If you’ve ever found yourself 200 souls short of that core damage item right as your team starts a dragon fight, you know how frustrating bad soul farming can be. Most new players spend their first 10+ matches either ignoring farm entirely to chase fights, or farming so far away from objectives that their team gets wiped before they can contribute. This guide breaks down exactly how to farm souls in Deadlock without sacrificing team play or putting yourself at unnecessary risk, based on hundreds of hours of ranked play.
Core Principles of How to Farm Souls in Deadlock Efficiently
Before we dive into specific routines, it’s important to understand the basic rules that govern soul earnings in the game. Souls are the primary in-game currency used to buy items, unlock hero upgrades, and activate passive buffs throughout a match. You earn souls from minion kills, neutral camp clears, takedowns, objective captures, and even passive gold gain over time, but the vast majority of your income will come from intentional farming. You lose 20% of all unspent souls every time you die, so prioritizing survival while farming is non-negotiable.
Many new players make the mistake of hoarding souls for expensive high-tier items, but that’s almost always a bad call. If you die with 1000 unspent souls, you lose 200 that you could have already invested into a damage or health item that would help you farm faster and survive fights. As a general rule, spend all your available souls every time you return to base, unless you’re 100 or fewer souls away from a game-changing core item and can get back to lane safely without being ganked.
It’s also important to remember that not all farming time is equal. Farming a pushed lane right next to your turret gives you far more souls per minute than trying to steal a camp from the enemy jungle while their entire team is missing from the map. The best farmers don’t grind nonstop — they pick the safest, highest-yield farming opportunities available at any given moment.
Best Lane Farming Routines for Consistent Soul Gains
Lane farming is the most reliable way to earn souls for all roles, from support to carry. Your lane has a constant stream of minions spawning every 30 seconds, and if you manage the wave correctly, you can farm them without ever putting yourself in danger of ganks. Perfecting last-hits on lane minions gives you 100% of the soul reward for each kill, instead of the 30% you get for assisted minion kills. If you’re new to learning how to farm souls in Deadlock, your first priority should be mastering last hits before you worry about more advanced strategies like wave freezing.
Your exact lane routine will vary based on your role, but there are common rules that apply to everyone. For carry and solo lane players, focus on freezing the wave near your turret for the first 10 minutes of the match so you can farm without overextending. For mid lane players, push the wave as soon as you clear it so you can roam to other lanes to help with takedowns or take nearby neutral camps between waves. For support players, don’t take last hits from your carry, but help them clear waves faster so you both can rotate to objectives earlier.
Even small mistakes in lane farming can cost you hundreds of souls over the course of a match. The most common errors to avoid are:
- Auto-attacking caster minions before they drop to 20% health, which pushes the lane out unnecessarily and makes you vulnerable to ganks
- Leaving a wave to chase a low-health opponent across the map, losing 6+ minion souls in the process for a chance at 150 takedown souls
- Ignoring enemy jungle invades when you have a wave pushed up, as you lose far more souls from missed minion kills than you gain from stopping the invade
- Forgetting to spend souls before returning to lane, leaving you vulnerable to losing a big chunk of your earnings if you get ganked
If you can avoid these mistakes, you’ll already be earning 20-30% more souls per match than most players in low and mid ranks, even without using advanced strategies.
Neutral Camp Farming Strategies to Boost Soul Income
Once you have your lane farm under control, neutral camps are the best way to add extra soul income without falling behind on lane obligations. The map has four small camps and two ancient camps on each side of the jungle, with respawn times ranging from 90 seconds for small camps to 3 minutes for ancient camps. Ancient neutral camps give 3x the soul count of small camps, so prioritize taking them whenever they respawn if you don't have lane pressure.
If you’re a carry or jungler, the best time to take neutral camps is right after you clear a lane wave, when the next wave is still 10+ seconds away from reaching the turret. You can clear a small camp in that window and get back to lane in time to last hit all the next minion wave, adding 150-200 extra souls per rotation without any tradeoff. If you’re playing a support, you can help your jungler or carry clear camps faster to reduce their farming time, but don’t take the last hit unless they explicitly tell you it’s okay.
Stealing enemy jungle camps is also a great way to boost your soul income while setting the enemy jungler behind, but only do it if you have vision of the enemy team. If you see the enemy jungler ganking the opposite side of the map, you can sneak into their jungle to take 1-2 small camps before rotating back to your lane. But if you don’t have vision, don’t risk it — dying to a jungler waiting in a bush will cost you more souls than you would have gained from the camp.
How to Balance Soul Farming With Team Objectives and Fights
The biggest mistake even experienced players make is prioritizing farm over team objectives. It’s easy to get into a rhythm of clearing waves and camps, but if you miss a dragon or turret push to farm a single wave, you’re costing your team far more souls than you gained. Objective team fights give 2-3x more total souls per minute than solo lane farming, so always drop your farm to join when your team calls for an objective.
That doesn’t mean you have to drop everything every time a teammate starts a random skirmish, though. If your team decides to fight 2v4 in the enemy jungle without any vision, you’re better off staying in your lane farming and taking objectives on your side of the map, because joining that fight will just lead to you dying and losing souls for no reason. Use your best judgement: if the fight is winnable and gives your team a clear advantage, join it. If it’s a reckless engage, stay and farm to make up for the souls your team will lose when they die.
The best time to farm aggressively is right after your team wins a fight. If you wipe 3 or more enemy players, you have 30-60 seconds where you can safely take all the objectives and farm all the lanes and jungle camps on the enemy side of the map without any risk. That window is when you can earn 500+ extra souls in just a minute, so take full advantage of it before the enemy team respawns.
At the end of the day, soul farming is one of the core skills that separates casual Deadlock players from those who climb the ranks consistently. You don’t have to be a perfect last-hitter to earn enough souls to carry matches — you just have to make smart choices about when to farm, when to fight, and when to spend your souls. Don’t get discouraged if you mess up your farm routine at first — it takes 5-10 matches to build the muscle memory for last hits and wave management. I’ve used these exact tips to climb from Bronze to Platinum in 3 weeks, so I can confirm they work for players of all skill levels. With consistent practice of these strategies, you’ll master how to farm souls in Deadlock and climb the ranks faster than you ever thought possible.