Ability Points and Leveling

2:05 Deadlock has no separate experience bar: the souls you collect raise your level, and each level (Valve calls them boons, the game shows a "power increase") either unlocks one of your four abilities or gives one Ability Point to spend on an ability's upgrades. Valve's Jun 30, 2026 update reworked the table: your first ability comes free, the second unlocks 500 souls into the match, the third at 1,400, your ultimate at 3,200, and the 32nd and last Ability Point at 48,600, all counted above the 600 starting souls. Every ability has three upgrades, which guides list as costing 1, 2 and 5 Ability Points, so 32 points buy all twelve.

Quick facts

Sources: Valve, Jun 30, 2026, Valve, Nov 21, 2025, Dexerto, Oct 5, 2026.

How souls become levels

3:52 Every soul you earn counts toward your next level, whether you spend it or not. Buying items does not cost you levels: the soul total that sets your level is everything you have collected, so the soul economy drives both your items and your abilities at once. Each level is a threshold of souls, and deadlock-api's copy of the game files (Oct 26, 2026) lists the same 36 thresholds as Valve's table.

Valve's table counts souls above the starting souls. Its note reads: "Souls Required" column is the amount of souls above the starting souls. Since every player starts with 600 souls (Nov 21, 2025), the first Ability Point at 200 comes when your total reaches 800.

The level table

Valve's Jun 30, 2026 table, the one in force on Oct 26, 2026, gives these rewards. "Souls" is the amount above the 600 starting souls.

Source: Valve's Minor Update - 06-30-2026, Jun 30, 2026 (the table is an image in the post).

The Jun 30, 2026 table front-loaded the early game and stretched the late game. Under the old table the ultimate unlocked at 3,000 and the 32nd point came at 40,000; under the new one you hold 13 Ability Points at 10,100 souls where the old table gave 11 at 10,000, but the gaps between late levels grow from 900 to 3,700 souls. The match average of 40,587 souls of net worth that deadlock-api measured for Oct 12 to Oct 26, 2026 means most players finish without every upgrade; the same data put the average ending level at 31.9.

The table has moved often. Valve's Nov 21, 2025 update "added two levels at 47k and 49k to let you get all ability upgrades"; the Apr 30, 2026 update shortened the late levels to steps of 1,500 souls, ending at 40,000 instead of 49,000; and Jun 30, 2026 replaced the whole table with the one above.

Unlocking abilities

The ultimate always comes with the fourth unlock; the order of the other three is the player's choice. The first ability is yours at the start, the second at 500 souls and the third at 1,400 souls into the match; the ultimate comes at 3,200 souls under Valve's Jun 30, 2026 table, where Game Rant's 2024 guide gave "about 3,000" under the older one. Guides give a different first unlock for each hero, picked for that hero's lane: Dexerto (Oct 5, 2026) unlocks Rat Swarm first on Rat King, and Dexerto's Violet guide (Oct 21, 2026) starts Violet with Living Ink.

Spending Ability Points

9:38 Each ability has three upgrades, bought in order: T1 for 1 Ability Point, T2 for 2 and T3 for 5. Dexerto and Mobalytics both list these costs, and they add up: 8 points an ability, 32 for all four, the exact number of Ability Points in Valve's table. Valve's own notes do not print the per-upgrade costs. Each hero page on this viki, starting from Heroes, lists what every upgrade does.

7:32 The 5-point T3 is the big decision. With 32 points spread over a whole match, a T3 costs as much as five T1 upgrades, so guides tell you which ability to finish first. Dexerto's Lady Geist guide (Feb 24, 2026) maxes Malice first (1, 2, then 5 points) and leaves the ultimate, Soul Exchange, for last, while its Rat King guide maxes the ultimate before finishing Royal Pestments.

You can plan the order ahead. Since the Map Rework of Feb 25, 2025, builds can save an ability order: click the ability icons on the dashboard or in the sandbox, and the build shows when to put each point.

Power increases

Every level also makes your hero stronger, whatever its reward. In the game files as of Oct 26, 2026, each boon raises base health, bullet damage, melee damage and Spirit Power by fixed amounts for each hero: for Abrams, deadlock-api's copy lists +49 health, +1.1 Spirit Power and +1.738 melee damage a level. Spirit Power per boon dates from the Shop Rework of May 8, 2025.

Valve has cut health per level three times in 2026. The Apr 30, 2026 update reduced base health per boon by 7, the May 22, 2026 update by 3 more, and Jun 30, 2026 by 5%. The same Jun 30 update raised every ultimate's base and upgrade cooldowns by 15%, which made the late levels' power arrive with slower ultimates.

Other ways to gain power

14:23 Permanent buffs are a second, separate kind of growth. Delivering the Soul Urn gives the runner 4 permanent buffs, killing the Mid-Boss gives each player on the team 2 (Mid-Boss and Rejuvenator), and breakables can drop them (Neutral Camps and Jungle). Before Nov 21, 2025 the Urn gave an extra Ability Point instead; since then Ability Points come only from souls. The average player picked up 20.8 permanent buffs a match in deadlock-api's measurement of Oct 12 to Oct 26, 2026.

Street Brawl skips the slow climb: each of its rounds hands every player a set soul total, 5,600, 7,400, 9,400, 11,600 and 14,000 souls for rounds one to five in the game files as of Oct 26, 2026, and the levels and Ability Points that come with it.

Frequently asked questions

How do you get Ability Points in Deadlock? In Deadlock you get Ability Points by collecting souls: 32 of the game's 36 levels give one Ability Point, the first at 200 souls above your 600 starting souls and the last at 48,600, per Valve's Jun 30, 2026 table.

How much do ability upgrades cost in Deadlock? Each Deadlock ability has three upgrades costing 1, 2 and 5 Ability Points, 8 per ability and 32 for all four, as Dexerto and Mobalytics list them.

When do you unlock your ultimate in Deadlock? In Deadlock your ultimate unlocks at 3,200 souls above your starting souls since Valve's Jun 30, 2026 update; before that it came at 3,000.

What is a power increase in Deadlock? A power increase is a Deadlock level (Valve's "boon"), reached at a set soul total: it gives an ability unlock or an Ability Point and also raises your hero's base health, bullet damage, melee damage and Spirit Power.

Can you get every ability upgrade in Deadlock? Yes, in Deadlock the 32 Ability Points in Valve's table are exactly enough for all twelve upgrades, but the last comes at 48,600 souls above the start, more than the average player's final net worth of 40,587 that deadlock-api measured in Oct 2026.

Does spending souls lower your level in Deadlock? No: a Deadlock level counts every soul you have collected, so buying items never costs you levels or Ability Points.

Sources

• Minor Update - 06-30-2026, Valve, Jun 30, 2026 (with the level table image)
• 11-21-2025 Update, Valve, Nov 21, 2025
• Gameplay Update - 04-30-2026, Valve, Apr 30, 2026
• Gameplay Update - 05-22-2026, Valve, May 22, 2026
• Shop Rework Update, Valve, May 8, 2025
• Map Rework Update, Valve, Feb 25, 2025
• Heroes and generic data, deadlock-api (game files), read Oct 26, 2026
• Game stats, matches since Oct 12, 2026, deadlock-api (measured), read Oct 26, 2026
• Best Rat King build in Deadlock, Dexerto (Cande Maldonado), Oct 5, 2026
• Best Lady Geist build in Deadlock, Dexerto (Cande Maldonado), Feb 24, 2026
• Best Violet build in Deadlock, Dexerto (Cande Maldonado), Oct 21, 2026
• Deadlock Abrams Guide - Abilities, Overview & More, Mobalytics, undated, read Oct 26, 2026
• Deadlock: How To Play Infernus Effectively, Game Rant (Muhit Rahman), Sep 10, 2024
• DEADLOCK ... For Noobs (2 Years Later), Macro, Oct 19, 2026 (video)
• What Is Deadlock?, GameSpot, Sep 18, 2024 (video)
• Deadlock for Beginners in 20 Minutes - Updated Late 2026, Deathy, Oct 8, 2026 (video)
• How to Navigate Deadlock's Mid-Game - 2026, Deathy, Feb 14, 2026 (video)
• The Only Lane Guide You'll Ever Need | Deadlock Laning Guide, Shotty, Oct 7, 2026 (video)