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An Incredibly In-Depth Discussion On How To Buff The Executioner (Pyramid Head) Correctly

Hi_Hello_Gooday
Hi_Hello_Gooday Member Posts: 97
in General Discussions

Hi Hi,

Before I begin, yes pyramid head doesn't need a buff, but he also isn't the strongest. A buff isn't an insane idea. Pyramid head currently sits as one of the least played killers, and BHVR wanting to make Pyramid head a more fun killer to play as and against is an idea I'm up for! As long as it's done correctly.

Let's start off with Introductions, I am a Pyramid Head main with 4.5k hours on the character alone (5.5k total) and have been playing the game since it released on consoles before quitting after around 100 hours then resuming play of the game on PC in late 2018.

I've been through every meta with this character from his release in the anniversary event being infatuated with his ability to hit a ranged attack through walls at first and now being addicted to it and unable to find any other character quite as fun. I also rigorously play survivor and played both pyramid head and survivor in the comp scene at a high level (consistently placing 4th or higher in every event we participated in including DBE which was the biggest in terms of competition at the time) during 2019-2021. However I have since quit so don't think I'll leave the casual players behind with this post.

So to start us off how about we have an overview of what BHVR have already done to try and address pyramid head and his state in the meta:

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This patch was to discourage the accessibility of camping and tunneling for pyramid head by disallowing camping within a certain range and preventing pyramid head from seeing the aura of the caged survivor. However, only camping really was impacted as an experienced pyramid head can find out where a caged survivor will end up by the placement of the survivor when they were downed (it always spawns as far away from pyramid head as possible).

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This patch was to discourage the m2 fake mind game that pyramid heads could do for free, obviously the nerf aspect of this patch didn't get rid of that play style (you'd need to make the duration like 5 seconds to do that), but the buff to make going for shots less punishing was much more impactful in getting rid of at least the popularity of that playstyle. There are some issues with how they went about this alteration, but I will go into that later in the post.

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The recent PTB change that was tested went against the precedents set by BHVR and was promptly reverted. For those who don't know why this was a bad change allow me to explain:

My average time for 1v1 chases against comp survivors is 44 seconds, this is with all resources on a map up, the survivor fully healed, and starting a shack distance away from the survivor. After those 44 seconds one double gen may be finished but I have guaranteed a kill since even with an instant save I can catch up to that survivor who was caged and immediately down and cage them again before a 2nd generator pops then do it again by the time the 2nd generator pops, turning the game at minimum a 3v1 at 3 generators remaining.

I have done this with only caging the second hook stage for a survivor on the live patch and even without this buff I can turn it minimum to a 3v1 at 2 generators remaining if I chose to play this way. This is super unhealthy for the game and requires too much teamplay to counter than that we should reasonably expect solo queue survivors to be capable of as of now.

So, now that we know of the past and what BHVR'S design philosophy is when it comes to pyramid head lets talk about some ways to buff pyramid head in a meaningful, interesting, and fun way.

POWER IDEAS:

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Addressing current issues:

Clunky-ness/quality-of-life:

I have heard many complaints from the general audience I interact with that while pyramid head seems fun to play when they tried it he felt unbearably clunky. I believe this issue stems from the changes introduced in patch 4.3.0.

I love the direction BHVR was intending to go in getting rid of the fake m2 "mind game" and it definitely introduced more counter play when it comes to pallets for survivors. However that comes more from the inability to m1 during this introduced cooldown and less from pyramid heads immense - plague like slowdown introduced alongside it.

Currently when entering or exiting your power you move at 3.68 m/s before you would only endure this slowdown when entering your power and could freely place trails while traversing the map without having to endure two slowdowns and could exit your power while in chase and continue to set up a shot on survivors around said loop efficiently.

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Because of this added second slowdown it is almost always a bad idea to place trails while traversing and promotes only entering your power when a survivor is at a pallet or window instead of going in and out of your power to set up a shot anywhere in a loop.

Let me make it clear I believe pyramid head should still not be able to m1 after exiting his power, but removing this second slowdown would go a long way to making him feel less clunky and promote going for m2s at places other than at pallets/windows.

Fake M2 "Mind-game" Playstyle:

Players can "fake" the use of their power by holding their rites of judgement while a survivor goes through a pallet or window then exiting it after the survivor leaves the pallet or window or the pyramid head themselves goes through the pallet/around the window. They then can follow up this interaction with a m1; essentially gaining a free hit because the survivor couldn't drop the pallet or vault the window because of the risk of an m2.

This is one of the most boring yet effective ways to play pyramid head, and while it's not healthy to completely rid the possibility of this playstyle (because it would require gutting pyramid heads power) it is definitely possible to make other playstyles more effective.

One of the hardest things to do as a pyramid head is to get hits outside of loops and outside of "choke points" inside loops. This is because it is ridiculously easy to either prediction dodge a punishment of the dammed or simply reaction dodge at shots that are anywhere past the first 3 meters of his attack (pyramid head rotates slower than survivors requiring a flick upon activation of his m2 from the pyramid head in order to hit a survivor that is dodging. Meaning pyramid head will have to guess where a survivor will end up in order to get a hit).

There are two very apparent ways to fix this issue that would make going for shots that aren't at choke points, pallets, or windows more appealing:

Decrease the delay before the activation of pyramid heads power and between subsequent sections of his power spawning

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Currently the time it takes for a damaging trail to spawn is .267 for the first then .033 seconds for subsequent parts of the trail. Even a small shortening of these numbers would make reaction dodging a pyramid heads power much much harder, while these values could be tied to addons allowing reaction dodging at some distances of his power would undermine the goal of trying to get away from the fake m2 midgame.

Increase the width of the Punishment Of The Dammed Attack

Exactly what the header says, tying this to addons would create an interesting trade off between range and width since it would decrease the effectiveness of prediction dodging and would make it easier to aim at short ranges for new pyramid heads making him more accessible.

"Hold W" Counter Playstyle:

Survivor's best counter to pyramid head is to simply hold w and force pyramid head to waste time following them while their teammates do gens. This playstyle also punishes the pyramid head for using his power since it slows him down and allows the survivors to gain more distance leading to a very boring trial for both sides.

This problem would take the most work for BHVR to fix but one idea to fix this would be allowing pyramid head to teleport to the cage locations around the map on a long cooldown, of course limiting this ability once pyramid head cages a survivor in order not to strengthen his ability to tunnel. This wouldn't act as a way of catching up to survivors but more so to rotate around the map faster after chases, and start chases at closer distances to make holding w not always the best option.


ADD ON IDEAS:

There are many ways to alter pyramid head's add-on arsenal and many changes to be made, however I will try to keep this list brief and only include the most useless/unhealthy addons.

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Original Idea :

Aura reading on a successful cage, show where survivors are where they're heading and what they're doing, but only if they're tormented.

Problems With This Idea :

  1. Firstly even after getting rid of the ability to see the survivor that is caged, this ability can promote tunneling more by showing which survivor is going for the save on the cage since survivors who are tormented are more likely to be the ones going for said save in order to rid themselves of their torment.
  2. It is incredibly hard to purposely or accidentally inflict multiple survivors with torment. It is easy to zone a survivor into your trail within a chase but doing that to multiple survivors takes a significant time investment not worth 6 seconds of aura reading, especially when the act of receiving this aura reading is also what allows survivors to get rid of torment.

Ways To Rework This Idea :

I this add-on believe cannot exist in a healthy manner, buffing this add-on would promote tunneling more and nerfing it would make a weak addon even weaker.

Allow me to suggest an idea then,

IRIDESCENT SEAL OF METATRON:

A talisman with an odd design inscribed on it. The Entity's influence seems to have altered it.

  • Survivors who successfully rescue a survivor from a Cage of Atonement are inflicted with the Broken status effect until they are next put into the Dying State
  • Survivors while using this add-on will gain Endurance and Haste for 10 seconds after being rescued from a cage

This redesign of the add-on would promote spreading pressure instead of tunneling and offers a strong effect worthy of an iri add-on. It also provides some protection to survivors however to prevent the amount of snowball pressure a pyramid head can build up. If you think this effect is still too strong however, an easy way to nerf this idea is to require the savior to be inflicted with torment in order for this effect to work.

(Side note: This add-on would also act as a mini-extension to his teachable Forced Penance)

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Original Idea :

Undetectable while on trails, creating a network of trails allows you to move around the map stealthily.

Problems With This Idea :

  1. It acts as a semi built in insidious promoting camping, a strategy even more boring then tunneling.
  2. It takes ridiculously long to setup the trails around to map in order to move around stealthily
  3. It is undermined by the loud breathing and sword dragging that pyramid head has
  4. It isn't that strong of an effect in the first place
  5. It doesn't meaningfully impact his game play

Ways To Rework This Idea :

This addon should receive the buff initially intended to be base kit in the last PTB, but with the same restriction we gave the Iridescent Seal of Metatron.

Obsidian Goblet:

An ancient looking goblet carved from pure obsidian.

  • When hitting a Survivor with Punishment of the Damned, that Survivor is inflicted with Torment.
  • Survivors while using this add-on will gain Endurance and Haste for 10 seconds after being rescued from a cage

This add-on allows pyramid head to more effectively spread his torment while giving survivors protection from being tunneled and not negatively impacting pyramid heads base - kit strength.

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Additionally reworking the Rust-Colored Egg, Lost Memories Book, and Crimson Ceremony Book to all apply once a survivor is tormented, not just stepping on a trail, it gives a fun synergy and allows these add-ons to experience a semi buff without completely reworking them. However because these addons need an iri add-on to maximize their strength I would drop their rarity.

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These add-ons currently suffer from a bug that makes them less useful than the current duration add-ons for recharging the pyramid heads power (detailed in this video by Otzdarva: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pJgGiEzw-Do)

If a teleport system is implemented these could be used to reduce the recharge on that power or they could be significantly buffed in order to give more value that duration does.

Another rework for these could be to reduce the cooldown of missed Punishment of The Dammed attacks. This would give players more of a reason to go for crazy shots around corners and through walls without punishing them for missing said attacks as much. This would also not affect successful attacks meaning survivors would get the same amount of distance as they do now upon getting injured.

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These add-ons currently have very little use. It is extremely easy to avoid trails while not in chase and extremely easy to apply torment while in chase making the amount of time they remain in the environment not that important.

Trails in general also are not the fun part of pyramid heads power so abilities that affect his trail I believe should not be a focus for him. For these reasons these add-ons should be reworked to increase the width of pyramid heads Punishment of The Dammed attack as previously talked about.

A Final Note: PLEASE DON'T TOUCH RANGE ADD-ONS

Range addons allow for players to go for wild and extremely fun shots and are the origin of a lot of fun gameplay and counter play. Are they overused ? Yes. But this is from a lack of options and not because they are overpowered. Without range add-ons I probably would have quit this killer because of the hold-w meta. So from someone with thousands of hours on him. PLEASE DON'T TOUCH RANGE ADD-ONS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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