Live Notes

October 6, 2026

October 6 · Baba joins the roster

Baba is now playable. Her Field Manual page includes her abilities, a complete build, situationals, and advice for playing with and against her. The next hero arrives Friday, October 9, at 2 PM PDT / 5 PM EDT.

Baba's guide · Baba's build

October 5, 2026

Minor Update 10-05-2026

October 5 changes Rat King and Sinclair. A bug that made troopers walk too slowly in lane is fixed.

Patch History

• September 29, 2026

  City Never Sleeps · September 29

  New map, Haunts, the Broker, and updates to the shop, HUD, and controls. Rat King is playable. Voting remains open; the next hero arrives October 6.

  New York has changed. Haunts replace the old neutrals across a reworked map. The shop and HUD give you more detail during a match. Rat King is now playable. Baba, Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Solomon, and Violet remain unreleased. Voting remains open. The next hero arrives Tuesday, October 6, at 2 PM PDT / 5 PM EDT.

  Around the map

  Broadway is blue lane, Greenwich is green, and York is yellow. Between them are four districts: Theater, Chinatown, Haunted Lot, and Plaza. Lane and district names also appear on the minimap.

  Haunts look and behave differently from the old neutrals. Their health bars show soul value and relative difficulty.

  New places and pickups include:

  • Sunken Plaza: Outside sound fades and stamina drains as you descend.
  • Bell Tower: Collecting its souls rings a bell audible across the map.
  • Tough Crates: These require a Heavy Melee to open and contain extra souls.
  • Buff Containers: Permanent bonuses now also include Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range, and Move Speed.
  • Healing Snacks: Pickups around the map restore health.
  • Steam Vents: Standing on a vent grants invisibility and a little regeneration.

  Haunt camps and Mid-Boss show respawn timers when you’re nearby. Mid-Boss also has a timer on the top bar. Walker attack and stomp ranges appear as you approach.

  The Broker

  The Broker exchanges high-tier items for Corrupted versions while supplies last. These come with drawbacks. Their positive and negative values can vary between matches, but are the same for everyone within a given match.

  The first shipment arrives around 30 minutes. Further Corrupted Items can be collected every 15 minutes on average, though timing varies.

  The Broker leaves when the first new hero arrives. In Street Brawl, you receive a Corrupted Item after the Round 5 item draft.

  Rat King joins the fight

  Rat King is now playable. He brings bouncing scrap grenades, swarming rats, and a suit of makeshift armor to the streets, then raises a banner to help his team push forward.

  Baba, Deadman Danny, Nurse Harrow, Solomon, and Violet remain unreleased. The next hero arrives Tuesday, October 6, at 2 PM PDT / 5 PM EDT. Voting remains open.

  The winning team’s votes count double. Your first win of the day also gives double votes. Playing earns priority tokens once the first hero releases. Campaign posters return, too.

  Finding items and reading fights

  Popular Items shows what players buy for your hero and at which stage of the game. Purchase frequency is useful context; the right item still depends on the match. Filters narrow the shop to the stats and modifiers you’re looking for.

  The Build Browser has clearer previews, copy-and-paste support, and instant category resizing. Shop search and navigation have also improved. By default, keys 1–6 switch between shop tabs.

  Chat and the event feed remain visible while shopping. The scoreboard is available on a key press.

  Health bars show player names, current health, stamina, and critical-health status. Rejuvenator and ultimate indicators add further detail. Settings let you adjust health numbers and cumulative damage displays.

  Allies are easier to see at a distance. Stat displays make changes from combat effects and shop purchases clearer.

  The event feed identifies the item or ability that landed the killing blow. It also shows the full bounty, your share, and Soul Bag information. Your death recap still shows where most of the damage came from.

  Pings cover more of the map, with extra detail about enemies, abilities, and items. You can signal an intended purchase or an item you already own. Enemy pings report health and respawn status; pinging grouped enemies can call out their number.

  Controls and visibility

  Accessibility now has dedicated settings for visuals, audio, and controls. Options include customizable dialogue subtitles, reduced camera shake, enemy UI colors, and reticle colors.

  Auto Move keeps you moving after a double-tap forward; pressing forward or back stops it. Auto Fire lets you toggle continuous firing. Auto Mantle climbs ledges you walk into without pressing Jump, including while moving backward.

  Reticle and keybind setups can be shared through a code. You can preview the settings before applying them or undo the changes afterward. More settings can also be saved per hero.

  The settings menu adds a keybind map, cursor-size controls, and clearer ways to identify or reset changed values. An inset HUD option supports 21:9 screens.

  Testing a build

  Sandbox now supports recording, sharing, and looping bot actions. The combat log breaks down damage and applied effects. A movement graph tracks changes in speed, while weapon falloff tools show where damage starts dropping and how far it falls.

  The damage readout shows DPS and total damage. A test ends three seconds after the last hit; the result stays visible until you deal damage again.

  New controls let you adjust hero and dummy states, grant permanent buffs, manage spawns, or toggle free shopping.

  In Sandbox and Explore NYC, the first crates and neutrals spawn at five seconds instead of 30.

  Other changes to know

  • Ability and item inputs respond on button press without waiting for the next input window.
  • Successfully parrying an objective no longer resets the Parry cooldown. Its cooldown now appears near the reticle.
  • Sinner's Sacrifice uses variable timing for its bonus.
  • Walkers stop firing fireballs when they die.
  • Graves can destroy Venator’s traps with gunfire.
  • Yamato received a pathing fix against solid targets such as turrets, shrines, and objectives. Valve also lists Sinclair and Doorman fixes without detailing each interaction.
  • A postgame graph tracks permanent buffs.
  • Custom lobbies support eight spectators. Spectator and replay camera controls have expanded.
  • The update adds over 15,000 new or updated pings, plus over 10,000 other voice lines. A dialogue browser lets you listen to available hero and Patron lines.
  • You’re now notified when action is taken on a player you reported. If someone is reported during a match and found to be abusing comms, they are muted for the remainder of that match and receive a 30-day comms ban.

  The update also includes engine, anti-cheat, network, performance, animation, sound, localization, and input fixes.

  Further ahead

  Valve is developing progression systems alongside customization for heroes and the Hideout. Larger item changes and alternate modes are still being explored, with no release confirmed. Future work also includes Mid-Boss, Guardians, Walkers, and older hero models. These plans are separate from the current update.

  Valve’s full update · Announcement and development notes

• September 16, 2026Comeback, objectives, and hero adjustments

  The September 16 update changes comeback rewards, objective payouts, mid-game respawns, parry and reload behavior, slows, and gun timing during movement. It also changes 22 items and 20 heroes.

  What Changed

  Comeback and Unstable Rift

  If your team is behind, Unstable Rift can grant comeback Bullet, Spirit, and Debuff Resist while you fight in the Rift area. The maximum possible resist now depends on game time: 10% + 1% per minute, about 20% around the first Rift, up to 40% at 30 minutes. Before this update, the cap was always 35%.

  Comeback Soul payouts were also reduced. Being only slightly behind no longer gives a fixed extra Soul bonus from hero kills or Unstable Rift, and comeback bounties are slightly smaller overall. If a player who is already above the enemy team's average net worth earns comeback Souls, 70% of that extra comeback value is redirected to the two lowest-net-worth teammates and paid to them over time.

  Objective bounties

  Guardians are worth 10% more Souls and Walkers 5% more. A nearby hero now gets 25% of an objective's bounty instead of 30%; the rest is still shared across all six teammates.

  Respawn

  At 20 minutes, the respawn timer is now 38 seconds instead of 35. The late-game maximum respawn times are unchanged.

  Parry, stun, and reload

  Parrying now pauses your reload. If you parry during a regular dash, the dash and its momentum stop and you parry in place. Being stunned now pauses your reload instead of restarting it.

  Underground breakables

  Underground-tunnel breakables now first spawn at 5 minutes instead of 3, and respawn every 5 minutes instead of every 3.

  Slows

  Movement slows are about 20% weaker overall, and ground-dash slows are about 10% weaker. Slows now also affect air drag at 35% of their normal slow value, so being slowed can reduce how freely you carry momentum through the air.

  Gun cycle

  Dashes and light melees no longer pause your gun's cycle time. This matters most for weapons with a longer cycle time, such as Silver's and Abrams's.

  Items · 22

  • Weakening Headshot
    • Bullet Resist Reduction -13% → -12%
  • Hollow Point
    • Bullet Resist Reduction 9% → 10%
  • Toxic Bullets
    • Spirit scaling 0.005% → 0.006%
  • Shadow Weave
    • Now builds from Sprint Boots
    • Sprint speed 1.5 → 2
    • Cooldown 45s → 37s
  • Cultist Sacrifice
    • Bounty 180% → 170%
  • Ballistic Enchantment
    • Duration 14s → 20s
  • Spiritual Overflow
    • Buildup 35% slower
    • Spirit Power on proc 40 → 30
    • Fire Rate 30% → 25%
  • Restorative Locket
    • Heal per boon 0.5 → 0.45
    • Stack range 35m → 32m
  • Trophy Collector
    • Souls per minute 18 → 16
  • Veil Walker
    • No longer builds from Sprint Boots
    • No longer grants +2 Sprint and +2 Out of Combat Regen due to loss of component
    • Movement speed bonus removed when invisibility is removed
    • Spirit Power 10 → 6
  • Fortitude
    • Max Health regen 2% → 2.25%
  • Lifestrike
    • Heal on Melee hit 100+1.5 → 120+1.75
    • Melee hit heal 30% → 35%
  • Leech
    • Bullet and Spirit Lifesteal 25% → 28%
  • Plated Armor
    • On-hit damage prevention: Fixed blocking of following on-hit spirit damage effects: Mercurial Magnum, Vindicta's Flight, Wraith's Full Auto, and Tesla Bullets/Capacitor
  • Diviner's Kevlar
    • Now grants +10% Ultimate Ability Cooldown Reduction
  • Golden Goose Egg
    • Damage Penalty -10% → -15%
    • Stored Souls now count toward net worth for comeback reward calculations
    • Souls per minute 90 → 80
  • Slowing Hex
    • Cooldown 27s → 29s
  • Radiant Regeneration
    • Healing on Ability Cast per boon scaling 2 → 1.7
  • Tankbuster
    • Current Health Bonus damage 8% → 7.5%
  • Decay
    • DPS reduced by 25%
    • Duration increased by 20%
  • Mercurial Magnum
    • Base bullet damage scaling 0.49 → 0.38
    • Base bullet damage 25% → 20%
  • Focus Lens
    • Damage 30% → 35%
    • Cast range 20m → 25m

  Heroes · 20

  • Abrams
    • Infernal Resilience T3 +8% → +9%
    • Seismic Impact T3 Unstoppable 6s → 5s
  • Celeste
    • Stamina cooldown 5 → 5.3
    • Light Eater spirit lifesteal 20% → 18%
    • Light Eater T3 +25 → +22
    • Dazzling Trick cooldown 34s → 38s
    • Radiant Daggers T2 +80 → +70
    • Shining Wonder radius 16.5m → 15.5m
    • Shining Wonder T3 Max Bounces +8 → +6
  • Graves
    • Health per boon 33 → 35
  • Haze
    • Fixation headshot stack count +2 → +3
    • Fixation T3 weapon scaling 0.0003 → 0.00035
  • Holliday
    • Health per boon 41 → 43
    • Crackshot T2 now also applies -6% Bullet Resistance for 5s
    • Lasso duration extension by Bounce Pad +1s → +1.25s
  • Ivy
    • Stone Form radius 6m → 5.75m
    • Stone Form T1 max health heal 7% → 6%
  • Kelvin
    • Frozen Shelter base ability health regen now scales with spirit power (0.2)
  • Lady Geist
    • Life Drain T3 spirit scaling +0.3 → +0.45
    • Essence Bomb T3 damage 26% → 30%
  • Lash
    • Gun falloff range 18m→54m → 16m→48m
    • Ground Strike T3 spirit scaling +0.03 → +0.04
    • Ground Strike T3 damage per meter scaling 110% → 120%
    • Grapple T2 Weapon Damage buff duration 10s → 6s
    • Flog heal 50% → 40%
    • Flog angle 38 → 40
    • Flog T3 angle +40 degrees → +25 degrees
    • Flog T3 heal +20% → +15%
  • Paige
    • Heavy Melee spirit scaling 0.3 → 0.45
    • Captivating Read T1 Cooldown -11s → -14s
    • Captivating Read T3 +1m → +2m
    • Rallying Charge collision: Fixed some collision issues
  • Paradox
    • Kinetic Carbine min damage multiplier 25% → 10%
    • Kinetic Carbine T3 no longer increases the minimum damage multiplier
  • Rem
    • Lil Helpers targeting: Fixed bug where multiple helpers could be sent to follow a single player for no effect
    • Lil Helpers instant cast UI: Now has a target UI when instant cast mode is selected
  • Shiv
    • Alt fire base damage increased by 4%
    • Alt fire damage per boon +0.2 → +0.24
    • Serrated Knives at full rage now deals 3.5% current HP damage on impact instead of ricocheting (0.01 spirit scaling)
  • Silver
    • Health per boon 28 → 31
    • Sprint speed 1.5 → 2.5
    • Dashes and light melees no longer pause gun cycle time
    • Boot Kick can only target heroes and objectives now
    • Entangling Bola can only target heroes now
    • Weighted Bola now increases gravity during the debuff and interrupts flying abilities under the same rules as Phantom Strike
  • Venator
    • Ira Domini now works with Ricochet; all shots bounce
    • Ira Domini can now split shot: one extra bolt on each side, three total
  • Viscous
    • Alt fire damage growth reduced by 10%
    • Splatter detonation cooldown 0.15 → 0.12
    • Splatter T1 +2m → +1.5m
    • The Cube cast range 26m → 20m
    • Puddle Punch cooldown 21s → 24s
    • Goo Ball T3 now also increases spirit scaling by 0.2
  • Vyper
    • Slither T3 barrier duration 5s → 4s
    • Petrifying Bola cooldown 105s → 115s
  • Warden
    • Bullet damage per boon 0.28 → 0.25
    • Fire Rate spirit scaling 0.25 → 0.21
    • Alchemical Flask projectile range and speed reduced by 30%
    • Willpower T3 spirit scaling +2.7 → +2.1
    • Willpower T3 debuff resistance 40% → 30%
  • Wraith
    • Card Trick heart heal 75 → 60
    • Card Trick heart heal spirit scaling 0.75 → 0.5
    • Card Trick Diamond Bullet/Spirit Resist reduction -8% → -7%
    • Card Trick T3 Diamond Bullet/Spirit Resist reduction -5% → -4%
    • Card Trick T3 Clubs slow +20% → +15%
    • Project Mind: Fixed getting caught on edges/corners when aiming past them
    • Full Auto spirit damage per bullet scaling 0.03 → 0.045
  • Yamato
    • Crimson Slash T3 now also increases heal spirit scaling by +0.4
    • Flying Slash light melee scaling 1.0 → 1.2

  What It Means

  Comeback rewards are less front-loaded. A small net-worth deficit no longer gives the same fixed extra Soul payout it did before, and some extra comeback Souls can now be redirected toward the two poorest players on the team.

  Objective rewards shifted slightly toward team-wide sharing. Guardians and Walkers pay more overall, but nearby players receive a smaller individual share.

  Reload and movement interactions changed. Parry and stuns pause reloads, while dashes and light melees no longer pause gun cycle time.

  Slows are weaker on the ground overall, but they now affect air drag too.

  Meta Snapshot

  September 16 snapshot

  In Doctrine's September 16 snapshot, Victor, Graves, Seven, Paige, Ivy, Lash, and Drifter had the highest win rates.

  Drifter, Bebop, Lash, Infernus, and Haze were seeing the most first-pick and ban pressure.

  Victor had the highest win rate in that snapshot, but his pick rate was very low, so treat that result cautiously.

  Items appearing often in high-level builds included:

  Spirit BurnMagic CarpetDiviner's KevlarFrenzyLucky ShotQuicksilver ReloadSuperior CooldownScourgeEthereal ShiftHealbane

  In the September 16 snapshot, Ivy and McGinnis were commonly built around gun damage, although Spirit/Turret McGinnis remained viable.

  Seven, Graves, Pocket, and Victor leaned heavily into Spirit.

  Vindicta and Haze were primarily gun-focused.

  Wraith continued to get strong value from Quicksilver Reload.

  Still Worth Remembering

  Buy for the lane you are actually playing

  Extra Regen is an early sustain option, not an automatic buy. Monster Rounds makes sense when neutral farming is part of your plan. Ability-heavy heroes often value early Spirit; heroes who have to stand in danger often value early Health. Buy the item that solves the lane in front of you.

  Shop after you create the window

  Crash the wave before leaving lane to shop whenever you can. Giving up a live wave for a purchase often costs more than the shopping trip gains.

  Do not spend every late slot on damage

  Once your core is working, buy around the problem the enemy is creating.

  • Heavy Spirit damage: Spirit Resilience
  • Heavy gun damage: Bullet Resilience
  • Healing through your damage: Healbane
  • CC keeps shutting you down: Unstoppable
  • One enemy ability keeps taking over fights: Knockdown

  The correct flex item depends on what is actually happening in the match.

  • Ranked and Standard: Ranked remains a separate queue following the July 30 matchmaking rework.
  • Stamina: Heroes in the slowest stamina bucket have slightly longer dash times following the July 28 update.
  • Shared well orbs: Base ten-soul orbs split among nearby teammates when they expire.
  • Shrines: Shrines remain invulnerable until one pair of Base Guardians has fallen.
  • Backdoor protection: Backdoor protection lasts 14 seconds. Do not waste time hitting a protected Patron.
  • Rejuvenator: Rejuvenator lasts 3 minutes. Use that window to make real map progress rather than wandering around looking for kills.
• August 22, 2026Celeste, Radiant Regeneration, Restorative Locket

  The August 22 update was small: Celeste was adjusted, Radiant Regeneration was nerfed, and Restorative Locket lost some Spirit Resistance.

  • Radiant Regeneration: Heal on cast 70 → 65.
  • Restorative Locket: Spirit Resist 10% → 8%.
  • Celeste: Dazzling Trick cooldown 32s → 34s. Second-upgrade barrier 80 + 0.70 → 70 + 0.76 Spirit scaling. Third-upgrade silence +1.5s → +1.25s; cooldown −18s → −20s. Radiant Daggers Spirit Amp per stack 8% → 7%; third-upgrade bonus +3% → +4%. Shining Wonder bounce range 17.5m → 16.5m, damage 165 → 140, Spirit scaling 0.90 → 0.60. Second upgrade also +0.45 Spirit scaling.
• August 12, 202613-hero balance pass

  Valve touched 13 heroes. No item or system changes came in that hotfix. Ranked and Standard queues, and the July stamina, urn, and shrine rules, stayed live.

  • Apollo: Riposte melee resist 22% → 25%. Second upgrade −30% melee resist → −25% + 0.4s stun. Third-upgrade lifesteal 60% / 7s → 75% / 13s. Itani Lo Sahn no longer cancels on movement abilities.
  • Billy: Base regen 2.5 → 2.0. Rising Ram third upgrade 7% max health spirit damage → +10% max health / 16s on hero hit. Chain Gang spirit scaling 1 → 0.7.
  • The Doorman: Doorway range 70m → 65m. Luggage Cart pulls are no longer an instant stomp on Walkers or base turrets until shortly after the drop.
  • Drifter: Rend spirit scaling 1.7 → 1.4. Stalker's Mark cooldown 24s → 26s. Second-upgrade cooldown reduction −12s → −10s.
  • Holliday: Powder Keg all on impact → half plus a 3s burn. Total damage unchanged. Burns stack.
  • Ivy: Stone Form third-upgrade stun +1s → +0.75s.
  • Lash: Falloff range 20–58m → 18–54m.
  • McGinnis: Bullet damage base + growth → −5%. Spirit resist per boon +0.625% → +0.35%. Mini Turrets no longer shoot zipline heroes and lost the 80% decaying resist. Mini Turret health 90 + 7.8 → 100 + 9. Medicinal Specter first upgrade +40% spirit resist → +1.5s duration; third upgrade +1.5s duration → +40% spirit resist.
  • Paige: Plot Armor weapon scaling 0.2 → 0.3.
  • Seven: Lightning Ball third-upgrade radius +1.5m → +1.75m.
  • Vindicta: Stake first-upgrade damage +65 → +45.
  • Vyper: Petrifying Bola radius 8m → 12m. Petrify 2s → 2.2s.
  • Wraith: Card Trick heal scaling 1 → 0.75. Full Auto third-upgrade spirit scaling +0.06 → +0.045.
• July 30, 2026Ranked and matchmaking

  Ranked remains a separate queue following the July 30 matchmaking rework.

  • Ranked shipped as its own queue.
  • Matchmaking was rebuilt around that queue.
• July 28, 2026Stamina, souls, items

  Heroes in the slowest stamina bucket have slightly longer dash times. Base ten-soul orbs split among nearby teammates when they expire.

  • Heroes in the slowest stamina bucket have slightly longer dash times.
  • Base ten-soul orbs split among nearby teammates when they expire.
  • Item pass on Echo Shard, Spirit Burn, and a few others.
  • Teammate voice volume slider was fixed.
• July 9, 2026Objectives and the urn

  Destroyed objectives share more souls with nearby teammates. Unstable Rift is a mid-game objective near the Urn.

  • Destroyed objectives share more souls with nearby teammates than before.
  • Unstable Rift changed.
  • Urn rules changed.