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Stun your enemies with a shock using Deadlock: A Valorant Agent Guide
Learn to wield Deadlock’s fresh arsenal of abilities with our tips and tricks!
Every new agent in VALORANT brings their own original set of abilities and utility, in hopes of making a mark on the game. Deadlock is no different, bringing new ways to lock down your opponents, detect their location, and play the Sentinel role.
Agents in the Sentinel role play a special part in the team’s defensive capabilities, with abilities geared towards gathering information, preventing the enemy team from pushing on to sites, and defending sites.
Deadlock (aptly named) brings enemies to a standstill. Slowing enemies is common in VALORANT but, with their GravNet (C ability), Deadlock will not only slow an opponent’s roll, but also force anyone caught in its AOE to crouch!
This affects enemies, allies, and Deadlock herself so be careful when tossing it into a location. On top of slowing down her enemies in a distinct way from other agents, as a Sentinel, Deadlock can deploy a Sonic Sensor (Q ability) that monitors an area for any sound an enemy could make including weapon firing, footsteps, jumping, reloading, interacting with the spike.
Deadlock’s signature ability is her Barrier Mesh (E ability) and it allows her to toss a disc that creates four walls (or less, depending on the terrain of the map) that prevent enemies from passing through. Different from the usual walls in VALORANT, where they are opaque but you can walk through (except for Sage), Deadlock’s Barrier Mesh walls are transparent and stop enemies from passing through. Finally, Deadlock’s ultimate ability is called Annihilation which cocoons enemies that are caught by the nanowires she sends out as she casts her ultimate. A fascinating and novel way to detain her enemies, Deadlock brings all sorts of utility to her team’s defensive capabilities.
Barrier Mesh (E Ability)
Deadlock’s signature ability, Barrier Mesh, activates once it reaches the ground. Once landed, it will spawn a large orb that sprouts four smaller orbs in cardinal directions. Depending on where the disc was thrown, the large orb may not be able to spread out its smaller orbs and subsequent walls, so be careful where you put the disc. Once the orbs have been generated, they create transparent walls at 6 meters wide that interconnect with the large orb in the center.
Once the walls have been generated, they prevent opponents from passing through them. Although the walls prevent the trespassing of your enemies, they unfortunately do not stop the passing of bullets or abilities. So, with the walls being transparent, you are still very much in danger and will have to play around the Barrier Mesh cautiously.
Be careful with Barrier Mesh placement
© Riot Games
You do have have free reign of where to go and your enemies do not, though. The ability will last until your enemies destroy the orbs, and they can decide to shoot any of the smaller orbs or the larger orb at their leisure. The larger orb has a much higher healthpool than the smaller orbs, but all orbs can increase their healthpool by fortifying after a few seconds of spawning. Once the duration of the disc reaches 25 seconds, the orbs begin to decay and eventually break at 30 seconds.
Some tips to remember when deploying or playing around the Barrier Mesh is knowing the map’s pathways. Some enemies may decide to wait out the duration, shoot the orb, or use their abilities, while others may elect to simply rotate around the Barrier Mesh. If you’re not careful with your positioning, the enemy might catch you unaware from behind and eliminate you.
Another thing to remember is that Barrier Mesh, at the end of the day, is still just a wall. In fact, it’s a *transparent* wall which means that, sometimes, your enemies will have just as much visual information as you do.Mesh won’t help you if the enemy has some sort of utility or tracking ability that can be thrown over or through the wall.
GravNet (C Ability)
GravNet is Deadlock’s special grenade with a unique form of crowd control. Much like her Barrier Mesh, the GravNet brings an alternative method to stopping, deterring and, more specifically, slowing down your opponents. At 200 credits per use every round, GravNet is an essential tool for impeding the enemy team’s advance (whether they get caught in the net or not).
It’s a great stalling method as enemies who can identify this tool, are presented with an obstacle they need to avoid by taking a new path or attempt to deal with directly. You can choose to lob the grenade with Primary Fire for long range and Alt Fire for short range. Once it hits the ground the grenade briefly winds up and deploys its net in a circular AoE.
As the name implies, the GravNet’s unique way to slow down enemies caught on the net is by forcing them into the crouching position and reducing them to their crouched movement speed. At this point, once caught, enemies are forced to choose between staying still and interacting with the net to remove its snares or pushing forward through an even greater movement speed penalty. Channeling the remove option for the GravNet sounds an audio cue for Deadlock and her teammates as well, so the GravNet introduces an incredible dilemma for players which makes it work as an excellent crowd control ability.
Even if the enemy is slowed, that doesn’t mean they cannot fight back. Deadlock players must still remain vigilant despite having snared their opponents. It’s not a free win, but GravNet provides an advantage for Deadlock players and their teammates over map control as well as battles around corners or long hallways. This ability affects Deadlock and her teammates, so players on both teams should remain cautious whenever the GravNet is deployed.
You can put down a sonic sensor anywhere, but try to get creative
© Riot Games
Sonic Sensor (Q Ability)
Contributing to Deadlock’s defensive design, Sonic Sensor operates in a similar fashion to the GravNet but is much more of a passive tool. Once it’s thrown, it doesn’t require any more active engagement or inputs to be used. It’s essentially a fire it and forget it tool.
Sonic Sensor has two uses and costs 200 credits, can be attached to surfaces(attachable surfaces are indicated blue for and non-attachable surfaces are red). Once deployed, it will stick to the designated surface, turn invisible, and remain there until it is picked up again after a round or is destroyed.
Sonic Sensor functions as Deadlock’s main intel ability. Enemy players that make any sound of any kind within its area of effect like shooting, running, jumping, reloading, interacting with or dropping items, and planting/defusing the spike will trigger the sensor. As a response to this trigger, the Sonic Sensor will unleash a concussive AoE. Concuss debuffs in Valorant are a serious matter, as they debilitate a player's ability to play focused and effectively. A player hit by a concuss debuff is critically slowed, and will have their vision impaired in multiple ways. It will turn blurry, grayscale, their peripherals will be darkened, and they will be unable to fire properly as their crosshairs and field of view will be swaying uncontrollably for that duration. Additionally, they will be unable to aim down their sights and hear slightly deafening noises until the duration of the debuff wears off.
Getting concussed is no joke, as it can provide substantial advantages to the other team. Moreover, in a team with Deadlock, they know exactly where the debuffed player’s location is now that they’ve been tagged by their Sonic Sensor. Which could lead to a follow-up with deadlock’s GravNet to slow them down further or entrap them or to stop them completely in their tracks with the Barrier Mesh. This doesn’t mean that the Sonic Sensor is a perfect tool though, it can still be destroyed.
Once the Sonic Sensor triggers a concussive blast, it no longer remains invisible and emits a red outline revealing its position. This leaves it vulnerable for enemy players to shoot it down, but in turn this leaves players vulnerable to be shot via swings, pennable walls, or rotates since destroying the Sonic Sensor alerts Deadlock and her team. To avoid triggering the Sonic Sensor, you can either crouch walk or shift walk to avoid making any noises.
Annihilation does what's on the label
© Riot Games
Annihilation (Ultimate Ability)
The name of this ultimate is upfront and honest about what it does. It’s an interesting addition in comparison to the rest of her kit, considering the previous utilities were geared towards defense and intel gathering. This ability requires seven orbs and is multifaceted, meaning it needs a few steps before reaching its conclusion. A player caught in Deadlock’s ultimate ability will be annihilated after the duration is complete however, the ability stays true to Deadlock’s core role design as a defensive crowd control agent on its way to ensnare that player.
Annihilation is cast by having Deadlock fire a wide, long range “nanowire” pulse beam that can ricochet off of one surface. Once fired, Deadlock will be slightly pushed back in the opposite direction of the pulse beam’s trajectory. The beam will travel its maximum distance unless it hits a second surface after the first ricochet. Once it’s done traveling, a final spherical pulse is sent out.
The first enemy that is captured within the pulse beam is ensnared and wrapped by the nanowires, encased in a cocoon-like form. In this form, they are detained and unable to move, equip, interact, or utilize any objects, weapons, or abilities. Their screen is also entirely covered by the nanowires as visibility is completely disabled other than your minimap. Agents trapped in this form are then dragged down the line path of the nanowire pulse beam all the way to where Deadlock stood when they fired the ability.
If this ability reaches its full destination or duration, the agent encased inside the cocoon is then immediately, well, annihilated. The damage inflicted onto the cocooned agent is always equal to the health of the cocooned agent. Despite the name of this ultimate ability, it doesn’t have to be the end for Deadlock’s victim. Enemy teammates can break down the cocoon with enough damage (it has a health pool of 600). This will put the victim’s teammates in danger because it distracts them and forces them to reveal their position while they try to save their encased friend.
A great time for Deadlock to use this ability is when the number of enemy agents has been reduced, or much later in the round. With more time or more remaining players, it’s easier for an enemy team to free their teammate or get bold enough to rush the deadlock and then free their ally.
Ultimately, Deadlock’s utility will consistently force the enemy team to always be making tough decisions that either leave them vulnerable, revealed, or distracted long enough for Deadlock and her team to clean up and grab some eliminations and wins. Strategies that involve double swinging or rotating around corners, using long points at spike locations and generally playing as a stack in defense will make Deadlock a serious threat for the enemy team.
