If you’ve ever finished a Deadlock match 2 levels behind your lane opponent even though you didn’t die once, you already know how critical farming efficiency is. Most new players brush off consistent minion and neutral camp clears as a low-skill task, but it’s the foundation of every high-elo win, whether you’re playing a tank, carry, or support. If you want to stop falling behind and start building core items 2+ minutes earlier than the enemy team, learning how to farm in Deadlock the right way is the first skill you need to master. You don’t need lightning-fast mechanics to get good at it either—most of the work comes down to smart decision-making and consistent habits.
Core Rules for How to Farm in Deadlock Without Falling Behind in Fights
The biggest mistake new players make when farming is choosing between clearing minions and helping their team. You don’t have to pick one, but you do need to set clear priorities based on the current game state. If you follow these rules, you’ll nail how to farm in Deadlock without putting your team at a disadvantage. Every 10 seconds you spend not farming when there are available resources is 20-30 gold you’re throwing away, so every decision to leave your lane needs to be worth that lost gold.
For example, chasing a low-health enemy across the map for a potential kill is almost never worth missing a full minion wave. A kill gives you 300 gold on average, but a full wave plus a small neutral camp gives you 270 gold with zero risk of dying. I’ve seen so many bronze players waste 30 seconds chasing an enemy they never even catch, then lose 4 minions under their tower that would have given them more gold than the kill would have.
The only time you should drop farming immediately is if your team is contesting a high-value objective like a Titan capture or core tower defense. Those wins give your entire team more gold and map control than any amount of solo farming could ever match. For every other small skirmish, finish clearing your current wave first before rotating—you’ll be stronger when you arrive anyway.
Best Lane Farming Routines for Every Role
Farming looks different for every role, and you don’t have to last hit every minion if you’re not playing a carry, but every role has a routine that maximizes total team gold. For carry players, your first 10 minutes of the game should be almost entirely focused on lane farming, with very few rotations. Last hitting a minion gives you 100% of its gold value, while only getting assist gold gives you 40% at most, so it’s worth holding off on using your abilities to clear waves until you can time them to land the killing blow on every minion.
Support players don’t need to worry about last hitting, but you play a huge role in helping your carry farm safely. You should stand in the brush near your lane to spot incoming ganks, and use your abilities to push the wave under the enemy tower when your carry is backing to buy items. That way, the enemy loses gold from minions that die under their tower, and your carry doesn’t lose any gold while they’re gone. Mid laners have the most flexible farming routine: clear your wave as fast as safely possible, then take the nearest small neutral camp before rotating to help top or bottom lane.
Offlaners have the hardest farming job, because you’re usually outnumbered in your lane for the first 5 minutes of the game. Focus on clearing minions that get under your tower first, and don’t worry about missing last hits on minions that are too close to the enemy carry. It’s better to give up 20 gold than to get ganked and give the enemy 300 gold plus a tower plate. Once you get your first defensive item, you can start stealing the enemy’s small neutral camps when their carry is distracted by a gank.
Neutral Camp Farming Optimization Hacks
Lane farming is your top priority for the first 10 minutes of the game, but neutral camps become more valuable as the match goes on. Neutral camps give 30% more gold and XP than lane minions after the 10 minute mark, so you should be spending at least half your farming time clearing camps once you hit that point. Camps respawn every 90 seconds, so you can mark them on your map when you clear them to make sure you come back right as they spawn.
These small hacks will help you clear camps faster and with less risk, so you can get back to lane or team fights quicker:
I used to waste 2 minutes per match walking all the way across the map to clear a single small camp, until I realized I could get the same gold by clearing two camps closer to my lane in half the time. You should also avoid clearing camps that are right next to a team fight that’s already started—your team needs you there, and the camp will still be there after the fight is over if you win. If you lose the fight because you were farming, you’ll lose access to that half of the map anyway, so you won’t be able to finish clearing the camp.
Common Farming Mistakes That Are Costing You Wins
Even players who know the basics of farming often make small mistakes that add up to huge gold leads for the enemy team. The most common one is overfarming, where you stay in the jungle clearing camps while your team is losing a team fight for a high-value objective. You should always drop whatever farming you're doing if your team is contesting a titan or core tower, even if you're halfway through a camp clear. Losing that objective will cost your team more gold than the 100 gold you’d get from finishing the camp, and you’ll lose map control that makes it harder to farm later.
Another common mistake is ignoring lane priority to farm camps. If you leave your lane to go to the jungle when the enemy wave is pushing under your tower, you’ll lose 3+ minions worth of gold and your tower will take 2-3 hits of damage. That adds up over time, and you could lose your tower 2 minutes earlier than you would have if you’d just cleared the wave first. You should also avoid wasting high-damage abilities on small minions when you could save them to clear a whole wave or a large camp faster.
Finally, a lot of players forget to adjust their farming habits based on whether their team is ahead or behind. If your team is ahead by 3 kills and 2 towers, you can farm aggressively in the enemy’s jungle to deny them gold and put them even further behind. If your team is behind, you should stick to farming camps and lanes close to your towers, so you don’t get picked off and give the enemy an even bigger lead. For every minute you farm efficiently, you’re building a 100+ gold lead over the enemy player in the same role, so even small mistakes add up to big gaps over the course of a 30 minute match.
At the end of the day, farming is a skill that takes practice to get right, but it’s one of the fastest ways to climb ranks in Deadlock. You don’t need fancy mechanics to get good at it—you just need to pay attention to available resources, balance farming with team fights, and avoid the common mistakes we covered. If you spend 10 minutes per practice match focusing solely on how to farm in Deadlock before you start worrying about kills, you’ll notice your gold per minute numbers jump 20% or more in your next few matches. Don’t get discouraged if you miss last hits or make bad rotation calls at first—even pro players mess up their farming routines sometimes. Just track your gold per minute after each match, and you’ll see steady improvement over time.