Violet Deadlock Guide: Abilities, Still Life Sketches and First Builds
Violet is the fifth City Never Sleeps hero, a spirit caster who paints her fights. Here are her abilities with numbers from the game files, the permanent bonus each hero's sketch gives her, what her first players buy and the tricks hidden in her kit.
Written byMax CalderDeadlock journalist
Published8 min read
Who is Violet?
Violet arrived on October 16 as the fifth hero of City Never Sleeps, after players voted her in ahead of Nurse Harrow. She is a young New York art student who fights with ink: the game files class her as a Mystic, the same group as Seven and Sinclair, and her hero card tags her Ambitious, Nimble and Creative. Valve rates her complexity 1 of 4, its easiest grade, although Still Life and the ink wall reward players who think a step ahead.
Violet's hero card from City Never Sleeps.
Base stats
Violet's base stats at release
Health
710
Weapon damage
30
Per shot
Ammo
15
Move speed
6.9 m/s
Health regen
2
Per second
Violet's gun
Creative Solutions fires one heavy projectile every 0.65 s, which works out to about 46 damage per second before items, and holds 15 shots with a 2.7 s reload. Damage starts to fall off at 20 m and bottoms out at 64 m. The slow rhythm matters for her kit: Living Ink turns three of those shots into guided bullets, so every missed shot costs more than it would on a fast-firing hero.
Violet abilities
Abilities, sandbox footage and upgrades (tiers cost 1, 2 and 5 points)
Living Ink2 charges, 22 s rechargeEmpowers your next 3 bullets: you steer them in flight, they deal 120% bullet damage and splash 35 spirit damage in a 2.5 m radius. Every hero hit cuts all your ability cooldowns by 1.5 s and item cooldowns by half that. Aim down sights while empowered to paint a solid ink stroke up to 25 m long instead, which blocks heroes and projectiles for 20 s. Passive: casting any other ability refreshes Flow State.
14 s shorter cooldown, strokes up to 15 m longer
2Each empower gives +10% fire rate for 10 s, stacking 5 times
3+30% bullet damage, +1 s cooldown cut per hit, better spirit scaling
Flow State23 s cooldownSends a brush rolling forward. Its trail lasts 6 s, lets allies slide further, and hits enemies who cross it with a 60% slow that fades over 2 s and 50 to 100 spirit damage, more the further the brush has travelled. Press again to flick the brush: the ability ends early but hits a wider 15 m cone.
1+150% stamina regeneration while sliding
26 s shorter cooldown, +8 m flick range, trail lasts 4 s longer
3Sliding builds up to 20% damage amp over 4 s, kept for 6 s
Still Life35 s cooldown, 25 m rangePicks an enemy hero as your subject and deals 30 spirit damage per second while you keep looking at them. The sketch fills by 33% a second, plus 15% for every bullet and ability that hits them. When it is finished, the subject takes 60 more spirit damage, is stunned for 1 s and drops a sketch that gives you a permanent bonus when you pick it up. The link breaks beyond 35 m.
1On cast: +15 health regen for 4 s, refreshed when you pick up a sketch
2While you draw, your subject deals 35% less damage
3+0.35 s stun, +20% move speed
Abstract Landscape165 s cooldown, 18 m radiusPaints a circle of ink around Violet for 6 s that blocks vision. Allies inside gain 25 spirit power and enemies inside are revealed. An enemy who walks out takes 100 spirit damage, is silenced for 2 s and slowed by 30%, and breaks the ink where they crossed.
120 s shorter cooldown
2Allies inside also get +25% spirit lifesteal and +15 spirit power
3+1.25 s silence, lasts 4 s longer, and the ink no longer breaks
Still Life sketches: what each hero gives
Every finished Still Life drops a sketch, and the bonus it gives depends on which of the four hero classes the subject belongs to. The bonuses are permanent for the rest of the match and stack with every sketch you collect, so five sketches from brawlers already add 100 health. The class is fixed in the game files, and a few heroes sit where you might not expect: Solomon counts as a Mystic and Vindicta as a Marksman.
Brawlers give +20 max health: Abrams, Bebop, Billy, Kelvin, Mo & Krill, Rat King, Shiv, Silver, Victor and Warden.
Mystics give +3 spirit power: Baba, Celeste, Dynamo, Graves, Lady Geist, McGinnis, Paige, Rem, Seven, Sinclair, Solomon, The Doorman, Viscous and an enemy Violet.
Marksmen give +4% weapon damage: Deadman Danny, Grey Talon, Holliday, Infernus, Ivy, Mina, Paradox, Venator, Vindicta and Wraith.
Assassins give +0.2 m/s move speed: Apollo, Calico, Drifter, Haze, Lash, Mirage, Pocket, Vyper and Yamato.
Violet build: what players buy now
Violet can buy every item in the shop. Living Ink has two charges, so the charge items work on her, and her first players caught on at once: and sit in nine of every ten Violet games.
Most bought items on Violet since her release, in buying order
MinItemBought in
Share of Violet games where the item was bought, and the minute it is usually bought. All modes, 5,180 games in the first two hours after release on October 16.
The build is spirit from the first minute. is the only gun item in more than a third of games, at 48%, and most of the vitality budget goes into regeneration rather than resist.
How to play Violet
Open trades with an empowered Living Ink and steer the shots into heroes. Every hit takes 1.5 s off all your cooldowns, so landing all three speeds up the rest of the kit.
Roll Flow State across the path an enemy needs to take, then cast any other ability to refresh it and roll a second brush.
Start Still Life only on a target you can keep in view, and shoot them while you draw: each hit fills the sketch faster than looking alone.
Pick sketch targets by what you need. Brawlers give health, mystics spirit power, marksmen weapon damage and assassins speed.
Save Abstract Landscape for a group fight. Enemies inside either fight your team while it has bonus spirit power or take the silence on the way out.
Violet tips and tricks
Violet has been out for a day, so these come from her ability data rather than months of community testing.
The ink wall on video
Paint a wallEmpower Living Ink, then aim down sights and drag across the street. The stroke stays for 20 s and stops heroes and projectiles, so it can close a corridor behind you or cut a chasing enemy off from the fight. Breaking it with a heavy melee costs the attacker spirit damage.
Flow State chain. Roll Flow State, cast Living Ink, Still Life or your ultimate, and Flow State is ready again. With two Living Ink charges that is three brushes in a few seconds.
Living Ink feeds your items too. Each hero hit takes 0.75 s off item cooldowns, which adds up with in the build.
Finish sketches with abilities. A Living Ink splash or a Flow State hit adds 15% to the sketch, the same as a bullet, so a quick combo completes Still Life well before the three seconds that looking alone takes.
With the third ultimate upgrade the ink stays whole after an enemy walks out, so the second and third enemies through a gap get punished as well.
How to fight Violet
Do not walk out of Abstract Landscape on reflex. Leaving costs 100 damage, a 2 s silence and a slow, so it is often better to fight inside or wait out the 6 s.
Break Still Life by getting more than 35 m away or behind cover, since the damage only ticks while she keeps you in view.
Living Ink shots curve after you, so cover beats strafing against them.
Walk around an ink wall unless you can spare the spirit damage a heavy melee costs.
Punish her between empowers. Her gun fires slowly, and she is at her weakest while both Living Ink charges recharge.
Can you play Violet in Ranked?
Yes, for a limited time. New heroes skip the usual 15 Standard wins for a limited time after they arrive, but they do not count toward the three ranked heroes you need. Once the window closes, Violet needs 15 Standard wins like anyone else. Timing sketches and wall placement takes some practice, so a few Standard games and a session in the sandbox are worth it first.
Violet trivia
Her files call her Artist, and her ability files name the kit after art: Living Ink is a homing brush, Flow State a rolling projectile, Still Life a tether and Abstract Landscape a bamboo grove. Two of her abilities borrow the names of painting genres.
Her biography says she moved to New York at 12 and fell for the city. She won a full scholarship to art school and, as a junior, a place in a celebration of student artists at the Museum of Modern Art, yet she is haunted by the fear of dying a failure. She knows that success in fine art depends on being seen by the right person at the right time, and that is why she has joined the Ritual: not to improve her talent, but to get the chance to show it.
FAQ
FILE No. 01
Not on day one. She won 45.6% of 5,180 games in her first two hours, 37th of 43 heroes, while appearing in 98% of all matches as players rushed to try her.
FILE No. 02
Abstract Landscape, an 18 m circle of ink that buffs allies inside and silences enemies who leave it. Its first upgrade cuts the cooldown to 145 s.
Deadlock's new characters from City Never Sleeps: Rat King, Baba, Solomon, Deadman Danny and Violet are out, and Nurse Harrow comes last. How the vote works.
Deadman Danny guide for Deadlock: abilities, rocket jump tricks, item interactions, the nine items he can't use and first builds for the Fairfax salesman.
All 43 Deadlock heroes in one guide: every character rated from very easy to very hard, the best picks for beginners, and the tanks, supports and carries.
Living Ink2 charges, 22 s recharge
Empowers your next 3 bullets: you steer them in flight, they deal 120% bullet damage and splash 35 spirit damage in a 2.5 m radius. Every hero hit cuts all your ability cooldowns by 1.5 s and item cooldowns by half that. Aim down sights while empowered to paint a solid ink stroke up to 25 m long instead, which blocks heroes and projectiles for 20 s. Passive: casting any other ability refreshes Flow State.
Flow State23 s cooldown
Sends a brush rolling forward. Its trail lasts 6 s, lets allies slide further, and hits enemies who cross it with a 60% slow that fades over 2 s and 50 to 100 spirit damage, more the further the brush has travelled. Press again to flick the brush: the ability ends early but hits a wider 15 m cone.
Still Life35 s cooldown, 25 m range
Picks an enemy hero as your subject and deals 30 spirit damage per second while you keep looking at them. The sketch fills by 33% a second, plus 15% for every bullet and ability that hits them. When it is finished, the subject takes 60 more spirit damage, is stunned for 1 s and drops a sketch that gives you a permanent bonus when you pick it up. The link breaks beyond 35 m.
Abstract Landscape165 s cooldown, 18 m radius
Paints a circle of ink around Violet for 6 s that blocks vision. Allies inside gain 25 spirit power and enemies inside are revealed. An enemy who walks out takes 100 spirit damage, is silenced for 2 s and slowed by 30%, and breaks the ink where they crossed.
