The Skull Merchant needs Changes (REWORK)

Barin
Barin Member Posts: 46
edited January 2025 in Feedback and Suggestions

The Skull Merchant has a bad reputation. She is very weak and not liked by the community. Even though she is nerfed, people still disconnect against her.

She has potential, but she is underutilized in using her radar for mind games and placing drones as traps.

My goal is to make her less annoying, but still interesting.

The Skull Merchant - REWORK

Base

  • The Skull Merchant has 8 drones that can be placed anywhere
  • The Skull Merchant has 2 different Drones: Stealth and Scouting Drones
  • If a Survivor is within 4 meters of a Drone, the Survivor receives a Claw Trap

Lock on Meter

  • The Lock On Meter's maximum is +2 stacks
  • If a Survivor enters the Drone's range, it fills the lock on meter by +1 stack

Claw Trap

  • The Claw Trap has a battery life of 60 seconds and cannot be removed until 30 seconds
  • When the Survivor has a Claw Trap, they can be seen on the Radar for the duration
  • Claw Traps can be removed by playing a minigame

Hacking a Drone

  • Drones can be disabled for 30 seconds by crouching within 4 meters
  • Hacked Drones cannot be returned to the Skull Merchant for the duration

Stealth Drones

  • When a Stealth Drone is placed, the Drone creates a hidden circular Detection zone.
  • The Stealth Drone has a radius of 4 meters
  • When Survivors enter the Drone's range, they are hindered for 5 seconds
  • If a Survivor has +2 stacks and enters a Stealth Drone's range, they become Exposed for 30 seconds

Scouting Drones

  • When a Scouting Drone is placed, the Drone creates a visible circular Detection Zone
  • The Scouting Drone has a radius of 8 meters
  • When Survivors enter the Drone's range, they can be seen on the Radar
  • If a Survivor has +2 stacks and enters a Scouting Drone's range, the Skull Merchant becomes Undetected for 30 seconds
Post edited by Barin on

Comments

  • PetTheDoggo
    PetTheDoggo Member Posts: 2,158
    edited January 2025

    That looks very weak to me. This is purely trap based killer, but not much is happening even if survivor "steps" into my trap. This is worse than trapper.

    Scounting drones can be ignored, undetectable on most maps is not big deal especially when I am in chase with Skully. I don't see any reason why I would ever use them over Stealth drones. They do nothing in chase, so it is just unreliable stealth.

    All I need to do is make sure I don't step into stealth drone while being healthy. Also depends on hindered level, but so far seems like worse Clown.

    If drones alone has such a low impact, easily visible and can be always avoided, then claw trap would need to get at least on original Skully level.

    Idk, if I am missing something, does she still get stealth on drone deploy? Does she get haste when survivor gets tagged?

    This also didn't address the reason, why she is hated by survivors. Even this concept is simply, get to loop → deploy stealth drone → repeat

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 9,513

    she mostly needs revert. ever since they removed haste from her claw traps. her kill-rate and win-rate went extremely negative. put it simply, her traps are unrewarding to use. they're easiest traps to spot and offer low reward even if the survivor gets trapped. i don't enjoy playing her ever said change. she does not need total overhaul unless they find overhaul that is more fun than previous iteration. Just tweaks(2nd option in the survey) is sufficient.

  • Barin
    Barin Member Posts: 46
    edited January 2025

    I intended to make the Skull Merchant a better trap Killer and have removed the haste. Foremost, I wanted to reward setting traps early that are in a good position.

    In my opinion, losing a health state because of drones or gaining haste + hindered is annoying for the Survivor. That is why I reworked her this way and have more emphasis on the Radar for chasing.

    The Claw Traps used to be stronger and more apparent in games.

    So my solutions are:

    1. Survivors are exposed while having a Claw Trap, more viable.
    2. Every time a Survivor is inside a Stealth Drone, the action Speed of Skull Merchant of breaking pallets, walls, gens and vaulting windows is increased by 20% for 30 seconds.
    3. Scouting Drones increases your movement speed of Skull Merchant by 5% while inside the drone.

    I forgot to say this in my post, but Devs if you going to change Skull Merchant, have a way for Survivors to remove Locked on Stacks. Now you cannot get rid of them when you get scanned.