Official patch
What October 5 changed
Grenades and rats gained power; the ultimate lost availability and protection. T1–T3 below refer to ability upgrades.
| Mechanic | Before → after |
|---|---|
| Scrap Grenade damage / T2 bonus | 65 / +65 → 70 / +70; bounce targeting fixes |
| Rat Swarm base cooldown | 28 → 24 seconds |
| Ultimate base / T1 total cooldown | 130 / 110 → 160 / 160 seconds |
| Damage reduction / T3 total | 20% / 35% → 15% / 25% |
| Base radius | 24 → 20 metres |
| Charge duration / T2 total | 12 / 20 → 10 / 10 seconds |
| T2 flag-duration bonus | +8 → +5 seconds |
| T1 movement-speed bonus | +1 → +2 m/s |
| Charge movement | Spirit speed scaling removed; faster falling |
Data and community documentation
The flag has three different clocks
The published data separates a 2-second initial cast delay, a 10-second charge phase and a 12-second planted flag. T2 adds 5 seconds to the flag: 17 seconds by arithmetic, without duration items. It also adds 8 metres to the 20-metre radius: 28 metres. These are documented values, not Kingy stopwatch measurements.
Count the planted lifetime from the plant, not from your first button press. “The ult lasts 10 seconds” confuses charge time with the banner’s lifetime. Items can change the relevant durations; do not promise opponents an exact expiry if you have not checked the loadout.
The wiki reports a spherical aura extending through walls, while slam damage and knock-up require line of sight. Cover that blocks the impact can therefore be a poor place to wait for the aura to end. Treat aura reach and impact reach as separate questions.
Sources: Client ability data, reproduced by the community wiki ↗ · Community wiki: Rat King ↗
Editorial positioning advice
Plant where your team will actually fight
Think of placement as a team commitment. Pick the space your allies can use for the next exchange: an objective approach, a corner they are defending or an enemy’s committed route. A banner deep in enemy territory helps little if your damage dealers cannot follow.
Before starting, identify a plant location, a target and an exit. Call the location so teammates can plan around it. Avoid using the entire charge window just to chase one retreating opponent; the valuable fight may already be happening behind you.
A player reply dated October 5 says the charge automatically plants when its timer expires. Other replies discuss carrying on after a stun. These are reports, not a verified control sequence. Confirm the current plant input in your settings; this guide does not invent a keybind or certify airborne landing behavior.
After planting, reassess. If the enemy leaves the area, choose between objective progress and a pursuit your team can support. Walking away from a useful banner to chase a low-health target can surrender the space you just bought.
Dated player reports
A stun is not a guaranteed flag eraser
An October 5 player report says disrupting the initial wind-up did not spend the ultimate cooldown. The same author says a stun during the flag-carrying phase left the flag active and Rat King resumed movement afterward. The author explicitly had not tested Curse. A different commenter claimed Curse also failed, without a reproducible test.
The useful distinction is between delaying Rat King, stopping a particular cast and removing an existing planted effect. Those outcomes are not interchangeable. Use crowd control to create time or an escape opportunity; do not commit your whole team on the assumption that one stun deletes the banner.
Exact behavior during the planting animation, displacement destinations, caster death and flag destructibility remain unverified here. Do not shoot the flag, buy Curse or spend a displacement ultimate solely because you expect automatic removal. This guide cannot promise that result.
Sources: Player report: interrupted wind-up and active charge ↗ · Player discussion: countering the flag ↗
Client data and editorial analysis
Build the grenade’s damage, then enable its follow-up
The grenade’s ordinary detonation uses weapon_damage_increase scaling with a 0.6 coefficient; its T3 extra explosion uses 1.0. Spirit scales the slow, not that damage field. Rat Swarm bites deal Spirit damage and reduce bullet resistance. A purple item can supply useful control without being a direct grenade-damage purchase.
The published grenade description says enemies can melee it away. That makes a stationary-target damage total optimistic. Ask whether the target is forced to remain, can leave or can knock the grenade toward a safer space.
Editorial sequence: pressure an approach with the grenade, attach rats when a target has committed, and shoot while you can safely follow up. Use your defensive ability before absorbing the return exchange. Stop extending the trade when your health or positioning no longer supports it.
Separate “more grenades now” from “more damage over a long fight.” A reset purchase is valuable only when the extra cast connects and you survive to use it. It competes with damage, protection and mobility bought for the same souls.
Sources: Client ability data, reproduced by the community wiki ↗ · Community wiki: Rat King ↗
On-paper comparison · no benchmark
Compare the same 12,800-soul spend
These are alternative two-item packages, not complete match builds or a buying order. Each costs 12,800 souls using reported default prices. Echo Shard is held constant and imbued on Scrap Grenade. Compare them at the same hero progression, ability upgrades and other items, with zero kill stacks and no enhanced/corrupted variants.
The comparison evaluates item functions and tradeoffs. No damage-per-second, survival-time or win-rate result was measured. Check the live shop before buying; component upgrades are part of the final item’s cost rather than a second full-cost purchase.
| Package | Equal cost | What the second purchase adds | Tradeoff |
|---|---|---|---|
| A · Echo Shard + Glass Cannon | 6,400 + 6,400 = 12,800 | +80% weapon damage; stacks begin at zero | −13% base health; aggressive damage investment |
| B · Echo Shard + Boundless Spirit | 6,400 + 6,400 = 12,800 | +30 Spirit and +15% Spirit Power; category investment also matters | Spirit utility and rat damage; not the grenade’s weapon-scaling field |
| C · Echo Shard + Colossus | 6,400 + 6,400 = 12,800 | +25% base health and +15% weapon damage | Lower weapon bonus than A; more health for committing |
Sources: Client item data, reproduced by the community wiki ↗ · Community wiki: Echo Shard ↗ · Community wiki: Spirit Power ↗ · Community wiki: Health ↗ · Community wiki: Weapon Damage ↗
Conditional editorial recommendation
Choose your package by the job you need
For a frontline grenade plan, C is the conservative choice among these three packages: it adds health while retaining some weapon investment. Choose A when your existing build and team positioning already let you deliver damage safely. Choose B when you intentionally value rat damage and Spirit-scaled control; avoid buying it on the premise that its Spirit directly raises grenade detonation damage.
This is a recommendation from documented tradeoffs, not a tested best build. Echo is optional. A player who dies before the second grenade connects should spend on staying alive first; a player who cannot reach a useful position should solve that problem before paying for another cast.
Echo’s reported active resets an imbued non-ultimate ability. Its recovery includes that ability’s cooldown, so it is neither a flag reset nor a free repeat every 30 seconds. Reserve it for a deliberate extra cast instead of pressing it automatically whenever it lights up.
- Early lane: solve your actual deficit—last hits, magazine uptime, sustain or movement—with inexpensive shop purchases. Avoid rushing two expensive items while missing the basics.
- Grenade-focused ability investment: consider T1 for repeat pressure, T2 for the announced damage increase, then T3 when fights can use the added final blast. Upgrade survival or team support earlier if that is what prevents a useful cast.
- After each fight: review which grenade hits connected, whether you could shoot afterward and what forced you out. Change the next purchase to address that failure.
Sources: Community wiki: Echo Shard ↗
Editorial counterplay
How to deal with the flag, phase by phase
Before the plant, watch the space Rat King’s teammates want to occupy. Preserve an exit instead of spending all your movement just to approach. If you control him, use the time to reposition or deny follow-up rather than assuming the ultimate is gone.
At the plant, spread the team’s exits and avoid stacking everyone in the same approach. Treat the impact as one event and the buffed area as the next problem. Reported line-of-sight behavior can inform positioning, but has not been reproduced by Kingy.
After the plant, leave the enemy’s favorable zone when the objective permits. Contest from another angle, force them to move or return after the effect visibly ends. If you must stay, prioritize the opponents delivering damage rather than wasting an exchange on an unverified flag-removal interaction.
Save enough stamina for the whole sequence. The community description says a ground or air dash removes an attached rat; a dash used there is unavailable for escaping the next threat. Move the grenade away from teammates if you attempt its reported melee interaction.
Royal Pestments is described as a max-health barrier with bullet deflection while it holds. Reassess prolonged gunfire into that protection. Choose an item because it answers the damage or control actually stopping you, not because a generic counter list labels it mandatory.
Sources: Community wiki: Rat King ↗ · Player report: interrupted wind-up and active charge ↗
Dated activity snapshot
Player activity is context, not sales or build evidence
The requester reported roughly 109,000 concurrent players in an October 7 SteamDB check. A separate web retrieval during this research showed 160,203. The earlier figure was not independently reproduced. Different snapshots can differ; neither is a sales total, an ownership estimate or evidence of Rat King’s pick rate.
This guide does not select a build from item win rates or launch-week hero win rates. Purchase timing, rank, match length and the patch window can confound those comparisons. A convincing practical benchmark would need equal spend, repeatable targets and an escaping-opponent pass.
Source scope
What this guide establishes—and what to recheck
Valve’s announcement establishes the October 5 balance changes. Reproduced client data and community documentation supply reported numbers and interactions. Dated player reports supply observations about interruption. The build recommendation and positioning advice are Kingy’s analysis.
Kingy has not played Deadlock, timed the flag or run these loadouts in a current sandbox. No YouTube interval is claimed as inspected. This is a written source-based guide; it does not certify a video demonstration or imply creator endorsement.
On a later patch, recheck charge time, base flag lifetime, T2 duration/radius, the plant input, wind-up versus charge interruption, planted-banner persistence and item prices. For a real build test, record the client identifier, identical progression, fixed target defenses, per-blast damage, escaping-target damage and health remaining under the same incoming attack.
Checked October 7, 2026
Sources & review notes
- Valve: Minor Update — October 5, 2026 ↗
Official balance announcements on the Deadlock community hub. This supports patch changes, not a Kingy gameplay test.
- Community wiki: Rat King ↗
Current ability descriptions and reported aura/line-of-sight notes. Community documentation; live interactions can change.
- Client ability data, reproduced by the community wiki ↗
Grenade weapon-scaling fields, separate charge/flag clocks and upgrade values. A data dump does not prove interruption behavior.
- Client item data, reproduced by the community wiki ↗
Glass Cannon’s reported cost, weapon bonus and health tradeoff. Default items are compared, without enhanced variants.
- Community wiki: Echo Shard ↗
6,400-soul cost; non-ultimate imbue and reset; recovery includes the imbued ability cooldown.
- Community wiki: Spirit Power ↗
Boundless Spirit’s reported 6,400-soul cost and Spirit benefits; category investment also affects Spirit Power.
- Community wiki: Health ↗
Colossus’s reported 6,400-soul cost and +25% base-health bonus.
- Community wiki: Weapon Damage ↗
Colossus’s +15% weapon bonus and budget-item references.
- Player report: interrupted wind-up and active charge ↗
October 5 report: wind-up interruption reportedly refunds the ultimate; a stun during the flag-carrying phase reportedly leaves it active. Timing and client build were not independently verified.
- Player discussion: countering the flag ↗
October 4–5 reports discuss automatic planting and displacement. Prepatch comments and conflicting claims are kept separate from confirmed patch facts.
- SteamDB: Deadlock concurrent players ↗
A changing concurrent-player counter. Activity is not sales, ownership, revenue or hero popularity.
Original banner illustration by Kingy; it is not an in-game screenshot or an official Deadlock asset.