Even though Deadlock is still only accessible on an invite-only basis, Valve’s new MOBA shooter is likely getting a roster expansion as dataminers have found new heroes that aren’t too far off from being added.
The leaks, posted in the Deadlock subreddit on Aug. 26, show three new heroes—Astro, Mirage, and Calico—along with their models and abilities. However, many of these, including their names, might change when they are eventually added to the game.
Astro, in her current shape, has a lot of similarities with Dota 2’s Batrider, with her ultimate nearly being a replica of Flaming Lasso. The Dota 2 parallels are also strong with Mirage because her first and third abilities seem very close to Invoker’s Tornado and Windranger’s Wind Run. On the other hand, Calico is a cat lady with her spirit cat doing the heavy work.
While we don’t have any official word on when Valve will actually add new heroes to Deadlock, they don’t seem too far off, especially in the case of Astro. Her character art and abilities seem to be mostly complete, which dataminer Kwagan showcased in their YouTube video.
As things stand, Deadlock reached the ninth spot in terms of its concurrent player count on Steam on Aug. 26 with 82,000 players. It’s even more impressive when we consider Deadlock is still only accessible on an invite-only basis.
The number is presumably only climbing higher from here, with popular streamers like Shroud singing Deadlock’s praises. He highlighted the mechanical complexity and depth of Valve’s MOBA-shooter which will only increase when these new heroes are added into the fray.
