Monster Hunter in Dead By Daylight: The Potential and Problems

DragonMasterDarren

If you've kept up with me on the DBD Discord or the Forums for the last 2 years, it should be no surprise when I say that I love Monster Hunter, ever since my grandma got me World for Christmas of 2019 I have fallen in love with this series. You would also probably know that I have been desperate for a Monster Hunter Chapter in Dead By Daylight, and seeing as nobody else seems to want it nearly as badly as I do, I figured I put on the Gauntlet, say "Fine, I'll do it myself" and make a serious argument for why Monster Hunter fits into this little game of ours.

If you've watched Pixel Bush's Potential and Problems videos that I am shamelessly ripping off you know how the formula goes, I'm going to give a brief explanation for what this series is, give reasons for why it would and wouldn't fit into Dead By Daylight, and then offer a power concept at the end, so without further ado, lets begin.

First of all, what is Monster Hunter?

Monster Hunter is a video game series developed by Capcom, the original game released in 2004 on the Playstation 2, and has since evolved into Capcom's best selling franchise, with Monster Hunter World becoming their best selling game in 2018, only to be completely and utterly dwarfed by Monster Hunter Wilds in 2025. The series' story changes from each entry, ranging from tracking down and stopping a Gore Magala in 4 Ultimate, to exploring and documenting the wonders of the New World in World/Iceborne, to uncovering the mysteries behind the Rampage in Rise. The stories are ultimately more set-dressing then anything else, but always carry the themes of man versus nature and humanity's role in the ecosystem. The gameplay loop consists of hunting small monsters like Baggi or Jagras, crafting armour and weapons out of their materials, then moving on to increasingly bigger monsters, before ultimately culminating in a fight with the game's flagship like Nergigante, Malzeno, or Arkveld, and then ending with a secret final boss like Xeno'Jiva or Zoh Shia.

With this explanation in mind, why do I think Monster Hunter fits into Dead By Daylight?

Monster Hunter is not a horror game, let me be absolutely clear on that, it's not even a action horror game like Resident Evil is, its all action, a power fantasy that puts you in the shoes of a superhuman that can wield a sword twice the size of their body and fight giant dragons with it. That being said, this is entirely down to how the series is framed, lets frame this series in a different way.

Lets put a normal, real person in the world of Monster Hunter, with nothing that makes the people in this world what they are, how long would you guess they survive in a world where even the weakest monsters are bigger then people and many of them can quietly easily rip someone to shreds? My bet is on not long, the only reason this series isn’t a horror genre is because the player characters are incredibly powerful, a normal person wouldn’t feel empowered in this world, they’d be ######### terrified.

In fact, let’s go over some just some of the scary stuff in this universe

• Vespoids might just a annoyance to Hunters, but they’re bugs that are the size of a small child and capable of paralysing someone with just a single sting.
• Nerscylla are giant spiders that flay Gypceros alive and wear their skin as armour
• There’s a story in Freedom Unite of a Chameleos showing up to a town and making the entire population disappear, not killed or eaten, disappear, as in gone, as in nobody could find a trace of them or their bodies.
• Deviljo is basically Godzilla and can cause a ecosystem to collapse entirely on its own if left unchecked
• Multiple species of Elder Dragon can cause a environment to shift around them with just their presence
• Kehzu, enough said
• Safi’Jiva was able to drain a sizeable region and leave it seemingly barren and unable to support life entirely on its own, and Xeno’Jiva likely would have done the same to the entire New World had the Hunter not killed it
• Shara Ishvalda’s wing vibrations can cause earthquakes
• Gaismagrom is the literal Devil in all but name
• Alatreon are so elementally unstable that they might as well be living nuclear bombs, and have the personality to match
• And finally, It is canon that a Fatalis burnt Schrade to the ground in a single night on its own, and the region around Castle Schrade is still completely devoid of life because nothing in this universe wants to be within the same ZIP code as it

Let me repeat my earlier point, this series is only not a horror series because it doesn’t try to be, Capcom could very easily make a MH horror game if they wanted to. Hell I’d argue that they already did on numerous occasions, I was scared shitless of Deviljo when I first ran into it in World, I am still scared of Rajang despite having killed then on several occasions, My heart was doing backflips the entire time I was fighting Alatreon, and I still haven’t tried to solo Fatalis in Iceborne because I am deeply afraid of it. This series might not be one that’s intentionally Horror, but it can very easily be spun into a horror game, and it can definitely fit into DBD’s ensemble, I’m just saying, a giant spider like Nerscylla wouldn’t look out of place in DBD’s lineup. It also makes perfect sense from a business perspective, Capcom is one of BHVR’s best business partners if the fact that we have 2 separate Resident Evil Chapters plus a ton of skins already, and Monster Hunter, as I said, is Capcom’s best selling IP, Wilds on release had 1.3 million people worldwide playing it, I’m sure more then a few of them would at least give DBD a passing glance if they learnt they could play as a Monster in it.

I feel like I’ve done a fairly good job of giving reasons for why I think Monster Hunter is a good license to add for both thematic and financial reasons, but I haven’t really given a reason for why it fits logistically, and there is good reason for this, that being that actually fitting a Monster Hunter chapter into DBD is the hardest part.

There are two reasons why this is a issue, literal size, as well as power.

The majority of Monsters in this series even on the smaller scale are really big, example,

This is a Kulu-Ya-Ku, even when slightly crouching a Hunter only goes up to their chest, and this is one of the smaller monsters in the series, many of them are much bigger, and more then a few are bigger then houses, the biggest monster on record currently, Zorah Magdaros, is a literal walking volcano.

Needless to say, this poses a mild problem, many of the series' most famous monsters are very big, big enough that they can't realistically fit in most Dead By Daylight maps if they were portrayed accurately, and then there is the second problem, Power, both literally and figuratively.

Lets take just a passing glance at Rathalos, the series poster boy, its primary traits are flying, fire breath, and venomous talons, the fire breath and talons are fairly simple but the flight is a big problem, DBD isn't a very vertical game, and implementing a accurate Rathalos would create a instant S tier killer that could ignore obstacles better then Nurse. This is just one Monster that is considered middle of the road in terms of strength, and that's also not factoring in the suspense of disbelief needed to be fine with a giant Monster getting stunned by a wooden pallet and not instantly ripping a Survivor in half.

However, I don't think this is necessarily a dealbreaker, first the size problem, BHVR has changed the size of killers before, Nemesis is a lot bigger in RE3 then he is in DBD, Chucky is a lot smaller in the movies then he is in DBD, and lets not forget that Xenomorph Queens can reach upwards of 90 feet tall in canon but in game are the same size as a regular killer, if they're already willing to play with sizes to make killers fit into DBD better, I don't see why they couldn't shrink down a Monster to make it fit into DBD. Secondly, the power issue also has a very simple fix, just pick a Monster that either can't fly or doesn't fly very often and there are a ton of Monsters that fit this bill, most Bird Wyverns, Brute Wyverns and Fanged Beasts, and even a select few Flying Wyverns don't actually fly that frequently, and many of them have at least something that can be turned into a power.

So, with this in mind, we need a Monster that is famous enough to the focal point of a entire Chapter, be small enough where scaling them down wouldn't look too out of place, can't fly or doesn't fly very often, has a interesting set of abilities to turn into a power, and ideally have a battle theme that could be turned into a chase theme.

I came up with a few ideas that I ultimately shut down for one reason or another, but luckily for us, I think I've found a suitable candidate.

Make way for the Brutish Indigo: Brachydios.

I decided on Brachy for a couple of reasons. For starters, Brachydios is a Flagship Monster, being the poster boy for 3 Ultimate. For two, while Brachy are fairly big, as shown below, they're not unreasonably big and can be shrank down to fit better into the game.

For three, its battle theme could be turned into a great chase theme, and fourth, and most importantly of all, its power, Brachydios bond with a special and volatile slime that is prone to exploding, what does this mean for DBD? A new, more aggressive Trap Killer.

Here's what I've come up with.

Brachydios, or The Brutish Indigo, is a tall 115% Killer, its power is Explosive Slime.

Holding the Use Power button will allow The Brutish Indigo to charge Slimy Punch, Slimy Punch is a variant of the basic attack that can place up to 8 explosive pools of Slime around the environment. These pools go through 3 stages, Dormant, Active, and Volatile, and cover a 3 by 3 metre area.

Dormant puddles are green and inactive, these puddles don't do too much except inflict Survivors that step through them with a 10% Hinder for as long as they stand in the puddle and for 10 seconds after they leave its radius, additionally, they inflict a new condition called Blastblight, more on that in a bit.

After 10 seconds, Dormant pools become Active, indicated by them becoming orange and making a noticeable sizzling sound, once a pool becomes active, Brachydios can remotely detonate these puddles by looking at them and pressing the Secondary Power button, causing the pool to become Volatile and explode 2 seconds later. Survivors within the slime pool when it detonates take a health state of damage. Active Pools can also become Volatile on their own after 60 seconds. Once a pool has detonated, Brachydios will be able to place a new one.

Slime Explosions have additional effects besides hindering and damaging, Generators that are next to a slime explosion automatically start regressing when they explode, and downed pallets are also automatically destroyed if a Slime Pool detonates under them, giving the power some additionally time saving utility.

Finally, there's two special interactions, Blastblight, and Puddle Pods.

First, lets explain Puddle Pods, Survivors upon loading into a match against Brachydios will be equipped with a Slinger on their right arm, Puddle Pods are objects Survivors can find around the environment and load into their Slinger, each Puddle Pod gives you 5 shots, holding down the Use Item button will let you aim your Slinger, and then pressing the Interact Key will fire a shot, if a Puddle Pod shot hits a Active or Volatile Slime pool, it will go back to Dormant for 10 seconds. Essentially, they're ranged EMPs made to balance out the fact that Brachydios can injure people for free across the map and automatically destroy pallets and damage gens.

Finally, there's Blastblight, Survivors directly injured by Slime Punch or who step into Slime Pools are inflicted with this status effect for 30 seconds, with a timer visible on the player icon, and a sizzling noise becoming louder and louder as the timer wears down. If the timer ticks down to zero, they take a health state, after which Blastblight is removed. This status is dangerous, but can be removed by either shooting your feet with Puddle Pods, which takes 3 shots total in quick succession, or by other survivors shooting you with Puddle Pods, which takes 2 shots.

I don't have time to come up with addons, but the general idea behind this power was to make a aggressive and, well, monstrous killer, while also addressing some of the issues with Trap Killers, mainly time inefficiency and keeping a area completely locked down by making Slime pools quick to set up and automatically detonate, letting the Brachydios get a web set up quickly while also forcing them to not just camp a area, I also wanted to be mostly accurate to how Brachy fights and is dealt with in World, I would have included Deodorant as a way to cleanse yourself of Blastblight like you can in 3 Ultimate, but ultimately decided against it so that the power wouldn't be even more complicated.

So yeah, that's my opinion on how Monster Hunter could realistically fit into Dead By Daylight, if logistics weren't a concern I would have gone with something like Malzeno, Velkhana, Zinogre, or Alatreon. But honestly I will take just about anything, even if it's just some cosmetics. Let me know what you think or what your choice for a Monster Hunter killer would be, have a good one.

G'night