[GUNSLINGER HERO CONCEPT] Johnny "Devilhands" Oldnick

[InferusIcornix]

Johnny "Devilhands" Oldnick - Deadlock Hero Concept​

Hellish / Gunslinger / Carry​

Hero Overview​

A gunslinger bounty hunter who sacrificed his humanity for supernatural shooting abilities. Johnny is a high-damage, low-mobility gunslinger who trades positioning flexibility for devastating firepower and decent sustain. His devilish hands give him reload mechanics and spirit-infused shots, though his ultimate locks him out of movement tech, it gives him exceptional boons in exchange (truly a wonderful deal, isn't it?).

Core Fantasy​

“Stand your ground like a classic western gunslinger in a supernatural shootout. Use your abilities to help you survive any amount of firepower and deal in return even more without a need to stop for a reload.”

Abilities​

! The stats of the skills are either vague or just exemplary numeric values - it’s all just an idea.

1. Devil's Draw​

Johnny unleashes supernatural gunfire in a cone, hitting up to 3 enemies twice with spirit bullets that prioritize heroes in a short duration channel. If the button is held, he instead fires a single high-damage bullet that can hit headshot (By pressing rightclick the player can zoom in for the Single Draw shot). While channeling the ability he cannot move.

Stats:

• Cooldown: Medium
• Damage: Moderate base damage for early game, decent spirit scaling
• Range: Medium cone / Long single shot
• Charges: 1

Upgrades:

• Level 1: +1 charge
• Level 2: The rapid draw gets additional shot and 2 max targets. Single draw can ricochet to another target once (or of a wall, once).
• Level 3: Rapid draw has a chance to disarm enemies and single draw can disperse enemy projectiles and bounces back at their caster.

Animation: Johnny stands in a gunslinger quick-draw stance, and his right gun glows reddish hellfire. He shoots rapidly from the hip, and after performs a spin with his gun when finished. For the single draw he does the same but shoots only once with bigger impact, if zooming he moves his hand to an ADS position. Example:



Design Note: This gives Johnny early wave clear and nuke while scaling into late-game with spirit items. The tap vs. hold mechanic lets players choose between guaranteed multi-target damage or a single target skill-shot. Can proc item effects but deals separate spirit damage from his gun, fire rate doesn't affect the ability's speed.

2. Dubious Contract​

Johnny's devil hands rapidly scrawl a FAIR & TRANSPARENT binding contract, marking an enemy with "Unsigned Contract." His next shot against the marked target deals bonus spirit damage and heals Johnny for the same amount, "signing" the contract and allowing healing on subsequent shots to that target for a short duration. If Johnny fails to "sign" the contract, he receives the skill's spirit damage instead of the target.

Stats:

• Targeted skill
• Cooldown: Medium-High
• Damage: Medium spirit damage + heal
• Duration: 6-8 seconds unsigned, 4ish seconds signed
• Self-damage penalty: Equal to the bonus first shot damage

Upgrades:

• Level 1: +2 seconds to both contract states
• Level 2: +1 charge
• Level 3: Each shot on a "signed" target steals % of its movement speed for 2 seconds.

Animation: Johnny writes a contract with his hands and throws it in the direction of the target after which the target will have a contract floating over their head. If Johnny shoots the target activating the contract, the contract starts to burn until the end of the signed duration when it completely burns away and expires.

Design Note: The core risk/reward sustain tool that demands aggressive play but punishes whiffs. If the character fails to hit the enemy before the unsigned contract expires, he takes the damage himself - this creates a higher skill floor as players must commit to their target selection. The healing component gives him the sustain he needs for extended firefights since he lacks escape options.

3. Sleight of the Bargainer (Passive)​

Johnny's supernatural hands have a chance to instantly reload a bullet into his gun's cylinder, bypassing normal reload mechanics.

Stats:

• Proc Chance: 8-17%(depends on his firemode)
• Internal Cooldown: 0.3 seconds
• Trigger: After firing any shot

Upgrades:

• Level 1: Each proc grants small movement speed buff for 2 seconds
• Level 2: Each proc reduces next reload time by 3%
• Level 3: Each proc can trigger a free Devil's Rapid Draw shot (inherits disarm upgrade if the first ability is maxed)

Animation: A swift animation of his hand shoving a bullet into the Cylinder of the gun, the same hand that holds the gun. The hands are supernatural so the animation can be not really anatomic.

Design Note: This smooths out Johnny's reload-heavy gameplay and provides a hybrid build path with ability synergy. Players can focus on the first ability and in addition boost the hero's fire rate and shorten his reload time to play into proccing the first skill in down time while the first is on cooldown.

4. Infernal Shootout (Ultimate)​

Johnny's guns ignite with hellfire as he embraces his demonic nature, his supernatural side takes control, granting massive fire rate increase and removing animation and movement locks from Devil's Draw. Each kill extends the duration for short period of time (1.5-2.5 seconds), but he cannot use any movement tech except climbing.

Stats:

• Duration: 8ish seconds base
• Fire Rate Increase: Very High
• Passive Proc Chance: Increased to 1.5x or 2x the base amount
• Movement Restriction: Cannot use dash, zip lines, or any movement abilities

Upgrades:

• Level 1: Greatly increased movement speed, bonus speed per kill
• Level 2: +3 seconds base duration
• Level 3: Headshots give 0.2-3 seconds reduction and kills reduce all ability cooldowns by 4 seconds, essentially removes internal cooldown from passive (Sleight of the Bargainer).

Animation: Johnny tosses his guns up and snaps his fingers in a short animation and transforms into a more devilish form. His guns get a different sound and are burning or have some other infernal effect. He does not stand still while using the first skill while the ult is active rather he continues to move and doesn't have the spin animation after the first skill firing.

Design Note: The ultimate that defines Devilhands's high-risk, high-reward nature. Like Haze's ultimate, it locks him into a commitment - he gains incredible damage potential but loses all escape options. This forces players to position carefully before activating and makes team coordination crucial. The movement speed upgrade helps offset the mobility loss a little (he still can't chase anybody who can hide from high in vertical places), while the cooldown reduction can play into the more spirit focused build.

Weapon: The Devil's Due​

Johnny wields a pair of massive long-barrel revolvers - unnaturally polished, clean and rich they are extensions of the devil's uncanny powers. Each gun holds 6 rounds in separate magazines, dealing high per-shot damage and projectile speed but slow fire rate and reload.

Firing Mechanics

I thought about two separate mechanics of shooting for him. Yes, he is a gunslinger and zooming would be very important but he is also not really a long-range marksman and the first skill already gives him the ability to zoom in and aim, so I thought maybe he can have something unique.

Standard implementation: Left-click shoots one bullet from each gun in sequence - right gun, then left gun, alternating with each click. Pressing “R” reloads each revolver as a single weapon.

Alternative Advanced implementation: Each mouse button controls one gun independently. Left-click fires left gun, right-click fires right gun. Clicking both simultaneously fires both guns at once. This gives more control but removes the zoom option (right-click is occupied).

Reload Systems​

Three possible implementations:

1. Unified Reload: Both guns reload together with one animation. When any gun is empty, shooting uses whichever gun has ammo available.
2. Audio Clues: Character says the side of whichever gun is empty (says "right" if right gun empty). Empty gun produces a "click" sound when fired. Reload button reloads both guns.
3. Sequential Control: Hold reload to reload both guns. Tap reload to reload the emptier/empty gun first. The other gun can still fire if it has ammo.

Design Note: The twin gun system creates unique reload timing decisions and emphasizes Johnny's gun focus as a proper gunslinger. Though it's more tricky and maybe needlessly complex or uncomfortable to use. I don't know. Though on the sequential control, it could be cool if the char would reload the empty gun with only one hand as implied so he can shoot with the other gun freely.

Gameplay Identity​

Strengths

• Incredible sustained damage in extended fights
• Strong sustain through Dubious Contract
• Excellent at gunning down single or few enemies caught by a fellow teammate
• Scales with both weapon and spirit items
• The skill floor isn’t very high for players who are good at aiming, but he offers a high skill ceiling for trick shots with his first ability and smart contract picks in the middle of a teamfight.

Weaknesses

• Extremely vulnerable to mobile heroes and ganks especially early on.
• Ultimate removes escape options when he needs them most
• Requires hitting shots to maintain sustain
• Cannot do much without items, as even his only control in terms of a slow from the contract and a disarm are locked in the highest ability levels
• Long reload

Playstyle​

He is a carry, immobile hero who shines most with setups from teammates to hold enemies in place, or in a literal shootout where he can essentially outgun anyone until they either escape or disable him, completing the cowboy/gunslinger fantasy. His first skill is ideal for farming camps and lanes, so he uses it along with his third skill to farm and push lanes, saving his ultimate and the contract for team fights or when he gets jumped. He is a more tanky variation of Haze, but without a big AOE ultimate or any escape.

Visual Design​

Professional Confidant Facade: Sharp black overcoat with red details, crisp white shirt with tie or bowtie. Red cowboy hat (worn or hanging from his coat). Well-groomed goatee and slicked-back hair. Black pants and boots with red, black, and brown detailing. Disturbingly polished look for a bounty hunter, that contrasts with his facial expression, voice lines or maybe the way he walks. The idea is that the hands are the ones keeping his attire as sharp as possible, he just isn’t against it.

Demonic Parts: His overcoat sleeves are torn and re-stitched at the forearms, revealing supernatural red hands with yellowish details. Each palm contains a closed eye - these were the host of Johnny's devil's eyes before. The contract scroll is visible in his breast pocket, or on his belt.

Transformation: During his ultimate, the demonic features become more pronounced - eyes blaze brighter, maybe small horns appear, his usual demeanor shifts to something more predatory and confident, his guns glow or burn with fire etc.

Lore ​

Personality: Johnny himself is a simple country guy with a good heart who fears being weak and unable to protect people, but maybe more from a selfish perspective. He enjoys the power (each day more and more) his hands provide but hates their evil nature (each day less and less). The hands can communicate with him, trying to persuade him toward evil behavior rather than directly controlling him.

During his ultimate, the devil's influence soaks through his personality - his voice lines become more confident, cruel, and eloquent as the supernatural entity speaks through him. He essentially loses himself to the Bargainer.

Contract and the Bargainer:. Johnny's contract may be anything. The devil maybe interested in Johnny's soul, or the ability to possess his body, or the end goal of Johnny's. Many things. The only part that is certain is the hands and that they actually do help Johnny to hunt down criminals including the occult ones and be unbitable gunslinger, and they also never deny Johnny’s straight orders, rather try to persuade him to do evil stuff by his own will.

The devil maybe an eldritch being as the Oathkeeper or Dormant or the Patrons. Somewhere on that level of mystery and spooky power.

Reason for participating in the ritual: He wants to change the details of the contract. Is it his own will, or is he being manipulated by his hands, which might not end well for him? Or maybe he actually has a chance to outsmart the Bargainer?

Story​

John Oldnick was just another small-town dreamer from Arizona who thought his decent aim made him hero material. Reality hit hard when he left his dusty hometown - the mystical criminals of the big city weren't impressed by his six-shooter skills.

His first job went fine: saved an old lady from some Vegas street thugs. Easy money, easy confidence. His second job? A massacre. Johnny barely crawled away alive while everyone he was supposed to protect died around him. The hospital docs said his hands were done - nerve damage, tremors. No more shooting, no more hero dreams.

That's when the old man found him. Dressed like a traveling musician but with eyes that knew too much. Called himself an enterprising doctor - the mystical kind. Offered Johnny a simple trade: new hands for a signature on an ancient contract.

Johnny was desperate enough to sign without reading the fine print. The old man insisted he sign with his own blood, right here on the crossroad, in the middle of a street - an odd thing Johnny didn't think much about at the time.

He woke up the next morning in a Vegas hotel room with his old hands sitting on his chest like discarded gloves. In their place: the stranger's own appendages, complete with glowing eyes embedded in the palms and with supernatural marksmanship. The eyes looked at him thoughtfully, as if taking measurements for something he wasn't ready yet.

The contract? As if he could have read the gibberish scrawled across that ancient piece of parchment anyway, but Johnny's pretty sure he got the worse end of the deal.

Lore connections​

I was looking after the lore of the game, so maybe a few connection ideas. Making him another victim of Troubadour that tries to get revenge maybe a little lame, so I tried to give him another motivation but still kept him intact to the whole Holliday story from the South.

The Troubadour: Johnny's contract might be the devil's way of reaching the Troubadour. Johnny himself sees the Troubadour as the ultimate criminal to hunt, unaware he's being manipulated. The devil may not want Johnny's soul but rather uses him as a tool to get to this powerful entity.

Holiday: she is a another Troubadour hunter, but Johnny would approach this connection differently - seeing the Troubadour as big game to hunt by his own choice, not necessarily for revenge.

The Baxter Society: Johnny may be hesitant to join, thinking his powers are too evil and he's not worthy, or he might actively seek them out. His internal conflict about the source of his power creates interesting story opportunities.

P.S.:​

I got the idea for this concept while actively playing Remnant 2 and leveling Gunslinger. Then I heard the news about the update and checked out Deadlock. His first skill is essentially the starter ability of the Gunslinger class from Remnant, almost 1-to-1. I just really like every aspect of it, and I think it would work nicely in Deadlock.

The overall design, appearance, and personality are inspired by Futurama, specifically when Fry gets the robot-devil hands and they change his life - he doesn’t want to give them up, but they cause trouble. Johnny is a sort of Fry in this scenario.

I am obviously not a game developer, and any numbers and specific mechanics mentioned are just examples without much testing or thorough calculation. I just like thinking about concepts like this from time to time. I think the idea of a character with supernatural hands from a devilish entity fits the setting - maybe not this specific gunslinger, but as a concept it seems very cool and occult.

GL HF.​