Why is tunneling so bad?

Tunneling is often seen as being bad because it deprives some players of actually playing the match, it can be a good strategy but it is often better for you as the killer, and the survivors you are fighting if you go for the person who unhooked the other player, instead of the player who just got off the hook. Play the game however you like though.

Also, if a survivor is dragging you on a loop too long, leave them. Your best bet is to spread damage, often times 3 or more injured players is better pressure than 1 person on a hook. Try and get people into areas where they don't have many defenses, or target the players who are bad at looping/losing the killer

This is exactly why I stopped using MYC. If it showed the the unhooker's aura or something, it might be worth running. As it is, I was running back to the hook, which takes up about a quarter of the timer, and trying to find someone who's healthy and could be hiding anywhere vs. someone bleeding and moaning.

In my experience, it doesn't matter if the killer is fast or slow unless they can be there instantly, like the Hag, because the unhooker will be gone by the time you get there.

To give an example of the bad kind of tunneling: yesterday I had a game against a Demogorgon. I went down early, that in itself is fine, I'm not great, it happens. Demogorgon went on to camp me and, when teammates finally got me off, focused on me exclusively. Rinse and repeat and I'm dead not long after with less than 5,000 points to show for it and very little I could do about it because the killer is (a) right there when I'm saved and (b) on me again immediately. If you've ever been on the wrong end of a game like this, your can appreciate just how frustrating it is. Especially since, in that kind of situation, there's very little you can do to stop it unless your have truly Got Gud, which I have not.

For myself, when I'm killer and I can re- down someone fresh off the hook right away, I'll do it, but I won't re-hook them and won't interfere with their being picked up. Basically I'm not so toxic I'll tunnel someone into oblivion, but also not so nice I won't take the additional pressure if I can get it. I'll leave them the chance to stay in the game and get more points.

You are certainly free to tunnel but I will curse your name :D

It's basically one of those "unsportsman" ways to play. You're certainly free to do it but you're using cheap tactics that also essentially ruin one individuals game.

Personally as a killer, I feel it's a terribly boring way to play but I'm also not all that concerned with getting 4Ks so I don't tunnel. I won't ignore someone if they're the only one I see but if I ever have an option to go after someone else instead, I will. I just think it makes the game more fun for all involved since if you tunnel someone out super early, the other survivors have a tendency to turtle up and just hide from you rather than risk being the next tunnel victim. It almost certainly has cost me games not tunneling but I'd rather have a fun game than "win" with a 4k.

Tunneling is totally fine. It's a legit strat, but survivors always complain about it, even though no one ask them to play in a certain way.

I mainly avoid serious tunneling because it's the one thing that genuinely angers me when I play and, frankly, I do not want to inflict that on others.

Yes, I know it's not fun. I even said so. Losing isn't supposed to be fun.

I've been tunneled out of trials before. I remember a Hillbilly who would chainsaw away, chase a survivor for a few seconds, then come back just as I was unhooked and chainsaw me again. Was it fun? No. Was it fair? Yes.

I've also rushed gens when someone else was being camped. It's not fun for anyone involved, but hey, that's how you counter these things.

If the game had everything that's "not fun" removed from it, we wouldn't have a game at all. We'd have a lobby simulator with reading on the side (lore).

It's a PvP game. You should expect PvP-style gameplay. And that means people are playing to win, not to amuse you.

If you tunnel players, that's fine, it's toxic, but it's not against any rules :). Just don't get mad when survivors flashlight you at pallets, bodyblock n sabo, and taunt you whilst being chased.

They're all toxic strats by survivors, just like tunneling is a toxic strat by killers, fair play :).

I played a game last night where the survivors felt they were tunnelled, but it was really just bad strategy on their part.

They kept looping around one gen and hook. They were also doing that thing where they’re really active and dive bombing, so they were easy to spot.

After it became obvious what they were doing every time they did the loop I went back to the hook or gen and found one of them.

I had one survivor on the hook three times in five minutes. They all DC’d in the end. They really needed to leave the area. This strategy was giving me easy hooks.

Wait, why isn't losing supposed to be fun? Is the person who wins the only one who's meant to enjoy the game?

Don't worry to much about what the survivors guide to being a killer, it has fairly little to do with making the game fun for you.

Tunneling, slugging and even camping are tools in your arsenal and if you use them at the correct times they will win you games. Just don't rely to heavy on any one tool, it isn't going to help you get better but by all means use them all when the time calls for it.

You are not responsible for keeping the survivors alive, their teammates are there for that. Focus on your own gameplan and let them worry about theirs, they use any trick in the book to make it out... so why should you not do the same to kill them?

Killers always need to get gud and not use all the tools in the book, while survivors need killers to give them some slack and consider their fun... instead of becoming good themselves. Good survivors punish the overuse of any given tool.

It all depends on the reason, IMHO.

If your slugging to avoid DS, fine. If one is on hook, you just downed another and you see another close, then it's a very good idea to slug. It really shouldn't be considered toxic.

If your slugging out of the gate as your go-to strategy, it's a bit mean spirited and poor form. While it can be effective, especially against a bunch of disorientated solo queuers, it means more downtime for survivors and in the event of certain strategies/playstyles conflicting, it can basically mean a long circle jerk, as you manage to consistently keep downing folks as fast as they revive while they make no gen progress and you make no sacrifice progression - that just isn't really fun for anyone IMHO.

late game and early game tunneling/camping/slugging are different.

give people a chance. i had more for this but i suddenly g2g

From a strategic standpoint, tunneling makes a lot of sense: 3 hooks you're out, if you spread hooks out across the whole team evenly you will lose. The sooner you can knock a player out of the game, the bigger of an advantage it is. And since Survivors are injured coming off the hook (and the one rescuing them is healthy) you're further incentivized to "tunnel".

The downside is that it's absolutely miserable from the Survivor's perspective. The hook is like the respawn timer in other games: You got caught, now suffer a timeout. The problem with DBD is that you are not guaranteed a chance to play the game after your timer runs out, in fact you may get stuck with another timer right away. You're not able to enjoy the game because you're constantly staring at your character on a hook, wondering why you bother with a fundamentally unfair game.

Solution? I don't know! The game is, as I said, fundamentally unfair. Just enjoy the highs and lows and hope next game will be better, and they'll tunnel someone else. The game right now, apart from Borrowed Timer and DS, is designed to encourage tunneling.

it takes away any interaction with the killer from the other 3 survivors, which will make the game boring

also, the game becomes a gen rush fest to get out of the game as soon as possible, so most of the time the game is done in less than 5 minutes