Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps update is enormous, and join your dads as we attempt to process all of it.

Omni and Yarn dive into the new map, redesigned jungle camps, Times Square, the deeply menacing Statue of Liberty, the strange new fog zone, steam vents, environmental details, and whether Valve has finally made Deadlock feel even more like a proper MOBA.

Then they get into the Broker and corrupted-item system, the performance hit from the new update, the redesigned health bars and UI, the new item shop, accessibility features, auto-move, keybind customization, and the increasingly urgent question of whether Yarn needs a new computer.

And there are six new heroes. We talk Rat King, Solomon, Nurse Harrow, Baba, Violet, and Deadman Danny, speculate wildly about how they might play, and determine the proper voting order completely scientifically.

Topics include:

• Deadlock: City Never Sleeps
• The completely redesigned map
• New jungle camps and environmental details
• The Broker and corrupted items
• Performance and optimization problems
• Rat King, Solomon, Nurse Harrow, Baba, Violet & Deadman Danny
• New health bars, HUD and item shop
• Accessibility and control changes
• Deadlock Lore: Dynamo
• Dead or Locked: Haze vs. Rem
• Magic: The Gathering
• Lanterns, Watchmen & President Curtis

Dadlock: A Deadlock Podcast is a weekly podcast about Valve’s Deadlock—patches, heroes, gameplay, lore, strategy, and whatever else distracts us along the way.

Explicit language and adult humor.

Dadlock is an unofficial fan podcast and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Valve.

Dadlock Episode One

Deadlock’s September 16 update is here, and you dads have opinions. Omni and Yarn dig into Valve’s latest Deadlock patch, including movement changes, how they feel about ranked matchmaking, the soul economy, jungle farming, and changes to items like Spiritual Overflow, Golden Goose Egg, Trophy Collector, Lifestrike, and Cultist Sacrifice.

We also get into why low-ELO Deadlock sometimes feels like everyone is playing a completely different game, whether Deadlock needs a more defined jungler role, the current state of Warden and, and why you should probably stop playing every match like you’re already in Eternus.

Yarn guesses McGinnis lore and the deeply questionable source of all that green soul goo, and the dads check in on what we’ve been playing outside Deadlock—including Subnautica, Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and Crimson Desert.

Topics include:

• Deadlock September 16, 2026 patch
• Movement and gun-cycle changes
• Ranked matchmaking and rank shields
• Low-ELO vs. high-ELO Deadlock
• Abrams, Warden, Wraith, Silver, and more
• Spiritual Overflow, Lifestrike, Golden Goose Egg, Trophy Collector, and Cultist Sacrifice
• Deadlock’s soul economy and farming changes
• Jungle camps and whether Deadlock needs a true jungler role
• McGinnis lore
• Dead or Locked: Paradox vs. Mo & Krill
• What are you playin'?
• The usual deeply unnecessary dad behavior

Chapters

00:00 – Welcome to Deadlock Dads

02:49 – The September 16 Deadlock patch

03:18 – Movement changes

04:31 – Ranked matchmaking and the low-ELO experience

07:44 – Slows, Warden, and item changes 10:31 – Valve turns down the soul economy

11:39 – Does Deadlock need a real jungler role?

16:41 – Mid Boss, Doorman, and annoying strategies

21:12 – Deadlock Lore: What the hell is McGinnis doing?

32:47 – Dead or Locked: Paradox vs. Mo & Krill

36:07 – Dad life

37:46 – What else we’ve been watching and playing

We are not professional Deadlock players so we might be wrong from time to time. If you want to correct us or share your thoughts on Deadlock, the Dads, or life itself. Email Dadlock at dadlock.podcast@gmail.com

Your Dads love you...

Explicit language and adult humor.