Bringing Dota Underlords characters into Deadlock

[stunacaralho]

With Dota Underlords seemingly abandoned, I think there’s a missed opportunity to reuse some really strong character designs created by Valve.

Deadlock’s theme (organized crime, magic stuff, city control, power struggles, 30s/40s vibes) actually fits perfectly with characters like Jull, Anessix, Enno and Hobgen.


In Underlords, the main issue wasn’t the characters themselves, but the way they were implemented in an auto-battler. They kind of stole the protagonism of the autochess pieces and many players stopped playing after they were created. In a game like Deadlock, however, they could:

• Work as major heroes
• Represent different playstyles
• Bring strong personality and lore without dominating core gameplay
• We could represent them as "outsiders" that came do NY for any specific reason, like the ritual.

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Costs:
From a production, development and business standpoint, this would also be highly efficient for Valve.

The Underlords characters already exist:
their visual identity, personality, voice direction, and core concepts are done. Reusing them in Deadlock would significantly reduce development costs compared to creating entirely new characters from scratch, while still delivering “new” content to players.

It’s essentially asset reutilization with added value:
lower cost, faster iteration, stronger roster, and better long-term return on existing IP that is currently underused.

I'm not a specialist, but I believe for a live-service game, this kind of smart reuse makes a lot of sense.

Also, reusing them wouldn’t just preserve good Valve IP, it could also give Deadlock a deeper cast with almost no thematic friction.

And lastly, remove them from Dota Underlords (maybe?). Keep the game as the original state when it came to public. I bet a lot of players would come back and play. It still get ~1k players daily even with the game abandoned for the last 6 years.

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Sooooo, lets check their skils and playstyle.
The four Underlords already have very distinct identities, which makes them easy to translate into Deadlock’s gameplay without forcing overlap or redundancy. Each one could naturally fill a different strategic role within team fights and map control.

I will post each Underlord and skils and let yous guys think how could they translate well into Deadlock.

Jull – Frontline Tank
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Jull fits perfectly as a frontline bruiser or tank in Deadlock.
His skills from Underlords translates well into:

• Absorbing damage while holding key positions
• Providing buffs or defensive bonuses to nearby allies
• Disrupting enemy advances and controlling space
• Drinking beer to buff himself and/or allies, giving evasion or health regen?

He could excel in pushing lanes, defending choke points, or anchoring team fights, rewarding players who like leading from the front.

Underlords skills:

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Anessix – Summoner / Zone Control
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Anessix would shine as a summoner-style hero, something that could add a unique layer to Deadlock’s combat.
Her role could focus on:

• Summoning creatures to pressure areas, scout, or assist in fights
• Overwhelming enemies through numbers rather than raw stats
• Forcing opponents to manage multiple threats at once
• Her ultimate is literally identical to Dota Warlock. It spawns a huge monster and AOE stuns enemies when cast.
• I don't think Deadlock currently has a summoner focused hero. Her minions could follow and protect her during their spawn time. Yes, we have Mcginis, but they are stationary turrets.

This makes her ideal for area denial, objective control, sustained pressure and lane pushing., rewarding players that likes to have an army during the fights.

Underlords skills:

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Enno – Utility Support / Mobility
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Enno could fills a support-control hybrid role.
Like Underlords, his kit could revolve around:

• AOE Healing or sustaining allies over time
• Applying AOE poison effects
• Using stuns or debuffs to disrupt enemy momentum.
• He has a very cool ultimate habilitie where he dissapears for some seconds and stun enes in a small AOE area. (Somewhat similar to that Rikimaru AOE skill from Dota)
• Lastly, he can use his rope-gun on the buildings to fly around the map (spiderman?), so his mobility would be somewhat similar to Lash, who likes to be flying around the sky.

He would reward smart positioning and timing, acting as a backbone for coordinated teams rather than a raw damage dealer.

Underlords skills:

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Hobgen – Magical DPS / Burn Specialist
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Hobgen is an obvious fit for a magic-focused DPS role.

His gameplay identity could center on:

• High spell damage
• Burn and damage-over-time effects
• Punishing grouped enemies or extended fights
• He has the same passive as Infernus, so we could change it to trigger with skills instead of auto attacks, as this would be a mage type hero, instead of auto-attack hero like Infernus.

He’d be the kind of hero that thrives when fights drag on, applying constant pressure and forcing enemies to disengage or reposition.

Underlords skills:

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Curious to hear what you guys think. Do you think this would be a valuable addition to Deadlock?