Hero image: Deadlock’s Rat King. Image: Valve
Valve has pared back the Rat King, three days after the hero arrived in Deadlock.
The changes are in Minor Update – 10-05-2026, posted at 10:05am AEDT on Tuesday. The Rat King came in with the City Never Sleeps update, which we covered on Sunday.
One ability, Rule, Ratannia!, takes almost every change. Its cooldown rises from 130 to 160 seconds, and its charge duration falls from 12 to 10 seconds.
Its upgrade tiers lose the most. The first tier no longer cuts the cooldown, and the second no longer adds to the charge duration. Valve gives the totals in brackets.
The notes on those two upgrades read, in full:
Rat King: Rule, Ratannia! – T1 No longer gives -20s cooldown (Total cooldown from 110s to 160s) – Rat King: Rule, Ratannia! – T2 No longer grants +8s Charge Duration (Total charge duration from 20s to 10s)
The damage reduction falls from 20% to 15% at base, and the third tier now adds 10% rather than 15%. Valve puts the fully upgraded total at 25%, down from 35%.
The radius shrinks from 24m to 20m. Bonus move speed no longer scales with Spirit, although the first tier now adds 2m/s rather than 1m/s.
The rest of his kit gets small gains. Scrap Grenade damage rises from 65 to 70, and Rat Swarm has its base cooldown cut from 28 to 24 seconds.
Sinclair is the other hero in the notes. Base HP regen halves from 2 to 1, and bullet base damage drops from 17.76 to 16.5.
Vexing Bolt now does half damage to objectives. Audience Participation has its copy duration cut from 12 to 9 seconds.
The update also fixes troopers walking too slowly in lane.
Source: Valve (Steam) – Minor Update – 10-05-2026, Gamers Classified – Deadlock’s Rat King is live