13 Heroes Changed in One Deadlock Patch — The Post-Update Settings Guide

Thirteen Heroes, One Patch

Valve's Deadlock minor update on August 12, 2026 rebalanced thirteen heroes in a single pass: Apollo, Billy, Doorman, Drifter, Holliday, Ivy, Lash, McGinnis, Paige, Seven, Vindicta, Vyper, and Wraith, according to patch coverage from Deadlock Labs. Apollo and Vyper came out of it with straight buffs, Billy and Wraith took the hardest nerfs, and the remaining nine heroes got mixed adjustments that could shift their power curve in either direction depending on how you build them.

Why a 13-Hero Patch Is Different From a Single-Hero Nerf

A patch touching this many heroes at once — unlike the more targeted Celeste-focused nerf ten days later — changes the relative matchup math across a big slice of the roster simultaneously. A hero you avoided because they countered your main might now be weaker; a hero you leaned on for a specific matchup might now struggle. That's a genuinely different situation from a single hero shift, where you can isolate the adjustment to one matchup.

What Actually Needs Re-Learning

None of these are engine or input changes — Deadlock's underlying aim model and yaw value are untouched, so your base sensitivity conversion still holds. What's worth revisiting:

• Engagement ranges for buffed heroes: If Apollo or Vyper are now stronger at ranges you used to consider safe, your positioning (not your sensitivity) needs recalibrating first.
• Confidence in nerfed picks: If Billy or Wraith were your mains, spend a short warm-up session specifically re-testing their weakened tools before taking them into a ranked match, since muscle memory built around their old power level can lead to overcommitting.
• Whole-roster crosshair review: With this many heroes touched, it's a reasonable moment to re-check your crosshair setup across your full hero pool rather than just your primary, using the DCPROSENS crosshair generator to test combinations quickly.

Getting Your Sensitivity Baseline Right First

Before fine-tuning anything hero-specific, make sure your actual Deadlock sensitivity is converted correctly — Deadlock runs on Source 2, sharing the same 0.022 yaw convention as CS2, so if you're coming from a Source-engine background your numbers should translate cleanly via the Deadlock sensitivity converter. From there, any hero-specific adjustments are fine-tuning, not a rebuild.

Frequently Asked Questions