Souls are the main form of currency and XP in Deadlock. By earning lots of souls, players can level up, buy more items and stomp their opponents! Players collect souls in a variety of different ways, with the main ways being through troopers, getting kills and guardians or walkers. However, there are lots of other ways to earn souls as well.
Every player starts with 600 souls, but this really isn’t enough to buy anything out of the starting item, so the first thing you want to do is focus on securing souls to unlock your items. This is done most commonly by killing troopers.
Troopers
Troopers release souls orbs once they die. These orbs can be shot at or hit with a melee strike to confirm or deny the souls to the attacker. Ally orbs are green, and enemy orbs are red or orange. Hitting the enemy orb will deny the enemy the orbs. If no one either hits them, then the souls will be granted to the hero who killed the trooper.
Soul orbs are divided into 2 categories: local and global.
Local orbs are orbs that are shared between nearby allies and are by far the most common soul drop. The global orb is an orb that grants the entire team souls. These are earned by turning in the Soul Urn.
Troopers can be your main source of income throughout the game, especially in the early game. Outside of major objectives or getting kills/assists, it is vital that you make sure you’re picking up and killing troopers as the game progresses to ensure you do not fall behind. In the very early game, your goal will be to secure as many troopers, soul drops and boons as possible.
Kills, Assists and Objectives
Getting kills on your opponents will also grant lots of souls. Souls will be distributed among nearby players, and if there is a multikill, players will receive bonuses. The number of souls scales with the length of the game.
Among the other bonuses the objectives provide, Guardians and Walkersalso provide a lot of souls for your team. If your team secures all 9 Guardians, your team can get a lot of additional souls and income. The souls earned through destroying structures are split between 40% for nearby allies, while the 60% is divided amongst the entire team.
Soul Urn
The Soul Urn is an objective that spawns at the 10-minute mark, and it respawns every 5 minutes. It spawns in either the yellow or green lane. It always spawns on the yellow lane first and then rotates between the two.
If you deliver the Urn to the delivery point, then your team will be rewarded with lots of souls. All souls are split between the team, and the base soul bounty is 1300 souls, and increased by 230 souls per minute. At 10 minutes, it is worth 3600 souls; at 20 minutes, it’s worth 5900 souls; and after 30 minutes, it's worth 8200 souls. If your team is behind, then you will be given a comeback bonus, which is additional souls.
The Soul Well
The Soul Well is located in each team's base. They periodically release orbs that grant 10 souls each. You have to shoot or use melee attacks on them to get the soul drops. Taking these orbs is beneficial if you’re a little bit off from completing your next item.
Denizens
Denizens are Deadlocks' form of Jungling, and jungle camps constrain Denizens that give souls to players who kill them. Anyone who shoots the Denizen will be given souls, and they’re split between all the allies who deal damage to them. However, souls are unsecured, which we will be talking about later. There are 3 types of camps, each varying in size from small to large, and each providing a bounty of 40-180, which scales as the game progresses.
While Denizens can give a lot of souls, they shouldn’t be your main focus and form of income. Unless you’re a champion that can take camps quickly, it is better to just focus on farming troopers instead. They are low risk, but do take a long time to kill if you’re not good at clearing them fast and efficiently.
Breakables and Crates
In every lane, there are breakables that can be shot at or hit with a melee attack; these breakables also have a chance to spawn souls, but can also give other drops as well. So while they’re a good source of income, they’re not always reliable.
Sinner’s Sacrifice is another “breakable” which is near some jungle camps. If you attack these machines with melee attacks, you can earn extra income. These souls are also unsecured.
Miscellaneous
There are some other ways to increase your soul income.
- The item Trophy Collector provides players with passive souls.
- Killing cockroaches in the underground tunnels grants souls.
- Hero abilities such as Shiv’s Serrated Knives or Lady Geist’s Malice can help to secure and deny orbs as well, but it’s not always worth using them to secure or deny them.
Check out our Builds Section for the latest Deadlock Builds!
Comeback Mechanics
Comeback mechanics are in Deadlock to help teams make a comeback. They allow the team to catch up so they don’t fall too far behind. When comeback mechanics are in play, players will get more souls when they kill an enemy hero. If they kill an enemy who has a kill streak, they are given extra souls.
Securing the Soul Urn will grant additional souls, and if you secure Troops, Denizens, Sinner’s Sacrifice, and objectives, you will also gain additional souls. All these will help you buy your items more quickly and prevent you from falling even further behind.
There is also a catch-up mechanic for players who are really far behind. The 2 players (1 on each time) with the lowest souls will passively earn more souls compared to everyone else. This will help you to get your next item, and hopefully stop you from falling further behind. This mechanic is great for newbie players, or just when you’re having a bad game!
Unsecured Souls
Souls earned by killing Denizens, destroying Sinner’s Sacrifice machines, and bonus souls from some heroes are classed as unsecured and are lost if you die. If a player dies with at least 150 unsecured souls, they will be dropped and can be claimed by anyone who hits the container with a melee attack. You can see them on the minimap.
Each second you’re alive, you will convert unsecured souls to secured souls, but it does take time for them to be converted. Unsecured souls can be spent in the shop, but are spent after secured souls. You can see how many you have in the bottom-left corner of the screen.