Map & Objectives
A three-lane battleground in the Cursed Apple. Every structure you destroy opens the path to the next — here's the full objective chain.
Map Overview
The actual in-game map of the Cursed Apple. Your base is at the bottom (teal), the enemy base at the top (red). Three lanes run between them: York (yellow, left), Broadway (blue, center), Greenwich (green, right).
Map Overview
The actual in-game map of the Cursed Apple. Your base is at the bottom (teal), the enemy base at the top (red). Three lanes run between them: York (yellow, left), Broadway (blue, center), Greenwich (green, right).
Click any marker to learn what it is.
Haunted Lot
Chinatown
Plaza
Theater
How to read this map: you push up from your base (teal, bottom) toward the enemy base (red, top). Each lane runs Guardian → Walker → Base Guardians → Shrines → Patron. Gold = structures, purple = neutral bosses & camps, teal = shops, blue = teleporters, orange = Soul Urn.
The Three Lanes
York (Yellow)
Side lane. Heavily industrialized — Stock Exchange, Shipyard Docks, Fairfax Factories. Sits between the Haunted Lot and Plaza districts.
Greenwich (Green)
Side lane. Overgrown with plant-life — Umbria University, Central Park, the Brownstones. Sits between the Theater and Chinatown districts.
Broadway (Blue)
The middle lane — shortest and most direct route to the enemy base, and usually the most contested. Runs Uptown through Times Square to Downtown, with the mid-boss pit just below Times Square.
Each lane has a zipline running its length for fast travel. Trooper waves spawn on timers and march down every lane — they absorb structure damage so you don't have to.
A lane from above — note the zipline cables running its length for fast rotations.
A Walker holding Broadway — troopers march down lane ahead of you and tank structure damage so you don't have to.
Key mechanic: structures barely take damage without troopers nearby. Never hit a Guardian or Walker alone without your wave — you're just wasting time and HP. Let the minions tank, then deal damage.
Objective Order (Per Lane)
| # | Structure | Role | Destroying It… |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lane Guardian | First line of defense | Opens the path toward the Walker |
| 2 | Walker | Heavy mid-lane objective | Unlocks an Extra Item Slot for your team |
| 3 | Base Guardian (pair) | Final defense before the base | Speeds up your lane's zipline significantly |
| 4 | Shrines (×2, in base) | Base structures, defended by a Curse-style attack | Both must fall to expose the Patron; each one upgrades that side's troopers to Super Troopers |
| 5 | Patron | Final boss | Two health bars — deplete both to win the match |
Structure Details
Lane Guardians
The first tower in each lane. Attacks with a sustained laser beam, a melee swipe for anyone who hugs it, and an area-of-effect slam.
How to fight it: let troopers tank — the laser locks onto whatever's closest, so stand behind your wave and poke when the beam isn't on you. Killable solo early if you respect the laser.
When it dies: opens the lane toward the Walker, plus a team-wide soul bounty (fixed base value, increased by the comeback bonus if your team is behind) and an ability point for everyone.
Newbie mistake: chipping it alone with no troopers nearby. Structures take almost no hero damage without a wave — you're just feeding it free hits.
Walkers
Giant robotic lane bosses and the strongest lane structure. Uses a laser, projectile salvos, and a slam with a stun.
How to fight it: bring the team — this is not a solo objective. Spread out so the AoE salvos don't catch everyone, keep distance to dodge the stun, and let troopers soak damage while you focus fire.
When it dies: unlocks an Extra Item Slot for your entire team — a permanent power boost. This makes Walker fights some of the highest-value plays in the game.
Newbie mistake: starting a Walker while enemies are missing on the minimap. It's a dinner bell — expect a fight, and have your team ready for it.
Base Guardians
The final lane defense, fought as a paired duo just outside the enemy base. Individually they fight like Lane Guardians (laser, melee, slam) — but there are two of them covering each other.
How to fight them: same rules as Guardians — troopers tank, you poke — but coordinate focus fire. Splitting damage between both just lets them grind you down. Pick one, burn it, then finish the other.
When both die: your lane's allied zipline speeds up significantly, the enemy's Shrines become damageable, and their soul income in that lane chokes off. No direct soul bounty — the reward is map control.
Newbie mistake: diving past them into the base. The Shrines can't be damaged until these two are down, so all you're doing is dying behind enemy lines.
Shrines
Two structures inside each base. They defend themselves with a Curse-style attack — don't assume they're free. Both must be destroyed before the Patron can be damaged at all.
When one dies: that side lane's allied troopers upgrade into Super Troopers — tougher, harder-hitting minions that push on their own. Destroy both and Broadway upgrades too, so both Shrines are required for Supers in all three lanes. Each Shrine also grants team souls (~500 base — fixed value, but a comeback bonus can increase the payout when your team is behind).
Newbie mistake: hitting the Patron while a Shrine still stands. It literally cannot take damage — check both Shrines are down first.
The Patron
The final boss — killing it wins the game. It has two health bars.
First health bar: damage it to ~50% health. It then becomes invulnerable, transforms, and retreats into the team's pit for its weakened second phase. Depleting the first health bar also gives the defending team a one-time Last Stand respawn-time reduction — so expect them to fight desperately.
Second health bar (weakened): it's vulnerable but regenerates health if not kept under attack. Commit as a team and finish it — backing off lets it heal back up. Killing the weakened Patron ends the match.
Newbie mistake: celebrating after the first health bar and backing off. The regen will undo your work. When you go in, go in to finish.
Districts & Landmarks
The Cursed Apple is not symmetric. The two halves of the map belong to two different Patrons — the Hidden King (orange) and the Archmother (blue) — and each side has its own districts, its own landmarks, and its own flavor of Haunts. The lanes are the same on both sides, but everything between them is different. Knowing which side you're farming on changes what you'll run into.
The Hidden King (Orange)
His base is a run-down factory full of giant speakers and microphones. The King himself is a shadowy figure with antlers and glowing yellow eyes, bound to a burning wicker-man effigy. His territory holds the Chinatown and Haunted Lot districts.
The Archmother (Blue)
Her base is a museum with a neoclassic look. The Archmother wears a broken mask resembling the Statue of Liberty, her form bound to a crystalline effigy burning with blue flames. Her territory holds the Theater and Plaza districts.
Chinatown District — Hidden King's Side
Decorated with hanging lanterns and East-Asian buildings, sitting near Greenwich lane. Its Haunts are Crabbage Pots and Festival Spirits — themed to fit the district, like every City Never Sleeps zone.
Landmark: the Bell Tower. A tower extending past the height ceiling, entered and exited only by a central rope. At its peak sit 3 Sinner's Sacrifice machines plus breakables — one of the two most concentrated soul sources on the map. The catch: collecting anything up there rings the bell, alerting players across the entire map to your presence. High reward, maximum exposure.
Newbie note: only climb the tower when you know where the enemy team is. The souls are real, but so is the dinner bell you're ringing.
Theater District — Archmother's Side
Almost entirely contained inside one giant theater building near Greenwich lane, packed with Haunts and breakables. It has multiple entrances — including a broken glass roof dome that drops you straight into the main auditorium.
Its Haunts are Stage Hands. The enclosed layout and many entry points make it a natural ambush spot: easy to slip in, easy to get trapped.
Newbie note: great dense farm between rotations, but always know your exits — the same doors you came in are the doors someone else comes through.
Haunted Lot District — Hidden King's Side
Sits near York lane and is largely the same ground it was before the City Never Sleeps update, with a fresh coat of atmosphere. Its centerpiece is a basketball court with a handful of Haunts on it.
Its Haunts are Shrooms. A quick, low-commitment farm stop on the York side — swing through between waves, clear the court, get back to lane.
Plaza District — Archmother's Side
Near York lane, dominated by a massive Fairfax Industries statue. At its base, a stone wall sculpture pours purple fog down into an underground plaza — the Sunken area, one of the highest-risk farm spots on the map.
The fog does three things to you: you can't hear anything through it, you can't see in or out of it, and your stamina drains without regenerating. Inside the Sunken plaza: a sizeable Haunt pack and breakables, guarded by that fog.
Its Haunts are Underhands.
Newbie note: the fog hides you — but it also hides everything else. Farm it with an exit plan, and never assume you're alone in there.
Lane adjacency cheat sheet: York sits between the Haunted Lot and Plaza districts. Greenwich sits between Theater and Chinatown. Broadway, the middle lane, touches all four — one more reason it's the most contested lane on the map.
Lore Notes optional flavor for the curious
The setup: near the end of the 19th century, an eclipse triggered the Maelstrom — Astral Gates tore open across the world and the supernatural spilled through. Fifty years later, two extraplanar deities called Patrons are trying to enter our plane. Each promises to grant the wish of whoever helps them complete the ritual. That ritual is the match you're playing: two teams fighting in the streets of the Cursed Apple, each trying to summon their Patron while stopping the other.
The Hidden King is a shadowy figure with antlers and glowing yellow eyes, bound to a burning wicker-man effigy, long claw-like hands reaching from the dark. His followers call themselves The Hidden King's Court. His half of the city is working-class "Downtown" — red brick, factories, the bones of old New York. He doesn't speak to his heroes directly; a herald speaks for him. The Doorman calls him the Amber King, and his herald has some choice words for the Archmother — "tyrant" among them.
The Archmother wears a broken mask shaped like the Statue of Liberty's head, her form bound to a crystalline effigy burning with blue flames. Her followers are The Guided Hand. Her half is upper-class "Uptown" — white brick, museums, neoclassical stone. The Doorman calls her City Mother (there's even a "City Mother Bank" on the map). Her creed, from the Old Gods update: glass, steel and stone — order and power where once there was none.
Chinatown sits on the Hidden King's Downtown side — lanterns and old East-Asian architecture in a working-class quarter. The Bell Tower rising past the height ceiling, with its Sinner's Sacrifice machines at the peak, reads like a place of old ritual the city built up around and never tore down.
The Haunted Lot is also the King's territory — a lot the city largely left alone, basketball court and all, now thick with Shroom Haunts. It's the Cursed Apple's past that nobody bothered to redevelop.
Theater District belongs to the Archmother's Uptown — a grand theater building with a broken glass dome, the kind of civic monument her "order and power" creed would raise. Its Stage Hand Haunts feel like the staff that never left.
Plaza is the Archmother's showpiece: a massive Fairfax Industries statue looming over the district. Fairfax is, in the lore, a powerful company spearheading the occult industrial complex — the statue is corporate occult power cast in stone, planted in Uptown where everyone can see it. Below it, the purple fog pours into the Sunken.
Lore summarized from deadlock.wiki/Lore, The Hidden King, and The Archmother.
Neutral Objectives
Mid-Boss (Center Map)
A neutral boss in the middle of the map. Killing it spawns a Rejuvenator crystal — smash it with heavy melees to claim team revive credits. A hero who dies while credits remain revives on the spot after a short delay instead of at base.
How to play it: either team can steal the claim by breaking the crystal themselves, so don't start the mid-boss unless your team can finish it and hold the area. Time it before a big push — reviving on the spot during a base siege is game-winning.
Newbie mistake: doing mid-boss alone while the enemy team is alive. It's the loudest objective on the map — you'll get collapsed on.
Soul Urn
A recurring event — a Soul Urn descends on one side of the map. A hero picks it up and carries it to a drop-off on the opposite side for a large team-wide soul payout.
The catch: the carrier can't shoot or use abilities, is revealed on the enemy minimap (blue square if your team holds it, red for theirs), and drops the urn if hit by a heavy melee. It's an escort mission — send your carrier with bodyguards, and hunt the enemy's carrier with yours.
Newbie mistake: grabbing the urn and running solo. You're a glowing defenseless target — without an escort you're just donating souls to whoever intercepts you.
Haunts (Jungle Camps)
Neutral creatures living in the jungle zones between lanes. Clearing them is bonus souls outside the lane — farm them when your lane is pushed or between rotations. The City Never Sleeps update replaced the old camp system with Haunts: varied creatures with different mechanics, in easy, medium, and hard tiers.
How to farm them: harder tiers give more souls but take longer and leave you vulnerable. Easy camps are quick value on a rotation path; hard camps are worth grouping for. Fast farmers (heroes with strong wave-clear or AoE) get the most out of jungle time.
Newbie mistake: spending all game in the jungle while your lane's structures fall. Camps are a supplement to laning, not a replacement — an empty lane bleeds objectives.
Curiosity Shops
Scattered around the map — marked with a green shop icon on the minimap. This is where you spend souls on items. You don't need to return to base; shops are positioned so you can buy between rotations.
How to use them: walk up to a shop and open it to browse Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit items across four tiers (800 / 1,600 / 3,200 / 6,400 souls). Plan purchases around your next objective — buying before a Walker fight is worth more than buying after it.
Newbie mistake: sitting on thousands of unspent souls. Souls in your pocket do nothing — if you're passing a shop with 1,600+ banked, stop and spend it. A completed item now beats a perfect item later.
Teleporters
Doors between areas of the map that instantly move you across it — flank routes and late-game rotation tools. They unlock at 8:00; before that they stay shut. Marked on the minimap with a gray box-and-arrow icon pointing the travel direction.
How to use them: after 8:00, they're the fastest way to answer a fight on the opposite side of the map. Keep their positions in mind when split-pushing — a teleporter means you're never truly isolated, but it also means the enemy can collapse on you just as fast.
Powerups also spawn periodically around the map — temporary buffs worth grabbing when you're nearby, and worth contesting when the enemy wants them.
Map Tips for New Players
Watch the minimap constantly — it shows lanes, objectives, shops, and teammates at a glance. Learn the symbols: diamonds are structures, the yellow center icon is the mid-boss, green is a shop.
- Pick a lane and commit. Rotate to help teammates in emergencies, but don't wander — an empty lane bleeds structures.
- Break boxes and vending machines while rotating. They give souls for a light melee (costs a little HP) — free value on your path.
- Watch the minimap. Walker fights, mid-boss, and Soul Urn all show up — be there or lose them.
- Secure soul orbs. When troopers die they drop soul orbs you must actively collect (shoot or melee them). Shoot your green orbs to secure them before the enemy denies them — and shoot their orange orbs to deny theirs. Tip: melee-killing a trooper auto-secures its souls — no orb to contest.
- First ~8 minutes: laning partners share full soul value — duo lanes are efficient early.
- Learn the minimap symbols. Small filled diamond = Lane Guardian, large hollow diamond = Walker, two stacked diamonds = Base Guardian pair, hollow colorless diamonds = Shrines/Patron, yellow center icon = mid-boss alive, green icon = open shop, blue/red square = Soul Urn carrier.