Deadlock’s massive City Never Sleeps update has enough changes to fill a novel. But forget all that for a second, because Valve also dropped more than 10,000 new voice lines. Find out some of the wildest lore reveals from Deadlock’s latest update below.
City Never Sleeps Adds 10,000+ New Voice Lines
Deadlock’s massive City Never Sleeps update added six new heroes, a reworked map, The Broker, and more headline changes. However, Valve also added 10,000 new voice lines, making up hundreds of new conversations. In this update, all the heroes decided to drop wild lore and secrets about each other, and we’ll cover some of the juiciest reveals in the Cursed Apple.
Seven Is Apparently a Fashion Critic
For one of Deadlock’s most intimidating and outright sinister characters, Seven apparently keeps a close eye on New York’s fashion scene. When paired with Mina, he recognizes the designer immediately and suggests she is summoning the Patron just to make people forget her last two collections, then twists the knife by saying he would rather wear his prison jumpsuit than the "abomination" she brought to Fashion Week.
In another conversation, Seven tells the fledgling vampire to be careful with her career, as vampires are stagnant by nature, while fashion is ever-evolving. Mina retorts that some things are timeless, to which Seven quickly responds that her "unfinished hem experiment was definitely not."
Seven apparently isn’t alone in that opinion either, as a new conversation with Calico praises some of Mina’s previous work before pointedly reminding her that Fashion Week "wasn’t kind" to her the previous year, something Mina reluctantly agrees with.
Joining Deadlock’s Monster Hunters Comes With a Price
Calico’s newest conversation with Shiv may have finally given us a clue about what it takes to become a member of the Baxter Society. She casually asks who made Shiv "pay The Price," initially guessing Wesley (Grey Talon) before Shiv identifies a woman named Mira Al-din. Calico immediately recognizes the name and makes it clear she has no love for her, calling her a "lady who might have to have an accident soon."
Grey Talon was one of the founders of the elite monster-hunting organization, the Baxter Society, and later chose Shiv as his replacement, while Calico is a former member turned contract assassin. All three in-game members are missing their right arm and use a prosthetic in its place, which makes it pretty hard not to see that missing limb as "The Price," until Valve says otherwise.
Mina Might Have Actually Loved Pocket After All
In a new conversation, Mina confronts Pocket for letting her believe they were dead and outright says she loved them, only for Pocket to accuse her of loving the Fairfax name instead. Surprisingly, Mina doesn’t deny it and admits she no longer knows whether that was true, delivering it with genuine heartbreak and confusion. This was a shocking lore drop, as everything we knew before pointed to a transactional wedding between the two families.
Their other exchanges are much messier, with Mina blaming Pocket for ruining her life while Pocket reminds her that their father literally tried to take them out, and another devolving into an argument over how awkward it is to work alongside the fiancé who faked their own death.
Paige’s Brother Bryce Is Becoming a Bigger Mystery, and Necromancy May Be Involved
Poor Paige may be the only person in New York who has no idea what happened to her own brother. In one of her recent conversations with Seven, Paige nervously mentions she has a brother, only for Seven to interrupt with his name, Bryce, and tell her to seek him after the ritual.
It is the latest addition to a strangely long list of people who seem to know more about her missing brother than she does. On separate defeat lines, Vyper apparently knew him well enough and agrees with Bryce that Paige is "wound up tight," while Haze outright tells Paige she would be happier if she let her brother go. Venator is even harsher, claiming Bryce is "beyond saving" and that Paige has thrown her life away trying to save someone who does not deserve it.
Another new conversation with Graves gives us a clue that Bryce may have been messing with necromancy. When Graves confronts Paige about their family bookstore, Little Alexandria, and asks why the necromancy section lacks anything substantial, Paige shrugs it off, saying it's a complicated story.
Billy Finally Found Someone He Can Stand
Billy seems to have a problem with practically everyone in Deadlock, even the friendliest characters like calling Ivy Arroyo’s pet gargoyle to calling Dynamo a snob, which makes it surprisingly wholesome that he seems to genuinely like Apollo. Billy praises Apollo, the Ixian prince, for getting his hands dirty despite his wealth and noble status. The anarchist goes out of his way to provide sympathy on Ixia not being invited to the Olympics.
In a way, it makes sense that Deadlock’s most socially conscious hater would have a soft spot for people treated like outsiders. Ixians have occupied that position on Earth for generations, with many immigrating after the first Maelstrom and some humans still dismissively referring to them as "demons."
Apollo may come from an enormously privileged family, but he is still part of that same group, and was sent away from politically unstable North Ixia to New York for his own safety. Billy might hate wealth, nobility, teachers, and just about every institution imaginable, but apparently even he can recognize when someone is being unfairly shut out.
Drifter and Shiv Go Way Back, and Silver Almost Won Against Them
Shiv’s criminal past keeps getting worse with more details revealed in his new conversations with Drifter. Their conversations make it clear they go way back, with Drifter openly calling Shiv an "old friend," while Shiv wants absolutely nothing to do with him. Drifter mocks what Shiv has become since joining the Baxter Society, telling him he "used to be a man," while Shiv’s own victory lines reveal he was once under his thumb.
Silver, meanwhile, may have come very close to ending Drifter herself. In one of their new conversations, she challenges his claim that he could easily overpower her by suggesting they settle things after the Ritual, specifically when Drifter no longer has a "knife-throwing psychopath as backup." Despite Shiv’s redemption, Silver is ready to hold him accountable for his past deeds, telling him that "the Baxter Society can't protect you from me, and one day you're gonna answer for what you did."
The City Never Sleeps, but Deadlock’s Heroes Sure Get Around
Apparently, summoning an all-powerful Patron leaves plenty of time for Deadlock’s heroes to work on their love lives, with the new conversations making it seem like half the cast is flirting and the other half already has history. Silver invites Abrams to make some "bad decisions" for old times’ sake, but Abrams rejects the offer, saying that he’s always been boring, but she "never noticed cause I'm so damn handsome."
Lash naturally tries his luck with Calico and, surprisingly, successfully sets up a date after the Ritual. He also greets Celeste with familiarity, and Celeste tries to shut the conversation down quickly, but it isn’t clear whether it's regretful history or something else tied to their carnival roots. Even Paige has taken a liking to Mirage because of his knowledge of her Arthurian books, calling him perfect and asking whether he’s romantically involved with Nashala, his Djinn ambassador.
Of course, Vyper has always been the cast’s biggest flirt, and her new lines slip further into degeneracy. In this update alone, she proposes to Celeste to be sisterwives, tells Drifter they would be a good power couple, calls Venator a silver fox, and invites Victor into a dark alley after declaring her love for "a brooding man with issues."
If there is one thing Valve continues to nail with Deadlock, it is making its cast feel like people who actually know, hate, admire, and gossip about one another. These characters feel like they lived a rich life outside the Ritual, with interactions and throwaway lines that completely change what we thought we knew about them.
Deadlock has changed so much ever since it was made available to the public in 2024. Check out our review of the build back then:
Deadlock Playtest Review | Valve’s Cooking Up Something Amazing
