Deadlock Haunts Guide: Every New Neutral Camp, Soul Values and Map Secrets After City Never Sleeps

Valve’s City Never Sleeps update did more than add six new heroes to Deadlock. It also replaced every neutral camp in the game with a new set of creatures called Haunts, rebuilt the back alleys into four themed districts and scattered new soul sources across the map. And every soul you farm from them arrives as a Haunted Soul, which you can lose if you die too soon. If you are still farming the city the way you did before September 29, you are leaving souls on the table. This Deadlock Haunts guide explains what Haunted Souls are and how they work, every Haunt family and where Valve placed them, how the camp tiers work, and the new map secrets like the Sunken Plaza and the Bell Tower.

What Are Haunted Souls in Deadlock?

Haunted Souls are the souls you earn from neutral sources, such as Haunts, Sinner’s Sacrifice machines and crates. You can spend them right away, but they are not safe yet: they slowly turn into secured souls over time, and if you die before that happens, you lose the unsecured part. Haunted Souls is the in-game label for what players often call unsecured souls.

Valve has not published an official explanation of the mechanic in its patch notes or on playdeadlock.com, and the exact numbers below are not confirmed by Valve. They come from community trackers and the Deadlock wiki, which read them from the game files after the City Never Sleeps update. Treat them as the current state of the game, not as official values, and expect Valve to tweak them.

• Where you get them: killing Haunts, destroying Sinner’s Sacrifice machines and breaking crates, including Tough Crates. Souls from troopers, hero kills and objectives such as Guardians, Walkers and the Mid Boss are secured immediately and are not haunted.
• What they do: they count toward your total right away, so they push your Boon level up and you can spend them in the shop immediately. In the HUD they show up as a separate number next to your total, which marks how much you would lose on death.
• The risk: if you die before they are secured, you lose the unsecured part. Above a threshold it drops as a Soul Bag that anyone, including the enemy who killed you, can claim.

How Do Haunted Souls Work?

1. Farm a neutral source. Kill a Haunt camp, break a crate or destroy a Sinner’s Sacrifice. The souls go straight into your Haunted Souls bank, split evenly with any allies who also damaged the Haunts.
2. Use them immediately if you want. They already count for your Boon level, and you can buy items with them. The shop spends your secured souls first and only then your haunted ones.
3. Wait for them to secure. According to game-file data, every second about 0.5% of your current Haunted Souls become secured, plus a small flat amount that grows as the match goes on. At minute 10, a bank of 1,000 Haunted Souls secures at roughly 7.9 souls per second, so a big farm still needs a few minutes to become safe.
4. Don’t die while carrying a big bank. If you die with Haunted Souls that have not secured yet, you lose them. If the amount is at least 50 plus 5 per minute of match time (100 at minute 10, 150 at minute 20), they drop as a Soul Bag where you died.
5. Claim the Soul Bag with a Heavy Melee. Any player can pick up a Soul Bag by hitting it with a Heavy Melee, including the enemy who killed you. Community testing says the bag disappears after about three minutes. Below the threshold, no bag drops and the souls are simply gone.

What Are Haunts in Deadlock?

Haunts are Deadlock’s new neutral camps. With the City Never Sleeps update, Valve swapped out the old neutrals for a range of new creatures that each behave differently. Their job in a match is the same as before: you clear them between lane fights to earn extra souls and fall behind less when your lane goes badly.

A few basics are worth knowing before you start routing:

• Souls go straight to you, as Haunted Souls. According to community testing, a killed Haunt grants its souls to every player who damaged it, split evenly between them, instead of dropping soul orbs. Only recent damage counts, and farming a camp with a teammate splits the reward. Those souls land in your Haunted Souls bank, so they still need time to secure.
• The HUD now shows the reward. The update added soul values and a comparative difficulty rating for NPCs, so you can check whether a camp is worth it before you commit.
• Respawn timers are visible in the world. When you stand near a cleared Haunt camp or the Midboss area, you can now see when it will respawn.

Every Deadlock Haunt Family

Valve introduced nine Haunt families. On its official tour, four of them belong to the main city streets and five to the new districts tucked between the lanes, although community maps show some families spawning in other spots too:

• Specimen: A disembodied hand that crawls across the floor. Valve introduces it next to Times Square on its official city tour.
• Past Dues: Haunted books that are anything but a calm bedtime read.
• Gutter Ghouls: Humanity’s buried dark and dirty thoughts given form. Community maps show them as the most widespread family in the city.
• Barrel Mimics: Possessed gunpowder barrels.
• Stage Hands: Floating performers found in the Theater district.
• Festival Spirit: Spirits kindled by hopes and wishes that turn violent, found in the Chinatown district. Community testing shows they attack from range.
• Crabbage Pots: Also tied to Chinatown on Valve’s map, where something is clearly wrong with the water.
• Shrooms: Walking fungi charged with demonic energy, found in the Haunted Lot district. In the game files the family is listed as Slum Shroom.
• Underhands: Grasping, pickpocketing hands found in the Plaza district.

The family mostly changes how a camp looks, moves and attacks. How much health it has and how many Haunted Souls it gives depends on the camp’s tier, which is why reading the tier matters more than recognizing the creature.

The Theater district is one of four new side areas, and the home of the Stage Hands.

Deadlock Haunts Tiers: Souls, Spawn and Respawn Times

Valve has not published official numbers for Haunts, but community trackers that pulled the values from the game files agree on the basics. Haunt camps come in three tiers:

Tier	Health	Haunted Souls per Haunt (base)	First spawn	Respawn after clear
Small (Tier I)	129	41	2:00	1:25
Medium (Tier II)	322	68	5:00	4:50
Large (Tier III)	1,133	181	8:00	5:35

These are starting values. Haunts get tougher and more valuable as the match goes on, so a camp you clear easily at minute 8 can become expensive later if your build falls behind. The respawn timer only starts once the whole camp is dead: some medium camps include Sinner’s Sacrifice machines, and both the Haunts and the machines have to be cleared before the camp comes back.

The new in-world timers show exactly when a cleared camp will return.

The Four Districts and Their Map Secrets

Hidden between the main streets are four districts: the Theater, Chinatown, the Haunted Lot and the Plaza. Besides their Haunt camps, the update added several new things to find and break across the city:

• Sunken Plaza: Below the Plaza district’s main square. Valve calls it high risk, high reward: the deeper you go, the more your stamina fades.
• Bell Tower: Climb the Chinatown Bell Tower for a concentrated soul hotspot. The catch is that the bell rings loudly across the whole map while you collect, so expect visitors.
• Tough Crates: These only break with a Heavy Melee, but they contain extra souls, which also count as Haunted Souls.
• Buff Containers: The revamped golden statues can now also grant permanent Spirit Resist, Bullet Resist, Ability Range and Move Speed bonuses.
• Healing Snacks: Hidden around the map, these let you heal up in a pinch.
• Steam Vents: Standing on one makes you invisible and gives a small amount of regen, which makes them great for ambushes and safe rotations.

Tips for Farming Haunts Efficiently

• Check the tier, not the creature. Use the soul value and difficulty info on the HUD to decide whether a camp is worth your time.
• Close beats big. A nearby small or medium camp you clear quickly is often worth more than walking across the map to a large camp you can’t kill fast.
• Don’t steal your teammate’s farm. Since the souls are split between everyone who deals damage, stacking two players on one camp halves the payout for each of you.
• Finish the whole camp. Leave a Sinner’s Sacrifice standing and the camp won’t start its respawn timer.
• Protect your Haunted Souls. After a big farm, avoid risky fights until most of the bank has secured, or spend it in the shop. Just remember the shop uses your secured souls first, so only a purchase bigger than your secured total actually spends Haunted Souls.
• Hunt the Soul Bags. When an enemy farmer dies, look for their Soul Bag and grab it with a Heavy Melee before it disappears.
• Treat the Bell Tower as bait. Everyone hears the bell, so only take it when you can survive a fight or when your team is ready to punish whoever shows up.
• Route past the extras. Plan your path through districts so you pick up Tough Crates, Buff Containers and Healing Snacks on the way to your next camp.

Deadlock Haunts: Our Verdict

Deadlock Haunts make farming a bigger part of every match: nine new families, four districts full of hidden extras and much better information on the HUD. Learn where your closest camps are, read the tier before you commit, use the respawn timers to plan your rotations and don’t throw away a fat bank of Haunted Souls in a bad fight, and your soul lead will follow. Want the bigger picture first? Read our overview of everything in the City Never Sleeps update. This guide reflects Deadlock after the City Never Sleeps update and the minor update of October 5, 2026. Deadlock is still in early development, and Valve changes values regularly, so numbers may shift with future patches.

Deadlock Haunted Souls FAQ

What are Haunted Souls in Deadlock?
Haunted Souls are souls from neutral sources like Haunts, Sinner’s Sacrifice machines and crates. They count toward your total right away, but they are unsecured at first and can be lost if you die before they secure.

How do Haunted Souls work?
You earn them by farming neutrals, and they slowly convert into secured souls every second. Based on game-file data, roughly 0.5% of your current bank plus a small flat amount that rises over the match secures each second. Valve has not published these numbers officially.

What do Haunted Souls do?
They work like normal souls for leveling and shopping: they raise your Boon level immediately and you can spend them on items. The only difference is the risk of losing them on death until they are secured.

What to do with Haunted Souls?
Either play safe for a minute or two so they secure, or spend them on an item that costs more than your secured souls, since the shop uses secured souls first. What you should not do is take a risky fight while carrying a big unsecured bank.

Do Haunted Souls carry over or reset?
They do not reset on their own, they only turn into secured souls over time. If you die, any unsecured part is lost: above a threshold of 50 plus 5 per match minute it drops as a Soul Bag that anyone can claim with a Heavy Melee, below it the souls are gone. Like all souls, nothing carries over to your next match.

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Picture Source: Valve