How This Deadlock Tier List Works
This tier list pulls live match data from the Deadlock API every 24 hours, analyzing win rates, pick rates, and KDA across hundreds of thousands of ranked matches. Heroes are scored using a weighted formula: 80% win rate, 20% pick rate, then sorted into S/A/B/C/D tiers. Unlike editorial tier lists based on opinion, this ranking reflects how heroes actually perform in real games across all skill levels. Use the Phantom+ filter to see how heroes rank at the highest level of play.
Best Deadlock Heroes to Play Right Now
The S-Tier heroes in the current Deadlock meta are the safest picks for climbing ranked. They have the highest win rates and consistent performance across all matchups. Check the Hero Tier List tab above for the full ranking with win rates, pick rates, and KDA stats. Each hero card shows detailed stats on hover, including average kills, deaths, and assists per game.
Deadlock Item Tier List - Best Items by Win Rate
The Item Tier List ranks all purchasable items in Deadlock by win rate, separated into Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit categories. Each item shows win rate, pick rate, average buy time, cost in Souls, and a description of what it does. Use this to optimize your builds and find overperforming items the meta hasn't caught up to yet.
Deadlock Hero Matchups and Counter Picks
The Matchups tab shows hero-vs-hero win rates based on real match data. Click any hero to see their 5 best and 5 worst matchups with exact win percentages and match counts. Use this for draft decisions: if the enemy picks Haze, you can instantly see which heroes statistically counter her. Data is filtered to matches with 50+ games for statistical reliability.
Deadlock Builds - Community Favorites and Win Rates
The Builds tab fetches the most popular community builds for any hero directly from the Deadlock API. Each build shows the creator's item loadout with icons, the number of favorites, and the build's actual win rate from ranked matches. Click any hero icon to load their top 5 builds, sorted by favorites or win rate. Builds are fetched live, so they're always current.
Compare Deadlock Heroes - Side by Side Stats
The Compare tab lets you pick any two Deadlock heroes and compare them side by side: win rate, pick rate, KDA, average kills, deaths, assists, and their head-to-head matchup win rate. Green highlights the stronger stat, red the weaker one. Use this to decide between two heroes you're considering maining, or to understand why you keep losing a specific matchup. The 24h trend arrows show whether each hero is rising or falling in the current meta.
Make Your Own Deadlock Tier List
The Tier Maker tab lets you build your own custom Deadlock tier list by dragging hero portraits into tiers from S+ down to F. It works on desktop and mobile (drag with your finger). Rank every hero exactly how you see the meta, then save your creation and get a shareable link to send to friends, post on Reddit, or share with your stream. You can also download your tier list as a PNG image. Whether you're ranking heroes by power level, by how fun they are, or by how much you hate playing against them, the Tier Maker makes it easy to create and share your take on the Deadlock roster.
Latest Deadlock Patch Notes
The Patch Notes tab displays the 3 most recent updates from Valve's official Deadlock changelog. Full patch content is pulled straight from Steam, so you can read every balance change, hero buff, nerf, and new feature in full without leaving this page.
Want to Improve Faster? Get Deadlock Coaching
Understanding the tier list is step one. Knowing why heroes are strong and how to exploit matchups in real games is what separates good players from great ones. UltimateMove offers 1-on-1 Deadlock coaching at $15/hour, covering gameplay, builds, matchups, mental coaching, and PC optimization.
FAQ
How often is this Deadlock tier list updated?
Every 24 hours at 4:00 AM UTC. Data is pulled automatically from the Deadlock API, which aggregates match statistics from all ranked games.
Is this tier list based on opinions or real data?
Real match data. Heroes are ranked by a formula combining win rate (80% weight) and pick rate (20% weight) from hundreds of thousands of matches. No editorial bias.
What does the Phantom+ filter show?
It filters hero stats to only include matches where the average player badge (rank) is Phantom or higher. This shows how heroes perform at the highest skill level, which can differ significantly from all-ranks data.
Can I see builds for every hero?
Yes. Click any hero icon in the Builds tab to load their top 5 community builds, fetched live from the Deadlock API. Builds are sorted by number of favorites or win rate.
What each tier actually means
The ranking above is calculated from data, but the number next to a hero does not tell you whether you should pick them tonight. That depends on what each tier actually means.
- S-Tier - the heroes defining the current meta. High win rate alongside a high pick rate, strong at every stage of the game. You pick them and you have a statistical edge from the start.
- A-Tier - solid, reliable picks. They work in most compositions. A step behind S, but a mastered A-tier hero beats a badly played S-tier one, and that is not a platitude.
- B-Tier - they need context: a good matchup, a specific team composition, or a player who knows them inside out. They are not weak, they are conditional.
- C-Tier - situational picks with a narrow niche. Outside it they lose to higher tiers. Not really for climbing, unless you have several hundred games on them.
- D-Tier - in the current patch they carry too many weaknesses relative to their strengths. Valve will buff them sooner or later, but for now avoid them in ranked.
Why the Phantom+ filter changes the picture
Most tier lists online squash win rates from every rank into a single number. In Deadlock that is misleading, because a hero who dominates in Seeker plays completely differently in Phantom or Ascendant.
A concrete example from our own observations: Kelvin, at roughly 55% win rate in overall stats, can drop to around 48% in Eternus, because players at that level know how to punish him. The reverse happens too - heroes with a high skill floor look average in overall data and excellent in the hands of people who understand them.
So the Phantom+ filter is not decoration. If you play at lower ranks, look at the overall data - it reflects your lobbies. If you are aiming higher, switch the filter, because the meta up there looks different.
How to use this list to climb
The most common mistake is treating a tier list like a shopping list. Picking a different hero from the top of the ranking every patch gives worse results than playing one A-tier hero you know by heart.
A better approach: choose two, at most three heroes from the upper tiers that suit your style, and stay with them for a few dozen games. The tier list then serves two purposes: checking whether your main fell out of favour after a patch, and finding a counter-pick when you keep hitting a wall on a specific matchup.
The matchups tab above shows who genuinely gives whom trouble - that data often matters more than the tier itself, because you win specific lanes, not averages.
One important caveat: Deadlock keeps changing
The game is in early access and Valve patches aggressively. An S-tier hero can land in B after a single nerf, and item changes reshape the entire meta without touching the characters at all. That is why this list recalculates every 24 hours from real matches, instead of waiting until somebody finds time to rewrite an article.
There is a limitation worth knowing about too: right after a big patch the data needs a few days to settle. The first hours after an update are the whole community experimenting, so win rates jump around. The patch notes tab above helps you understand what just changed.
Numbers tell you what, not why
An automated ranking is honest because it holds no opinion - but that is also its limit. It will not tell you that a hero with a high win rate needs two core items before they start mattering, or that their ultimate is channelled and a good opponent will break it with a stun.
That context is what we work through in Deadlock coaching sessions with an Eternus-ranked coach - on your own replays, not on generic advice. You can also drop a match into our replay analyzer and see how the game unfolded before you decide anything.
