Deadlock Baba Guide: Which Tea to Brew and How Her Damage Works

It is possible to spend an entire Baba fight sprinting on a bench, kicking someone, throwing tea and summoning pigeons—and still miss the moment when your team needed a particular effect.

Released on October 6, Baba asks you to make several decisions before committing: which brew to prepare, when to steal Spirit and where to go after closing the distance. Trying to solve all three while surrounded leaves little room for error.

This guide reflects the game as checked on October 13, 2026. Start with the detail that can derail your first match: Baba has three brews, but one throw does not apply all three effects.

The tea cycles between effects while brewing. Your ADS binding pauses or resumes that process, letting you hold the effect you want before throwing it.

Soothing Brew does not restore missing health. It provides a barrier. Throwing it onto a teammate under pressure can help them survive, but it will not refill health they have already lost.

Silence also has limits. Preventing abilities is not the same as stunning a target or shutting down their gun. If weapon fire is what threatens you, a silencing brew does not automatically make the trade safe.

Decide what the throw needs to accomplish before leaving cover. Protect someone, block an ability or prepare a damage window: picking the job first makes the brewing input much easier to manage.

Threadsap weaves a thread that follows your crosshair, then bursts along its path. It deals Spirit damage and steals enemy Spirit, with increased effectiveness for Baba.

While she holds stolen Spirit, every bullet deals bonus Spirit damage. After a good Threadsap hit, look for a safe opportunity to keep shooting. Immediately abandoning the angle without a reason leaves some of that advantage unused.

The thread is not simply an instant shot at your current crosshair position. Practice shaping its path against a moving target so you can judge where the burst will happen as an opponent heads toward cover.

The on-hit pull requires the third upgrade. Do not build your opening sequence around an unupgraded Threadsap dragging an enemy into your next ability.

Extending the bench’s legs grants movement speed, higher jumps, Debuff Resistance and Melee Resistance. Those benefits are not a promise of general protection from bullets. Running through several enemies’ unobstructed fire is still a commitment.

Granny Long Legs changes your close-range actions:

Practice that last input before a match. Once the trajectory is familiar, you can choose an approach that leaves an exit. Until then, it is easy to land behind enemy cover while your teammates are still trying to reach the fight.

Give the kick a purpose too. Pushing an attacker away from an injured teammate can be useful; pushing a target away from your own team’s follow-up can undo a good engagement.

The ultimate first covers targets in front of Baba with bread, applying a stacking slow. When the channel ends, pigeons bombard them with Spirit damage and hex them into birds. Damage and hex duration increase with bread count.

That means pressing the ultimate does not immediately deliver its maximum result. You need time with targets in front of you while you can keep the action going.

Look for an ally’s crowd control or a moment when enemies are occupied by another threat. You can release the effect early; insisting on maximum buildup can be a poor trade if it means staying exposed while opponents focus you.

For a manageable opening sequence, prepare your tea, land Threadsap and keep shooting from a useful angle. Save Granny Long Legs for changing that angle, leaving danger or making a close-range commitment your team can support.

The brew depends on the fight. Scalding Brew supports Spirit damage follow-up. Silence helps against an ability response. Soothing Brew may keep alive the teammate holding your target in place. Use the ultimate when that sequence creates enough time for it, rather than treating it as a mandatory button after every thread hit.

First aim to repeat one sequence without losing track of the brew. Pressing four abilities quickly is easier than getting the right value from two.

For your first matches, choose purchases around three needs: sustaining Spirit damage, getting abilities back and surviving your approach. Trying to solve everything through an expensive finished inventory can leave your next fight underprepared.

Torment Pulse is worth considering if you regularly fight near opponents. It periodically deals Spirit damage to the two closest enemies nearby. It does not hit everyone around you, and it solves little if you spend most of the fight at long range.

Spirit Snatch is an option when you consistently land melee hits. Those hits add Spirit damage and steal Spirit Resist and Spirit Power, with a reduced effect on light melee. Having a kick does not mean every engagement should become a chase for another melee hit.

These are build directions, not a claim that one inventory is universally best. If you die before using your stolen Spirit, improve your survivability and positioning before buying for a damage window you rarely reach.

If Rat King keeps disrupting your fights, read how to counter him. For the other new hero with unusual controls, see the Solomon guide.