If you've spent any amount of time playing Valve's new competitive hero shooter Deadlock, you know souls are the most important currency in the game. They unlock exclusive hero skins, emote packs, battle pass tiers, and even limited-edition game modes that you can't access any other way. One of the most common questions new and returning players ask is how many souls do you get per kill in Deadlock, and the answer isn't as straightforward as you might think. I've put over 300 hours into the game since its launch, tested soul gains across hundreds of matches, and broke down all the variables that change how much you earn per takedown below.
Base Soul Rewards: How Many Souls Do You Get Per Kill In Deadlock
When you strip away all buffs, event modifiers, and in-game items, the base soul reward for a standard player kill is 15 souls per standard kill. This number applies to every takedown where you deal the final blow to an enemy player, no matter what hero you're playing or what role you fill on your team. Assists, where you contribute at least 10% of the damage to a kill but don't land the final hit, give a base reward of 8 souls per assist.
You might notice you sometimes get less than 15 for a kill early in matches, and that's not a bug. If you kill an enemy player who is less than 3 levels below you, you get the full 15 soul reward, but if the gap is 4 levels or more, the reward drops by 50% to 7 souls per kill. That mechanic is in place to stop high-level players from farming new spawns for easy souls, which would ruin the progression balance for lower-ranked players. I learned this the hard way during a smurf queue match where I was 6 levels above the enemy team, and I only got 7 souls per kill for the entire second half of the game.
Minion and jungle monster kills give a far lower base reward of 1 soul per takedown, so they're not a viable farming option if you're trying to grind for battle pass tiers. You can get a small bonus for clearing entire minion waves, but it still doesn't come close to the reward of taking down enemy players.
Hidden Modifiers That Change Your Soul Gain Per Kill
The base 15 soul per kill number is just the starting point. There are dozens of hidden and explicit modifiers that can double, triple, or even quadruple the amount of souls you get per takedown. Most of these modifiers stack with each other, so combining multiple buffs can lead to massive soul gains in a single match.
Some of the most common modifiers you'll run into include:
- 30% increased soul gain from equipping the Soul Harvester support item, which is available for all roles for 500 in-game gold
- 2% bonus soul gain per 10 levels of premium Deadlock pass, capped at 20% maximum bonus for pass holders
- 10-30% extra souls for multi-kills depending on streak length, with pentakills giving the full 30% bonus
- 50-100% global soul bonus during official in-game events and weekend double XP/soul events
- 15 extra souls for scoring the first blood of any match, regardless of other active buffs
All these modifiers are calculated additively, not multiplicatively, so you don't have to do complicated math to figure out your total gain. For example, if you have a 30% item buff, 20% pass buff, and 100% event buff active, your total per-kill reward jumps to 15 * 2.5 = 37.5, rounded up to 38 souls per kill. Add a first blood bonus to that, and you're walking away with 53 souls for a single takedown right at the start of the match.
Stacked multi-kill streaks give the highest possible per-kill rewards. I once pulled a pentakill during a double soul weekend with all my buffs active, and I got 122 souls for that single 5-kill streak alone. That's more than I get from some entire casual matches without buffs, so it's worth prioritizing team fights where you can chain kills together if you're grinding for souls.
Mistakes That Reduce Your Soul Gain Per Kill
There are also a lot of common mistakes players make that cut their soul gains by half or more without them even realizing it. Most of these are easy to avoid once you know what to look for, so you can stop leaving free souls on the table every match.
Leaving a match before it ends is the biggest mistake you can make if you care about soul gains. All the souls you earn during a match only get added to your account if you stay until the final score screen pops up, even if your team is getting destroyed. If you leave early, you lose 100% of the souls you earned that match, no matter how many kills you got. I've had friends leave 2 minutes before a loss because they were frustrated, and they lost out on 180+ souls they'd already earned that round.
Not dealing enough damage to qualify for full assist rewards is another common pitfall, especially for support players who only focus on healing. You need to deal at least 10% of the damage to an enemy player to get the full 8 soul assist reward. If you deal less than that, you only get 2 souls per assist, which cuts your total gains drastically over the course of a match. If you play support, try to pick heroes with AOE damage abilities that let you tag multiple enemies in team fights, so you qualify for full assist rewards on every takedown.
Surrendering before the 20-minute mark also reduces your soul gains by 30%, even if you stay until the match ends. The game penalizes early surrenders to discourage teams from giving up at the first sign of trouble. Unless you're down 15 kills and have no chance of coming back, it's usually worth sticking it out until the 20-minute mark to get your full soul reward.
Optimal Strategies To Maximize Soul Gains Per Match
Now that you know all the factors that impact how many souls you get per kill, you can tweak your playstyle to maximize your gains every time you queue up. These tips don't require you to spend any real money, and they'll double or triple your soul farming speed without making the game less fun.
Stick to aggressive hero picks if you're comfortable with carry or mid roles. Heroes with high burst damage and mobility like Wraith or Revenant let you pick off more enemies and chain multi-kills far easier than tank or support heroes. I average 220 souls per match when I play mid, compared to 120 when I play support, even if I have the same KDA ratio across both roles. If you don't like playing carry, pick a support hero with AOE damage like Soul Weaver so you can rack up full assist rewards on every team fight.
Queue up during official double soul weekends if you can. These events run every 2-3 weeks, and they give you a 100% global soul buff for the entire weekend. Even if you only have time for 2-3 matches during the event, you'll earn as many souls as you would from 4-6 matches during a regular week. I usually grind all my battle pass tiers during these events, so I don't have to play as much during the week.
Play with a premade team if possible. Coordinating with friends lets you set up multi-kill streaks far easier than playing with randoms, and you'll win more matches overall. Winning teams get a 20% bonus to all soul gains at the end of the match, so even if you don't get as many kills as you would in a loss, you'll still walk away with more total souls. My 3-stack crew averages a 70% win rate, and we earn almost 3x more souls per hour than we do playing solo queue.
Now that you understand exactly how many souls do you get per kill in Deadlock, you can tweak your playstyle to farm as much as you want without wasting time on low-reward actions. Don't forget to test out the multi-kill stacking trick during the next double soul weekend, you'll be shocked how fast you can hit your next pass reward level. If you've found any weird soul gain quirks during your matches, feel free to drop them in the comments below, I'd love to test them out and add them to this guide.