New Deadlock hero Solomon is a chess master who turns his own team into pawns, and it’s pushed the Valve MOBA to a new Steam player record.
Valve's new Deadlock update has already pushed it into uncharted territory. The experimental blend of hero shooter and MOBA now boasts a higher all-time peak player count on Steam than Team Fortress 2, despite still being in the invite-only stage. Granted, there are factors such as the gradual growth of the platform to take into account, but that's quite the stat - and leading the charge is its most unique and ambitious character yet. Solomon is the latest to join the roster, and he's a wizened New York chess hustler who can turn his own team into playing pieces and move them around the map.
"Solomon remains calm and collected when facing a new challenger, so when the Patrons come calling, he approaches the city as if it's one giant chessboard." Our new Deadlock hero takes to the field just in time for US National Chess Day, and his moveset is going to take a lot of practice to master. Solomon floats around the Cursed Apple alongside his trusty board, with no footstep sounds and a slightly lower gravity that allows him to make floatier jumps.
In place of a traditional weapon, he hurls his pieces at opponents, dealing precise, long-range damage that scales up with spirit. When you 'reload,' he rapidly sets up a fresh game and plays out a few moves, leaving exactly the number of troops on the board to match his current ammo count (this increases as you buy items to raise it). Where things really get complex is with his abilities, however, as these allow him to place down various giant pieces in the world, or even use his teammates as his pawns.
'Setup Bishop' places down said piece, and it'll stay there as long as you want. You can then move it to another position, dealing spirit damage and a slow effect to any enemies it hits along its path. A short while after it arrives, it creates a series of squares on its diagonals that act as spirit damage mines for anyone that steps on them. Rank it up, and you get an additional bishop to place, along with more spreading squares, and the added effect that they reduce their victims' spirit resist.
'Rook Battery' sends a pair of the castles in a straight line, dealing spirit damage and immobilizing enemies they pass through. They'll bounce back off walls they hit, and you can reactivate the ability to cause them to split and move in the perpendicular direction instead. As it levels up, this starts dealing bonus damage based on its targets' current health, and picks up an additional wall reflect and extra immobilize duration alongside a shorter cooldown.
'Kingside Knight' is where things get weirdest. Use it on an ally to promote them to a knight, granting them a bonus stamina notch and a barrier. If used on Solomon instead, you get a barrier that's twice as large, but without the stamina buff. You can then move the chosen piece (whether you or a teammate), causing them to hop to your chosen destination in the L-shaped fashion of a knight. This makes them (or you) fully invulnerable while moving, and at max rank you can either target two allies at once, or use it on yourself to cleanse debuffs. It's extremely powerful, with plenty of room to go wrong.
That's a lot to take in before we even get to the final skill, so you may want to see it all in action courtesy of 'Deathy' above. It also seems there are a few kinks to work out, as he manages to accidentally throw a teammate down into the underground tunnels. Finally, Solomon's ultimate is 'Develop Queen,' causing the strongest member of the chess crew to slam down and deal spirit damage in a wide, square area. After a short while, squares spread out from her applying further damage and a stun. You can then move your queen up to twice more to apply those effects again in another location.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.pcgamesn.com/deadlock/update-solomon
