About Deadlock
Deadlock puts you on the villain's side of a boarding action. You are the Engineer of VEX, the rogue mind of a deep-space station, and VEX is holding Admiral Keogh in a stasis pod on the top deck of its tower. The Fleet wants him back. Wave after wave of boarders docks at the airlock below and climbs deck by deck toward the pod, and your job is to make sure none of them leave with him. If you liked Castle Doombad, this is the same delicious idea moved into orbit: you build the death trap, they walk into it. VEX tells the story in an animated intro, read aloud in a calm synthetic voice, and keeps up a running, unrepentant commentary while you play.
The campaign runs across 15 levels in three sectors of the station, Cargo Bay, Life Support and the Barracks, with Commander Rourke leading a boss assault at the end of each one. Level 1 hands you three traps, most levels after that add a new trap, a new kind of boarder or an AI power, and each first clear tells you what it unlocked. Stars and Tritium carry between sessions, Tritium buys trap tiers, loadout slots and station upgrades, and Endless Siege opens once you have cleared five levels.
How to Play Deadlock
Before each level, pick your loadout from the traps you have unlocked. Then spend Data, which the captive Admiral leaks while he stays in the pod, on traps. Every deck has three layers to build on: the floor, the wall and the ceiling, and each tile can hold one trap per layer, up to nine traps per deck, not counting Blast Doors. Each level opens with the boarders cutting through the airlock, which gives you a few seconds (twelve on the first level, eight from level five on) to get traps down before they break in. Tap Let Them In to open the door early for a little bonus Data. After that, kills pay out and you keep building between waves, and you can call the next wave before its timer runs out for a little bonus Data.
Boarders who reach the pod start cracking it. If it opens, one of them carries the Admiral back toward the airlock, and if he gets out the level is lost. Kill the carrier and the Admiral drops; leave him alone for a few seconds and a tractor beam brings him home. Stars reward a clean defense: hold the station, keep the Admiral in the pod, and keep every boarder's hands off it.
Controls
- Tap a trap card, then a glowing slot: place the trap (floor, wall or ceiling, shown by the highlight)
- Tap a placed Slam Plate or Rail Gun: fire it (with no boarder in reach it holds fire, so a tap never wastes the cooldown)
- Tap any other placed trap, or long-press any trap: open its menu to sell it
- Drag or mouse wheel: scroll the station. Pinch or Ctrl + wheel: zoom. The radar on the right jumps between decks
- Keys 1–9: pick a trap from your loadout
- Space: let them in, or call the next wave early
- Q / E: Overload and Lockdown AI powers
- F: fast forward. Esc: pause. L: leaderboard
Tips and Strategy
- Build combos, not piles. A Launch Pad under a Slam Plate fires the plate for free when it flings a boarder into the ceiling. A Vacuum Vent blows boarders back across your Plasma Grids so they burn twice.
- Freeze, then shatter. Cryo Jets freeze boarders solid, frozen boarders take 50% more damage, and a Slam Plate on a frozen boarder shatters them.
- Corrode the tough ones. Coolant Leaks make boarders take 50% more from every other trap, which is how you bring down Breachers and Rourke.
- Mix your layers. Infiltrators vault floor traps and Breachers stomp them offline, so every deck wants something on the wall or ceiling too.
- Doors buy time. A Blast Door placed just past a trap holds boarders inside it while they cut, and it stops a carrier cold.
- Drop them onto something. A Drop Hatch sends a boarder down a deck. Put a Spike Bulkhead, Slam Plate or Arc Turret where they land and the hit counts as a combo.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you win a level in Deadlock?
Boarders dock at the airlock on the bottom deck and climb ladder by ladder to the stasis pod on the top deck. You win when every wave is dead. You lose when a boarder carries Admiral Keogh all the way back to the airlock. Each level awards up to three stars: one for holding the station, one if the Admiral never left the pod, and one if no boarder ever touched the pod.
What happens when boarders reach the pod?
A boarder standing at the pod starts cracking it. One boarder needs about five and a half seconds, and several crackers together work faster. Once it opens, a boarder lifts the Admiral and walks him back down toward the airlock. Kill the carrier and the Admiral drops. If no boarder grabs him within about three seconds, a tractor beam pulls him back into the pod and it reseals, partly cracked. While the Admiral is being carried, Drop Hatches lock so they cannot send him back down a deck.
What traps are in Deadlock?
There are 13. Level 1 starts you with three (Plasma Grid, Spike Bulkhead and Blast Door), and the rest unlock one at a time through the campaign. Floor traps: Plasma Grid, Launch Pad, Drop Hatch and Vacuum Vent. Wall traps: Spike Bulkhead, Cryo Jet and Rail Gun. Ceiling traps: Slam Plate, Arc Turret and Coolant Leak. Minions: Security Mech and Drone Swarm, three per deck. Barrier: Blast Door, which even a carrier has to cut through. Slam Plate and Rail Gun are manual and fire when you tap them; the rest fire on their own. A deck holds at most nine traps (Blast Doors don't count), so the tower has to be defended floor by floor.
How do combos work?
A boarder who has just been flung by a Launch Pad, dropped through a Drop Hatch or gusted by a Vacuum Vent is off balance for a moment, and a hit from a striking trap in that window (spikes, plates, turrets, coolant, rail, a fall) counts as a combo and scores extra. Steady damage from Plasma Grids, Mechs and Drones does not. A boarder launched into a ceiling trap sets it off for free, and one who lands on another Launch Pad bounces again for a pinball. Frozen boarders take 50% more damage and Slam Plates shatter them, and corroded boarders take 50% more from everything.
What kinds of boarders are there?
Marines are the basic troops. Snipers stop to shoot your minions and knock wall and ceiling traps offline for a few seconds. Infiltrators vault floor traps and crawl through vent ducts. Breachers are slow tanks that cut doors fast and stomp floor traps offline. Field Medics heal everyone near them. Commander Rourke leads the boss levels with huge health, shrugs off freezes and stuns, and speeds up the squad around him.
What is Tritium and what does it buy?
Tritium is the currency you keep between levels. Every level pays some, new stars pay more, and a first clear pays a bonus. Spend it in Upgrades on tier 2 and tier 3 for each trap, extra loadout slots (from four up to seven), a Data Core for more starting Data, Pod Hardening to slow cracking, and stronger AI powers. Overload stuns and zaps every boarder on one deck; Lockdown seals the pod and knocks crackers back. Clear five levels to open Endless Siege, where waves keep coming until a boarder carries the Admiral out.
