# Deadlock Grey Talon Guide: Build, Skills & Tips (Oct 2026)
> A current Grey Talon guide for Deadlock's City Never Sleeps patch: the October 2026 Charged Shot build and skill order, every ability with wiki-checked numbers, the older gun sniper build with its September nerfs, laning, team fights and counters.
- **Game:** Deadlock
- **Category:** Hero Guides
- **Author:** ItzMaze (https://guides-factory.com/authors/itzmaze)
- **Difficulty:** Intermediate
- **Reading time:** 20 min
- **Published:** 2026-10-19
- **Updated:** 2026-10-19
- **Tags:** Hero Guide, grey-talon, item-builds, laning
- **Adapted from:** [Deadlock Grey Talon Build Guide - HYPER Farmer MOST DMG Sniper Solo Carry](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcFVmG9r8wU)
- **Canonical URL:** https://guides-factory.com/guides/deadlock-grey-talon-guide
---
## 🎯 The core idea
> Grey Talon is a long-range bow hero who wins by poking from distance, picking off low targets with Guided Owl and raining arrows from the air in fights. The current October 2026 build maxes Charged Shot first and stacks charge and spirit items. The older gun build still works if you farm hard, but its Golden Goose Egg, Mercurial Magnum and Spiritual Overflow were all nerfed on September 16.
- free costs nothing
- cheap small cost
- setup needs preparation
- grind pays off slowly
- skip the thing to stop doing
## Who Grey Talon is after City Never Sleeps
Grey Talon (Wesley Grey Talon, a retired monster hunter) has been in Deadlock since its earliest builds. He fights from long range with a bow, uses traps to keep enemies away, and sends his spirit owl to finish off weak targets. The wiki lists 780 base health, 1.5 health regen, 6.3 m/s move speed, 1.6 m/s sprint speed and 4 stamina. His bow, The Mourning Comes, deals 23.5 damage per arrow with 17 shots per magazine, 1.67 shots per second and a 2.35 s reload. That works out to 39.2 DPS at base. Damage falloff starts at 18 m and ends at 54 m, so he hits full damage from further away than most heroes. That range is why players call him the sniper of the cast.
**Which patch this covers.** This guide started from SwoleBenji's "Hyper Farmer" Grey Talon build guide, uploaded August 23, 2026. That video came out before the September 16 balance patch and the September 29 City Never Sleeps map rework. Grey Talon himself has not been changed since then: the wiki's update history lists only one undocumented September 29 change, which is that the owl now explodes at once if you die while steering it. His items did change, though. So the main build in this deadlock grey talon guide comes from a newer video: Cashcoryy's "My Grey Talon Build ONE SHOTS Eternus players in Ranked!" from October 15, 2026, which plays on the new map. His build was last updated on October 14. Neither the October 5 nor the October 14 patch touched Grey Talon or any item named below. That makes this the current grey talon build for City Never Sleeps and for October 2026.
**Tier.** Our [Deadlock tier list](/guides/deadlock-tier-list) puts him in C tier at a 47.0% win rate. Cashcoryy argues the opposite from his own 22-1 game: he thinks the hero is strong but usually built wrong. Treat the tier placement as an average across all builds, not a cap on what he can do.
## Charged Shot: the ability the new build maxes first
Charged Shot charges a powerful arrow that pierces through every enemy in a line. You hold Ability 1 (or Fire) to keep it drawn and release to shoot. The wiki lists 80 base damage with x1 spirit scaling, a 4 s gap between charges and a 17 s cooldown. You can hold the shot forever, but your walk speed drops to 1.5 m/s while you do. Pressing Cancel throws the charge away.
| Upgrade | Effect (wiki) |
| --- | --- |
| T1 | +1 charge |
| T2 | +54 damage |
| T3 | Better damage scaling and -3 s charge delay |
The tooltip in the frame above reads 112 damage. That is the 80 base plus 32 spirit power at x1 scaling, which matches the wiki. Charged Shot also has two uses beyond damage. It can grab soul orbs from a distance, and it sets off your own Spirit Snare early with a bigger radius. Cashcoryy adds a trick that the wiki's Mystic Shot notes back up: Mystic Shot fires its bonus bullet together with the arrow. So the Mystic Shot item adds its spirit damage to every Charged Shot as well.
## Rain of Arrows: flight, multishot and escapes
Rain of Arrows launches you high into the air and lets you glide for up to 4 s, on a 25 s cooldown. While you are airborne, your bow fires 5 arrows per shot (multishot) and each one gets +3 weapon damage. Each enemy can only be hit once per multishot, so the extra arrows help most against groups. Touching the ground ends the ability. Pressing Jump cancels the glide early, and if you cancel while still rising you keep that momentum, which makes it a good escape. The alternate cast gives a shorter jump.
| Upgrade | Effect (wiki) |
| --- | --- |
| T1 | +3 more weapon damage while airborne; hits slow enemies by 24% for 1.5 s |
| T2 | -12 s cooldown |
| T3 | +30% bullet lifesteal, +30% spirit lifesteal and +30% bullet evasion while airborne |
The wiki adds a few things worth knowing. While gliding you can Air Dash as many times as you want, and each dash goes 25% further. You can't Air Jump or grab a zipline during the glide. A Dash Jump right before you cast sends you much higher and further. With the Split Shot item active, you fire 25 arrows per shot (5 times 5) across roughly a 28° spread. That combo is the reason the gun build buys Split Shot.
## Spirit Snare: the trap that silences and disarms
Spirit Snare throws a trap that takes 2 s to arm and then stays out for 22 s. When an enemy walks into its 6.5 m radius, the trap curses them for 2.25 s. The curse interrupts, silences, disarms and blocks item use, and it also slows them by 24% and deals 25 damage. The cooldown is 34 s. If you hit the trap with a Charged Shot, it goes off right away with a 30% bigger radius and skips the arm time. You can even do this while the trap is still in the air.
| Upgrade | Effect (wiki) |
| --- | --- |
| T1 | -20 s cooldown |
| T2 | Trapped enemies get -15% bullet resist for 10 s |
| T3 | +1 s curse and +1.5 m radius |
The tooltip SwoleBenji shows (2.25 s curse, 25 damage, 22 s lifetime) matches the wiki. free Use the trap defensively. Throw it into doorways and narrow paths enemies have to use to reach you or to escape. Before you clear a camp, put a snare on the door so anyone who comes to steal it or gank you walks into it first. The trap is blocked by Unstoppable and Indomitable, it triggers Reactive Barrier, and dispels can remove the curse. Against heroes with those, set it off with Charged Shot as part of a combo instead of hoping they step on it.
## Guided Owl: the ultimate for picks and interrupts
Guided Owl has a 1.5 s cast time. After that you steer a spirit owl for up to 20 s, and it explodes on impact. Hold forward to speed it up. The explosion deals 230 damage (x0.937 spirit scaling) in a 12 m radius and stuns for 0.75 s. The cooldown is 125 s. Each enemy hero who dies within 4 s of being hit gives you +8 permanent spirit power. That was cut from 10 on June 30, when the cooldown also went up from 110 s.
| Upgrade | Effect (wiki) |
| --- | --- |
| T1 | +85 damage |
| T2 | -40 s cooldown |
| T3 | After the hit, kills enemies below 22% health (pure damage) |
Use the owl in three ways. First, as a long-range finisher on anyone fleeing at low health. With T3, anyone left under 22% after the hit dies. Second, as a stun from behind cover that interrupts channeled ultimates such as Seven's Storm Cloud or McGinnis's Heavy Barrage. Third, as a way to scout: fly the owl straight up after the cast to see over buildings. You can blow it up early by cancelling the ability, which catches enemies trying to dodge into tight spaces. Your body stands still while you steer, so steer from a safe spot. If you die mid-flight, the owl now explodes right where it is.
## Grey Talon skill order and ability upgrades
The two source videos disagree on skill order. That disagreement is the main reason the build changed.
| Order | Cashcoryy (Oct 14 build, current) | SwoleBenji (Aug gun build) |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Unlock order | Charged Shot, Rain of Arrows, Guided Owl, Spirit Snare | Charged Shot, Spirit Snare, Rain of Arrows, Guided Owl |
| First to max | Charged Shot (T1, T2, T3) | Charged Shot |
| Then | Guided Owl T1, T2, Rain of Arrows T1, Guided Owl T3 | One point in Snare, then max Rain of Arrows |
| Last | Rain of Arrows T2, Spirit Snare T1, T2, Rain of Arrows T3, Spirit Snare T3 | Max Guided Owl, then max Spirit Snare |
Cashcoryy's order comes straight from his published build (ID 889359). Both builds start by maxing Charged Shot, but for different reasons. Cashcoryy uses it as his main damage. SwoleBenji only wants it to clear camps faster, by lining up two creeps per shot. In the newer video, Cashcoryy says that maxing Charged Shot first is far better than the gun build or an owl-first order. In practice, max Charged Shot first for either build. Take the owl's T1 and T2 early if you play the spirit build. Leave Snare upgrades for last, because its base curse already does the job.
## Best Grey Talon build in deadlock right now (Oct 2026)
This is Cashcoryy's build, left to right as he published it on October 14, grouped by game phase. It focuses on charges and spirit power: each extra Charged Shot charge is another long-range hit that hurts.
| Phase | Items in order | Why |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Early (800-1,600) | Mystic Burst, Extra Charge, High-Velocity Rounds, Opening Rounds, Mystic Shot, Extra Spirit | Extra Charge gives a second Charged Shot charge and +7 spirit power for charged abilities; Mystic Shot's bullet rides along with the arrow |
| Mid (1,600-3,200) | Rapid Recharge, Recharging Rush, Improved Spirit, Grit, Extra Stamina, Reactive Barrier, Stamina Mastery, Tankbuster, Compress Cooldown | More charges, faster recharge, survival against stuns and silences, mobility |
| Late (6,400) | Boundless Spirit, Spirit Burn, Superior Cooldown, Mystic Reverb, Indomitable, Crippling Headshot, Ethereal Shift | Raw spirit power, burn and anti-heal, cleanse, -resist on headshots, an invulnerability button |
A few interactions make this build work, all checked against the wiki's item pages. Mystic Burst only triggers on ability hits over 80 damage. Base Charged Shot deals exactly 80, so the +7 charged-ability spirit from Extra Charge is what lifts it over the threshold. Tankbuster's threshold is 165, which Charged Shot passes once it has T2 and a bit of spirit power. Recharging Rush gives back a charge after you deal 200 weapon damage within 3.5 s, and Charged Shot is a charged ability. Rapid Recharge adds 2 more charges and recharges them 30% faster. The build leaves the imbue target for Compress Cooldown and Mystic Reverb unset. Our suggestion, not Cashcoryy's, is to put both on Charged Shot. The only Sep 16 change to these items is a small Tankbuster nerf, from 8% to 7.5% of current health.
## The SwoleBenji gun build: grey talon sniper build for farmers
The source video's build is a pure gun build. You farm almost nonstop until about 30-32 minutes, then win fights with fire rate and Split Shot. It still works. Read it as an alternative build, though, because three of its core items were nerfed after the video.
| Phase | Items (video's order) | Notes |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Lane and jungle, to ~16-20 min | Golden Goose Egg, Sprint Boots, Extra Stamina, Kinetic Dash, Rapid Rounds, Close Quarters, Monster Rounds, High-Velocity Rounds, Ricochet, Armor Piercer, Enduring Speed | Kinetic Dash gives +25% fire rate and +6 ammo after a Dash-Jump; Ricochet (6,400) is the farming spike |
| Roam and fight, ~20-40 min | Lucky Shot, Vampiric Burst, Quicksilver Reload into Mercurial Magnum, Surge of Power, Burst Fire, Long Range into Sharpshooter, Split Shot, Spiritual Overflow, Juggernaut | Imbue Quicksilver/Mercurial and Surge of Power on Spirit Snare; sell Monster Rounds and Close Quarters for slots |
| Counter swap | Unstoppable (replaces Kinetic Dash) | Against disarms, curses and grabs |
Corrections for the current patch: the item SwoleBenji calls Armor Piercing Rounds was renamed **Armor Piercer** on September 29. His "first fire" is Burst Fire. On September 16, Mercurial Magnum's bonus bullet damage went from 25% to 20% and its spirit scaling from 0.49 to 0.38. Spiritual Overflow now builds up 35% slower and grants 30 spirit power (was 40) and +25% fire rate (was 30%). The fire-rate core of the build (Rapid Rounds, Kinetic Dash, Ricochet, Burst Fire, Split Shot) was not touched. grind This build pays off slowly. If your team can't survive a long farming phase, play the Charged Shot build.
## Golden Goose Egg: the September 16 nerf
The gun build opens with Golden Goose Egg (800 souls). It is an active item that grows in value the longer you hold it, and when you hatch it you get the souls plus a permanent buff for every 80 souls it collected. The tooltip in SwoleBenji's video shows a -10% damage penalty and 90 souls per minute. **The wiki puts these at -15% and 80 souls per minute since September 16, 2026, not the -10% and 90 the video shows.** The same patch made the stored souls count toward your net worth, which lowers the comeback rewards your team gets. The egg's 400-soul sell value doesn't earn buffs, only souls it collected while you held it do.
The build note says to hatch the egg after 30 minutes, ideally at 3,200 souls. If that 3,200 includes the 400 the egg starts with, the old 90 per minute got there in about 31 minutes. At 80 per minute it now takes about 35. skip Don't buy the egg if you expect to fight a lot early. A -15% damage penalty for half an hour is a real cost. The Charged Shot build skips it entirely.
## Grey Talon laning: farm first, kills second
Both videos agree on the lane plan. Grey Talon hits hard per arrow but fires slowly, and he has no early kill combo before his ultimate. free Focus on last hits and denies, push the wave when it's safe, and don't chase. SwoleBenji gets a kill in lane, then shows that chasing it cost him health and farm he could have kept. A Charged Shot through the wave hits several creeps at once, and you can use it to grab soul orbs from far away.
With the gun build, buy Sprint Boots and Extra Stamina first, then upgrade to Kinetic Dash. With the Charged Shot build, two charges plus Mystic Burst already let you poke enemy heroes out of lane. Watch out for heroes that can close the distance, such as Bebop's hook. SwoleBenji's "don't get grabbed" warning applies to every Grey Talon build. Throw your Snare between you and the enemy, not at their feet, so it blocks their path toward you.
## Farming Haunts on the new map
SwoleBenji's farming routes are from the old map. "Centers", "doubles", sewer runs and the old lane colours no longer match the City Never Sleeps layout, where Haunts replaced the old jungle camps. Cashcoryy's footage (above, at a Sinner's Sacrifice) shows the same idea working on the new map. Once lane ends, clear Haunts near your lane, and save team fights for when you have the items for them. The techniques still apply. Snare the entrance before you clear a camp. Use Charged Shot to hit two targets in a line. Push a wave before leaving it so you don't lose its souls. For camp locations and soul values on the current map, see our [Haunts guide](/guides/deadlock-haunts-guide) and [farming guide](/guides/deadlock-farming-guide).
## Power spikes and the grey talon late game build
Each build has clear power spikes. In the gun build, the first big one is Ricochet. SwoleBenji aims for it around minute 13-14 and calls a 16-minute Ricochet late. On the wiki, Ricochet gives +18% fire rate and makes bullets bounce to 2 extra targets within 13 m for 65% damage. That makes clearing camps quicker and turns fights against groups in your favour. His second spike is around 30-32 minutes: hatch the egg, finish Split Shot and Spiritual Overflow, then join the team. On screen he goes from about 26k souls at 22 minutes to 50k at 31. Those numbers are from his match, not a guaranteed pace.
In the Charged Shot build, the spike comes earlier. It starts with Rapid Recharge plus Recharging Rush, then grows with Tankbuster and Boundless Spirit. For the late game, Cashcoryy finishes with Indomitable, Crippling Headshot and Ethereal Shift. These are survival and anti-tank items rather than more damage, which shows what usually kills Grey Talon late: stuns and dives.
## Team fights: snare, fly, shoot
Grey Talon's fight pattern barely changes between builds. Throw Spirit Snare at the enemy front line or the path they'll take toward you. In the gun build, that also triggers the Quicksilver Reload, Mercurial Magnum and Surge of Power imbued on it. Then cast Rain of Arrows and shoot from above the fight. With Split Shot and Rain of Arrows, your multishot can hit most of a spread-out enemy team at once, and Ricochet bounces those hits further. Hold Guided Owl for whoever runs at low health, or for interrupting an enemy ultimate. Rain of Arrows' T3 gives 30% bullet evasion and lifesteal while you're airborne. That is what keeps you alive up there, so take it before a long late-game fight.
setup Position before the fight starts. Grey Talon wants high ground, line of sight to the enemy's backline, and a building or corner behind him to land on. A Dash Jump right before Rain of Arrows gives you the highest launch.
## Grey Talon counter play and the owl teleport bug
**What counters Grey Talon:** heroes and items that close the gap or lock him down. SwoleBenji names Bebop's grab, disarms and curses as the main ways to lose a game the build has already won. Our [counter items guide](/guides/deadlock-counter-items-guide) lists Knockdown as the classic answer to airborne heroes like him. Unstoppable and Indomitable ignore his Snare and owl stun. Reactive Barrier triggers on both, and dispels remove the Snare curse. He stands still while steering the owl, so punish that window.
**How Grey Talon plays around it:** use Unstoppable when you face disarms, curses or grabs. Both source builds plan for that slot. Ethereal Shift and Indomitable fill the same role in the Charged Shot build. Stay at 18-54 m, where his bow still deals full damage and most counters can't reach him.
**The Warp Stone owl teleport.** SwoleBenji shows a bug he found on August 21, 2026. You press Warp Stone while steering the owl and detonate the owl at almost the same moment, and you teleport to where the owl was, as long as you have line of sight. He warns that it may trigger the anti-cheat. At the end of the video he says he was put into low-priority queue after using it in a live match. The wiki doesn't document the bug, and we couldn't confirm whether it still works after City Never Sleeps. skip Don't use it in ranked.
## How this guide was fact-checked
- **From the official wiki (deadlock.wiki):** Grey Talon's base stats, weapon numbers and falloff; every ability's damage, radius, duration, cooldown and T1/T2/T3 upgrade; ability notes (holding Charged Shot, soul orbs, detonating the Snare, 25 arrows with Split Shot, owl execute and interrupts); his update history (June 11 and June 30 nerfs, the undocumented September 29 owl-on-death change); every item's stats and the September 16 changes to Golden Goose Egg, Mercurial Magnum, Spiritual Overflow and Tankbuster; the Armor Piercer rename; and the October 2026 patch pages, none of which touch Grey Talon or these items.
- **From the videos:** SwoleBenji's build, skill order, laning and farming advice, power spike timings and the Warp Stone bug (all attributed to him); Cashcoryy's build and skill order, read from his published build ID 889359 (dated October 14, 2026), plus his claim that Mystic Shot fires with the Charged Shot arrow.
- **Corrections made:** Golden Goose Egg is -15% damage and 80 souls per minute, not the -10% and 90 the video's tooltip shows. Armor Piercing Rounds is now Armor Piercer. Mercurial Magnum and Spiritual Overflow are weaker than when the video was made. The video's farming routes use pre-rework map names.
- **Our own suggestions (labeled in the text):** imbuing Compress Cooldown and Mystic Reverb on Charged Shot, and the soul-timing math for the egg.
## What this guide doesn't answer
- **Exact Haunt routes for Grey Talon:** both videos farm differently and the map is new; the Haunts guide covers camp locations.
- **Every matchup:** we name the counters the videos and the wiki support, not a full hero-by-hero list.
- **Street Brawl:** the wiki notes Grey Talon has no special Street Brawl changes, and this guide is about normal matches.
- **Whether the Warp Stone owl teleport still works:** it is an unconfirmed bug that may get you penalized.
- **A spirit-and-owl hybrid build:** SwoleBenji has a separate "Remote Nuker" build video from April 2026, but it predates several patches and we didn't check it.
---
## FAQ
### What is the best Grey Talon build in Deadlock right now?
The current build (Cashcoryy, updated October 14, 2026) maxes Charged Shot first and stacks charge and spirit items: Mystic Burst, Extra Charge, Opening Rounds and Mystic Shot early, then Rapid Recharge, Recharging Rush and Tankbuster, and late Boundless Spirit, Spirit Burn, Mystic Reverb and Indomitable. The older gun build still works, but Golden Goose Egg, Mercurial Magnum and Spiritual Overflow were nerfed on September 16.
### What is Grey Talon's skill order?
Unlock and max Charged Shot first in both current builds. The October 2026 spirit build then takes Guided Owl T1 and T2, a point in Rain of Arrows and Owl T3, and leaves Spirit Snare upgrades for last. The older gun build puts one point in Spirit Snare, maxes Rain of Arrows, then Guided Owl, then Snare.
### How does Grey Talon's Guided Owl work?
After a 1.5 s cast you steer the owl for up to 20 s. It explodes for 230 damage (x0.937 spirit scaling) in a 12 m radius and stuns for 0.75 s, on a 125 s cooldown. Each hero who dies within 4 s of the hit gives +8 permanent spirit power, and T3 kills anyone left below 22% health. If you die while steering, it explodes immediately.
### Was Grey Talon changed in the City Never Sleeps update?
Barely. The only change on the wiki for September 29, 2026 is undocumented: the owl now explodes at once if Grey Talon dies while steering it. His last real balance changes were June 11 and June 30, 2026. Items he uses did change on September 16, and Armor Piercing Rounds was renamed Armor Piercer.
### How do you counter Grey Talon?
Close the distance or lock him down: grabs like Bebop's hook, disarms and curses all stop his damage, and Knockdown is the classic counter to airborne heroes like him. Unstoppable and Indomitable ignore his Spirit Snare and owl stun, dispels remove the snare curse, and he stands still while steering Guided Owl, so dive him then.