Calico is one of the four new characters that recently made its way to the primary roaster of heroes in Deadlock. Previously called Nano, this hero excels at creating chaos on the map by offering ganking support. With the right items, she can dive in, get kills, and disappear off the map before the enemy team has a chance to react.
Alternatively, with the right items, you can transform this hero into a massive bruiser who dives into the thick of the fight and forces down objectives. But most players still go for the spirit scaling assassin build because of its sheer damage output. In this guide, we’ll show you how this Calico build works in Deadlock and the items you need to build on the hero to bring it online.
Related
Deadlock: The Magnificent Sinclair Build Guide
The Magnificent Sinclair is a fantastic duelist-style hero in Deadlock who excels in one-on-one fights. Here’s a complete build guide for the hero.
Deadlock Calico Overview & Ability Details
Despite a weak laning presence, Calico specializes in 1-vs-1 encounters. Her ability to disappear off the map and quickly offer ganking support to the side lanes makes her a formidable hero to add to your mains. Healing is extremely strong in Deadlock, and Calico’s self heal with Leaping Slash is one of the strongest in the game. While her primary fire isn’t all too good with a small magazine size, with a few items, it scales well into the mid and late game.
Here’s a quick overview of Calico’s abilities in Deadlock:
|
Ability Name |
Effects |
Upgrades |
|---|---|---|
|
Gloom Bombs |
Throw a cluster of bombs that detonate after a delay, dealing Spirit Damage.
|
1 AP: +20 Damage |
|
2 AP: -3s Cooldown |
||
|
5 AP: +2 Bomb Count |
||
|
Leaping Slash |
Dash forward before slashing all enemies in a circle, dealing Light Melee Damage. Heal a small amount of health on hero hit. Enemies hit by multiple Gloom Bombs take 50% decreased damage.
|
1 AP: +30 Heal Amount |
|
2 AP: +75 Damage |
||
|
5 AP: -50% Cooldown on Hit |
||
|
Ava |
Turn to shadows and possess Ava. You gain Movement Speed and become Hidden on the Minimap, but cannot attack or cast abilities.
|
1 AP: +20s Buff Duration |
|
2 AP: +45% Move Speed Bonus |
||
|
5 AP: -15s Cooldown, Gain 30 Health Regen during Ava. |
||
|
Return to Shadows |
Instantly turn to shadows, becoming Untargetabble, gaining Movement Speed, and dealing Damage. After 3s, return from the shadows, dealing Damage again.
|
1 AP: -30s Cooldown |
|
2 AP: +80 Damage |
||
|
5 AP: Reset all cooldowns and gain 30% damage amp for 5s. |
You can’t use Ava for 5 seconds after taking damage from an enemy hero. Ava’s bonus movement speed also gets reduced by 50% after taking damage from an enemy hero.
Calico Build Guide (Ability Order & Item Progression) in Deadlock
You can either play Calico as a tanky frontline like Abrams, who excels in staying in the thick of the battle, or as a sneaky assassin who can roam around the map, cleaning up enemy heroes and split-pushing the lanes. For this build, we’ll go with her ganker playstyle, as that is the one that’s more popular in the current meta. Besides, you won’t have to rely much on your team with this build.
Calico can be played both in a Solo and Dual lane.
The build utilizes Calico’s high spirit scaling on Gloom Bombs and Leaping Slash to bump up its damage output and heal. Although you’ll mostly be building Spirit Items, you’ll also have to invest in a few Weapon and Vitality items to fill out the slots and round up your build. Most of your Flex Slots, however, will be reserved for Spirit items.
Here’s how this build works:
Calico Ability Order
When playing as Calico, you’ll want to start the laning stage with a point in your Gloom Bombs. Because of her weak primary weapon, you’ll have to rely on this ability to poke at your lane opponents. Unlock Leaping Slash next, followed by Ava. Unlock your ultimate as soon as it becomes available for a massive power spike.
As for point allocation, you’ll want to invest 1 AP into Gloom Bombs early to get the bonus damage. Invest 3 AP into Leaping Slash to unlock its level 2 upgrade. Afterward, max out your ultimate to activate the damage amp and cooldown refresh. Max out Gloom Bombs next and take the final upgrade of Leaping Slash. Start putting points into Ava once the rest of your abilities are upgraded fully.
The bonus damage from the Gloom Bombs upgrade applies to each individual bomb.
Calico Item Progression
Calico doesn’t require as many items to become effective when you’re playing as a ganker. Similar to Lash, with a couple of key items and points in your abilities, you’ll quickly start to output insane levels of damage with the hero. Here are the items you’ll want to pick up on Calico throughout the game.
Early Game:
- Ammo Scavenger
- Spirit Strike
- Melee Lifesteal
- Hollow Point Ward
- Basic Magazine
- Extra Health
- Cold Front
- Mystic Shot
- Extra Spirit
In the laning stage as Calico, your primary focus is to overcome her weak trading potential. Ammo Scavenger, Spirit Strike, and Melee Lifesteal will give you a strong laning presence, allowing you to poke your opponent. Ammo Scavenger’s passive ability to gain back ammo is essential for the hero because of her small magazine size. Melee Lifesteal stacks with the healing from Leaping Strike, making it a strong combo to utilize in the laning stage.
With Hollow Point Ward and Basic Magazine, you’ll significantly beef up your weapon damage potential. Extra Health and Extra Spirit give you some basic boosts to your stat, while Mystic Shot adds bonus spirit damage. Finally, go with Cold Front as an additional way to inflict AOE damage on the hero.
You can use Cold Front even when transformed into Ava.
Mid Game
- Torment Pulse
- Soul Shredder Bullets
- Healing Booster
- Healbane
- Spirit Snatch
- Lifestrike
- Improved Spirit
- Surge of Power
You’ll want to unlock Flex Slots as early as possible to utilize Calico’s full potential. If you’ve got at least one Flex Slot unlocked, go for Torment Pulse. It’s a bit expensive, but this one item will significantly beef up your damage output, allowing you to passively deal Spirit Damage to any nearby enemy units.
Soul Shredder Bullets is an amazing pickup, further adding to the damage amp from your ultimate ability. Healing Booster, Healbane, and Lifestrike are essential Vitality items that’ll allow you to tank damage and stay in the fight for longer. If you’ve maxed out Gloom Bombs by this point, go for Surge of Power and imbue the ability with this item. Upgrade Extra Spirits to Improved Spirits next.
Late Game
- Bullet/Spirit Armor
- Improved Bullet/Spirit Armor
- Mystic Vulnerability
- Boundless Spirit
- Colossus/Debuff Reducer/Debuff Remover
- Warp Stone
There are a few more items you’ll want to buy to wrap up this build. First off, you’ll want to invest in either Bullet or Spirit Armor, depending on the enemy team matchup, and upgrade it to the next level. This will significantly beef up your survivability in one-on-one fights and help you kill your opponents without losing too much HP.
Go for Spirit Armor if the enemy team primarily has Spirit Damage and Bullet Armor against weapon damage.
Mystic Vulnerability fills up your next Flex Slot, but you can also sell Ammo Scavenger at this point if you don’t have extra slots unlocked. Go with Colossus or Debuff Reducer/Remover if you’re having trouble playing around enemy crowd-control abilities. Boundless Spirit is an amazing late-game pickup for the additional Spirit Power. Warp Stone can also be a good pickup if you need some extra mobility to catch heroes like Pocket.
Deadlock is an extremely dynamic game where you can try out a lot of different builds on the heroes, depending on your playstyle. The Calico build that we discussed specializes in duels and can outfight most heroes in the game without too much trouble. But keep in mind this is not the only way to play the hero. As you start getting familiar with the hero’s abilities, feel free to try out different item combinations to see exactly what this hero is capable of.
