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The only change that Dead Hard needs

1ettuce
1ettuce Member Posts: 1,141
in Feedback and Suggestions

Dead Hard as it is now is meant to be a perk that doesn't guarantee value, that can only give you distance when precisely predicting when a killer is going to attack, and something that really does more in its passive deterrence than in its actual effect. This was the intention with the change to Dead Hard and honestly is a totally fine part of the perk. What's not fine is how often it can be used outside of its intended use, guaranteeing distance of some kind even though, remember, it's not supposed to. Along with this, Dead Hard is arguably problematic in its overuse, as a perk like Dead Hard being the most used survivor perk is tiresome and boring for killers to *constantly* deal with. These problems are explained much further in detail below:


  • Usage at pallets

When dh is used at a pallet, there's very little room for counterplay from the killer's side. While they do have the option of perfectly timing an attack to be right in between the survivor losing their endurance and dropping the pallet, it's very unreasonable and unreliable. In this situation, dh ends up taking less skill for the survivor, since they don't have to think about when the killer is going to attack, and more skill for the killer. This usage of dh strays far from the intended use case, and shouldn't be as viable and preferable to its intended use as it is now.


  • Usage against certain killer powers

DH disproportionately affects many killers in ways also beyond the original intention of the perk, as many killers use attacks that don't allow them to simply "wait out" dh. Keep in mind that not all of these examples are hugely impactful but most are still very much so, they are explained below for anyone who isn't aware of how dh specifically affects these killers:

  • Artist
    • If an Artist has a crow placed at a choke point, the survivor can easily cross the bird's flight path with no risk by DHing across it, turning a chance for the survivor to not go down into a guarantee. This also applies to birds sent from a long range, as they can easily be reacted to if they otherwise would've downed the survivor.
  • Blight
    • When a Blight is rushing towards a survivor with dh, they are pretty much forced to rush past them and come back for the hit if they want to avoid hitting into dh. While this can be very effective, it still guarantees the survivor distance, which can easily be the difference between the survivor going down or not. Along with this, if the Blight is on their last rush, there isn't anything they can do to try and get a down out of it, they are forced to either hit into the dh or take the cooldown from rushing, again guaranteeing distance for the survivor.
  • Bubba
    • Although Bubba has an insta down ability, which slightly negates dh on its own, there are situations where using Bubba's chainsaw is preferable to going for a basic attack against an injured survivor. If a Bubba tries to do this against a survivor with dh, the survivor can easily dh into the chainsaw, forcing the Bubba to hit into it.
  • Demogorgon
    • Demogorgon has what will be called the ranged attack syndrome (RAS) from this point on. Basically, due to his shred attack working as what is essentially a ranged attack, since it cannot be stopped after being initiated, it can be easily reacted to, guaranteeing a survivor with dh can make distance off of it. Along with this, dh can also be used when breaking line of sight. Since dh makes you undownable for 2 meters worth of distance, a killer with a ranged based attack has nothing they can do if you are close enough to rounding a corner.
  • Pyramid Head
    • Pyramid Head suffers from RAS, as well as his special attack just generally being easy to react to, to the point that a survivor with dh can even force it off of an attack that would've slightly missed.
  • Hag
    • Hag's problem is a bit more niche and not as significant, but still is worth noting. When a Hag teleports to a trap, she has very little momentum from it unless she instantly lunges after teleporting. With dh, this forces her to either accept the low momentum that comes from teleporting, or instantly lunge and risk hitting into dh, which can be a lose/lose situation depending on the resources nearby.
  • Hillbilly
    • Hillbilly's situation is very similar to Bubba's, in the sense that even though his attack is an insta down ability, it still may be preferable to a basic attack when chasing an injured survivor. An approaching Hillbilly is of course very easy to react to, and punishing even when expecting it. Even if a Hillbilly expects a survivor to dh when chainsaw sprinting towards them and decides to stop right before hitting them, they will still suffer the exactly same cooldown on their chainsaw, with the only plus being the survivor not getting a speed boost, but still of course getting distance.
  • Huntress
    • Huntress has probably the most obvious case of RAS, being that she's as basic as ranged attacks come.
  • Knight
    • Knight is perhaps the killer hurt by dh the absolute most, as survivors can literally guarantee a successful dh when being chased by the Knight's guards. As long as a survivor dhs right into a guard that's chasing them, they will absolutely get the distance from it with no skill involved. This aspect of dh being changed should really be non-negotiable.
  • Wesker
    • Wesker simply suffers from RAS, though it should be noted that the bug where survivors look like they're driving a car after dhing a bound attack is absolutely hilarious. It has nothing to do with how it affects him in terms of gameplay but it shan't be forgotten about.
  • Nemesis
    • Nemesis suffers from both RAS as well as the Knight syndrome, as a survivor can just dh into a zombie as they're being chased and boom, easy free distance.
  • Nurse
    • Nurse's problem with dh stems from the fact that using her power limits her to a limited time window which she can attack, during which she also moves very slowly. Due to this, if a Nurse uses her second blink to catch up to you, if you dh far enough to get out of her attack range, there isn't anything the Nurse can do. She either eats the dh, or she's forced into fatigue.
  • Oni
    • If an Oni is mid demon rush as he approaches a survivor with dh, he will have to briefly cancel his rush to avoid hitting into the dh, allowing the survivor to make extra distance in either scenario.
  • Pig
    • Pig's specific problem with dh is very very niche, as her ambush attack isn't used all that much. However, if she does use her ambush attack, hitting into a dh is very hard to avoid, as it requires she turns around mid ambush as the survivor dhs. This can be very risky due to pig's ambush not lasting too long, and if it's necessary near the end of an ambush then the pig won't be able to turn back around in time.
  • Plague
    • Plague just suffers from RAS while using her corrupt purge, making it not as frequent of a problem for other killers with RAS, but still a problematic lose/lose situation nonetheless.
  • Trickster
    • Trickster suffers from RAS, about as simple as Huntress.
  • Twins
    • Twins suffers from RAS while using Victor. Although it can pretty unrealistic to react to Victor's pounce depending on the distance, dh can still certainly be used as a survivor is about to break line of sight.

It should be noted that all of these killers can avoid hitting dh either by purposefully missing an attack to bait dh (in the case of some of the RAS killers), turning away right before hitting into a survivor with dh (in the case of Bubba and Pig), etc. Although these are practical options for simply not eating a dh, they still allow for the survivor to make a decent chunk of distance depending on the killer, which has no way of being avoided and makes these tactics much less practical and less worth going for.


  • High pick rate

The last problem with dh is a bit different, as it's not really a problem to blame on the perk itself but rather how frequently it's used. Dead Hard in its general effect of how it forces the killer to play around it is fine, but due to its very high usage rate, killers are pretty much forced to play around it in every chase, rather than only being made to think they need to play around it. This results in Dead Hard's passive deterrence becoming more like simply, "deterrence." This on its own isn't extremely strong or beneficial to the survivor running it, but makes for a reasonably tiring experience for killers, even if they can usually deal with it very easily, simply due to the fact that they're pretty much fully forced to assume it's being used every single time they want to lunge or when they catch a survivor off guard.

  • How to fix these issues

Although the giant block of text may convince you that dh is unsalvageable at this point, as I see it there's really only one change necessary that would make dh infinitely more reasonable while preserving almost everything about the perk's identity:

  • If you are not hit during Dead Hard's Endurance effect, enter the dying state after the effect ends
  • Zombies and Guards do not attack a survivor as they are using Dead Hard (I know I said only one change but c'mon this should be a gimme)

Now from the responses I've heard to this idea before I already know this sounds like it would completely kill the perk, but it should be remembered that this is already exactly what happens now in Dead Hard's intended use case. You incorrectly predict when the killer is going to attack you, they wait out your Dead Hard, and then they immediately down you. This situation would remain exactly the same with this proposed change, as it should. The purpose of this idea is to allow reasonable counterplay at pallets and against the aforementioned powers, as you should not be able to continue extending a chase after incorrectly predicting when the killer will attack you especially since it goes against the intention of the perk.

This change would allow for more reasonable counterplay dh at pallets because you can predict whether the survivor will dh or drop the pallet and play accordingly, rather than the chase getting extended almost no matter what. If you see a survivor dh at a pallet, you don't have to perfectly time a swing, and can instead just wait out the short duration after which the survivor will automatically go down.

This change would also allow for counterplay when playing as any of the killers that currently don't really have any depending on the situation. As mentioned before, there are ways to avoid hitting into a dh for these killers that are currently usually too risky and not rewarding enough to be worth it, but with this change they now would be way more worth it. When playing as any of these killers, you can miss on purpose or pretend to go in for an attack and bait the survivor into using their dh, thus causing them to go down. It obviously doesn't guarantee they will go down if the survivor is expecting you to bait it out, but offers actual counterplay in the form of predicting what the survivor will do. This makes dh in those situations much more similar to how it is in the open, which is the scenario it was really designed around.

On top of this change most likely significantly or at least mildly lowering the pick rate, it would allow you to even lunge into a survivor with dh when correctly predicting whether the survivor will use it or not. Assuming they will, you can lunge and look up or look away just before hitting them, again baiting them into using their dh and, again, they go down. These two together would make dh much less frustrating in general, as it would be seen less often and have a more comfortable, less annoying way of playing around it while still effectively working the same.


I hope all of this ends up being worth having typed out, as I really think this is the best option for changing dh. If you have any criticisms of this idea or a suggestion of your own, please feel free to comment it! I'd love to see it as long as it's constructive and not just unthoughtful bashing, and I'll edit this post if anything stands out to me or I think I missed something :)

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