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I feel stupid when I play DBD

I'm actually not sure what I'm hoping to achieve with this post. I probably just want to vent a moment of frustration that's been slowly building up over time. Sometimes talking helps.

You're probably thinking this is going to be a rant about killers being OP and everything being so terribly unfair, but that's not it. I'm frustrated with myself. I've played the game for almost exactly 1200 hours now, and I just can't get any better at chases. The usual tips like watching good survivor players and YouTube videos don't help; as soon as I'm in a chase, I panic and forget everything I've seen others do. Learning how to run tiles (e.g., from the aforementioned videos) doesn't work either; I can't get it into my head, no matter how hard I try.

Some people with 50-100 hours last longer in chases than I do. I usually can't even last 15 seconds.At this point, I'm downright ashamed and doubt my own intelligence. Am I stupid? Why can't my brain memorize how to run tiles? Is it because I probably have ADHD? I was diagnosed with it as a child, but I don't know if it goes away in adulthood.

Actually, I can't be stupid; I passed my medical exam with an A. But as soon as I play DBD, I doubt my own IQ. At this point, I don't even know if I ever want to play the game again. Today I got to the point where I actually disconnected (forgive me) because I was so ashamed that I almost instantly get downed by every killer. It was like that back in 2021 and it is like that today, No improvement.

I like the game, but I'm not having fun with it anymore because I just can't manage to keep chases going. When I spectate my teammates, I feel even stupider. It seems like every single DBD player can loop better than me.

Sorry guys for the whining, but I felt like I just had to let it out somewhere. Feel free to ignore me. :)

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Comments

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 2,276

    Sorry to hear that you’re struggling. There are some games that I’m terrible at no matter how long I play them or how hard I try to get better, so I know how you feel. If you’re not having fun and just can’t get better no matter how hard you try, there are really only 2 options: 1) move on to other games, or 2) if you really want to keep playing, just accept your skill level and keep at it. It took me a really long time to get decent at survivor. I’m at 2,500 hours in the game now and there are still plenty of games where I don’t play that well, but I’ve also had some games where I felt very proud of how well I played. It just takes a long time for some players to get to that point.

  • Xray
    Xray Member Posts: 289

    Some days are just off days you'll log on tomorrow and have a 4 gen chase no doubt, except me i'll always be trash

  • UnicornMedal
    UnicornMedal Member Posts: 1,528

    Everyone has their own set of skills with the game. I tend to play the best running No Mither, while everyone else seems to hate it. Some people just "get" chase, and in your case you don't. You don't have to excel in every element of it.

  • OrangeBear
    OrangeBear Member Posts: 3,478

    It took me like 3,500 hrs for survivor gameplay to click. Before that i also didn't understand how to play it, so i stuck to killer instead.

    Does this video help? It helped me a lot

  • THE_Crazy_Hyena
    THE_Crazy_Hyena Member Posts: 1,308

    Trust me, everyone has bad games from one time to another.
    I know being anxious while playing is never a good thing, but like other have mentioned. If you practice with a friend, you will get better at chaining together the tiles. I'm close to 1400 hours myself, so I wouldn't say that I am well-seasoned yet, but I am getting there.
    But the best tip I have for you is to actually play as the killer, against someone who loops well. That way you can easily pick up on the things they do to last longer in chases. Memorizing tiles as you traverse the map is one thing, or use Windows of Opportunity if you need the extra help with finding the best way of chaining together loops. It is also a mental game versus the killer, if you can outsmart them around the loops, giving you the break you need to get to the next loop, and so on. Once you get the hang of it, it tends to stick. Also, don't be afraid of pre-dropping pallets, in the case the killer breaks the pallet, their bloodlust counter will reset.
    My personal best continous chase lasted 2 minutes and 19 seconds, while I have had longer chases that were not continous, but lasted for 5 gens.

  • Xray
    Xray Member Posts: 289

    Also dont feel stupid its a game just have a good time. Its ok to make mistakes no matter what some p100 narcissict tells ya, i just like to listen to Mastadon and Jinjer and just play and have funny plot twist moments

  • EEP
    EEP Member Posts: 60

    If possible try finding people to play in customs and don't play to win literally just practice looping. I can't learn just by watching videos I have to actively do what I'm trying to learn

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,140

    Yo I'm a p100 and I'm trash. Pretty sure everyone's always surprised when they see the scoreboard.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    I've played killer before, but that didn't help me figure out how to improve my looping as survivor. Additionally, it led to me developing massive killer anxiety. Some survivor players were extremely cruel to me. I was bullied at school as a teenager, and being bullied online by four other players as a killer player on my own felt almost as horrible. Since then, I haven't been able to play killer, except in 2v8.

    And I don't have anyone who actively plays DBD to practice with.

    I was very pleased when BHVR announced they were working on killer bots for custom games, as I saw an opportunity to practice looping in a less stressful environment for me.That was ages ago now, and it seems BHVR simply abandoned this plan without informing us. :(

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    Lol, thanks for your optimism, that will never happen as long as the killer has a brain bigger than a pea.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    This is why I was hoping so hard for killer bots in customs.

    BHVR actually promised it a while back, but it looks like it's not going to happen.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    As I said, watching videos helps me absolutely nothing.I forgot about it the moment I stopped watching the video. My brain just can't memorize it.

    You probably made the smartest decision to switch roles. I like playing Killer in 2v8, but I can't do it in 1v4.

    When I played Killer a few yeara ago in 1v4, I was hard bullied several times by survivors, and it reminded me of the bullying I experienced at school, and it was a terrible feeling.

    Since then, I've had killer anxiety and unfortunately can't play it outside of 2v8.

  • Memesis
    Memesis Member Posts: 729

    That could be MMR in action. The more you improve, the more skilled opponents you end up facing, so you feel like you aren't improving at all.

  • tes
    tes Member Posts: 1,212

    It’ll sound counterproductive, but I started to play killer. When I returned to survivors after month it was like 10 times easier

  • Linkdouken
    Linkdouken Member Posts: 667

    I've been playing since 2017 and sometimes I go down shockingly fast. My friends have only 100 hours or so in the game and sometimes they last longer than I do in a chase.

    As far as your issue goes, perhaps look into changing your builds/perks because that can make a world of difference and you may find much better value in something else that a YouTuber or streamer isn't using.

  • Linkdouken
    Linkdouken Member Posts: 667

    Exactly why I don't like using my P100 often as I expect judgement on my skill level despite it having nothing to do with MMR

  • KatsuhxP
    KatsuhxP Member Posts: 1,597

    Did you ever try killer? I personally don't play much survivor, but have over 3,1k hours in general and probably 95% of them played killer.

    In my case I last most of the time relatively long because I know how you'd play those killers in those cases, it helps me not to panic because I know what is possible with them in this moment and what isn't (we ignore the fact that I probably also don't get too good killers). Of course it could also be that I simply lost my fear mostly because of the pure time I'm already playing, but I really doubt that judging on the fact I sometimes get jumpscared when someone camps a palette and suddenly dropped it on me xD

    This should help you to not panic AND to learn how to run loops better.

  • BlackJimmy88
    BlackJimmy88 Member Posts: 71

    I’m about 3k hours, and I still bumble a lot of my chases. Some of us just learn slower.

    It’s only around 2k where I finally started having matches where I managed to do well, and even those are partially dumb luck, I think.

    Playing Killer helps, as well. Mr TatorHead’s map specific looping guides help, but more so just watching him play. Kyoto’s fairly recent “36 Things you should NEVER do As Survivor” helped me with some things too.

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 7,323

    Also recommend MrTatorhead's looping guides. He doesn't cherry pick his chases either, like most content creators do. If he stuffs up or something goes wrong on a loop, he'll show that too. Because no one is perfect and everyone gets outplayed.

  • squbax
    squbax Member Posts: 1,748

    Play ladder, not only will you improve massively at chase, but you will also lose all anxiety over chases. Quite literally the best solution.

  • Xray
    Xray Member Posts: 289

    that literally happened to me yesterday im a p45 bill and i got shamed cause i died first. Funny thing i died cause i used shoulder the burden on a p100 dwight leading me to die first then after the game he followed me just to call me trash.

  • brewingtea
    brewingtea Member Posts: 702

    Memorize all this stuff or else the killer just wins by default.

    I can't see why this isn't a winning formula for balance.

  • MarbleThrone
    MarbleThrone Member Posts: 962

    If it's any consolation, I am approaching 3800 hours and you wouldn't be able to tell from the way I play this game. It might as well have been a 100 hour player on your team 😁.

    The reason why this has never discouraged me from playing DBD is because I do not give a damn about improving. I play DBD for a lot of reasons, getting gud at it has never been one of them. I find my fun in many other ways!

  • UndeddJester
    UndeddJester Member Posts: 4,971

    You aren't stupid friend.

    If I were to offer a different perspective, there is no "correct" way to run tiles. At the end of the day you are notvfacing a predictable bot that is gonna teact the same.way every time, you're facing off against another human, and ultimately you're both trying to guess what each other are gonna do. There are things you can do to help swing things more in your favour and give yourself the best chance of succeeding that gamble, but at the end of the day it still comes down to prediction and guessing what the killer is gonna do to maintain chase for any length of time.

    A skill I picked up around about the 1200 hour mark where you're at now, is I really started trying to incorporate fakes into my movement. Line up like you're going to fast vault, or wobble like youre gonna turn to drop the pallet, and then turn instead. This can make you look stupid if the killer doesn't buy it and just swings through at you... but if they do buy it, that's an extra 5-10s. Do this a couple of time into a good pallet that you can throw and eun, and hey, you've made 25-30s. If you add pre running into that, you may take it to 40s.

    One thing I started doing is taking off exhaustion perks. This forces you to pay attention much more to the macro of the game, and really be disciplined about reading the game. Exhaustion perks cause bad habits in a lot of players, and let people get away with things they really shouldn't. By removing them, you always have an extra gear you can go up by using them, and you'll be surprised how much more fun with DND you can have when you have all 4 perk slots yo play with kantwda of having to reserve them for particular perks.

    Lastly dont worry about getting hit, eventually you are GOING to get hit. If you have nothing else to work with and you know you are done, run in a straight line to the edge of the map. No one is expecting you to loop the killer for 2 minutes while using no tiles... fundamentally all youre trying to do is waste the killers time,and even if you brain in hand just run to edge of map every time you get hit, you'll still waste 20-30s just from them walking after, downing, and then hooking you.

    We have people with 10'000 hours in this game, you don't know if you're playing with smurfs, or people who are playing cross platform. Don't compare yourself to anyone else but you man 😁🤘

  • THE_Crazy_Hyena
    THE_Crazy_Hyena Member Posts: 1,308

    Myself, @HeroLives and @For_The_People are often times playing. You are welcome to join us for practicing

  • BorisDDAA
    BorisDDAA Member Posts: 519

    welp no replies from op.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    and HOW do you do that? How are you able to find your fun? I mean, I suck at looping, that means the game is quickly over for me and I don´t have the chance to do anything, because more and more killers tend to tunnel off hook from the start. How can I have fun if I am not allowed to do anything besides hanging on the hook, staring at my screen ?

  • UnicornMedal
    UnicornMedal Member Posts: 1,528
    edited August 17

    DBD is a game that does not want to be played. Any time you try, it's like it actively resists. But I will say that I've found fun by "breaking" the game on purpose. No, not by hacking. But by running a stupid build just to mess with the Killer. Or finding a friend that you can fart around with. Or listening to music you like while you play (loud enough to drown out the game audio). You basically have to lean into playing badly and become an anti-DBD player. At least that's what works for me sometimes.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    Wow, that was impressively written and a good read. Maybe it's true, maybe I'm just not talented at DBD and will never get better. I do have a talent for writing stories, though. When I play DBD, I'm often so frustrated and ashamed of my performance that I forget I have other talents, even if they're not DBD.I'm trying to internalize that a bit, thank you for that.

    And by the way, your best friend is lucky to have you as a friend; it's heartwarming how you talk about her.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    Hey, I've replied to a few comments, I can't reply to all of them, I don't want to bloat the thread too much and take away space at the top for more important posts.

    But I'm grateful to each and every one of you for your replies. I've read them all and am trying to take some of the tips with me and internalize them. I also feel less bad or stupid now.

    It's nice to see that in a community that's pretty toxic, there are still enough people with heart who don't try to drag you down further, but are genuinely trying to help and build someone up. Thanks guys !

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,140

    Start focusing on stealth. Be strategic. I accepted I'm not great at chase so I try to be tricky, which is what I loved about the fog vials (RIP). But I still manage without them. Bring a toolbox build. Run deja vu. Quietly creep your way to a distant gen so that as the killer charges down the center of the map to where you spawned, you're slinking along the edges to where they spawned. Hop on the gen after a chase starts on the HUD. Keep an eye on where the killer is and whose enaged with them. Map awareness can keep you out of the killer's radar. I often get through entire matches with the killer never even seeing me. Some people think it's boring, but I like doing gens and cleansing totems and doing whatever objectives. This way I'm a useful part of my team even without being great at chase.

  • MarbleThrone
    MarbleThrone Member Posts: 962

    It's all about the goals one sets for oneself, what one wants to get out of the game and what one wants to work towards. Mindset matters.

    I absolutely understand if someone wants to actively try to improve and be good at this game. And that it can be frustrating if that progress is very slow. I respect the dedication and the desire to want to be an active learner, as I call it. In this game, I am a passive learner. I can remember things I see or do, but not because I choose or want to, but simply because I have seen or done it enough times that it stuck with me. I can find a totem on this map or that map because it always spawns there, but don't ask me to describe how the tiles on Dvarka Deepwood look because I could not tell you for the life of me.

    For me, personally, it's not so much about improving as it is to just enjoy the things DBD has to offer. I have plenty of characters I like to play as, and so I want to get a high prestige on them. Characters like Nicolas Cage with his goofy voicelines, or Dark Lord with his absolute banger of a chase theme, etc. Things like that. I don't go out of my way to do things I know I am not good at, such as flashlight saves. Any time a challenge like that appears in the Rift I let out a deep sigh and get on with it.

    No matter how poorly a match goes, if I got progress to something, anything, whether that was a prestige or a challenge, it's a win in my book.

    My way of making fun doesn't have to be someone else's way of making fun, so my situation absolutely doesn't have to apply to you, or anyone. It's just how I approach the game.

  • THE_Crazy_Hyena
    THE_Crazy_Hyena Member Posts: 1,308

    Anytime. I know the community has a lot of toxicity in it. That is one reason why we often try to get custom matches going, so that we can play together as a band of friendly people from around the world. The banter alone makes it so much more enjoyable, especially if a certain Billy is going out chasing foxy Yui's. cough cough @HeroLives

    And once again, you are more than welcome to join us for some friendly games :)

  • HeroLives
    HeroLives Member Posts: 3,233

    Those foxy masked Yui’s, oooooo when I catch them. So slippery. Bumpy Billy just wants to catch that fox. When I do Billy’s getting a new skin!

  • PetTheDoggo
    PetTheDoggo Member Posts: 1,948

    Basically what I made our new players do is take Overcome and force to hold W, if possible. That's your whole chase.

    See killer going towards you? Start running away
    Killer hit you? Keep running away
    Killer is getting closer while you are injured? Run into corner of the map

    This simply doesn't take any skill, you don't need to think about it. But it's going to give you actually decent chase time without any effort.

    When you get that into your head, then you can start breaking LoS, which can make killer mindgame tiles like they are used to → more time for you.

    Another step would be basically holding W as long you can until you know you will not reach anything else and you can try to play last tile. If you win it, then continue running away.

    Sure, it doesn't work against every killer, but it works against most of them.

  • RoxasxVT
    RoxasxVT Member Posts: 11

    I'm sorry to hear that however, cheer up. You probably haven't found your niche as a survivor, which is normal.

    I had a buddy of mine that just started it out playing the game. I told them the basics of the game and did custom matches for them to get the feel of it. After everything was done, i explained to them which style they felt comfortable with (Gen, Looping or Healer). They said gen. I told them some good gen perks to use as a beginner and they were off. They got better more and more as they continued to play.

    They are not a great looper but, you would be surprised the amount of times they looped the heck out of killer (1-2 gens). Other matches, we get demolished. It all depends on the perks, add-ons and communication you have as a team.

    Now, a question for you. What do you feel comfortable with, playing as a survivor? What are your strong points as a survivor and what is your weakness?

  • Good_Pancake
    Good_Pancake Member Posts: 56

    To me, it looks like you are WAY to stressed when looping. It happened to me too and I beated that stress by playing music when I played survivor. Try not to make the music too loud though, you want to be able to hear both the game and the music.

  • 100PercentBPMain
    100PercentBPMain Member Posts: 2,744

    am I tripping? I suggested one of my favourite builds consisting of Scene Partner, Troubleshooter, Resilience and Object days ago but I don't see it here. maybe the build is too powerful to share O_o

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    Thanks again for the suggestion to play with you, I really appreciate it.I think I might need more time for something like this. I'm a bit socially anxious when I don't know people personally, especially with voice chat. That's why I play solo queue. I hope this gets better at some point, because it's definitely more fun to play with others.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    The build sounds fun, but also like a chase build. And that's my absolute weakness, and one I want to avoid if possible.

    For me, a stealth build would be better, with killer aura reading perks, so I can avoid the killer as much as possible and do gens.

  • IWantCandys
    IWantCandys Member Posts: 223

    To answer your question. I feel most comfortable with gens and healing.

    Actually, I feel comfortable with anything that isn't chase.

  • 100PercentBPMain
    100PercentBPMain Member Posts: 2,744

    I suggest it because it'd help the anxiety, I feel. it's putting you in your least comfortable position, but it gives you "safety in the eye of the storm". Object for sure will get you killed on its own, but when it doesn't it saves :P

    from my experience playing these builds, some killers will respect it and refuse to chase

  • THE_Crazy_Hyena
    THE_Crazy_Hyena Member Posts: 1,308

    It really is more fun to play in a group, that is for sure. And our Discord group are all friendly people. Some are not talking on voice but they do write, and that is fine if they don't want to talk on voice chat yet. Listening to the people you play with can also help a lot with overcoming the social anxiety.
    So, the offer still stands, and I am sure you would love the friendly banter :)

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,140

    Landing Scene Partner in Chaos Shuffle made me do a 180 from coward to clown. It was the most helpful perk ever in my growth. Bought Cage immediately afterwards.