The second iteration of 2v8 is now LIVE - find out more information here: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/480-2v8-developer-update
The November Developer Update is now available: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/481-developer-update-november-2024-ptb

Let's talk Blood Echo

Cetren
Cetren Member Posts: 985
in General Discussions

Blood Echo is a very niche perk that was introduced to the Oni character and its one that, along with Mindbreaker, Cruel Limits, Monsterous Shrine, and Fire Up to be competing for the least useful perk in the killer roster. I absolutely love the idea of the perk. Hooking survivors to debuff your next target sounds moderately useful on paper, but unfortunately ends up being less that situationally beneficial in game. I've actually been using it in game like the masochist that I am and let me say that tonight is the night that finally made me remove the perk off of my roster for good until it gets buffed, and also coincidentally swore me into never ever ever taking Ruin and Pop off my Freddy again for as long as I live. So I wanted to talk about the perk and what really needs to be done with it.


So before I talk about the perk as a whole or a potential rework, there's some simple errors that really DESPERATELY need to be addressed. For example.


  1. Blood Echo's description states that it will inflict Hemorrhage until the survivor is fully healed and Exhausted for 45 seconds. However it currently inflicts both status effects for 45 seconds, meaning that whatever little benefit you might've gotten out of the Hemorrhage status is null and void since it doesn't require the survivor to heal.
  2. Unlike Thanatophobia, Blood Echo will ONLY trigger if there is another survivor in the game in the injured state. This means that it doesn't effect survivors and WON'T trigger if the other "injured" survivor is technically in the downed or hooked state. Alongside it's lengthy cooldown and hardcap of 11 uses per game makes the perk even more situational.

So right off that bat these are two things that I would want to be addressed BARE MINIMUM before I even consider the perk as functional. Not good. Not situational. Not usable. But functional. The fact that the description essentially lies to you about the Hemorrhage effect is bad enough, but the fact that your hard work on catching other survivors isn't even rewarded from the perk made to reward you for injuring multiple survivors just seems ridiculous. So with that in mind, let's list all the ways you can completely miss out on the great effect of this wonderful perk!


  1. Chasing, downing, and hooking a survivor at the beginning of the game consumes 1 of 11 potential uses without activating the perk at all.
  2. Beginning the hook animation as someone heals back up to full health prevents the perk from ever activating, consuming 1 of 11 potential uses.
  3. Using the perk successfully and taking advantage of the exhaustion effect to catch another survivor within the 60 second cool down prevents the perk from activating, consuming 1 of 11 potential uses.
  4. Committing to anyone, anywhere essentially prevents you from using the perk against more than 1+ survivor, as downing the survivor will prevent blood echo from effecting or activating against them, and leaving them alone will give them time to heal back to full health.

The perk is already extremely limited in use, only being activatable when a survivors is not in the healthy, downed, or hooked state, assuming that you have another survivor in the downed state that you will hook. You have to prevent the survivor from healing to healthy, being struck into the downed state, and hooking that survivor for 60 seconds after you've activated blood echo on them in the first place. So how can we fix it?


Firstly, it needs to be less situational. I would love to see it activate against any injured, dying, or hooked survivor just like Thantophobia. Because the perk would be activating more frequently, the cool down would be justified.


Or conversely, if the cool down was removed, and you could stack exhaustion as you please, it would mean the perk is situational, but makes it VERY dangerous to stay in the injured state for long periods of time.


What's really killing the perk is the combination of being very situational only effecting injured survivors and a cool down that prevents you from using the perk to its full potential. One should stay, one should go. In addition to actually make the perk work as intended of course. This wouldn't make the perk great, but in the right hands it would be useful and less conditional, so I think at least one of the conditions should go. Those are my thoughts.