Deadlock City Never Sleeps: Hero Schedule and Ranked Date

Deadlock's City Never Sleeps update went live on September 29, 2026, and Valve is releasing its six new heroes one at a time in an order set by player votes. Three are out, and the fourth lands on Tuesday, October 13 at 14:00 Pacific time (21:00 UTC). The first ranked season now ends later than first planned, on November 5.

What the update changed

Valve's announcement describes a large visual update to the map and neutral creatures, six new heroes, HUD changes, quality-of-life additions and accessibility options. Per Beebom, the three lanes now run through themed areas such as Times Square, Umbria University, Central Park and the Stock Exchange, four new districts were added (Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot and Plaza), and voting moved into a new pregame lobby where the winning team's votes count double. Beebom also lists a redesigned health bar, ally indicators, shop stat previews and customizable subtitles among the interface and accessibility work.

The same outlet describes a limited-time merchant called the Broker, who swaps high-tier items for corrupted versions with random drawbacks and leaves once the first new hero is released. That detail comes from Beebom only, and the Broker should now be gone, since the first hero arrived on October 2.

Beebom describes the update as bug fixes and quality-of-life work, with little number tuning. Valve followed up on October 5 with a minor update that adjusted Rat King and Sinclair. Rat King's Rule, Ratannia! ultimate, for instance, went from a 130 second cooldown to 160 seconds with a shorter charge, while Scrap Grenade damage went up from 65 to 70.

Hero release order

Valve's announcements fix the pattern: a new hero arrives each Tuesday and Friday at 14:00 Pacific, and the votes decide which one. Rat King came first on Friday, October 2. Baba, a pigeon-feeding lady whose Threadsap steals enemy spirit and whose bench grows legs, followed on Tuesday, October 6. Solomon arrived on Friday, October 9, timed for National Chess Day.

Solomon's four abilities carry chess names. Setup Bishop plants his damage dealers ahead of him and slides them across the street. Kingside Knight protects allies and lets him retreat tactically. Rook Battery charges forward and stalls enemies, and Develop Queen is the ultimate that locks enemies down. Valve says the voting is now halfway through the set, and per KeenGamer the six are Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Solomon, Baba, Violet and Rat King, which leaves Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow and Violet. Valve has not said in which order they will land.

Going by the Tuesday and Friday pattern, the last hero would arrive around October 20. That is my arithmetic, not a Valve statement.

Ranked season one runs longer

In the October 6 announcement Valve pushed the end of the first ranked season to Thursday, November 5, 2026, at 2 pm Pacific, with the next season starting immediately afterwards. US clocks go back on November 1, so 2 pm Pacific on that day is 22:00 UTC, one hour later than the same Pacific time would be in October. Check the in-game countdown close to the date.

Anyone climbing the ladder gets an extra few weeks while the new heroes and the reworked map settle in. The season will also have spanned a big content update, so keep that in mind when comparing ranks across the two periods.

Valve on where the game stands

The September 29 post also carried a long note on development. Valve says it has worked on several things in parallel this year, including progression and hero and hideout customization, and it calls large item redesigns and alternate game modes speculative, depending on playtests. The Midboss, Guardians and Walkers are called important but not yet reached, and hero remodels are expected to come gradually in later updates.

GamingOnLinux notes that the game remains invite-only and that Valve says plenty of work remains before a proper release. If you have access, vote each Tuesday and Friday and read the in-game notes when the next patch lands.

For another Valve game, see our report on the Counter-Strike 2 update, and for another October patch-notes round-up read the Rust Livestock update notes.

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