Mid Chapter Developer Update Discussion
We’re back with another Developer Update, a series of posts outlining some of the upcoming changes to Dead by Daylight. You read that title correctly, this is part one; there’s so much to cover this time around that we couldn’t fit it all in one post. (And the writer passed out halfway through typing this.)
KILLER UPDATES
THE TRAPPER
Starting things off with a bang (or rather, a snap), we’ve made a series of small changes to The Trapper.
Did you know that the number of bear traps that spawn on the map is random? That’s right, each trial will spawn between 4-6 bear traps at random. Now you can take this interesting little fact and completely forget about it because that’s no longer how it works: now, 6 traps will always spawn (not including the traps you load in carrying). This takes away some of the random element in playing The Trapper and makes each match feel more consistent.
Having more traps is great and all, but wouldn’t it be nice to carry more than one without add-ons? We sure think so. The Trapper will now be able to carry—and start with—two bear traps by default. This will help you get up and running quicker without relying on add-ons. The Trapper’s bag add-ons have been adjusted or repurposed accordingly.
Finally, on the subject of add-ons, we’ve done a pass on some of his least used add-ons and either increased their effects, removed their downsides, or gave them new effects entirely.
THE SPIRIT
The Spirit has been a strong Killer since her release, and with that in mind, we’ve made some changes that aim to increase her skill ceiling whilst also giving Survivors some counterplay.
When close to The Spirit’s husk, Survivors will not receive any indication that The Spirit is phase walking. Originally this was intended to be a fun mind game (“Is she using her power, or is she faking it?”), though in practice, it often doesn’t feel that way. This lack of feedback forces you to make a guess and hope it pays off, which can be great when it works out in your favour, but can also feel awful when it doesn’t.
To add more skill into The Spirit’s counterplay, we’re making two changes:
- Any Survivor within 24m of The Spirit will now hear a directional phase sound. This lets you know whether or not she is phasing and also gives you a rough idea of which direction she’s coming from.
- The Spirit’s footsteps will now kick up dust while she is phasing. Keen Survivors may be able to pinpoint where she is, but tall grass and other obstacles may make it difficult.
These two changes aim to add more skill into playing as and against The Spirit and reduce the reliance on ‘coin flips’ (where you make a guess and hope it pays off).
Additionally, we’ve done a pass on some of The Spirit’s add-ons to bring them more in line and make the lesser used add-ons more appealing. Like The Trapper, some of these changes are small tweaks while others are completely new effects.
KILLER ADD-ONS UPDATE
What does moderately mean? How much more is tremendously compared to considerably? If you ever found yourself in this situation, you’re not alone. We used descriptive words like these to keep descriptions simple, but they end up causing just as much confusion since it’s not immediately clear how much they’re doing. With that in mind, we have done a pass on all Killer add-ons to list their exact effects. We plan to extend this to the rest of the game—Items, perks, etc.—in the future.
On top of that, Killer add-ons that apply a status effect will now have a brief description of what that status effect does.
While our designers were going through hundreds of Killer add-ons one by one to update their descriptions, they also noted down a few for changes as well. There’s far too many to list here, but we’ve changed some add-ons for the following Killers:
- The Hillbilly
- The Nurse
- The Shape
- The Hag
- The Oni
- The Blight
- The Wraith
- The Pig
- The Ghost Face
These changes focus mostly on unused add-ons, or add-ons that are too weak/powerful.
PERKS UPDATES
Variety is the spice of life, and incidentally, Dead by Daylight matches too. In an ongoing effort to give you more options to choose from, we’re updating a huge list of perks. Without further ado, let’s run through some of them quickly:
Vigil
Nice and simple: We’re increasing the recovery rate from 10/15/20% to 20/25/30%. Additionally, Vigil will now increase the recovery rate of the Broken, Exposed, and Oblivious status effects as well (where applicable). In short, more situations where it’s useful, and even faster recovery too.
Babysitter/Guardian
Another small tweak: The rescued Survivor will now receive a speed boost for 4/6/8 seconds in addition to not leaving Scratch Marks or Pools of Blood. The aura reading duration has also been doubled.
For the People
For the People can create some amazing moments, but the trade-off of being Broken can make it very risky to justify using. We’re decreasing the duration of the Broken status effect from 110/100/90 seconds to 80/70/60 seconds.
Hex: Retribution
Previously, Hex: Retribution would only make a Survivor Oblivious if they cleansed a dull totem. Now, interacting with any kind of totem will make them Oblivious. Additionally, we’ve increased the aura reading duration once a hex totem is cleansed to 15 seconds.
Hex: Blood Favor
This perk shipped with very safe conditions so it didn’t get out of control. Upon reflection, we feel comfortable with removing some of these restrictions. Hex: Blood Favor will no longer have a cooldown, and will also activate upon successful Special Attacks as well.
Hex: The Third Seal
Just like the above, we’ve added Special Attacks to Hex: Third Seal as well. This should make the perk more practical on Killers that focus more on dealing damage with their power.
Hex: Thrill of the Hunt
With Boon perks making their way to the game (more on this soon!), we decided to give Thrill of the Hunt some love by extending the speed penalty from Cleansing to Blessing as well.
ITEM & CHARACTER KILL SWITCH
Last but not least, let’s talk about a game health feature: The Item & Character Kill Switch. With over 50 playable characters and their cosmetics, nearly 200 perks and hundreds more add-ons and offerings in the game, sometimes things do break. Rarely, things will break in a way that makes them exploitable, and that can make the next week or two before a fix really rough.
Enter the Kill Switch. (It’s actually a lot nicer than it sounds!)
The Kill Switch allows us to disable anything that’s causing an issue without needing an update. When something breaks and becomes exploitable, we switch it off until it is fixed. This is something we’ve been able to do with maps for a while now to great effect. Disabled items & characters will be clearly marked and cannot be selected.
What this means to you: When that one thing breaks and people start to abuse it, you won’t have to play against it for a week or two until there’s a fix.
With that, we’ll give you a break from reading for today. But we’re just getting started. There’s a lot more to cover, so come back Monday for part 2.
The Dead by Daylight team
Comments
-
Honestly I won't acknowledge survivors escaping with a key. It is just the cheapest ######### I can think of. I have a great game as executioner. All of a sudden the last two survivors have been 3 genned and have basically given up on trying to do generators. As if it's my fault you 3 gened yourself. And you get rewarded by bringing a key in with addons and escaping?
1 -
Starting to? Are you a double digit hour player lol.
Keys are one of the most hated items in this game for me. I will either lobby dodge or tunnel anyone in my games with one.
I like how mori's has been complained about for ages and that was the first to be nerfed yet keys remain the same. Not a mori user or defender btw.
16 -
HEY DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT KEYS - DEVS ARE GOING TO REWORK THEM!!!!
/s this is the counterargument I always get whenever I complain about survivors getting their free escapes. I play killer about 60% of the time, and the other 40% I play survivor either solo or SWF. I never bring keys because I don't want to escape the cheap, easy way.
10 -
Or finding one in a chest... just saying
But yea.... I know what you mean
Though it's been awhile since that happened to me (if I remember right it was when I prestiged the Pig which feels like forever ago)
0 -
I used to run broken keys to see all of the killer Mori animations.
10 -
LOL nice
2 -
They just take no skill at all. It's not even old mori level of cheapness. "You don't need to do 5 gens, just do 4." Why not 3? Why not 2? Why not 1? And oh yeah, hatch can open even no NO GENS have been done. All hatch and keys are is free escapes. They both need to go. "But we need hatch or the game gets taken hostage." Then don't let them. Reveal the survivors auras or something if they refuse to do anything. Problem solved. Too bad such an easy solution will never become reality.
5 -
No i've got 409 hours in game. I just keep forgetting how much I hate it when that happens lol.
2 -
At least they bring in a key in your games. In my games they're 100% guaranteed a key even without Plunderer's.
0 -
Even with hatch, they can still more or less take the game hostage. I know you can technically find them while they are locker hopping, but the amount of time that takes without iron maiden or whispers is not even close to justifiable. The game DESPERATELY needs a better afk system.
3 -
if they get it out of a chest, bad luck. but i hate keys when they are brought, especially with the addon that saves it when used for hatch, since it means another poor soul gets tortured by a key. too many times do i kill 2 and then wind down only to see 2 instant escapes.
1 -
It's not just bad for killers, it is also bad for the survivors they leave behind. They screw over their teammates just to get an easy escape. They really need to go.
5 -
I'd agree with most of this if i wasn't getting the vibe. ' I deserve that 4K ' vibe. Giving very 'Entitled Killer' Vibes. 90% of the time, you get that 4k because you're either really good or you were paired up with dookie butter survivors and it's almost always the first option. Now that isn't to say I bring keys to every match, I rarely bring them, but I See keys as like a second chance to escape, especially the offering of where the hatch would be.
Since I'm a survivor main, I can't really speak for the frustration it gives killers when they watch someone escape before their eyes by the power of a key or watching more than one survivor leave Via Key but I know it's GOD annoying since it also screws over the clueless teammate who gets left behind and is either mori'd or sacrificed.
In the Gen 3 Situation, that was pretty justified to me considering they got Gen 3'd whether it was intentionally or unintentionally and they did what they had to do; did you expect them to just let you kill them or do gens in a near-impossible situation? Not to mention, oftentimes the killer finds hatch and that's usually a death signal to survivor(s) since Exit gates have a bad habit of spawning near each other which either leads to survivor(s) dying on hook and an easy 4K for said Killer. The Key is mostly FOR second chances but if a situation comes up that forces all survivors to escape Via Key then gg, complaining about it wouldn't get you very far considering perks like BT, DS and Dead hard kinda exist; that should be more frustrating to deal with then watching Survivors escape Via Key.
FYI: The only time I've ever used a key in such a manner was when I had to play an evasive David because my teammates were idiots and in Post-game Chat, i got the killer and survivors salty saying: Should've taken chase and done gens. Mind you, I was doing gens but then I spent another half of the game saving my teammates off-hook since they literally sucked at looping. (They got down in less than 30 seconds.) Not my fault you were incompetent and forced me to play evasive for the other half of the game.
0 -
Playing L4D2 recently, it made me wonder why DBD doesn't implement the same AFK system. If you're gone for long enough or DC, the AI takes over. Sounds perfect to me.
1 -
I'm a survivor main and hate keys, they reward bad survivors, and most key users just hide all game and don't help the team so they can get their precious hatch escape. I recently went into a game as survivor and my teammate had a key with a hatch offering for shack. Hillbilly killed everyone except me and the key user, so I went to shack, stood on top of the hatch and the key user couldn't open it. The killer killed them, and he offered me hatch but I just let him kill me. Justice was served that day.
2 -
yup... all that hard earned work for an escape with a broken item.
0 -
I think that's the best way anyone has put it. I didn't realize how that'll screw over the other survivors if there are still any left. Ya overall keys need to go. Hatch can stay in game. But at least make 1 key per 1 person. And you get less BP for escaping with a key.
But if it were up to me we would have a different addon to replace keys.
0 -
Yeah... I see the term "clutch perk" get thrown around so much and see survivors throwing that around with certain killer perks (NOED being the golden example). Now granted killers do the same thing in regards to a lot of survivor perks as well, so it's not just one side. Now with that said...while keys aren't a perk, they're still one hell of a clutch for the game that gives away free escapes with no downsides.
I had a game in Haddonfield playing as Plague. Very tight game, I got a 2k out of it. There was a Quinton in the game who I'm guessing found a key on the map somewhere and he got the free escape along with the Tapp. Now this one instance annoys me in particular because there was a moment where the Quinton zoned himself and bumped in to me shortly after I had just hooked him. Now I could have tunneled his ass and killed him right there and be done with it. But I felt bad and decided to show mercy and purposefully ignored him and went after the Tapp. WELP, my small act of mercy bit me on the butt cus like I said, he had a key and either I didn't notice it in his hand or he stashed it earlier for the right moment. So yeah he opened the hatch, and while I was chasing Tapp I saw where he was going and was like "Noooooo....come on..." So Tapp and Quinton got away, I closed the hatch and went back to look for the Feng and got her for the 2k. So yeah, that's what I get for showing mercy and not trying to tunnel cus you know, "it's toxic"... Also yeah, screw keys.
0 -
Executioner you say? Equip Franklin's Demise (perk) + Mannequin's Foot (add-on), Proceed to Knock the key out of their hands with FD, and Draw a trail over it with M2/Power button.
Mannequin's foot makes the trail last for 90 seconds + FD completely drains the charges from an item in 90 seconds + Survivors don't like to get tormented = Sadistic Choice! Survivors wanting their key back Either Have to get tormented, Or it loses all of its charges. More fun, unlike other items which hover above the trails, Keys get completely covered up by them, so sometimes you'll catch a survivor crouching along a trail looking for their key.
While this isn't a guarantee against keys overall, especially in the High MMR games wherein some of them are smart enough to hide their keys somewhere in the corner of the map to keep em safe from FD, It's still very fun and effective against most while playing Executioner, or just against items in general. Also Fun fact: if a survivor Dies in a Cage with an item, it will fall under the cage, and out of survivors reach to be picked back up (they can't squeeze past the cages model). This won't happen nearly as often as a fully drained item will, but it's still funny when it does.
0 -
Is numerous key escapes a PC thing? I'm not yanking anyone's chain here but I've been playing the game on console for years now, killer and survivor, and keys just don't appear in the games I'm in quite as much as everyone seems to be reporting in the forums. I'm not calling anyone a liar at all, but at the same time, I'll maybe see a key escape once every couple of weeks, if that. So I have to wonder if it's more of an issue on PC, or its just a randomly weird phenomenon that surrounds me lol!
I do get the frustration it can cause to both killers and any survivors that get left behind after an early hatch escape, I just don't come across it as much as everyone else does. So a key reworking isn't going to bother much either way I guess.
0 -
Keys and moris are getting changed together. Wonder how that’s gonna happen?
0 -
I honestly don't know why anyone explains about keys. If they bring a key, so what? Usually they don't even find the hatch in time and brought it for no reason. Sure every now and then someone gets to escape with a key, but that is so rare I don't even pay attention. Then again I am not entiled to 4K's all the time (maybe that is the reason for some to complain?). Has anyone at least one good argument as to why they are so upset about those rare key escapes? Cause tbf I just don't get it.
If I play survivor I only bring a key if it is a challenge, but I'll bring the offering for hatch spawn, too. I am just as incapable of finding it same as the survivors that I vs. seem to be. And if I find a key in game and have a better item (yellow or better medkit, flashlight and green or better toolbox) or don't plan to survive anyway I'll just leave it in the box. That is how much I value those keys.
2 -
Lol
1 -
Why "lol" ?
2 -
I don't want to play against trappers though ahhhhhhh
Well, at least they finally did another perk buff pass.
Spirit might be dead (not S tier I mean ofc) too but a bit early to say.
0 -
I'm glad trapper is getting some updoots.
Spirit is poopy but I haven't seen her much lately, likely to see her even less now.
2 -
If the goal is to have fewer people playing Spirit I think they have likely succeeded.
9 -
I hate it. Why tease about changing addons on alot of killers but dont add a link or show them....
Gonna call it alot of addons will be nerfed (the only useful ones lol)
6 -
It's because she was bugged in 5.1.0. You couldn't hear survivors (at all) whilst phasing which made it extremely difficult. Im assuming most people didn't realise this and fell out with spirit
0 -
Honestly not really having high hopes on this update, if they are going to be nerfing a lot of strongest addons for all the killers, I have zero hope that they won't nerf the 4 good addons for Nurse. It's just such a pain to play without at least 1 recharge addon and now it's going to be even more painful because base recharge is so darn slow. Like if it was a base kit pre-rework Nurse I would play without addons every game, but it isn't it's the rework Nurse that has to wait a massive amount of time to get charges. :c
But on the bright side I suppose trapper and some other weaker killers getting updated, just a bit sad and I fully realize what's going to be happening. :c
0 -
imo , it should only be one or the other for the spirit base power changes - but i'm intrested in what posibly could be comming with the wide sweeping add on pass.#
and more importantly the oncoming otzdava (according to the FBI) video i can watch in my 69 hour lunch break :)
0 -
I knew spirit was gonna be getting nerfed... ugh
0 -
The killer add-ons change is the most exciting part for me. I really hope they are looking the legion too though, they have some really bad add ons. Like Frank's Mix Tape
0 -
They took away gamble and finally made it mindgame. What's wrong with it?
Also nice tuning for Trapper mains. Trapper rly needed some love.
4 -
Why lol ?
Because "balance team" strikes again.
These trapper add ons are trash.
Perks reworks isnt enough to replace the meta.
Spirit is gutted (like Billy) base kit AND add ons.
Dont you see whats coming next ? Blight and Nurse rework.
Thats why "lol". These devs wont ever change.
5 -
Spirit Nerf is always a yay.
From those Add Ons, I dont really like the purple Trapper Bag. It will only be really useful with the Iridescent Stone...
3 -
Kinda hoping they adjust some of Pyramid Head's add-ons and perks. His Base kit is incredible, but almost everything else is pretty lackluster. Iris are horrendously bad, most people don't use much else besides the Punishment extension add-ons, and outside of Trail of Torment (which is already pretty mediocre) his perks aren't that strong.
0 -
Just another killer destroyed at top-level... and it lists whole bunch of other killers. I hope Oni is not nerfed. he is my baby :(
I'd be fine with that, but they're buffing trapper man. so we just lost another viable high-tier killer with few more killers that probably got changed negatively. There is no way trapper is going to be competing at high-level.
I guess we should wait and see part 2 before judging it.
2 -
tbh blight gets changed like every patch
1 -
wow i really good Dev update. Im hyped and look forward to part 2
3 -
Yes! Give her the old concrete boots.
Also. It's only the first part. Hopefully, they are nerfing the top tier and raising the lower killers
0 -
For a while now there were 3 killers viable at the highest MMR. Nurse, Spirit, and Blight. reading these spirit changes means we are getting PTB Spirit, but worse. Spirit was very strong and I agree changes needed to be made, but I feel they went overkill. This killer will not function at the highest MMR anymore. Now we are down to 2, I wonder who goes next.
1 -
Given the flashy but uselessness of the add-ons shown for spirit and trapper...
I fully expect nothing but nerfs to good add-ons and non-buffs(Technically a buff but doesn't actually do anything) to bad ones.
3 -
I like most of the update except the Spirit changes, they killed her completely. They just had to remove the phasing "mindgame" and would be fixed.
1 -
Words cannot describe how happy I am with it, VERY well done!
1 -
I'm looking forward to it.
Sad Legion isn't among the addon changes but it will be nice that the addons will be clearer.
Changes to perks is all i wanted. I don't even care if the meta will be unchanged.
As long as other options now are atleast somewhat viable.
Hex: blood favor might be really fun on Legion now it triggers on special attacks and without cooldown.
Not gamebustingly good ofcourse but probably pretty fun
0 -
This is a super solid part 1 assuming the add on pass is ultimately good - the trapper bag that we see is...really not great, but that's the only objective downside I see to the notes so far. Spirit changes are perfect as well. Looking forward to part 2!
1 -
Can't wait for new trapper changes and spirit as well but most important I'll finally have motivation to use for the people at some point because of right now I even forgot the perk existed
2 -
My bet on "... add-ons for the following Killers: "
The Hillbilly: now every addon description ends with "... when flashlight shines on you" or "... after being stunned with a pallet" or "... after being t-bagged by a survivor" or "... when a survivor cleanses a totem in the left corner of the map and another survivor is hidding with head-on in the locker in the basement when the basement is in the killer shack in the indoor map"
0 -
yeah, they did that
0
