How I would change pyramid head (add ons and quality of life)
I am a huge pyramid head main, so I decided to tackle some of his problems. Terrible add ons and the awkwardness of his power.
I also made this in video form if anyone would rather watch:
Power changes
Rites of judgement deactivation speed - 1 second -> .5 seconds
Punishment of the damned: travels consistently on slopes
Add on changes:
Browns: unchanged
All killer instinct duration add ons removed
Leopard print fabric” survivors stepping on trails of torment reveal their aura to you for 1 second instead of triggering killer instinct.
Misty day, remnants of judgment: survivors stepping on trails of torment reveal their aura to you for 2 seconds instead of triggering killer instinct.
Scarlet egg:survivors stepping on trails of torment reveal their aura to you for 3 seconds instead of triggering killer instinct.
Rust colored egg: Survivors affected by rights of judgment are hindered by 20% for 2 seconds.
Lost memories book: unchanged
Crimson ceremony book: Punishment of the damned inflicts the exhausted status effect for 20 seconds.
Obsidian goblet: The executioner can see the aura of cages of atonement. Cages of atonement accelerate the sacrifice process by 25%. Survivors hear a different noise when someone is caged to alert them to this. The relocation buffer zone around the cage of atonement is greatly increased. 5 meters -> 30 meters. A cage relocating with this add on pauses the sacrifice timer for 20 seconds instead of 10.
Iridescent seal of metatron: When a survivor is sent to a cage of atonement, all tormented survivors scream, and are exposed for 40 seconds.
Comments
-
Literally any change to his addons would, defacto, be good changes. As they are now, they are all uninspired, weak, and essentially pointless. The range of shockwave is the only one that ever sees use, but they don't speed up the actual wave, so survivors have loads of time to just move slightly out of the way.
All of the "more trails, regen trails, trails stay in the game longer" should be rolled up into single addons. Individually, they're all totally pointless.
3 -
rust egg and crimson ceremony book could use adjustment but i'll take anything at this point, pyramid head has one of the worst add-on selections in the game
4 -
I love these ideas. I used to play Pyramid Head a lot for the first year of his release but have found him to be harder to play with the current meta especially in regards to SWFs and survivors in higher ranked games so I've laid off playing him. A new pass on his add-ons is very much needed and I'm liking these aura reading ideas for his add-ons in favour of killer instinct. It makes A LOT more sense given what his main power does.
1 -
Pyramid head cages Should work similar to Pinhead's lament configuration.
Pyramid head is a killer that I've been playing a lot recently and I ended up really enjoying it, but there's a part of its power that I don't think works as well as it should, which are the cages of atonement.
I really understand the idea that the devs wanted to put and I think it's pretty cool since Pyramid head is the only killer that doesn't necessarily need to put survivors on the hook making him buy a lot of time but there is a problem here.
Using the cage of atonement can be quite risky as it can often send a caged survivor to an area where other survivors are which kind of counter the idea of the cages. Because it's a very risky strategy, I don't see many Pyramid head using the cages which is quite sad, when it happens I'm quite surprised.
I believe that if the cages worked like pinhead's lament configuration it could be quite useful.
The lament configuration will never spawn in an area close to survivors or the killer which means Pinhead or the survivors could not immediately interact with the box after it appeared, it would be very broken for Pinhead to be able to interact with the box at all times making the match impossible for survivors or for survivors to interact with the box at all times which would make the pinhead's power useless.
But why can survivors immediately interact with a caged survivor after Pyramid head uses its power? does not make sense.
cages should spawn as far away from the killer and survivors as possible and not spawn on the survivors' side.
Yes, he also needs an add on pass and that's how i would change it.
1 -
Rites of judgement deactivation speed - 1 second -> .5 seconds
Did you play when he was first released?
0 -
Some additions from my perspective, overall we are on the same page i think.
What does he represent/ how should a game vs him feel like?
Allover i have to say, i percieve pyramid head as a killer which could have a "mysterious" element to him when you face him which makes certain status effects interesting and he should go for alot of chases. Therefore i think his addon-ons should mainly buy him time to do so. Within his powers there are 4 resources to inject a manipulation of these.
1) The trails of torment which could support him to end chases quicker if a survivor makes the mistake to run on them repeatedly.
2) The cages which could bring a passive effect onto the survivor (could be either rescuer or rescued person) which could hinder them to act the most efficient way after a rescue.
3) The tormented status effect as a passive effect to manipulate survivor efficiency.
4) A sucessful punishment of the damned attack could be rewarded.
What kind of status effects?
Seen on what kind of killer Pyramid Head is, i think some of the status effects the addons inflict at the moment could be better. Especially Haemorrhage is to mention. Personally i imagine pyramid head as a killer that should rather work with mental exhaustion or body sickness then literal torture through physical pain, like a killer like pin head would go for and that status effects like haemorrhage, mangled or broken implies then.
Therefore status effects like exhausted, hindered, incapacitated, oblivious, undetectable and blindness i percieve as the most fitting to bind to his powers.
Chase Manipulation Addons
Trails of Torment causing Hindered (Addon)
Most often you will notice the creation of Trails of Torment in a chase within a loop, and as such the addons could help to reduce the chasing time. Hindered could slow down (percentage has to be evaluated) survivors while running on the trails (+0.5-1s after leaving) around a loop which could pressure for suboptimal pathing and lower the value of holding w to escape there, less favourable i also see exhaustion in a smiliar context which could deny survivors to gain distance through certain perks for a certain amount of time.
Aura-Reading in Chase for Wallshots (Addon)
A fun way to manipulate chases would be a stable addon for aura reading within a chase, similar to im all ears. One of the peak satisfaction of a pyramid head is still hitting survivors through walls and out of sight. Usually the lines of sights are broken while the survivors are holding w so i don't think it would be most useful to bind it to the trails but find a different way to activate it.
Being Tormented - Tormented Status Addon (Obliviousness/Exhaustion)
The tormented status on a survivor is good for pyramid head since it basically saves him the time for hooking and makes tunneling available, but i think theres definetly potential to boost it and would give survivors actual reasoning to fear and avoid trails actively while not in chase which is only somewhat existent currently. I can imagine alot of things here weaker versions could include obliviousness which would be more of a casual option to give a game a certain flavour like atleast a bit of the mysterious feeling by being a bit unaware atleast, honestly wouldnt be that noticeable from a killer perspective probably and only occasional lead to a free hit. In stronger version i could even see exhaustion as an additional status effect, which could be a nice counter to the overused perks and samish playstyles we face everyday. Also i would make both of these additional effects last for a noticeable amount of time maybe even aslong as these survivors are tormented but well therefore you have to use an addon slot and cant use it for range increasements for example. Seen on what other killers have as high tier addons this could be definetly in range for a low mobility killer without an instadown.
Cage of Atonement and Tunneling / Aura Reading of Caged Survivors and Incapacitated Status
Another interesting idea is to work with the cages a bit, for exampel make caged survivors less efficient for a while, the biggest worry i would say a pyramid head has when caging someone, is loosing pressure if the person which was caged gets instantly rescued from the person who sits on the gen on the other side of the map, and depending on how big the map is, traveling to this cage can be a big time investment, yet if you leave those two unpressured they will heal and rush through the gens nearby. In case you decide to go for a survivor on your current side instead of going to the cage you will usually trade off the gen which was already worked on + the progress on the next gen nearby depending on the chase time you need.
Addons could increase this decision making and quality of managing 4 survivors for a little longer, a little pay off to rescue from the cage since you usually get a free safe unhook, also i wouldnt boost pyramid heads capability to tunnel so i dont think effects like broken or mangled should be used for the rescued person. I would either make the person who rescued more attractive to hunt or less efficient. Maybe make the killer see the rescuers aura for a short period of time and making the person oblivious so if the person goes back to the gen he doesnt get a headstart and will be an easier target overall. Another idea would be to make the rescuer person incapacitated for some seconds. Which would slow down the heal of the injured person (most people can heal through boon and self care anyway) and reduce the gen pressure.
Having this extra time and the information of what people are doing after the unhook or the other person as decent huntable option could lower the need to tunnel and provide more options in decisionmaking such as more chases and a healthier gameplay.
Punishment of the Damned
I think we could also have an addon that boosts the Punishment of the Damned efficiency which could be one of his best addons. Hitting a survivor consistently with the Punishment attack can sometimes be hard, yet i think instead of a boring M1 attack we would all like to see his ability rewarded. The exposed status effect as already suggested makes the executioner more fearable for a while, but to bind this instadown ability within certain limits (not abusable near a hooked/caged person etc.) to his Punishment could be more of a joy and great reward.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Here some Ideas in which i invested like a hot minute to design and which made me actually interested in playing them, im sure you will find flaws but yea overall i think we are on the same page on what could be added even if the final design could be different of course.
0.) After sending a survivor to a Cage of Atonement, the next succesful punishment of the damned attack will inflict the dying state on healthy survivors. The cooldown of a missed Punishment attack is reduced by 25 percent in this time. This effect could work with a timer like 60s and will automatically end after executed succesfully. This effect doesnt work within x-meter range next to a hooked/caged Person. This effect could have a cooldown of x seconds until reactivated.
1.) The unhooking time to release a Person from the Cage of Atonement is increased to 4s, after sucessfully releasing the caged person, the rescuer will scream and suffer from the exposed (aggressive version) or incapacitated (passive slow down version) status effect for 30s. (Would make it a bit of a gamble what addons the killer use and give a more tactical aproach instead of headless instant rescues, the slowdown for unhooking is a tiny balance for the map distance and a warning indication for survivors).
2.) Survivors which are moving on a trail of torment become exhausted for 20s, re-entering the trail will reset the timer. (Make survivors use their heads instead of blindly relying on dead hards etc and make his chases more of a challenge)
3) Survivors which are moving on trails of torment are effected by the hindered status effect with a 20 percent penality on movement speed. This effect ends 0.5 seconds after they've left the trail.
4) You are able to see the aura of a survivor who rescued someone from a Cage of Atornment for 4s. The Rescuer suffers from the oblivious status effect for 30s.
5) You are able to see the aura of survivors interacting with a pallet or window for 6s within 48m next to you. This effect has a cooldown of 30s.
6) Increases the Range of Punishment of the Damned by 2/2,5m. ( Range Addons are fine, but 2 of them are overall enough maybe make a single good one so you can pair it with other stuff and maybe a useless 0.5m brown one for newer players if they have nothing else if you need one more)
7) Survivors which are tormented suffer from the oblivious status effect until they loose torment or unhook another survivor. (One of my favorite moments with Pyramid head is when playing against him is when he is undetectable, mostly because the killer chooses tinkerer, and he silently approaches a gen for a range attack, always a cool image to witness, lets spread out this obliviousness but not for unnoticeable 60s.)
0 -
Shockingly, my biggest issue with these changes come from the basekit power and not the addons. I'd be fine with any of these (at least from the killer POV I'm too tired to consider survivor yet) but I really don't want the changes to the activation/deactivation to go through. All it would do is bring back the boring yawn zone and win gameplay and make it substantially easier to do.
Currently, bad Pyramid Head's can be read easily and punished severely for over committing to a zone. With that change, not so much. It'd incentivise W key even harder than it already does and make him boring to play.
Also, his power actually is consistent on slopes lol. They go down, they don't go up, they only go down if you launch it from flat ground, they don't follow a vertical drop. If those 4 rules are followed it's incredibly consistent.
0 -
I'd like to see a 1meter increase to his base range attack then rework all of his add ons including the range ones. As it stands I never use any besides range add ons because all others are so bad.
I'd also change his cages so they act like hooks. This would remove his tunneling potential as BT and DS would be usable when saved but would allow him to use hook related perks when caging.
0
