Ivy Kudzu Connection In Deadlock: How The Tether, Heals, And Always-On Upgrade Work
Ivy 2 is Kudzu Connection, the renamed Watcher's Covenant: a line-of-sight ally tether that shares bonuses and replicated healing.
Kudzu Connection is Ivy choosing one lucky ally and turning a lane into a two-person problem.
Short answer: Kudzu Connection links Ivy to a nearby ally, giving bonuses, replicated healing, and freedom from the move-speed penalty while shooting. If Ivy is alone, she still receives half of the bonuses.
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Kudzu Connection Ivy links to an ally for fire rate, bullet lifesteal, replicated healing, and smoother shooting movement, with half bonuses alone. |
Current Mechanics
Deadlock.one’s current Ivy data lists Kudzu Connection with a 37-second cooldown, 12-second duration, +10 percent fire rate, +15 percent bullet lifesteal, 35 percent replicated healing, and 1 tether count. The connection requires line of sight, and the page notes that Ivy receives 50 percent of the bonuses with no connection.
The shape is support, but not helpless support. Kudzu Connection lets Ivy attach value to the strongest nearby plan: a carry taking a fight, a bruiser holding a lane, or Ivy herself farming and rotating until the next real fight starts.
Upgrade Path
- 1 AP: gain +2m move speed.
- 2 AP: gain +8 percent fire rate and +8 percent bullet lifesteal.
- 5 AP: the ability is always active.
The final upgrade is the headline. Always active turns Kudzu Connection from a window into a baseline identity. Before that, the cooldown asks Ivy to pick the fight she wants to bless. After that, the tether becomes part of how her team moves around the map.
Key Patch Changes
Valve’s March 6, 2026 gameplay update renamed Watcher’s Covenant to Kudzu Connection. It also reduced the fire-rate and bullet-lifesteal spirit scaling, moved the +2m move-speed bonus to T1, moved the fire-rate/lifesteal boost to T2, and made the 5 AP upgrade “Ability is now always active.”
On March 10, 2026, Valve added the current solo caveat: Kudzu Connection gives only half the bonus if Ivy is not connected to an ally. The May 22, 2026 gameplay update later fixed Kudzu Connection among the abilities and items that were not working through veils.
How To Use It
Pick the ally who will actually use the window. A tether on the teammate doing nothing is a polite decoration. A tether on the player about to take space is a fight plan.
The older Piggy ranked Ivy guide is stale on some numbers, but still useful on role identity: Ivy can flex between support, spirit, debuff, and gun pressure because her value is not locked to one lane job. The current version keeps that idea but asks you to respect the March 2026 rework.
Use Kudzu Connection before sustain matters, not after the ally is already dead. The replicated healing wants time. Pair it with active healing, lifesteal pressure, and disciplined line of sight so the tether does not break at the exact moment the fight gets expensive.
Counterplay
Break line of sight, punish the tethered pair as a pair, and buy anti-heal when Ivy’s sustain is actually deciding fights. If Ivy has not reached the always-active upgrade, track the duration and cooldown. If she has reached it, target selection matters more: killing or zoning the linked ally can remove the part of the fight she was betting on.
Lore Context
Kudzu Connection is the cleanest mechanics-to-story bridge in Ivy’s kit. The gargoyle came alive to protect the Arroyos, learned family from them, and built her life around defending Spanish Harlem. Of course her best button asks, “Who am I protecting right now?”
Sources
Current mechanics and the ability icon were checked against Deadlock.one’s Ivy page and the Kudzu Connection modal. Patch history was checked against Valve’s March 6 gameplay update, the official March 6 forum thread, and the May 22 gameplay update. Video context came from Piggy’s Ivy support guide.
For the broader Ivy file, see DramaLock’s Ivy lore guide and the current NekitBrokin Ivy build breakdown.