The Experiment (REMASTERED)
Back in the year of absolute tomfoolery and complete and utter nonsense that was 2020, i wrote this chapter concept for a dragon killer, do me a favour and don't look through it, it's far from my best work, it had plenty of grammar mistakes, a lame and (now that i think about it) kind of busted power, and uninteresting lore, quite frankly, i felt like i had completely squandered most of the potential the idea had, my ability to both write and create has improved drastically since then however, so to celebrate the Hallowed Moon dawning on us once more, i am remastering The Experiment's chapter, and going through each and every change i made.
"Bare witness to Dead By Daylight's newest chapter, experience the results of frantic desperation and high-minded ambition colliding with the Wings of Blight chapter" (first change made, i changed the name of the chapter from "Blighted Wings" to "Wings of Blight", they mean the same thing effectively, but Wings of Blight rolls of the tongue a bit better in my opinion)
First off, the Map, originally i described it as similar to Midwich, that was a complete lie, because I then immediately began to describe it as something that was basically 19th Century Lerys, this is the first big change i made to the Chapter, i changed the map and properly fleshed out the layout
"New Map, Blighted Castle: This dead and rotting husk of a castle was once inhabited by one Talbot Grimes, once his transformation into the Blight was complete, his Pustula flowers, so well tended to and taken care of, began to blossom and bloom uncontrollably, tearing the roofs asunder and bursting through the various walls and hallways, spilling into the courtyard and corrupting the soil, it remains a temple to his failures, and the folly of attempting to escape the Realms"
Map Layout, Courtesy of Microsoft PowerPoint
This map is designed for the Withered Isle realm, i picked this due to it feeling like the realm closest to the Entity to me, i would have made a entirely new realm for the map, but i personally don't like seeing so many realms only have 1 or 2 maps, and Withered Isle defintely suits the map's grungy and ruined aesthetic, minus the oversized Pustula plants obviously
I'll explain each part of the map as we go, starting with the outside, it consists of 2 walls, the inner and outer walls, the outer walls are your standard map walls, while the inner walls function more like IRL castle walls, while they aren't shown here for simplicity's sake, they are essentially Midwich corridors with various drop offs, perfect for Balanced Landing, each of the corners have a watchtower with a stairwell, allowing you to go up and down as you wish, the upper-right watchtower is connected to the Laboratory, the gap between the inner and outer walls has various tiles that you can loop, however, it is mostly a death-trap that makes opening the exit gates much harder, the inner courtyard is where the majority of the action happens and is built in a similar style to Shelter Woods, only instead of inconsistent tiles, it's made of consistent map structures and tiles, with each bit being connected by hallways and openings, the outside part of this map is amazing for killers like Blight, Wesker, Demo, Huntress, and Trickster due to the open spaces, Demo would have a lot of fun on this map as well due to the amount of air-time you can get, Wesker would have the same kind of fun if his power didn't force him to drop like a stone (please let Wesker fly BHVR i beg of you), Gens can spawn anywhere outside, including in the watchtowers and outside gap, defending a 3 gen with certain killers is certainly possible, but can be a challenge, which, quite frankly, should be the case, 3 gen locks are very powerful and kind of suck to play against as survivor, defending them should be difficult as the reward is very high (coughXAzarovsRestingPlaceSuffocationPitandLerysXcough), while not shown here, the map is littered with rubble and giant Pustula plants that replace the trees (no normal trees spawn on this map) finally, as a bit of unique flare, the fog in this map is orange rather then the usual grey, as if the plants have infected the very air itself.
The first unique structure are the Pustula Greenhouses
"Once well kept and clean, the Pustula plants have long since taken the greenhouses of the castle for themselves"
The 2nd smallest unique structure on the map, the Greenhouses of the Blighted Castle are practically completely covered in massive Pustula plants, the houses have two floors, with a gen spawning on either the lower floor of one, or on the upper floor of the other, the orange boxes inside the houses represent trays of potted Pustula plants that have burst from their confinements, there's a chest spawn on the of the upper floors, with one pallet, three windows, and two breakable walls, the greenhouses can be looped into one of the watchtowers or the generic tile west of them, the second floor of both are connected by a overgrown Pustula plant that acts as a bridge, blocked off by a breakable wall, the top Greenhouse also has overgrown Pustula plant that has attached itself to the inner castle wall, providing a extra way up there without needing to go to the watchtowers
Next is the Library
"Once home to all manner of unknown knowledge, Talbot's final experiment knocked over a lantern while it was attempt to escape the castle, devastating the library and its contents"
The smallest structure on the map, the Library has two windows, three pallets, and one breakable wall, with a hole on the upper floor that will drop you right next to the entrance, think of this structure as a sort of double killer shack, with a strong-ish window and some decent pallets, with a few extra bits to spice it up a little.
Thirdly, the Laboratory
"The hub of all of Talbot's grim work, his final experiment nearly killed him, but not before breaking loose and making a catastrophic mess of the lab"
Floor one of the lab is a reference to the blighted skins, with the two environmental objects inside the lab representing rows of small chambers for each of the blighted killers we currently have in the game, with a third representing a messy desk full of notebooks and vials, with a window connecting it to the watchtower and a breakable wall to allow killers to access it from the outside. The staircase in the middle goes counter clockwise in a spiral facing the double doors entrance, the second floor is a throwback to the large rooms on Hawkins National lab, remember those? the rooms with multiple elevations that made chases more interesting? yeah, i brought those rooms back, but made it a bit stronger, with 2 extra pallets and a pretty strong window, i miss these types of loops and would love to see them come back in some shape or form (bring back Hawkins BHVR i beg of you)
Finally, the Central Tower
"In a moment of panic following his final experiment’s brutal assault, Talbot ran for his life back to this place, barricading himself inside, he did not leave it for what felt like days"
The Central Tower is a throwback to Blight's reveal trailer
I know that this looks distinctly like Father Campbell's Chapel (notice the second floor and doorway to Blight's right), however, I don't think that this is actually meant to be the FCC we play on, as the area is covered in Pustula plants, and even if it wasn't, we currently have no canonical reason for Blight to even be in Father Campbell's Chapel in the first place, so i decided to make the Central Tower the location where Talbot Grimes became The Blight, on the floor of the first floor, a few shreds of clothing and a used syringe are all that remain after the Blight came to be, the second floor is a sort of bedchamber, with a small sleeping bag and a few dusty books laying on the floor, finally, the third floor is a study, with a desk with a personal journal on it, this building is also being choked by a gargantuan Pustula Plant like a Boa Constrictor as a sort of crowning landmark for the map, this giant Pustula plant begins leaking puss after the middle generator has been completed.
That is the full map, personally i think it's rather balanced, it's the largest map in the game, only being dwarfed by old Temple of Purgation and the full RCPD, the tiles loop into each other fairly well, but there are several dead zones and unsafe locations that killers can herd survivors to, plenty of the safer windows also trigger staggers, making Balanced Landing a consistently useful perk while also making them a bit of a gamble, i envisioned this map as the map that probably would have come with Blight had he not released in the middle of the map revamps, and i think it fits his whole "Hallowed Blight" 19th century aesthetic quite nicely.
Next, the killer itself, The Experiment (very rough proof of concept below, i am by no means a artist so forgive my amateurish drawing)
Originally The Experiment was essentially a blighted Gore Magala from Monster Hunter, i have made significant changes to that in order to make it more of it's own character rather than a reskin of a existing property, it still draws some inspiration from other sources, mainly in it's jaw, which splits like Shin Godzilla's (widening around the bottom and splitting in half) but i personally feel that this take on a Blight-style dragon suits DBD a lot better, with it's more undead features like it's wings, emaciated body, and cut-out eye.
"Freedom, a fleeting and near impossible to catch feeling in the wind, this feeling was what drove so much of Talbot Grimes' horrendous work with the unknowable flowers of the Hallowed Blight. His residence, a grim and towering fortress, allowed him to feel at relative ease as he worked towards catching that feeling in the wind.
At least, for a time.
His research had reached a maddening dead-end, none of the serums he had created had shown even the slightest hope of escaping the eldritch prison he was trapped in, rather, they had all created disgusting monstrosities that ravaged the realms in a furious bloodlust, and with each failure, he could feel his shadowy warden getting closer and closer. He had one more chance, however, when he found something he had never expected to find. A humble lizard, content to lie on the rocks littered throughout the castle's courtyard and eat whatever it could find, in a moment of mad desperation, he grabbed the small creature and rushed to his lab, feeding it a sample of his latest serum.
The lizard slowly drank the viscous liquid, and for a while, nothing happened, until, suddenly, the creature collapsed, dead. Talbot, disappointed and further spiralling into madness, left to write this into his journal, violently knocking over a few books on his way out.
Once he had left, something miraculous happened, the lizard stood back up, and began mutating, it grew in size as its jaw split, two new eyes and horns sprouted from is face, it's teeth sharpening into a terrifying maw, a pair of skeletal wings emerged from its back, carrying parts of its flesh with them. Its heart was transformed into a pump for the serum as it spread through it's veins and leaked from the creature's claws and eyes, the puny and tiny lizard was gone, replaced with a monstrous predator, and it wanted one thing above anything else.
Escape.
Once Talbot returned, the creature was already looking for a way out of the lab, smashing through the lab like a hurricane of flesh, sinew, and bone, Talbot couldn't believe what he was seeing as the creature was running and clawing at the walls, destroying untold years of research in it's frenzied attempts to leave, when it couldn't find a exit in it's panic and instinctual desire for freedom, it turned and noticed him, locking all four of it's blazing orange eyes with his.
And unfortunately for Talbot, it was hungry, very hungry.
The monster lunged at him, pinning him to the floor as it tried to tear out his throat, as the two struggled, Talbot noticed a shard of glass on the floor, he reached for it, got a hold of it, and stabbed the creature in one of its eyes, causing to fall off him and scream, it's voice-box letting out a echoing shriek, splattering the eye's remains and its serum-infused blood all over the dirty floor as it clawed at the shard stuck in its socket, by the time it got the glass out, Talbot had ran away in terror, wounded, but alive, he ran to the very top of the tower and barricaded it with whatever he could, hoping that the monster he had unwittingly created wouldn't come looking for him.
As for the creature, it broke out of the laboratory by firing a blast of it's blood, now infused with the serum, at a wall, running into the courtyard and off into the shadows. Lost, it wandered through the fog, unguided as a windless storm, until it came across a new set of walls, the creature climbed over them, and found itself in a strange new world, a land illuminated by a bright white ball in the sky, with strange buildings that it had never seen before and trees that towered over it, catching a scent on the wind, it sniffed at the ground and noticed something, footprints, small, delicate footprints. In a state of maddening hunger, it began racing after whatever had created them, finding a small fleshy animal with a strange coat covering its body, touching a bizarre metal box, the small thing didn't notice the creature at first, until it grabbed one of it's limbs with its tail and slammed it into the neighbouring wall, the small animal screamed as the creature sunk its fangs into the animal's waist, tearing it in two, the creature finally had a meal.
As it feasted on the remains of the small animal it had killed, a bigger animal caught its attention, a burly, two-legged thing with a stranger coat then the first, brandishing a strange metal thing with one of its limbs, and wearing what appeared to be the skull of one of it's own on it's head, without hesitation, the creature ran after this new prey, the bigger creature brought the metal object in front of it, forcing the monster to chew on the metal rather that the animal as the two fell to the ground, the two legged thing kicked the beast off of it, before smashing its fist into the beast's jaw, in a thunderous rage, the monster lunged again, successfully grabbing this other animal's coat in its claws, it was going to tear this different animal's head off, but something strange happened, the beast stopped, dead in its tracks,. A strange whisper compelled it to leave this bigger animal alone, and, as if hypnotised by this strange force, it did, it's three incandescent eyes staring into this other animal's panicked, staring visage. Suddenly, the beast was transported to a new place it had not seen before, the other animal was gone, replaced with a sea of tall trees and thick, shadowy fog, the beast noticed a bright orange glow, and wanted to go towards it, seeing four more of those small, delicious animals lying beside it, blissfully unaware they were being watched, but the eldritch force prevented it from doing so, for now at least. This monster would forever more serve its new master with the utmost loyalty, and these delectable morsels will be hunted, and feasted upon, until it's unending hunger is satisfied.
A vile new wind blew across the Realms"
For The Experiment's lore, i basically took the original concept and fleshed it out a bit, same premise, but with more details, i also find the idea of a random animal or other killer wandering into a Trial while it's active and getting into a fight with the other killer to be mildly amusing, so i added that
"A fearsome and horrific predator, The Experiment is able to stalk survivors, ambush them, and spread it's blighted blood across the trial grounds, crippling anything that comes into contact with it and making the hunt easier, it's three unique perks, "Malignant Gaze", "Blighted Monstrosity", and "Wings of Chaos", allow it to strike fear into survivors that stun it, make healing more dangerous after a chase, and cripple survivors that touch damaged generators"
Cosmetics:
Head: "Blighted Visage: Talbot's serum leaks from this monster's eyes, ears and mouth, rendering it partially deaf and blind, but it's sense of smell is unparalleled"
Body: "Emaciated Monster: A starving predator will fight tooth and claw to secure a meal, even if it will do little to satiate it"
Weapon: "Ruinous Talons: It's wings cannot be used for flight, but their sharp ends can rend flesh and bone better than any cleaver" (for the record, this part does concern both wings, so a cosmetic that changes the weapon would change both wings even if The Experiment only attacks with one)
Stats: The Experiment is a Short killer (Just slightly taller then Sadako and Hag) with 110% movement speed and a 24m TR, it attacks using the sharp talons on the end of it's wings, discordantly shrieking at survivors when it hits them.
Power: Blighted Predator
The Experiment has two different powers, one for use outside of chase, and one for use in chase, while not in chase, The Experiment stands much lower to the ground (about eye-level with Hag, but the camera is still high up like it is with most killers), holding down CTRL will allow you to sniff at the ground, revealing scratch marks that had previously disappeared up to 10 seconds ago, if a survivor is within 8 metres of you, they will be revealed by Killer Instinct, holding down M2 for 2 seconds will allow you to charge a "Predatory Ambush", pressing M1 when the Ambush is fully charged will send you flying, this is essentially a Victor Pounce mixed with the Hunter from Left For Dead 2, if you hit a healthy survivor, you will force them to the ground, if another survivor cannot reach you within 10 seconds, you will down the survivor you grabbed and automatically start carrying them (or in The Experiment's case, grabbing them by the leg and dragging them across the ground), if a survivor is close enough to you, they can knock you off by the survivor by completing the appropriately named "Knock It Off!" action, which is done by holding down m1 for 2 seconds, if you're knocked off, you'll be stunned for 5 seconds, you can cancel the grab by pressing CTRL after having already pinned the survivor down for 3 seconds, if you do cancel the action, you'll whip the survivor with the Experiment's tail, launching them away (think Wesker's throws) and inflicting them with a 7% hindered effect for 60 seconds if they hit a wall or object, hitting a survivor with the Ambush will auto-down them if they are already injured, which lets you immediately begin carrying them. The Experiment is able to fly over pallets and through windows using Predatory Ambush, and can get to some very funny places using it (and won't then kill itself because the game hates out-of-the-box thinking VICTOR), if you miss you'll be stunned for 1 second, 3 seconds if you miss and hit a wall.
Once in chase, The Experiment stands a bit taller, gains a 24m terror radius, and Predatory Ambush gets replaced by "Blighted Bloodball", holding down m2 for 2 seconds will charge a bloodball, pressing m1 when the meter is full will launch it, the bloodball travels as fast as a fully charged Huntress Hatchet and can travel up to 18 meters before fizzling out, the bloodball goes in a straight line and can't be changed by looking up or down, hitting a survivor directly will injure them, however, hitting a wall or object will do something rather unique, the bloodball will stick to the wall and become a proximity mine of sorts, which will become active after 2 seconds, proximity mines detonate when a survivor goes within 3 meters of them and automatically detonate after 30 seconds, however, proximity mines do not injure survivors, instead inflicting them with "Blighted" for 25 seconds, this is essentially the same as Artist's Swarms, if you get hit by a second explosion while Blighted, you will be injured or downed, Blighted Bloodball goes on a 5 second cooldown after shooting one in order to prevent spamming them, and will go on cooldown for 1 second if you cancel charging the bloodball.
Addons:
Common:
Broken Vial: A glass vial that was shattered during the Experiment's rampage: Increases the Hindered effect survivors receive when colliding with a wall by 3%
Cracked Tooth: The monster chipped a few of its teeth on the walls of the lab as it tried to break free: Decreases the stun time for hitting a wall with Predatory Ambush by 1 second
Torn Book: A old book, whatever information was inside has long since been torn to pieces: Decreases how long it takes before you are allowed to Fling survivors by 1 second
Inert Blood Sample: A small amount of the Experiment’s blood, it has since dried out and coagulated: Predatory Ambush charges 0.5 seconds faster
Uncommon:
Pustula Roots: A part of the strange flowers that grow during the Hallowed Blight, they are deceptively sharp: Proximity Mines detonate on their own 5 seconds faster
Cleaned Bones: What little remains of a human skeleton, picked clean of all nutritional value: Increases how long survivors are Blighted for by 5 seconds
Blighted Gore: The remains of some unknown animal, coated in Pustula serum: Proximity Mines become active 0.5 seconds faster
Wing Flesh: Bits of viscera and skin that hangs from the Experiment's wings, it cannot fly, but it makes for a intimidating silhouette: Blighted Bloodball charges 0.5 seconds faster
Spilled Blood: The large creature managed to wound the Experiment, drawing a bit of its eldritch blood: Increases the range of Blighted Bloodball by 2 metres
Rare:
Destroyed Lab Equipment: Smashed glass and torn paper, the costs of the Experiment's desperate struggle to escape: Survivors that are Blighted by a Proximity Mine will be inflicted with Mangled and Haemorrhage if they are injured by a second explosion
Cut-out Eye: What remains of the Experiment's lost eye: Survivors that are injured by a Bloodball are inflicted with Blindness for 30 seconds
Rough Drawing: Talbot did his best to create a picture of his experiment, crude, but shows off the creature's horrific physique: "Knock It Off!" takes a extra 3 seconds to complete
Cage Remains: A rudimentary cage that Talbot used to transport the lizard to his lab. the Experiment destroyed it first: Flung survivors are Deafened for 30 seconds if they collide with a wall
Inching Blood: The Blood moves on its own as if it were a living organism: Blighted Bloodballs explode at the end of their travel time: Blighting survivors within 4 meters of the explosion
Very Rare:
Serum Vial: A vial containing one of Talbot's many serums, its effects on the human body are unknown: Blighted Survivors suffering from the Oblivious status effect for as long as they are Blighted
Horse's Flesh: A piece of a missing horse that the Experiment encountered during its travels through the fog, the owner's fate remains unknown: Survivors injured or downed by Predatory Ambush suffer from the Oblivious status effect for 60 seconds
Survivor Entrails: The guts and innards of the Experiment's first kill, this kill leading to a hunger for human flesh that would never be satisfied: Proximity Mines take a additional 30 seconds to explode on their own, After downing a survivor with Predatory Ambush or a direct Blighted Bloodball impact, all currently placed Proximity Mines will explode, survivors within 16 meters of a exploding Proximity Mine will have their aura revealed for 5 seconds
"You may feast on the meat, but not yet, serve The Entity first"
Cracked Mask: The Experiment was able to crack the other killer's mask during their fight, but not before also taking a punch to the face: When you down a survivor with the full Predatory Ambush action, generators within your Terror Radius will be blocked and begin regressing
"Enough, this one serves The Entity, hunt the meat instead"
Ultra Rare:
Talbot's Thoughts: A passage from Talbot's journal, containing his many, many thoughts on his reptilian creation: Sniffing the ground will reveal survivor's Auras for 10 seconds rather then highlighting them with Killer Instinct, Sniffing the ground will no longer reveal scratch marks
"I can only hope that i never see that thing ever again, but its mutation may provide beneficial to research" - Talbot Grimes
Iridescent Predator Blood: Glassy blood that pulsates with a dark power, it writhes and moves with a unknown force: Proximity Mines cannot injure survivors, Blighted survivors suffer from a 15% Hindered effect, increases the cooldown of Blighted Bloodball by 15 seconds
This is probably the most dramatic difference between the original Experiment and the new. Originally, the Experiment was a 8 foot tall behemoth that was essentially impossible to outrun due to having a Blight dash AND very quick damage-dealing fireballs, and could destroy windows for a incredibly long time, effectively killing most loops, at the time i thought this was cool, but now i realise that this would be kind of overpowered as there would be effectively zero way to deal with the old Experiment in chase other then "run to the next loop and pray it has a pallet", so i switched things around a ton by first downsizing the Experiment dramatically, making it stand only slightly taller then Sadako and Hag rather then towering over the entire rest of the killer roster, next i replaced the dash with a Victor pounce and threw in a little bit of Wesker and L4D's Hunter in there as well in order to differentiate the two, finally, i changed how the fireball, or bloodball in this case, works, I like Artist a lot more then most people, and wanted a bit of her power in the Experiment's toolkit, so i changed the Bloodball to work as a weaker version of her Dire Crows, i also wanted to offer a few funny tech options for this killer, by o use it from elevated positions to get some pretty insane airtime and go for montage worthy hits, which are always fun, the addons are also substantially different, while the Common and Uncommon addons are simple power buffs, i wanted the Very and Ultra Rare addons to be worthy of their rarity as well as be interesting to use, AND synergise with various perks, example, Lethal Pursuer with Survivor's Entrails or IPB, compared to the original Very and Ultra addons, these are not only more useful, but also more fun to use.
This combined with its other abilities give The Experiment some serious kill-power, but not without weaknesses, for one, The Experiment may have no TR outside of chase, but it does suffer from Demogorgon syndrome, that being making a ungodly amount of noise, aside from it's stomps and growling, it also retches and wheezes like the diseased animal it is, making it quite easy to hear coming if you have your head on a swivel and are listening for it, it's pounce is relatively easy to dodge and can be avoided by throwing down a pallet with good timing, and its fireballs have the same counterplay as Huntress and Artist, dodge to the side and juke it, then run to the next loop or continue looping depending on where the proximity mine ends up, I'd argue it's easier to counter then both Huntress and Artist as well, since the fireballs travel in a straight line, can't be used outside of chase, can't go through walls, have a smaller hitbox then both Hatchets and Dire Crows, and have to be fired one at a time rather then being able to fire three at once.
Finally, the perks
Malignant Gaze: Your eyes strike terror into all who gaze within, after being stunned by a pallet, for the next 60/75/90 seconds, the survivor that stunned you will suffer from 25% faster skillchecks and 25% smaller skillcheck success zones, they will also gain no bonus progress for repair generators or healing for completing a great skillcheck
"That...thing, that thing's eyes haunt my sleep, I see those deep, maddening pits every time I close my eyes" - Talbot Grimes
Blighted Monstrosity: Your very blood oozes and writhes with a eldritch fury, survivors that stop any healing action while in your Terror Radius will scream, revealing their location for 5 seconds, they will also be unable to heal for 20/30/40 seconds afterwards
"I cannot tell the difference between my serums and that abomination's blood, have they become one in the same?” - Talbot Grimes
Wings of Chaos: You claim dominion over all within your lands, and you will strike viciously at those that dare touch what's yours, survivors that touch a generator after it has begun regressing will suffer from a series of 10 skillchecks that do not have a Great success zone over 10 seconds (similar to Merciless Storm, but it's multiple different skillchecks rather then one with multiple success zones), if they get off the generator before these skillchecks are complete, the generator will lose 15% of it's current progress in addition to all progress the generator has gained in that time, and their aura will be revealed for 5/10/15 seconds
"Stories of creatures that my experiment now resembles speak of them hoarding vast amounts of treasure and defending it with their lives, i wonder if it takes after them in more ways then appearance and temperament" - Talbot Grimes
These are also vastly different from the original Experiment's perks, originally the perks were a worse version of Spirit Fury that gave you a 5% speed boost and 2 stacks of STBFL, a weaker hex version of Infectious Fright that triggers whenever you hook a survivor, and a insanely stupidly worded "Presence" perk that gave a 20 second Mangled for some god-damn reason, so i overhauled them to be, well, actually worth using, of these 3 perks i think that Blighted Monstrosity would be the most used just because of how much it punishes healing, my personal favourite of the three is Malignant Gaze, messing with skillchecks is always cool and not enough perks do it.
And that's my Remastered Experiment chapter, overall i am much happier with this version of a dragon killer then the old one, what are your thoughts?
Happy Halloween!
G-night