Deadlock Guide: Mastering Rem

Deadlock just welcomed its first community-voted hero from the Old Gods, New Blood update, and players chose the adorable ball of feathers known as Rem. This pint-sized support brings a unique kit centered around healing allies, managing battlefield helpers, and putting entire teams to sleep. Here's everything you need to dominate matches with Rem's deceptively powerful support abilities.

What Makes Rem Different From Other Supports?

Rem stands out as a pure support character who thrives by staying mobile and attached to teammates. Unlike traditional supports who hang back, you'll constantly bounce between allies with Tag Along while deploying Lil Helpers across the map to collect souls, buff troops, and control objectives from a distance.

The key here is resource management. You're juggling Helper deployments, Tag Along targets, and Pillow Toss cooldowns simultaneously. Miss a Pillow Toss and you lose valuable cooldown reduction on your other abilities. Waste Helpers on the wrong targets and you'll miss critical soul collection windows.

Tag Along healing interface

Rem's Ability Breakdown

Pillow Toss (Ability 1)

You'll hurl Rem's pillow forward, dealing spirit damage and heavy knockback to enemies. Landing hits reduces your other ability cooldowns by 4 seconds, this mechanic is absolutely critical to playing Rem effectively.

Base Stats:

• 25 second cooldown
• 75 base damage (scales with spirit power)
• 5 meter AOE radius
• 45% movement speed debuff
• 3 second debuff duration

Upgrade Path:

• Tier 1: Reduces other ability cooldowns by 7 seconds on hit
• Tier 2: Applies 40% fire rate reduction
• Tier 5: Adds 90 base damage, increases radius to 7 meters

What most players miss is that Pillow Toss is a skill shot. The cooldown reduction only triggers on successful hits, so you'll want to practice leading targets and predicting movement. The knockback also doubles as a defensive tool when enemies dive you.

Tag Along (Ability 2)

This ability lets you dash to an ally hero or Helper-assisted trooper, falling asleep next to them while healing both of you. The heal scales based on missing health, making it more effective when teammates are low.

Base Stats:

• 23 meter range
• 5.5 second cooldown
• 15% missing health burst heal
• 28 health per second regeneration
• 3 second regeneration duration

Upgrade Path:

• Tier 1: Reduces cooldown by 8 seconds
• Tier 2: Bonus item range, duration, and barrier effectiveness while napping
• Tier 5: Grants bonus spirit power while napping and briefly after waking

Here's the thing: you can reactivate Tag Along to jump between different allies once per ally before the ability goes on cooldown. This creates incredible evasion potential during team fights. Attach to one ally, cast your items and abilities, then bounce to another ally when pressure comes your way.

Lil Helpers (Ability 3)

Your most versatile ability sends Helpers to complete various tasks across the map. You can target allied heroes, troopers, healing minions, bridge buffs, Sinner's Sacrifices, boxes, and even shops for quick buying.

Following Hero Stats:

• 15% spirit resist
• +3 meter per second movement speed
• 8 second duration

Following Trooper Stats:

• +35% damage and resistance
• +14 health per second heal
• 50 second duration
• Allows troopers to collect souls when no heroes nearby

Upgrade Path:

• Tier 1: Adds 1 additional Helper
• Tier 2: Increases spirit resistance to 23%, movement speed to 4 meters per second
• Tier 5: Adds 2 more Helpers (total of 4), increases trooper damage/resistance to 50%

Pro tip: send Helpers to troopers in lanes you're not actively pushing. They'll collect souls and split them among your team, generating passive income while you focus elsewhere. You can also steal enemy bridge buffs and complete Sinner's Sacrifices from safe distances.

Naptime (Ultimate Ability)

Rem channels his gaze forward, piercing through walls and terrain. Enemies caught in the gaze suffer movement penalties before falling asleep, then take heavy spirit damage when they wake up.

Base Stats:

• 1.9 second channel duration
• 24 meter range
• 175 second cooldown
• 120 wake damage (scales with spirit power)
• 100-208 base damage (scales with Rem's level)
• 25% movement and dash slow
• 4.25 second sleep duration

Upgrade Path:

• Tier 1: Removes 1 stamina on wake, prevents stamina regeneration during sleep
• Tier 2: Grants Unstoppable and damage reduction while channeling
• Tier 5: Reduces cooldown by 40 seconds (135 total)

The wall-piercing aspect is absolutely broken. You'll spot team fights through structures and cast Naptime without exposing yourself to danger. This lets you set up kills for teammates or disrupt enemy engages from complete safety.

Naptime channeling interface

Rem Build 

Early Game Priorities (Tier 1-2 Items)

Focus on spirit damage and utility items that enhance your support capabilities:

Extra Charge is non-negotiable. More Helper charges means better map coverage, more soul collection, and additional Tag Along targets during team fights.

Mid Game Core (Tier 3-4 Items)

You'll want to stack spirit power while adding team-oriented active items:

• Rescue Beam: Save teammates from dangerous situations
• Healing Nova: Area healing during extended fights
• Improved Spirit Armor: Increases your survivability
• Rapid Recharge: Keeps Pillow Toss available more frequently

Late Game Power Items (Tier 5-6)

Round out your build with high-impact support items:

• Inhibitor: Reduces enemy healing during fights
• Curse: Amplifies team damage on priority targets
• Phantom Strike: Emergency repositioning tool
• Improved Burst: Increases all spirit damage output

What most players miss is that Rem can use items while attached via Tag Along. This means you're constantly providing value even when hiding on a teammate's back.

Playing Rem 

Laning Phase Strategy

Early game presents Rem's most vulnerable phase. You're squishy with only one teammate to rely on, making aggressive enemies a serious threat.

Priority checklist:

1. Take Pillow Toss first for poke damage and wave clear
2. Send Helpers to collect neutral camps and enemy Sinner's Sacrifices
3. Use Tag Along defensively when ganked
4. Focus on landing Pillow Tosses to maintain ability uptime

You'll want to play around your lane partner's aggression. When they engage, attach with Tag Along for the heal, then detach to land Pillow Toss for damage and cooldown reduction. Rinse and repeat.

Mid Game Rotation

Once you hit level 12 and unlock Naptime, your impact multiplies:

Map control tactics:

• Deploy Helpers to multiple lanes for passive soul income
• Steal enemy bridge buffs before team fights
• Use Naptime through walls to assist distant skirmishes
• Maintain Helper coverage on pushed lanes for vision and soul collection

The key here is staying unpredictable. Enemies can't pin you down when you're bouncing between Tag Along targets and casting abilities through walls with Naptime.

Team Fight Execution

Here's your team fight priority system:

1. Pre-fight: Deploy Helpers on frontline allies for spirit resist and movement speed
2. Engage: Use Naptime to sleep priority targets or disrupt enemy engages
3. Sustain: Bounce between allies with Tag Along, healing and casting support items
4. Cleanup: Land Pillow Tosses for damage and cooldown reduction

Pro Tip: Save your final Tag Along target for emergency escapes. When you run out of allies to attach to, you become vulnerable for 5.5 seconds until the cooldown resets.

Common Rem Mistakes to Avoid

Wasting Helpers on yourself: You don't need the spirit resist buff. Send Helpers to allies or troopers instead for maximum value.

Staying attached too long: Tag Along makes you untargetable, but you sacrifice positioning and ability impact. Detach to land Pillow Tosses and reposition.

Ignoring Pillow Toss accuracy: Missing shots means longer cooldowns on Tag Along and Helpers. Practice your aim in the training range.

Poor Helper deployment timing: Helpers nap for 15.1 seconds after following someone. Don't waste them right before important objectives.

Forgetting about wall-piercing Naptime: This ultimate wins fights you're not even present for. Use it liberally when you see opportunities through structures.

Ability Upgrade Priority

You'll max abilities in this order:

1. Pillow Toss (levels 1, 5, 8, 11)
2. Naptime (levels 6, 13, 17)
3. Lil Helpers (levels 2, 7, 14, 18)
4. Tag Along (levels 3, 9, 15, 19)

Pillow Toss gets priority because landing hits reduces all other cooldowns. Naptime comes second for its game-changing team fight impact. Lil Helpers provides more utility than Tag Along in most situations, though specific builds might reverse this order.

Advanced Rem Techniques

Helper Micro-Management

Send Helpers to different objectives simultaneously:

• One Helper on your carry for protection
• One Helper on a pushed lane for soul collection
• One Helper stealing enemy jungle camps
• One Helper ready for quick shop purchases

This spreads your influence across the entire map while generating passive income.

Tag Along Chain Escapes

When multiple enemies dive you:

1. Attach to nearest ally with Tag Along
2. Cast Unstoppable on them (self-cast macro)
3. Immediately bounce to next ally
4. Repeat until enemies give up or you're safe

You can survive focused pressure by constantly moving between teammates.

Naptime Zoning

Don't always commit to the full channel. Sometimes threatening Naptime forces enemies to reposition, creating space for your team without even using the ability.

Mastering Rem

Rem rewards players who can multitask and think several steps ahead. You're managing Helper deployments, tracking Tag Along cooldowns, landing Pillow Tosses for cooldown reduction, and positioning for Naptime—all while staying alive as one of the squishiest heroes in Deadlock.

The payoff is incredible team fight impact and map control that few other supports can match. Master the Helper micro-management, abuse Tag Along's invulnerability, and you'll understand why the community voted for this adorable demon first.

Now get out there and put some enemies to sleep. Your team needs those buffs, and those enemy souls aren't going to collect themselves.