Deadlock: How Solomon’s Chess Reload Works – Both Phases Explained

Eight chess pieces means eight rounds. Solomon starts with that magazine size before ammo bonuses, and each piece on his weapon’s chessboard represents one shot. His roughly three-second reload rebuilds the board, leaving a position whose piece count matches his full magazine.

How Solomon’s two reload phases work

Solomon, introduced in Deadlock’s City Never Sleeps update, uses a chessboard as his weapon. Reloading turns replenishing ammunition into a short chess sequence, with two distinct stages:

• First phase: shared setup. Solomon rotates the board and arranges the pieces. This opening animation is the same across reload variants.
• Second phase: selected position. Around the reload’s midpoint, the game chooses a board-position animation using the applicable ammo capacity. The selected sequence plays out, leaving the corresponding number of pieces on the board.

The important timing detail is that the ending is selected during the reload. Starting the animation does not lock in its entire chess sequence. The common first half can therefore lead into different second halves as Solomon’s magazine changes.

Why the board can change during a match

Certain items and golden book cabinet buffs found around the map increase Solomon’s ammunition capacity. That gives later reloads more pieces to place, with layouts ranging from the starting eight-piece position to a full 32-piece board.

A capacity change can also affect a reload already underway. When the reload sets Solomon’s current ammunition to his new maximum, the final position is evaluated again. If that maximum has changed during the animation, the board can finish in a different configuration from the one expected at its start.

Check your magazine capacity when an unfamiliar layout appears after an ammo bonus. The ending follows that capacity; it does not represent a permanent chess-game progression across successive reloads. Keep the two readings separate: remaining pieces track available shots, while the completed reload’s piece count reflects the full magazine.

Which chess positions appear in the reload?

Solomon has about 25 board variations. Fans have matched their arrangements to historical games, openings and tactical positions. The named-game mappings below are fan interpretations of the layouts, separate from the ammo mechanic.

Other fan-identified references include Adolf Anderssen and Lionel Kieseritzky’s 1851 Immortal Game, Paul Morphy’s 1858 Opera Game, Deep Blue’s 1996 victory over Garry Kasparov, and Game 6 of the 2014 World Championship between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand. A 2024 game involving Levy Rozman, known online as GothamChess, also features among the identified layouts.

Some arrangements depict familiar chess traps rather than a particular historical match: Scholar’s Mate is the four-move checkmate, while Légal’s Mate features a queen-sacrifice trap. Those references explain the moves shown in the animation; the number of pieces left behind remains the useful ammunition readout.