Changes to help new players

dirizio23

Today I've watched one of my old favorite streamers play DBD after years with his friends. No surprise, they were so lost, and for the 2-hour gameplay, he only really looped the killer a few times—when back in the day, he was a really good player (casual, but still good). I realize now the game is in a very bad state. In my own experience, my main complaints are the solo experience as a survivor and playing against good players with communication and infinite resources as a killer. I've suggested changes for those problems before, but now I want to be more emphatic and think about the basic solutions that can help new or returning survivors have a better experience. I think that if this issue is resolved, more players will come and stay in the game, making it evolve and improve for everyone. (Note: this isn't just my take; I think devs, with all the anti-tunneling anti-slugging stuff they were trying in the PTB, know a lot of players have a bad experience in the game. For the ideas I'm posting here, I'm going to think about not changing the game balance drastically for experienced players—that I think was the main issue for the anti-tunneling changes approach. The ideas I will bring are major changes, but still, I don't think they will affect experienced players too much.)

1. New killers with overcomplicated powers and counters
2. New base mechanics built into the game.
3. New maps and structures.
4. New perks.
5. Addons that bring a change in the early game and/or are too powerful.
6. Basic understanding of the game overall and game progression. (Lack of this leads to bad gamesense, therefore bad decision making.)

Let me know if you can think of anything else. So next, I will be trying to come up with long-term solutions for these problems.

1. a. Load-up screen lets you know the killer you are playing against, plus info on his abilities and counters. (Wow, big change here—do you really think it's necessary to spoil people on which killer they're against? Well, unless you have Lethal Pursuer and are planning for a surprise attack or a stealth killer like Pig, it's not a big deal if survivors know the killer they're against. I know we're used to the surprise, but with 40 killers—and in 2 years, 50 killers, and in 10 years, 80 killers—let's be real here: survivors need help to understand so they can react. Having this info and being able to read tips and main counters will help them react to the killer and not throw the game at the start.) (Note: the main killer page could also have tips and counters, and in my opinion, the power explanation text could be better—some are lacking basic game mechanics of the killer power. Plus, you can add GIFs of survivors dodging powers or countering effectively; this I think will be very good since it's not the same to dodge a hatchet as an alien tail—powers have different timings.)
   b. Another take for the long-term health of the game is to nerf killer powers overall but buff basic game mechanics. So, to make the game more even across all killers, the killer power will be more like an addition than a whole identity. That way, a survivor will learn ways to waste the killer's time and not have major surprises from mechanics they don't understand. This happened recently in Valorant: abilities overall got nerfed a bit, and gunplay got buffed, and I think it's a healthy way to make the new player experience a little better since the game has a lot of agents. (For example, basic game mechanics that could be added/buffed: a killer hooks a survivor and gets 5% haste for 10 seconds or until he makes an action or starts a chase; a killer presses a button at a window for 3 seconds to block it for 30 seconds or a pallet; a killer not in a chase can spend 2 seconds standing still and get 5% haste for 10 seconds or until he makes an action or starts a chase. This is just brainstorming of things I came up with in 2 min—you get the idea: basic mechanics buff, specific killer powers nerf.)
   c. Practice mode. Most PvP games have a practice mode, basically like a custom game but instead of an actual match, there could be different options. Also, there could be mini-games, like 10 survivors have to go from point A to point B, and there's a Dracula killing survivors in the middle area, so it's a way of watching a killer perform but in fast-paced gameplay. Its a way to taking a break from matches if you getting stomped plus learning about in the game in the process.
2. a. I would suggest visual changes for status effects, plus an option you can turn on/off to have text explaining the status. For example, endurance when unhooked for ten seconds: the character has a yellow glow around them, and the text basically explains the endurance status effect and also explains the base built-in mechanic like "Built-in: every time a survivor is unhooked, they gain ten seconds of endurance status effect." This can be used for every status effect—like I said, you can turn off the text, and of course, if you are blinded, mangled, endurance, that could lead to a whole text on the screen. I still think people would read it and that way learn about the game as they play it. Same with killer perks: an area of your screen could have the killer perks unrevealed, and they reveal as you see them in a match, but also you can read the perk to learn as you play. I understand it could be distracting, but this resolves very easily—just have a button showing text or not showing text, so if you want to read it as you repair a gen, you press it, and if you run away, just press the button and that hides the text.
3. a. Minimap—it doesn't hurt the experience; if there's a HUD, we can have a minimap showing basic information. New players just run like headless chickens; they run towards teammates that are repairing a gen, and it's something that will help them out for sure. It doesn't hurt experienced gameplay since players with a lot of hours already know the maps anyway.b. Again, practice mode with more fast-paced gameplay will help players understand environments and main buildings, etc.
4. a. Same as 3a: visuals and text can really help understand new perks. And here, I'm thinking how do you help a new player understand the combo Dead Man Switch + Pain Res so they let go of the gen before the killer hooks, so the gen doesn't get blocked? Well, it's too hard. I can't come up with anything here—I'm blank. Maybe if you explain the meta perks in a page or something like "What's new to the meta?" and you explain combos etc. and counters for both sides. I honestly feel comboing two strong meta perks to get x1000 value if the survivor is clueless shouldn't happen, but that's just my opinion. I don't think Dead Man Switch + Pain Res is a major issue anyway; I just think sadly a new player has to make the mistake a few times until they realize what not to do.
5. a. There are addons like Wesker: all survivors start infected. So maybe this addon is not that strong (or maybe it is, idk), but for a new player, starting the game with an additional inconvenience for a killer they don't understand can be overwhelming. I am strongly against addons that give an effect at the start of the game. Nonetheless, addons that give a major advantage like very strong addons should not be secret—the survivor should know what's up, like Plague aura reading when vomit addon; it's a strong addon, and it gets stronger if the survivor doesn't know it and is clueless about what might be happening, so basically new players get punished x2. The addon is so strong anyway that not being a secret is a nerf, but not so big a nerf, and fair for playing around the addon.
   b. As for the most powerful addons in the game for both sides, personally I would block them so regular games don't have any of them—no iri addons for both sides, so no syringes, no chicken heads, etc. And I'm thinking if you happen to be playing for a while, once every 8-15 games, you get a full-on game where you can bring iri addons and offerings; both sides will bring the strong stuff and know the other side will bring the strong stuff, so in this case, the game is "evenly" broken.
6. a. Now this one is a hard one. For example, how do you make a new clueless survivor that never played DBD know they have to run away from teammates and gens with progress if they are being chased? Some streamers are saying DBD needs tutorials; I don't think people play tutorials in 2025—people learn as they go or watch TikTok videos, streaming, etc. But how do you give them the strategic ideas so they understand the power of the survivor is the time that they make the killer lose? Thinking of other games and how people improve and evolve, a way I think to effectively make people play and understand the game better is to add voice chat to the game. I know devs don't want this, but it's my honest opinion: if people communicate more, they learn more, they share thoughts—it's the basic way for people to improve by communicating. Commands are an alternative to voice chat.
   b. More information in hud, mini map will also help with this.
   c. Another option i just came up with, if a player haven't played for a while or its new you can have nicolas cage voice in off saying in the first chase of each match for like 5 matches. "Come on, you got this! Try to make the killer waste as much time as possible and try to take him away from areas with generators in progress." Basically like a built in fun tutorial that doesnt feel like a waste of time.
   

KingOfDoom55

I agree with this, something needs to be done for new or returning players, the tutorial is too outdated, too many perks and powers and untold things that people need to discover on their own, something needs to be done for this