Health per boon increased from 41 to 43 (buff)
• Holliday — Crackshot T2 now also applies -6% Bullet Resistance for 5s (buff)
• Holliday — Lasso duration extention by Bounce Pad increased from +1s to +1.25s (buff)
• Ivy — Stone Form radius reduced from 6m to 5.75m (nerf)
• Ivy — Stone Form T1 max health heal reduced from 7% to 6% (nerf)
• Kelvin — Frozen Shelter base ability health regen now scales with spirit power (0.2) (buff)
• Lady Geist — Life Drain T3 spirit scaling increased from +0.3 to +0.45 (buff)
• Lady Geist — Essence Bomb T3 damage increased from 26% to 30% (buff)
• Lash — Gun falloff range reduced from 18m->54m to 16m->48m (nerf)
• Lash — Ground Strike T3 spirit scaling increased from +0.03 to +0.04 (buff)
• Lash — Ground Strike T3 damage per meter scaling increased from 110% to 120% (buff)
• Lash — Grapple T2 Weapon Damage buff duration reduced from 10s to 6s (nerf)
• Lash — Flog heal reduced from 50% to 40% (nerf)
• Lash — Flog angle increased from 38 to 40 (buff)
• Lash — Flog T3 reduced from +40 degrees angle to +25 (nerf)
• Lash — Flog T3 reduced from +20% heal to +15% (nerf)
• Paige — Heavy Melee spirit scaling increased from 0.3 to 0.45 (buff)
• Paige — Captivating Read T1 increased from -11s Cooldown to -14s (buff)
• Paige — Captivating Read T3 increased from +1m to +2m (buff)
• Paige — Fixed some collision issues with Rallying Charge (bugfix)
• Paradox — Kinetic Carbine min damage multiplier reduced from 25% to 10% (max damage multiplier unaffected) (nerf)
• Paradox — Kinetic Carbine min damage multiplier no longer gets increased by the T3 (nerf)
• Rem — Fixed a bug where multiple helpers could be sent to follow a single player for no effect (bugfix)
• Rem — Lil Helpers now have a target UI when instant cast mode is selected (change)
• Shiv — Alt fire base damage increased by 4% (buff)
• Shiv — Alt fire damage per boon increased from +0.2 to +0.24 (buff)
• Shiv — Serrated Knives while rage is full now deals 3.5% current HP damage on impact instead of ricocheting (0.01 spirit scaling) (rework)
• Silver — Health per boon increased from 28 to 31 (buff)
• Silver — Sprint speed increased from 1.5 to 2.5 (buff)
• Silver — Dashes and light melee's no longer pause your gun's cycle time (buff)
• Silver — Boot Kick can only target heroes and objectives now (change)
• Silver — Entangling Bola can only target heroes now (change)
• Silver — Weighted Bola now increases gravity during the debuff duration, and interrupts flying abilities (same rules as Phantom Strike) (buff)
• Venator — Ira Domini now works with Ricochet, all the shots will bounce (buff)
• Venator — Ira Domini can now split shot (releases 1 extra bolt on each side, 3 total) (buff)
• Viscous — Alt fire damage growth reduced by 10% (nerf)
• Viscous — Splatter detonation cooldown reduced from 0.15 to 0.12 (buff)
• Viscous — Splatter T1 reduced from +2m to +1.5m (nerf)
• Viscous — The Cube cast range reduced from 26m to 20m (nerf)
• Viscous — Puddle Punch cooldown increased from 21s to 24s (nerf)
• Viscous — Goo Ball T3 now also increases spirit scaling by 0.2 (buff)
• Vyper — Slither T3 barrier duration reduced from 5s to 4s (nerf)
• Vyper — Petrifying Bola cooldown increased from 105s to 115s (nerf)
• Warden — Bullet damage per boon reduced from 0.28 to 0.25 (nerf)
• Warden — Fire Rate spirit scaling reduced from 0.25 to 0.21 (nerf)
• Warden — Alchemical Flask projectile range and speed reduced by 30% (nerf)
• Warden — Willpower T3 spirit scaling reduced from +2.7 to +2.1 (nerf)
• Warden — Willpower T3 debuff resistance reduced from 40% to 30% (nerf)
• Wraith — Card Trick heart heal reduced from 75 to 60 (nerf)
• Wraith — Card Trick heart heal spirit scaling reduced from 0.75 to 0.5 (nerf)
• Wraith — Card Trick Diamond Bullet and Spirit Resist reduction reduced from -8% to -7% (nerf)
• Wraith — Card Trick T3 Diamond Bullet and Spirit Resist reduction reduced from -5% to -4% (nerf)
• Wraith — Card Trick T3 Clubs slow from +20% to +15% (nerf)
• Wraith — Fixed Project Mind getting caught on edges/corners when aiming past it (bugfix)
• Wraith — Full Auto spirit damage per bullet scaling increased from 0.03 to 0.045 (buff)
• Yamato — Crimson Slash T3 now also increases the heal spirit scaling by +0.4 (buff)
• Yamato — Flying Slash light melee scaling increased from 1.0 to 1.2 (buff)
• Weakening Headshot — Bullet Resist Reduction reduced from -13% to -12% (nerf)
• Hollow Point — Bullet Resist Reduction increased from 9% to 10% (buff)
• Toxic Bullets — Spirit scaling increased from 0.005% to 0.006% (buff)
• Shadow Weave — Now builds from Sprint Boots (change)
• Shadow Weave — Sprint speed increased from 1.5 to 2 (buff)
• Shadow Weave — Cooldown reduced from 45s to 37s (buff)
• Cultist Sacrifice — Bounty reduced from 180% to 170% (nerf)
• Ballistic Enchantment — Duration increased from 14s to 20s (buff)
• Spiritual Overflow — Buildup is 35% slower (nerf)
• Spiritual Overflow — Spirit Power on proc reduced from 40 to 30 (nerf)
• Spiritual Overflow — Fire Rate reduced from 30% to 25% (nerf)
• Restorative Locket — Heal per boon reduced from 0.5 to 0.45 (nerf)
• Restorative Locket — Stack range reduced from 35m to 32m (nerf)
• Trophy Collector — Souls per minute reduced from 18 to 16 (nerf)
• Veil Walker — No longer builds from Sprint Boots (nerf)
• Veil Walker — No longer grants +2 Sprint and +2 Out of Combat Regen (due to loss of component) (nerf)
• Veil Walker — Movement speed bonus is now removed when the invisibility is removed (nerf)
• Veil Walker — Spirit Power reduced from 10 to 6 (nerf)
• Fortitude — Max Health regen increased from 2% to 2.25% (buff)
• Lifestrike — Heal on Melee hit increased from 100+1.5 to 120+1.75 (buff)
• Lifestrike — Melee hit heal increased from 30% to 35% (buff)
• Leech — Bullet and Spirit Lifesteal increased from 25% to 28% (buff)
• Plated Armor — Fixed on-hit damage prevention not blocking the following on-hit spirit damage effects: Mercurial Magnum, Vindicta's Flight, Wraith's Full Auto, and Tesla Bullets/Capacitor (bugfix)
• Diviner's Kevlar — Now grants +10% Ultimate Ability Cooldown Reduction (buff)
• Golden Goose Egg — Damage Penalty increased from -10% to -15% (nerf)
• Golden Goose Egg — Stored souls now count towards net worth (affects comeback reward calculations) (change)
• Golden Goose Egg — Souls per minute reduced from 90 to 80 (nerf)
• Slowing Hex — Cooldown increased from 27s to 29s (nerf)
• Radiant Regeneration — Healing on Ability Cast per boon scaling reduced from 2 to 1.7 (nerf)
• Tankbuster — Current Health Bonus damage reduced from 8% to 7.5% (nerf)
• Decay — DPS reduced by 25% (nerf)
• Decay — Duration increased by 20% (buff)
• Mercurial Magnum — Base bullet damage scaling reduced from 0.49 to 0.38 (nerf)
• Mercurial Magnum — Base bullet damage reduced from 25% to 20% (nerf)
• Focus Lens — Damage increased from 30% to 35% (buff)
• Focus Lens — Cast range increased from 20m to 25m (buff)

Previous update: Minor Update - 08-22-2026.