Patch 09-16-2026 Data researched 2026-09-21 What changed
SI Silver — carry frame

Silver

CarrySkirmisherBruiser mid range bullet damage mid-game Low difficulty

Measured 46.8% win rate, 2.9% pick rate on patch 09-16-2026 across 66,329 matches.

Strengths

  • Two distinct kits means she covers both the mid-range and close-range phases of a fight without itemising for both
  • Entangling Bola's movement-ability lockout is one of the cleanest anti-mobility tools in this group, and now interrupts flight
  • Slam Fire's percent-of-current-health scaling gives her real damage into high-HP frontliners despite a small weapon
  • Transformed form has genuine sustain (40% lifesteal, missing-health healing) that the base form completely lacks

Weaknesses

  • The automatic transformation takes timing out of her hands and can strand her in melee form at range or at the wrong moment
  • Base form has zero healing and only one escape on a 21s cooldown
  • Slam Fire's accuracy penalty forces her closer than her falloff band wants
  • Entangling Bola's base duration is short (~1.5s) and global slows were cut roughly 20% in the 09-16-2026 patch

Weapon

long-range rifle. Roughly 42 DPS from 5.1 damage per bullet at 8.24 bullets/second, 7-round clip, an extremely fast 0.30s reload and 813 m/s bullet velocity with falloff from 17m to 42m. The tiny magazine is the point — Slam Fire instantly reloads it, so her burst pattern is empty-the-clip, Slam Fire, empty it again. In werewolf form the gun is replaced entirely.

Abilities

Slam Fire

Ability 1 · self-buff weapon burst with instant reload

Silver instantly reloads and gains a large fire rate bonus for a limited number of shots, with bonus weapon damage scaled to the target's health. The shots suffer an accuracy penalty.

What it is for: Her burst window and her entire reason for carrying a 7-round clip. It turns an empty magazine into an immediate second magazine fired at triple rate, which is the bulk of her single-target damage.

Damage
3 shots at 300% fire rate, dealing 4% of the target's current health as bonus damage per shot; also deals bonus damage against troopers and neutrals. 25s cooldown (mobalytics 2026, corroborated by tracklock)

How to play against it

  • The accuracy penalty is your friend — hold range past ~25m and most of the 3 boosted shots miss
  • It is 3 shots only, not a duration — take cover for the burst and re-engage; the window ends after the third shot regardless
  • Because it scales off current health, high-HP frontliners should not be the ones absorbing it; let a lower-HP body eat the burst instead
  • Track the 25s cooldown: an empty Silver clip with Slam Fire down is a hero doing 42 DPS with a 0.30s reload and nothing else

Interactions

  • The accuracy penalty means the raw damage only lands at close-to-mid range, which pulls her out of her comfortable 17-42m band
  • Fire an empty clip first, then Slam Fire: the instant reload is wasted if used on a full magazine
  • Bonus damage against troopers and neutrals makes it double as a farming tool
  • The 5 AP upgrade adds further health-scaling damage, pushing it toward an anti-tank button
Upgrade tiers
  • 1 AP: -4s cooldown
  • 2 AP: damage boost with further cooldown reduction
  • 5 AP: additional health-scaling damage

Boot Kick

Ability 2 · short forward dash with a marking melee hit and self-knockback

Silver dashes forward and kicks the first enemy she hits, dealing melee damage while pushing herself backward off them and leaving a mark. Shooting the marked target deals bonus spirit damage and consumes the mark.

What it is for: Her mobility, her disengage and her damage amplifier in one button. The self-knockback means she engages and retreats with a single cast, which is how a rifle hero survives being approached.

Damage
45 mark damage and 25 bonus spirit damage on the marked shot; 3s mark duration. 21s cooldown (mobalytics 2026, corroborated by deadlock.one and tracklock)
Crowd control
none, but the kick displaces Silver herself away from the target
Mobility
A forward dash that ends in a backward push off the target — net repositioning away from whoever she hits
Defensive
This is her primary escape from an approaching melee threat, since she gets pushed backward off the kick

How to play against it

  • The mark lasts only 3 seconds — break line of sight immediately after being kicked and the follow-up shot never lands
  • Since the patch it only hits heroes and objectives, so standing behind a trooper wave no longer eats the kick but also means the dash passes straight through to you
  • Deny the 2 AP stamina refund by not letting her connect on a hero: dodge the dash and it is a 21s (15s at 1 AP) cooldown with no refund
  • She is pushed backward by her own kick, so chasing directly into the recoil direction is the wrong angle — cut off where she lands

Interactions

  • As of the 09-16-2026 patch, Boot Kick can only target heroes and objectives — it no longer connects with troopers or neutrals, which removes it as a jungle escape
  • The 2 AP upgrade restores stamina on hero hits, so kicking a hero effectively refunds mobility
  • Mark-then-shoot is the intended sequence; the mark is consumed on the shot, so it is one bonus instance, not a duration debuff
  • Combos naturally with Entangling Bola — bola first to stop the target's movement abilities, then kick and shoot the mark
Upgrade tiers
  • 1 AP: -6s cooldown (21s to 15s)
  • 2 AP: restores stamina on hero hits
  • 5 AP: applies enemy damage reduction to the target

Entangling Bola

Ability 3 · thrown skillshot applying a movement lockout

Silver throws a bola that deals spirit damage, slows the target, and prevents them from using movement abilities, stamina or jumping for the duration.

What it is for: Her lockdown and her anti-mobility answer. Against a diver or a fleeing target it removes the escape option entirely for a short window, which is the setup for Slam Fire and Boot Kick.

Damage
40 spirit damage; -45% move speed for 1.5s at base with an additional -25% at 1 AP. 23s cooldown (mobalytics 2026; tracklock lists a smaller base slow value, so treat the exact slow percentage as approximate)
Crowd control
Slow plus a complete lockout on movement abilities, stamina use and jumping for ~1.5s. As of the 09-16-2026 patch it also increases gravity during the debuff and interrupts flying abilities.
Defensive
Stopping a diver's dash mid-approach is her main defensive use

How to play against it

  • The debuff is short at base (~1.5s) — the correct response is to hold your dash and stamina rather than burning them into the lockout and getting nothing
  • It is a thrown projectile: strafe it, or put a trooper wave between you (it can no longer be consumed by troopers since the patch, but geometry still blocks it)
  • Air-mobility heroes must not be mid-flight when it lands; the patch made it interrupt flying abilities and add gravity, so commit airborne movement only after it is on cooldown
  • Cleanse or debuff-removal restores your movement abilities immediately and wastes the setup for her Slam Fire burst
  • Break line of sight during the 1.5s rather than trying to walk away — the slow is significant but the duration is short

Interactions

  • The movement-ability lockout, not the slow, is what matters — it beats dash-based escapes outright
  • The added gravity and flying-ability interrupt from the 09-16-2026 patch make it a hard counter to air-mobility heroes specifically
  • As of that same patch it can only target heroes, so it is no longer usable on troopers or neutrals
  • 5 AP adds a ricochet, letting one throw catch a second nearby hero
  • Note: global slow effects were reduced roughly 20% in the 09-16-2026 patch, so the practical slow is weaker than older guides suggest
Upgrade tiers
  • 1 AP: additional -25% movement speed
  • 2 AP: -8s cooldown (23s to 15s)
  • 5 AP: bola ricochets to a second target

Lycan Curse

Ultimate · passive-building self-transformation that replaces the entire kit

Damaging enemies passively fills a bloodlust meter, filling faster at low health. At maximum bloodlust the transformation triggers automatically; Silver can also cast it manually to transform immediately. Transformed, she gains bonus health, move speed, healing and stacking fire rate against enemy heroes, and her weapon and all three basic abilities are replaced with werewolf versions.

What it is for: The hero's identity: she is a mid-range gun hero who converts into a short-range lifesteal bruiser at a time that is only partly under her control. The transformed kit is melee-focused with a leap, an AoE disarm and a lifesteal bite.

Damage
Sources disagree on the exact bonuses. deadlock.one lists +125 bonus health and +60% fire rate; mobalytics lists +75 bonus health, +60% fire rate, +1.5 m/s move speed and 30% missing health as healing; tracklock lists +350 health and +3m move speed. 60s cooldown (mobalytics). Treat the specific numbers as unconfirmed and the direction (significant health, move speed, fire rate and healing gain) as reliable.
Crowd control
No CC on the cast itself. The transformed Tail Whack applies a 2.5s disarm and a -30% movement slow in an area around her.
Mobility
Bonus move speed while transformed, plus Mauling Leap replacing Boot Kick as a committed forward gap-closer
Defensive
Missing-health healing on transformation plus 40% lifesteal on Go For The Throat — this is her only real sustain and it only exists in wolf form

How to play against it

  • Track the bloodlust meter, not the transformation animation — by the time she is a wolf it is too late. She builds it faster at low health, so hurting her without killing her accelerates it
  • Disengage when she transforms rather than trading: the transformed kit is melee-range, so the counter to a wolf is distance, and the form has a limited duration
  • Buy healing reduction before she transforms; 40% lifesteal on Go For The Throat and 30%-missing-health on the transformation are the whole reason she survives the melee window
  • Do not be the one adjacent hero when Tail Whack goes off — a 2.5s disarm on a gun carry is a lost fight; spread out the moment she leaps in
  • Bait Mauling Leap; it is her only transformed gap-closer, and a wolf with no leap and no rifle is a melee hero walking at you

Interactions

  • Transformed abilities: Go For The Throat (melee, ~75 damage with 40% lifesteal, scaling with the target's missing health), Mauling Leap (leap that mauls the first enemy hit, applying damage over time and reduced bullet resist for ~6s), and Tail Whack (AoE smash applying a 2.5s disarm and -30% slow)
  • The automatic trigger at full bloodlust is the key weakness: bloodlust builds faster at low health, so she can be forced into melee form at the exact moment she needed to be at range
  • Mauling Leap's bullet resist reduction amplifies her team's gun damage, not just her own
  • The 09-16-2026 patch raised her health per boon from 28 to 31 and her sprint speed from 1.5 to 2.5, making the transformed chase meaningfully stronger
  • Casting manually before bloodlust fills lets her control the timing, which is the main skill expression on the hero
Upgrade tiers
  • Upgrade tiers scale the transformation's bonuses (health, fire rate, move speed and healing) rather than changing its behaviour; exact per-tier values are not reliably sourced

Laning strengths

  • 813 m/s bullet velocity with falloff only starting at 17m lets her win the early poke war against any close-range laner
  • Slam Fire's bonus damage against troopers and neutrals makes last-hitting and denying comfortable, and the 0.30s reload means almost no downtime
  • Boot Kick's self-knockback is a genuine escape from a duo-lane all-in, and at 2 AP it refunds stamina on a hero hit
  • Entangling Bola stops a gap-closer's dash outright, which is unusually strong for a laning-phase ability

Laning weaknesses

  • Only 5.1 damage per bullet — her poke is chip, not pressure, and a healer on the other side erases it
  • 7-round clip means her burst is entirely gated on Slam Fire's 25s cooldown
  • Since the 09-16-2026 patch Boot Kick and Entangling Bola only target heroes, so she can no longer kick off a trooper to escape
  • Bloodlust builds faster at low health, so a losing lane can force her into an unwanted melee transformation

Power spikes

  • ult unlock: Lycan Curse adds a second kit with sustain, a leap and a 2.5s AoE disarm, and the bloodlust passive starts building from the first damage she deals
  • 1 AP into Boot Kick: -6s cooldown (21s to 15s) makes her escape-and-mark loop available nearly every skirmish
  • 2 AP into Entangling Bola: -8s cooldown (23s to 15s) turns the movement lockout from a situational catch into a reliable opener
  • late 35min+ with lifesteal items: Transformed Go For The Throat at 40% lifesteal plus item lifesteal makes the wolf window genuinely hard to burn down

Playing against Silver

  • Watch the bloodlust meter and disengage before it fills. Damaging her without killing her builds it faster, so a half-committed trade hands her the transformation
  • Fight the wolf at range. The transformed kit is melee — Go For The Throat and Tail Whack both require adjacency, and Mauling Leap is a single committed gap-closer on a cooldown
  • Buy healing reduction before the transformation window. 40% lifesteal plus missing-health healing is the only sustain she has, and anti-heal removes it entirely
  • Hold your dash and stamina through Entangling Bola's ~1.5s lockout rather than burning them into it, or cleanse it to restore movement immediately
  • Break line of sight within 3 seconds of being Boot Kicked — the mark expires and the bonus spirit damage never lands
  • Stay past ~25m during Slam Fire; the accuracy penalty means the boosted shots scatter, and the ability is only 3 shots long regardless

Bait these first

  • Entangling Bola first. It is her setup for everything, it is her only answer to a diver, and at 23s base (15s at 2 AP) an empty bola is the window to commit a dash-based engage that she cannot stop
  • Then Boot Kick. It is both her mark and her escape; a Silver who has kicked cannot disengage from your frontliner for 21s (15s at 1 AP), and dodging it denies the 2 AP stamina refund
  • Slam Fire is worth draining in lane specifically: force her to use it on a wave and her burst is gone for 25 seconds
  • Do not bait Lycan Curse. Forcing it early is usually a mistake because the transformation is a power increase, not a resource spent — instead deny it by disengaging before bloodlust fills

What Silver does to you

  • Entangling Bola into Boot Kick into Slam Fire: the bola removes your dash, stamina and jump for ~1.5s, the kick marks you, and Slam Fire empties 3 boosted shots into a target that cannot strafe
  • Slam Fire deals 4% of your current health per shot, so being at full health does not make you safe from it — high-HP frontliners take the most from it, not the least
  • Transformed Tail Whack disarms everyone around her for 2.5s; if your gun carry is inside that radius the fight is over before it starts
  • Mauling Leap applies reduced bullet resist for ~6s, which amplifies her entire team's weapon damage onto whoever she lands on
  • Post-patch the bola increases gravity and interrupts flying abilities, so air-mobility escapes are simply deleted mid-flight
  • Go For The Throat at 40% lifesteal means trading damage into a transformed Silver actively heals her

Punish windows

  • Entangling Bola on cooldown (23s base) — she has no way to stop a dash-in and her only escape is a single 21s Boot Kick
  • Immediately after Boot Kick connects and pushes her backward: the dash is spent, and she is committed to whichever direction the recoil put her
  • After the third Slam Fire shot — the boosted window ends on shot count, not on a timer, so count the shots rather than waiting out a duration
  • The moment the transformation ends: she reverts to a 7-round rifle with no sustain, no lifesteal and whatever cooldowns the wolf form did not restore
  • Transformed but with Mauling Leap spent — a melee wolf with no gap-closer is a free kite, especially given the 17-42m falloff on the form she just left
  • Early lane before the 1 AP cooldown cuts, when Boot Kick (21s) and Entangling Bola (23s) are both at base and she cannot kick off troopers since the 09-16-2026 patch

Hardest matchups for Silver

Ranked by how far below Silver's own baseline each pairing measures — not by raw win rate.

Graves 36.8% -10.0 pts
Victor 38.8% -8.0 pts
Seven 39.3% -7.5 pts
Paige 39.8% -7.0 pts
Dynamo 41.5% -5.3 pts
Kelvin 42.0% -4.8 pts
Apollo 43.9% -2.9 pts
Vyper 44.0% -2.8 pts

Best matchups for Silver

Same measure, other direction.

Venator 50.4% +3.6 pts
Paradox 49.3% +2.5 pts
Pocket 48.2% +1.4 pts
Rem 47.7% +0.9 pts
Viscous 47.6% +0.8 pts
Yamato 47.4% +0.6 pts
Grey Talon 46.7% -0.1 pts
Lady Geist 46.2% -0.6 pts

Every Silver matchup

Analyse a full enemy team

Matchup pages cover one enemy. The tool reads all six together.

Open the tool as Silver
Sources and confidence for this record

Record confidence: Strong evidence. Compiled for patch 09-16-2026, researched 2026-09-21.

Difficulty rating: deadlock.io lists Silver at client complexity 1 of 3 ('Easy') — https://deadlock.io/en/heroes/silver. Note that mobalytics describes a high execution requirement for form management, so the in-client rating understates the skill ceiling.