I’ve put over 120 hours into Deadlock since its full release, and for the first month I struggled to earn enough souls to unlock even my third playable character. I wasted hours on low-yield matches, missed easy daily bonuses, and threw away potential gains because I didn’t understand how the soul earning system actually works. If you’re tired of grinding for weeks just to unlock a single skin or new hero, this guide breaks down exactly how to get more souls in Deadlock without paying for premium currency or burning out on the game.
Prioritize Daily and Weekly Challenge Completion First
Most new players jump straight into casual or ranked matches without checking their challenge tab first, and that’s one of the easiest ways to leave thousands of souls on the table every week. Dailies take 10 to 20 minutes total to complete if you target them intentionally, and you can stack multiple challenges in a single match to cut down on grind time even more.
For example, if you have a daily to get 10 kills with a tank hero and another to win 1 match as a support, you can pick a flexible tank that can fill a pseudo-support role and knock both out in one 15-minute game. You can reroll one challenge per day for free if you get one that feels too tedious, like getting 20 kills with a hero you don’t enjoy playing. It’s always worth rerolling any challenge that rewards less than 300 souls, since you’re almost guaranteed to get a higher value one in return.
- Match win challenges: These reward 400+ souls on average and can be stacked with other role or kill challenges for maximum gain
- Support or tank play challenges: These usually have lower skill requirements than carry kill challenges, so you can complete them even if you’re on a losing team
- Event-specific challenges: These often reward double or triple the soul count of standard dailies, so always complete these first before regular challenges
I used to ignore dailies entirely to grind ranked, but once I started completing them every morning before playing for fun, my weekly soul earnings jumped by over 60% without adding any extra play time. You don’t even have to play full matches to complete most dailies, either – quick play matches count for almost all challenge requirements, and they’re usually 5 to 10 minutes shorter than ranked games. Make a habit of checking your challenge tab before you queue for any match, so you can pick the right hero and game mode to knock out as many challenges as possible at once. That’s the single easiest change you can make if you’re wondering how to get more souls in Deadlock without adding extra play time to your schedule.
How to Get More Souls in Deadlock With Optimized Match Play
Even after you finish all your daily and weekly challenges, you can still earn a steady stream of souls from every match you play, as long as you know what factors contribute to your soul payout. A lot of players assume that only winning gives you extra souls, but that’s not actually true – your individual performance makes up almost 70% of your post-match soul reward, even if you lose.
The three biggest factors that impact your match soul earnings are your objective contribution score, your kill/death/assist ratio, and how long the match lasts. You’ll get more souls for a 20-minute loss where you capped 5 objectives and got 15 assists than you will for a 10-minute win where you sat in the jungle the whole time and only got 2 kills.
If you’re grinding souls specifically, pick roles that naturally get high objective and assist scores, like support or off-tank. These roles don’t require you to carry the team to get a great post-match payout, and you’ll still get full credit for wins even if you don’t get a lot of kills. I usually play support when I’m farming souls between challenges, and I average 120 to 180 souls per match, even when I lose, compared to 80 to 120 when I play carry.
You also get a first win of the day bonus of 500 souls that resets every 24 hours, so make sure you get at least one win a day even if you only have 15 minutes to play. That bonus alone adds up to 3500 extra souls a week, which is enough to unlock most common character skins.
Take Advantage of Event-Exclusive Soul Bonuses
Deadlock runs limited-time events every 4 to 6 weeks, and these events are by far the fastest way to earn massive amounts of souls in a short period of time. Most events have their own set of special challenges that reward anywhere from 1000 to 10,000 souls, plus event-specific pass tracks that give you soul bonuses at every tier, even if you’re using the free version of the pass.
During the last summer event, I earned over 40,000 souls in two weeks just by completing event challenges and playing the limited-time game mode, which is more than I’d earned in the previous two months combined. The limited-time modes usually have faster match times and higher soul payouts than standard game modes, so it’s worth switching to them for the duration of the event even if you prefer playing ranked.
If you’re serious about learning how to get more souls in Deadlock, you should always clear event challenges before you touch standard weekly or daily ones. You should also keep an eye out for double soul weekends, which happen once a month usually. Every match you play and every challenge you complete during these weekends gives double the normal soul reward, so this is the perfect time to grind out all your weekly challenges instead of spreading them out across the week. I usually save all my uncompleted weekly challenges for double soul weekends, so I get twice the souls for the same amount of work.
If you’re willing to put in a little extra time during these events, you can easily earn enough souls to unlock every character and most skins in the game without spending any real money. Just make sure you don’t let event challenges expire – they disappear as soon as the event ends, so don’t save them for the last day if you can avoid it.
Avoid These Common Mistakes That Waste Your Soul Earnings
Even if you follow all the tips above, you could be throwing away thousands of souls a month without realizing it, thanks to small, easily fixable mistakes. I made almost all of these mistakes in my first month of playing, so I know how much they can set back your progression.
The first mistake is spending souls on random loot boxes instead of saving them for specific characters or skins you want. The loot box drop rate for rare skins is less than 5%, so you’re almost always better off saving your souls to buy the exact item you want directly from the shop, instead of gambling on random drops. I wasted over 15,000 souls on loot boxes when I first started playing, and I never got a single rare skin I actually wanted.
Another common mistake is leaving matches early before they end. If you leave a match before the final score screen pops up, you forfeit all soul earnings for that match, even if you were playing really well and your team was winning. It’s tempting to leave when your team is getting crushed, but even a bad loss will give you at least 50 to 70 souls, which adds up over time. Never leave a match before it ends unless you have a real emergency – it’s not worth losing all the progress you made during that game.
The last mistake to avoid is ignoring your referral and friend bonus. You get 1000 souls for every friend you refer to the game who hits level 5, and you get a 10% soul bonus for every match you play with a friend on your team, up to 3 friends for a 30% total bonus. Playing with friends also makes the grind feel less tedious, so it’s a win-win all around.
At the end of the day, earning souls in Deadlock doesn’t have to be a boring, endless grind. By prioritizing challenges, optimizing your match play, taking advantage of events, and avoiding common mistakes, you can easily double or triple your soul earnings without spending more time playing the game. If you’ve been struggling to unlock your favorite heroes or skins, these strategies will help you figure out how to get more souls in Deadlock so you can spend less time grinding and more time playing the way you want. I still use all of these tricks every time I play, and I’ve earned enough souls over the past few months to unlock every character and every premium skin released so far, without spending a single dollar on the game.