Chapter Concept: Ruminating Regret

icemancat

Overview: 

This chapter concept is tied within the Yamaoka Estate, following the story of two characters; a former bank robber who attempted to atone before getting captured by The Entity and a legendary archer who was trained under the hand of someone associated with the Yamaokas. This chapter includes a new Survivor, a new Killer, and a new map on the Yamaoka Estate Realm. This is a long post, so feel free to skip to certain parts that you are more interested in.

New Survivor: Hlynur Birger

Background:

Born in a wealthy family, Hlynur’s family raised him to be a perfect legacy that they would leave behind. From teaching him manners to properly functioning in society, Hlynur’s parents never would have suspected anything to go wrong with him. However, Hlynur’s parents would never learn about the event that would regress all of their progress that they have tried so hard teaching their son. 

One day, as Hlynur was walking back to his car from a class, he was ambushed by an unknown individual. The individual ambushed him out in the open with people everywhere, but people could not see the knife put to Hlynur’s back. The stranger threatened Hlynur with his life to drop his wallet to which Hlynur complied. The stranger picked it up and instead of going for the money, they inspected Hlynur’s license. 

Hlynur was in trouble now. The stranger now found the target he was looking for and demanded Hlynur to drive back to his home, threatening him once again. With a knife that could take his life at any moment, Hlynur drove to his home, fearing for his life and for the safety of his loved ones at home. As he made his way home, his mind raced with what may happen until they arrived at his home in no time. 

The stranger walked behind Hlynur to the front door, and commanded him to unlock it. Hlynur complied and opened the door, letting the unknown person inside. As Hlynur slowly walked in, his mother froze in shock when she saw the knife-wielding maniac. The stranger began to run after her when a spark of madness flowed through Hlynur. Hlynur tackled the stranger to the ground and shouted for help, revealing their identity. Hlynur continuously punched the man in the face when suddenly, a knife was plunged deep into Hlynur’s stomach. 

Hlynur gasped for air as he laid on the ground as his father rushed down the stairs with a metal baseball bat, smacking the man across the head and causing him to bleed. Hlynur told his father that he was sorry and passed out.

Hours later, Hlynur woke up in a hospital to see both of his parents grateful for his survival. He told them what happened with intense anger and frustration, wanting to do things he normally wouldn’t do. His mother told him to calm down and to get some rest, something Hlynur could not agree with.

Time passed on as the family tried to forget the near tragedy that happened. Hlynur’s parents were happy that the man was imprisoned, but Hlynur wanted more. He knew what the man was going to do. He knew the man wanted to go after his parent’s wealth. So to get back at him, he would go after his. Hlynur kept to himself more often, secluding himself in his room. His parents would pass by, concerned for their son, but Hlynur ignored them. 

As the semester for school ended, Hlynur’s parents wanted to celebrate by going on a family vacation. However, Hlynur rejected the idea and told them he needs time to ‘think’. Getting more desperate for their son’s health, Hlynur’s parents continued to attempt to persuade Hlynur into joining them, to which Hlynur denied. Saddened by this decision, Hlynur’s parents left without him and Hlynur would now begin his plan.  

Hlynur began piecing out the various banks where the stranger could have belonged to as well as going to a sports store to purchase a firearm for ‘personal protection’. He would go on to find distant relatives of the stranger, being able to find them online through social media and charity pages to bail him out of jail. Hlynur was ready.

As Hlynur approached the bank he was certain would contain the stranger’s funds as well as his family’s, he put on his ski mask and entered the bank, firing the gun at the ceiling and shouting for everyone to get down. Hlynur knew of the panic buttons, so he pointed his gun at the bank attendants to pressure them into not pushing the button. He then pulled out a picture of the stranger and his name and demanded them to give him all of hsi and his family’s money. Knowing that death was a possibility, the bank attendant complied and put all of the family’s money in the bag. 

Having managed his time correctly, Hlynur made a break for it, having avoided travel via vehicle to avoid being traced. As he made it back home, he celebrated by ordering pizza and watching the news to see if the authorities were on him. Once the pizza arrived, he tipped the delivery guy the money of the stranger’s family, knowing full well exactly what he did. Once Hlynur grew tiresome, he put the bag of money under his bed and fell asleep. 

The next few days passed as his parents arrived home. They noticed that he was in a much brighter mood. Although they thought at first all he needed was time alone, they noticed something in his room when they walked by it one day while Hlynur was out and about; newspaper clippings of the events that happened those few days ago. Both his mother and father inspected the clippings, terrified of the victim whose money was stolen from them. They began to search his room and soon discovered the bag of money. 

Once Hlynur returned home, his parents demanded they speak with him about a pressing matter. Hlynur complied and took a seat with them as he immediately noticed the bag of money set in front of him. Before his parents could ask him the predictable question, Hlynur answered it for them and admitted to stealing not only the stranger’s money, but his own family’s as well, just like the stranger attempted to do with them. Hlynur was frustrated by his parent’s misunderstanding, explaining that he just wanted to protect them. However, his parents talked him down and Hlynur quickly understood his misdoings.

As his parents drove Hlynur down to the police station, he promised that he would make up for what he did by spending time in prison as it was the right thing to do. Although his parents wanted to pay for his bail, he rejected it, saying that this was the right decision. As he entered the prison, the officer began to take Hlynur away as his parents watched their son leave with flowing tears as they left the building to go back home. 

Hlynur thought about his decision and truly hoped it was the right one as suddenly, various alarms began to blare. Prison cells opened and various prisoners began to tackle the prison guard to the ground while another crazy inmate shouted at Hlynur to get out as this was a prison break. Loud noises from outside the building were becoming evermore audible as smoke bombs were thrown inside, impairing the vision of Hlynur. Suddenly gunshots were heard followed by screaming. However, the gun shots turned into slashes and screaming turned into hideous howling as the area around Hlynur turned dark and cold. 

Hlynur was alone, in the dark and cold fog. Listening to trees rustling and feeling the cold dirt beneath him, Hlynmur did not know what to do. Hlynur’s vision began to restore as an ambient light in the distance became more noticeable, with three individuals sitting at what appeared to be a campfire. Hlynur began to frantically make his way towards them to tell them about his recompense, but couldn’t remember how he even got here.

Survivor Rundown

Hlynur Birger is a former robber, able to keep his distance from the Killer in various ways. 

His personal Perks, Upholding Stagger, Proficient Grip, and Rousing Frisson, allow him to impede the Killer and increase his survivability.

Upholding Stagger

Watching those you care about get harmed have taught you to defend yourself. When you stun the Killer, the Killer’s stun duration is increased by 20%/25%/30%. Upholding Stagger has a cooldown of 80 seconds. “If you think you can just come at my family like that, then you’ve got another thing coming.” - Hlynur Birger

Proficient Grip

Holding an Item makes you feel powerful. After using an item you are currently holding for 1 second, gain a Token up to a maximum of 10 Tokens. Each token increases your Item Efficiency by 0.5%/1%/1.5%. Dropping an Item removes all tokens. “I’m not here to hurt any of you, just give me everything that this son of a b*tch has.” - Hlynur Birger

Rousing Frisson

The thrill of the chase excites you. Whenever you are hit by a Basic Attack, you gain the Deep Wound Status Effect. When you are afflicted by the Deep Wound Status Effect, after every 25/20/15 seconds with the Deep Wound Status Effect, gain a Token up to a maximum of 10 Tokens. Each Token increases your movement speed with the Haste Status Effect by 0.5%. “I’m never doing it again, even if we get out of this hell hole. But I can’t deny that it got the adrenaline pumping.” - Hlynur Birger

Trivia

• Hlynur’s Perks tell the story of his past, with Rousing Frisson taking place post-capture by The Entity.
• Hlynur’s last name, Birger, is not pronounced BIR-ger, but instead pronounced BIR-yehr.
• The name Hlynur means “maple” in Icelandic while Birger means “help, save, or rescue” and is most likely derived from bjarga.
• Originally, I was going to have the stranger kill Hlynur’s parents, but I couldn’t bring myself to write that in the final story due to it being too sad and it being too common in other stories.
• Hlynur does a few actions similar to a few characters from the video game, Hotline Miami.
• Hlyner collected newspaper clippings of his actions similar to Jacket in the first game.
• Hlyner hid the bag of money similar to the Henchman in the second game.
• It is unknown whether Hlynur was sent to the same prison as the stranger or not. If he was, then the fate of the stranger is currently unknown due to the prison break out.

Author’s Notes on Hlynur Birger

Hlynur Birger is one of the more unique characters I’ve written while also being a new record for longest backstory for a survivor that I have written so far. Similar to a previous chapter concept, I made it so that a survivor carries the title of a hostile force (a former robber), but instead serves as an ally rather than an enemy. I also think it is interesting that unlike most characters in Dead by Daylight, Hlynur has a positive relationship with his parents rather than a negative one. I think there is still plenty of mystery behind Hlyner’s story, one of the biggest mysteries being, “What happened to the stranger?” and who else could have been taken by The Entity from the prison? Overall, I think Hlynur’s backstory is pretty well-crafted with more things for readers to discover.

The next topic I would like to discuss about Hlynur is his perks. Perks are a core game mechanic in Dead by Daylight and are sometimes more difficult to balance than I think people understand. The design behind perks can go through some amount of iterations before the final version (I’ll get back to this) and you really have to think about many things such as “Will this perk change the meta?” “Is this perk too strong/weak?” “Does this perk have a use in the game?”. With that in mind, I would like to review Hlynur’s perks.

Hlynur’s first perk is Upholding Stagger. This perk increases the duration for a killer being stunned at the cost of a lengthy cooldown. Out of all of Hlynur’s perks, I believe this one has the largest amount of potential to be in the game’s meta. However, it has the potential to be overpowered. After crunching some numbers, I found some values where Upholding Stagger can affect:

1. Pallet Stuns: Increase stun duration from 2 seconds to 2.6 seconds.
2. Head On Stuns: Increase stun duration from 3 seconds to 3.9 seconds.
3. Decisive Strike Stuns: Increase stun duration from 5 seconds to 6.5 seconds.

I believe this would result in this perk getting a lot of use, however, it may be dangerous increasing the amount of time a killer is stunned for as that was a change implemented early on. However, the 80 second cooldown could be enough.

Hlynur’s second perk is Proficient Grip. Proficient Grip increases your item efficiency the longer you use the item for, but gets cancelled out if you drop your item. To me, this seems like a fun perk to use to increase the longevity of your items and can greatly assist your team’s efficiency, whether it be with generator repairs, healing, sabotaging, tracking, or chases. This perk has great potential to have synergy with other perks such as Streetwise, Built To Last, and Ace In The Hole if you want to run a long-lasting item build.

Hlynur’s third and final perk is Rousing Frisson. Rousing Frisson inflicts you with the Deep Wound Status Effect when you are hit by basic attacks, but rewards you by increasing your movement speed the longer you have deep wound. Essentially, this perk is meant to reward you for lasting longer in a chase, but costs you more time to mend when you are out of a chase. Rousing Frisson is designed to be a high risk high reward perk, but in a different way. I had to be careful with designing this perk in particular because too much consistently increased movement speed is dangerous and can be overpowered. This perk used to be able to increase a survivor’s movement speed by 10%, but it would be too overpowered due to 110% movement speed killers being unable to catch up in many cases. Therefore, the maximum movement speed gain you can get from this perk is 5%. Regardless, this should still be an effective perk and should be able to prolong chases in the hands of a skilled survivor. 

Overall, I am satisfied with Hlynur’s backstory and perks. I believe everything would be able to have its place, but the perks could definitely run the risk of being overpowered in some circumstances. I also wanted to take a moment to say that I wish there was something else I could say about Hlynur. In just about all of my chapter concepts, I always struggle with looking for something more to say about the survivor because designing a survivor’s character is easier than designing a killer. While designing survivor perks can pose a challenge at times and generally have more discussion revolving around them, the survivor’s background and lore is usually overlooked. Yet, the survivor lore is what I often find to be some of the more interesting lore in the game. I don’t know if it's just me, but that is how I feel! 

The next topic I will be covering is the new killer in this chapter concept, The Reflected.

New Killer: The Reflected

Background:

Mayumi Hifumi would always admire the strength and willpower of fighters. Fighters over the ages phasing in and out and their stories being told around the area. She immediately knew what she wanted to do as a profession; be a fighter. However, her parents would immediately dismiss her request, much to Mayumi’s dismay. Therefore, she would take it upon herself to teach herself.

After some time saving her allowance, Mayumi paid for specific classes from an instructor to teach her how to fight. However, her instructor was very confused and was quick to correct Mayumi’s definition of fighting as one should not fight without reason. Mayumi told her instructor that it was just a hobby, but the instructor denied her request, gave Mayumi back her money, and closed her doors.

Once again rejected, Mayumi made her way back home, greatly disappointed with the world she was living in and wanted a new purpose. A purpose to take out her anger on something. She noticed close by her home a festival occurring. Intrigued, she skipped stopping at home and decided to check out the celebration.

Mayumi walked around, watching as people played various games and saw shopkeepers with various items for sale. However, she noticed a tent in the distance and caught a woman signaling over Mayumi to visit her tent. Curious, Mayumi followed and saw the extravagant setup done by the woman. She noticed various lights, candles, and other objects on the wall, ranging from keys, spears, and skulls. The woman asked Mayumi if she was here to fight, practically reading her mind, to which Mayumi confirmed, surprised by the woman’s knowledge. The woman nodded and pulled out a large box, a crate with strange symbols on it and told Mayumi to open it. Mayumi opened it and was astonished to find a well-crafted bow on the inside. Mayumi picked it up and inspected it.

Mayumi observed the bow to see that on the inside of it was a strange, black ooze slowly traveling around the bow. Mayumi has heard stories of legendary archers and told the woman she has. The woman confirmed and began to tell her about a legendary bowsman who managed to slay dozens of soldiers on the battlefield. The woman then confirmed that the bowsman was a Yamaoka, a man from a long lineage of warriors who were experts at what they could achieve. Mayumi wanted to learn their ways, but the woman informed Mayumi that if she is to learn her ways, then she must leave everything behind. Mayumi immediately agreed as she figured if her parents and close neighbors will not believe her, then nobody else would. The woman was surprised by the quick decision, but wasted no time in taking Mayumi away and embarking on an incredibly long journey of reclaimment.

Dozens of years later, the woman kept her end of the deal and took Mayumi under her wing, teaching her everything there is to know about the special bow of which Mayumi now wielded. Mayumi took a minute to think about the bow once more and asked the woman where she found this bow. The woman chuckled and declared that Mayumi had ‘earned the privilege’ and took her inside her home in a back room. The woman searched through her trinkets and pulled out a large crystal ball. The woman warned Mayumi that they cannot observe what the vision will show them for long as they would be spotted. Mayumi asked who they could possibly be spotted by, to which the woman ignored her question. The woman chanted a sentence in a language unfamiliar to Mayumi. Mayumi peered at the vision and witnessed hundreds of not only people, but things fighting each other. Mayumi tried to decipher what they were fighting for, but the woman quickly closed the vision. The woman then told Mayumi that her bow was a Terra Dark Bow, and what she saw was The Colosseum. The woman felt a cold chill as she put away the crystal ball and told Mayumi that it was getting close for her to head to bed. Mayumi complied.

While lying in bed, Mayumi could not help, but think about the endless potential she and the woman would have. Over the many years she has known her, she has seen plenty of trinkets and entities of magic performed, but none as impressive as the crystal ball. Mayumi thought of The Colosseum as another world where she belonged, but she thought about what the instructor told her all of those years ago: one should not fight without reason. Mayumi began to hear the rain followed by thunder and lightning outside. She then heard the loud screaming of the woman outside of the house. Mayumi immediately ran outside to see the woman raising a chalice in the sky with her arms bleeding. Mayumi looked up to see a giant malevolent being with spider-like limbs revolving in the sky. Mayumi could not blink.

As Mayumi watched the woman chanting more and more, the being from the sky revolved around the two of them faster and faster, as liquid was poured into the chalice. Mayumi shouted for her role model to stop, causing the woman to turn back at Mayumi and tell her the last lesson. The woman shouted to Mayumi that with each movement she makes, another will be done in response to her actions and that she must learn as many actions as she possibly can. The woman then shouted that the commencement of The Reflected had begun and the training from The Admirer was complete. The being from the skies then attacked Mayumi, causing her to black out.

Mayumi woke to find herself back in the woman’s tent, however, this tent was different. The tent had two exits and one of the exits showed the entrance back to her home while the other was a dark, foggy path. Mayumi was startled and had no idea what she was dealing with, therefore, choosing the path back home. However, she was immediately brought back inside the tent and in front of the two exits again, this time, with her arms bleeding. Mayumi then walked through the exit to her home once more to suddenly then be brought back and with a glass mask attached to her face. Mayumi screamed and tried to pull it off, but the being’s limbs held it in place on the back of her head. Mayumi was still able to see her surroundings, but this time, the exit to her home was replaced by a mirror. She looked at herself, at her reflection, and attempted to exit through her own image. The Reflected was then pushed out again, this time, with glowing arrows pulsating through her forearms, torturing her and causing agonizing pain. The Reflected looked at herself again and could not bear the torture any longer and took the dark and foggy path, making her way to her first Trial.

Killer Rundown:

Base Stats

Movement Speed: 4.4 m/s

Height: Tall

Terror Radius: 32 m.

Power: Terra Dark Bow

“A bow with ancient and great power constructed in the Terra Dark. The Reflected uses this bow with excellent precision.”

Start the Trial with 4 Spectral Glass Arrows. Press and hold the Power button to draw back a Spectral Glass Arrow. Release the Power button to initiate an Arrow Loose, allowing the Spectral Glass Arrow to travel through all obstacles and collisions. The longer the Power button is held down, the faster and further it will travel. After reaching a certain range, the Spectral Glass Arrow will quickly turn around and fly back towards The Reflected. During this time, the Spectral Glass Arrow can damage Survivors for a single health state while it is coming back to The Reflected and The Reflected cannot perform any action other than moving. Once the Spectral Glass Arrow travels back to The Reflected, The Reflected will suffer a state of fatigue based on how long The Reflected charged the Spectral Glass Arrow. While charging a Spectral Glass Arrow, press the Left Mouse Button to cancel this action. Press the Active Ability button to reload Spectral Glass Arrows. The reload action is determined by how many Spectral Glass Arrows The Reflected is currently missing. 

Power Trivia:

• The shortest duration of time The Reflected can charge a Spectral Glass Arrow is 1 second. Tapping and releasing the Power button will result in this short time, but beware, the arrow’s speed will be drastically slower. On the other hand, the longest duration of time The Reflected can charge a Spectral Glass Arrow is 5 seconds.
• As a reference, some general time to speed, distance, and fatigue comparisons are shown below based on how long you charge an arrow.
• 1 Second Charge Time = 20 m/s speed, 20 meters, 4 seconds of Fatigue
• 2 Seconds Charge Time = 30 m/s speed, 30 meters, 3 seconds of Fatigue
• 3 Seconds Charge Time = 40 m/s speed, 40 meters, 2 seconds of Fatigue
• 4 Seconds Charge Time = 50 m/s speed, 50 meters, 1 second of Fatigue
• 5 Seconds Charge Time = 60 m/s speed, 60 meters, 0 seconds of Fatigue
• The Reflected moves at a reduced movement speed while charging a Spectral Glass Arrow, reduced to 3.0 m/s.
• While the Spectral Glass Arrow is flying away and back to The Reflected, The Reflected moves at her default movement speed of 4.4 m/s (110%).
• While the Spectral Glass Arrow is entering The Reflected’s left forearm (fatigue), The Reflected moves at a reduced movement speed of 3.9 m/s (97.5%).
• It takes 1.5 seconds to summon (reload) a Spectral Glass Arrow, up to a maximum of 6 seconds if you are missing all 4 Spectral Glass Arrows.

Perks:

The Reflected is a covetous Killer, able to injure Survivors from afar with her Terra Dark Bow.

Her personal Perks, Irritable Trudge, Give and Take, and Scourge Hook: Abandon Hope, grant her additional awareness to Survivors’ whereabouts as well as enabling herself to ambush Survivors more frequently.

Irritable Trudge

The moment before the action puts your enemies on edge. While you are not in a chase, Survivors’ footsteps while running are 10%/15%/20% louder. “They’ll all be running once they see what she is capable of.” - The Admirer

Give and Take

You are willing to make a compromise. Whenever you are stunned or blinded by a Survivor, see the Survivor’s Aura who stunned or blinded you for as long as you were stunned or blinded. Give and Take has a cooldown of 80/70/60 seconds. “Who would you rather follow, your parents who never believed in you, or me, a legend who can teach you everything?” - The Admirer

Scourge Hook: Abandon Hope

Your enemies will soon learn not to fight back. At the start of the Trial, 4 random Hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks. Whenever a Survivor unhooks a Survivor from a Scourge Hook, the rescuer is afflicted with the Oblivious Status Effect for 60/70/80 seconds. “They all learn sooner or later that there is no escape, regardless of who they are, or what they have done.” - ???

Trivia

• The Reflected’s unique perks tell the story of her past.
• The name (ma) means “real and/or genuine”, but if you combine (ma) with (yumi), the name means “archery bow”.
• The woman and The Admirer are the same person.
• The Admirer’s Crystal Ball seems to function similarly to The Observer’s Auris.
• The Admirer is connected to the lore of Dead by Daylight similar to The Observer, but serves more as an antagonistic force due to her offering Mayumi to The Entity.
• It is possible that the origin of Keys comes from The Admirer, however, keys could have always just been made by The Entity.
• The Admirer had multiple keys hanging in her tent.
• The Admirer possessed an object able to see others, similar to how multiple addons of the key can see the auras of different things. 
• The Reflected was tortured three times before being convinced to join The Entity’s ranks. The Entity used the mirage of The Admirer’s tent to quickly train The Reflected to not disobey.
• The Colosseum is another sub-realm of The Entity likely from the Terra Dark, pitting hundreds of living beings against one another for some specific reason.
• Although the reason is currently unknown, the Terra Dark Bow likely came from The Colosseum, meaning The Admirer could have survived one of The Colosseum’s battles.
• Therefore, it can likely be assumed that The Admirer gained The Entity’s trust and serves as a high-ranking member of a group for The Entity, but it is unknown whether that group is the Cult for The Entity, The Company, or a different group.
• The Reflected is one of The Admirer’s successfully trained killers.
• The group of successfully trained killers by The Admirer is called, “Agents of The Admirer.”

Author’s Notes On The Reflected

I feel like The Reflected is one of the more interesting killers I have had the chance to design, in terms of both lore and ability. Starting off with the lore, The Reflected carries the story of a young woman who had trouble in finding others who believed in her endeavors. However, a new character who goes by The Admirer literally admired The Reflected and therefore took her under her care for a long time. However, The Reflected was betrayed by the person she trusted most and was too late to realize that The Admirer was working for The Entity and that she used her for personal gain. There are multiple different mysteries surrounding The Entity such as The Colosseum as well as what some of the other objects The Admirer possessed, but that has yet to be discovered. I am very happy with the work I have done for The Reflected’s lore.

As for The Reflected’s power, it was not only enjoyable to work on, but also served as a challenge, as I needed to readjust her power a few times. Before the concept that you read above, The Reflected had an additional ability that granted her more map control, being able to essentially teleport from one set location to another. However, I scrapped the idea because The Reflected would be too overpowered due to not only having a strong power for chases, but a strong power to be used for map transportation. The Reflected’s arrows also went through multiple changes. At first, the maximum range for the arrows was capped at 32 meters and would always fly at 40 m/s, the same speed as a fully charged Hunting Hatchet and The Deathslinger’s shot. I thought this would be used too often as another power similar to what we already have in the game, so I wanted to change it up a little. 

I instead designed The Reflected’s arrows to have a lot more skill involved, making it so that based on how long you charge the arrow for, many other factors can change. This resulted in a much more interesting power as well as giving The Reflected a much higher skill ceiling, with her potential possibly being up there with The Nurse. However, there are already some concerns that I can imagine people would bring up, so I would like to cover those now.

Concern: “Why should I play The Reflected over (My favorite ranged killer)?”

Answer: The reason you would pick The Reflected over your preferred killer depends. One reason could be that her playstyle suits your own preferred playstyle more so than your current favorite killer. However, in terms of ‘Which killer is stronger?’, then I can say with confidence that The Reflected can be a very strong killer, but only in the right hands. Let me explain.

The Reflected carries over many similarities like The Nurse: both require muscle memory to effectively learn their powers, both of their powers perform extremely well in chases, and both of them are very difficult to play as. It would be quite difficult to get used to The Reflected if people immediately saw her power and completely failed. I would almost guarantee that people all over Dead by Daylight’s social media, forums, and just about everywhere else that they would say The Reflected is too weak. However, the reason why people would jump to that conclusion is because they lack the patience required to p[roperly learn and play as The Reflected effectively. Another perfect example of this is with The Hillbilly. Ever since the developers have added the Overheat Mechanic, many people lost the patience to play as The Hillbilly due to needing to manage the Chainsaw’s overheat bar. However, in the hands of a skillful player and someone who is up for the challenge, then they can most likely learn how to manage the Overheat bar and succeed with The Hillbilly. The same exact thing can be said with The Nurse, but I’ll try to avoid repeating myself.

The Reflected is another example of this scenario, where only players willing to dedicate the time and effort into learning The Reflected’s power will succeed. 

Concern: “What is the counterplay to The Reflected?”

Answer: This is a good question because the counterplay for The Reflected can seem nonexistent when used by a really good player (again, similar to The Nurse). However, one reliable counter to The Reflected is to stay out of sight. The Reflected lacks any sort of a tracking tool in her kit as well as needing to deal with a 32 meter terror radius, therefore, it should give players enough time to try to avoid The Reflected whenever possible. Also, predicting where The Reflected’s arrows will go is key to avoiding them.

Counter Argument: “But I don’t like hiding, it's not fun.”

Counter Response: Then that is how you feel. Something I have learned while making chapter concepts is that it is impossible to make 100% of the player base happy, as no matter what you do, there is always going to be one person who will want the opposite. There may be scenarios where the developers make a decision that has 95% favorability with the playerbase, but the other 5% disagrees. Does that mean you shouldn’t make the decision if the 5% don’t like it? No. If it is a change that is highly beneficial and/or favorable to the game and if 95% of the playerbase likes it, then chances are, it is a good change to implement. At the end of the day, there is nothing you can do to change the mind of someone who says “Change my mind.” There is nothing you can do if someone says “It’s boring.” The reason is because that is how they feel and that the person would need to deal with it, whether that person is myself or anyone. It is these thoughts exactly that not only people who make chapter concepts think about, but possibly the developers when designing something new.

Overall, I feel like The Reflected would be a high skill, high reward killer and those interested in properly learning her power can succeed greatly in matches as well as serving as an enjoyable killer to go up against. With that covered, the next thing I would like to discuss is The Reflected’s perks.

The Reflected’s first perk is Irritable Trudge. Irritable Trudge increases the volume of survivor’s running footsteps while you are not in a chase. This perk seems like a decent tracking perk, however, it is worth mentioning that this perk went over the most revisions out of all of The Reflected’s Perks. Before, this perk used to also give a random bonus to louder breathing of survivors (which I removed) and that the perk could not be used while using your power. This was originally done to avoid having another Stridor Spirit problem, but I realized that other killers such as The Wraith and The Pig would never be able to use this perk due to the nature of their powers. Therefore, I removed this side effect as well. Do I think this perk will be overpowered with Spirit? No. It is generally not a good idea to run in the first place while The Spirit is phasing. Also, if this perk is too much of a problem, then a change to Lightweight to counter the effects of this perk could always exist and can result in increased usage of the perk.

The Reflected’s second perk is Give and Take. Give and Take allows you to see the aura of a survivor who stunned you for the same duration as the stun itself. This makes for a very interesting reaction perk and can open up interesting plays, particularly for The Reflected. A concern of mine was that this perk would be Lightborn, but better. However, Lightborn grants 10 seconds of aura reading as well as immunity to blindness whereas Give and Take likely only will offer 2 seconds of aura reading from flashlight blindness due to the default blindness duration being 2 seconds. However, Give and Take can still be a strong response to Head On stuns as well as Decisive Strike. TO end off on GIve and Take, Enduring would actually be a poor choice to combine with Give and Take due to the aura reading only being 1 second.

The Reflected’s third and final perk is Scourge Hook: Abandon Hope. Scourge Hook: Abandon Hope afflicts the rescuer of survivors on scourge hooks with the oblivious status effect for certain durations. This is another perk that incorporates the Oblivious Status Effect into a perk and a perk I believe can come in handy in certain cases. Scourge Hook: Abandon Hope can also be combined with Make Your Choice for an extremely deadly combo. As my first attempt at designing a Scourge Hook perk, I think it is pretty decent. 

With the perks and killer explained a little further, it is now time to briefly describe the new map.

New Map: Yamaoka Training Grounds

The training grounds, once used by the legendary Yamaokas, now belong to The Admirer to prepare her agents. Killers of all sorts would be trained here for their inevitable capture. Such a special site could not be passed by, which demanded its duplication by The Entity to be used in its own Trials.

The Yamaoka Training Grounds would be set in an outdoor map, exactly like the other Yamaoka Estate maps. The size, if possible, would be 9,984 m^2 just like the other Yamaoka maps, but would contain different structures such as a medium-sized house, targets, training dummies, and other structures such as tents. 

Thank You For Reading!

I really appreciate you for making it this far in my chapter concept. I did not think I would get a chance to create another chapter concept so soon, but I did. More projects are in the works, chapter concepts included, but let me know what you think of this one! I’m always open to feedback!

Thanks,

icemancat