Soul Urn

Overview

Update history

Voice lines

Music

The Soul Urn

“

You'd think people would be more excited about a jar of souls!

The Soul Urn, also known as Spirit Urn, Soul Jar, Spirit Jar or Idol, is an objective that spawns at the 10-minute mark and respawns in 5-minute intervals.

Players can pick up the urn and deliver it to its destination at the side lanes of the map. Doing so grants the courier Souls and 4 Golden statue buffs.

Spawn

Soul Urn icon

The soul urn spawns next to the bridge, alternating between Yellow and Green Lane. The first urn will always spawn in Yellow.

The urn respawns and alternates lanes every 5 minutes. It descends from the sky for 12.5 seconds before it can be picked up. A player can grab the landed urn by hitting it with a Melee Attack (light or heavy).

The drop-off point is on the opposite side of the map to the urn spawn. If the urn hasn't been picked up in 3 minutes, it will start walking on its own to the drop-off via the Mid-Boss stairs, making up to about halfway through before it respawns on the other side. It can still be picked up while it's walking. If it is picked up before the next respawn time, the next respawn is delayed until the urn is either delivered or expires.

Carrying the Urn

While carrying the urn, the courier is affected in several ways:

• They get a bonus of +2 m/s Move Speed (capped at 15 m/s max), +1 Stamina, +10% Dash Distance, +25% Stamina Regen, and have 100% Slow Resistance.
  • If they're on the trailing team, the courier also gets up to +35% Bullet, Spirit, and Debuff Resist and +5m/s Sprint Speed. These buffs scale based on how behind the team is in souls (up to 15%).
• They cannot use Ziplines or Teleporters.
• Rem, Calico as Ava, and Mo & Krill using Burrow cannot enter vents.
• Going through the Doorman's Doors drops the urn at the entrance door.
• Using the following abilities makes the courier drop the urn:
  • Mirage - Traveler
  • Rem - Tag Along
  • Sinclair - Spectral Assistant teleport
  • Viscous - Goo Ball

Melee attacks (light or heavy) and Melee Damage abilities from enemy Players (or NPCs), and any stun source will force the courier to drop the urn.

Once every 6s, the Urn will say a voice line that can be heard by nearby players.

Note: The urn's soul value is determined at the moment it spawns. Holding onto the urn for longer durations does not increase its value.

Anti-stalling mechanics

If the urn hasn't been delivered within 45s of being picked up, it will start decaying in value over another 45s, until its value reaches zero and it expires. This is indicated by the "delivering the urn" text turning red and counting down.

Reward

The Soul Urn's base soul bounty is  250 Souls and increases by  70 Souls per minute of game time. This value is "locked in" at the minute the Urn spawns.

The souls are released as Soul Orbs and can be denied. If not denied, all souls go to the courier. If an ally secures an orb, they share the orb value with the courier.

Source	Soul Value	Soul Gain (/min)	Notes
Soul Urn	250	+70	To the courier and players who confirm/deny orbs

The courier also receives 4 random permanent buffs.

Permanent Buffs granted

Stat	LVL 1 (0 min)	LVL 2 (10 min)	LVL 3 (30 min)
Fire Rate	+1.5%	+2%	+2.5%
Max Ammo	+3%	+5%	+7%
Cooldown Reduction	+0.5%	+0.75%	+1%
Weapon Damage	+3%	+4%	+6%
Max Health	+15	+20	+30
Spirit Power	+2	+3	+4

Each buff type has a 1/7 (14.29%) drop rate, with the exception of Health buffs, which have a 2/7 (28.57%) rate. It uses a pseudo-random distribution, meaning that for every 7 buffs received, the player is likely to get at least 1 of each type and 2 for Health. Getting the same buff multiple times in a row decreases the odds of getting it again next time. The distribution considers buffs received from all sources.

Comeback bonus

If the courier is on the trailing team, they get a soul bonus that scales based on game time and the team's soul deficit. It uses a growth rate of  170 Souls per minute.

Approximate Formula: Bonus = 170 × Minutes × Deficit %

Lore

The Urn is a civil servant of the New York Municipal Coven. Its job is to keep New York clean by capturing rogue spirits, which should then be released in another location.

The Urn takes pride in its work and believes it's underappreciated. It nags heroes to be delivered quickly and grows impatient over time.

A member of the Paradox Organisation has attempted (and failed) to steal the Urn before, to which the Municipal Coven "did not take kindly".

The Soul Urn knows Billy, implying that Billy has worked for the Municipal Coven before. The Urn refers to Billy as "William" and doesn't want to be associated with him.

The Urn asks to be introduced to Nashala by Mirage.

The Urn has a cousin that works at Columbia University as an administrative shredder. It also knew a sentient censer, though they lost touch after the censer took their vows.

The Urn says its usual craftsman is on vacation.

The Urn admires several heroes. Those that showcase grace and diligence during delivery are favored by the Urn--notable examples being The Doorman, Lady Geist, and Celeste. This also extends to heroism, as the Urn is a fan of Ivy and considers her "dazzling".

The Urn is also a bit of a fashion mogul. It points out several heroes' sense of fashion and style:

• Bebop, for his "exquisite craftsmanship".
• Dynamo, for his stunning jacket.
• Infernus, for being dapper and having a "well-brimmed lid".
• Mina, for her contributions to Fashion Week, considering her work to be the future of fashion.
• Shiv, and his amazingly well-kept pompadour.
• Victor, for his crafted body and fascinating tattoos.
• Vindicta, and her lack of shoes.

Update history

View the full update history: Soul Urn/Update history

Update	Changes
July 13, 2026	(Undocumented) New hero-specific Soul Urn voice lines.
July 9, 2026	Urn Runner sprint bonus reduced from +2m to 0 (trailing bonus reduced from +7m to +5m). Urn Runner move speed bonus reduced from +3.5m to +2m. Urn Runner Stamina Recovery increased from +15% to +25%. Urn talking frequency increased from every 8s to every 6s. Urn talking sound distance increased (easier to hear a nearby Urn Runner).
June 30, 2026	Urn running is now its own objective. Spawns on either end of the map (where the previous neutral pickup locations were), and gets delivered to the opposite end. Spawns at 10/15/20/25/etc. Urn runner is no longer revealed and is not disarmed or silenced (going through a doorway or mirage teleport still drops it) Urn cannot be manually dropped. It gets dropped when you get hit with a light or heavy melee, are stunned or are killed. It stays where it drops and does not walk back home. Urn runner can no longer parry Urn bounty value starts decaying after 45s from being picked up. It drains gradually over another 45s and then the urn is removed when the bounty is empty. Urn is deposited immediately at the drop off point. Urn bounty when deposited is worth 250 + 70/min for just the urn runner. Still has the comeback bounty component. Upon deposit all of the souls are released as orbs into the air (if another ally secures the orbs, they share the bounty with the urn runner). Urn runner gets +4 permanent buffs on deposit Urn is now louder when it talks and is easier to hear by nearby enemies After 3 Minutes from spawn the Urn will start walking very slowly on his own towards the deposit location Urn runner's passive bonuses while holding it now scales based on how behind you are, rather than being on or off (same as the Unstable Rift 0%-15% NW linear scaling). Bonuses are the same as the previous urn runner bonuses. Debug command: citadel_force_spawn_idol - This spawns the Soul Urn.

Commands

citadel_force_spawn_idol - Spawns the urn

Trivia

• If The Doorman uses Hotel Guest on the urn courier and the courier then drops the urn (e.g. Viscous uses Goo Ball), the urn will reappear in a room next to the Archmother's Blue Walker.
• Removed Hero Labs Hero Trapper's background mentioned that he built Soul Urns for the New York Municipal Coven.
• In Neon Prime, the Urn was called the Idol and dropped off at the Center Temple, a location above the Mid-Boss.
  • Deadlock's November 21, 2024 update featured a 2 day experimental drop-off location at the "Mid Temple" in the room above the Mid Boss.
  • The Soul Urn had multiple voicelines referencing the Center Temple. They were excluded from playing on July 18, 2024, but can still be found in the game's files.
• The May 22, 2026 update reworked the Soul Urn to grant Bullet and Spirit Resist in a radius to the team with a soul deficit at the moment of its spawn. This was reverted on May 28, 2026, presumably in response to a strategy demonstrated at the unofficial Deadlock Night Shift tournament the day before that involved an entire team purchasing Golden Goose Eggs, intentionally giving the enemy team souls to force the urn to spawn in a favored state, and then hatching the Eggs to maintain resistances provided by the Urn despite no longer lagging behind in souls.
• In the June 4, 2026 update, the Soul Urn was reworked to start a King-of-the-Hill capture point mechanic when delivered. This was later reverted and separated into its own objective on June 30, 2026 as the Unstable Rift.