Don’t sleep on Deadlock’s active items

GamesMOBADeadlockDon’t sleep on Deadlock’s active itemsWhen you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

(Image credit: Valve)

Abrams brandishes his heavy handgun in Deadlock.

For my first hundred games in Deadlock’s Cursed Apple, trips to the shop were a bewildering descent into a department store of weaponry, constantly uncertain of my loadout and caught in severe choice paralysis. Each shop stop was a high pressure sales experience, as I felt quite literally under the gun with only seconds to compare/contrast buffs before I needed to catapult myself back into the fray. Each time I went back to the shop, my shopping cart filled up with passive items, not active items, as the thought of adding another button to my noir-soaked bullet ballet induced panic.

Over time this aversion became a habit, and my eyes simply glazed over Deadlock’s active items, rarely if ever considering them despite what popular builds recommended I buy. The dam finally broke for me a month ago when I bought Warp Stone out of raw frustration at my inability to catch mobile and fleeing enemies, and within minutes I was hooked on my newfound ability to teleport around no matter which hero I’m maining at the moment. My fear over additional buttons was logical, but unfounded, because Deadlock’s active items are often integral to rounding out your character and adapting to opponents doing the same.

My button-itis almost robbed me of one of the most important, rewarding aspects of Deadlock builds. So I’m here to say: don’t follow in my footsteps and sleep on Deadlock’s active items. I’ve highlighted some of the ones I feel are the most useful and the circumstances you’ll want to consider investing in them yourself.

Warp Stone

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items - Warp Stone

Rating: Universal

The Swiss army knife of Deadlock, because what situation doesn’t benefit from an instant teleport? Using Warp Stone will blink you forward 11 meters in whatever direction you’re looking and give you a 30% boost in Bullet Resist for five seconds afterwards, making it perfect for closing with a fleeing enemy, disengaging from a bad fight, or setting up the perfect ultimate. Seven can use Warp Stone to blink to a great spot for Storm Cloud, Pocket can do similarly with his ultimate Affliction, and of course there’s Haze’s Bullet Dance. Likewise, characters who tend to chase or play hit-and-run styles like Shiv or McGinnis can also really benefit from increased mobility. Especially consider Warp Stone if you’re building primarily Spirit on your character, since Warp Stone takes up a Bullet slot, which is a lower value spot for most Spirit builds, so you can fill that slot with a 3,000 soul item that gives you a blink every 16 seconds.

Echo Shard

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items - Echo Shard

Rating: Hero Dependent

If Warp Stone is a Swiss army knife, then Echo Shard is the repeat button on your favorite song. For 6,200 souls, you get a 21-second cooldown item that resets the cooldown of your most recently used non-ultimate ability–essentially meaning you can double cast an ability every 21 seconds. Make people float with double Tornado’s on Mirage, throw your Mini Turrets out quickly, or coax your opponents right back to sleep if they’ve woken up too early from your Sleep Dagger. More than just a tool, Echo Shard is the cornerstone of a wide variety of heroes who can build around its unique ability to double down on powerful abilities, like Bebop’s infinitely stacking Sticky Bomb, or McGinnis putting up two Spectral Wall’s at once.

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Debuff Remover

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items - Debuff Remover

Rating: Situational

Rescue Beam

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items

Rating: Universal

The support player’s best friend. While characters like Dynamo come with supportive abilities, you can take them—and your friends—to soaring new heights with a Rescue Beam. Using it on an ally will tether them to you with a beam that heals them for about a quarter of their health over 2.5 seconds—a fairly strong heal. What really makes Rescue Beam invaluable is its alternate ability: You can reactivate it during the 2.5 second channel to instead pull your tethered ally toward you—allowing you to yank allies out of losing situations or set them up for huge plays. It’s a must have active item for any character that can use their mobility to take advantage of it, especially characters like Ivy and Kelvin,

Unstoppable

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items

Rating: Situational

Never get knocked out of your ultimate again. Whether it’s Haze’s Bullet Dance or Bebop’s Hyper Beam, knowledge isn’t half the battle to dealing with them: it’s using stuns to interrupt them. That’s where Unstoppable enters the picture (unfortunately, if you’re one of the characters trying to stun Haze out of her ultimate) to shake things up. Using Unstoppable gives you six seconds of immunity to crowd control, including stuns and silences. Although you can’t use Unstoppable when you’re already stunned or silenced, as you get into the late stages of the game, activating an Unstoppable before a critical ultimate or big play will make the difference between a win or a loss.

Knockdown

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items

Rating: Situational

On the other side of the coin is an active item that helps you deal with powerful channeled ultimates and mobile characters who can get out of your reach, like Vindicta or Lash. It can be a pain to deal with characters that can immediately get airborne, leaving your gun at a disadvantage and making it difficult or impossible to hit them with abilities, and many characters don’t have the crowd control to deal with something like a Seven channeling his Storm Cloud, which is where Knockdown comes in. Usable every 48 seconds, Knockdown has a massive 45m cast range in all directions, so you can easily use it to go duck hunting. Just be aware that once you use it on an enemy, there’s a 2 second windup before it goes off, so it’s not going to instantly save you from any ongoing damage from the enemy you throw it at—it’s best to use it and then dive for cover until it goes off.

Ethereal Shift

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items

Rating: Situational

Have you ever felt like you just needed to survive a few extra seconds and you’d have been able to turn everything around? Ethereal Shift gives you 3.5 seconds of invulnerability, protected from all damage and effects. Using Ethereal Shift gives you a guaranteed, but fleeting window to pop a powerful ability—like Pocket’s ultimate Affliction—and then protect yourself immediately after while your team takes advantage. Likewise, Ethereal Shift can buy you valuable time when enemies dive onto you for a “sure” kill, going invulnerable leaves them stranded with your allies around you, or lets you dodge a dangerous attack like the explosion of Bebop’s Sticky Bomb ability. With Ethereal Shift available every 32 seconds, you’ll be able to use it even in small skirmishes knowing it will be available again soon.

Silence Glyph

(Image credit: Valve)

Deadlock active items

Rating: Hero Dependent

TOPICSValve

TOPICS

More about moba

Vindicta standing next to a shop

Mel from Arcane stares, contemplatively, in a new trailer for Season 1 of League of Legends 2025.

League of Legends' new season trailer is basically an epilogue to Arcane with 6 new Fortiche champion redesigns in it—so if it’s not a preview of the upcoming Noxus show, I’ll eat my hat

LatestMarvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod sceneSee more latest►

Latest

Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

Marvel Rivals tier list - Wolverine

Marvel Rivals' latest update quietly killed the game’s burgeoning mod scene

See more latest►

Most Popular

‘It’s simply impossible to make a difficulty level that’s just right for all players’: How Final Fantasy 14’s lead battle designer has been playing a precarious balancing game for Dawntrail’s dungeons and raids

Please join me in getting super excited for all the cool looking survival games coming in 2025 (and beyond)

Competitive shooters are at a crucial crossroads in 2025: ‘sweaty’ teamplay vs. casual fun

Call of Duty’s $28 Squid Game skins are the perfect crossover for our capitalist dystopia, and Activision knows exactly what it’s doing

These are the 14 biggest upcoming RPGs of 2025—get ready for another amazing year for the genre

Five new Steam games you probably missed (January 6, 2025)

I’ve seen enough: No more forcing singleplayer studios to make mediocre live service games

6 games that could be bigger hits than you’re expecting in 2025

What are your 2025 gaming resolutions?

The FBI put a $5 million bounty on the ‘Cryptoqueen’ last year but still hasn’t found her, so take your pick: Russia, South Africa, or murdered on a yacht in 2018

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review4Ikea Utespelare desk review5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

HARDWARE BUYING GUIDESLATEST GAME REVIEWS

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

A bunch of the best Steam Deck accessories on a blue background.

1Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

Best Steam Deck accessories in Australia for 2025: Our favorite docks, powerbanks and gamepads

2Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

Best graphics card for laptops: the mobile GPUs I’d want in my next gaming laptop

3Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

Best mini PCs in 2025: The compact computers I love the most

4Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

Best 14-inch gaming laptop: The top compact gaming laptops I’ve held in these hands

5Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

Best Mini-ITX motherboards in 2025: My pick from all the mini mobo marvels I’ve tested

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here review

1Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

Thank Goodness You’re Here! review

2Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

Shiren the Wanderer: The Mystery Dungeon of Serpentcoil Island review

3WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

WD Black SN850X 8 TB NVMe SSD review

4Ikea Utespelare desk review

Ikea Utespelare desk review

5Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Asus ROG Harpe Ace Mini wireless mouse review

Warp Stone#

Echo Shard#

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals#

Debuff Remover#

Rescue Beam#

Unstoppable#

Knockdown#

Ethereal Shift#

Silence Glyph#

Warp Stone

Echo Shard

The biggest gaming news, reviews and hardware deals

Debuff Remover

Rescue Beam

Unstoppable

Knockdown

Ethereal Shift

Silence Glyph