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Suggested changes for a killer we all know sucks.
Hello!
I’m here to suggest changes to a killer that anyone who isn't completely delusional knows is exceptionally unhealthy for this game. Can you guess? Damn right, it’s the Skull Merchant. Right out the gate I wanna make something clear to the devs, you need to put your boots on here. Whether or not my ideas are the right ones, you need to buckle up and accept that you have a lot of work ahead of you. Whether or not it was intended for her power to work the way it does, it doesn’t matter. It is how it works now, and it sucks. You feed us #########, don’t be surprised when we throw up in your face. I’ll try to keep this polite from now on but honestly this killer infuriates me so much it might be hard lmao. Here we go.
I know some people will just say “Skill Issue” or “Mans huffing some strong ass copium” but there’s just 1 fact that gives me the power to tell you lot to hush your mouth, Team Eternal spent 55 minutes beating a very standard 3 gen Skull Merchant. If it takes THEM 55 minutes, then your average joe is gonna take at least 110 minutes, by which point the game automatically ended almost an hour ago. Even if I could do that, idk about you guys, but unlike the streamers and YouTubers I’ve watched play against Skull Merchant, I don’t have 55 minutes spare in a day to play 1 single game. If I have that time, I wanna squeeze as many games in as possible, and wasting so much of my evening on an averagely skilled Skull Merchant just repeating the same steps of running in, touching a gen for a few seconds and then hiding is so goddamn boring. I’m usually against DCing (less so with the new bots) but this is one of the only scenarios where giving up seems like the best option for me. That, by definition, is unhealthy for the game. It literally makes me - and countless others - simply not want to play.
First off, the problems. Her power has no counterplay. What do I mean?
Hack a drone, you now can be tracked across the map. You vault a pallet, it breaks. You get in chase, she already has haste. Go near another drone, it’s unhackable for a while now. It seems obvious that we aren’t meant to hack the drones as we get so severely punished for it, so what happens if you don’t? You go into a drone area, she instantly knows where you are. You sit on the gen in that drone, you’re exposed. If you stay there, she can sneak up on you with her undetectable. So, hacking is a bad idea and just braving the drones effects also sucks, so what do you do? I’ll tell you! Press “Esc” and then hit “Leave Game.” Tah-Dah!! You have just beaten Skull Merchant - let the bot die for you.
Every single killer (except mayyyyybe Knight but that’s another topic I’m not prepared to look into yet) has counterplay. Nurse is the most powerful killer in the game, but if you make her whiff, she has the longest stun of any killer. Huntress can hit insane hatchet shots that make your face make expressions you didn’t even know existed, but if she misses and runs out of hatchets then she’s gotta go find a locker to reload or chase at 110%. Blight is an exceptionally strong killer, but against someone who knows how to run, his power can cause chases to last even longer than an M1 killer. Against the Skull Merchant? A child could play this killer for the first time and perform the #1 strategy for her pretty damn easily - holding a 3 gen. It’s clear to me that every single killer has counterplay to keep it interesting, so what the hell were they thinking when they added a killer who’s only counterplay just gives her more power?
My idea is a double power - Moving and Stagnant drones. Drones spawn in with the option to have them follow or stay.
When choosing to follow:
- Drones follow the Skull Merchant.
- Drones now despawn after 60 seconds, after which drones can’t be spawned for 15 seconds.
- Drones give Skull Merchant 5% Haste.
- Drones give Survivors Exposed if they stay in too long. This effect lingers for 15 seconds after leaving the drone’s area, except when Skull Merchant is stunned or blinded, which removes it.
- Drones despawn if Skull Merchant is stunned or blinded.
- (EDIT) Following drones do not hover directly above the Skull Merchant, if the Skull Merchant is moving back and forth, the drone stays still. Basically a delay from her moving and the Drone moving. This is to prevent survivors from seeing the Drone over loops and knowing exactly where the Skull Merchant is.
- Drones cannot be hacked while following.
When choosing to stay:
- Drones stay where they were spawned.
- Drones no longer give the exposed status.
- Drones affect Survivors with the Oblivious status, which lingers 10 seconds after leaving.
- Survivors affected with the Exposed status while in a drone receive +5% repair speed.
- Drones are always hackable when nobody is in the area.
- Drones give Skull Merchant 5% Haste.
- After a Stagnant Drone is hacked, another drone cannot be placed within the zone of that drone for 45 seconds.
Claw Traps:
- No longer break pallets after vaulting.
- Reveal the aura of all survivors in the area for 10 seconds. Forget the tracker, it was dull.
- No longer causes drones to be unhackable, but cannot hack another drone for 90 seconds.
(Everything not mentioned or contradicted remains unchanged btw)
What does all of this do? Well, the stagnant drones are no longer a completely oppressive 3 gen tactic. They do not grant exposed anymore, so to get a down out of it you need to actually chase. If you don’t want to chase and just place another drone, tough ######### cus you need to wait 45 seconds. This means you need to actively defend that gen or 2 people with prove thyself could pretty much complete it before you can place another drone. Defend the gen manually or chase that survivor, no more placing drones 2 seconds after it was hacked and moving on. I know some people will say “well akchuwally, you need to wait until the claw trap is gone to replace that drone” but come on, you got enough spare drones to place it instantly. Survivors getting that small repair speed boost is to punish killers who rely solely on their drones to prevent gens from popping. Defending a gen needs you to actually be there now. A buff here is the oblivious status, you have no idea when she’s coming anymore without perks or comms. If you are in the circle, you hear no terror radius.
Now for the real buff, her new moving drones. Now, her drones can follow her giving her strong buffs and the survivors debuffs, with the small downside being that the survivor can actually counter that drone. A careful killer can avoid this counter, but as long as there is a counter, I see no issue. (Obviously would need testing, if it’s uncounterable then it’s an issue) I don’t think I need to say much more, a drone that follows you giving you speed and instadowns sounds good right? An actual chase AND gen control power rather than an insanely dull 3 gen control power.
All in all, I think these ideas allow for the Skull Merchant to be more than just a map control killer - which is completely stupid. No killer's power should revolve around taking the game hostage, that is what she is right now. She needs a balance of map control and chase power or she's left in the state she is now - able to kill a gen but not a survivor. By all means, keep her power predominantly map control as it's clear that was the intention behind her, but spread her power out to cover more ground fairly than covering 1 area completely. It's like butter on toast, everyone wants it spread across the whole slice, nobody wants just one big fatty lump on 1 half and plain toast on the other. Nobody want's a killer who's unbeatable in one essential area but completely useless in another, we want a balance. Make her strong in gen control and mediocre in chase, I've gone for a 50/50 but idgaf what change you make. As long as she is counterable even at her strongest then I'm happy. Make her the gen control equivalent of Nurse for all I care, as long as you can actually beat a 3 gen Skull Merchant in a timely manner, I'll be happy. If even the best survivors in the game take 55 minutes to beat this cheap and easy strategy that anyone could do then its pretty goddamn clear there's an issue.
I know my ideas actually being implemented is less likely than me getting a girlfriend, but I hope people can realise that a change is needed. Whether or not it’s mine means ######### all to me, all I can hope for is that I help get the ball rolling to a healthier killer that is fun to play as and against, as right now only the sadistic can enjoy the true strength of her current power, leaving survivors to deal with a completely uncounterable 3 gen and forced to either wait an hour to lose, get yourself killed, or just DC - or leaving killers with souls using Skull Merchant inefficiently and losing every time, as all she is good at is holding a 3 gen.
For anyone who doesn’t believe that Skull Merchant is a problem, here’s a link to a long ass video explaining her flaws: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19p2UAZWeeE
Comments
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Not moving drones again.... just stop with those
Go play Knight if you want another braindead AI.
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nah nah nah sorry its a little unclear what I meant. I'm not saying drones that move with AI, I mean drones that just follow The Skull Merchant everywhere she goes hovering around her head, basically just a sprite that appears when she has her power. The drone could not be there at all and just give her the effects of the drone and it'd make no difference, but I feel that would take away from the (poor) design of the killer. All that following drone would do is give her the powers listed, it wouldn't run around the map hunting survivors or following flight paths etc.
I'd also add 1 last suggestion, fix her walk xD. Her hips look like theyre gonna fly out her body at mach speed every step she takes lmao.
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My approach to this is just completely different.
I actually like a claw trap mechanic and would focus on it instead. Simply because it's unique to her.
This is basically new killer and it would take a lot of work to create, where you just create completely new issues instead of fixing the killer.
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I clicked on this expecting to find a like-minded Chad asking for Trapper buffs and I have to read about Chess Merchant instead. Feels bad.
This is a joke, of course. She desperately needs reworked. Playing against her is a snooze fest.
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Yeah I'm aware it'll take a lot of work but she is fundamentally flawed. The claw traps have potential to be good, but the fact that they are a punishment for doing what is an essential part of your objective, I find it really unfun to play against. Her power is a lose-lose situation for survivors with 0 counterplay simply because of her claw traps. If there is a way to make her claw traps more fair then by all means, keep em, but right now they offer the Skull Merchant a level of oppression that no other killer has - completely uncounterable power. Her power as it stands is designed for holding generators, that needs to go. I literally couldn't care less if my idea is the right one, I just really wanna see a change that makes her a fun killer to play as and against, which right now she is far from. I think no matter what, she needs a pretty big rework. Patching her power by changing numbers or adding small effects is futile, she just needs her power reconsidered. I want her power to remain on theme, but it needs to be appropriate for the game.
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Man that is a whole other can of worms xD. I wish Trapper would get a buff I really do, but I doubt its gonna happen. They seem pretty dead set on keeping Trapper easy for newbies, despite the fact that his power is so weak it just makes it hard for them to do anything with it. The only way Trapper can be powerful is if you invest hundreds/thousands of hours into him to learn all the perfect trap spots, and even then its hit or miss. It's also a very inconsistent ideal from them, they want newbie killers to have easy to understand powers but newbie survivors have to play against Sadako? Her power is confusing even to me, someone who's been following this game for 5 years. A newbie is gonna get dicked on by Sadako lmao. I have no ideas on how to improve Trapper right now as I've not given it a ton of thought, but I 100% agree he needs a rework too. His power is way too outdated nowadays. They surely can't expect a killer from launch to still be viable 7 years later without a decent amount of change.
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