Survivor Perk Overhaul

OnryosTapeRentals

Introduction

I think it's pretty unanimously agreed in the community that the vast majority of perks in this game -- particularly for survivors -- are bad. Because of this, people tend to run the same handful of perks every match and things can get stale pretty quickly. Not to mention, some characters' perks are so bad that the DLCs are not even worth buying for survivors unless you particularly like their lore/design.

I hate to sound cliché, but variety is the spice of life. And I think it would do a great deal of good for the game if some time was spent going back and looking at the survivor perk pool.

I'm going to go through and give my thoughts on the survivor perks I think need changes -- starting with the general perks and then the unique perks.

Universal Changes

Before I start talking about specific perks, I think there's a few changes that need to be made across the board:

• Standardise perk descriptions: Currently, a lot of perk descriptions are messy and unnecessarily difficultto understand. With so many perks in the game, it needs to be clearer what they actually do. The main issues I have are:

1. Excessive flavour text: Don't get me wrong, I enjoy flavour text, but it's nowhere near as important as the perk's actual function. So why then it it the first thing you read when you check out a perk? Flavour text should be visually distinct from the perk's effects to avoid clutter and confusion. Thankfully BHVR seem to be aware of this, and have done this for the recent Alien and Alan Wake Chapters. If you look at the flavour text on any of Ellen's or Alan's perks, it's a fainter colour and is italicised, allowing the perk's effects to be the main focus of the description. This is great, but needs to be applied retroactively too. There's also some flavour text that I think should be outright removed. Phrases like "Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability" don't really tell us anything worthwhile and are often made obsolete by following sentences. If the perk's description tells us it lets us read auras, we don't need the flavour text to tell us too.
2. Inconsistent terminology: This is another issue that seems to have been resolved with recent Chapters, but needs looking at for older perks. Lots of perks refer to the same things with different names and it's needlessly confusing. For example, Bond tells us it reveals "Allies" auras whereas Better Together directly states "Survivors". Dance With Me refers to "fast vaults", Quick and Quiet refers to "quickly vaulting", and Lithe calls it a "rushed vault". For The People states it only works at "full health" whereas Blood Rush activates while "healthy". I could go on, but you get the gist.
3. Inconsistent formatting: Sometimes parts of perk descriptions are bold, sometimes they're italicised, and sometimes they're highlighted in a different colour -- seemingly with little rhyme or reason. For example, in We'll Make It, the duration is highlighted in red, but in Second Wind it's yellow. In Laurie's perks, "The Killler can only be obsessed with one Survivor [...]" is brown but is white for seemingly all other Obsession perks. There needs to be a set of guidelines that dictate how formatting is applied. I.e. which words are embolded, which phrases are italicised, and what different colours indicate.

• Standardise Teamwork perks: It doesn't make sense that perks of the same type have opposing activation requirements. Collective Stealth activates upon being healed whereas Power of Two works when healing someone else -- effectively preventing you from using them together. In the same way all Boons work after blessing a totem, Teamwork perks should share a common activation requirement. I propose the following:

Rework: Teamwork perks activate whenever you complete an altruistic action (healing, unhooking, killer grasp rescue, or protection hits) on another survivor.

• Standardise perk stacking: Perk effects should stack unless otherwise stated. I believe the only offending perks here are Open Handed and Wiretap. They don't stack, but because the game doesn't tell you this, players still try and run them together. Either make them stack, or change the descriptions to indicate that they don't.

• Standardise aura-map interactions: All aura perks should add what they reveal to a carried Map. Currently, I believe this only works for Deja Vu and Detective's Hunch but should be applied across the board.

• Remove perk tiers: Perk tiers are outdated and only serve to bloat the Bloodweb nowadays. Scrapping tiers would help new players to get the perks they want a little easier, without having to slog through hundreds of Bloodwebs.

General Perks

I'll start by going through the general perks:

• Dark Sense: I don't like its current iteration. Dark Sense only activating when the killer comes within 24 meters is silly because if the killer is that close you probably know roughly where they are anyways. Revert to its old effect and up the duration:

Rework: Each time a generator is completed, reveal the killer's aura for 10 seconds.

• This way, you can keep track of the killer no matter where they are on the map -- which is much more helpful if you're up against a trapping killer, for example.

• Slippery Meat: This one is terrible and every time I see someone try to get value from it, it backfires and they just end up hitting second stage. I think it could be reworked into a nice anti-tunnel perk:

Rework: After being unhooked or unhooking yourself, gain 3% Haste until another survivor is hooked.

• I know people might be immediately concerned about a permanent Haste effect given recent history, but I don't think this will be problematic like MFT was. The issue with MFT was that all survivors could have it -- extending ALL of your chases with no real counter. With Slippery Meat, only the most recently unhooked survivor could have it and you'd only actually have to deal with the 3% if you decide to tunnel. Sounds like a nice deterrent.

• Spine Chill: Not great. If the killer has a direct LoS on you then you also likely have a direct LoS on them which makes this perk kind of pointless. I'd drop the gimmicky lingering action speed bonus and bring back its old information functionality:

Rework: Get notified when the Killer is looking in your direction and standing within a range of 36 metres.

• This Is Not Happening: Possibly one of the worst perks in the game. Experienced players can hit Great Skill Checks consistently without the need for a perk, and inexperienced players often struggle to just hit Good ones so increasing the Great Skill Check zone by only 30% isn't going to help them much. Plus you have to be injured for it to work at all. Drop the injured requirement and make it apply to both the Good and Great zones, and then it's decent to actually help new players avoid blowing up generators constantly:

Rework: Increases Skill Check success zones by 30%.

Unique Perks

Now for perks belonging to characters:

• Ace in the Hole: Kind of a tangent, but I think being able to find add-ons in Chests should be a basekit feature tied to the Luck mechanic. Both keys and maps are virtually useless without add-ons, and needing one specific perk just to make finding them in a match viable is silly. I propose reworking the Luck mechanic.

Rework:

-Luck affects the probability of successfully unhooking yourself.

-Luck affects the rarity of items found in chests.

-Survivors have a small chance of finding one add-on of Very Rare rarity or lower attached to items retrieved from a chest, and a smaller chance of finding an additional add-on of Uncommon rarity or lower attached. Luck improves the chances of finding add-ons, as well as the probability of getting rarer add-ons.

• Now Luck add-ons actually have some use. As for Ace in the Hole, I think it should guarantee two add-ons:

Rework: When retrieving an item from a chest, an add-on of Very Rare rarity or lower, and an add-on of Uncommon rarity or lower will be attached to it.

• Adrenaline: Only change this perk needs is to not wake you up against Freddy. There's no reason for Adrenaline to put an already weak killer in an even more difficult position.

Rework: Adrenaline no longer wakes up survivors when facing The Nightmare.

• Aftercare: I really don't think this perk needs to reset upon being hooked. It rewards you for going out and interacting with your team -- which is what we should be promoting.

Rework: Aftercare no longer resets its effects once hooked.

• Autodidact: I don't think it needs to start with such a hefty penalty considering it's entirely reliant on RNG.

Number change: You start the trial with a progression penalty of -15% when succeeding a Good Skill Check while healing another survivor (was -25%).

• Blood Rush: This one is a neat concept, but poorly executed. It's just too situational to get value from; you need to be healthy, on death hook, and have an Exhaustion perk. Plus, it encourages killers to tunnel you off hook. If they let you get away to heal up, then you can hit them with Blood Rush and make things more difficult for them later. I'd say rework it into a more anti-tunneling perk (which I think was probably the original intent):

Rework: Blood Rush activates when you are one hook away from death and injured. Press the Active Ability button to instantly recover from Exhaustion and enter Deep Wound. Blood Rush is disabled for the remainder of the Trial.

• Now it'll help you make distance if a killer tries to tunnel you off hook but won't unfairly punish killers for not tunneling.

• Boon: Dark Theory: I think they could up the Haste effect on this one. Again, I know people will probably worry that we'll have another MFT scenario but I don't think it'll be an issue. Boons require setup time, only work in a 24 meter radius, and they can be snuffed out so I think it's okay for them to have effects on the stronger side.

Number change: Increased the Haste effect to 3% (was 2%).

• Boon: Illumination: This one is pretty lacklustre. Seeing generators is nice, but nowhere near as impactful as the other Boons. The real appeal to this perk for me is the faster blessing time it grants you, allowing you to move your Boon more easily once it's up. I think that's what they should lean into here. Ditch the additional cleansing speed and instead up the blessing speed bonus by a tonne to make this a really nice perk to pair with other Boons:

Rework: Increases your action speed for Blessing by 100% when you have a lit Boon Totem.

• Now when you're done in one area of the map, you can quickly transfer your Boon elsewhere without wasting a silly amount of time tracking down a new Totem and then re-blessing.

• Calm Spirit: This perk really doesn't need an action speed penalty attached to it.

Rework: Calm Spirit no longer reduces Chest and Totem interaction speeds.

• Cut Loose: For a niche effect, the timer on this perk is really restrictive and the cooldown is overly long:

Number change: Upped the duration of the perk to 8 seconds (was 6) and reduced the cooldown to 30 seconds (was 45).

• Decisive Strike: The stun duration needs upping again -- 3 seconds is far too short. 5 seconds was too long in instances where survivors forced non-tunneling killers to eat the stun, so 4 seconds seems like a good middle ground:

Number change: Upped the duration of the stun to 4 seconds (was 3).

• Friendly Competition: This perk is bad for two reasons. Firstly, it encourages grouping up on generators -- which is inefficient. And secondly, the bonus it gives is too low. It's also outclassed by Prove Thyself, Overzealous, and Deja Vu. I think they should completely rework it into something more fun:

Rework: If you are the survivor with the most Bloodpoints, gain a 10% action speed boost to repairing, healing, sabotaging, unhooking, cleasning, blessing, opening, and unlocking,

• Now it's really a competition!

• Inner Focus: Doesn't need the range requirement on the aura reading. Perks like Alert are able to reveal the killer's aura regardless of their position on the map -- Inner Focus should too.

Rework: Whenever another survivor loses a health state, the killer's aura is revealed to you for 5 seconds.

• Iron Will: There's really no reason for this perk to deactivate when Exhausted. Reducing the number from 100% to 75% was already a significant nerf -- it didn't need another one on top.

Rework: Iron Will no longer deactivates when Exhausted.

• Pharmacy: The big problem with this perk is chests have often already been searched by the time you're injured, meaning you can't actually use it. Pharmacy should instead grant the ability to rummage through a chest to find a medkit, making it in line with Residual Manifest and Scavenger:

Rework: Grants the ability to rummage through an opened Chest once per Trial and guarantees an Emergency Medkit. While injured, unlocking and rummaging through Chests is 80% faster and the hearing range of noises caused by unlocking and rummaging are reduced by 8 meters.

• Poised: Another contender for worst survivor perk. It's a weak effect, for a short duration, and is outclassed by pretty much every other stealth perk. It needs to a more impactful effect:

Rework: After a generator is completed, you leave no Scratch Marks and gain a 5% Haste effect for 10 seconds.

• Now it's a nice tool to get to another objective quickly after finishing a generator, but can also help you out if it procs while you're being chased.

• Potential Energy: Having both an inefficient conversion rate and losing stacks when hit is overkill. Pick one drawback to keep and get rid of the other.

Number change: Converts 1% of repair progress into one token (was 1.5).

• Red Herring: This is a fun perk in theory, but in practice it's more of a hindrance because you have to run far away from your generator before setting off the notification or else you're just bringing the killer towards you. I suggest changing it to activate at the generator furthest from your position:

Rework: Entering a locker will trigger a Loud Noise Notification for the killer at the generator furthest from your position. The generator will be highlighted to you in yellow for 3 seconds. Red Herring has a cooldown of 40 seconds.

• Rookie Spirit: Not a bad effect per se, but why pick this perk when there are others like Deja Vu that reveal auras and give you an additional benefit. The perk needs to do a little more to be a viable choice. I suggest adding a new effect in addition to what it currently does:

Bonus effect: You only have to repair 1% of a generator to stop regression (as opposed to the usual 5%).

• Teamwork: Collective Stealth and Teamwork: Power of Two: These aren't bad effects, but they're hampered by awkward activation conditions, an excessively long cooldown, and an easy-to-lose benefit. As aforementioned, I propose they now activate follwing any altruistic action. This would allow you to pull of a hook rescue and then dash away with your teammate somewhere safe to heal, for example. I'd also slash the cooldown in half and allow you to keep the benefit if someone gets injured.

Rework: Whenever you complete an altruistic action on another survivor, Teamwork: Collective Stealth activates. You and the survivor you helped leave no Scratch Marks so long as you remain within 12 m of each other. Teamwork: Collective Stealth has a cooldown of 70 seconds. Survivors can only be affected by one instance of Teamwork: Collective Stealth at a time.

• The description for reworked Power of Two would read much the same. For brevity, I'm not going to write out both, I'm sure everyone gets the idea.

• Technician: This perk is supposed to help out newer players, but it does more harm than good. An additional 3% penalty is wholly unnecessary. Remove the penalty and it could actually be decent.

Rework: Removed the additional progress penalty on failing a Skill Check.

• Up The Ante: Not amazing currently, but with the Luck rework I proposed I think it could be okay.

• Visionary: Laughably bad perk -- it's basically Deja Vu but with no action speed boost and a cooldown for some reason. Get rid of the cooldown and give it an additional effect:

Rework: The auras of generators are revealed to you within 32 meters. The intensity of generator auras indicates their repair progress.

• We're Gonna Live Forever: Basically just Buckle Up but with an activation requirement -- why bother running this? Rework it completely into something more fun and unique:

Rework: Upon taking a Protection Hit, the Survivor you protected gains 10% Haste for 10 seconds.

• Now you can use it to help out a teammate who is being tunnelled.

End

These are just some of my ideas that I think would be neat. If you don't agree that's fine! There's also a few perks I missed out because I just don't know what to do with them. Thanks for reading! :)

OnryosTapeRentals

I accidentally posted this early before actually writing everything but I've just now finished updating it, so hopefully it's all there this time 🤞

sizzlingmario4

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/405224/survivor-perk-overhaul

Regarding the Open-Handed + Wiretap issue: The reason these don’t work together is because Open-Handed only affects aura ranges centered on survivors (either yourself or a teammate), and Wiretap doesn't fall into that category so it's not affected. That general rule is something they need to add to Open-Handed’s description imo; it’s not just a Wiretap thing. It also doesn’t, for example, increase the range you see NOED at because that aura range is centered on the hex totem.

Completely agree with you about the perk description formatting and standardizing terminology. Another example of the inconsistent terminology is Alert - unlike most perks which specifically refer to auras it just says “the killer is revealed for 5 seconds.” No mention of the word aura at all.

UndeddJester

I actually like pretty much everything there. Nice job. Some points I would mention: -

• This Is Not Happening - If we're removing the injured condition, there are potential problems for Hyperfocus. I would ensure that only the good area is expanded, however, I would place a small amount of that good check before the great check, make it easier for newer players to go for, without punishing them for going too soon as well as too late.
• Decisive Strike - Probably fine at 4s, though I did like the idea of 3.5s stun and a power disable of 7s, to make it more uniform across all killers. (Stun on Nurse =/= a stun on Trapper).
• Calm Spirit - Happy with this. I'd consider also removing the entire interaction with chest and totem noise as well. None of that makes sense for the perk.
• Dark Sense - We'd need a new challenge for that point thing... apparently its been fixed after like 2 years xD
• Autodidact - Not so sure on this one... with Deadline it's actually decent. I think a 5% increase to skillcheck chance while healing would be a better buff.

I especially wanted to mention your changes to Rookie Spirit and Friendly Competition, that is actually genius.

An alternative I wanted to throw at you for Slippery Meat though:

• Slippery Meat - Other perks would be better suited for anti-tunnel I feel, especially if we're buffing Decisive. Instead keep it an anti camp perk, and focus it on proxy camping, have it piggy back off the AFC system.

Rework: Extends the AFC range by 6m

Regardless, lots of great stuff here... even if a hefty read xD