Valve’s secretive multiplayer battle arena Deadlock received a personality-packed overhaul this week with its City Never Sleeps update, and the most talkative resident is undoubtedly Rat King, a tank class built around hurling rodents at opponents. The giant humanoid rodent—originally developed as an unofficial creation before joining Deadlock’s official roster now commands 1,534 individual voice lines in total, including 126 dedicated solely to his signature ability, the Rat Swarm.
The update redecorated the game’s entire map and introduced six new classes for players to master. Among them sits Rat King, a tank whose defining gimmick is as simple as it is delightfully absurd: he loves rats, and he loves throwing those exact same rats at his enemies even more. According to Deadlock (the official site), that enthusiasm has been captured in staggering detail by Valve’s voice team.
A Swarm of Named Rodents
The Rat Swarm ability allows Rat King to unleash a swarm of rodents from beneath his resplendent cape, which leap onto enemies and deal spirit damage over time. Of the 1534 utterances in his arsenal, 126 are tied directly to unleashing this power—roughly comparable to how other Deadlock heroes distribute their lines across abilities.
The reason for such an overwhelming number of rat-tossing callouts comes down to a couple of factors. On the surface, Valve simply had the resources and whimsy to do it. But beneath that lies genuine worldbuilding: while some lines serve as generic power callouts—such as “I got a whole lotta rats, baby!”—many reference individual rats by name.
“Get ’em Lou! My boy Widget is gonna chew you up! Rabies Ronnie has a gift for ya. Surprise, it’s rabies!”
Rat King voice lines, Deadlock
Rat King clearly takes his role as rodent shepherd seriously, cheering on his subjects mid-battle. He even refers to named factions of rats residing beneath his cloak, delivering group-based callouts such as “The Pantegana boys say hello!”, “Say hello to the McMullen gang!”, and one fan-favourite—”I brought Gumdrop’s whole polycule!”
A Game-Wide Voice Overhaul
Rat King is not the only character benefiting from Valve’s newfound verbosity. As part of the City Never Sleeps update, the studio doubled the number of voice lines for all existing heroes in Deadlock, injecting fresh colour and attention to detail into a game that was already rich with personality.
This kind of meticulous worldbuilding has helped fuel Deadlock’s popularity even as it remains behind closed doors. The title continues to operate under an invite-only model, requiring players to be invited before they can experience the battle arena firsthand—yet its dedicated community shows no signs of dwindling.
Looking Ahead
How long Valve will keep Deadlock (theoretically) under wraps remains uncertain. With no pressing financial need to rush the game toward a full public release, the studio appears content to refine and expand the experience at its own pace, letting updates like City Never Sleeps speak for themselves.
For players already inside the invite-only circle, Rat King offers plenty of new ways to rain named rodents down on their foes. For everyone else, Deadlock’s next public chapter remains a question Valve has yet to answer—though with heroes this characterful, fans may not be in such a hurry after all.
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