Deadlock’s Bebop is a man, or rather robot, of many talents. Building for Bebop‘s Ultimate, Hyper Beam, allows you to fire death rays from high above the map. His Sticky Bomb can do massive amounts of damage with the right Spirit Damage items, strapping unavoidable explosives to enemies every 10 seconds. However, the best and most efficient way to play him is to boost up his Weapon Damage.
This playstyle allows Bebop to fully utilize his Hook and Exploding Uppercut, turning him into an Assassin. Like every assassin, he excels at 1v1s, but, instead of sneaking up on the enemy, Bebop yanks them away from the safety of their team and kills them on his turf.
Understanding Bebop’s kit and how to pilot him in different phases of the game is vital if you want to effectively utilise the many strengths of his kit.
Bebop skills and playstyle for early game
Before anything else, you need to understand Bebop’s unique weapon if you want to farm efficiently.
Bebop has a weird gun. Before it can fire, it has a “spin-up” period that takes just under a second. Knowing the timing for this spin-up period is important for farming and stealing Souls. If you don’t spin-up in preparation of a Soul steal or Soul farm, you could miss out on Souls.
Furthermore, aiming down the sights (ADS) spins-up the gun automatically, allowing it to be fired instantaneously during ADS. This is particularly important when farming, but don’t assume you can always be ADS so you’re ready to fire. ADS narrows your field of view (FOV) massively, opening you up to flanking and unseen threats, so ensure you are only doing ADS when necessary and safe.
Hook will be your bread and butter for the entire game. It is the first ability you take and will be the enabler of your entire playstyle for the rest of the game. This ability is so potent it can easily lead to an early kill, especially in duo lanes (where Bebop primarily likes to be). Hook places the enemy in front of you, so turning your character while a Hook pulls them in can force the enemy to the right or left of you rather than directly in front of where you cast. This puts the enemy in a far worse position than if they appeared directly in front of you, as now they have to push past you to get to safety.
Hook is very hard to react to. Bebop’s Hook and default shooting animation use the same hand, so the animation for Hook is hard to detect, making it difficult for enemies to tell when a Hook is incoming.
Even then, NOT using Hook is also almost as important as using it. Having Hook off cooldown creates pressure and forces the enemy to play around it potentially being used. Using it poorly places it on a fairly long cooldown, leaving yourself and your lane partner exposed to more aggressive tactics from the enemy.
Taking Sticky Bomb second allows for easy wave clearance and harassment of the enemy. A well placed Sticky Bomb on enemy Troopers can force enemies to either tank the damage or move away from the wave or their cover, giving you a clear LOS to shoot them, Hook them or shove.
Sticky Bomb can also be used as an engage deterrent in tough lane matchups. Place it on one of the lane opponents and you force them to either take a chunk of unavoidable damage together, or split up, allowing you to pick one of them off with your Hook. Just make sure you stay grouped up with your partner during these fights.
At 1500 souls Bebop gains access to the third vital part of his kit, Exploding uppercut. Exploding Uppercut is a brilliant displacement tool and, along with Hook, requires well-placed positioning to be used effectively as it can be used to knock enemies into your teammate and/or Trooper wave if you position yourself wisely. It’s also an excellent disengage tool along with Sticky Bomb as it knocks enemies away from you, buying you time to escape.
When combined with Hook, Exploding Uppercut becomes lethal. Utilizing the Hook-then-turn mechanic and placing enemies to the side of you, Exploding Uppercut has the potential to send enemies even further into your territory, and therefore into greater danger. Uppercut always sends the enemy toward where your crosshair is facing, so always consider why direction would be disadvantageous to enemies caught by your uppercut. Taking an early Spirit Strike for damage and Mystic Reach for Hook range can also make this powerhouse combo be even more potent.
A quick tip: Troopers with Sticky Bomb latched onto them can be Exploding Uppercutted into the enemy laners for bonus damage!
The first three talent points you get are going into Uppercut. Uppercut’s talents are Bebop’s best form of kit utility and therefore should be prioritized. While talent one is just Cooldown Reduction – which is always nice – talent two is particularly good as Exploding Uppercut can reduce your gun’s spin-up time to zero (therefore allowing it to be fired immediately), and double the range, and give it extra weapon damage for a whopping 12 seconds. This is pivotal for Bebop’s early combo game as it makes him ridiculously good in fights.
Hook is where your next three talent points are going to be placed. Both talents are immensely useful here. Talent one causes hooked enemies to take increased weapon damage from you.
Talent two increases Hook’s range by 30 meters making the ability so much more oppressive as you will be able to land Hooks from distances that the enemies won’t even be able to quantify.
The last ability Bebop gets is his ultimate ability Hyper Beam, an excellent tool for pressure and objective control. Early on Hyper Beam is immensely effective at clearing waves, taking Guardians or pushing enemies out of lane. Ensuring you are far away enough to not get CC’d and have a good line of sight of the battlefield will allow you the most effective usage of this ability.
Something to keep in mind is that, when used in the air, Bebop will hover for the duration of the cast. This means that he can double-jump into Hyper Beam and get a brilliant overview of the battlefield.
Generally speaking, taking Guardians early is really good for Bebop. After getting a kill on an enemy laner, you and your lane partner should hard shove the Trooper wave into the Guardian. If another wave comes or the enemy lane partner arrives, you can use Hyper Beam to keep them away or clear the wave. Taking Guardians really opens up the game for Bebop, as there’s no longer an objective for him to stay in lane for, and his lane partner can farm safely by staying by the nearest ally Guardian. This allows Bebop to use his high movement speed and sprint to roam to his neighboring solo lane and use his inherently good kit for ganking.
Bebop early game powerspikes
From 0 – 1500 souls Bebop almost consistently has the upper hand.
During this early phase of laning, Bebop can completely control the flow of the game, with Hook and Exploding Uppercut either leading to kills or driving the enemy out of lane.
Bebop’s next early game powerspike is when he unlocks talent two of Exploding Uppercut and purchases Swift Striker. With the Fire Rate and Ammo that Swift Striker gives, Bebop goes from being a marginal threat to tearing through whoever he Hooks in a matter of seconds. Once you have talent two of Exploding Uppercut at 2200 souls, definitely rush Swift Striker.
Best Bebop items for early game
- Mystic Reach: The increased ability range makes Mystic Reach an obvious early choice on Bebop, as increasing the range of his Hook is golden.
- Hollow Point Ward: Hollow Point Ward’s passive is really good for characters like Bebop who can exert a lot of control over a lane. Giving Bebop a damage boost when he is above 65% health is immensely valuable.
- Extra Regen: Really key sustain item for laning phase, especially if Hollow Point Ward is bought.
- Spirit Strike: Spirit Strike really synergizes with Bebop’s kit. With its passive causing Melee hits to deal extra Spirit Damage, Exploding Uppercut – which counts as a light melee – will deal far more damage. After Exploding Uppercut has landed, Spirit Strike causes the target’s spirit resist to be reduced, allowing both Sticky Bomb and Hyper Beam to incinerate targets easily. This is a must-buy on Bebop.
- Rapid Rounds: Both the extra Stamina and Fire Rate that Rapid Rounds provides are really good for Bebop’s weapon damage output.
- Extra Stamina: A core buy on most characters early on, having more Stamina always feels good.
- Basic Magazine: With Bebop’s magazine size already being large, this item makes it so he rarely has to reload during fights!
- Extra health: A really good early survivability item, this also synergizes perfectly with Hollow Point Ward.
- Swift Striker: A item that is core to one of Bebop’s powerspikes and should be rushed after reaching talent two of Exploding Uppercut at 2200 souls. It’s amazing for both harassment and engaging due to the increased Fire Rate.
Bebop mid game skills and what to max first
Bebop’s mid game starts once either his Guardian or the enemy’s Guardian are defeated in his lane. This really opens up the game for Bebop as in both scenarios his lane partner will be safe to farm and catch waves and Bebop can roam to any nearby lane for ganks. Coming out of lane you want to try and have talents one and two in both Exploding Uppercut and Hook, and if you don’t have it yet try to get there as soon as possible.
Bebop is a roamer, but he is very different to characters like Shiv and Infernus who like to take camps consistently, or Warden who likes to apply pressure on lanes and objectives. Bebop is always looking for Hooks on the enemy team.
Moving from lane to lane fishing for Hooks is generally how you want to play your mid game. Every kill you get is more pressure on objectives and lanes that your team can capitalize on. Catching an enemy with Hook also has a tendency to cause other enemy players to stop what they’re doing to try and help their teammate. If they do try to help their teammate, it forces them away from other areas of the map that then allows your team to apply pressure to, such as Guardians or Walkers.
What’s unique about Bebop is he has a lot of verticality to his gameplay. This isn’t like Kelvin and Vindicta, who inherently have abilities that push verticality, but instead it’s because Bebop likes to play around LOS and high ground for Hooks and Hyper Beam. This means he makes use of the tops of buildings and standing by lanes to fish for a Hook on enemy heroes. With talent two of Hook increasing his Hook range by 30 meters, he doesn’t even need to be close to enemies, providing pressure for massive distances. Just your presence in a lane can push players to be cautious.
Hitting a Hook at the edge of a building, you can use Sticky Bomb into Exploding Uppercut to knock them far into the air, leaving them practically helpless till they hit the ground. This allows you to dump your magazine into them, leading to most players losing their life before they even realize they’ve been hooked.
Bebop only really likes to engage one hero. Engaging on a straggler is what Bebop lives for. As you are always looking for that 1v1 scenario, you don’t want to hang around too long. Land Hook, get a kill, get out. Avoid tunnel-visioning or chasing enemies that manage a good disengage. Better to survive and not get a kill than to die trying.
As far as micro is concerned, the most consistent build for high ELO is the Weapon build. This means that as opposed to a Hyper beam or Sticky Bomb max, you will be looking to max Exploding Uppercut then Hook.
This is because both these abilities have a LOT of utility around Bebop’s weapon as well as between each other. Uppercut’s final talent causes a successful uppercut to reset Hook’s cooldown and refill your magazine. This is pivotal for taking kills on Hook and taking advantage of that Fire Rate stat. Furthermore, Bebop’s first talent on Hook gives him a 25% Weapon Damage buff against Hooked targets.
Therefore, a killer combo would look something like this:
- Fire your weapon until you can land Hook
- Land a Hook, then Sticky Bomb into Exploding Uppercut
- Rehook then empty your magazine into them
- If needs be, you can Hyper Beam after the rehook
Bebop doesn’t like to teamfight. Instead he likes to be at weird angles from where the enemy team is fighting your team, looking for Hooks to hopefully steal a hero out of the fight to blow them up. This could mean sneaking up from the side or watching from above on the rooftops, like a robot batman. From these angles where he isn’t directly participating in the fight, Bebop can also use his Hook on his allies, pulling them to safety if one of them gets caught out of position (yes he can do that though it’s not entirely relevant until teamfights happen).
This playstyle inevitably leads to many 1v1s and is why maxing Sticky Bomb last is really important. While Sticky Bomb’s first two talents are standard cooldowns and damage increases, the final talent causes enemies with Sticky Bomb velcroed to their chest to deal 30% less damage. This really plays into Bebop’s 1v1 strength as he can only Sticky Bomb a single target at a time, and is just another tool to help him succeed in these situations.
While teamfighting isn’t where Bebop excels, he has tools for it. Throwing your bomb on someone near the center of the fight should ensure it hits everyone. Hooking backline targets to pull them out of position is always good for disrupting the enemy team’s formation. Using Exploding Uppercut as a “get off me” tool, or even as a displacement tool is really useful mid-fight. Comboing it with your Hook can also really delete enemies if you manage to Hook them out of the air. Lastly, your ult is an amazing tool for disruption, damage, securing kills and follow-ups. While Hyper Beam renders Bebop stationary, if positioned properly it can really tear into the enemy team and deal a boatload of damage and often can single-handedly force a retreat. It too can be comboed with your Hook-Uppercut combo to blow up squishy characters.
Best Bebop items for mid game
- Silence Glyph: This is an item that really should be rushed coming out of the early game. Silence Glyph is an excellent item for locking down characters that have very mobile skills like Lash as it will silence their abilities during your engage. While you may not necessarily need this silence early, it is essential for mid game as you’re now dealing with six different heroes rather than two.
- Mystic Burst: Really effective and cheap item for Sticky Bomb damage as it allows you to finish off targets easily.
- Combat Barrier: Grants you a Bullet Shield, and while that shield is active you gain Weapon Damage and Fire Rate. An excellent defensive option for Bebop, who will likely always have that Bullet shield up during an engage as he will be the one engaging from round corners.
- Healbane: Healbane applies Healing Reduction on Spirit Damage. This is a really core teamfighting item for Bebop. With Sticky Bomb’s massive Area of Effect (AOE) damage, you Hook, Sticky Bomb into Exploding Uppercut, you can send a player with Sticky Bomb attached straight into his team and wipe their healing by a lot, while also dealing a chunk of damage.
- Hunter’s Aura: An item that massively synergizes with Bebop’s kit. Hunter’s Aura lowers enemy Bullet Resist and Fire Rate, however when enemies are alone that passive is tripled. Often Bebop Hooks enemies AWAY from their team, so this effect is always tripled, leading to their health bar being deleted in a matter of seconds.
- Crippling Headshot: Crippling Headshot reduces enemy Spirit and Bullet Resist when you headshot an enemy. When combined with how easy it is to land headshots after Hook and Hunters Aura’s passive, you essentially remove all resistances with a single Hook.
- Improved Cooldown: With Bebop being so ability-reliant, having Cooldown Reduction is very useful.
Bebop late game playstyle and aims
Bebop’s late game identity truly lies with the items he builds. Items like Hunter’s Aura, Burst Fire and Glass Cannon make it so your Weapon Damage goes through the roof. With these three items making up the backbone of your weapon build during the late game, you will easily tear through enemies you Hook in no time.
As far as playstyle goes, Bebop changes very little from mid to late. The biggest change really is that he will much prefer to sit on a side lane than group-up. Bebop isn’t much use in a teamfight nor does he have a lot of utility for Mid Boss, therefore the best thing for him to do is to sit in a side lane and push or fish for Hook. His absurdly high Weapon Damage versus objectives like Walkers and Guardians means he takes them down very quickly, and when a player comes he can easily kill them with a well-placed Hook or zone them away with Hyper Beam. If multiple people are sent, that’s also good. It relieves pressure from your team, who now outnumber their opponents, and allows them to either wipe the floor with the rest of the enemy, or take objectives scot-free.
All this makes Bebop a really good side laner and split pusher, pressuring the enemy base directly and pulling enemy attention away from your team, who can now spread their own influence across the map as a group.
Best Bebop items for late game
- Glass Cannon: With how high Bebop’s killing power is, this item can be stacked easily and quickly, giving permanent Weapon Damage stacks for the rest of the game.
- Fortitude: A great tank item for late game that gives you that extra bit of survivability that could mean the difference between life or death.
- Toxic Bullets: This is a really good item if the enemy are healing more than your damage or Healbane can handle as it applies a Bleed effect and Healing Reduction on hit.
- Superior Cooldown: Similar to its component, Improved Cooldown, Bebop can really make use of Superior Cooldown as he is such an ability-reliant character, allowing you to Hook more and kill more.
- Escalating Resilience: An excellent item for Bebop if you’re finding Bullet Damage to be a particular health issue as it grants Bullet Resist on hit. As his Fire Rate and Magazine size is so large you stack this item immensely quick making it a very reliable defensive option.
- Improved Spirit Armor: The standard item to build if there is a lot of AOE Spirit Damage going around.
- Syphon Bullets: This item steals enemy max HP for every bullet that hits. With Bebop’s high Fire Rate peppering the enemies with bullets, Syphon Bullets become an immense asset to survivability.
- Curse: The upgrade to Silence Glyph, applying it to a Hooked enemy makes them even more useless as you rain hellfire upon them.
