Game Modes

8:07 Deadlock has three ways to queue for a match on Oct 26, 2026: Standard Mode (unranked 6v6), Ranked Mode (6v6 with ranks and seasons) and Street Brawl (a 4v4, best-of-five mode with no farming). Around them sit modes without matchmaking: bot matches, private Custom Matches, Explore NYC (an empty city to run around), the Sandbox for testing heroes and items, and the Hideout, the lobby area where you wait for a game. Hero Labs, where Valve tested unfinished heroes from Oct 24, 2024, has been paused since Aug 18, 2025. Deadlock is an invite-only playtest in early development, and Valve has said "alternate game modes that expand the scope of the game" are among the speculative work it is testing (Sep 29, 2026).

Quick facts

Source: Valve's Matchmaking Update, Jul 30, 2026; Old Gods, New Blood page, Jan 22, 2026; Six New Heroes, Aug 18, 2025; City Never Sleeps post, Sep 29, 2026.

Standard Mode

Standard Mode is Deadlock's unranked 6v6 match: two teams of six on the three-lane map, farming souls, buying items and pushing toward the enemy Patron (Objectives). Valve made it "a lower-stakes way to play Deadlock with friends" on Jul 30, 2026, with "no restrictions on party size or skill spread", and the matchmaker still adjusts each game for your experience with the hero you picked. Standard wins are what unlock Ranked: 60 wins, and 15 on each hero you want to take into Ranked. Hero bans have applied in Standard Mode since Jan 30, 2026.

Ranked Mode

8:50 Ranked Mode is the same 6v6 match with ranks, seasons and stricter rules. It opened on Jul 30, 2026 with eleven ranks from Initiate to Eternus, solo or duo queues only, 3 hero bans a game and 8 calibration games a season; Season 1 ends on Nov 5, 2026. Every rule is on Ranked and Matchmaking.

Street Brawl

7:05 Street Brawl is Deadlock's short mode: "a quick 4v4 battle for the city over a best-of-five match", in which "each round takes a couple of minutes", as Valve's page introduced it on Jan 22, 2026. There is no farming: each round every player starts with equal resources and drafts three items from a random set, and the round ends when a team destroys the enemy Guardian (later the Walker) on the single lane, as Mobalytics explains. PC Gamer recommends it to new players because a match lasts about 15 minutes at most and items come a few at a time (Jun 8, 2026). The full rules are on Street Brawl.

Bot matches

1:00 Bot matches let you play a full game against the computer. Since the Map Rework Update of Feb 25, 2025, private games against bots and co-op games with other players against bots sit under one "Play Bot Match" button. Valve has worked on the bots since: they got better at buying and upgrading items and at not getting stuck in that update, and better at ziplining and retreating in the Shop Rework Update of May 8, 2025. TheGamer suggests bot games for learning the map and how to farm (Beginner's Guide).

Custom Match

Custom Match is Deadlock's private lobby, added on Sep 26, 2024 together with an option to turn on cheats in private lobbies. The Oct 10, 2024 update added team swaps, a shuffle and "Allow Duplicate Heroes"; the lobby settings include Enable Cheats and Bot Difficulty (Valve, Feb 25, 2025); and since City Never Sleeps a custom lobby holds 8 spectators.

Explore NYC

Explore NYC is an empty copy of the map for learning your way around. Valve added it on Feb 25, 2025 as "Explore Map", "where you can run around an empty city to test movement and navigation", under the Play menu; by City Never Sleeps it was called Explore NYC, and since that update its crates and neutrals first spawn after 5 seconds instead of 30 (Valve's page). The map itself is on Map and Lanes, and the movement to practice there on Movement and Combat.

The Sandbox

The Sandbox is Deadlock's testing ground for heroes, items and builds. Valve renamed "Hero Sandbox" to "Hero Testing" on Feb 25, 2025, and since the Hideout arrived the "legacy sandbox" is reached through a teleporter in the Hideout's practice range or through the Play menu (Valve, Aug 18, 2025).

City Never Sleeps turned the Sandbox into a practice lab. Valve's page lists Bot Recording (record, loop and share what bots do), a Combat Log, a Speed Graph, a DPS Meter that ends combat 3 seconds after your last hit, falloff guides for your gun, a force-spawn menu, map spawn toggles, free shopping, permanent buffs on demand and hotkeys for options such as noclip. Guides send new players there to learn a hero's abilities before playing them (TheGamer).

The Hideout

11:20 The Hideout is the space you stand in between matches, which replaced the menu Dashboard on Aug 18, 2025. "You can invite friends to your hideout, or join them in theirs," Valve wrote; terminals open Play, Watch and Learn, and a practice range lets you "quickly test movement and abilities without needing to load into the Sandbox".

Valve has added to it with each update. Hero votes were cast at a booth and then a ballot box there in 2025 and early 2026 (Hero Voting); the Ranked Hub with leaderboards and rank history opened there on Jul 30, 2026; and City Never Sleeps added a custom Hideout camera and Hideout keybinds (Valve's page). Valve hopes it will "provide future opportunities for personalization, achievements, and events", and its Sep 29, 2026 post says Hideout customization is in the works.

Hero Labs (paused)

Hero Labs was an experimental matchmaking mode for unfinished heroes. It opened on Oct 24, 2024 as "a new experimental hero matchmaking mode that adds six new in-progress heroes", with "placeholder models, names, effects", and needed 50 games played to enter, per Valve's forum notes; Esports.gg reported it ran from 9pm to 11pm. The six went by temporary names: Holliday, Calico, Wrecker, Fathom, Viper and Magician. Trapper joined on Nov 7, 2024, when Hero Labs also opened in private lobbies, bot games and the Sandbox, and Raven on Dec 6, 2024.

Two of the six reached normal matchmaking under their Hero Labs names. Holliday and Calico joined on Jan 17, 2025 together with two other new heroes, Vyper and The Magnificent Sinclair (Sinclair); Valve has not said whether those two were Hero Labs' Viper and Magician. Valve paused Hero Labs while it built the Six New Heroes of Aug 2025 and "may revisit some of the hero labs heroes as we understand there are some elements of them that players like" (Aug 18, 2025). Wrecker, Fathom, Trapper and Raven are not playable on Oct 26, 2026.

Past events

Valve has run one seasonal event so far. The Winter Visual Update of Dec 17, 2024 covered the map in a winter theme with a Winter Event that ran until Jan 17, 2025, after which players' achievements stayed on their profiles (Valve, Jan 17, 2025). The Broker, a merchant who sold Corrupted Items in matches from Sep 29 to Oct 2, 2026, was the City Never Sleeps launch's limited-time feature (City Never Sleeps Update).

Frequently asked questions

What game modes does Deadlock have? Deadlock has three matchmaking modes on Oct 26, 2026, Standard, Ranked and Street Brawl, plus bot matches, Custom Matches, Explore NYC, the Sandbox and the Hideout's practice range, per Valve's Jul 30, 2026 and Jan 22, 2026 updates.

Can you play Deadlock against bots? Yes, Deadlock's "Play Bot Match" button starts a private game against bots or a co-op game with other players against bots, as it has since Feb 25, 2025.

How do you get to the Sandbox in Deadlock? In Deadlock you reach the Sandbox through the teleporter in the Hideout's practice range or through the Play menu, per Valve's Aug 18, 2025 post. Since Sep 29, 2026 it has a DPS meter, bot recording and free shopping.

Is Hero Labs still in Deadlock? No, Deadlock's Hero Labs has been paused since Aug 18, 2025, when Valve said it "may revisit some of the hero labs heroes", per its post. None of its remaining heroes is playable on Oct 26, 2026.

What is the Hideout in Deadlock? The Hideout is Deadlock's lobby space between matches, added on Aug 18, 2025 in place of the menu Dashboard, with terminals for Play, Watch and Learn, a practice range and the Ranked Hub, per Valve.

Can you make a custom match in Deadlock? Yes, Deadlock's Custom Match creates a private lobby with options such as cheats, bot difficulty and duplicate heroes, and since Sep 29, 2026 it holds 8 spectators, per Valve's City Never Sleeps page.

Is Deadlock getting new game modes? Valve is testing "alternate game modes that expand the scope of the game" but says it is not sure they will be released, per its Sep 29, 2026 post. No new Deadlock mode has been announced.

Sources

• Matchmaking Update, Valve (Steam news), Jul 30, 2026
• City Never Sleeps, Valve (Steam news), Sep 29, 2026
• Deadlock - City Never Sleeps, Valve (playdeadlock.com), Sep 29, 2026
• Mind the Birds!, Valve (Steam news), Oct 6, 2026
• Deadlock - Old Gods, New Blood, Valve (playdeadlock.com), Jan 22, 2026
• 01-30-2026 Update, Valve (Yoshi, Deadlock forums), Jan 30, 2026
• Six New Heroes, Valve (Steam news), Aug 18, 2025
• Shop Rework Update, Valve (Steam news), May 8, 2025
• Map Rework Update, Valve (Steam news), Feb 25, 2025
• Holliday, Vyper, Calico, and The Magnificent Sinclair, Valve (Steam news), Jan 17, 2025
• Winter Visual Update, Valve (Steam news), Dec 17, 2024
• 12-06-2024 Update, Valve (Steam news), Dec 6, 2024
• 11-07-2024 Update, Valve (Steam news), Nov 8, 2024
• 10-24-2024 Update, Valve (Steam news), Oct 24, 2024
• 10-24-2024 Update, Valve (Yoshi, Deadlock forums), Oct 24, 2024
• 10-10-2024 Update, Valve (Yoshi, Deadlock forums), Oct 10, 2024
• 09-26-2024 Update, Valve (Yoshi, Deadlock forums), Sep 26, 2024
• Deadlock Street Brawl Mode Explained, Mobalytics (dxvis), Aug 27, 2026
• Don't let Deadlock's MOBA tag scare you off - there's a quick play mode for dummies which is the perfect entry point, PC Gamer (Elie Gould), Jun 8, 2026
• Valve drops huge Deadlock patch: Introduction of Hero Labs, Esports.gg, Oct 2024
• Beginner Tips And Tricks For Playing Deadlock, TheGamer (Tanay Sharma), Aug 31, 2024
• The Only Beginner’s Guide You Need for Deadlock (Updated), Metro Deadlock, Oct 1, 2026 (video)
• DEADLOCK ... For Noobs (2 Years Later), Macro, Oct 19, 2026 (video)