http://dbd.game/killswitch
Early Discussion About Skull Merchant: One Step Forward, Two Steps Back, And Her Identity
Greetings, friends of the Fog! I hope this thread finds you doing well.
As you may know or may not know, the Skull Merchant recently surpassed Freddy and became my favorite killer in Dead By Daylight. I am having more fun with her than I did with Old Freddy, and considering how much I loved Old Freddy, that is saying something.
The problem, however, is that this fun has, possibly, an expiration date. It is no secret that Skull Merchant is set to be reworked in early 2026, as recently confirmed by the developers during the Reddit AMA. Said confirmation comes well after two design previews that were, in my opinion, really bad. Not only they presented a killer that would be boring to play as and against, but also completely erased her identity and replaced with dash and mid-range M2, things we already have more than enough of.
The reassurance came from the fact that the design previews were, well, previews. They were not final, they could be subjected to changes and, most importantly, could be used to collect feedback. From what I've seen, Skull Merchant players were clear when expressing their dislike of the identity erasure, even in discussions that happened after said previews. However, when the future of Skull Merchant was mentioned in the Reddit AMA yesterday, the response wasn't exactly promising:
There are three different things to unpack here. I've already covered them in a recent thread posted by @jasonq500, but I would like to go over each of them in more detail here:
"Retain trap playstyle". This one is good and there are no negatives about it. Preserving the trap playstyle is extremely important and I was happy when I read it. The other two, however, are far more concerning.
"Remove passive lethality". This one is mixed. When I first read it, I thought it was a contradiction. Because trap killers have passive lethality, that is the point of a trap killer. The active part of their playstyle is setting up and creating your web, and this web of traps they create passively acquires results. This is true for Trapper and Hag. Trapper doesn't manually control his traps to go around the map chomping survivors, and Hag doesn't move her phantasms until a teleport is available. These killers have passive gains, that is how it should work.
However, here there is a possibility that they meant something similar to her original design. If you recall, Skull Merchant's drones originally exposed you and applied the claw trap, but they didn't injure you. If that is what they mean, then it is okay.
"The Buddy Drone": this one is, by far, the worst of the three, and easily the most concerning. As of the moment this post is being written, the only information we have regarding this feature is the second design preview, where the Buddy Drone was exactly what she shouldn't have: ranged M2. I believe I speak for most SM mains here when I say that, if we wanted to play a M2 killer, we wouldn't have chosen Skull Merchant. There are plenty of other killers with projectiles and ranged M2 attacks. Skull Merchant shouldn't become another one of those.
I strongly believe this drone companion should either do something else entirely or, ideally, never get added.
Now, we still have to wait for a third design preview to understand what, exactly, they are proposing. But I believe it is important to have an early discussion here and hopefully prevent her from becoming some sort of ranged-Singularity thing where you control a drone, manually apply a claw trap then down someone with a copy-pasted M2. I don't believe Skull Merchant should become this kind of killer. I don't think she should become anything other than who she is. And the preservation of identity, especially in a killer that was treated unfairly after the first rework, is of extreme importance.
With all that being said, I would like to hear your thoughts on this matter. What do you think this means for Skull Merchant's future?
Remember, every opinion is welcome here!
Comments
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I dislike the range attack and controlling drones ideas too. They'd do best if they give her 4 different types of drones - one gives you stealth, one exposes, one explodes, one is flying around map stealthily, giving you infos about how gens are progressed, if they spot survivors or open chests or something, giving you visual clue. They can leave the ability to scan map with radat for infos, but unless it's guaranteed scan similiar to doctor, it would be pointless.
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I sincerely hope history won't repeat with your favorite killer.
Currently, I have no motivation to buy her aside fro perks, and even then it's mostly Leverage that interests me.
So, I hope they can listen to the community well.
4 -
"Remove passive lethality"
I think this one is mainly to please survivors. They simply will not accept any version, where she can passively injure them.
I doubt they will even expose you.
Most likely just information, if we are lucky they would give haste, or pallet breaking we have seen in version 1.0"The Buddy Drone"
I just hope it won't be controlled in any way similar to Knight/Houndmaster/Twins. They are clearly not good at those and it wouldn't end well.
Making him projectile based is one way to go about it.
He could also work passively and simply start doing something if you get into area with survivor with Claw trap?
Or when you hit a survivor with claw trap…
What I want from the concept:- stay away from any camera changes → controlling drones
- stay away from AI control → zombies/dog/guards
- keep undetectable in some form
- keep claw trap
Thing is if drones will be focused on information, then she simply needs something to help in chase. Possible options are:- haste
- hindered
- pallet breaking
- window blocking
- hit recovery
- exposed
- M2 power
I personally would love to see haste and pallet breaking back. Those were main reasons why I have played first version of Skully.
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Thank you friend, I really hope we can avoid a terrible fate this time. Losing my favorite character once was already bad enough.
At least SM has a dedicated group of mains, myself included now, who can leave feedback and share their thoughts on her future designs.
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I agree 💯 for sure!
I want the buddy drone to stay BUT it needs to do something else entirely. No daahing, no projectile stuff. It can be used as an “Aid” for her traps or intel perhaps.
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I still don’t understand why they are turning her into a mix between a trap and a range killer, isn’t the whole point that she wants to make her kills close and personal? turning her into a ranged killer doesn’t really emphasize that.
4 -
That's pretty much it, my friend. It is central to keeping her identity intact.
Exactly!
And the worst thing, my friend, is that we already have projectile killers. If SM players wanted a projectile killer, they would have chosen someone else.
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I think for Skull merchant to be the real intel killer she needs a form of non-lethal map mobility, because what's the point of knowing where survivors are, if it takes half a generator to get there.
I also think that skull merchants DESERVE to have a rework in which they can continue "lazertagging" and using their rotation flicking skills that they have build over the many months of play with her. That would imo be the ideal world
But I am definitely happy with her getting more into chase powers, The passive injures made her too easy, which made her problematic at lower levels. It should require skill0 -
Honestly, friend, the ideal option in my opinion would be a revert.
Ideally, back to version 2.0, which fixed the problems the original design had. The way I see it, you don't have to go any further than that.
However, if that doesn't happen, then at the very least an effort should be made to preserve her identity. The first two design previews didn't do that. I hope the third one doesn't make the same mistake.
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I'm looking forward to the upcoming changes, to play as and against, love how involved with the community they are getting in regards to her.
-2 -
Well, my friend, I can tell ya that what I'm looking forward to is the next design preview.
I really don't want to go through another Freddy situation, it was awful enough the first time. I need her to keep her identity, otherwise it will be the second time I lose my favorite character. I'm tired, boss.
1 -
Honestly though, anything is better than her current iteration and state, it's one dimensional and it's a shame that it is. I think they could easily retain the trap playstyle focusing more on Control/information, while giving her new tools and lethality at the same time.
Current Freddy is a great rework IMO, so if it's anything in the direction like that, I think it'll make both sides happy potentially.
I really would like to play her more and the fantasy they are going down with the AMA statement I'm looking forward to the next preview, using all sorts of gadgets to aid in pursuing survivors sounds much more predator like, how I imagined her to be like when she was originally announced.
Purists are always gonna be upset in some way and it's understandable, you liked how strong the OG was with little effort into the gameplay, I personally want more involvement from killers I play.-4 -
Truth be told, I would rather have a weak killer that I enjoy, instead of a strong killer that I despise.
2 -
You'll still have the killer, she just won't be literally sauceless. They've been listening, but it's very clear you won't be getting the ones we've had before and rightfully so.
What I don't get about purists in these threads are you feel like the vocal minority who won't be happy regardless of how they rework/buff her.
They are in a difficult situation rn regarding her and I think they are taking the best path forward.-4 -
It isn't the same thing though. While I do like the character herself (visuals, lore, design), the power is extremely important. I don't play SM just because I like the concept, I play SM because of what she does. I do not want to play a dash killer, I don't want to play a projectile killer, I don't like these kinds of characters. If she becomes one of those, then I will have lost my favorite character. For the second time.
Your second sentence here I do not understand. I have stated, more than once, that a full revert to her 2.0 is something I would support and be happy with. That, alone, already means I won't be satisfied regardless of what they do. If they give her something like the two design previews, if they erase her identity, then yes I won't like it, but this isn't a "damned if you do, damned if you don't scenario".
But I do not think they are taking the best path, quite the contrary. And I wanted to make my voice heard.
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More just people in here claiming they are welcoming all opinions, then when someone comes in saying they are excited you all can't accept someone is. At least that's how it comes across to me. It's been like this every thread I've tried to discuss my excitement for the rework.
So, that's just how I feel about people who fight the design previews, there is constructive criticism among points, but generally if anyone is excited it's downvoted and disagreed with lmao.
Literally all my friends are looking forward to her rework, and everytime they come back the ideas are better, so I'm sure by the time it happens (if it does at all with all this disagreement with them at all.)
Have some optimism lmao-2 -
I don't see how that is the case. This is a place for discussions, there are many players here and they all have different opinions. Disagreements happen, it is natural. But we're here to talk and that is what we have been doing. No one was insulted here, no one was offended here, the discussion is being kept civil.
Disagreements are okay. My Old Freddy campaign had disagreements, my stance that the Endgame Collapse is a bad mechanic had disagreements, my opinion that Wesker is not balanced had disagreements. But I've presented my point of view and those who disagreed presented theirs. That is why we are here.
Personally, I am not looking forward to the rework and I think the design previews weren't good. Both of our opinions are perfectly valid, we just happen to disagree.
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The thing thats tough to fix about her is people enjoyed playing 3 gen merchant, then they took that away so they played another way, people hated that too, so they nerfed her to the ground and now everyone that plays her is like "make her like she was before or you are taking away her identity" which just got hate anyway and any new things they come up with to be more interactive in a chase just turn out to not be liked either so how do they make the killer like she was before without being hated yet different enough to not be hated by the people playing her as well lol
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Well, my friend, as you've said the reputation problem is, indeed, complex. Unfortunately, Skull Merchant had a problematic release (which I believe had more to do with the meta of the time than her actual power, but that is a discussion for another time) and that is something that many players won't forget anytime soon.
However, there is a caveat here: Skull Merchant 2.0 was disliked because of the release, not because of her power. But 3 genning was over, the problem solved. And many have acknowledged that in recent discussions.
I strongly believe bringing back her 2.0 iteration, exactly as it was, is the best option. Players will understand that her power was fine. It is, imho, much better than changing her identity and alienating dedicated SM mains.
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