Rat King joined Deadlock’s playable roster on October 2, becoming the first of six heroes announced for City Never Sleeps. Valve’s release notice confirms that the next character is scheduled for Tuesday, October 6 at 2 p.m. PDT, or 5 p.m. EDT. Players are voting on who gets that slot.
This is a new arrival within an existing test. The Steam listing still limits access to friend invitations from current playtesters. Deadlock has no announced public release date, and wishlisting the game does not secure an invitation.
A grenade, a swarm and a royal banner
Rat King’s introduction names four abilities. Scrap Grenade sends a bouncing grenade into the fight, while Swarm of Rats turns his subjects on the enemy. Royal Pestments helps him withstand incoming damage as he pushes forward.
His fourth ability is Banner of Rattania. Valve describes the banner as inspiring his allies during combat, but the announcement does not spell out their bonus. It also leaves out damage values, durations and cooldowns, the wait before an ability can be used again. Those omissions limit what the release notice can tell us about his strength.
That is enough to outline the character, rather than prescribe the best equipment for him. If players discussing their builds leave you behind, our gaming dictionary explains equipment combinations, ability timers and other common combat terms.
How the remaining heroes will arrive
City Never Sleeps set out a Tuesday-and-Friday release schedule, with two heroes added each week. Voting takes place in the pregame lobby, where players gather before a match. The winning team’s votes count double, and the first daily win also awards double votes. The page lists these benefits separately without explaining how they combine.
Playing also earns priority tokens for new heroes. Valve has confirmed October 6 as the next release, but the Rat King announcement does not name that character. A place in the reveal lineup is not the same as being playable already.
The city changed before Rat King arrived
City Never Sleeps was announced on September 29. Its visual overhaul of the map and changes to the game’s interface preceded the October 2 character release. The city image shown here comes from that official update page, rather than a hands-on session with Rat King.
Valve continues to describe Deadlock as an early-development game with temporary artwork and experimental gameplay. Steam still leaves the minimum processor and graphics card unspecified. Our guide to checking whether a game will run on your PC explains how to compare hardware and performance evidence, but Deadlock’s unfinished requirements cannot establish a reliable frame-rate target for your computer.
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