A record-breaking campaign.
Violet has entered Deadlock, becoming the fifth of six heroes to arrive in the game as part of the City Never Sleeps update. Despite being among the less popular heroes in the line-up, the painter has pushed Deadlock to yet another all-time concurrent player record, breaking into the 300,000-peak-player milestone.
This marks another successful launch for Valve's MOBA-shooter hybrid, with each hero release bringing a new peak in concurrent players. Nurse Harrow, the final hero in the update, is set to arrive next week, on Tuesday, 20 October, at 2.00 pm PDT.
What are Violet's abilities?
Violet is an artist whose entire ability kit revolves around art-inspired concoctions. She wields a paintbrush as her weapon, reloading with each fresh dab of paint from her palette. Her attacks take the form of brushstrokes that can reach enemies from a distance.
Her abilities are:
Living Ink–Imbues your next three bullets with life, allowing you to steer them as they travel. The bullets deal increased bullet damage and spirit damage within a small area. Each successful hit against a hero reduces all ability cooldowns, as well as item cooldowns by half.
Flow State–Drags a brush forwards, leaving a trail that grants bonus slide distance to allies while applying a fading slow and dealing spirit damage to enemies caught in its path. Both effects become stronger the further the brush travels. The ability can be reactivated to flick the brush forwards, ending it early but dealing spirit damage across a larger area.
Still Life–Targets an enemy hero as a subject, dealing spirit damage over time for as long as you keep looking at them. Once the sketch is complete, the target takes additional spirit damage, is stunned and drops a sketch that can be collected. Each sketch you collect grants permanent stats based on the enemy hero.
Abstract Landscape–Creates a circular display of ink that blocks vision and grants spirit to allies. Enemies inside the circle are revealed, while those who leave the area take spirit damage and are silenced and slowed, destroying the ink in the process.
Violet sets a new concurrent player record for Deadlock
Deadlock is still technically in early development, but following the successful City Never Sleeps hero campaign, the game has attracted player numbers comparable to those of some of the most established titles on Steam.
When it opened to public playtesting in 2024, Deadlock attracted more than 171,000 players, eager to try Valve's new IP. However, with the game still in its bare-bones state at the time, interest eventually dwindled, and its player base fluctuated around 19,000 before gradually climbing back to 60,000.
The Old Gods, New Blood update nine months ago renewed interest in the game, with Valve introducing six new heroes, including Rem, Silver, and Venator. The update sparked a surge in player numbers, although it was not enough to break the game's all-time concurrent player record when it first became available to the public.
However, the City Never Sleeps update has proved far more popular. When the update first launched, bringing with it a major map overhaul, Deadlock welcomed a new peak of 228,086 concurrent players. And it did not stop there, with every subsequent hero release pushing the game to new heights.
Rat King brought in a few hundred additional players at the peak, while Baba pushed the figure further to 236,730. The fourth hero, Solomon, became a viral hit, contributing to a further 25,000 players at the game's peak.
Last week, the release of Deadman Danny helped Deadlock reach yet another concurrent player record, with 275,452 players online at the same time. Now, Violet, the penultimate hero in the line-up, has pushed Deadlock past the 300,000-player milestone.
With Nurse Harrow, the final hero in the City Never Sleeps update, still to come, it seems likely that Deadlock could set yet another concurrent player record and bring the update campaign to a spectacular close.
