Infernus is the smoking hot, flame-wielding DPS from Valve’s new hit 6v6 shooter Deadlock and with the right build and ability order, he can paint the town red.
Infernus is a heavy-scaling drain-focused DPS who mixes Gun Damage and Spirit Power to shred through enemies in prolonged fights, zipping in and out of the fight at key moments. For his high impact and incredible damage, he possesses significantly less range than many other characters. As a result, playing Infernus well requires a keen eye for breaks in the enemy lines and the flow of fights.
If he goes in at the wrong time, he’s liable to get CC’d and killed. Now that Deadlock is public, it’s worth going over Infernus’ kit so prospective players understand why he’s building what he’s building.
Best Infernus build, level and ability order
How to play Infernus in Deadlock
Infernus’ short range and lack of mobility are his biggest weaknesses, and he has a major dependence on items for most of his synergy.
Infernus is best against other characters that focus on short-range encounters, many of whom he can keep at arm’s length. He struggles against characters with a lot of reach, as they can find ability and gun trades onto Infernus that he can’t return.
Focus on farming and harassing opponents in the early-game
The first objective, most of the time, should be to get as many Souls as possible from confirming and denying minions. Once he has two or so early item purchases, he can start looking for trades. Infernus wants to repeatedly harass his opponents, whittling their health down with burns before going in for the kill.
Until Flame Dash is fully upgraded, he’s going to be very vulnerable to ganks. Keep eyes on the map and remember, Infernus is hoping to get to 10 minutes even or ahead on Souls compared to his lane opponent. Once he’s purchasing mid-game items like Soul Shredder Bullets or Spirit Lifesteal, Infernus is coming online.
Infernus will continue to operate like a mosquito, dipping in and out of his effective range to pepper his opponents with damage.
Use Infernus’ ultimate to dominate team fights in the late-game
After objectives start getting taken, Infernus is effectively a team-fight specialist. Whenever his ultimate is up, he should be looking for opportunities to use it.
In team fights, Infernus’ biggest tool is his ultimate. Remember, Infernus can cast his ultimate while using Flame Dash, and should basically always be using Flame Dash to get, and stay, in position to hit as many enemies as possible. Follow the old MOBA adage of “first target, nearest target” and everything will be just fine.
All of Infernus’ abilities
Infernus’ abilities are centered around pouncing on enemies, dealing massive damage, and getting out if things start going awry.
Catalyst
Infernus’ 1 is Catalyst, a short-range AoE burst in front of Infernus. On cast, Infernus fires a short blast of napalm in the direction he’s facing, the napalm deals damage, debuffs enemies for a short duration, slows them, and amplifies Infernus’ damage to affected targets.
Catalyst is how Infernus will be able to amplify his damage to ludicrous levels, with an eventual 40% additional damage to enemies hit. When Infernus closes the gap onto a key target, Catalyst is the ability that helps him burst down targets who are out of position. He’s going to generally max this third.
Flame Dash
Infernus’ 2 is Flame Dash, a speed steroid that allows Infernus to close the gap with enemies. This is the ability that both gets Infernus into effective range for fights, as well as the ability that gets him out of dangerous spots.
On cast, Infernus gains a bunch of speed boosts for a short duration and leaves a trail of fire that burns enemies in its area. Infernus also gains 30% slow resistance during this time. Because of his short range and low mobility, he’s generally going to want to max Flame Dash first because its cooldown upgrade is stuck in Tier 3. This ability is at the center of Infernus’ build and helps him stand as one of the most threatening characters in Deadlock.
Afterburn
Infernus’ 3 is Afterburn, which is a Passive. Bullets build up the Afterburn condition on enemies. When Afterburn triggers, enemies begin to burn for spirit damage over a short duration. Bullets that hit a target affected by Afterburn will refresh the burn’s direction.
Concussive Combustion
Infernus’ 4 is Concusssive Combustion. On cast, after a short delay, Infernus deals damage and stuns all enemies in a radius around him. This is Infernus’ big teamfight tool, as being able to speed into a fight with Flash Dash just as Concussive Combustion goes off is Infernus’ best AoE tool. This is his big reward for having such short range, along with his damage, a huge AoE stun button that can turn entire fights around.
How to level Infernus’ abilities in Deadlock
The best Infernus build has a unique level progression, prioritizing Flame Dash and ignoring his ultimate. The ideal level build for Infernus is unique, as Deadlock players should max out Flame Dash as quickly as possible, and ought to ignore leveling anything else prior to that.
Infernus is a rushdown character and that’s predicated on using his Flame Dash. Unlike most abilities, Flame Dash has a flat cooldown reduction as its most expensive upgrade. Infernus has no other mobility options, so players will want this speed burst available as often as possible.
Here’s the best order to level Infernus’ abilities:
- Flame Dash
- Flame Dash
- Flame Dash
- Catalyst
- Afterburn
- Afterburn
- Afterburn
- Catalyst
- Catalyst
- Concussive Combustion
- Concussive Combustion
- Concussive Combustion
Players of other MOBAs like Dota 2 and League of Legends might find it odd to level a character like this, but Deadlock allows for it.
Infernus item build order
Infernus’ build has more flexibility than other Deadlock characters, but his items center around a few key pieces. Infernus needs items desperately to excel, and while he can definitely duel in early game, an Infernus with a bunch of extra Souls-become-items is far scarier. The items in the screenshot are grouped by boon type, not necessarily by power.
Infernus’ best early-game items
In the early game, Infernus will want to get affordable weapon upgrade before picking up Sprint Boots.
The priority is to get smaller boosts to DPS that allow Infernus to chip away at enemy health bars. Alongside this is a boost to move speed through Sprint Boots that set Infernus up to begin team fighting. Here’s the general order to tackle Infernus’ early-game items:
- Rapid Rounds and Basic Magazine
- Infernus needs to shoot people to do damage and Rapid Rounds is a common buy that isis especially good from ahead
- Sprint Boots
- Mandatory every single game, but only after already increasing combat power; he’ll need to do a lot of running in and out of fights, so running faster is great
- Extra Spirit
- Extra Spirit helps amp damage on all of Infernus’ abilities, and is a fantastic purchase most games since he’ll be aiming for its upgrades in Improved Spirit and Boundless Spirit, regardless
- Enduring Spirit
- A defensive item with Spirit Lifesteal is exactly the sort of thing Infernus will want in most games, especially after losing durability from Rapid Rounds
Infernus mid-game item build
In the mid-game, Infernus should get Soul Shredder Bullets and boosts to his abilities and movement speed.
Infernus’ whole kit revolves around his ability to deal spirit damage over time, and Soul Shredder Bullets complements that. Infernus’ abilities also have great Spirit Power scaling, so picking up Improved Spirit second if one doesn’t need other items is also a great damage boost. From there, boosting these tools is of import.
For players who are working with a big lead, Spirit Lifesteal and Toxic Bullets are strong situational pickups. Spirit Lifesteal does what it says on the tin, while Toxic Bullets adds a second DoT effect to Infernus’ bullets, giving it very strong synergy. Toxic Bullets is also good against particularly tanky teams, as it deals percentage-based damage. Here are the primary mid-game items for Infernus and what they do:
- Soul Shredder Bullets + Improved Spirit
- Soul Shredder is the best mid-game item on Infernus, and if ahead, should be rushed.
- Mystic Vulnerability
- Infernus deals a large amount of Spirit Damage in small increments over time, so a stacking Spirit Resist shredding effect is fantastic; get this fast
- Enduring Speed
- Another upgrade that has a component, like Improved Spirit, Enduring Speed helps Infernus navigate the short range we’ve mentioned as his key weakness
- Duration Extender
- Duration Extender works on all three of Infernus’ basic abilities, as well as his DoTs, so pick this up quickly. You can even forgo Enduring Speed to rush this if ahead
Infernus late-game item build
Boundless Spirit are must-have late-game items for Infernus. Beyond that are numerous situational options that could be worth getting depending on the enemy team composition and state of the game.
- Boundless Spirit:
- Basically every source of damage for Infernus scales with Spirit Power, and he’ll already be purchasing Improved Spirit, so Boundless Spirit is a must-have; try to get it early
- Spiritual Overflow:
- Spiritual Overflow lets Infernus’ bullets stack Spirit Power, which means once he activates his DoT effects, he’ll be dealing even more damage. Rush this as one of your first late game items
Escalating Exposure and Curse should be considered when there’s a particularly threatening bruiser on the enemy team. Both help increase burst damage against a key target, but don’t feel compelled to purchase both every game. Crippling Headshot is best as an answer for tanky characters. Headshots reduce resistance, so try to chip headshots on hard-to-kill targets before going for the kill.
Diviner’s Kevlar and Leech are situational defensive purchases but given how squishy Infernus can be, a little extra durability can go a long way. Diviner’s Kevlar helps upfront damage resistance, and Leech helps for sustain
