Billy

Wayyyyy back in 2025, on May 1st, a prominent Deadlock streamer (Deathy) accidently leaked a hero roster from an allegedly, “secret” private test build of Deadlock, which is currently in alpha. Kind of a Russian Nesting Doll situation. Deadlock was leaked in early 2024, and was invite-only. 2025, the game was still invite-only, but it seemed that Valve had created a test-build within a test-build.

Well, being a little of a Punk Rocker myself, as soon as I saw Punkgoat in that leaked hero roster my mind started going crazy with ideas. And eight days later, on May 9th, I posted on the offical Deadlock forums a skillset for Punkgoat. I had made three versions, each building on top of each other. V2 was posted in the forum thread on V1, and V3 was distinct enough that I felt it warranted its own post.

Then, on August 18th, 2025, The Six New Heroes update came about and my dream became a reality as Punkgoat had been reworked into Billy. For this update, Valve did something a little different and gave the community the ability to vote for who gets released. When the sixth and last hero releaed, Valve shared some voting statistics. “Billy won with the largest lead at just over 30% of the total votes at the time of his release.”

Now, whether or not these threads helped inspire or influence Billy, we will probably never know. Do I feel I had some influence on Billy? Of course! But, for me to say that I 100% did is not something I’m comfortable with. The reality is more likely Valve saw some ideas, took the more interesting ones, and tossed the rest. I like to joke that I come up with bad ideas, so that we can get to the good ideas.

Regardless, the fact that Punkgoat was one of the six heroes to became a reality out of 14 heroes that were leaked just filles my heart with so much joy. And the fact that Billy won the largest lead… well, I’m proud to know that Punx Is Not Dead. Enjoy!

V1 Since Punkgoat seemingly doesn’t have a moveset yet, if this isn’t it or like it, I might actually riot.

V2 Since Punkgoat seemingly doesn’t have a moveset yet, if this isn’t it or like it, I might actually riot.

Ability Set v3: Punkgoat is REAL and this better be his ability set or I’ll riot (of course not really)

Buddy, the Six-String Samurai

V1 Buddy, the Six-String Samurai | Four-Eyes. Samurai. King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

V2 Buddy, the Six-String Samurai | Four-Eyes. Samurai. King of Rock ‘n’ Roll.

V3 Kill over 200 men and play a mean six-string at the same time | You are the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll | You are Buddy, the Six-String Samurai