•Patrik Mršnik• 6 min read
Games
Deadlock Haunts Explained, From Past Dues to Barrel Mimics
Deadlock Haunts are the new Deadlock neutrals that arrived with Valve's City Never Sleeps update on September 29, 2026. The old jungle creeps are gone, and in their place sit nine families of cursed creatures, from crawling hands to possessed gunpowder barrels, each tied to a specific lane or district.
Every camp now shows its soul value and difficulty on its health bar, and in-world timers show when a cleared camp comes back once you're nearby. Both feed straight into how you plan Deadlock farming between fights.
Below, you'll find every Haunt family, where it lives, and how to read a camp before you commit.
Deadlock Haunts Summary
Nine Haunt families replaced the old neutrals, and each camp's family depends on its lane or district.
Gutter Ghouls and Barrel Mimics both belong to York, the yellow lane.
Community data puts small Haunts at 41 souls, medium at 68, and large at 181 at spawn, all growing over the match.
A camp's respawn timer starts only when the whole camp is dead, Sinner's Sacrifice machines included.
What Are Deadlock Haunts and What Did They Replace?
Deadlock Haunts are the game's new neutral camps, and they replaced every ground and flying neutral from the old map. Valve's City Never Sleeps update page describes a variety of creatures with new behaviors, with attacks ranging from laser beams to lobbed books. Gutter Ghouls took over the old neutral files, and their design is the closest match to the creeps veterans remember.
Haunts still come in small, medium and large tiers (I, II and III). They spawn dormant and stay neutral until provoked. Eight of the nine families add a special attack on medium and large creatures, so a Past Dues camp and a Slum Shroom camp play differently.
Aim for the eye, since shots there land as critical hits. Clear a camp with a teammate and the souls split evenly between you.
Buy Deadlock Accounts on Gameboost
All Nine Haunt Types by Lane and District
The family in a camp depends on where that camp sits. The rebuilt map runs three lanes, Broadway (blue), Greenwich (green), and York (yellow), with four hidden districts tucked between the main streets.
Haunt family | Where it spawns | What to expect |
|---|---|---|
Specimen | Broadway (blue lane) | Crawling hands; the medium one explodes on death |
Past Dues | Greenwich (green lane) | Haunted books, a barrage whose last hit puts you to sleep |
Gutter Ghouls | York (yellow lane) | Toxic waste that leaves a damaging puddle |
Barrel Mimics | York (yellow lane) | Gunpowder barrels with an exploding area attack |
Stage Hands | The Theater | Laser that leaves fire on the ground |
Festival Spirit | Chinatown | No melee, homing fireworks |
Crabbage Pots | Chinatown | Melee area slam you can parry |
Slum Shrooms | Haunted Lot | Spore mines that slow and cut healing by 50% |
Underhands | Plaza | No melee, a fire-trailing laser |
York is the only lane with two families. The update's lane breakdown puts both Gutter Ghouls and Barrel Mimics there without saying which of its stops (Stock Exchange, Seaport Dock, Old Fairfax Factories) hosts which. Reports of Ghouls all over the city aren't confirmed.
Barrel Mimics only come as medium and large Haunts, and a small Gutter Ghoul camp sits beside York on the Hidden King side. Chinatown is the one district with two families, so expect both fireworks and parryable slams among its mid-map Deadlock jungle camps.
How to Read a Haunt Camp's Value and Difficulty
Every Haunt's health bar now shows its soul value and a comparative difficulty rating, so you can size up a camp before you commit to it.
Community trackers list a small Haunt at 129 health and 41 souls, a medium at 322 and 68, and a large at 1,133 and 181 at spawn. Haunts then gain about 2.1% health and 0.5% damage per minute, with soul value growing alongside. None of this comes from Valve, so expect it to shift.
So is a large camp worth it early? A large Haunt pays more than four times a small one, but its 60% bullet and 55% spirit resist make it a slow clear on a hero with few items. If the difficulty rating looks steep for your build, a medium camp is the safer stop.
Respawn Timers and Route Planning
A camp's respawn timer starts only after every Haunt in it dies, and medium camps with Sinner's Sacrifice machines need those cleared too. Community data puts first spawns at 2:00 for small camps, 5:00 for medium, and 8:00 for large. After a clear, small camps return in roughly 1:25, medium in 4:50, and large in 5:35.
Small camps sit near the Guardians and refill fast enough to hit on most trips back to lane. A five-minute loop brings you back just as the first medium camp wakes up. Large camps need roughly 45 seconds more.
Check the Midboss timer in the Topbar too. Farming a far district right before it respawns leaves your team a player short.
FAQs About Deadlock Haunts
Final Words
The biggest change is information. With soul value, difficulty, and timers on screen, memorized camp timings count for less than reading the map.
Expect the numbers to move. The published souls and timers all come from community testing, so trust the health bar over a route you learned last month.
Nobody knows yet which heroes handle each family's special attack best. Slum Shroom spores that cut healing and Past Dues books that put you to sleep punish careless clears.
We'd start by learning which family lives on your usual lane and which attack hurts your hero most.
GameBoost Products
Buy Deadlock Accounts on GameBoost
View all GameBoost Game Keys
View all GameBoost Accounts
View all GameBoost Boosting Services
View all GameBoost Currencies
View all GameBoost Gift Cards
View all GameBoost Top Ups
View all GameBoost Items
“ A former sports journalist and editor, Patrik joined Gameboost SEO team in 2026. He has spent most of his life playing Football Manager, but his sphere of interests spreads through whole gaming universe.”
