How to Choose Your Early Weapon Items in Deadlock
This walkthrough covers the weapon item line — the “shmotki” (gear) that boosts your gun rather than your abilities — and shows you how to pick them in the right order from the early laning phase onward. Everything below is based on a community-reported Steam guide and is not officially confirmed; treat the numbers as player-tested observations rather than patch-note promises. Item names here are English translations of the guide’s original Russian labels, so your in-game names may read slightly differently.
The guide breaks the weapon line into two tiers. Tier I items are your cheap, early-game picks that you buy while farming souls in lane, and Tier II is where you start converting a small soul lead into a real power spike.
First, Read Your Hero’s Weapon Type
Before spending a single soul, decide which of the two weapon archetypes you are playing, because it changes almost every recommendation:
- Automatic / semi-automatic heroes get the most value from ammo, fire-rate, and accuracy-dependent items.
- Shotgun heroes benefit disproportionately from burst-damage and headshot items, and care far less about magazine size.
Almost every tip in this guide comes down to this split, so settle it first and the rest of your shopping list writes itself.
Prioritize Cheap Weapon Damage First
Your earliest purchases should be low-cost damage so you win trades in lane. The guide highlights two Tier I standouts:
Close Range — a cheap, simple item for boosting weapon damage up close. It grants +20% melee resistance and +20% weapon damage whenever the target is within close range (roughly 15 m), plus a passive that increases your weapon damage when your shot target is at short distance. It is recommended for shotgun heroes and for players who fight in melee range.
Headshot Booster — +30 health and +45 bonus headshot damage via a passive that charges roughly every 9 seconds: your next hit to an enemy hero’s head deals extra weapon damage. The guide flags that this bonus starts taking a range penalty at around 30 m, so it rewards getting close. For shotguns it is described as “a dream” — a single pellet to the head is enough to trigger it.
Decide Whether You Actually Need Sustain
If you trade constantly in lane and want to stay healthy without recalling, consider Restorative Shot:
- +6% weapon damage.
- A passive on about a 6-second cooldown: your next shot heals you, and the amount depends on what you hit.
- Healing is 50 versus heroes and 20 versus souls and everything that is not a hero.
The catch is accuracy. The community note warns that this item only pays off if you can reliably land shots on automatics and semi-automatics, and shotgun users must connect with the central pellet to get the heal. If your aim is inconsistent, this slot is better spent on raw damage.
Add a Farming Item for Camps and Lane Push
Monster Rounds is the guide’s pick for players who like to farm jungle camps and control the wave:
- +25% damage to everything that is not a hero.
- +25% bullet resistance against everything that is not a hero.
- +1 health regeneration while out of combat.
Because it reduces incoming damage from creeps and towers, it does two jobs at once: it speeds up clearing “denizens” (camps) in the lanes and helps you shove a creep wave from your tower toward the enemy tower faster, while taking noticeably less chip damage in the process.
Round Out Your Build: Ammo, Velocity, and Fire Rate
Once your damage core is set, fix the mechanical weaknesses of your gun. The guide lists three cheap Tier I options here:
- Extended Magazine — +30% max ammo and +8% weapon damage. It extends your magazine for longer firing and fewer reloads. Recommended for heroes whose primary weapon is an automatic; for shotguns the guide says better items exist.
- High-Velocity Ammo — +60% bullet velocity and +8% weapon damage. As the name suggests, this is for guns with slow projectile travel, especially when you need the extra speed to collect soul orbs effectively.
- Rapid Fire — +9% fire rate. A cheap way to push your fire rate up early for your chosen hero.
Step Up to Tier II With Active Reload
When your economy allows, the guide’s first Tier II recommendation is Active Reload:
- +20% max ammo.
- A passive on a 12-second cooldown: press R at the indicated moment during a reload to finish it instantly and gain bonuses to fire rate, bullet lifesteal, and movement speed.
- +25% fire rate (the source’s description cuts off here, so further bonuses are likely but not documented in the source).
The instant-reload mechanic rewards timing practice — hit the window cleanly and you effectively skip the reload animation while stacking several buffs at once.
Quick Reference: Tier I Weapon Items
| Item | Key Stats | Passive | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close Range | +20% melee resistance, +20% weapon damage within ~15 m | Bonus weapon damage at close range | Shotgun and melee-range players |
| Restorative Shot | +6% weapon damage | Next shot heals — 50 vs heroes, 20 vs non-heroes (~6s) | Accurate traders who need sustain |
| High-Velocity Ammo | +60% bullet velocity, +8% weapon damage | — | Slow-projectile guns, soul-orb farming |
| Rapid Fire | +9% fire rate | — | Cheap early fire-rate boost |
| Extended Magazine | +30% max ammo, +8% weapon damage | — | Automatic-weapon heroes |
| Headshot Booster | +30 health, +45 headshot damage | Next headshot on a hero deals bonus damage (~9s) | Shotguns and headshot-focused aim |
| Monster Rounds | +25% damage vs non-heroes, +25% bullet resistance vs non-heroes, +1 out-of-combat regen | — | Camp farming and lane pushing |
Community Notes and Caveats
Remember that these figures and tips come from a player-written Steam guide (credited to Zerstoren) and are community-reported, not official. Deadlock is still in active development, so item stats, cooldowns, and even names can change between patches. Use this guide to understand the logic of the weapon line — cheap early damage, sustain only if you can aim, a farming item for jungle tempo, mechanical fixes for your gun, then a Tier II spike — and always double-check the live numbers in your own client before committing a build.