I remember when I first jumped into Deadlock’s open beta, I had three friends waiting to queue with me, but I spent almost 15 minutes clicking through every menu tab trying to figure out how to send them friend requests. I kept typing their usernames wrong, missed the cross-platform toggle, and almost gave up before I stumbled on the right process. Deadlock’s social menu is intuitive once you know where to look, but it doesn’t hold your hand for new players. If you’re wondering how to add friends to Deadlock without the same frustration I faced, this guide walks you through every supported method, plus troubleshooting tips for common glitches.
Step-by-Step Methods to Add Friends to Deadlock Across All Platforms
Deadlock supports cross-platform play across PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch, so you can add friends no matter what device they’re playing on. The method you use will depend on whether you’re playing on the same platform or cross-platform, and all processes take less than a minute once you know the steps. Before you start, there are a few quick pre-requisites to check to avoid unnecessary errors:
- You have linked your Deadlock account to your platform’s profile (Steam, PlayStation Network, Xbox Live, or Nintendo Switch Online)
- Your friend has enabled cross-platform play in their Deadlock account settings
- You have the correct spelling of your friend’s Deadlock display name or platform ID, including any unique numbers or special characters
- Both of you are running the latest version of Deadlock to avoid compatibility issues
Steam account sync is the fastest method for PC players, since Deadlock is a Valve-published title. If you’re on PC, all your Steam friends who own Deadlock will automatically populate your in-game friend list once you launch the game, no extra steps needed. You can see their online status, what game mode they’re playing, and invite them to your lobby directly from the social menu. Cross-platform ID search works for players across different devices, so you can add a friend on Xbox even if you’re playing on PC. You’ll need to ask for their full Deadlock ID, which includes the unique 4-digit suffix after their display name, to find them correctly.
How to Send and Accept Friend Requests in Deadlock
Sending a friend request only takes a few clicks once you have the right information. First, open the social menu by clicking the small person icon in the top right corner of the main menu screen. Navigate to the “Add Friend” tab, type in your friend’s full display name or platform ID, and click the “Send Request” button next to their profile when it pops up in the search results. You’ll get a small on-screen notification confirming the request was sent successfully.
Accepting requests is even simpler. Go back to the main social menu tab, and click the “Pending Requests” button near the top of the screen. You’ll see all incoming friend requests, with options to accept, decline, or block the sender. You can set your friend request privacy to “friends of friends” or “private” if you don’t want random players sending you requests after ranked matches. This is especially useful if you play a lot of public queues and don’t want to sift through dozens of unwanted requests every time you log in.
If you play with a random teammate who communicates well and you want to queue with them again later, you don’t have to ask for their ID. Just go to the post-match scoreboard, click their name, and select “Send Friend Request” from the dropdown menu. Pending friend requests expire after 14 days, so if you don’t get a response within that window, you’ll need to resend the request. It’s not uncommon for players to miss notifications, so don’t take it personally if your request expires without a response.
Common Issues When Adding Friends to Deadlock (And How to Fix Them)
Even if you follow all the steps correctly, you might run into occasional glitches that stop friend requests from going through or showing up. Most of these issues have simple fixes that take less than two minutes to try, so you don’t have to wait for a game patch to play with your friends.
The most common issue is a friend request not showing up in the recipient’s pending tab. The first fix to try is restarting your game, as this forces the social menu to sync with Deadlock’s servers and pulls in any missed notifications. If that doesn’t work, log out of your Deadlock account and log back in, or restart your device entirely to clear any temporary cache issues. One of the most overlooked fixes for missing friend requests is checking your blocked player list, since you might have accidentally blocked a friend during a chaotic match without realizing it. If you see their name on the blocked list, unblock them and resend the request.
Another common problem is getting a “user not found” error when you search for a friend’s ID. Double check that you typed their full display name correctly, including capitalization, special characters, and the 4-digit suffix at the end. Many players have similar or identical usernames, so the suffix is required to find the right account. If cross-platform requests keep failing, make sure both of you have enabled cross-platform play in your account settings under the “privacy” tab. Many console players have this disabled by default, which blocks all incoming cross-platform friend requests and makes your profile unsearchable to players on other devices.
Tips to Manage Your Deadlock Friend List Efficiently
Once you’ve added all your regular teammates, there are a few small features you can use to keep your friend list organized and easy to navigate, especially if you add a lot of new players from public matches. These tips will save you time when you’re trying to find people to queue with, so you can spend less time scrolling through menus and more time playing.
You can favorite up to 20 friends to pin them to the top of your friend list, which is perfect for the people you play with most often. To favorite a friend, click their name in the social menu and select the “Favorite” option from the dropdown. You can also create custom groups for your friends, like “Ranked Squad” or “Casual Queue Friends”, to filter your list based on what type of match you want to play. This is a huge time saver if you have 50+ friends on your list and don’t want to scroll through all of them to find the people you play ranked with.
You can also adjust individual friend settings to mute voice or text chat for specific players without removing them from your list, if you have a friend who’s fun to play with but gets too loud during tense matches. If you don’t want to play with someone anymore, you can remove them from your friend list at any time, and they won’t get a notification that you removed them. You can also adjust your status to “offline” if you want to play solo without getting invite spammed, while still being able to see your friends’ online status if you want to join their lobby later.
Deadlock is a team-focused game, and playing with people you know makes every match way more fun than queuing solo, whether you’re playing casual custom games or grinding for a higher rank. Knowing how to add friends to Deadlock is the first step to building a consistent squad, avoiding toxic random players, and getting the most out of every play session. I still add new friends after every few matches when I find someone who communicates well and plays well with my team, and it’s made my time playing Deadlock way more enjoyable than it was when I first started. Try out the tips above, and you’ll be queuing with your friends in no time.