I've been learning what Deadlock's items actually do, thanks to this player-made build calculator that I can keep open in my tabs

Seven standing on a roof
(Image credit: Valve)

To a newcomer, Deadlock's builds and special items can be confusing, especially if you're more of an FPS player than a MOBA one. You can always practise making builds in-game, but it can be a little hard to think big-picture when you're trying to stop Adams from crushing your lane. Luckily, one player decided to create an easy way to do so. 

"I made a Deadlock build calculator," alayton says. "It's actually more than just a build calculator, but that's the big headline feature right now. There's also a complete list of heroes, abilities, and items, with data from previous versions being preserved. The big plus here is that this data is being read directly from the client, so updates are fast, easy, and cover everything." 

The website's name is Mutex, and it lets you pick any hero you like and start creating various item builds. Instead of having to go into Deadlock's sandbox to see how your item choices will impact it, you can just use Mutex to quickly add and subtract them. The weapon, vitality, and spirit stats will change as you mess around, so you'll learn quickly how different items affect your stats. 

"We've all used the sandbox for playing with builds, and this can't directly replace that," alayton says. "There's no way to import builds into the game currently—but this does let you play around with builds when you can't (or just don't want to) run the game. 

"I approached builds a bit differently. Instead of being a step-by-step, buy this, then this, etc type of system, it's focused on seeing the effect of a specific set of items on your hero, whether that be your hour-long endgame goal or a more typical 25 to 30k soul target. It does still allow for adding early game and alternate items, but they aren't included in the stat calculations unless they're in the 12 main slots." 

Seven on the zipline

(Image credit: Valve)

You can create builds in the game's sandbox mode, and it'll give you plenty of information on stats and weapon status, but I found that playing around with Mutex is easier and quicker. Whenever I'm actually on Deadlock I don't have time to mess around with builds as I'm usually playing with my lovely (yet impatient friends) so instead I'll use someone else's custom build.

The custom builds in Deadlock are pretty incredible. Some of my favourites for Seven include "You are Literally Him: A Seven Guide" and "7EUS, AOE God," but you can easily browse all the public builds and see which ones tickle your fancy. But when I pick someone else's build, I usually don't actually read into what each item does, I'll have my favourites and then just blindly go along with whatever the creator suggests. Being a MOBA, where tailoring your build to your current match is kinda, y'know, important? It goes varying degrees of well.

So, sitting down and really trying to learn what each item does, and how it'll affect your build using Mutex has actually been quite refreshing. It doesn't take too long, and because you can just open it in your browser, I've found myself messing around with it in short bursts whenever I get a second.

It turns out that there's also an interesting backstory behind Mutex's name. "In programming, a mutex is an object used to prevent multiple threads from accessing the same part of memory at the same time by locking and unlocking the mutex (mutual exclusion)," alayton explains. "If a thread locks a mutex, and mistakenly tries to lock it again before unlocking, the second lock will never succeed, the first lock will never be unlocked, and that's called a deadlock. (There's other ways for deadlocks to happen, but that's the easiest example.)" You learn something new every day.

TOPICS
Elie Gould
News Writer

Elie is a news writer with an unhealthy love of horror games—even though their greatest fear is being chased. When they're not screaming or hiding, there's a good chance you'll find them testing their metal in metroidvanias or just admiring their Pokemon TCG collection. Elie has previously worked at TechRadar Gaming as a staff writer and studied at JOMEC in International Journalism and Documentaries – spending their free time filming short docs about Smash Bros. or any indie game that crossed their path.

Read more
Vindicta wearing a clown mask
Deadlock's latest update makes a bunch of hero changes, including one suggested by a player who got laughed at for raising the idea
A triptych of views from Deadlock's improved map, showing a suspension bridge backlit by a setting sun, a triumphal arch with buildings in the background, and a leafy park overlooked by distant skyscrapers.
Deadlock gets a massive map overhaul that shrinks its map from four lanes to three: 'This has a large range of accompanying map-wide changes'
Age of Darkness: Final Stand
Brutal survival RTS Age of Darkness kept me up until 4 am this morning as I tried to perfect the formula to halt the end of the world
Vindicta standing next to a shop
Valve is changing the way it updates Deadlock 'to help improve our development process', so you can say goodbye to the regular biweekly posts
Slork on a roof
Deadlock's ranked play has improved quite a bit since its arrival, but a small quirk has left only 75 people down at the bottom rank to battle it out
Fragpunk characters with weapon drawn
The latest big game on Steam is Fragpunk, or as I like to call it, 'kitchen-sink Counter-Strike'
Latest in MOBA
League of Legends promo image - huge dude in a huge suit of armor holding a huge axe
Riot walks back unpopular League of Legends changes: Hextech Chests are coming back, and the Blue Essence cost for new champions will be cut in half
A triptych of views from Deadlock's improved map, showing a suspension bridge backlit by a setting sun, a triumphal arch with buildings in the background, and a leafy park overlooked by distant skyscrapers.
Deadlock gets a massive map overhaul that shrinks its map from four lanes to three: 'This has a large range of accompanying map-wide changes'
Three monsters holding clubs in Dota 2.
As a lapsed 4,500 hour veteran of Dota 2, the big new Wandering Waters update has lured me back—but despite the changes, the game still feels stuck in its ways
Sahn-Uzal Mordekaiser revealed in silhouette against a white moon and a blood-red sky.
League of Legends is getting a hotly anticipated skin for its lich necromancer Mordekaiser, but fans' joy has been 'obliterated' because it's 'stuck in a $200 fomo gacha store'
Smite 2 art
Hi-Rez will only be giving 'minor updates' to Smite and Paladins now it's laying off around 70 employees, but don't worry, Smite 2 is the 'primary focus of the newly streamlined operations'
LoL summoner art
It's high time League of Legends got full voice chat
Latest in News
Crying laughing emoji with disturbing realistic elements for REPO
REPO's first update will add a new map and a 'duck bucket' so we can finally give that pesky quacker a time out
Man facing camera
The Day Before studio reportedly sues Russian website for calling infamous disaster-game a 'scam'
Will Poulter holding a CD ROM
'What are most games about? Killing': Black Mirror Season 7 includes a follow-up to 2018 interactive film Bandersnatch
Casper Van Dien in Starship Troopers
Sony, which is making a Helldivers 2 movie, is also making a new Starship Troopers movie, but it's not based on the Starship Troopers movie we already have
Assassin's Creed meets PUBG
Ubisoft is reportedly talking to Tencent about creating a new business entity to manage Assassin's Creed and other big games
Resident Evil Village - Lady Dimitrescu
'It really truly changed my life in every possible way': Lady Dimitrescu actor says her Resident Evil Village role was just as transformative for her as it was for roughly half the internet in 2021