Souls are Deadlock's universal currency, and you spend them on every item across the three categories: Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit. The more souls you bank, the stronger your items and the bigger your hero's lead over the enemy. That makes steady farming far from boring busywork — it is a direct route to advantage: a hero behind on souls almost always loses duels and cedes control of the map.

What souls are and where they come from

Your main early-game income is troopers, the lane creeps that march down each lane. When a trooper dies, it drops an orange soul orb. To claim the full reward you must secure the orb — shoot it before it disappears. If you only land the killing blow but miss the orb, you lose part of those souls. Beyond troopers, souls also come from neutral jungle camps, hero kills, destroying objectives, and a slow passive trickle that the whole team accrues over time.

Securing and denying orbs

The key laning mechanic is the fight over orbs. You secure your own orbs with a shot and take the full amount. Enemy orbs can be denied: if you shoot an opponent's orb before they do, they receive only a fraction of the reward and you get a compensation share. A strong laner constantly juggles two jobs — last-hit and secure your own orb, and snipe the enemy's when you can. This builds an economic gap that slowly hardens into an item and damage advantage.

Jungle and neutral camps

When the lane is under control, don't stand idle. Neutral camps sit between the lanes and also grant souls, sometimes with useful buffs. Clearing the jungle in the gaps between creep waves noticeably speeds up your income. You can stack camps — pulling mobs together to kill them all at once later — and use ziplines for fast rotations between lane and jungle. Skilled carries are almost never idle: they are always either farming a wave or clearing a nearby camp.

Extra sources and the soul curve

Beyond routine farming there are big soul sources: delivering the Urn (Sappers' Bounty) hands your team a sizable reward, while the mid-boss Rejuvenator grants a powerful team buff to close out games. Plan purchases around key item cost breakpoints — sometimes it's better to save a little toward a next-tier item than to spend souls on small upgrades. Don't pour everything into one category; a balanced build of Weapon, Vitality, and Spirit makes your hero more resilient. The core principle is simple: minimize downtime, secure every orb, and keep your income ahead of your opponent's.