Farming is one of the most essential skills in Deadlock and is usually one of the most significant factors in determining which team is currently dominating the match. We’ll show you what big and small things you can do to improve your farming and always be ahead.
I asked my friend Misclicked (a top 5 Warden player who is also an Eternus 5 player and can be seen in the top 75~ on the global leaderboard) how he is almost always 10-15k ahead of the rest of the lobby in nearly every game of Deadlock, and what he thinks people could be doing more to improve their farm. He gave me some excellent advice to share with players, whether you’re brand new or experienced.
We’ll start with the basics. What is farming? Farming is the act of earning Souls, the currency that doubles as your character’s XP and money you’ll spend on items. As you gain more money, your character grows more powerful, gaining more Damage and HP. Usually, this is done by killing Troopers, enemy players, breaking boxes, or Jungle Denizens. Everything that gives Souls gives more Souls the longer the match goes on. If you don’t know anything about Jungle Denizens, you can learn everything about them here.
While the Laning Phase, which takes up the first 8 minutes, is excellent for setting the stage for the match, there aren’t many ways to make a lot of Souls just yet. To safely secure more Souls, try to get as many last hits on Troopers as possible, especially with melee attacks. By meleeing Troopers on their last legs, you stop the Soul Orb from appearing and deny the enemy a chance to steal some of your income. Usually, if a Trooper is around 25% HP, you can finish it with a Heavy Melee. If you can’t melee due to pressure from the enemy team or distance to the Trooper, don’t worry! Try to at least get that last hit since, during the Laning Phase, most of the Souls the Troopers drop are given on the Trooper's death rather than the Soul Orb.
Most lanes have a small camp that spawns at around the 2-minute mark. You should also try shoving your lane (killing the enemy Troopers as fast as possible), allowing you to quickly roam to another lane for pressure, kill Jungle Denizens, and break boxes. Try to do what you can in the Laning Phase to make sure your team gets that flex slot first so they can buy an extra item, and then do what you can to deny the enemy their first flex slot for as long as possible. If possible, try to sneak into enemy camps and steal them. Usually, the best time to rob their Jungle is just after you’ve killed them and cleared the Trooper wave.
With the Laning Phase over, you can start roaming around more, going where you need to apply pressure, complete objectives, and farm. Just because the Laning Phase is over doesn’t mean you should stop denying Souls. Since the Laning Phase is over, all the money earned from Troopers is placed in their Soul rather than the initial kill.
If you see a 1v1 that you think you can win, don’t be afraid to take it, especially if you can see that the rest of their team is busy on the minimap since solo kills provide a hefty amount of Souls. The best way to tell if you can win a 1v1 against someone is by checking their Soul count beneath their portrait, making sure other enemies aren’t nearby waiting to pounce on the minimap, and if they have their ult active or nearly active (the lightning symbol beneath the Soul count shows their ultimate ability cooldowns).
As you start earning Souls, remember what items your character might need to get their farm online, whether it be items like Ricochet, Tesla Bullets, Cold Front, or Torment Pulse. Almost every popular build has one farming item and something for mobility. While some farming items are expensive, they are usually entirely worth it in teamfights and farming. If your character has an AoE ability such as Abrams' Siphon Life or any type of grenade ability, make them hit as many Jungle Denizens as possible. Make sure you apply any debuffs your character/build has, like Soul Shredder or Bullet Resist Shredder. For some characters like Haze and Seven, using your ultimate on the tier 3 Jungle Denizens is okay if you get your expensive items quickly.
One of the most common mistakes people make when farming is prioritizing Jungle Denizens and ignoring the Troopers. By ignoring everything and going exclusively to Jungle camps, you are letting the enemy pressure your objectives and take Trooper Souls for free. By killing Troopers, you apply pressure as someone on the enemy team must rotate to ensure their objectives don’t take damage. You should focus on pushing the Trooper waves before clearing Jungle camps and boxes on your way to the next lane. One of the excellent parts about prioritizing Troopers is that the Souls they give you are always secured compared to the unsecured Souls given by Jungle Denizens and boxes. Unsecured Souls are still Souls and can still be spent as Souls, but if you die, you will drop all of them as an Orb on the ground. If you have unsecured Souls, they will secure themselves over time at 1 Soul per second, increasing by 1 for every 100 Souls you possess (300 unsecured Souls equals 3 Souls secured per second). Spend the unsecured Souls as soon as possible so you don’t drop them when you die.
Look at your map and form a plan of where you want to go and where you need to be. Ideally, you want to keep all your lanes above the halfway mark so they encroach on the enemy’s territory, taking Jungles as you go from lane to lane. Rotate as needed to keep lanes pushed while stealing enemy Jungles if possible. If the enemy isn’t looking at you, don’t be afraid to pressure a Walker, but pay attention to the minimap because you never know if an enemy could be nearby. If you can’t see anyone on the map, don’t hesitate to dip and let the Troopers do all the work.
Teleporters are another aspect commonly neglected, as they allow you to push one lane and then quickly appear in another, buffed by the speed bonus given from using a teleporter. Pushing an outer lane like Yellow, taking the Jungle, and then dipping through Teleporter 3 to do the same for Purple is an excellent way of accruing Souls.
It should come as no surprise that dying is bad for your farm. Though you can still earn money from assists and objectives while dead, you miss out on all the Troopers and Jungling that earn you most of your Souls. If you see your teammates taking a bad fight, such as a 2v4 or one where the opponents have a much more significant advantage, don’t join them unless you’re nearby, and your presence would turn the tide through a significant ultimate or shutdown ability. Going in and dying might give the enemy a massive advantage by allowing them to take your team’s Jungle, unsecured Soul Orbs, and map objectives, especially if multiple teammates die simultaneously. Staying alive is vital to keeping the farm going, but that doesn’t mean ditching the team. Pay attention and attend critical battles, even if they are risky, such as a battle for Midboss, objective defense or a crucial Urn Battle.
Thanks to Misclicked for sharing his tips, especially about using teleporters for faster rotations. Get out there, shove lanes, look at the map, take Jungle creeps, teleport somewhere else, and repeat. Once you get the hang of your character's farming items and AoE abilities, combine that with moving around the map, and you’ll be dominating in no time. Good luck with the farming. If you farm too efficiently, you’ll face the much trickier problem of figuring out what to spend all your money on.
