DeadlockLearn guns, abilities, melee, ziplines, troopers, and the first match loop.
How to play Deadlock in one loop: shoot with falloff, mix light and heavy melee, ride ziplines, last-hit Troopers for extra soul orbs, spend in base, then siege Guardians, Walkers, and the enemy Patron. City Never Sleeps puts parry, Haunt info, and ping wheels on the HUD so that loop is readable. The game is still an invite-only Windows playtest, so expect temporary art and experimental numbers. This guide stays on verbs you can do in a first full match. For access, use Invite. For the map's districts, use The Cursed Apple. For the ladder, use Ranked.
Primary fire has falloff at range. Secondary zoom exists for the guns that support it. Headshots matter, and the updated HUD after City Never Sleeps calls out headshots and parries instead of hiding them in a mystery pip. If you spray from across Uptown you will tickle. Close the gap on a zipline or take the heavy melee if the target is in your face.
Parry is a first-class HUD callout now. It is not a decorative icon. Practice it in Standard against Troopers before you try it on a Walker dive. Ability buttons sit beside gun fire. Read the in-client tooltips on the hero you queued, because live kits still move with experimental patches.
Close-range spray still loses to a charged heavy if both of you walked into each other. Falloff is why Uptown long sightlines feel weak with a hip-fired gun and why zipline gaps exist. If a teammate is already in melee, swap to orbs and parry instead of adding friendly falloff ticks. Standard is the playlist that lets you learn that mix without Rank Points moving.
Quick melee is for finishing and for panic. Charged heavy melee is for Tough Crates and for people who walked into you. Mixing the two is the point. A gun-only player loses crates and loses close range. A melee-only player loses every long lane. City Never Sleeps did not change that mix; it just labeled parry so you can see the answer to a heavy swing.
Tough Crates need Heavy Melee. If you tap light melee on a crate you advertise yourself and get nothing. Charge, break, take souls, leave. Healing snacks are the smaller pickup. Grab them on a reset. Details on The Broker and the shop live on Souls & Shop so this guide does not repeat that stall.
A charged heavy on a crate in a gunfight is how you die holding a box. Clear the people, then the crate. Snacks are for the walk back, not for standing still in Plaza while stamina drops. Parry is the answer to someone else charging a heavy; the HUD callout is there so you can actually see the window. Practice against Troopers until the timing is boring.
Ziplines run the lanes. Jump on, jump off, rotate. Old Gods already improved how heroes attach; City Never Sleeps then rebuilt the city those lines cross. Use a line to spend in base and a line to return before the next Guardian. Walking the street because the zipline felt optional is how you miss waves.
Troopers spawn from base and fight down a lane. Last hits spawn extra soul orbs. Standing near a death still shares souls, so you are not punished for helping a teammate's wave, but the extra orbs are why last-hitting still matters. The first ten minutes are: win your wave, take one Haunt or crate if it is free, spend once, do not die on a solo Bell Tower.
If you miss a zipline attach, walk to the next pylon instead of reversing into a lane you just lost. Troopers that die under an enemy Guardian with nobody nearby donate the map. Hover the wave even when you are not the last-hit person so shared souls still land. The first death of a match is usually a solo Bell Tower or a crate in the open; skip both until you have one shop spend.
After the laning stretch, kill the Guardian with a wave, then the Walker, then look at Hidden King or Archmother. Mid Boss is a tempo objective whose art is still on Valve's remaining-work list. Contest it when your structures are safe. Winning is the Patron, not a highlight on a Haunt.
Street Brawl skips this siege. Ranked uses it with extra gates. If your first match is Ranked, you queued the wrong playlist. Standard exists to practice heroes and to bank the 60 wins plus 15 per hero that Ranked demands. Official getting-started material also lives on Valve's Steam news and the City Never Sleeps page, linked in Sources.
A Patron dance with no Troopers is a reset you refused to take. Buy, heal, take the next wave, then go back. Mid Boss is optional greed. Street Brawl will not teach this. Ranked will punish it. Official getting-started material is the City Never Sleeps page and the Steam listing linked under Sources, including the minimap clip on this guide.
Valve published a minimap MP4 on the City Never Sleeps video set. It loops ping-wheel and map treatments from the current HUD. Watch it once so you know what a ping looks like, then use the wheel instead of typing. Haunt info sits on the same HUD pass.
Accessibility settings from the same update include enemy color, subtitles, auto-move, auto-fire, auto-mantle, and camera shake. Turn camera shake down if the shrine interiors make you sick. Auto-fire will not aim for you through falloff. The clip below is the official minimap video, not a reconstructed HUD.
Ping a Haunt before you walk it. Ping a missing teammate on a Bell Tower ring. The wheel is faster than chat and the new HUD actually shows Haunt info next to parry. Auto-mantle helps on Plaza stairs. Auto-fire does not beat falloff. Subtitles help if shrine audio swallows callouts. Use the official clip, then turn the settings once, then play the match.
Queue Standard, pick a hero you will actually play for 15 wins later, last-hit Troopers, spend once in base, and help a Guardian. Skip Ranked, skip a solo Bell Tower, and skip The Broker until you have a high-tier item you can afford to corrupt. If the full map is too long, Street Brawl exists, but it will not teach Walkers.
Nearby Trooper and player deaths share souls, killing blows spawn extra orbs, and Haunts plus breakables add map souls. You spend them in base. Tough Crates need Heavy Melee. The Broker appears around 30 minutes with corrupted high-tier trades. Read Souls & Shop if you want that stall spelled out.
No. Ranked wants 60 Standard wins, 15 wins on each selected hero, and three unlocked Ranked heroes. Calibration is eight solo games capped at Oracle VI. Spend the first nights in Standard, or in Street Brawl if you only have time for a 4v4. The ladder will still be there after you can last-hit Troopers without thinking.
A friend already in the playtest sends an invite from the in-game menu. Steam will not sell you a key. The store page stays coming soon on Windows. Once the client opens, come back to this guide for guns, melee, ziplines, and the first siege, and use the Invite page if you still need the access path spelled out.