Deadlock update adds Mirage and lets you turn cheaters into frogs

New Deadlock patch notes have arrived, and the big news is the arrival of wind-based hero Mirage. The third new hero to roll out in the Valve MOBA, and the first since it became widely available to all, Mirage boasts incredible map presence and can work as a heavy damage dealer or a valuable support. Beyond that, the new update also includes global quickcast support, a custom match option, and a particularly amusing way to handle and report cheaters.

Mirage is the 22nd playable addition to the ever-growing roster of Deadlock characters, and he already promises to be quite a versatile option. His first ability transforms him into a tornado, which then flies forward. Any enemies hit are damaged and lifted into the air for a short duration, becoming unable to move while airborne, and Mirage gains bullet evasion after transforming back. It’s a very potent snare to have in your kit, which will immediately perk up any MOBA player’s attention – and Deadlock is no different there.

His second skill launches Fire Scarabs. Each of these lowers bullet resistance on any target hit and steals max health to give to Mirage. The effect only applies once per hero, so you’ll want to spread it across your opponents. Mirage’s ultimate, meanwhile, lets him teleport to any ally or enemy hero that’s currently visible on the minimap. That gives him incredible potential to jump to any teamfight or deliver a finishing blow – especially when combined with his signature third ability, Djinn’s Mark, which can reveal enemies that are trying to escape.

Djinn’s Mark passively applies a stacking multiplier that appears over your target’s head. When it reaches its maximum (8x by default and 12x when fully upgraded), it will detonate, revealing the target on the minimap and dealing spirit damage based on the multiplier. Stacks of Djinn’s Mark will also detonate if left too long without reapplying, or can be manually detonated by pressing the ability key. Note that there’s a 2.5 second cooldown on applying multiplier stacks, so additional attack speed doesn’t help you build it up faster. You can see the skills in action above courtesy of ‘ottr’ on YouTube.

There’s a whole lot more in this latest Deadlock update, although probably the most entertaining is the new anti-cheat system. Now when a user is detected as cheating, “opponents will be given a choice between banning the user immediately and ending the match, or turning the cheater into a frog for the rest of the game and then banning them afterwards.” Valve notes that “when a match is ended this way, the results will not count for other players.”

There’s been lots more balance changes across the board, too, with plenty of tweaks to almost every character and several items. There’s a new bonus for scoring your first kill of a match. The outer lanes of the map have been pushed a little further away from the center, and both have been redesigned to take a slightly less winding path between the walker and guardian. There are some new and reworked interiors and passages between lanes, too, so be sure to keep a sharp eye out for potential ganks, even if you aren’t facing off against Mirage.

The full patch notes include a more substantial cheat reporting tool available both during matches and in the post-game. You can now set up abilities or items to use quickcast globally, or customize them individually. There’s even a new option to bind a separate hotkey to attach to ziplines, if you’d rather keep it separate from your jump button.

If you’d rather wait for the full Deadlock release date to arrive, don’t worry – there are a lot more of the best multiplayer games in 2024 to keep you busy for now.

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