http://dbd.game/killswitch
The Clown needs more than slowdown: A redesign
The Clown currently exists in one of the least engaging design spaces possible. Being slowed down necessarily removes your options. When a bottle in a loop guarantees damage through extended haste or hindered, neither player makes meaningful decisions. Recent changes attempted to address this by making yellow bottles oppressively strong (12+% haste for 8 seconds with 1s activation), but this has just shifted the problem. Now yellow bottles create the same inevitable outcomes through speed advantage rather than solving the core issue: Clown lacks mechanical depth beyond throwing bottles for a stat advantage. His recent number tweaks and their failure to address the community's complaints clearly demonstrate the need for a new creative direction.
The following changes intend to turn Clown into Dead by Daylight's first misdirection mindgame Killer, giving him a new niche as a devious and chaotic area control expert. This rework fully keeps Clown's ability to slow Survivors down and speed himself up, but tweaks these mechanics to increase their skill floor and ceiling.
Afterpiece Tonic (Purple) Changes:
- Hindered effect buffed back to 15% (currently 14%) and linger reduced to 0.5 seconds after exiting the gas (currently 1 second).
- Hindered revert is mostly for experienced Clown players who relied on muscle memory of the speed differential. Effective use of the Hinder now requires more precise bottle placement than live. - Gas clouds are 20% wider and the gas clouds linger for 1 second longer.
- Compensates for shorter status duration and enhances area control with gas. - Gas clouds now inflict Intoxication status effect, lingering for 0.5 seconds after exiting.
- Intoxication is now is centered on creating opportunities for creative mindgames by distorting the perceptions of Survivors, giving Clown a new dimension of play other than slowdown.
Intoxication:
- Directional audio panning becomes confused, making sounds originate from constantly changing wrong directions, in a circular motion. The Survivor's own noises (injured sounds, breathing) are not affected.
- Creates countless mindgame opportunities in walled tiles where visual tracking is difficult. This isn't an accessibility issue. Intoxication makes audio equally unreliable for all players, it doesn't give hearing players an advantage (like the Spirit). - Slight reverb is applied to audio.
- This UX change should make it clear to Survivors that Intoxication is actively changing the sounds they're hearing. - Bonus: Survivors' audio perception range reduced, making distant sounds become inaudible.
- Creates more confusion by potentially confusing urvivors if the Clown is still nearby. - Bonus: Survivors see slight visual tracers on the Clown.
- Just a fun aesthetic change that might make it slightly harder to focus on the Clown's actual location as survivors try to visually track him.
Notes on accessibility:
Some may worry that the audio and visual changes would feel too disorienting for players or cause physical symptoms, like Clown's previous intoxication VFX before they were changed in March 2024. While this is a valid concern, the audio distortion serves a purpose to create new gameplay, unlike the strong visual blurring which had little to no effect on gameplay while making players uncomfortable.
Intoxication also makes audio equally unreliable for everyone during Intoxication, similar to how Oblivious removes terror radius universally. Unlike Spirit whose power design creates audio-based advantages, Intoxication removes these advantages.
Diagram showing one potential use of Intoxication for mindgaming.
Panel 1: The Clown has thrown his Afterpiece tonic centrally into Shack, approaching away from the pallet. The Survivor is inside shack, ready to vault the window.
Panel 2: This panel shows what the Intoxicated Survivor is hearing. After vaulting outside Shack, they hear the Clown's breathing approaching from the outside of shack, causing them to immediately feel threatened.
Panel 3: This panel shows the reality of the situation. The Clown is waiting by the Shack door, planning to cut the Survivor off as they vault back into shack.
Panel 4: This panel shows the outcome. The threatened survivor vaults back into shack, and is met face-to-face by the Clown, who was able to anticipate their panic.
In this scenario, a more experienced Survivor could recognize that their audio is unreliable, and take the safe option by running towards the pallet instead of panic vaulting.
Antidote (Yellow) Changes:
- Activation time: 1.5 seconds (between old 2s and current 1s).
- Requires prediction while remaining viable mid-chase. - Clouds are 20% larger and linger for 1 second longer.
- Parity with purple bottles, and increases opportunities for survivors to claim the buff through skillful pathing, instead of being automatically out-sped. - Haste effect: 10% for 8 seconds (down from current 12% for 8 seconds).
- The recent buff to yellow bottles have proved to be too extreme, especially with certain add-ons. This is a middle ground between the old and new yellow bottles. - Grants complete Intoxication immunity for duration, instead of only curing Intoxication.
- Creates a more meaningful decision for survivors regarding the boring speed mechanic: Is reaching that lingering yellow gas worth the detour? Will the complete immunity help me? Clowns players must be more considerate about where NOT to throw yellows.
Add-on Changes:
Beyond basekit changes, Clown's add-ons would shift from number tweaks to enhancing the new confusion mechanics. The goal of Clown's new add-on set would not be a complete overhaul, but a reduction in the amount of redundant number boosts that lend themselves to making the speed differential more oppressive. Clown's add-ons now have a new mindgame design space to explore. Here are a few potential examples, by no means meant to be implemented in this exact form: these are just ideas to explore.
Party Bottle
- Old: Bottles emit confetti when they break in addition to their usual effects. Bonus BP.
- New: Bottles emit lingering confetti when they break in addition to their usual effects. Bonus BP.
Transforms a useless cosmetic effect into more sensory disruption.
Robin Feather
- Old: Reduces the cool-down between successive bottle throws by -40%.
- New: Decreases time to charge bottle throws by 20%.
Turns a duplicate addon into a useful and unique brown.
VHS Porn
- Old: Increases the size and spread of Afterpiece Tonic Gas Clouds by +10%.
- New: Afterpiece Antidote Gas Clouds look identical to Afterpiece Tonic Gas Clouds (to Intoxicated Survivors?).
Pays off the flavor text "you will not see things quite the same again" with a niche effect that might confuse Survivor's pathing.
Solvent Jug
- Old: Increases the Invigoration duration by +1 seconds.
- New: Increases the odds of triggering Skill Checks by 20% for Intoxicated Survivors while they are repairing or healing.
Unique effect that gives bottles a small but counterable amount of ranged pressure.
Flask of Bleach
- Old: Increases the strength of the Hindered Status Effect Survivors suffer during Intoxication by an additional 4%.
- New: Increases the linger duration of Afterpiece Tonic Gas Clouds by +1 second.
Changed from making speed more oppressive to a different kind of number buff that increases Clown's control.
Cheap Gin Bottle
- Old: Increases the strength of the Haste Status Effect from Invigoration by +3%.
- New: Intoxicated survivors hear an illusory very close Terror Radius.
Allows for multi-layered mindgames about if the Clown is still nearby or if he left.
Ether 15 Vol%
- Old: Increases the Intoxication duration by +1 second.
- New: When an Intoxicated Survivor becomes injured, they suffer from Exhausted for 5 seconds.
Helps out Clown's anti-loop without being oppressive like the bonus hinder linger.
Garish Makeup Kit
- Old: Increases the Invigoration duration by +2 seconds.
- New: Intoxicated survivors can't perceive the Clown's Red Stain.
Further disrupts information, worthy of being a purple.
Redhead's Pinky Finger
- Old: Direct hits with Afterpiece Tonic bottles inflict Exposed on Survivors for the duration of Intoxication. Max 1 bottle.
- New: After Invigoration ends, Survivors suffer from Exposed for 10 seconds. Carry two less maximum bottles.
Keeps the Exposed identity but uses a much healthier and interactive dynamic. Can no longer be used for camping or to get completely free downs. There is now a benefit and cost that must be weighed.
Why This Design Works:
Skill Expression Over Stats: High MMR Clowns will identify tiles where survivors lack visual information, then capitalize on audio confusion. Low MMR Clowns will still throw bottles randomly around loops, but aren't completely destroyed by the haste/hinder changes. This replaces guaranteed outcomes with interactive creativity.
Clear, Engaging Counterplay: Intoxicated survivors must actively track Clown visually. The reduced linger time turns the gas clouds into a binary danger zone, instead of creating extended helplessness even after escaping the cloud. The changes to yellow bottles make each use of them riskier, since yellow bottles are still only using haste mechanics.
Bottle Economy Becomes Meaningful: Conservative players can attempt single-bottle mindgames using audio confusion at jungle gyms. Aggressive players can still saturate loops with 3 bottles for guaranteed hits, but must manage earlier reloads. Currently, 1-2 bottles always suffice through pure speed manipulation, making each reload a necessary chore instead of a deserved cooldown based on the frequency of your bottle usage.
Unique Killer Identity: Instead of just being "the slowdown killer", Clown more importantly becomes the killer who weaponizes sensory confusion. No other killer manipulates audio perception as a core mechanic.
Addressing Concerns:
"Too complex for new players" - The core gameplay loop remains simple and intuitive: purple gas slows, yellow gas speeds up. Players will quickly notice that their audio is being messed with when they're Intoxicated. The sensory effects can be included in Clown's power description to keep new killers informed.
"This nerfs Clown" - Yes, it does remove some of his oppressive slowdown potential but compensates by giving him new tools. Skilled Clowns who already place their bottles precisely can capitalize on these tools. You can still saturate a loop with slowdown gas to get hits when needed, but this takes more bottles.
"The VFX and SFX could feel overwhelming to some players" - This would need testing and iteration. If the effects prove to be too common of an issue for players, they could be reduced in intensity and Clown could be slightly buffed to compensate. DBD is a game that breaks comfort barriers for some players, and developers have indicated they would not add "phobia" modes.
This rework transforms Clown from a stat-check killer into one who creates interactive moments of confusion and opportunity. Instead of inevitable damage through speed differentials, he generates windows of vulnerability through sensory disruption that both sides must actively play around. Most importantly, it gives him a reason to exist beyond numerical advantages - he becomes Dead by Daylight's master of misdirection, just like a Clown should be.
Comments
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Congratulations, you've made a clown that's worse than the previous version, for some reason.
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Care to elaborate? I'd appreciate useful feedback
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Press S to spit
-0.25 sec duration after exiting the cloud is a bad joke and makes the gas worse than it is now
-instead of doing all this stuff just inflicting blindness would make more sense as that basically does what you want anyways
-fast gas made even more useless at loops than it is with the more recent changes
-addons completely ruined
We have the kooky interface screw guy already in the form of Doctor.1 -
Look I'm not a huge fan of this guys take on the Clown either, but at least provide feedback or something.
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You're right, the linger duration needs testing. Edited to .5s.
Blindness has no effect on most Survivors who don't use aura read perks. Audio manipulation is actually useful in some tiles, not like Blindness which is useful against perks Survivors may or may not have.
If you don't agree that the fast gas is too oppressive right now, I don't know what to tell you. This iteration would be a middle ground between Clown's weak and buffed states.
Add-ons buff the oppressive speed differential mechanic, which the purpose of this entire rework was to shift away from. Not removed - notice that the yellows were mostly unchanged.
The Doctor is not comparable. Yes, he has hallucinations and messes with your HUD. Those effects do nothing mechanically except give the Doctor information through auras. The new Intoxication effects would change the dynamics of chase and create new gameplay.0 -
Thank you! Appreciate you putting the time to read through it.
Post edited by BoxGhost on0 -
People are providing feedback. THe feedback is that his suggestion sucks.
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I just want to see yellow bottle speed buff reverted and see how clown works from that.
I rather not want BHVR to start a whole new rework when the numbers can be tinkered with.-1 -
Purple bottles hindering survivors audio and visual tracking has been a rather unappreciated part of clowns theme and I agree it could definitely use a tune up. I don’t play enough clown to know how he feels to play but I can say for certain playing against him isn’t oppressive and his chase power is mitigated heavily by the fact that every map has extremely safe pallets even with his insane invigoration speed. But maybe that’s just me.
as for his add-ons it’s shocking to me that he still has repeat add-ons despite the fact that he’s been looked at by the devs multiple times and even been given a major update to his power with the addition of the antidote. I like the changes you suggested for these addons but I’d argue you can still take it a step further as theres still a lot of room to be explored creativity with Clown’s power. Status effect addons Kerosene can and sulphuric acid vial are bottom of the barrel in creativity and offer practically no replayability or build diversity.0 -
Really appreciate the feedback man.
I think a lot of survivors have the opinion that Clown feels oppressive, but that's just from my experience. I play him a lot, and I think he would be a lot more interactive if his gas clouds had more uses and more counterplay. So many killers have such basic designs and samey addons that don't change their playstyle or even play-feel. DBD could be so much more interactive and interesting.0 -
TBH I'd just do Red Head Pinky Finger basekit and reduce base bottles to 4. All he needs.
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Personally, I think your redesign idea is interesting. But it might not be the best fit for The Clown. The Clown doesn’t really need to be about hallucination or heavy confusion. The audio-based misdirection mechanic you suggested. where sounds come from the wrong directions. might actually fit The Doctor much better.
For me, the real problem with The Clown right now isn’t that Antidote (Yellow) was buffed from 10% to 12% haste. The real issue is the 1-second activation time.
A 2% difference (10% → 12%) isn’t that big of a deal. Even at 10%, that’s already a strong haste value. So I asked myself: “Why has The Clown’s speed build only just now become so popular?” Because none of the speed-related perks have been changed recently. That means Clown’s speed build has always been possible; there was no need to wait until patch 9.1.0. I’ve concluded that the sudden popularity comes from the 1-second activation time, not the 12% haste. The shorter activation makes The Clown’s chases with Antidote much faster, smoother, and more consistent.
As for how to balance this, I’m not sure. If the activation time is reverted back to 2 seconds, players will stop using Antidote altogether, just like before. But if it’s set to 1.5 seconds, I personally think it won’t feel much different from 1 second.
That said, I do have a survivor-side solution when facing The Clown. If you want to survive while also helping your team, I recommend:
Overcome + Duty of Care + Babysitter + Decisive Strike.
This is the build I use most often right now.But if you only care about saving yourself (not your teammates), then I suggest:
Overcome + Decisive Strike + Deja Vu + Lucky Break.From my experience, these builds significantly increase your chances of survival against The Clown in this patch.
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