Deadlock September 26 Update: Mirage Addition, Anti-Cheat Features, Map Adjustments & More

Deadlock’s bi-weekly patch has rolled out, introducing a new hero: Mirage. This update not only brings his addition but also features several bug fixes, balance adjustments for both items and heroes, alongside significant map updates.

In a long-awaited move, Valve has implemented a cheat detection system to tackle the prevalent issue of cheating within the game. This system includes various options such as the ability to terminate matches immediately alongside enhanced quality of life improvements, ensuring that outcomes like losses do not detrimentally affect players’ records.

Below are the comprehensive patch notes, along with a detailed overview of Mirage’s abilities:

Deadlock September 26 Patch Notes

Mirage Ability Rundown

Ability	Description	Upgrades
Tornado	Transform into a tornado that swiftly travels forward, dealing damage to enemies and lifting them into the air. Once you exit the tornado, you gain bullet evasion.	+1: +0.5 lift duration +2: -14 seconds cooldown +5: +20% bullet evasion (increasing total from 30% to 50%)
Fire Scarabs	Launch fire scarabs that independently may siphon maximum health from enemies while reducing their bullet resistance. Note that multiple scarabs cannot affect the same enemy. Health gained from heroes is 3 times more effective than from non-heroes.	+1: -15 seconds cooldown +2: -15% bullet resistance +5: +70 max health steal
Djinn’s Mark	Passive: Your shots create an increasing damage multiplier on a target. If the multiplier expires or reaches its maximum, it is consumed, dealing Spirit damage while briefly revealing the target on the map. The final damage output equals the base damage multiplied by the multiplier.Active: Use the multiplier of Djinn’s Mark to inflict damage immediately.	+1: Apply 80% slow for 0.5 seconds with each multiplier increase. +2: +4 seconds Multiplier duration and +10 base damage. +5: +4 max multiplier (from a base of 8 to 12).
Traveler	Channeled ability. Target an ally or visible enemy hero on the minimap, then teleport to their location when your channel begins. Post-teleportation, gain increased movement speed and fire rate until your next ammunition reload.	+1: -20 seconds cooldown +2: +2 m/s movement speed +5: +20% fire rate

Hero Changes

Abrams

• Infernal Resilience has been decreased from 16% to 15%.
• Infernal Resilience T3 reduced from 9% to 8%.
• Siphon Life spirit scaling increased from 0.2 to 0.3.
• Addressed issues where Shoulder Charge would unexpectedly ‘slam’ into walls or stairs.

Bebop

• Hook range has been decreased from 30m to 25m.
• Spirit scaling for Hyper Beam duration has been reduced from 0.08 to 0.06.

Dynamo

• Singularity radius decreased from 8m to 7m.

Gray Talon

• Arrow cycle time increased from 0.4s to 0.45s (overall DPS remains unchanged).
• Rain of Arrows can now be alternate-casted to stay closer to the ground.
• Resolved issue where air dash during Rain of Arrows would travel only half the intended distance.
• Guided Owl’s bonus spirit upon death now includes a 3s buffer window.
• Guided Owl: slight improvements in turn rate.
• Guided Owl radius has increased from 12m to 13m.

Haze

• Sleep dagger hitbox reduced by 10%.
• Resolved issue with refresher not functioning correctly with Smoke Bomb.
• Fixed items that previously didn’t proc: Tesla Bullets, Lucky Shot, Mystic Shot.
• Bullet Dance now more accurately indicates its target.
• Resolved inconsistencies with Bullet Dance obeying line of sight rules.
• Bullet Dance bullets are now influenced by Time Wall.
• Bullet Dance evasion has been reduced from 50% to 25%.
• Bullet Dance fire rate reduced from 25% to 15%.

Ivy

• Stone Form is now effective against airborne targets.
• Kudzu Bomb T3 now additionally grants +2m radius.
• Kudzu Bomb spirit power scaling has increased from 0.6 to 0.7.
• Fixed sound issue when flying while disarmed.
• Fixed the ability to use Stone Form during the Take Flight animation to evade the vulnerable cast period.

Kelvin

• Headshot bonus damage decreased by 20%.
• Bullet damage growth has been adjusted from 1.2 to 0.9.
• Arctic Beam movement slow reduced from 70% to 50%.
• Moving through breakables while on Ice Path now destroys them.

Lady Geist

• Life Drain cooldown reduced from 42s to 30s.
• Malice cooldown has been reduced from 6.25s to 6s.
• Malice T1 cooldown improved from -2.75s to -3s.
• Fixed Life Drain not providing extra healing from amplifications (like Soul Shredder and Malice stacks).
• Sprint speed has increased from 1 to 1.5.

McGinnis

• Fixed issue related to looking up circumventing the minimum range on Wall and Barrage.
• Parry can now be cast to cancel your ultimate ability.
• Corrected various issues with Spectral Wall spawning an incorrect number of segments indoors and near walls.

Mo & Krill

• Combo duration has been cut down from 2.75s to 2.5s.
• Combo damage spirit scaling has increased from 0.8 to 1.1.
• Combo kill trigger now has a 3s buffer window for credit.
• Sand Blast T1 duration reduced from +1.5s to +1s.
• Sand Blast range increased from 30m to 35m.
• Base speed for Burrow has increased from 3 to 4.
• Burrow T3 speed gain reduced from +3 to +2.

Paradox

• Pulse Grenade T3 now additionally grants +2% Damage Amplification.
• Resolved issue where multiple Time Walls could not inflict damage.

Pocket

• Affliction no longer passes through walls; it now respects line of sight.
• Barrage T3 has seen a decrease from +5% to +4%.

Seven

• Static Charge stun duration dropped from 1.1 to 0.9.
• Static Charge T3 reduced from 1.1 to 0.9.
• Static Charge radius has decreased from 6m to 5m.
• Static Charge can now be alternate-casted on self without stunning the caster.
• Static Charge now respects line of sight laws.
• Lightning Ball T3 also grants +1m radius.

Shiv

• Slice and Dice T2 damage has decreased from +85 to +75.
• Killing Blow Rage buildup per spirit damage has decreased from 0.02 to 0.013.
• Killing Blow Rage drain rate has increased from 0.3 to 0.35.
• Killing Blow Full Rage Bonus Damage decreased from 20% to 15%.
• Killing Blow T2 increased from 5% to 10%.

Revenge

• Gun cycle time increased from 0.19s to 0.22s (overall DPS remains the same).
• Distance enemies are allowed to move during Stake has increased from 6m to 8m.
• Maximum falloff has decreased from 58m to 45m.
• Fixed issue where Flight would end upon touching the ground.
• Low HP indication now appears even while unscoped.
• Base damage for Assassinate reduced from 160 to 140.
• Assassinate zoom level reduced slightly.
• Flight duration spirit scaling decreased from 0.2 to 0.15.

Viscous

• The Cube cleanse feature is now integrated into T2.
• Puddle Punch enemy warning time has increased from 0.35s to 0.45s.
• Bullet damage has decreased from 13 to 12.
• Can now utilize down dash during Goo Ball.
• Fixed issue where Phantom Strike would not position correctly when combined with Goo Ball.
• Splatter post-cast delay reduced from 0.5s to 0.2s.

Warden

• Binding Word escape range and time has increased by 15%.
• Last Stand spirit scaling has increased from 0.9 to 1.2.

Yamato

• Bullet damage growth has decreased from 0.5 to 0.45.
• Crimson Slash fire rate slow has reduced from 30% to 20%.
• Fixed various issues regarding Flying Strike pathing.
• Shadow Transformation duration has decreased from 5s to 4.5s.
• Shadow Transformation T3 duration has increased from +1.5s to +2s.
• Shadow Transformation no longer offers unlimited ammo.

Item Changes

Vitality Items

• Melee Lifesteal:
  • Melee damage reduced from 13% to 12%.
  • Healing against non-heroes decreased from 40% to 30%.
• Extra Stamina:
  • Stamina recovery has increased from 10% to 14%.
• Restorative Locket:
  • Stamina restoration is no longer contingent on having max stacks.
• Divine Barrier:
  • Bonus health has decreased from 75 to 50.
• Combat Barrier:
  • Fire rate while shielded has reduced from 8% to 6%.
  • Weapon damage while shielded has decreased from 28% to 25%.
  • Bullet shield has increased from +300 to +325.
• Health Nova:
  • Weapon damage has increased from 10% to 12%.
• Return Fire:
  • Now grants +25% bullet resistance while active.
  • Bullet damage returned has reduced from 70% to 60%.
  • No longer grants +7% fire rate.
  • Spirit power has increased from +7 to +9.
  • Fixed ricochet bullets not returning the correct amount of damage.
• Bullet Armor:
  • Bullet resist has increased from 20% to 25%.
• Veil Walker:
  • No longer provides +20% fire rate.
• Improved Bullet Armor:
  • Bullet resist has increased from 45% to 50%.
• Fortitude:
  • Bonus health has increased from 275 to 300.
• Lifestrike:
  • Cooldown has decreased from 5.25s to 5s.
  • Fixed multiple procs of healing when hitting multiple targets.
• Shadow Weave:
  • Now categorized as a T4 weapon.
• Siphon Bullets:
  • Now a T4 vitality item.
  • No longer provides +28% weapon damage.
  • Now offers +18% bullet resistance.
• Colossus:
  • Slow radius has increased from 12m to 14m.
• Soul Rebirth:
  • Increases base respawn rate by +15s.
• Unstoppable:
  • Cannot be cast during channels anymore.

Weapon Items

• Monster Rounds:
  • Bullet resist against NPCs has decreased from 35% to 30%.
• High-Velocity Mag:
  • Bullet velocity has decreased from +30% to +25%.
• Restorative Shot:
  • Cooldown has decreased from 6.2s to 5.5s.
• Hollow Point Ward:
  • Spirit shield has increased from +85 to +95.
• Headshot Booster:
  • Fire rate has decreased from +5% to +4%.
• Kinetic Dash:
  • Fire rate has decreased from 25% to 20%.
  • Fire rate maximum duration has decreased from 8s to 7s.
• Berserker:
  • Damage requirement per stack reduced from 110 to 100.
• Mystic Shot:
  • Damage spirit scaling has increased from 0.6 to 0.8.
• Melee Charge:
  • Impact now increases ammunition for that magazine instead of reloading (e.g., if your ammo is 2/8, it becomes 10/8). Instantly reloads if currently in a reload action.
  • Cooldown has increased from 8.5s to 10s.
• Escalating Resilience:
  • Fire rate has decreased from 14% to 12%.
• Headhunter:
  • Now requires Headshot Booster.
  • No longer offers +50% bullet velocity.
  • Now grants +5% fire rate.
  • Fixed issue where it was unaffected by cooldown reduction.
• Pristine Emblem:
  • Now requires High-Velocity Mag.
  • Now provides +35% bullet velocity.
• Titanic Magazine:
  • Ammunition capacity has increased from 100% to 120%.
• Sharpshooter:
  • Fixed falloff reduction not functioning properly.
• Frenzy:
  • Low HP spirit resist has been changed to bullet resist.
• Spiritual Overflow:
  • Now grants +250 bullet shield.
• Silencer:
  • Now grants +12 spirit.
• Ricochet:
  • Fire rate has decreased from 12% to 10%.
• Vampiric Burst:
  • Fixed issue where casting interrupted sliding.
• Siphon Bullets:
  • Now part of T4 vitality.
• Shadow Weave:
  • Now classified as a T4 weapon item.

Spirit Items

• Ammo Scavenger:
  • Ammo capacity has reduced from 15% to 10%.
  • Health capacity decreased from 60 to 40.
  • Duration has decreased from 35s to 30s.
  • Max stacks have reduced from 12 to 10.
• Spirit Strike:
  • Now does not grant +0.8 health regen.
• Mystic Reach:
  • Ability range has increased from 16% to 18%.
  • Now provides 6% bullet resist rather than 6% spirit resist.
• Withering Whip:
  • Now does not grant +8% fire rate.
  • Spirit power has increased from +4 to +6.
  • Now provides +1 sprint.
  • Cast range has expanded from 24m to 30m.
  • Fire rate slow has increased from 40% to 45%.
• Quicksilver Reload:
  • No longer triggers if your ammunition is at maximum capacity.
• Decay:
  • Cooldown has increased from 32s to 45s.
  • Cast range scaling has reduced from 0.2 to 0.16.
• Improved Reach:
  • Now provides 12% bullet resist instead of 12% spirit resist.
• Improved Spirit:
  • Spirit power has increased from +21 to +23.
• Knockdown:
  • Now causes enemies to fall down more rapidly.
• Torment Pulse:
  • Health bonus has increased from 140 to 160.
  • Spirit power damage scaling has increased from 0.25 to 0.33.
• Rapid Recharge:
  • Faster time between charges has increased from +55% to +65%.
  • Cooldown reduction for charged abilities has increased from +25% to 30%.
• Magic Carpet:
  • Resolved issue of it consuming stamina when jumping off.
• Escalating Exposure:
  • Fixed issues where bonus damage was being reduced twice by resistance.
• Refresher:
  • Bullet resist has increased from 8% to 16%.
  • Spirit resist has decreased from 16% to 8%.
• Echo Shard:
  • Now includes a 0.3s cast delay (similar to Refresher).

Map Changes

• The outer lanes at the center of the map have been expanded further from the inner lanes.
• A new connection from the canal near the urn platforms has been established through the Radio Station and apartments.
• The interior corridors of the Fish Market/Nursery have been redesigned for faster exits to nearby buildings.
• Added a partition to the interior room connecting Fish Market/Nursery to the Shops.
• The rope leading to the Fish Market/Nursery rooftop has been moved to the building’s rear.
• The upper interior hallway linking to the Fish Market/Nursery rooftops has been removed.
• The truck has been relocated from the front to the rear of the Fish Market/Nursery archway with cosmic veil.
• The outer lane paths (ziplines and trooper nodes) from Walker to Guardian have been redesigned on Amber Yellow and Sapphire Purple.
• An interior passage beside the Subway Entrance has been added to reach the outer lanes.
• The side lanes are now positioned further apart from the central lanes.
• The lane setup now adheres to a 1-2-2-1 arrangement.

Anti-Cheat

An initial anti-cheat detection system has been introduced. When a user is identified as cheating during a game session, opponents can opt for either an immediate ban of the user and match termination or turn the cheater into a frog for the remainder of the game, followed by a ban. The detection levels are currently set conservatively while a more comprehensive v2 anti-cheat system is developed. The banning mechanism will activate a few days post-update. If a match is concluded through this method, results will not be counted for the affected players.

Miscellaneous/General Changes and Bugfixes

• Zipline Boost now initiates on cooldown once more.
• Trooper damage reduction from Guardians has decreased from 35% to 28% (they face greater damage from Guardians).
• Trooper share radius amongst allied heroes has been reduced (from 50m to 40m, and from orb to allied hero from 40m to 35m).
• Recent creep sharing duplication changes have been reverted (returning to the previous state from over a week ago, as we aim to assess potential issues alongside other changes made in this patch).
• Some latency-related calculation improvements have been made to lessen deny favorability with orbs.
• Orbs will now appear smaller to enemies attempting to deny them.
• A Soul Generator (similar to the one in the hero sandbox) has been placed in the respawn area, beginning to spawn orbs at 3 minutes. Each orb is worth 10 souls when shot (primarily intended for scenarios where players are close to acquiring an item).
• Fire rate slows now stack in a diminishing manner.
• Rejuv bonus creep HP has increased from 50% to 70%.
• The Rejuv bonus is no longer consumed for deceased players; they retain it for their next life.
• Troopers no longer yield partial bounty when base guardians are eliminated for that lane.
• Killer to Assist bounty ratio has been reduced from 2.0 to 1.7 (shifting slightly more emphasis to assists).
• Midgame respawn times have been increased slightly (now reaching 50s at 20 minutes instead of 40s).
• Teleporter delay has been reduced from 5s to 4s.
• Guardians now inflict 10% more damage to players.
• Sinner’s Sacrifice now grants a permanent golden statue bonus when it is defeated.
• Resolved issue with Sinner’s Sacrifice erroneously sharing bounty with nearby allies.
• HUD has been updated with an indicator to assist in tracking your passive cooldown items when they are 1s from being ready (e.g., headshot Booster, Medic Bullets, etc.).
• Boon count increased from 11 to 14 (additional tiers added for 16/18/20k).
• Non-health boon bonuses have been rescaled over the 14 levels (total value remains consistent with previous configurations).
• Aggressive crouch spamming within a narrow time frame now temporarily leads to slower movement.
• A Rejuv drop will now occur continuously in sandbox mode.
• An infinite ammo option has been introduced in sandbox mode (“No Reload”).
• Fixed issue where dashing downwards wouldn’t destroy breakable objects.
• Breakables will wait to spawn if a player is blocking the area.
• Abrams has received a new custom heavy melee animation.
• Updated voiceovers for Haze.
• Resolved bug where Kelvin’s VO for Arctic Beam and Ice Path were swapped.
• Eliminated a Shiv line referencing the ability to slow down enemies, which he was not doing.
• Replaced a Grey Talon select line for increased clarity on his intentions.
• Infernus will no longer appear in all bot matches.
• Bots can now opt to play as Lady Geist, Mirage, Shiv, and Warden.
• Corrected display issues with min/max falloff ranges in the Weapon Stats Tooltip.
• Updated Rejuvenator buff effect visuals.
• Enhanced wall bounce effects for Viscous in ball form.
• Implemented cheat report option both in-game and post-game.
• Ability to mute and report enemy players via ESC during gameplay has been added.
• Updated game access invite UI for clarity on user acceptance status (primarily for instances where players believe friends were not accepted, when in fact they were).
• Integrated voice indicators for player communication in party and team chat (green for party, white for team).
• Updated Player Card and action menu for player interaction in the friend list or ESC menu.
• Fixed Rich Presence issues for Steam and in-game friend lists.
• Party Code will remain hidden when Streamer Mode is enabled.
• Region indicators for matches on the watch tab have been added.
• Fixed search by MatchID malfunctioning for live games.
• Enabled Spectator Fog of War toggle (hotkeys available for configuration in settings).
• South Africa servers have been introduced.
• Italian localization has been added.
• Enhanced rendering performance across the board.
• Improved shadow quality for higher shadow settings.
• Corrected issues with player outline rendering in FSR2.
• Resolved regression issues with saturation volume outlines not displaying correctly.
• Displacement mapping is no longer officially supported; however, it can still be activated via a ConVar after launching the game.
• Lighting improvements have been made on the map.
• Power-up pickups will now display all the modified stats in the HUD instead of using generic names like ‘Casting’ or ‘Gun’.
• Spirit scaling is now visible in tooltips without needing to resort to holding alt/tab.
• Updated Viscous icon for better differentiation from Dynamo.
• Added frosted shell effect to the rejuvenation crystal when Frozen Shelter is active.
• Sound effects during gameplay will pause during game pauses.
• Adjusted Guardian targeting behavior to improve shooting accuracy behind cover.
• Fixed Quicksilver Reload bonus damage not functioning properly in conjunction with effects like Scorn and Flog.
• Added a countdown sound effect for the final seconds of Flying Cloak.
• Wall jumps now feature enhanced animations conveying directional movement.
• Corrected stamina consumption issues while jumping between ziplines.
• Improved damage output visibility for Magic Reverb in relation to damage amps.
• Enhanced preloading efficiency during queue times.
• Updated Killing Blow effects for visual clarity.
• Refined Lightning Ball effects to minimize visual clutter.
• Fixed issues concerning Crimson Slash effect reliability.
• Vicious Puddle Punch now indicates a red preview when out of range but within twice the casting distance.
• Resolved issues with Ricochet not honoring line of sight rules while selecting targets.
• Low ammo sounds will no longer trigger while sliding.
• Addressed issues preventing Reload from being mapped to Mouse Wheel Up/Down.
• Minimap line colors now align with the hero responsible for drawing them.
• Fixed spectator keybind displays not functioning correctly.
• Updated Flying Strike effects to ease visual disturbances.
• Addressed discrepancies with the Flex Slot unlock sequence not matching standard unlock patterns.
• Updated visuals for Sleep Dagger projectiles, impact effects, and sleeping debuff.
• Corrected issues where imbue and active ability dialogues wouldn’t respond to keybinds with modifier keys or mouse wheel assignments.
• Resolved animation issues with Dynamo during the Singularity cast delay.
• Updated bullet shield break visuals.
• Clarified Unstoppable effects to ensure clarity at the moment of casting.
• Warp Stone: Casting while on the ground will no longer halt the player’s movement, opting to move forward instead.
• Warp Stone: Resolved cases where the Warp Stone would become stuck on geometry.
• Fixed various projectiles bypassing bosses (e.g., Wraith cards, Geist bombs, etc.).
• Fixed Dash not consistently breaking destructibles.
• Breakables will wait to spawn in the event a player is obstructing the area.

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