How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock comes down to denying the four mechanics that make his live kit oppressive: dash to remove Rat Swarm, stop shooting Royal Pestments, melee Scrap Grenade away when it is safe, and leave the Rule, Ratannia! banner zone instead of accepting a full teamfight inside it.
The common mistake when learning How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock is treating Rat King like one ordinary gun hero. His weapon hurts, but most of his advantage comes from forcing you to fight on bad terms. Recognising which ability is active is more important than memorising one counter item.
How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock: dash off Rat Swarm
Rat Swarm attaches rats that deal Spirit damage and reduce Bullet Resist with every bite. The more rats attached, the faster they bite.
Use a ground or air dash to remove an attached rat early. Keeping one stamina charge available around Rat King is one of the cleanest counter habits you can develop.
Stop shooting Royal Pestments
Royal Pestments gives Rat King a Max Health barrier and a chance to return bullets toward the attacker. T3 can also cap the damage taken from a single hit while the armor remains.
When the armor appears, stop feeding it sustained gunfire. Reposition, reload or pressure somebody else until the defensive window is less valuable.
Melee Scrap Grenade away
Scrap Grenade detonates repeatedly and slows, but you can melee the projectile to knock it elsewhere. This can remove the area denial before the stronger final explosion.
Only do it when you can safely reach the grenade. Walking into Rat King’s full kit just to move one projectile defeats the point of How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock.
Leave Rule Ratannia
Rule, Ratannia! is designed to win the fight around the banner. Rat King’s allies gain movement and defensive benefits while enemies can be knocked up, slowed and covered in Rat Swarm.
Unless an objective forces the fight, back away and re-engage after the banner loses value. Fighting inside it gives Rat King’s whole team the terms they want.
Pressure him after cooldowns
The best window for How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock is after Royal Pestments and Scrap Grenade have already been used. Without armor, Rat King loses his safest commitment, and without the grenade he has less control over your movement.
Force one ability, disengage briefly, then commit. His kit is much harder to kill through when every cooldown is available at the same time.
Save stamina
Stamina management is the hidden counter. If you spend every dash chasing Rat King, Rat Swarm becomes harder to clear and the banner slow becomes more punishing.
Keep one escape option before entering a close fight, especially when both Rat Swarm and Scrap Grenade are ready.
Which heroes work well against him?
Mobile heroes who can disengage cleanly and characters that can threaten from range without committing long sustained fire are easier to pilot into Rat King.
Early matchup win rates are still settling because the hero only just released, so use kit interactions before treating one day’s analytics as a permanent counter tier list.
Live release context
Rat King is now fully playable in the City Never Sleeps build, so this guide is based on the released ability behaviour rather than prerelease files. Balance values may move quickly while Valve watches the first days of live matches.
If a later hotfix changes one of these interactions, the mechanic on the current client should take priority over an older screenshot or test-build clip.
Take away points:
How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock starts with patience: force Royal Pestments, stop shooting it and make Rat King spend the cooldown without getting reflected damage.
How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock also means preserving one dash for Rat Swarm instead of using every stamina charge to chase.
How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock becomes much easier when you refuse to fight inside Rule, Ratannia! and re-engage after the banner zone loses value.
How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock is ultimately about making him spend abilities one at a time instead of letting all four overlap in the same close-range fight.
Official source: Valve Deadlock news.
