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An ability is a unique skill of a hero that does damage, grants utility, or both. All heroes have 4 base abilities that are unlocked throughout the early stages of the game using ability unlocks, and upgraded via ability points. Abilities can be either active, passive, or partially passive, and will define how a hero plays, scales, builds and wins using a specific strategy

Ability points and ability unlocks

Abilities are unlocked with Ability Unlocks throughout the game which are given at  400,  1000,  1900 and  3400 souls, the ultimate ability only being unlocked after the  3400 mark. The first three ability points can however be used on any ability the player sees fit that has not yet been unlocked.

Infernus Napalm showing the 3 levels of upgrades an ability can have, at 1, 2 and 5 points.

Ability Points are unlocked at all other given boons throughout the game. These are used to upgrade an already unlocked abilities power, granting added bonuses and better stats. All abilities have 3 ranks for upgrades, requiring 1, 2, and 5 Ability Points to be used to achieve them. An upgrade to an ability will typically come with lower cooldown, higher damage, more utility or a combination of the three. The third upgrade, costing 5 typically gives the biggest increase in power of the ability.

Types of abilities

Abilities come in three main categories: active, passive, and partially passive.

Active

Active abilities are abilities that are used by pressing the input key, and have a cooldown before they can be used again. An active ability is linked to a hero's power and when it is on cooldown gives a window of opportunity for counterplay (see strategy for more). Active abilities cannot be used if the player is under the effects of a stun, silence or displacement. Active abilities can have a range of properties including being instant, channeled or having charges.

An instant ability is an ability that can be used only once immediately before being put on cooldown. It is seen as the most basic and straightforward type of abilities. An example of an instant active ability is Bebop's Sticky Bomb. Some active abilities can be recast during a specific timeframe, such as Mina's Sanguine Retreat, but will still go on cooldown after the first use while the recast timer is active.

A channeled ability is an ability that requires channeling it for a duration, indicated by a filled bar slowly diminishing on the characters HUD. The channel can be stopped before the channel duration is complete, and will go on cooldown after it's first press before the channel duration has completed. Channeled abilities often prohibit the player from movement but this is not a rule. F. ex. Kelvin's Arctic Beam allows walking around though at a slowed movement speed and crouching, but not dashing and jumping (the jumping key is default the key to cancel channeling). Seven's Storm Cloud prohibits all movement, unless upgraded to level 3. Channeled abilities can be stopped preemptively by and opponent by using a stun, but a silence or displacement will not stop an ongoing channeled ability. This does not affect the cooldown of the ability.

An ability with charges, showing 3 ready charges on the left and 4 ready charges on the right.

A charged ability - or, an ability with charges - is an ability that can be used multiple times in a row, and has a separate cooldown for the time between charges and the time for a charge to be restored. This is indicated by a white bar over the ability icon on the players HUD, and is split by a thin black line for the amount of charges the ability currently possess. A charge that is currently on cooldown is indicated by a gray bar slowly filling up in place of the white bar. Some abilities will also start as instant active, and gain charges with levels. For more info, please see the table of charged abilities:

^{* the ability needs to be upgraded to level 3 before it is considered a charged ability}

Passive

A passive ability is an ability that is not directly activatable by the player, but by some condition of the game. Passive abilities can not be turned off or deactivated in any way after they have been unlocked. A passive ability can affect either the hero itself, such as Abrams's Infernal Resilience or an enemy hero such as Infernus's Afterburn, and heroes with a passive ability will often have this ability as a defining trait signifying how they are played and built.

The passive abilities in Deadlock are:

Hero	Ability
Abrams	Infernal Resilience
Drifter	Bloodscent
Haze	Fixation
Infernus	Afterburn
Mina	Love Bites
Victor	Shocking Reanimation (has cooldown, but still a passive)
Vyper	Slither (innate, unlocked on load-in)

Partial Passive

Partial passive abilities are active abilities with passive components or a passive ability with an active trigger (and are therefore affected by silences, stuns, etc). These are:

• Billy's Blasted which has a passive component of reloading ammo and marking enemies, but can be activated. the passive effect persists through the active cooldown

• Mirage's Djinn's Mark which can be activated early, but the mark will build and trigger even if silenced
• Shiv's Bloodletting which as two components, deferred damage (passive, unaffected by silence) and clearing a portion of it (active). The deferred damage persists through the active cooldown
• Victor's Pain Battery where the damage storing is handled as a passive, but the actual usage of the ability behaves as an active ability.

Ability Scaling and damage

Abilities have three ways of being useful: dealing spirit damage, dealing melee damage or providing utility.

Spirit Damage

Spirit damage is the main form of ability damage there is in Deadlock, and the vast majority of abilities will deal all or some of its damage as spirit damage. This damage is generally split into two parts: the base damage represented by an integer, and the spirit scaling damage represented by a percentage of the heros spirit power. The base damage is a base value that can only be changed via leveling up the ability using Ability Points, the spririt scaling damage can be increased by obtaining more spirit power via items, golden statues, powerups or the rejuvenator. Please see the page on spirit power scaling for more details.

Melee Damage

Melee damage means that the ability will deal a percentage of the hero's current melee damage on contact. This will also apply any effect currently attributed to the melee of the hero, such as Spirit Strike or Melee Lifesteal. Conversely, this also means the damage is reduced by a hero's melee damage resist from items like Close Quarters. Some heroes can upgrade their abilities to instead apply heavy melee damage, and this will apply item effects that benefit from this such as Melee Charge. This will not, however, work with mechanics needing heavy melee attacks such as a sinner's sacrifice, powerup or a rejuvenator.

Abilities dealing melee damage:

Hero	Ability	Notes
Billy	Bashdown	Upgrades to Heavy Melee Damage after 5 Ability Points
Calico	Leaping Slash	-
Drifter	Rend	Does additional spirit damage based on range to target
Viscous	Puddle Punch	Upgrades to Heavy Melee Damage after 5 Ability Points

Utility

Some abilities will have no damage dealt, but will instead provide the hero with some sort of utility to use while playing. This is a wide topic and can be anything from Calico's Ava providing mobility and eventually health regeneration, Mo & Krill's Sand Blast providing a disarm status effect on enemies, and Paige's Defend and Fight! providing a barrier and weapon damage.

Scaling

While most abilities scale on spirit power, there are some that have alternate ways of scaling. These are McGinnis's Mini Turret whose health scales on her own maximum health, and Paradox's Kinetic Carbine which scales on her weapon damage. These are the only two abilities that scale on something other than spirit power.

A few abilities have no scaling at all, only increasing in power when spending Ability Points to upgrade them. This includes Lash's Grapple, Mo & Krill's Sand Blast and Grey Talon's Rain of Arrows & Spirit Snare to name a few.

Some abilities apply their spirit scaling not in increased damage, but in other aspects of how they work. These vary wildly, and include Lash's Death Slam which increases its throwing range, and McGinnis's Medicinal Specter which extends its duration.