Living Ink
Living Ink is Violet's first ability in Deadlock (slot 1), an active ability with a 22 second cooldown and 2 charges. Empower (Ability 1): Your next 3 bullets come to life, allowing you to steer them as they travel. The bullets deal increased bullet damage and splash spirit damage in a small area.
Open the most-bought Violet build
The 4 items bought most in each phase of 123,032 Violet matches, October 30 to November 1, 2026, measured by deadlock-api.com.
Living Ink in matches
Violet players unlocked Living Ink second in 63.6% of matches (78,581 of 123,597), first in 35.0% of matches (43,283 of 123,597) and third in 1.3% of matches (1,653 of 123,597), in all-rank matches from October 30 to November 1, 2026, from patch 6833's release day.
Measured from matches at all ranks from October 30 to November 1, 2026, starting on the day patch 6833 was released (October 30, 2026), by deadlock-api.com. These are match results, not numbers from the game files, and not a recommendation. Each share is the Violet matches in which Living Ink was the first, second, third or fourth ability unlocked, out of every Violet match counted; a step under 500 matches is not listed.
Match data: deadlock-api.com. deadlock-api.com is not endorsed by Valve and does not reflect the views or opinions of Valve or anyone officially involved in producing or managing Valve properties. How a share is computed: methodology.
Living Ink stats
Living Ink
- Cooldown 22s
- Charges 2
- Between charges 7s
- Duration 10s
Empower (Ability 1): Your next 3 bullets come to life, allowing you to steer them as they travel. The bullets deal increased bullet damage and splash spirit damage in a small area.
Each successful hit against a hero reduces all ability cooldowns, and half for all item cooldowns.
Draw (Zoom / alt-fire): Paint a solid stroke of ink instead that blocks projectiles and characters from passing through.
The stroke can be destroyed with a heavy melee, but deals spirit damage to the attacker.
Upgrades
| Tier | Bonuses | In game |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | -4s Cooldown +15m Max Drawing Size | -4s Cooldown +15m Max Drawing Distance |
| 2 | +5 Max Stacks +10s Stack Duration +10 Bonus Fire Rate Per Stack | On Empower: Gain +10% Fire Rate for 10s, stacking 5 times |
| 3 | +30% Bullet Damage +1s Cooldown Reduction per Hit +0.4 Damage Spirit scaling | +1s Cooldown Reduction Per Hit Improve scaling |
Each tier is bought with ability points; how many points a tier costs is not in the game files this site reads, so it is not shown. Learning the ability takes 1 ability unlock.
Living Ink change history
| Patch | Change | State |
|---|---|---|
| November 5, 2026build 6860from build 6803 | No player-facing change in 17 builds (October 20 to November 5, 2026). | Unchanged |
| October 19, 2026build 6796 | Living Ink's tier 1 upgrade now reads: "-4s Cooldown +15m Max Drawing Distance" | Changed |
| October 16, 2026build 6790 | Added to Deadlock. | Added |
Living Ink FAQ
What does Living Ink do?
Empower (Ability 1): Your next 3 bullets come to life, allowing you to steer them as they travel. The bullets deal increased bullet damage and splash spirit damage in a small area. Each successful hit against a hero reduces all ability cooldowns, and half for all item cooldowns. Draw (Zoom / alt-fire): Paint a solid stroke of ink instead that blocks projectiles and characters from passing through. The stroke can be destroyed with a heavy melee, but deals spirit damage to the attacker. Its tooltip lists 35 Damage (+0.7 x Spirit), 1.5s Cooldown Reduction per Hit, 120% Bullet Damage and 25m Max Drawing Size (+0.12 x Spirit).
What is Living Ink's cooldown in Deadlock?
Living Ink has a 22 second cooldown. It holds 2 charges, 7 seconds apart. The tier 1 upgrade changes it by -4s.
How does Living Ink scale with spirit power?
Damage starts at 35 and gains 0.7 per point of Spirit and Max Drawing Size starts at 25m and gains 0.12 per point of Spirit, the coefficients the game file writes on the values. The tier 3 upgrade adds 0.4 to the Damage scaling.
What do Living Ink's upgrades do?
Tier 1: -4s Cooldown, +15m Max Drawing Distance. Tier 2: On Empower: Gain +10% Fire Rate for 10s, stacking 5 times. Tier 3: +1s Cooldown Reduction Per Hit, Improve scaling.
When was Living Ink added to Deadlock?
Living Ink was added to Deadlock in the October 16, 2026 patch (build 6790).
Was Living Ink changed in the latest patch?
No. Living Ink is unchanged in the latest build of Deadlock on file (the November 5, 2026 patch, build 6860). It last changed in the October 19, 2026 patch.