Valve has added Violet to Deadlock, a playable artist hero whose kit revolves around a substance called Living Ink. The studio announced the hero in a Steam news post on October 16, 2026, and confirmed she is selectable in-game now for players who have access to the early-development title.
Violet is the latest hero to join the roster during the City Never Sleeps update, which introduced six heroes and visual changes in late September 2026. She arrives after Deadman Danny, the previous hero addition, and before Nurse Harrow, who is scheduled to join the game on Tuesday, October 20 at 2pm PDT.
Violet’s four abilities
Valve introduces Violet with the line, “Brush in hand, Violet approaches the ritual with the same precision she does her art.” Her kit is built around four abilities, which the announcement describes without numeric damage, cooldown, or range values.
- Living Ink boosts her bullets and draws inspiration into reality.
- Flow State lets her ink glide toward danger to deal damage, or away from danger for a quick getaway.
- Still Life captures an enemy’s likeness to stunning results.
- Abstract Landscape creates her biggest piece around herself and those nearby, leaving onlookers speechless.
A character quote in the announcement adds, “I worked too hard to get here, I can’t stop now.”
What Valve confirms and what it leaves open
Valve confirms that Violet is a new hero available now, that her signature substance is Living Ink, and that Nurse Harrow will follow on October 20 at 2pm PDT as the culmination of the City Never Sleeps update. The studio does not state Violet’s damage numbers, cooldowns, durations, ranges, or role classification, and it has not given an exact unlock time today.
Because the ability descriptions keep mechanical details loose, players cannot yet calculate reliable combos or resource trade-offs. Flow State reads as a dual-purpose damage and movement tool, while Still Life and Abstract Landscape sound like control effects, but Valve does not spell out what “stunning results” or “speechless” mean in mechanical terms.
Sources
- Reporting source: GamerHeadlines
- Official announcement: Valve
