Hex: Doom and Hex: Thorn

Vulgun

So I've come up with two new Hex Perk ideas that I believe would make this game, which has had the same song and dance routine for the past 5 years, feel fresh once more for both parties alike. These are something I've put quite a bit of thought into and I think these would make for decent Hex Perks to have in the game.

I will not delay this concept post any further than it needs to be, so here are the two Perks.

Hex: Doom

At the beginning of the Trial, 4 totems will be lit, activating Hex: Doom. While this Hex is active:

• All Survivors in the Trial will have a "Death Counter" applied to them, which starts at 100 and ends at 0.
• Any Survivor that reaches 0 on the "Death Counter" will be instantly sacrificed to The Entity.
• For every 5/4/3 seconds that pass, the "Death Counter" goes down by 1 tick.
• Survivors that are hooked will reduce the "Death Counter" by 30 ticks.

Survivors can cleanse these specific totems, but the time it takes to cleanse each totem is 60 seconds. Being interrupted while cleansing a totem containing Hex: Doom will not reset the cleanse.

Upon cleansing the totem, the "Death Counter" will be removed for that Survivor, but the Survivor will be unable to cleanse another totem containing Hex: Doom.

Any Survivor under the effects of Hex: Doom will be instantly sacrificed if they attempt to escape the Trial.

Hex: Thorn

Upon injuring a Survivor by any means, Hex: Thorn activates.

• All dropped pallets within a 32/48/64 meter range will be blocked by The Entity for 20/25/30 seconds.
• Survivors who are in the middle of a vault will be knocked back when it activates.

Hex: Thorn has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

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Now, these two Hex Perks here fundamentally change how Dead by Daylight is played as a game, and can be extremely powerful in the right hands. These two perks were designed in a way to make it so that Survivors and Killers will have to come up with new strategies to make sure the other side doesn't try to take the advantage.

What Hex: Doom Does

Hex: Doom gives us the long-awaited second objective that is necessary for the game, and makes totem cleansing less trivial as a whole, and more of a necessity. This gives the gameplay more depth altogether and makes totems no longer feel like they were an afterthought, as they are now necessary to cleanse before escaping or starting up generators.

Doom also makes it so that Survivors now have a time limit, effectively, much like the Killer does. This makes the situation of going against the Killer intense and yet even more satisfying once you manage to earn that win against them.

In regards to how Doom works in major aspects of the game, being downed and hooked will pause the timer outright, especially considering that the latter will take 30 ticks from the death counter it has. Additionally, all "Doom" totems will require skill checks to continue; fortunately, they're akin to how a Generator's functions.

Finally, all "Doom" totems will have differing spawn locations from the normal, and are typically hidden in spots that are meant to be much harder for Survivors to spot, but not too hard to prevent them from finding them.

In regards to how Doom interacts with other Hex Perks:

• Hex: Undying will not affect Hex: Doom.
• Hex: Retribution will now have its main effect on Dull Totems be applied to the "Doom" Totem.
• Hex: Thrill of The Hunt will not increase the amount of time required to cleanse these Totems. However, it can now reduce the success zones of each Skill Check by 6% per totem still up, and will reduce cleansing progress by 8% when a Skill Check is missed.
• Other Hex Perks will be activated as per normal.

As a precautionary measure to prevent abuse for the Hex Perk, I've come up with three solutions to prevent stalling:

• Traps such as Hag's or Trapper's cannot be set up near a Doom Totem. The only exception to this is Pyramid Head's Rites of Judgement.
• The Killer cannot see the aura of the totems until they are first touched upon by a Survivor.
• Survivors will be warned as soon as the Trial starts that they need to cleanse the Doom Totems.

What Hex: Thorn Does

Hex: Thorn makes what is considered an inconvenience to Killers into something that they can use for their benefit. The Hex itself is simple; it allows The Entity to block dropped pallets from being vaulted; but it goes a lot deeper than you may originally think.

Thorn makes it so that Killers can use the Survivors' misuse of pallets to their own advantage, much in the way Crowd Control does against Survivors who fast vault at loops. This gives Killers an extra bit of pressure, especially against Survivors who typically try to vault back and forth to try and escape.

However, Thorn also shines in the regard that it would actually change the way that Survivors play with Pallets. Instead of just throwing it down and expecting the Killer to break it, it would be much better to run Perks that affect r are affected by Pallets, just in case that the Killer is running Thorn. Again, it would make it so that more strategy is involved and required, and would mean that certain Perks that aren't used that much now have a purpose on the Survivor's end.

Conclusion

All-in-all, I'm proud of what I've come up with these two Hex Perk ideas. These two ideas fundamentally change the core gameplay in ways that are innovative and unique, while not feeling extremely overwhelming. These would really enrich the gameplay and spice things up for a bit, especially with the likes of Doom, which adds a new objective on top of the one Survivors already have in a way that doesn't require too much changing of the structure of the game.

To the Developers

To any of the developers of the game reading this, these Perks would make the game a lot more enjoyable and less mundane with having to do the same thing over and over again. If any of you are actually looking at this post, I really do urge you to try and implement one or both of these perks in testing to see how the feel goes.

And if you do ever want to use them, my only request is that they become universal Hex Perks rather than being tied to a Killer, because these Perks change the fundamental gameplay enough to where they may be necessary for all players to utilize at all levels.

If you want to keep your fans engaged, BHVR, then you may need to add perks that can affect the gameplay enough to where it's able to achieve it without completely overhauling it.

It's worth a shot to try at least one of these Hex Perks, even in the current state of the game.

To the Community

This is what I have for now. I'd love to hear your thoughts down below as to what you think about these perk ideas. Yes, this is my usual lengthy subject, but I need you to give me your thoughts after having read everything.

And yes, it would be jarring for the game to suddenly shift in its pacing, especially with the Hex: Doom concept, but I truly do think it's in our best interest to try and actually come up with ideas that can change what we know and make us experiment.

So let me know what you think below.