Sources and research
DenyPick's value depends entirely on being right, so here is exactly where everything came from and how much weight it carries.
How confidence is labelled
Every generated line on this site carries one of five labels. They are not decoration — they mean different things:
| Verified | From official patch notes or a directly documented mechanic. |
|---|---|
| Data-supported | Backed by measured match results, with the sample size shown. |
| Strong evidence | Multiple reputable sources agree, or there is consistent high-level consensus. |
| Strategic | Reasoned from game mechanics. No single source states it outright. |
| Uncertain | Thin, disputed or possibly out of date. Shown anyway, but flagged. |
One methodological point that matters
Matchups are ranked by how far a pairing sits from that hero's own baseline win rate, never by raw win rate. This is not pedantry: a hero with a 45.7% overall win rate can have a 42.2% pairing that is genuinely one of her better matchups. Sorting the raw numbers produces confidently wrong counter advice, and several published counter tables do exactly that.
Coverage and its limits
- 44 heroes, compiled from 181 distinct source pages, cross-checked against at least two independent sources each.
- 1892 measured matchup results, most carrying per-pairing sample sizes.
- Roughly 100% of the full matchup matrix has measured data. The remainder is modelled and labelled as such.
- Some ability cooldowns and damage values were not published anywhere we could verify. Those read “not sourced” rather than carrying a guess.
Source register
official
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlock official Steam news / patch notes | Authoritative patch notes, patch dates, balance changes; the City Never Sleeps announcement (29 September 2026) and the Rat King release announcement (2 October 2026); the Baba announcement (6 October), the 5 October minor update, the Solomon announcement (9 October), the Deadman Danny announcement (13 October), the Violet announcement (16 October) and the Nurse Harrow announcement (20 October) | 2026-10-20 patch 09-29-2026 |
| Deadlock official site — City Never Sleeps update page | The official City Never Sleeps update notes: map, Haunts, objectives, pickups, The Broker, new heroes, HUD and systems changes | 2026-09-30 patch 09-29-2026 |
| Official Deadlock Forums — Changelog | Official changelog postings and developer notes, including Valve's 30 September 2026 follow-up notes to City Never Sleeps, and Valve's 5 October reply (Rat King and Sinclair changes) | 2026-10-07 patch 09-29-2026 |
statistics
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlock Labs | Measured hero win rates, pick rates, per-hero best/worst matchup tables with sample sizes, item reference (used for the 09-16-2026 win rates; from 5 October 2026 the win rates come from deadlock-api.com). Its City Never Sleeps map survey supplied the community counts of Haunt camps, crates, snacks and vents. | 2026-10-05 patch 09-16-2026 |
| MetaBot | Hero counter win rates and ability upgrade tiers; publishes sample sizes and last-updated dates | 2026-09-21 patch build 6694 |
| SteamDB — Deadlock | Concurrent player counts used for market sizing (not for game mechanics) | 2026-09-21 |
| deadlock-api.com — analytics API | Measured hero win rates, pick shares and every hero-versus-hero win rate (whole match) since the City Never Sleeps update, refreshed automatically by scripts/refresh-winrates.mjs | 2026-10-05 patch 09-29-2026 |
community database
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlock.one | Hero ability kits, base ability values, weapon stat blocks, item data | 2026-09-21 patch 09-16-2026 |
| Deadlock.io | Ability cooldowns, T1/T2/T3 upgrade tiers, in-client complexity ratings | 2026-09-21 patch varies per page; dates shown per hero |
news
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Tracklock | Patch note mirrors and per-patch hero change breakdowns, including the 09-16-2026 update and the City Never Sleeps overview | 2026-09-30 patch 09-29-2026 |
| Patchlock | Historical ability rework tracking (e.g. the 2026-03-06 Ivy rework) | 2026-09-21 patch historical |
| Deadlock Tracker — build comparisons | Changes that shipped in game builds without appearing in Valve's notes (builds 6723, 6726, 6728 and the 2 October Rat King build, 30 September – 2 October 2026). Used only where Valve's notes are silent, and labelled on the page | 2026-10-02 patch 09-29-2026 |
| Deadlock Patch Notes | Per-ability changelogs, used to verify the Victor Jumpstart debuff-purge removal (03-26-2026) | 2026-09-21 patch historical |
| Esports Insider — Deadlock coverage | Context on hero perception vs measured performance (Mina) | 2026-09-21 patch 2026 |
| The Game Haus — Deadlock | Patch note coverage and new hero coverage; data-mined list of Corrupted item variants for the Broker (29 September 2026). | 2026-09-30 patch 2026 |
| unDeadlock — patch diffs | Game-file comparisons for the 4–6 October 2026 builds (6746, 6753, 6757) and the 7–8 October builds (6762, 6765): trooper movement, the Street Brawl Corrupted-item round, small map edits and unreleased-hero tuning. Used only where Valve's notes are silent, and labelled on the page | 2026-10-09 patch 09-29-2026 |
community wiki
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Deadlock Wiki CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 | Cross-checking ability and item mechanics. Licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 — used as a factual reference only; all prose on this site is original. Also the source of Rat King's, Baba's, Solomon's, Deadman Danny's, Violet's and Nurse Harrow's numbers (Data: pages, read 2, 6, 9, 13, 16 and 21 October 2026), and of the undocumented 13 and 20 October map changes | 2026-10-21 patch varies |
| Liquipedia Deadlock CC BY-SA 3.0 | Hero and mechanic cross-reference | 2026-09-21 patch varies |
guides
| Source | Supports | Accessed |
|---|---|---|
| Mobalytics Deadlock | Ability upgrade tiers and cooldowns | 2026-09-21 patch varies |
| DramaLock | Hero roster overviews, role framing, playstyle context | 2026-09-21 patch 2026 |
| Lockbuilds | Counter items with win rates, rank-tier splits, hero difficulty ratings | 2026-09-21 patch 2026 |
On reuse and licensing
Community wikis were consulted as factual references only. All prose on this site is original — facts about how an ability works are not themselves copyrightable, but somebody else's wording is, so none was reproduced. Where a source publishes under a specific licence it is noted in the table above. Hero, item and ability images are artwork from Deadlock and belong to Valve Corporation; see About for how they are used.
Data revision 11, patch 10-30-2026, researched 2026-10-30.