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Overview

Lore

Music

“Welcome to Fracture: City of a Thousand Cities!”

This page focuses on content exclusive to Neon Prime, an earlier version of Deadlock.

Screenshot used for Neon Prime's main menu, depicting Bebop overseeing Fracture, the game's setting.

“

With these hands I will destroy, and with these hands I will rebuild.

— Gigawatt

Neon Prime was a sci-fi themed third-person shooter MOBA developed by Valve Corporation from 2020 to 2022 but ultimately unreleased. It was the second iteration of Citadel.

The game was cancelled late in development and reworked into Shadowline and later Deadlock, presumably due to negative feedback from playtesters regarding its art style and setting. Neon Prime reportedly had issues of poor visibility due to the heavy use of neon lights in VFX and models.

Many of Deadlock's current features and assets have been inherited from Neon Prime, and are expected to be updated or replaced over the course of development.

Neon Prime Mods (items) menu

Early HUD

Setting

Main article: Neon Prime Lore

Neon Prime had a sci-fi aesthetic featuring elements of Japanese culture, Cassete Futurism and the supernatural.

The game took place in an alien planet called Fracture, a former prison planet that was taken over by inmates and turned into a tourism hotspot where crime is legal. The game matches were elections in the form of organized bloodsports in the City Center, in which each team represented a mayor candidate.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Neon Prime was similar to Deadlock. 6 players on each side would use hyperlines to traverse 4 lanes and fight guardians and walkers (also known as guardians+) to destroy an enemy boss called the Titan. The players would unlock tech (abilities) and use coins to buy items, called mods. In Neon Prime, the players had 6 item slots for each category instead of 8 universal slots.

A notable difference is that Neon Prime had a 3-hit combo melee system, instead of Deadlock's light and heavy melee.

There were two major versions of the Neon Prime map. V1 was developed around 2021 and was set during daylight. V2 was developed around 2022 and was set during night time.

Killing the Temple Guardian (Mid-Boss) gave you the ability to immediately respawn after the player's death, as can be heard in the unused tutorial voice line from the Deadlock files.

Tutorials and gameplay footage (unofficial logo)

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  3-hit combo

Heroes

A list of known Neon Prime heroes and their Deadlock counterparts.

The ID indicates the order in which heroes were created in the game files (though not necessarily the order of development).

ID	Hero	Fate	Notes
34	Akimbo	Removed	Was a robot gunslinger
14	Astro	Added to Hero Labs as Holliday and officially released on January 17, 2025	Was in a relationship with Forge
6	Atlas	Became Abrams	Wore a jetpack. Was a time soldier of the Lost Battalion
36	Ballista	Removed	Was an anarchist artist and founder of the Wreckage Movement. Used to be in a relationship with Lash
15	Bebop	Stayed	Same as current model
30	Butcher	Added to Hero Labs as Wrecker and later removed	Was a female werebear
10	Chrono	Became Paradox	Was the leader of the Paradox organization
18	Digger	Became Mo & Krill	Mostly unchanged backstory
32	Duo	Removed
8	Forge	Became McGinnis	Same as original model, was in a relationship with Astro. Was a member of the Smuggler's Union
2	Gigawatt	Became Seven	Wanted to build a criminal empire
13	Haze	Stayed	Original design was an alien with long ears. Was a Disciple of Kreela
??	Heavy	Removed	Inspired by Heavy from Team Fortress 2
3	Hornet	Became Vindicta	Had wings, was the leader of Strike Team Endeavor
1	Inferno	Became Infernus	Was an android in an orange sci-fi uniform affiliated with The Midnight Robo Rally
21	Kali	Removed (previously accessible via commands), possibly became Vyper	Was a retired Bear Pit fighter. Animations were reused for Ivy. Vyper's model is currently based on Kali's
12	Kelvin	Stayed	Had an astronaut suit that was reworked as Viscous' current model. Worked at a meat-packing plant
31	Lash	Stayed	Owned a dojo, used to be in a relationship with Ballista
25	Murphy	Became Warden	The name was reused for Captain Murphy in Holliday's storyline. Was a Constable (robot police)
16	Nano	Added to Hero Labs as Calico and officially released on January 17, 2025	Inspired by Broodmother from Dota. Had metallic implants in her head and arms
17	Orion	Became Grey Talon	Similar to current model, but used to be bald, had a long beard and wore goggles
19	Shiv	Added on August 15, 2024	Similar to current model, but used to have a red shirt, rocket boots and a metallic arm. Was a member of The Meakashi
??	Skymonk	Removed
4	Spectre	Became Lady Geist	Also known as Ghost. Was a man wearing a cape and hood and a member of the Eighth Sun. Was related to Yamato
11	Sumo	Became Dynamo	Also known as Jeong. Was an Asian chef and black market smuggler
33	Tempest	Removed
20	Tengu	Became Ivy	Was a person wearing a Tengu mask
35	Viscous	Added on August 1, 2024	Same as current model, concept art depicted him as a blowfish in a green robotic suit
7	Wraith	Stayed	Went through multiple iterations, including a woman with a purple arm, a magician with handcuffed hands and two ghost arms and a mannequin with metallic arms. Sinclair's model is currently repurposed from the mannequin design
27	Yamato	Stayed	Same as current model, with different colors

Later Heroes

The following heroes were created at some point before April 2024, but it's currently unclear if they were playable in Neon Prime or made later for Shadowline or Deadlock.

ID	Hero	Fate	Notes
54	Cadence	Removed (previously accessible via commands)	Reworked as a minor character referenced in voice lines and in Ivy's visual novel
38	Gunslinger	Removed (previously accessible via commands)
52	Mirage	Added on September 26, 2024	Also known as Sandeep
49	Rutger	Removed (previously accessible via commands)
53	Slork	Added to Hero Labs as Fathom and later removed
40	Spade	Removed
50	Synth	Became Pocket	Also known as Fairfax
39	The Boss	Removed (previously accessible via commands)	Also known as Yakuza Boss
51	Thumper	Removed (previously accessible via commands)
47	Tokamak	Removed (previously accessible via commands)
48	Wrecker	Added to Hero Labs and later removed	Wrecker was based on Butcher, but has a different ID

Gallery

Gameplay

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  Night-time gameplay
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  Night-time gameplay
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  Daytime gameplay
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  Neon Prime shop
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  Neon Prime Vault (Sinner's Sacrifice)

Heroes

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  Bebop portrait
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  Cadence model
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  Chrono portrait
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  Digger portrait
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  Forge portrait
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  Gigawatt portrait
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  Gigawatt 3D portrait
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  Gigawatt model
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  Gunslinger model
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  Haze portrait
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  Haze model
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  Edited Haze icon, used as Cadence's temp icon
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  Hornet model
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  Inferno portrait
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  Inferno model
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  Kali model
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  Kelvin portrait
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  Kelvin model
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  Lash icon
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  Mirage model
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  Nano portrait
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  Nano model
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  Rutger portrait
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  Skymonk model
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  Shiv portrait
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  Shiv model
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  Spectre model
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  Sumo model
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  Sumo using Black Hole
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  Synth portrait
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  Tengu model
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  The Boss model
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  Tokamak model
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  Viscous portrait
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  Wraith model
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  Yamato portrait
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  Yamato model

NPCs

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  Trooper
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  Trooper 2
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  Healing Trooper
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  Walker v1
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  Walker v2
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  Walker v3
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  Titan (Patron)
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  Chefbot
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  Punkbot
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  Cleanbot

UI and Graphic Design

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  Training - Guided
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  Training - Hero Testing
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  Training - Guide
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  Training - Bots on Easy
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  Lane Training trooper Coin
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  Posters

Concept art

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  Map concept art

External Links

Neon Prime hero voice lines compilation

Trivia

• Neon Prime's portraits were drawn by former Valve artist Claire Hummel.
• Vasili Zorin was the character designer of Neon Prime. Vasili has been working at Valve since 2018, when development on Citadel began.
• Fracture's title of "City of a thousand cities" may have been a reference to the 2017 movie Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets, based on the 1967 French comic series Valérian and Laureline.