How to Counter Rat King in Deadlock: Armor, Rats and Item Choices

You buy anti-heal, meet Rat King again and still cannot bring him down. That does not necessarily mean the item failed. You may have bought an answer to healing while trying to break a barrier.

Separate three sources of durability: Royal Pestments, health restored by items or allies, and protection during his ultimate. They can all appear in the same fight, but they do not disappear in response to the same action.

This guide reflects the game as checked on October 13, 2026, including the October 5 nerf. Start with the responses that do not require a trip to the shop.

Rat Swarm attaches rats that deal Spirit damage over time and reduce Bullet Resist with every bite. More attached rats increase the rate of biting.

A ground or air dash removes one rat. Not the entire swarm, not every debuff and not necessarily the Bullet Resist reduction already applied.

One dash is helpful, but it is not an invitation to step straight back into Rat King’s gunfire. Reach cover and reassess. Spending all your stamina shedding rats in open ground can leave you unable to escape the rest of his team.

Try to make the movement do two jobs: remove a rat and improve your position. Dashing out of a firing lane toward cover usually solves more than repeatedly dashing in the same exposed area.

Scrap Grenade detonates repeatedly, slows enemies and deals Bullet damage. A melee hit can knock it away.

Do not confuse that interaction with an ordinary parry. You are hitting the grenade itself to change its position.

Having the option does not make it the best response every time. If several enemies are advancing, retreating safely can matter more than handling the explosive. That is especially true if reaching it means stepping out of cover.

Royal Pestments grants a Combat Barrier based on maximum health and a chance to deflect bullets while it holds. Its third upgrade also adds a cap on damage taken from an individual hit.

Two distinctions matter. First, the damage cap is not part of the base ability; it may not exist in an early fight. Second, once the upgrade is present, a large single hit into active armor can achieve less than you expected.

Should you save your main burst until the armor breaks? Often that is a reasonable option if your team can remove the barrier with other damage first. But “never shoot the armor” is not a useful universal rule. Waiting indefinitely also has a cost when Rat King is freely pressuring your teammates.

Identify the protection currently doing the work. The barrier does not benefit from resists, but it still has its own capacity, bullet deflection and, when upgraded, the per-hit cap.

When Rat King restores health through his build or teammates, reducing incoming healing addresses a real part of his durability. When you are simply failing to break a barrier, anti-heal does not have to change the result.

Curse also reduces your own damage output for its duration. That makes coordination particularly important. It is not a promise that you can press the item and immediately delete the target alone.

Knockdown is not an instant emergency stop either. The stun arrives after a delay, so using it at the last possible moment can be too late for the response you wanted.

Curse’s description explicitly excludes ultimate buffs from its removal effect. Do not assume it automatically erases every part of Rule, Ratannia! or removes an already planted banner.

During the ultimate, allies near the banner gain movement speed, immunity to slows and reduced incoming damage. A plan that relies only on slowing their advance and trading in place becomes particularly awkward during that phase.

Planting the banner deals Bullet damage, knocks enemies up, slows them and releases rats. The planted banner also grants allies fire rate and removes the movement penalty from shooting.

If the fight is optional, changing position may be better than trading inside a zone that favors the enemy. Avoid sending the whole team through one cramped escape route when you can move toward separate cover before the engagement closes around you.

If you must contest, coordinate control and look for an accessible target. Spending every damage cooldown on a protected Rat King while his teammates fire freely is not your only option.

Since October 5, the ultimate’s base cooldown is 160 seconds rather than 130, and its first upgrade no longer removes 20 seconds. A banner that achieves little creates an opportunity for your team’s next action. Items affect the actual timer, though, so do not announce an exact enemy cooldown without accounting for the build.

Replace “Rat King cannot die” with a more useful observation: I stayed exposed with several rats and no stamina; I spent my biggest hit into upgraded armor; we traded under the banner; I bought anti-heal when the barrier was the problem.

Each version points toward a concrete next decision. That is more useful than rebuilding your entire inventory after one bad fight.

For the other side of the matchup, see the Rat King guide. If he keeps arriving through an unexpected passage, learn how Deadlock’s tunnels work.