Deadlock Farming Guide: Souls, Jungle, Last Hitting

Souls are the only resource that matters in Deadlock: they are simultaneously your currency and your experience bar. You start every match with 600, and there is no passive gold drip to coast on — the number you build is entirely a function of what you actually kill and confirm. That makes farming a skill, not a phase you graduate out of. Read the soul economy guide first, then come back here for the execution.

Last-hitting is your baseline. A Trooper carries a base bounty of 100 souls that grows about 2 souls per minute over the match. When it dies it splits into two Soul Orbs: half falls to the ground, half floats up. The ground orb is white to enemies and can never be denied — it is yours if you are nearby. The floating orb is the contested half.

The floating orb spawns dark, then lights up a moment later. Ally orbs are green, enemy orbs are orange. Shoot a lit enemy orb before their team confirms it and you deny the souls, stealing them for yourself and nearby allies. Confirming your own takes priority the instant it lights. The numbers are tight — there is roughly an 80ms grace window for the owning team — so hit the orb the frame it brightens rather than reacting late.

There is a shortcut most players underuse: kill a Trooper with a melee attack (or a melee-damage ability) and you instantly bank the remaining souls, with only the ground orb ever spawning. Nothing floats. Nothing can be denied. You trade the chance to deny the enemy for a guaranteed, uncontestable payout — ideal when you are about to leave the wave or a fight is breaking out.

Know the orb rules cold. Any single bullet or pellet claims an orb regardless of damage, and that bullet is refunded straight back to your magazine, so orb-shooting costs you nothing. The ground orb lingers 18 seconds, scaling up to about 40 seconds after the 10-minute mark. A lit orb that nobody claims pops after roughly a second and is auto-awarded to nearby allies — and if no ally is around, those souls are simply gone.

Soul sharing is not purely a tax. Souls split to allies standing within 45m of the broken orb or 30m of the Trooper killer. One player farming alone takes 100% of a Trooper bounty; two players take 54% each, for 108% total. Lane-partnering near the orb slightly mints extra value, so don't tunnel-vision a solo farm when a teammate is right there.

Jungle camps are where the match gets decided. Haunts spawn dormant, so your damage only lands inside 38.1m or once the camp is active — walking up activates it. Small camps spawn at 2:00 and respawn 1:25 after being cleared; they sit near the left-lane Guardian and both blue-lane Guardians. Medium camps spawn at 5:00 and respawn at 4:50. Large camps appear at 8:00 and respawn at 5:35.

Haunt payouts scale with camp size: small give 41 souls, medium 68, large 181, all climbing over the match. Unlike Troopers they drop no orbs, and their souls split equally among everyone who damaged them. That is the catch — if you tap a camp you are splitting it, so either commit to a full clear alone or knowingly farm with a teammate.

Everything from the jungle is Haunted Souls, and Haunted Souls are at risk. That includes Haunt kills, Sinner's Sacrifice machines, and Crates. Sinner's Sacrifice machines first appear at 8:00 and are collected by hitting them with melee; each is worth 310 souls and scales about 3.35 per minute — and that scaling runs from match start even though they spawn at 8:00. Some camps mix machines with Haunts, and you must clear both before the camp will respawn.

Crates are free tempo. A broken crate has roughly a 60% chance to drop souls worth 23 plus 2 per minute of game time; heavy crates opened with a heavy melee always drop and pay about double. This is literally what "going to farm" means — leaving your lane to sweep crates, buff containers, Sinner's Sacrifices and Haunts. Check the map guide for camp and district layouts before you plan a rotation.

Haunted Souls are lost on death. If you die holding at least 50 plus 5 per minute in haunted souls, you drop a Soul Bag that any enemy can claim by hitting it with a heavy melee; it despawns after three minutes. Haunted souls do convert to secured over time — about 0.5% of your current pool per second plus a flat base that grows as the match runs — but the safe play is to spend before you take a risky fight rather than gamble on the conversion rate.

In the lane phase, treat the wave as your anchor and the camps next to it as your bonus. Clear the wave, confirm your orbs, then slip out for a nearby camp on the 2:00 / 5:00 / 8:00 spawn rhythm and return before the next wave meets. Ahead in lane, push and farm aggressively; behind, hug your side and take the safe camp rather than overextending for a wave you'll lose.

The farm-versus-fight call comes down to what the fight is for. A skirmish with no objective attached costs you a wave plus contested camps even when you win it. Take fights over things that pay — a Guardian or Walker, the Soul Urn, Midboss, an Unstable Rift — and otherwise stay off vision and farm. Your items curve is what turns an early soul lead into a won lane, so spend the advantage rather than sit on it.

Never fully ignore farming when you are behind. A trailing team gains up to 26% more souls from Troopers, Haunts and objectives, peaking near a 20% net worth gap with the first 3k of deficit ignored. After 8 minutes the two lowest earners on each team also skim passive souls from their team's gathering. Farming while behind is genuinely productive, so catch up instead of forcing a fight you'll lose.

Set your rotations to the match clock. The Soul Urn lands at 10:00 and the Unstable Rift can appear as early as 11:00; Guardians shed their damage resistances at 12:00 and Walkers at 18:00, which is when pushing becomes cheap. Trooper spawns tighten to every 25s at 20:00 and every 20s at 35:00, with a +50% health spike on Troopers — later waves are fatter and take longer, so bank your souls early. And remember: first blood, the very first kill of the match, is worth a flat 125 souls.

Start with one drill: last-hit every Trooper in a wave without missing, then add denying every enemy orb, then layer camp rotations on top. Once those three run on instinct, your souls-per-minute stops depending on kills and you win games by simply out-earning the lobby. Pick two farming-friendly items that fit your hero, take a friend into a bot match, and drill the full wave-into-camp loop until it runs without thinking.