Mastering Aeternus: How to Snowball and Dominate Deadlock

What's more annoying than entering a game of Deadlock, getting ahead early, maybe even won lane, grabbed a couple

kills, and the game still slips away? The problem is most players don't actually know how to snowball a lead.

They farm safely, focus on souls, and think they're scaling, but what they're really doing is giving the enemy a

chance to come back. As for Aeternus players, they play a completely different game. They don't just farm,

they deny resources, take every buff, control waves, and force fights on their terms. So, once they're ahead, they

almost never lose. I'm Danny, and in just 10 minutes, I'm going to show you exactly how Aeternus players snowball

their leads every single game. And once you understand how, you'll see why climbing feels impossible if you don't

play like this. Now, most players think gaining a lead in Deadlock is just about farming souls.

But here's the harsh truth. If you're stacking souls whilst your opponent is denying your jungle, stealing buffs, and

controlling the map, you're falling behind without even realizing. Winning is about dominating the map, denying

your enemies, and converting every small lead into something bigger. That's why knowing how to snowball your leads

correctly from even just a winning lane can be all it takes to start winning every game. When the game starts, think

about different ways you can deny opponents. The obvious would be trying to deny as many souls as possible from

minions. But what if I told you the buff that spawns on the bridge every 5 minutes can be all it takes to gain

priority on the enemy team? They consist of bonus movement speed, gun damage, health regen, cooldown

reduction, and more. Take the purple casting buff, for example. It grants a 20% reduction in ability cooldowns and

an additional 25 spirit power. Or with the gun buff, gain 20% fire rate and 40% extra ammo.

That's why securing buffs like these as early as 5 minutes into the game provides you with such an advantage.

It's a surprise why most players sleep on it. As a result, in higher ranks, the enemy team might also try fight you for

these, but luckily, I have a strategy to give you priority on them every time. And it's really simple. Just shove in

your way first. Make sure your minions are threatening the enemy tower so you don't lose farm while rotating. Waves

spawn every 30 seconds, and the first buff spawns at 5 minutes. As you might guess, when the timer reaches around 4

minutes 30, consider shoving the wave in. Once done, head towards the nearest jump pad taking you directly towards the

buff. And try time your punch. You don't want to be looking like this guy. Now, not only are you significantly

strong by securing the buff, you've also denied the enemies from it. When returning to lane, abuse this by

bullying the enemies, denying souls, and taking more space on the map. In fact, look for enemy camps, boxes, and even

start taking down the enemy guardian to maximize that lead. If you're really ahead, look to roam into other lanes

after taking down the guardian. Gank the enemy and take down more guardians. If your team can manage all three guardians

early in the game, you gain a flex slot much earlier than the enemy team, allowing you to maintain an item

advantage in fights and destroy their convenient shop locations. Otherwise, just look to destroy the other guardians

whenever you get the opportunity to. As the timer progresses, we now need to pay attention to sinner sacrifices. These

machines spawn at 8 minutes and are worth far more souls than normal jungle camps. A single sinner sacrifice can

give as much as two or more camps combined. They are so valuable, in fact, that after clearing waves, it's the

second best resource for souls in the game. So, with the space you've now made at this point, focus on shoving the wave

once again from around 7 minutes 30 and prepare to take space in enemy territory. When stealing the enemy

sinners, try to secure the four permanent golden statue buffs every time. This is achieved by punching the

machine and breaking it when all the lights are on at the top. And if you struggle to time this, here's the

solution. When there are three remaining lights at the top, begin charging up your heavy punch. Done correctly, and

four permanent buffs should appear on your screen like this. Whenever the situation is looking tight

and you're worried about the enemy grouping onto you, then don't even worry about waiting for all the lights. Break

the machine as fast as possible because denying it from your enemy is the main goal. Or if you can spot an enemy

farming one, kill them and steal it. Invading jungle camps and boxes are also fantastic if you can't safely steal any

sinners. The main goal is just to deny every resource possible from the enemy team in order of priority whilst still

collecting all your waves. So, if everything has been executed correctly up until this point, you should have

stolen most enemy camps, sinners, and have priority on waves granting map control whilst still having camps to

farm on your side of the map. That's how Aeternus players build leads that feel impossible to stop. And if you're

finding this breakdown helpful so far, make sure to hit that subscribe button. I've got many more in-depth guides just

like this one coming, so if you're serious about climbing in Deadlock, you won't want to miss them. Now, remember

when I said minions spawn every 30 seconds? They are still vital to maintaining a lead. Being the best

supply of souls in the game, you should never leave a wave behind. However, fast pushing waves does more

than give souls. It controls the map, denying space from enemies. When your waves crash into enemy towers,

it forces them to respond as missing out on just four minions from a potentially stacked wave can cost up to 300 secured

souls. So, as you might expect, nine out of 10 times, the enemy will go to collect that

wave, giving you more control to push enemy resources and objectives in other lanes such as another walker. As we

reach the 10-minute mark, two major objectives now spawn in, the soul urn and mid boss. The soul urn is one of the

most overlooked objectives in lower ranks, but for Aeternus players, it's non-negotiable. It's an objective where

you pick up an urn at one location and deposit across the map to cash in some great rewards. The first urn, which

spawns in at 10 minutes, is already worth around 3,500 souls, and 30 minutes later, it skyrockets to nearly 10,000.

It's an instant injection of resources that most teams can't recover from, and the value doesn't stop there. When your

team secures the urn, everyone gets a share of the souls, so it's like handing your whole team a free paycheck. On top

of that, the player who delivers it gets a 25% bonus to their share and even an extra ability point, giving them a mini

power spike right then and there. And finally, every single member who participates in the delivery locks in a

golden statue buff, a permanent scaling advantage that stays for the rest of the game.

That's why I should also mention by collecting nearby golden statues as you play and timing sinners correctly, you

can just keep scaling. So, instead of thinking about the urn as just another side objective, understand

it for what really is, a fantastic opportunity to snowball, which Aeternus players abuse every chance they get.

Just be aware when depositing the urn, souls fly out the top, allowing enemies to deny you. It's always best to secure

them just in case an enemy's being a bit sneaky and might try denying them from a rooftop. The urn also has a unique

comeback mechanic that triggers when there is a 10% difference in total soul count between the two teams, granting

extra souls to the team delivering the urn when they are behind. This same 10% soul difference also causes the urn's

neutral drop-off location to move closer to the losing team's side of the map. So, it's always great to pay attention

to the soul counts of both teams and even suggest running the urn before reaching the threshold of it moving

position. That way, you're also denying the enemy, preventing them from taking advantage of this comeback mechanic,

further supporting that lead. And it doesn't stop there. The urn also has one more great purpose, but we'll get into

that in just a moment. Now, regarding the mid boss, which also spawns in at 10 minutes, typically in a ranked game, you

won't be strong enough as a team to fight it this early. In fact, most lower ranked games don't attempt to fight it

until at least 20 to 25 minutes have passed. So, with plenty of time to get stronger, try push in minion waves and

take down objectives. Gaining as many flex slots as possible before tackling mid boss will be pivotal to increase

your chances of winning. Destroying walkers and shoving in waves also creates pressure and forces enemies to

react as they won't want to miss out on all the souls, either. And if you're new or unsure how to unlock each flex slot,

it's really simple. For the first slot, defeat all three guardians. For the second, defeat one walker. For the

third, defeat all three walkers. And for the fourth, defeat one set of base guardians. The goal of unlocking these

slots is so that you can buy items, ensuring you remain stronger than the enemy. Now, it's really important you

come into the mid boss as strong as possible to snowball your lead further as it has a special mechanic. When its

health bar drops to 60%, the mid boss emits a roar heard by everyone on the map,

informing the enemy team that players are actively taking down the boss. And the enemy team now has time to travel to

the arena to potentially contest the objective. That's why if waves are shoved into their base, it can be super

useful by delaying them, otherwise they lose out on thousands of souls. When the mid boss dies, a rejuvenator spawns,

which slowly descends from the sky. The rejuvenator can be punched up to three times with each successful punch

granting a revive to the team. The revives apply to whoever dies next on your team, so don't worry if another

teammate grabbed it. Depending on the game state, your opponents might have no choice but to try contest you for the

rejuvenator as obtaining revives can be the best way to end the game. However, you always want to be really cautious of

getting contested and pay attention to the enemy team comp even if you're ahead. Not only can different heroes

like Lash and Dynamo completely flip a fight with just one ultimate in such a small arena,

an enemy can simply jump in and try punch the rejuvenator before you. I'd even recommend delaying the mid boss

until a threat like Dynamo doesn't have their ultimate up or they're sat on a respawn timer. Otherwise, this might

happen. [Music] But if they contest mid boss and die,

you have plenty of time to group and shove one lane all the way into the end of the game. When they respawn back in,

just fight with the revives. They won't stand a chance. On the contrary, if you secure the rejuvenator and the enemies

don't contest you with a fight, you might want to take up on that urn again. It's the perfect way to force fights.

Since the urn scales with time, if they don't contest you, the soul advantage will become so large that you guys just

steamroll them. And you're stripping them from the best comeback mechanic in the game. Or the enemy can contest is

what we want, being stronger with available revives. Either way, you successfully snowballed a lead from as

early as 5 minutes into the game, leaving the enemy with no chance of winning. And that's exactly how Aeternus

players snowball their leads every single game. If you enjoyed this breakdown or learned something new,

don't forget to hit the subscribe button. The more support you guys show, the more time I can spend ensuring the

quality only improves from here. And if you want to see these concepts in action, you can catch me live streaming

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video ideas you'd like to see or if you have any feedback. Anyways, thanks for watching, and I'll see you in the next

one.