A transformative Deadlock update just hit its entire roster with 850 lines of patch notes. Here are the biggest changes.

The speed with which Valve is deploying huge Deadlock overhauls has me stunned, like I’m caught in the headlights of an Apollo ult. It’s been just six weeks since the team unveiled its massive Old Gods, New Blood update, and only three since the last of its new heroes rolled off the production line. Yet this fresh set of Deadlock patch notes comes in at more than 850 lines, with transformative changes across the core of the MOBA and basically its entire roster. If you were worried that your favorite character had been left in the dust by the latest newcomers, fear not, because almost everyone gets some serious love here.

We might be barely off the last named patch, but it actually feels a little cruel that this new Deadlock update doesn’t get a ceremonious title. With so many adjustments, I obviously can’t cover every single one, but I’ll pick out all the biggest details. The best news is that this feels very focused on buffing underperforming Deadlock characters and items to bring them up, rather than nerfing too many of the heavy hitters. Unless you’re my dear Silver, who gets put in the metaphorical doghouse with some serious nerfs to her Lycan Curse transformation.

Starting out with general updates, you can now jump while sliding, and dash jumping will afford you increased air control for a quarter of a second to help you direct yourself. There’s a bigger reduction on multiple crowd-control effects that land in quick succession, and the window where this applies lasts an extra second. There are two new neutral camps (both with two normal and three weak foes). In Street Brawl mode, the item slot limit has been lifted so there’s never a need to sell things in the final round.

Feeling greedy? Enter a new tier-one spirit item, the Golden Goose Egg. This costs 800 souls, and grants you +1m sprint speed, +1 out-of-combat regen, and a 10% damage penalty. So why would you buy it? For each minute you hold onto it, its value increases by 75 souls. When you decide to hatch it, you can cash in everything it’s racked up, with an additional permanent buff granted for each 200 souls stored. That’s right, it’s the ultimate long-term investment, and I suspect it could actually prove seriously scary on some supports.

The first shrine you kill is easier than before, but the second is harder. However, they now carry a 2,000-soul bounty, and troopers in the middle lane are upgraded when either one of the shrines goes down, rather than waiting until both do. The ‘super troopers’ now have 60% bonus damage (up from 40%), and you’ll get a zipline-boosted wave of creeps to assist you after killing a pair of base guardians. At the 35-minute mark, the gap between minion waves will shorten from 25 seconds to 20, pushing the game towards a faster finish.

Mid Boss is a little more resilient, but the base bounty for taking it down has been increased by 50%, and the health threshold at which the global warning goes out has been dropped from 70% to 50% to give you a bit more chance at peace. The minimap will now display if the Urn is favored, neutral, or unfavored, saving you the task of performing quick math to calculate your side’s current soul total ratio against the enemy team.

You can take a look at the significant hero ability changes in the video above, courtesy of ‘Deathy’ on YouTube, but let’s talk about the big winners and losers. The only characters who don’t see any changes are Grey Talon, Holliday, Sinclair, Venator, and Vyper – perhaps Valve believes they’re perfectly balanced (presumably so in newcomer Venator’s case, at least), or maybe they’re due for more significant overhauls in the near future.

Sky-high terror Celeste doesn’t get as many nerfs as you might expect – her air control and acceleration has been lowered, but she’s actually become even less susceptible to gravity than before. The good news is that one of the best counter-items to deal with her, Slowing Hex, now puts the gravity of its target to a fixed 20% heavier than neutral, regardless of their base values. It’s also a much faster projectile, making it quicker to land.

At max level, Paradox’s ultimate will now swap position with all enemies in close proximity to your target, and Time Wall no longer hurts enemies, but increases the speed and damage of all allied bullets that pass through it. Upgrade Infernus’s ult to full, and it becomes absolutely massive, especially if combined with Greater Expansion. Reach tier three with his Afterburn and you can build up the burn duration with multiple hits. Pocket’s ultimate, Affliction, now prevents all healing on its victims at max rank.

Ivy Kudzu Bomb is now called Entangling Thorns, and will immobilize any enemies that stand in it for too long. Watcher’s Covenant becomes Kudzu Connection, and at level three the tether will always be active, connecting her to your nearest ally to apply its healing link and other bonuses. Air Drop has been altered in quite a few ways. Most notably, it no longer causes a knockup, and the slow requires a tier-two upgrade, but it will afford you and your tethered ally a 20% damage boost after it lands.

Wraith’s Card Trick gets some gambling-style RNG, with four suits you can pull. Spades gives +70% damage, Diamond cuts enemy resistances by 8% for five seconds, Hearts heals you, and Clubs applies a 30% slow for three seconds. Pull the Joker (a one-in-nine chance) and you’ll gain all the effects, with the ability also bouncing to a second nearby foe.

Calico looks particularly tasty. Her Leaping Slash has been redesigned so it works more reliably in any orientation, even when used on the ground, and will target to finish close to enemy heroes. Upgrade it to tier two, and any heroes you kill within four seconds of using it will grant an additional 300 souls, giving her incredible potential to snowball. When you possess Ava, she starts at minimum speed, but will gradually get faster over time. This resets if you take damage, but can now increase again, rather than leaving you stuck.

There are plenty of other notable changes to pick out elsewhere. Mo and Krill’s Burrow now lets you get into the tunnel network. Doorman’s gun pierces targets at 50% effectiveness. Bebop’s hook can be canceled. Shiv’s ult, Killing Blow, has become a skillshot that you have to aim, and scoring an execute with it will no longer remove the cooldown completely, but instead grant you a 20-second recast window. His Serrated Knives no longer deal impact damage, but their bleed effect has been dramatically increased.

Kelvin’s Frost Grenade now freezes its target’s stamina regeneration, and Arctic Beam allows you to use the grenade and other items while you’re firing it. Lash, everyone’s favorite jerk, gets vastly increased air control and regains a full bar of stamina when you use his max-rank Grapple, letting him soar about like a mustached Celeste. His ultimate cast range is far bigger at tier three, and he also gains a muscular new parry animation and “increased sparkles.” Delightful.

That’s everything that immediately leapt out at me, or that have become the biggest talking points in the early hours of this brave new world. With so much change, however, I’m certain we’ll see more surprises pop out in the coming weeks. It’d be remiss of me not to end on one final important tweak, however: Paige’s two new ability names. Conjure Dragon is now Bookwyrm, and Defend and Fight becomes Plot Armor. I’d like to thank Icefrog’s team for never being afraid to embrace the sillier side of Deadlock.