Hero Release Voting in Deadlock: How Players Choose the Next Hero
Deadlock’s roster keeps growing during early development, and unlike most games, the community has a direct say in the order heroes arrive. Rather than waiting for an opaque internal schedule, players vote on which new hero releases next. That makes hero release voting one of the most distinctive systems in the game — and it’s the reason the hero pool can feel like it’s shifting under your feet week to week.
This guide explains exactly how the vote works, how to earn and cast votes, where the ballot boxes live, and what the current release cadence looks like. It also covers the new arrivals and the Deadlock beginner friendly heroes worth trying while the vote plays out.
How Hero Release Voting Works
The core idea is simple: players vote on the order new heroes are released. The community’s votes effectively set the queue, so the champions the player base is most excited about can land sooner. Voting is bundled directly into normal play — you don’t visit a website or fill out a form outside the game.
Two details make the system worth understanding:
- Everyone earns votes by playing. Time in matches translates into voting power.
- The winning team’s votes count double when votes are cast in the Pregame lobby, which gives coordinated teams outsized influence over the outcome.
The Deadlock Release Schedule: Two Heroes Per Week
The most important number to remember is that two heroes release per week. Valve tied this cadence to two major update waves, each of which introduced a batch of six new heroes released in community-voted order.
City Never Sleeps: Tuesdays and Fridays
Under the City Never Sleeps update, new heroes drop two per week on Tuesdays and Fridays at 2:00 PM PT. The first release landed on October 2nd.
Old Gods, New Blood: Mondays and Thursdays
Under the Old Gods, New Blood update, the cadence shifts slightly: heroes release two per week on Mondays and Thursdays at 2:00 PM PST. That wave’s first release arrived on January 26th.
If you’re tracking a specific hero, those timestamps are your anchors — plan your play sessions around the scheduled drop days so you can actually get into a match with the new pick before it’s flooded.
How to Earn Votes
Votes are a reward for playing, not a purchase. The more you play, the more influence you carry into the next ballot. The standout bonus is the First Win of the Day, which grants bonus votes — so even on a busy week, squeezing in a single daily victory keeps your voting power climbing.
Because votes accumulate through play, casual players and grinders end up on the same field; the difference is consistency. A quick daily win is often worth more than a long losing streak.
Where to Cast Your Votes: Pregame Lobby and Hideout Ballot Box
There are two voting locations, and both matter:
- The Pregame lobby. This is the new lobby you enter before a match, and it’s where the double-vote rule kicks in — the winning team’s votes count double. If you can stack wins with your squad, coordinate your votes here to maximize impact.
- The Hideout ballot box. Your Hideout has its own ballot box where you can cast votes outside of a match.
The Pregame lobby is where the stakes are highest because of the win-based multiplier, but the Hideout ballot box ensures you never lose your accumulated votes just because you didn’t queue that day.
New Hero Priority Tokens
Even after a hero releases, getting to play them isn’t guaranteed — the newest heroes are in hot demand. New Hero Priority Tokens solve that: they let players more reliably select new heroes, bumping you up the pecking order so you can lock in the freshly released pick instead of competing for them.
If there’s a new hero you’re desperate to try on release day, treat your Priority Tokens as the tool that converts a released hero into an actually playable one.
The New Heroes Arriving Through the Vote
Each of the two major updates introduced a batch of six new heroes, released two at a time in the order the community voted for. New arrivals associated with these waves include Nurse Harrow, Deadman Danny, Baba, Solomon, Rat King, Violet, Apollo, Celeste, Graves, Venator, Silver, and Rem, among others. Because they land on a fixed weekly schedule, the vote doesn’t change whether these heroes arrive — it changes when each one does relative to the others.
Deadlock Beginner Friendly Heroes to Try While the Vote Plays Out
The release vote decides the future of the roster, but if you’re just starting, the more pressing question is which hero to actually pick up. Guides aimed at new players consistently point to the same shortlist of Deadlock beginner heroes: Abrams, Haze, Seven, Infernus, McGinnis, and Dynamo.
Knowing what those heroes do makes them easier to approach:
- Abrams — built around stuns and healing, a forgiving frontline pick.
- Haze — leans on primary fire and a powerful ultimate.
- Seven — a high-damage carry threat that snowballs hard when fed.
- Infernus — a passive- and healing-driven damage dealer.
- McGinnis — deploys turrets and slows to control space.
- Dynamo — an ability-and-ultimate support who can swing teamfights.
If you’re searching for a Deadlock beginner heroes tier list, guides generally don’t hand you a rigid ranking — they hand you this approachable shortlist. Treat it as your starting pool and let personal comfort decide the rest.
Deadlock Best Heroes and the Full Roster
Thinking strategically about the vote means knowing what’s already in the game. The Deadlock all heroes roster spans a wide range of playstyles, and the counters matter:
- Abrams relies on stuns and healing.
- Bebop brings a hook, uppercut, and bombs.
- Dynamo is defined by team-fight abilities and a game-changing ultimate.
- Grey Talon plays with traps and airborne positioning.
- Haze leans on primary fire and her ultimate.
- Infernus thrives on his passive and healing.
- Ivy and Kelvin both combine abilities with healing — Kelvin adds slowing.
- Lady Geist is a threat best answered with armor, anti-heal, and silence.
- Lash is built around movement.
- McGinnis uses turrets and slowness.
- Mirage fights with a tornado.
- Seven is a high-damage carry threat.
- Also in the mix: Victor, Vyper, Holliday, Vindicta, and Shiv.
As for the Deadlock best heroes, there’s no single answer — “best” depends on your role and the enemy composition. Community favorites like Graves and Vindicta get plenty of praise from experienced players, while some players commit to a single hero such as Shiv exclusively. The honest read is that the best hero for you is the one whose kit you can execute under pressure, whether that’s a beginner-friendly pick or a high-skill carry.
Tips to Maximize Your Voting Impact
- Grab your First Win of the Day whenever you can — the bonus votes add up fast and keep your ballot strong.
- Vote in both places. Use the Hideout ballot box on days you don’t queue, and the Pregame lobby when you’re grouped up.
- Win your Pregame matches. Because the winning team’s votes count double, a coordinated squad can swing the release order.
- Bank your Priority Tokens for a hero you genuinely want to play, instead of spending them on a release you’re lukewarm about.
- Watch the schedule. With drops on set days at set times, you can be queued and ready the moment a new hero goes live.
Wrapping Up
Hero release voting turns the usual top-down development cycle on its head: in Deadlock, the player base helps decide the order in which the newest heroes arrive. Earn votes by playing, cash in your First Win of the Day, cast ballots in both the Pregame lobby and the Hideout ballot box, and remember that a winning Pregame team doubles its say. With two heroes arriving every week, there’s always a new face to learn — and while you wait, the beginner-friendly trio of Abrams, Haze, and Seven (plus Infernus, McGinnis, and Dynamo) is the easiest place to build your footing.