The Decline of Dead by Daylight’s Design Philosophy
1. Skill-Driven Beginnings
When Dead by Daylight launched in 2016, success came from skill and adaptation. Survivors had three unique perks, killers had their own kits, and universal perks were rare. Cosmetics didn’t exist. Your choice of survivor or killer mattered because of their abilities, not their appearance.
This forced players to actually learn and master each character, creating a unique and rewarding experience every time you played. The game’s identity was clear: outcomes were determined by skill, not shortcuts.
2. The Shift Away From Skill
Over the years, Behaviour Interactive moved further from this original vision:
- Universal Perks – Once perks became shareable, survivor and killer identity lost meaning.
- Perk Bloat – Instead of addressing core problems like tunneling or camping, the devs kept adding perks as band-aid fixes, which only created new balancing issues.
- Catering to Streamers – Many Fog Whisperers and streamers complained daily instead of adapting. Behaviour too often adjusted the game to silence them, creating a cycle of appeasement rather than true balance.
The result was predictable: killers now enjoy a 70%+ success rate (2 or more kills per match), a huge deviation from the 50/50 balance the game once had. Even Behaviour themselves admitted killers were intended to have “a slight advantage,” but that “slight” has grown into a chasm.
3. 2v8: Proof Players Want the Old DBD
When 2v8 mode dropped, players flocked to it immediately. Why? Because for the first time in years, you had to play with what you got. No perk stacking, no bloated metas—just raw skill and teamwork.
It felt like a return to early DBD: stripped down, challenging, and fun. This proves the community is still hungry for skill-first, identity-driven gameplay. But Behaviour refuses to embrace it, because doing so would expose how far they’ve strayed.
4. Monetization Over Gameplay
Behaviour’s priorities have become clear: cosmetics and DLC over meaningful gameplay updates.
- As of 2025, DBD has 43 DLC packs, each bringing survivors/killers/maps, many of which feel rushed or uninspired.
- Cosmetic overload has become a main revenue driver, with new skins arriving constantly.
- The grind is absurd: players calculated it would take over 1,500 hours (378 days of play) just to unlock non-licensed characters with in-game currency. Add licensed perks, and it balloons to 46 years of playtime at 4 hours/day without spending money.
- Community sentiment is furious: Steam reviews and forum posts regularly call out Behaviour for “caring more about skins than fixing the game.”
As one player put it:
“Money. They want money and they want it now. Health chapters don’t bring money. Licenses do.”
This approach has left many feeling the game is being milked at the expense of its integrity.
5. Streamer Divide
Early content creators like Puppers, Monto, AngryPug, and Tru3Ta1ent showcased gameplay skill and creativity. They taught players how to improve.
Meanwhile, others like Otzdarva and OhTofu became known for daily complaints in the early years. Behaviour often listened. Ironically, even Otzdarva has since admitted his own growth, pivoting to educational content—proving adaptation was always the real solution, not appeasement.
6. Behaviour’s Own Words
The dev team famously claimed:
“I think we’ve done a pretty good job so far.”
But the evidence disagrees:
- Kill rates remain stacked in killers’ favor.
- Chapters often feel rushed and hollow.
- Cosmetics and monetization are prioritized over gameplay improvements.
This statement has since become a community meme, used as an example of Behaviour being out of touch with the actual state of their game.
7. The Brutal Truth
- Dead by Daylight was once about skill, mastery, and identity.
- Years of perk bloat, streamer appeasement, and monetization-first updates eroded that foundation.
- 2v8 proved players still want the original vision—skill-based, stripped-down gameplay.
- But Behaviour won’t embrace it, because it highlights how badly they’ve mismanaged the game.
The truth is simple: DBD didn’t decline because players changed—it declined because Behaviour lost sight of what made it great.
Comments
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A few things.
Shareable perks have been a thing since launch. Survivor choice has always mattered mattered very little once their teachables were unlocked. This was intentional by the devs. And there were cosmetics. Not many, but there were.
And by golly there were shortcuts back then. Mori's working from the first down, and later the first hook. BNP's instantly completing generators, actual infinites. If anything, the game didn't revolve around skill back then. It revolved around fun.
The entirety of point 3 is flatly wrong. 2v8 gained popularity because of the novelty of playing with 2 killers and 8 survivors. If anything, the mode is less skill-based, because your individual performance isn't quite as important. It'd be far more accurate to make this point about Chaos Shuffle. Survivors are hardly "stripped-down" in 2v8.
Cosmetics being the main drive of revenue is a given for any live service game. You're right in that it feels like that it feels like monetisation took priority over maintaining a fun, healthy game, though.
also… was this written by an AI?
Post edited by GentlemanFridge on19 -
Yes, it was written by AI. You can tell by the fact that it believes Blendette never existed, sharing perks was added later on, maps being included in DLC packs, counting the various multipacks and chapters together to get the DLC count, and that infinites took skill, on top of the numbered approach to paragraphs. It also seems to have anti-Otz in the prompt, when Tru3 complains equally if not more.
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The game declined so much that it is enjoying the highest gameplay counts it ever had, as someone who has played this game since 2016, wth you mean by skill in the og dbd? The one where if someone approached an infinite you just had to give up chase? Or when a crack billy got you and insta moried you 30 seconds into the match?
Also regarding your point on content creators, all of the ones you mentioned, except tofu, would get absolutelly eaten alive by the current dbd players that are actually good. Some of them have actually faced them and lost horribly as well.
If you ask me, someone who has also played dbd since its inception, it has gone up and down on skill, why? Because killers like unknown and springtrap have such a high skill ceiling on their proyectiles you would be dishonest to propose any killer back then required more skill.
We do have killers that do not require more skill than previous ones, as it is obviously true you need more skill to play wraith than ghoul.
Also perk variety does not take away skill, I in fact think it makes you need more skill.
Before you could just tunnel without repercusion and win incredibly fast, if someone has DS or OTR you have to know how to adjust your gameplay even if you wanna tunnel, it makes you judge your descicions more.
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It also has that formatting AI tends to throw out with the title points in a larger font that most people don't take the time to type and roughly equal amount of words dedicated to each of the points.
It also has the distant voice AI tends to use instead of sounding like someone who played the game, for example typing things like 'players' instead 'I've heard' or 'according to' or 'I frequently experience'.
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ChatGPT also loves bold text, which is all over the original post, even in areas that don't need stress.
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AI Slop post full of misconceptions.
Once perks became shareable
They have been since day one.
killers now enjoy a 70%+ success rate
It's 60%.
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The star wars chapter must have come early cuz R2D2 is making a forum thread.
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Is that what the dog does to his clear coat? 🤔
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Ok good, 'cause I was pretty sure but I also thought I was getting paranoid.
Good to know my "AI-sense" hasn't failed me.
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Learn to substantiate opinions yourself instead of making a robot poorly do it for you. If I wanted to have someone whose not real tell me everything I want to hear in exchange for burning down a rainforest, I'd have done it myself.
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Thats what anyone would look like after spending time on Dagobah
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Okay i will second your post saying that you are very accurate on what the core issue is.
You did not really speak more about how players back then were not so common with map tiles, learning the RnG mechanic since the RNG system that DBD uses for pallets, tile location for looping is 99% predictable there is not that much variants to remember and year by year players adapt and learn it by muscle memory and there is no real skill involved in that since there is no real time adaptation needed at all.
The major flaw here by DBD and BHVR is that the game is marketed as an Asymmetrical genre game.
Okay so Asymmetrical in core itself has elements dbd fullfils as a game yes but it fails to thrive upon true RNG proceedurally generated map tiles to always keep its playerbase no matter playtime on their tippy toes.
This would raise the stakes higher and help the whole SWF thriving at high mmr learning map tiles and call outs.
So we know the old stats abouf SWFs in game but i would put a hard eye on current stats that are not published yet as for me matches in my high mmr killer matches feel roughly survivor sides (due to my killer choice, i wont get into that in this post).
Now for me it feels like its not a true 4man more like 2+2man seperate friends, one party slighlty worse or better as they dont share comms, but these players share similar meta perks and knowledge about map tiles, they can shut off their brain and remember the map and locations where to loop the killer.
I do really think the core issue of dbd is that constant mastery of the game in terms of playtime and learning curve is killing the game, survivors at high mmr are playing really tightly because they dont require to adapt they just need to keep their senses sharp and do call outs in comms and stack perks.
I wont lie and i will say that in avg mmr and slightly above the game is killer sided due to killers having 5-10% more higher kill rate/winrate on avg.
If we shift focus towards above avg mmr thats where people start to get confused, the older players that stayed and played dbd for a while and grinded the game will get burnt out (me included) by getting the matches where you kinda reach stalemate due to meta perks.
It gets interesting at this point to because killer Q time at this level is aprox 10-15 minutes and matches if you do not do "healthy tunnel" that is approved by majority of streamers the match will end by 5 minute mark.
The survivors usually wait about that 5 minute mark at higher mmr.
And not to speak about SBMM and MMR system in game that is absolutely awful as it places u sometimes with worse mmr or way better mmr players (both killer and survivor sided)
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AI slop detected.
Opinion rejected. (If you can even call it that)
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I'm sorry lil guy. the first patch made these shareable. they weren't at alunch.
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This wasn't written by AI.It is amusing that people try their best to dismiss something they don't agree with by throwing the AI card at it. But hey, we can't all be intelligent.
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Ahhh, I love it. I can smell the haters from here. Patch 1.0.4 was when they added teachable perks….sadly this wasn't with launch.
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No it wasn't lmao
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Notably, you no longer are talking in perfect grammar as you were in your OP post. Could this information be relevant?
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You share a post that looks like a carbon copy of output from ChatGPT and can't even defend your own points when challenged. Maybe if you spent a little time doing some research and thinking about how you wanted to articulate your points this wouldn't be an issue.
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Because I hastily responded? Yes, that must be the reason.
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I can smell something, and it stinks. This reply is not just wrong, but worded in a way that makes me think you actually went back and asked the AI if it was right, and blindly trusted it a second time when it lied to your face. Perks and the way they function are hard coded into DBD and Teachables were always the intended progression system to ensure Meta Survivors didn't exist.
Please, just stop asking robots to back you man, they don't know what they're doing.
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If you believe that the game was more skillful back in 2016, THINK AGAIN.
Instablinds, instaheals, old BNP, old Hatch, old Moris, OG Nurse, old add-ons like Iri Heads and instarev, and also perks like Object, DS, ect.
All of these are shortcuts that are very limited rn.
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2v8 isnt great because of the lack of meta, its great cause the action is increased 300%.
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Well the one thing I will 100% agree with is the perks becoming bandaid fixes for glaring problems with game design. Shoulder the Burden is the poster child and most obvious one, which was suggested by Otz himself.
Maybe part of the problem is that perks themselves simply do too much. And they are far too frequently the go to answer given dismissively to players who have legitimate complaints.
Don't like being genrushed? Run gen slowdown perks.
Don't like being slugged? Run anti-slug perks.
Don't like being tunneled? Run anti-tunnel perks.
Don't like survivors hiding? Run info perks.
Don't like killers camping? Run anti-camping perks.
Don't like everyone being injured? Run healing speed perks.
It's literally "do you want to do X or not want Y? Run Z perk."
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Couldnt agree more. This article is 100% dead on.
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Cosmetics do drive a lot of the game at the moment, but even those don't take top priority. Every new outfit for David needs time to work with his shirtless skin (there was even a bug for a while that would OPEN UP his torso like a mouth when he curled up on hook). I'm still waiting for them to make Baz's outfit from the Masquerade event his and not Aestri's, or at least issue some compensation for charging 3 cosmetics for the price of 2.
Even in ye olden days, it was so annoying being told that if you wanted to avoid being tunneled, you had to buy the Halloween chapter. The best perks tended to come in licensed chapters.
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It's even less. 60% is just the kill rate which is a 2.4 kill rate on average.
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I sure am glad I don't play this game anymore I just read these discussions and I am still wondering how this unbalanced pile of junk still makes you want to play. Neither side is fun as it is based on the chance of wether you get competent teammates as survivor or you get survivor friends as killer. The entire thing is so based on randomness its not even funny to laugh at its downright bad and adding the stupid pay to win perks does not really help much to the situation I really don't care wether they nerfed the paid perks the fact they existed in a broken state speaks for itself. Behaviour are a greedy company who don't care for you. Heck they already showed it at that last fiasco with the streamers they don't care for anything but your wallet I am just surprised how there is people that think this game is worth it to be played when its always bugged every single update and the only thing they almostn ever mess up are cosmetics. I am just at a loss for words
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still true to this day pay to win perks are still here and behaviour still hide behind their super outdated and dumb shrine of secrets
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I wonder how many of this guy's other posts are AI generated slop.
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The specific model of hiding strong comebacks behind pay walls is less common is what I meant. I guess you could argue TWD counts but personally I'd say Reassurance was the last time they really pulled that.
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Whether you think the OP was perfectly sourced or not, the core tension they’re pointing at is real: DbD leans on perk/monetization band-aids instead of fixing root systems, and 2v8 has unintentionally spotlighted that.
A few clarifications and more constructive framing:
- The “old vs new” nostalgia debate is a dead end. What has changed is how much perks are asked to solve design problems (tunneling, camping, info famine, chase length, gen tempo) that should live in basekit and maps. When every complaint is answered with “run X,” you’re designing loadouts, not trials.
- 2v8’s popularity isn’t proof of “pure skill”; it’s proof that variety + identity are fun. Two killers, more bodies, fast rotations—people enjoy the social chaos and the distinct feel of each match. That’s a signal to lean into identity (clear roles, thematic cohesion, class differentiation), not stack more universal perks.
- Cosmetic revenue is normal for live service. The criticism isn’t “skins exist,” it’s that meaningful systemic work moves slower than cosmetic drops, so gameplay pain points linger while the shop hums. That perception gap is on BHVR to close.
- The kill-rate back-and-forth misses the forest. A 2.4 vs 2.6 average doesn’t explain why matches often feel like coin flips. That feeling comes from information creep + perk bloat + map RNG + SWF comms stacked atop old rules. Numbers ≠ texture.
If we want a healthier direction (for both 1v4 and 2v8), argue for changes that don’t care whether a post was typed by a human or a toaster:
- Move band-aid perks into basekit knobs. Anti-tunnel/camp, chase clarity, and gen tempo should be tuned at the ruleset level, then slim the perk catalog to flavorful modifiers—not crutches.
- Cut information spam, reward information play. Less free aura wall-hacks (especially in 2v8), more deliberate, time-bound intel that asks for risk or setup.
- Identity over homogeneity. In 2v8: give survivors real class identities (not four flavors of “gen/saves”), and curate killers that actually fit the mode. In 1v4: stop pretending every killer belongs in every playlist—category queues or soft filtering would reduce “Legion again?” fatigue without hard bans.
- Map and objective work, not perk work. Modular horror spaces, clearer macro incentives than “five gens or bust,” and side objectives that create tension instead of just faster bars.
- Publish philosophy, not just patch notes. If the game is meant to be horror-first (not esports-first), say it and ship toward it consistently. If it’s a party fighter in scary clothes, own that too. The whiplash is what fuels half these threads.
We can dunk on formatting all day, but none of that fixes why so many matches feel simultaneously sweaty and shallow. Tighten the foundation; let perks and cosmetics decorate the house—not hold up the walls.
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