A “carry” is someone who is more farmed than everyone else and does most of the enemy team’s work. Usually, this happens because people make mistakes in the laning phase or accidentally feed someone a lot of kills, giving them a massive soul lead.

Identifying the Problem

What is allowing the carry to act so efficiently? Is it their farm? Is it a combination of characters? Or an item? Start by comparing their net worth to that of the rest of the enemy team and yours. Then, check their items and look for the items that are usually more disruptive, such as Knockdown, Silence Glyph, Curse, Leech, and Glass Cannon. Generally, the enemy having more souls is the main reason they are the carry. Usually, it happens because they got a lot of kills in a short time and have capitalized on it, becoming the lobby menace.

Laning Phase

When you realize someone is becoming a problem, the best thing to do is shut them down as soon as possible. If, during the Laning Phase, you recognize a neighbouring lane is losing hard, and their opponent is three or more kills up on your teammate, you should see if you can help them out, even leaving your lane if you have to. If it’s the lane on the opposite side of yours, rather than going entirely out of the way to get them, you should see if their neighbours are willing to lend a hand. Stopping them might be tricky, but the best time is just after you kill an opponent in your lane. Sometimes, you might not have that luxury, and you might have to go and save them when they’re back against the wall and their opponent is pushing up to their tower. Doing something as simple as showing up and damaging them is often good enough as it forces them to back up and heal while making them fear that you might show up again.

Ideally, you can also have someone swap with whoever is losing their lane, giving them a chance to die less and get some Souls at the cost of whoever is swapping in having a tougher lane. However, swapping isn’t always the best solution and might also disadvantage whoever swaps lanes as they have to rotate and adjust to a new opponent.

Mid-Late Game

If you can’t stop them in the Laning Phase, then it’s not the end of the world, but it might be worth it to group up and see if you can find and kill them so that they can’t get any richer. Depending on who the fed character is, you should consider buying items that counter them specifically and convince at least one or two other teammates to do the same, even giving up key parts of your build if necessary.

Counter-Picking Through Items

The best anti-carry item in the game is Curse, a 6,000 Soul item that interrupts, silences, disarms, and prevents them from using Items. Having one or two people with Curse is the best way to have a long window to kill whoever is the carry, as it takes them out of the game for a bit and makes them a prime killing target. However, being a 6,000 item can be a hassle to obtain, so don’t be afraid to consider other items that might be cheaper. Don’t underestimate Curse; it is a great item, even against people who aren’t the carry.

Against characters with a lot of Bullet Damage like Haze, Metal Skin, or Bullet Armor are good choices as they simply reduce or nullify gun damage, giving you some time and an advantage to work with.

For characters with stuns and debuffs like Abrams and Infernus, you should immediately buy Debuff Reducer, followed by its upgrade Debuff Remover, which reduces the duration of debuffs and most stuns by 28% and then 40%, respectively. When it comes to characters with a lot of burst damage, such as Lash, you should look at Spirit Armor or Ethereal Shift.

Finally, regarding high-mobility characters like Lash and Pocket, you should look at Slowing Hex and Silence Glyph. Slowing Hex slows them, as the name implies while turning off movement abilities, and Silence Glyph will disable all of their abilities for a short time. The most comical of these is Knockdown, which is great for shutting down both Gray Talon and Vindicta as it spawns an anvil that, after a second or two, will come crashing down on them, bringing them to the floor and interrupting their flying abilities.

What If You’re the Carry?

If you seem to notice you’re the carry, you should try to press the advantage while you can. Many builds will have a late-game section with more expensive items, and you should try to grab some of them early to take advantage of them. From there, go to the other lanes one at a time to help your teammates get an advantage. The best way to do that is by pushing other lanes to help your team get a flex slot before the enemy

Do your best to avoid situations where you are outnumbered by paying attention to the minimap, as even if you’re fed, it is still very possible for the enemy team to kill you if they use enough resources. Avoid dying, as more souls are awarded if someone who goes on a kill streak is stopped.

Wrapping Up

Carries are inevitable in every online PvP game, and Deadlock is no different. With enough determination, strategizing, knowledge and skill, you can overcome them and win your games. The biggest mistake most people make, and the key takeaway, is that not shutting down the enemy carry before they become a problem will cost you many games. So get out there and ruin that person’s day when they start popping off in their laning phase.