Nurse Harrow is Deadlock’s newest hero, live since Valve’s announcement on October 20, 2026 at 20:59 UTC (2pm PDT). Her four Nurse Harrow abilities are Leech Therapy, Wretched Vapors, Healing Needles and the ultimate Lurking Terrors. Together they make her a hero who keeps allies alive and wins fights by draining enemies over time. Below are her base numbers and every upgrade tier, taken from the game’s own ability data. After that comes a starting build that follows from how her kit works, plus what players actually bought in the first hours.
Table of Contents
Quick answer
- Released: Tuesday, October 20, 2026, 2pm PDT (21:00 UTC). She’s the sixth and last City Never Sleeps hero, so the voting event is over.
- Leech Therapy (30s): a jar of leeches that deal spirit damage over time and eat away at enemy buffs. Pick the leeches up afterwards to heal and gain permanent regen and fire rate stacks.
- Wretched Vapors (40s): cast on yourself or an ally. You get 4 seconds of faster actions with incoming damage delayed, then a 4-second “crash” where you’re slower and the delayed damage lands with 30% extra.
- Healing Needles (charges): swaps your clip for syringes that heal allies for 25 per shot. Dealing damage refills charges.
- Lurking Terrors (200s ultimate): a 7-second channel. It deals spirit damage in a 180-degree cone, stops anyone looking at you from using stamina or movement abilities, and makes them flee in fear at max terror.
- Starting priority: Leech Therapy first, because every leech you collect makes her other abilities stronger. Most tracked players also leave Wretched Vapors upgrades for last.
Nurse Harrow's release art from Valve's October 20 announcement, the last of six City Never Sleeps heroes. Image: Valve
Nurse Harrow abilities: what each one does
Valve’s release post, “Shh… This Won’t Hurt a Bit.”, only describes the kit in flavor text. The numbers below come from the in-game ability data (tooltips and upgrade values), which the community deadlock-api.com project extracts from the game files. We checked them on October 21, 2026 at 06:30 UTC. They’re base values at zero spirit power. Valve usually retunes new heroes within days, so check your in-game tooltip if a patch has landed since.
| Ability | Cooldown | Key base values | Spirit scaling |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Leech Therapy | 30s | 23 damage per second, 6.5m radius, 4 leeches, drains 0.65s of enemy buff duration per second | DPS x0.19 |
| 2. Wretched Vapors | 40s | 13m cast range, 4s rush at +25% action speed, 4s crash at -20%, delayed damage +30% | Rush speed x0.06 |
| 3. Healing Needles | Charge-based (1 charge) | 25 heal per shot, +15% on headshots | Heal x0.2 |
| 4. Lurking Terrors (ult) | 200s | 7s channel, 35m range, 180-degree cone, 60 DPS, 2.2s fear, 1.3s fear buildup | DPS x0.3 |
Leech Therapy
Harrow throws a jar that releases four leeches. They latch onto nearby enemies, deal spirit damage over time and shorten any buffs those enemies have. Once they finish feeding, the leeches crawl back. The tooltip says she “can pick up leeches after they finish feeding,” which heals her for the health they drained. Each leech she picks up also adds a permanent stack of +0.6 health regen (the number grows as she levels up) and +5% fire rate. Stacks cap at 10, and she loses 25% of them when she dies.
This is the engine of the whole kit. In the game data, collected leeches also slowly refill Healing Needles charges (0.15% per second per leech) and add 0.1s to Lurking Terrors’ fear duration per leech. So landing the jar early pays off in every later fight.
- Tier 1: leeches drain stamina (0.3 per second) and give it to you when you pick them up.
- Tier 2: -10s cooldown and +4 spirit power per leech stack.
- Tier 3: +1m radius, +0.3 spirit scaling and +8 max leech stacks (18 in total).
Wretched Vapors
Harrow cracks a vial on herself or an ally within 13m. During the “Specter Rush,” every action speeds up by 25%. All incoming damage is held back as looming specters instead of hitting right away. When the vapors end, the “Specter Crash” starts: for 4 seconds the target’s actions are 20% slower, and any specters still around deal their delayed damage plus 30%.
One line in the tooltip shapes how you use it: incoming healing removes specters first, so healed specters never deal their damage. Pairing it with Healing Needles is the intended combo. Vapor an ally who is diving in, then shoot syringes into them during the rush so less damage is waiting when the crash hits. Used carelessly, it can kill the ally you meant to save.
- Tier 1: -15s cooldown, +7m cast range.
- Tier 2: +1s duration, +20% healing effectiveness.
- Tier 3: +15% rush speed, and it dispels non-ultimate debuffs.
Healing Needles
This swaps her normal ammo for a full clip of syringes that heal allies for 25 per shot (scaling 0.2 with spirit), with 15% extra on headshots. Charges don’t come back on a timer. Dealing damage refills them: in the game data, a bullet hit restores 1.26% of a charge, a headshot 2.52%, a light melee 7.56% and a heavy melee 15.12%. Hits on non-hero targets count at 35%. Reloading spends a charge for a fresh clip, and casting the ability again puts the syringes away. Unused syringes come back as part of a charge.
In practice, Harrow heals best when she has also been shooting. A Harrow who hides at the back runs out of syringes.
- Tier 1: +1 max charge.
- Tier 2: +20 heal per shot, and each shot restores 0.6 stamina.
- Tier 3: +0.4 spirit scaling, and shots extend non-ultimate buffs on the target by 6%, up to double their maximum duration.
Lurking Terrors (ultimate)
Harrow opens her bag and channels for 7 seconds after a 1.3-second cast delay. She deals 60 spirit damage per second (x0.3 spirit) to enemies in a 180-degree cone in front of her, up to 35m away. Enemies who look at her build up terror, and while it builds they can’t use stamina or movement abilities. At max terror they run away from her in fear for 2.2 seconds, plus 0.1s per leech stack she holds. Enemies facing away take only 50% damage unless they’re already feared. The base version also slows move speed and fire rate by 30% (from the tooltip’s stat list).
- Tier 1: -50s cooldown (200s to 150s, per the upgrade data).
- Tier 2: an extra -20% move speed and fire rate, +30 DPS.
- Tier 3: +3s channel time (10s total), +0.5 spirit scaling, and Harrow is immune to damage while channeling.
Leech Therapy's leeches feed on enemies, then crawl back to Harrow for permanent regen and fire rate stacks. AI-generated illustration
Nurse Harrow base stats
From the hero data: 730 starting health, 6.8 m/s move speed, 3 stamina and a 50/116 light/heavy melee. Her gun, Code Blue, fires single projectiles: 11 rounds per clip, about 14.9 base damage per bullet, 2.6 shots per second and a 1.9-second reload. That’s roughly 39 damage per second before reloads, at level 1 with no items. It’s a slow, accurate weapon rather than a spray gun. Since Healing Needles charges refill on hits, every Code Blue shot that lands also stocks up healing.
Ability order: what players are leveling
Each ability tier costs 1, 2 and then 5 ability points, as Blitz’s hero page lists. We checked deadlock-api.com’s match tracker, which records a large sample of public matches, for games played since Harrow’s release. The single most common order was:
| Step | Pick |
|---|---|
| 1-2 | Unlock Leech Therapy, then its Tier 1 |
| 3-4 | Unlock Healing Needles, then Wretched Vapors |
| 5-6 | Leech Therapy Tier 2, Healing Needles Tier 1 |
| 7-9 | Unlock Lurking Terrors, Healing Needles Tier 2, Lurking Terrors Tier 1 |
| 10-12 | Wretched Vapors Tier 1, Lurking Terrors Tier 2 and Tier 3 |
| 13-16 | Leech Therapy Tier 3, Healing Needles Tier 3, Wretched Vapors Tier 2 and 3 |
Another common pattern takes Leech Therapy and Healing Needles to Tier 2 before unlocking Lurking Terrors, then levels the ultimate before finishing the other two. Both agree on the basics: Leech Therapy comes first and Wretched Vapors gets upgraded last. That fits the kit, since leech stacks make everything else stronger, while Vapors already works at Tier 0 as long as you heal the target during the rush.
Nurse Harrow build: a starting point
She’s been out for less than a day, so nobody has a proven meta build yet. Treat this as a starting point based on her kit, not a tested build. Below are the items Harrow players bought most often in tracked matches since release (deadlock-api.com, checked October 21, 06:30 UTC), with the minute they were typically bought:
| Phase | Most-bought items (cost in souls) | Typical buy time |
|---|---|---|
| Lane | Extra Regen (800), Extended Magazine (800), Extra Spirit (800) | 3-7 min |
| Early mid game | Healing Booster (1,600), Titanic Magazine (1,600), Arcane Surge (1,600), Mystic Expansion (800), Extra Stamina (800) | 9-14 min |
| Mid game | Improved Spirit (1,600), Duration Extender (1,600), Compress Cooldown (1,600) | 17-19 min |
| Late game | Superior Cooldown (3,200), Superior Duration (3,200), Greater Expansion (3,200) | 24-25 min |
| Endgame | Healing Tempo (6,400), Ricochet (6,400), Boundless Spirit (6,400) | 31-32 min |
How those picks connect to her kit:
- Healing Booster and Healing Tempo: Booster raises the healing you do. Healing Tempo gives anyone you heal bonus fire rate and move speed, and Healing Needles heals with every shot.
- Duration items: in the game data, Leech Therapy’s leech lifetime, Wretched Vapors’ rush and Lurking Terrors’ fear duration all scale with ability duration. Vapors’ 4-second crash is a fixed value that doesn’t scale.
- Cooldown items: a 200-second ultimate is the slowest part of her kit. Lurking Terrors’ Tier 1 cuts it to 150s, and cooldown items take it lower from there.
- Range items (Mystic Expansion, Greater Expansion): they make Leech Therapy’s 6.5m jar radius bigger and stretch Wretched Vapors’ 13m cast range.
- Magazine items: players buy them early for Code Blue’s 11-round clip. Landing more hits also refills Healing Needles charges faster.
Expect this list to change once Valve’s first balance pass lands. Recent heroes were adjusted within days of release, as our Deadlock Violet and Nurse Harrow release-date article covered with Baba’s nerfs and Deadman Danny’s buffs.
How to play against Nurse Harrow
- Turn away from the ultimate. Terror only builds while you look at her, and enemies facing away take half damage unless already feared. Breaking line of sight costs you a few seconds of shooting but avoids the fear.
- Don’t let leeches go home. Every leech she picks up is a permanent stack, and she loses a quarter of them when she dies. Pressuring her right after she throws the jar slows her growth.
- Burst through the crash. A vapored ally takes the delayed damage plus 30% when the rush ends. Holding your damage for the 4-second crash can finish them, unless Harrow heals the specters away first.
- Healing reduction is on the table. Her team’s sustain runs through Healing Needles and leech healing. Healbane, for example, makes your spirit damage reduce the healing an enemy receives.
Is Nurse Harrow strong right now?
She’s popular, at least. In deadlock-api.com’s tracked matches since release, Harrow was the most-played hero, with 25,354 hero matches and a 51.0% win rate as of October 21, 06:30 UTC. Release-week win rates move a lot as players learn a hero, so read that as “balanced so far,” not as a verdict.
She also wraps up City Never Sleeps. Valve’s post says more than 110 million votes were cast across the event. 22,194 players voted only for Harrow, and one of them cast exactly 1,000 votes. For more live-service class guides, see our THE FINALS PRIME TIME Infiltrator guide and our Helldivers 2 Scope of Authority Warbond breakdown.
FAQ
When did Nurse Harrow come out in Deadlock?
On Tuesday, October 20, 2026 at 2pm PDT (21:00 UTC). Valve’s announcement went up at 20:59 UTC, and she was playable the same day.
What does Nurse Harrow’s ultimate do?
Lurking Terrors is a 7-second channel that deals spirit damage in a 180-degree cone. Enemies who look at her can’t use stamina or movement abilities while terror builds, and at max terror they flee in fear for 2.2 seconds, longer with leech stacks. Its Tier 3 makes her immune to damage while channeling.
How do Nurse Harrow’s leeches work?
Leech Therapy’s leeches drain enemies, then crawl back. Picking them up heals Harrow and adds a permanent stack of health regen and +5% fire rate, up to 10 stacks (18 with Tier 3). She loses 25% of her stacks on death.
Is Nurse Harrow a healer?
Partly. Healing Needles and Wretched Vapors are support tools, but Leech Therapy and Lurking Terrors deal real damage. Her healing charges only refill when she deals damage, so she can’t heal well without fighting.
Sources: Deadlock on Steam, “Shh… This Won’t Hurt a Bit.” (Valve, Oct 20, 2026); Deadlock on Steam, “Paint the Town” (Valve, Oct 16); Valve, City Never Sleeps; deadlock-api.com hero and ability data (from the game files) and match analytics; Blitz.gg Nurse Harrow page. Numbers checked October 21, 2026, 06:30 UTC.
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Featured image: AI-generated illustration
