http://dbd.game/killswitch
Killer Power Creep
I haven't seen it directly mentioned in the forums yet but it has been mentioned off hand quite a few times and indirectly mentioned a LOT of times.
As the game has progressed over time with new killers being added, its become extremely apparent that quite a few killers are starting to show their age and not in a good way. With the latest addition of Springtrap, quite a few people have pointed out some pretty jarring comparisons between his mechanics and add-ons with other killers. Huntress, Clown, Wraith, and Legion just to name a few.
Huntress has an add-on that allows her to move at 115% movement speed after using all of her hatchets. Springtrap has that at base when he uses the fire axe, automatically becoming 115% Then we have Foxy's hook, which before its nerf, was 10% haste to killer and survivor. The same percentage as Clowns secondary power. A whole part of another killers power being stuffed into a single add-on. Then there's Bonnie's guitar which is a rare add-on that allows Springtrap to see the progress of generators by their aura's. Wraith and Legion have similar add-ons except they're iridescent, the highest add-on rarity. Springtraps doors are also compared often with Sadako's TVs, Demo's portals and Aliens tunnels.
We've seen this sort of invalidating before not just with Springtrap. Another newer addition like Dracula was often compared to Spirit, his bat form being a better version of Spirits phasing while also having two other useful powers on top of that. Dracula has also for a very long time been referred to as just a better Vecna as well in the selection of killers with multiple powers.
One of the earliest power examples of this happening was with Myers and Ghostface who both have powers that revolve around stalking. While they certainly function differently, its still difficult to ignore the similarities. Freddy is another character often used as an example of multiple different existing powers mashed together.
I know that some of these are somewhat on the nitpick side of things, but I think it needs to be addressed and acknowledged. A lot of killers on the roster need updates because they are slowly becoming obsolete and not worth using over another choice who does the same but better. Some killers have retained their individuality, but how long will it last? With the never ending harsh deadlines the devs face, is it even possible to really address this emerging issue? Perks even fall into the same issue, survivor perks especially which have clear outliers that do a better job than a great of perks despite being similar. Maybe I'm just delusional and this isn't an issue, but who can say?
For newer players it may not be apparent but for the veterans who have been here since the start, the cracks in the foundation have always been there, but they just keep getting bigger and bigger.
Comments
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the main thing that changed is the pace of gameplay you simply cannot waste time setting things up anymore. As killer you simply cannot afford to waste time
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You waste anytime as killer and it’s ggs. You lost. Survivors will never understand that stress unless of course if they play both roles equally.
Which is why if I lose 2 or 3 gens quickly for whatever reason, generally it’s because the survivors are just playing very well and efficient, then I will tunnel and buckle down. Just depends. Each flow of my games are different.
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I agree, my friend.
If you allow me to expand a little bit on Freddy, I think his situation is particularly infuriating because his power used to be completely different from the others, but ever since 2019 all that he had available to him were different combinations of pre-existing powers mashed into one.
And this is something I have been saying for a very long time: Freddy's problem wasn't just the lack of power, it was the lack of an identity. Obviously no one can deny that Freddy needed changes, this is pretty much undeniable for anyone who played as Freddy or against Freddy from 2021 to 2025, but his most recent rework went in the wrong direction.
Because it didn't fix this problem, just replaced it.
That also explains both of his statistics: his pick rate is lower than average but his kill rates are extremely high. Because there is literally no reason to pick Freddy unless you just like the character, as everything he does someone else can do. And therefore, the people who do pick him tend to be more experienced and play against players who often don't really know what to do against him. That is not to say we Freddy mains win all of our games, I am not implying that, but you notice how some players have trouble dealing with Freddy because they rarely ever see him.
And someone could claim :"But GeneralV, back when Freddy had his original power his pick rates weren't high, either". Which is, indeed, correct. And it is correct for a very, VERY simple reason: there was never an attempt to fix his power. Old Freddy's primary weakness was his inability to interrupt actions during the Dream Transition, meaning namely being unable to stop a generator or an unhook from happening right in front of you. And they never, not once, attempted to fix that.
Which could have been easily fixed, mind you.
It is just… frustrating, ya know? Having spent so much time giving feedback for Freddy, only for all of it to end up being ignored.
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Forty killers is a lot and the game is overstuffed. There's only so much you can do. You can also only ask survivors to learn so many different abilities too. If you only play killer, you can learn one character and nothing else, if you want. If you play survivor, you have to learn forty characters' powers. If all of them are drastically different (and all of them have as many abilities as these more recent IP characters), there will be way too much being asked of survivors.
I'm guessing it also comes down to money. You can play some simple killer that throws hatchets or turns invisible for free, or you can pay 5 bucks and have 5 killers rolled into one.
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In all honesty, I don't think we've had a truly "original" killer in years. Most are some sort of mishmash of already existing mechanics. Maybe Nemesis with the addition of AI?
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I feel like the two many killers to learn is difficult for survivors is kind of a meh point. Even if you haven't purchased the character or dlc, every killer still has their ability free for reading in game or online. There is also plenty videos online that help people learn how to face these killers or be a better survivor in general. That being said, this information should be much more available in a more advanced tutorial which the game lacks.
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As a xeno main looking at springtrap being better and more comfortable to play in almost every way, it is noticeable they are slowly running out of unique ideas.
The game has to fix each killer to revolve around generators/windows/pallets. They've never considered adding some kind of new loop mechanic besides windows and pallets, for example when springtrap was teased it almost sounded like they wanted to add vents.
As for perks theres only so many ways to increase healing speed to a point where most of the healing perks now just add a slight boost in speed when mixed with oreilas perk.
Itd be nice to see older killers brought up to par with todays "updated" killers even tho they are still somewhat effective
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People shouldn't have to do independant research to play a game though. No game has ever required me to watch outside videos to learn it. Imagine you're getting on this game for the first time and know nothing. Not only do you need to read sometimes lengthy descriptions of mutiple abilities (and remember all of them) but you also have to read the add-on descriptions because half the killers' powers are in those. And even then, they don't tell you various ways to counter some abilities, like hopping in a locker if a Michael goes tier 3 while chasing you with add-ons.
For the tutorial, they could fake matches where you go against bots with tips throughout, but going against 40 killers for a tutorial would be insanely tedious. I just don't think they really need any more killers.
Post edited by cogsturning on1 -
That's honestly a point I think alot of killer mains fail to appreciate. With such a huge roster it's alot to ask of people to be aware of all those different powers and how to counter them. Not to mention any addons they have that changes their power drastically. Whereas most killer mains only really play a handful of killers. Not many are familiar with the entire roster and all their quirks.
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That's why killers like Twins have an unusually high kill rate. They appear so rarely so no one really knows what to do when they encounter one, and on top of that Twins is still regarded as a very strong killer disregarding her and Victor's bugs.
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Maybe because they're differently designed?
If you look at numbers alone, it seems like huntress is worse than springtrap.
Then you remember that her mechanics allow her to be a queen of proxy camping and snowball games very fast if survivors swarm her (which will need to happen bc you ARE NOT trading vs huntress if she has cooldown addons) and she doesnt miss.
She can spam 7 hatchets back to back and deal up to 7 health stages of damage with her power alone in under 10 seconds while springtrap can ONLY deal ONE in 10, so of course his power would make up for that by giving him 4.6 during the cooldown. He also is unable to really camp (sitting in door is a terrible idea because AFC still works, it doesnt work anytime you are pushed to the limit) or snowball in general, he can only do a fancy 2 tap which saves time and protects him.
Pixelbush made a good point that this isn't a powercreep, this is a healthcreep. Springtrap is a better and healthier designed killer which allows him to featurecreep and powercreep huntress' power at baseline because he is not allowed to get away with things that huntress can. Which makes him weaker than her, just more versatile and fitting into the gameplay loop developers expect.
The more camping/slugging/etc will get nerfed, the worse huntress and other old designs like that will get while healthier improvements will outshine them and that's okay.
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I play a lot of xenomorph and I still find him more appealing.
yeah, im missing out on range, but my power is almost twice as fast to deal damage within effective range (we will account both wind up & release & delay) after I tap the button, I am actually 4.6 all the time, my power is not limited with an extra long cooldown so if I dont miss tail, I have basekit STBFL on a superior attack and my tunnels arent shared with survivors (and they also feel nicer to use plus they have tracking aspect to them so I can find survivors or check all gens)
Turrets arent pleasant to deal with, but I'd rather deal with bodyblock traps and occasional double setup I can still avoid if I dont let survivor reach it for free rather than with free map mobility that survivors can use very freely because the timing to interrupt it is incredibly narrow
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Ive also got xeno to p100 and still play him over springtrap, i just mean how springtrap doesnt have to deal with the lower viewpoiint, the doors are easier to just go in pick one come out, and then u get such a long undetectable status to just get the drop on people just for using the door. On xeno i often feel like walking to a generator rather than going in the tunnel ecause they wont know my exact direction im coming from unless they can see me, and sometimes it feels really out of the way and long to get in and travel with just to get to the other side. And i don't know about occasional double turrets but im at a stage where everyone places double turrets lol. Im just saying springtraps utility park feels faster and easier to use with more benefits. Ibdo occasionally use the tunnels to find someone with the wider footstep detection addon. Hes just got allot more going against him with the exception of fire rate on his m2. And so far everyones afraid to use the doors anyway until ur against swat teams
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I think it's just a matter of preference and, yeah, people not having doors figured out yet.
realistically, you should be dealing with a bit slower 1/3 gens because you have perma WH on you and then survivors doing insta map rotations while youre busy hooking, not with people basically ignoring these mechanics
it's like if xenomorph had a bug on the release that made survivors permanently slowed down after taking a turret so they just avoided them, i bet xeno would feel like powercreep as well
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