Giving the Oreo a canonically-accurate upgrade(A Onryo rework)

TechnoTheFirst

The Onryo. Also known as Sadako or Oreo to the playerbase. One of the most visually pleasing killers, both in looks and animations. Truly, it looks like the powerful psychic ghost from the well.

But it certainly doesn't feel like her, because she's actually pretty weak.

To break her down, she's a stealth killer with a teleportation power and can build up condemned to kill survivors with a stare. Doesn't sound that bad, right?

WRONG!

Her stealth is the worst among the stealth killers, as she has a lullaby when she's in her stealth mode. Granted, the lullaby is subtle and hard for most inexperienced players to get. But after the visual terror radius update, practically anyone is alerted to her presence. This is despite the fact that her stealth actually offers very little in chase, only making her phase in and out of visibility.

Her teleportation is counter-productive to her success, since if she uses her TVs to teleport, she can deactivate them for a longer time than if a survivor turns it off.

And finally, her condemnation may have an incredible reward, but only after a massive build-up of seven levels of condemnation, which can be quickly wiped away if the survivor just delivers video tapes. Otherwise, you'll be lucky to find a Survivor ever touching a tape.

So we've got a killer that's apparently seen as so powerful she's got a spider god placing enough limits on her to make her an interstate highway. Problem is, she's really not that powerful in the first place.

So this post will talk about removing some of those limits, while also reworking certain parts of her power.

--Stealth and Manifesting--

Lullaby

• Sadako's lullaby is completely muted to survivors that are not completely condemned

Sadako's lullaby limits her potential as a stealth killer. It's real hard to be surprised by Sadako if I'm on alert once my chest starts going red. So removing the lullaby until fully condemned makes Sadako's stealth potential greater, and makes her very threatening if caught by surprised while injured. This will be continued on in the third section, Condemnation and Tapes.

Demanifestation

• Sadako can not only phase in and out of visibility, but also phase through pallets and windows
• When passing through pallets and windows, Sadako's movements speed are hindered by 25 percent

Even without the Lullaby, Sadako's chase and anti-loop are lackluster... and by that, I mean they don't exist. Her invisibility thing is not that strong, and requires an add-on to really be useful for loops, and that's just on the smaller loops. Getting rid of her collision on such obstacles makes her more dangerous around small and large loops, and gives her anti-loop.

• If Sadako manifests while inside of a pallet, she will break the pallet during the manifestation in the same time as a regular break animation

This is to solve the issue of "what if Sadako tries to manifest but the game considers her to be too close to a pallet?" Answer, allow her to manifest still, and get a pallet out of the way as well.

--Teleportation and TVs--

Teleportation

• Teleporting to a TV turns it off for 60 seconds, instead of 100 seconds

At the moment, Sadako can deactivate her power better than survivors by simply using her power. This change would make it the same as a Survivor turning it off... as it should be.

• Applying a condemned level to any survivor will take off 6 seconds off of the cooldown of all turned-off TVs

This is technically a Pig combat straps treatment. This means that the power an add-on gives is somewhat applied to the basekit. In this case, a Sadako making use of their power means that they will have their teleport power back faster, further encouraging them to use the TVs. This will also mean that Iridescent Videotape - the add-on I'm talking about - will keep its original power and still be useful without feeling completely necessary.

TVs

• TVs emit the lullaby to fully condemned survivors in their 16 meter radius

This is another change that makes it more dangerous for fully condemned survivors and discourages being fully condemned near TVs. This will be continued on in the third section, Condemnation and Tapes.

--Condemnation and Tapes--

Before starting on the changes in this section, I must say something. If anyone has seen One Pump Willy's gameplay of Sadako, they will find that he plays her incredibly well and can use her condemned system to his advantage... the problem is that this gameplay makes slugging and non-stop chases the focus, and only using a limited amount of the add-ons. While it's impressive, it requires a large amount of effort and a massive difference in gameplay. All the while, survivors would dislike this playstyle if it became popular, as survivors will have far shorter downtimes and be slugged for a lot of the time, which is generally unpleasant for a lot of people that just don't know what to do in this case. So that is why I'm changing the current condemned system to be more user-friendly, making it more in-line with the current DBD structure of matches, but still make it a powerful tool to access.

Condemned System

• Condemnation is reworked to only allow the killing of a survivor that is on death hook
• If a survivor is not on death hook and is fully condemned, they will be permanently exposed and hear the lullaby until they either deliver tapes or get hooked

Before people get mad, this restructure is necessary considering the other changes. It also ensures that survivors can't get killed without a single hook stage being passed.

• If a fully condemned survivor is hooked, they will lose two condemned levels

This will discourage easy tunneling using Sadako's powers. And they will ONLY lose the two levels if fully-condemned.

Condemned Application

• If Onryo manifests and injures a survivor, other survivors within her radius will get "poisoned" with condemned, meaning one bar of condemned will grow over time
• This method can be called "fearful watching"

The problem with condemning survivors is that only one method is an active one Sadako can use, and that is the projecting to TVs. This offers another method that, while not as potent, can still rack up condemnation over time and encourage isolation in Survivors.

Tapes

• Tapes will not increase a survivor's condemned level by one
• Tapes will only remove two levels of condemned instead of three

While this may seem like a nerf, it's more of a tradeoff. It's far less progress being taken by the survivors actions. It also makes it harder for Survivors that were fully condemned then hooked to be fully condemned so soon.

• Tapes will not remove partial condemned progress

For those that don't know, tapes not only currently remove three stages of condemned, but also whatever condemned level the tape itself was building up as well. This means that, technically, tapes can remove 3.99 stages of condemned. Now, "poison" condemned isn't wiped away, and the "fearful watching" method of condemned isn't made pointless with one tape delivery.

• When acquiring a tape, the survivor can deliver it to two TV locations instead of one, with both still being the farthest ones from the survivor
• Inserting a tape into a TV takes 3 seconds instead of 2

One potential issue with having a tape is that an Onryo can recognize what TV the survivor needs to deliver it to, and just guard it until they are fully condemned. This is solved by adding another tv that the tape can be delivered to. Just as well, delivering a tape takes longer so that a survivor can't just deliver the tape right in front of the killer while they're recovering from hit cooldown.

--Add-on Changes--

Videotape Copy

• Will also reduce the cooldown of TVs the Onryo teleported to by 45 seconds

Videotape Copy is currently a meme add-on that makes an already difficult killer basically never use one of their powers. This will make it a trade-off: less condemnation for more map traversal.

Mother's Mirror

• The current effect will be doubled if the Onryo is within 16 meters of an activated TV

This could allow for more stealthy approaches for those that are nearby TVs.

Yoichi's Fishing Net

• The reduction in time a tape applies condemned to a survivor is increased from 12% to 20%

Sea-soaked Cloth

• Survivors will become blind when within 10 meters of a powered TV(was 8)
• Survivors that pick up a tape will become blind for 60 seconds

Well Stone

• Increases the reduction of time a TV turns on when a survivor turns it off to -8 seconds instead of -6

Clump of Hair

• Reduces the range at which the Onryo is visible while Demanifested by -8 meters instead of -6

Mother's Comb

• If the survivor who turns off the TV did so while holding a tape, their aura will be revealed for four seconds

Currently, the comb only shows TVs that were turned off by survivors in yellow. Now, it discourages Survivors who run around to turn off multiple TVs in a row while not affecting those that were only going to turn off one TV.

Rickety Pinwheel

• Survivors will become oblivious when within 10 meters of a powered TV(was 8)
• Survivors that pick up a tape will become oblivious for 30 seconds

Distorted Photo(Now merged with Telephone effect)

• As well as screaming, survivors that are near a Sadako that downs a survivor with a manifest hit will be hindered for 12 seconds

For purple add-ons, both effects were

NEW Telephone

• Survivors that are condemned by a projection are also applied with 20 seconds of exhaustion

Tape Editing Deck

• Along with the current effect, Survivors now take 1 more second to retrieve tapes from TVs

Remote Control

• Now no longer requires a survivor to have a VHS tape for their aura to be revealed when projecting

A great sounding add-on that is immediately made worse with a massive drawback of a survivor needing a tape, which they will often not have for long. Now, it will be more consistent to get the auras of survivors.

Iridescent Videotape

• Now turns on 3 TVs after a hit instead of 4

Considering the buffs to TV off times and condemned levels lowering cooldowns, this add-on will be nerfed to not allow for too much up-time of TVs.

Conclusion

Sadako was made with too many limits placed on her out of fear that she will be too strong. And considering how some have used her(One Pump Willie), they may be right. But it still ensures that for most, the power is difficult to use and is not very rewarding unless done with incredible skill. Just as well, if a player isn't playing in that way, they may find their games marred with failure as they lack mobility, stealth, and anti-loop.

Now, there is a semblance of anti-loop, Sadako is an actual stealth killer, and teleporting is more rewarding. And with condemned being reworked, players can find its current risk-reward to be more balanced.

Just as well, a pass has been done with most of her add-ons, allowing for more varied games and less reliance on certain add-ons.

tuttoinunavolta

I think all of these changes are great and really well thought-out, but I'm not sure how I feel about Condemned becoming an Ebony Mori as it would change the character's powers a bit too much. I understand that change is needed when taking into account every other change you proposed, but I think at that point I'd prefer minor changes to everything else to simply make Condemned kills more viable without the usual Iri Tape+Ring Drawing combo. The current problem with Condemned is that most of the times it requires a playstyle that is unfun for the other side in order to be applied (slugging), not that it can kill on its own. In that regard I llike OnryosTapeRentals's proposed changes posted on General Discussion