How to play Deadlock early: Valve’s Alpha playtest explained

Deadlock’s not-so-secret hero shooter MOBA is well into its playtest, but it’s quite an exclusive game to get into. Here’s what you need to know if you want in.

With tens of thousands of players online with its gameplay footage steadily leaking since May, Valve has finally publicly acknowledged the existence of its new game.

Now getting recognition from its creators, Deadlock’s hype has been mounting. With the player count steadily growing, you may be interested in checking out the hero shooter MOBA too during its playtest.

So if you are, here is everything you need to know about getting into Deadlock, including a variety of ways to get your hands on an Alpha playtest key.

How to get into Deadlock’s Alpha playtest

Currently, there are two main ways to get into Deadlock early, either be randomly invited by Valve or receive an invite from a friend.

Getting a random invite from Valve is the harder option as you’ll just need to get lucky, and with the large amount of Steam accounts floating around your chances are quite small.

However, invites are being sent out by Valve regularly, so as the days go on, the odds are slowly building for you.

Additionally, a friend who already has access can recommend Steam friends for invites, but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll get an invitation from Valve.

Valve finally putting up a store page for Deadlock also indicates that it’ll be available to the public soon. Keep an eye on this page for more details as it gets updated, and perhaps news on when we can expect the game to go public.

If you have a friend who already has access, they can send you an invite to the playtest as well. They can easily do it from the game, and you can just accept it when you get it. Bear in mind that playtest times are limited based on region.

This means that if you get an invite from a friend, you can in turn invite more friends to join in, which looks to be Valve’s strategy when it comes to spreading the playtest around.

However, Deadlock’s subreddit has a megathread where you can ask for invites. If you’re lost on how to get one and you really want to play, this is your best bet. You’ll have to add whoever gets you in as a friend, and you could get banned if the person who brought you in were to get caught cheating.

How long is Deadlock’s playtest?

Currently, there is no official end date for Deadlock’s playtest.

Valve has yet to announce an end to the playtest, and it looks like the devs are planning on keeping it active.

If it is anything like Counter-Strike 2’s closed beta, it will be active until the game officially releases, but there is no official release date for the game just yet.

If you’re already in Deadlock and want to know which characters are worth playing, check out our tier list.