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Start with a clear, stable baseline
Hone’s October 1, 2026 guide describes its recommendations as a supported starting point, not a profile benchmarked across PCs. It uses Valve’s English settings definitions and tooltips as extracted September 30, 2026, after the City Never Sleeps update. Use the following as a test profile, not a guarantee of better frame rates or visibility.
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- Resolution: Begin at your monitor’s native resolution to keep the output image clear.
- Refresh rate: Select the highest rate your display can use reliably. This does not itself guarantee a particular frame rate.
- Scaling: Start at 1x. If you need more rendering headroom, try an available 1.5x mode and compare the image and performance. Available upscaling choices can vary by hardware and game build.
- Graphics API: Keep whichever API works better on your system. Hone reports no established universal winner between DirectX 11 and Vulkan.
For a performance-oriented first pass, Hone suggests Low shadows, Low fog, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion off, and Medium textures. These are starting values, not proven optimal settings for every PC. Lower targeted effects before reducing the whole output image, so you can judge whether the tradeoff actually helps.
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Adjust effects with visibility in mind
Shadows, fog, and ambient occlusion
Try the suggested Low shadow and fog settings and turn Screen Space Ambient Occlusion off if performance is unstable or the scene is difficult to read. Then check targets and surroundings in comparable gameplay. If reduced shadows remove visual cues you rely on, raise them again; a lower setting is not automatically better for visibility.
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Textures, bloom, and area lights
Medium textures are Hone’s suggested starting point in its performance profile. Bloom and area lights are optional visual tradeoffs: the guide disables them in that profile, but the tracked tooltips describe their performance costs as small. Turn them back on if you prefer their appearance and your system remains stable.
Depth of field
Hone reports that the current referenced tooltip treats depth of field as a preference, with negligible cost and no current gameplay-performance effect. Choose it based on the image you prefer rather than expecting a frame-rate improvement.
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Find a sensitivity and crosshair you can control
There is no source-supported universal sensitivity value or crosshair design. Choose a sensitivity that lets you make deliberate corrections without fighting your aim, and use a crosshair that remains easy to see while covering as little of an enemy as possible. Treat exact values as personal starting points, then adjust them through play rather than copying a number as a prescription.
ProSettings’ guide, last modified March 5, 2026, allows either a refresh-rate cap or unlimited play depending on stability and headroom. Hone cautions against treating one fixed cap as right for everyone. If you change a cap, compare frame stability and control in your own setup instead of assuming unlimited or capped play will be better.
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Test settings without confusing FPS and network problems
Deadlock’s telemetry HUD can help distinguish frame-rate concerns from network state. Use a repeatable scenario and change only one or two settings per pass; otherwise, it is difficult to tell which change affected the result.
- Play a comparable scenario and note the frame rate and network indicators in the telemetry HUD.
- Change one or two settings, such as shadows and fog, while leaving the rest of the setup alone.
- Repeat the scenario and compare frame stability as well as target visibility and background clarity.
- Keep a change only if it improves your experience; there is no guaranteed FPS gain from any one setting.
A network indicator can point to a connection or network-state concern rather than a graphics problem. Do not infer that graphics settings caused a network issue just because both appear during the same session.
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Recheck settings after game updates
iTechGuides reported that Valve’s City Never Sleeps update, published September 29, 2026, included updated Source 2 engine code, rendering performance improvements, and network prediction improvements. The same update coverage reports readability changes, dedicated visual, audio, and control accessibility settings, and a video-settings preview that temporarily makes the menu transparent to show changes. Because settings names and availability can change between builds, check the current in-game menu before following older click-by-click directions.
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