Deadlock City Never Sleeps
Read Valve's current major update and what still sits in the vote.
Deadlock City Never Sleeps is the 29 September 2026 major update. Valve calls it a massive visual pass on the map and neutrals, six new heroes, HUD updates, quality-of-life work, accessibility options, and The Broker. Neutrals become Haunts. The Cursed Apple gets themed lanes and four districts. A Hideout ballot decides the order of Nurse Harrow, Deadman Danny, Baba, Solomon, Rat King, and Violet, with two releases a week from 2 October 2026. This page is the current patch desk. Old Gods, New Blood remains the previous named major, from 22 January 2026, and still explains why Street Brawl and the two Patrons look the way they do.
City Never Sleeps
29 September 2026
Matchmaking Update
30 July 2026
Old Gods, New Blood
22 January 2026
City Never Sleeps
29 September 2026
Map restyle, Haunts, The Broker, HUD and accessibility, six-hero vote from 2 October 2026.
The Steam news post and the playdeadlock.com City Never Sleeps page agree on the same bundle. The city is restyled. Haunts replace generic neutrals. HUD work covers health bars, minimap pings, parry callouts, and Haunt info. Accessibility options include enemy color, subtitles, auto-move, auto-fire, auto-mantle, and camera shake. The Broker opens in alleys around the 30-minute mark. Six heroes go to a vote instead of all dropping on day one.
Two heroes release a week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00pm PT. The first hero of this wave is scheduled 2 October 2026. Order comes from the Hideout ballot. The six names are fixed. Until a name leaves the ballot, keep it in the incoming group on Heroes. Do not queue Ranked on a brand-new drop the same afternoon unless that hero already has 15 Standard wins, which it will not.
Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot, and Plaza are the four districts. Uptown, the haunted campus, and the stock-exchange stretch are the lane themes. Chinatown's Bell Tower rings map-wide. The Sunken Plaza drains stamina for a high-risk stash. The Cursed Apple page holds the district-by-district walkthrough.
Press the same week reported an all-time Steam concurrent peak above 228,000. That is a traffic fact, not a balance note. Guardians, Walkers, and Mid Boss remain on Valve's remaining-art list even though they are live objectives. Play them. Do not wait for a final model. Load Standard, not Ranked, if you just got in. Walk Uptown once so the new art does not eat your first death. Hit the Hideout ballot so the six names are in your head before Tuesday.
The Broker is a late clock, not a lane plan. Haunts are camps with new names, not a second win condition. Parry is labeled on the HUD now; practice it on Troopers before you try it on a Walker. Turn on enemy color and subtitles if the new shrine interiors are hard to read. Official notes live on the Steam news hub for app 1422450 and on the City Never Sleeps page.
Matchmaking Update
30 July 2026
Standard versus Ranked, 60-win gate, 15 wins per hero, Obscurus through Eternus.
The Matchmaking Update on 30 July 2026 split the queue. Standard is the unrestricted playlist you use to bank 60 wins and 15 wins per selected hero. Ranked is solo or duo, eight calibration games capped at Oracle VI, and a ladder from Obscurus through Eternus. City Never Sleeps did not replace those gates; it sits on top of them.
Do not treat the Hideout vote as a Ranked shortcut. A Tuesday or Friday drop still needs those 15 Standard wins before the ladder will take that hero. Ranked rules, badges, and season timing live on the Ranked page. Use this record when you only need the date the split shipped and how it still binds the week after 29 September. If you just got an invite, stay in Standard until last-hits and ziplines are boring, then read Ranked before you queue.
Old Gods, New Blood
22 January 2026
Patron overhaul, Street Brawl, and the Rem through Apollo vote wave.
Old Gods, New Blood shipped 22 January 2026. It overhauled Patrons and bases, added Street Brawl, and ran the previous six-hero vote. Hidden King and Archmother come from that pass. If City Never Sleeps is the coat of paint and the new ballot, Old Gods is why the win condition and the 4v4 playlist exist.
That earlier hideout-ballot wave released Rem, Graves, Silver, Venator, Celeste, and Apollo, who now sit in the playable 38. Street Brawl is still the 4v4 best-of-five with equal starts and a random three-item shop, kept from Old Gods into City Never Sleeps for nights when a full Patron siege is too long. Mid Boss, Guardians, and Walkers still need killing even while Valve lists remaining art work. Minor Steam posts from August and September 2026 sit around the edges; use the news hub when you need a specific hotfix date.