Deadlock Adds Violet the Painter as City Never Sleeps Wraps Up

Valve's limited-access hero shooter Deadlock added its fifth new playable character this week. Violet, a painter who bends the battlefield with living ink, went live on October 16 as part of the ongoing City Never Sleeps update — and Valve has already confirmed the date for the sixth and final new hero of the rollout.

01Violet Is Live

Valve introduced Violet through its usual channel for Deadlock reveals: a short, in-character post on the game's Steam news page, titled "Paint the Town." The post describes Violet as an artist who "approaches the ritual with the same precision she does her art," and confirms she unlocked for every player the moment the post went up, no additional unlock steps required.

As with every City Never Sleeps hero so far, Valve published Violet's full kit alongside her release rather than teasing it in advance. The only pre-release hint had been her three-word reveal poster from late September, tagging her as ambitious, nimble and creative.

02What Violet Can Do

According to Valve's own patch note, Violet's kit revolves around a resource called Living Ink that both empowers her bullets and lets her paint pieces of the map into existence. Her four named abilities, as written in the official post, are:

• Flow State — her ink glides toward danger to deal damage, or away from it as a quick getaway.
• Still Life — captures an enemy's likeness, described as having a stunning effect on the target.
• Abstract Landscape — her ultimate, surrounding Violet and nearby allies with "her biggest and most ambitious piece yet."
• A fourth, unnamed passive built around Living Ink charging her bullets with extra effects.

Valve has not published exact numbers (cooldowns, damage values or Spirit scaling) for Violet outside of this descriptive text, so treat specific power-level comparisons to the rest of the roster as unconfirmed until a numbers-focused patch note or community datamine fills in the gaps.

03The City Never Sleeps Rollout So Far

Violet is the fifth of six heroes Valve is releasing under the City Never Sleeps banner, a content wave that also reworked parts of Deadlock's map. Players vote in-game on release order, and Valve has shipped one new hero on a rotating Tuesday/Friday schedule at 2pm PT since the update began:

• Rat King — October 2, built around Scrap Grenade and a rat swarm.
• Baba — October 6, Central Park's "pigeon lady," fighting from a possessed park bench.
• Solomon — October 9, a chess-themed strategist with Setup Bishop and Kingside Knight.
• Deadman Danny — October 13, a rocket-flying salesman for the in-universe Fairfax Industries.
• Violet — October 16, covered here.

Valve's own patch notes for each hero double as flavor text for Deadlock's setting, an alternate-1920s New York, and the studio has used the same "reveal poster first, full kit on release day" pattern for the entire set.

04One Hero Left: Nurse Harrow on October 20

Valve's Violet post confirms the sixth and final hero of this wave, Nurse Harrow, arrives "next Tuesday October 20th at 2pm PDT," closing out the City Never Sleeps hero set. Harrow's own reveal poster — shown during the update's launch — carries the tags strict, terrifying and savior, but Valve has not published her abilities yet; expect the same release-day patch note format Violet, Danny, Solomon, Baba and Rat King all received.

Valve also used the Violet post to push back the end of Deadlock's first competitive Ranked season to Thursday, November 5 at 2pm PDT, with the next season starting immediately afterward — giving players a slightly longer window to climb before the reset.

05How to Play Deadlock Right Now

Deadlock remains in an early, invite-based access phase on Steam: Valve has never published an open beta key or a public signup, so the only confirmed way in is a Steam friend who already owns the game sending a direct invite. The Steam store page itself still labels the build an "early development build" with placeholder art in some areas, so expect continued balance passes — a separate minor patch on October 14 adjusted Spirit scaling and cooldowns on Baba and an ability called Radiant Regeneration, unrelated to the new-hero schedule.

06Sources and Further Reading

For the full roster, ranked season dates and anything Valve publishes about Nurse Harrow on October 20, the official Deadlock website and the game's Wikipedia entry are both kept current with each hero release.