Suggestions to Enhance DBD’s Core Gameplay Balance

serious

Dead by Daylight – Balance Proposal (Translated Version)

Summary of Goals

1. Reduce the effectiveness of camping/tunneling while giving killers corresponding buffs.
2. Increase the stability of survivor healing, with item balance adjustments to match.

Contents

Chapter 1. Survivor Balance Adjustments

A. Base Kit Adjustments
B. Item & Add-on Balancing

Chapter 2. Killer Balance Adjustments

A. Base Kit Adjustments
B. Generator Damage Base Kit Adjustments (not included in user text)

Chapter 1. Survivor Balance Improvements

1. Base Stats

Action	Before	After
Running speed	4.0 m/s	4.0 m/s
Walking speed	2.26 m/s	2.4 m/s
Crouch-walk speed	1.13 m/s	1.2 m/s
Crawling speed	0.7 m/s	0.6–1.2 m/s (scales with recovery)

2. Healing

• Survivors can now self-heal without perks.
• Self-heal speed: 35% → 40%

Type	Before	After
Heal others	16s	18s
Self-heal	45.7s	45s
Great Skill Check bonus (others)	+3%	+5% (~0.9s gain)
Great Skill Check bonus (self)	+3%	+2% (~0.9s gain)
Deep Wound heal (others)	6s	6s
Deep Wound self-heal	10s	15s

3. Dying State Recovery

Type	Before	After
Being healed by others	16s	15s
Self-recover	32s	45s

Additional changes:

• Survivors may now move while recovering.
• Recovery progresses automatically even without holding the recovery key.
• For every 1% recovery, crawling speed increases by 1% (up to +100%),
  resulting in 0.6 → 1.2 m/s.

4. Exit Gates

Feature	Before	After
Exit-gate opening	20s	30s
Indicator lights	25%/50%/75%	1% / 33% / 66%

5. Totems

Action	Before	After
Cleanse/Bless	14s	15s
Bless Hex Totem	24s	30s

6. Chests

| Chest opening | 10s | 12s |

7. Hooks

Feature	Before	After
Time to struggle phase	70s	75s
Endurance after unhook	15s	10s
Haste after unhook	15s	30s
Anti-camp max gauge effect	Could self-unhook	Can no longer self-unhook
Anti-camp full gauge secondary effect	—	Struggle timer pauses for 30s

8. Action Speed Scaling Based on Survivor Deaths

Every time a survivor dies, the remaining survivors gain increased action speed.

Survivors Alive	Bonus
4	+0%
3	+20%
2	+50%
1	+100%

(In 2v8 mode: +1 stack per 2 survivor deaths.)

Action Time Summary by Remaining Survivor Count

Action	4 Survivors	3 Survivors	2 Survivors	1 Survivor
Generator repair	90s	75s	60s	45s
Heal others	18s	15s	12s	X
Self-heal	45s	37.5s	30s	22.5s
Deep Wound heal (others)	6s	5s	4s	X
Deep Wound heal (self)	15s	12.5s	10s	7.5s
Dying heal (others)	18s	15s	12s	X
Dying heal (self)	45s	37.5s	30s	22.5s
Gate opening	30s	25s	20s	15s
Cleanse/Bless	15s	12.5s	10s	7.5s
Bless Hex Totem	30s	25s	20s	15s
Chest opening	12s	10s	8s	6s

Perk Balance Adjustments

Perk	Change
All Exhaustion perks	40s → 45s Exhaustion
Overcome	+2s → +3s sprint
Background Player	5s → 6s sprint duration
Smash Hit	Now reduces Exhaustion by 15s on pallet stun during Exhaustion
Vigil	No longer affects Exposed; now self-only, recover rate +66% → 100%
Ghost Notes	Exhaustion recovery +10% → +25%
Botany Knowledge	+25% self-heal, +50% heal others
Desperate Measures	+12.5% self-heal per stack, +25% heal others & unhook
Do No Harm	+25% additional self-heal speed
Bite the Bullet	+25% self-heal, removes grunt/heal sounds
Strength in Shadows	+100% healing in Basement

B. Item & Add-On Balancing

General rules applied to all items:

• All items now have 4 tiers of rarity.
• All item charges standardized to multiples of 3.
• Power ratio by rarity standardized to 3 : 4 : 5 : 6.
• Each item now has exactly 4 add-ons (1 per rarity).
• Items now have maximum durability caps.
• Total: 24 items, 24 add-ons.

1. Med-Kits

All med-kits now grant:

• +50% heal others (18s → 12s)
• +50% self-heal (45s → 30s)
• No more self-heal penalty
• Great Skill Check bonus
  • Others: +5%/s
  • Self: +2%

Base Med-Kit Stats

Rarity	Charges	Benefit
Green	18	12s / 15s gained
Blue	24	16s / 20s
Purple	30	20s / 25s
Red	36	24s / 30s
Max durability cap: 36

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+6 charges
Blue	+12 charges
Purple	−50% charges; consumed on use; grants 5s Endurance
Red	−50% charges; consumed on use; auto-heal after 30s

2. Toolboxes

• +25% repair speed (90s → 72s)
• Repair Skill Check frequency: +32% → +8%

Base Toolbox Stats

Rarity	Charges	Time Saved
Green	45	9s
Blue	60	12s
Purple	75	15s
Red	90	18s
Max durability cap: 90

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+15 charges
Blue	+30 charges
Purple	+50% sabotage speed
Red	Consumed on use; −10% max repair (9s gain)

3. Flashlights

• Blind duration: 2.5s

Base

Rarity	Charges	Brightness
Green	9	—
Blue	12	+20%
Purple	15	+40%
Red	18	+60%
Charge cap: 18

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+3 charges
Blue	+6 charges
Purple	+20% brightness & range, +0.5s blind
Red	+20% brightness & distance, +0.5s blind

4. Keys

• All keys have 3 charges.
• Opening chests with a key consumes 1 charge and opens instantly.
• Survivors may now carry a key + another item simultaneously.
• Opening a chest with a key no longer gives another key.

Base Effects

Rarity	Effect
Green	None
Blue	Slightly increased higher rarity loot chance
Purple	Greatly increased higher rarity loot chance
Red	Dramatically increased higher rarity loot chance

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+1 chest spawns
Blue	+2 chest spawns
Purple	Consumed on death; keep items gained via Key
Red	Escape through gate → collect all items left in opened chests

5. Maps

• Charges: 6
• Detection duration: 20s
• Detects windows/pallets
• Double-tap activates 10s “Light Pillar” revealing gens & survivors to all

Base

Rarity	Detection Range
Green	24m
Blue	32m
Purple	40m
Red	48m
Cap: 48m

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+8m
Blue	+16m
Purple	Detects Hatch/Totems in Light Pillar
Red	Detects Killer; Light Pillar duration −50%

6. Fog Vials

• 33% opacity fog, 12m radius, 60s cooldown
• Charges: 3

Base Duration

Rarity	Duration
Green	6s
Blue	8s
Purple	10s
Red	12s
Cap: 12s

Add-ons

Rarity	Effect
Green	+2s
Blue	+4s
Purple	Fog spreads 80% faster
Red	−50% duration, +7% opacity

Chapter 2: Killer Balance Adjustments

A. Killer Basekit Adjustments

1. Chase-Related Basekit Changes

Category	Before	After
Pallet Break Speed	2.34s	2.16s
Window Vault Speed	1.7s	1.6s

2. Perk Balance Changes

Perk	Before	After
Bamboozle	+15% vault speed	+10% vault speed
Superior Anatomy	+40% vault speed	+33% vault speed
Mindbreaker	Applied Blindness while repairing; 5s Exhausted	No longer applies Blindness; applying Exhausted for 6s while repairing

B. Generator Kick Basekit Adjustments

1. Basic Generator Regression

• Kicking a generator no longer applies the default 5% regression.

2. Introduction of the New System: Destruction Tokens

• Killers now gain 1 Destruction Token each time they hook a survivor.
• Maximum tokens: 3
• Token count is shown in the bottom-left UI.

Using Tokens

• Each time the killer kicks a generator, they consume 1 Destruction Token, instantly causing:
  • 15% total-progress regression (based on total generator progress, not current amount)

Interaction with Perks

• Some generator regression perks now interact with Destruction Tokens.

3. Perk Balance Adjustments (Generator Regression Perks)

Perk	New Effect
Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance	When placing a survivor on a Scourge Hook, the killer automatically consumes a Destruction Token to regress the most repaired generator by the token effect.
Pop Goes the Weasel	After hooking a survivor, for 45 seconds, each Destruction Token will cause 15% additional regression. Can activate up to 6 times.
Hex: Ruin	While the hex is active, the killer cannot gain Destruction Tokens.
Surge (Jolt)	Regression amount changed: -8% → -7.5%
Eruption	Cooldown removed

Zuiphrode

So basically you want to giga buff survs while nerfing basically everything the killer can do, even gen kicking. The base speed increase for survs and base kit gen kick -removal--is especially egregious. You don't want to balance the game, you want a theme park where survs can play around as they want and killers are just there to be a slightly scary part of the scenery.

This turd of a 'rework' is so actively offensive that I legit think you are trolling.

UnicornMedal

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/4037018#Comment_4037018

The Survivor role is actively facing the same sorts of problems Killer was facing 3 years ago which prompted an entire rework of the game, and yet any attempt to level the playing field is considered a bust. 😵 It would be one thing if it was just an opinion and not something BHVR seems to model their updates after (in my opinion).

Zuiphrode

This isn't levelling the playing field, this is smashing it with a hammer.

terumisan

you heavily buffed survivors while you nerfed killers hard.

Zuiphrode

I'm going to roast this in a little more detail so I can hopefully pound in just how absolutely terrible and toxic your suggestion is, OP.

-The destruction token system -incentivizes- tunnelling because the only practical way to revert gens is with destruction tokens, and killers only get them by hooking. They have to tunnel someone out immediately to even make their gen perks work. In fact, they have to CONTINUALLY tunnel to maintain any gen pressure at all. Medium skill teams will body block and otherwise make it impossible for the killer to hook, and since medkits are an almost instant heal now, they can do it with no real penalty, which means that, effectively, all but the most skilled killers will never be able to revert gens in any meaningful way.
-Killers no longer have any endgame pressure. At all. A surv with boosted action speeds can open a gate in potentially as little as 15 seconds.
-Every survivor item got buffed to the moon, making it even harder to keep survs pressured via injuries or to keep them off generators. Generators will fly even faster than they do now, survs will heal even faster than they do now (and they already heal too fast), survs have perfect location on killers whenever they want, etc. This combined with the destruction token system utterly murders game balance.
-The action speed buff actively punishes killers for winning, meaning that kills at the wrong time will make the match unwinnable for them (if they should somehow even get a kill). They can't slug people to keep them busy either since everyone has infinite basekit unbreakable now.
-The Bamboozle nerf directly contradicts the stated goal of buffing killers in chase.

This is not game balance, this is just a Monty Haul wish list. If this was implemented even in nerfed form, surv queues would hit 2 hours or more within 24h after the patch. You might as well have just typed "remove killer" and saved yourself some time.

serious

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/4037089#Comment_4037089

I would like to clarify a number of misunderstandings you have about this patch.

1. Survivor items were not broadly buffed — they were nerfed.

More specifically: med-kits and toolboxes were nerfed, flashlights remained unchanged, and maps/keys/fog vials were buffed.

Self-healing is one of the most important mechanics for survivors.
Killers who aim for a late-game strategy generally try to completely shut down the survivors’ ability to heal so that they cannot meaningfully participate in the match.

As a result, reliable self-heal is practically mandatory for survivors.
Unfortunately, they have only two ways to obtain stable self-healing:

1. Run Self-Care + Botany Knowledge (or Desperate Measures)
2. Bring a med-kit

Using two perk slots just to heal takes away the freedom to run other fun perks, so naturally most survivors choose med-kits.

2. About toolboxes — the current version is far stronger than you think.

Current toolboxes, especially the “blue toolbox” setup, synergize extremely well with skill-check perks because the skill-check frequency skyrockets from 8% to 40%. This allows survivors to end the game before the killer can even apply meaningful strategy, just like strong med-kit setups.

In the current meta, it is fair to say that 4 out of 4 survivors bring either med-kits or toolboxes.
Maps are simply substitutes for Windows of Opportunity, and keys are substitutes for BOND—none of them remotely compete with med-kits or toolboxes in actual gameplay value.

3. Comparing current med-kits vs. the nerfed med-kits I proposed

Current meta med-kit builds use:

• +16 charges
• +15% great skill check bonus

This allows survivors to self-heal twice in about 20 seconds each.

Under the proposed nerfs:

• The max charge cap prevents more than two heals
• Healing takes ~30 seconds for two self-heals
  → This is a clear nerf compared to live servers.

Strong purple/red add-ons are also nerfed with charge penalties, often restricting survivors to a single heal.

4. Comparing current toolboxes vs. the nerfed toolboxes

Current toolbox meta uses:

• +12 charges
• +30% repair speed
  → Repairs a 90-second generator in ~70 seconds, plus
  → +32%/s increased skill-check rate = ~7+ extra skill checks
  → Final effective repair time: ~63 seconds

Under my nerfs:

• Total charges increased
• Repair speed reduced to +25%
  → “Raw” repair time is ~72 seconds (similar to now)
• Skill-check rate nerfed from +32%/s → +8%/s
  → Only about 5 extra skill checks
  → Strong synergy with HYPERFOCUS (and other SC-based perks) is significantly reduced
  → Average effective repair time becomes ~67 seconds

This is unquestionably a nerf, not a buff.

5. The Destruction Token system does not incentivize tunneling — it discourages it.

This patch weakens camping/tunneling in three ways:

1. Survivor hook stage timer increased from 70 → 75 seconds
2. Speed boost after unhook extended to 30 seconds
3. Every time a survivor dies, remaining survivors gain global action speed increases

All of these significantly reduce the reward killers get for tunneling or camping.

On the killer side, this patch finally rewards roaming.
The first perk that ever encouraged killers to leave the hook was POP GOES THE WEASEL.
When this perk was meta, did killers camp?
No — they left the hook to apply pressure.
This is why I believe POP GOES THE WEASEL’s effect should be incorporated into the basekit.

If a killer hooks survivors eight times, they can regress generators by a total of 120%, which is strong and healthy gen control without tunneling.

6. Regarding the most controversial part: survivor action speed when teammates die

Survivor action speed increases by +20% / +50% / +100% depending on deaths.
Because of this, I adjusted gate opening times accordingly:

• With 4 survivors alive → Gate opening is now 30 seconds instead of 20
• Last survivor alone → Gate opening becomes 15 seconds

You also mentioned gates lighting up too fast.
This is why I changed the indicator thresholds from 25/50/75% → 1/33/66%.

Originally, killers had ~15 seconds to notice the first light.
Under my change, this timing remains identical — killers still have ~15 seconds to react.

7. What about generator repair speed increases after deaths?

+100% only applies when one survivor remains, so let’s ignore that for realistic matches.
The meaningful effects are:

• 3 survivors alive → ~75-second gens
• 2 survivors alive → ~60-second gens

Would killers tunnel early to remove someone right away?
No.
Because killers want to fully benefit from the basekit POP GOES THE WEASEL system, they will spread hooks instead.
Realistically, a survivor will die after about 7–8 hooks, at which point 1–2 generators will remain.

Let’s compare:

Is it faster for 4 survivors to repair five gens,
or for 4 survivors to repair 6.2–6.5 gens, then speed up only at the very end?

They are roughly equal.

This means the patch reduces 3-gen stalling, a major issue in the current game.
With this system, even the 8-regression limit could realistically be removed.

8. The Bamboozle “nerf” is not a nerf

Because the base window vault speed was buffed from 1.7 → 1.6 seconds,
Bamboozle going from +15% → +10% still results in:

• Previously: 1.47s vault
• Now: 1.45s vault

So the perk is not weakened in practice.

Zuiphrode

Bro generating his replies with chatgpt 💀

serious

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/4037121#Comment_4037121

Because, bro, I'm Korean.
I'm definitely leaving the translation to GPT,
but I write all the content myself.