The Cursed Apple: Deadlock’s Ever-Changing New York
Deadlock takes place in an ever-changing version of New York City known as the Cursed Apple — a city where MOBA-style lanes, heroes, items, objectives and patrons are layered over a supernatural metropolis. If you’re the kind of player who reads the room before you read the scoreboard, the world itself gives you plenty to dig into. This guide covers where to find Deadlock’s lore and how to explore this twisted NYC while you’re fighting for the city.
Where to Find Deadlock’s Lore
The single best source of Deadlock lore is the game itself. Rather than hiding backstory in a separate codex, Deadlock bakes its world-building into the map and its inhabitants:
- Neighborhood and district blurbs introduce each area of the Cursed Apple with a wry, tour-guide voice.
- Haunt descriptions give the new neutral creatures their own flavor text and origins.
- Landmark entries flesh out locations such as Umbria University, Central Park and the Stock Exchange.
- Item and system descriptions carry the city’s tone too — from the Broker’s Corrupted wares to the haunted objectives scattered across the map.
Read those descriptions as you play and the city starts to feel like a place with a memory, not just a set of lanes.
A Guided Tour of the Cursed Apple
The Cursed Apple is presented like a walking tour, with each stop narrated in-game. Here are the districts and how the game introduces them.
Uptown
Described as “our first stop on the tour,” Uptown is your quickest route to where the action is — a gateway district that frames the rest of the city.
Times Square
The “beating heart of the city.” The flavor text insists everyone should see it at least once in their life — and hopefully not just this once.
Downtown
The “busiest stop in town.” The lore here is less cheerful: citizens of the Cursed Apple have been reporting strange rumblings coming from deep beneath the subway line.
Theater
“The world is a stage in the Theater district.” This neighborhood is home to the Stage Hands haunt.
Chinatown
“It’s going down in Chinatown.” Chinatown hosts the Crabbage Pots and Festival Spirit haunts, along with the Bell Tower objective.
Haunted Lot
“Watch your step” — the Haunted Lot is home to the Shrooms haunt.
Plaza
This district asks you to “get to the bottom of the Plaza.” It’s home to the Underhands haunt and the Sunken Plaza objective.
Landmarks Worth Seeking Out
Beyond the districts, the Cursed Apple is dotted with named landmarks, each with a line or two of lore:
- Umbria University — home to the nation’s finest Bibliomancy program, offering an elite occult education.
- Central Park — 300 years old and still growing; its aptly named Hangman’s Elm has stood longer than almost any other living creature.
- The Brownstones — visit for quality family time, and if you’re lucky, a history lesson worth not repeating.
- Stock Exchange — the high-stakes financial playground where the warlocks of Wall Street ply their trade.
- Seaport Dock — maritime heritage “hasn’t quite been the same” since a certain vessel docked at Pier 16.
- Old Fairfax Factories — the beating heart of the Occult Industrial Complex, born from humble beginnings.
- Broadway, Greenwich and York — additional named stops that round out the city’s tour.
Two of these locations also recreate real New York buildings: St. Paul’s Chapel, completed in 1766 and the oldest surviving church in Manhattan, and Grace Church, a Gothic Revival National Historic Landmark completed in 1846.
The Haunts: New Neutrals and Their Stories
Deadlock replaced its familiar neutrals with a variety of creatures called Haunts, each with new behaviors and its own lore. Their soul value and comparative difficulty are now shown in the HUD, so you can size up a fight before you take it.
- Specimens — “Some call it magic, others call it science.” It doesn’t matter what you call it when it’s a disembodied hand crawling on your kitchen floor at night.
- Gutter Ghouls — all those dark, dirty thoughts humanity would rather bury, given form.
- Barrel Mimics — gunpowder was invented while searching for an elixir of immortality; the spirits seem to put both to good use.
- Past Dues — a good story can bring respite in trying times; for the less inspired, a book’s pages make a fine sleep aid.
- Stage Hands — graceful bodies floating across a historic stage; here, leaving your bloody mark across the deck isn’t blamed.
- Crabbage Pots — there’s a ritual going on outside. Something’s in the water.
- Festival Spirit — souls kindled with hopes and dreams, some of which are violent and want to kill you.
- Shrooms — combine a family of fungi with demonic energy at high temperature, and it starts to walk.
- Underhands — grasping hands that find their way into unsuspecting pockets while the ritual burns high above.
Objectives and the City’s Secrets
The Cursed Apple’s most rewarding locations double as objectives, and their lore explains why they matter:
- Sunken Plaza — shrouded beneath the district’s main square; as you descend, the sounds of the outside world fade away. High risk, high reward.
- Bell Tower — ascend the Chinatown Bell Tower for a highly concentrated soul hotspot, but the bell rings loudly across the map while you collect.
- Tough Crates — need a Heavy Melee to break open, but the extra souls are worth it.
- Buff Containers — revamped golden statues that now also grant Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range and Move Speed as permanent bonuses.
- Healing Snacks — hidden around the map for keen-eyed players to heal up in a pinch.
- Steam Vents — duck in and out of veiled cover with your team; standing on them provides invisibility and a small amount of regen.
The Broker: Lore You Can Trade For
One of the Cursed Apple’s more mysterious residents is The Broker, a wandering merchant who sells demon-touched (Corrupted) items and modifications. He appears in different spots, stays only a few days, and is only around for a limited time. He exchanges your high-tier items for Corrupted versions — Corrupted Ricochet, Corrupted Recharge and more. Each match, every corrupted item rolls random negative attributes from a predefined set, so what you get is never quite what you left with.
Exploring NYC in Multiplayer
To explore this reimagined New York with other players, drop into a match and simply pay attention to your surroundings between fights. The map uses lanes and ziplines to move you across the city, and the “City Never Sleeps” update included a massive visual pass over the map and neutrals along with HUD and shop updates — so even veterans have new sights to take in. If you want a pressure-free look around, the dl_streets practice map loads an empty environment via the dl_streets command, letting you walk the streets without an enemy team on your back.
Between matches, the game’s own systems reward paying attention to the world: hero and neighborhood descriptions, haunt bios and landmark entries give you a full sense of the Cursed Apple without ever leaving the client.