Are keys balanced?

It feels bad to lose to a key, I think that's the main issue more than it being balanced. You don't feel like you got much control over it.

But I also see the flip side that some games are unwinnable for Survivors and they need some sort of back up escape potential or else 2 Survivors left may as well just suicide.

No. Can't even argue for them in solo-Q anymore, because of those blueprint offerings to always know where hatch it.

Just offering my opinion on keys! 😅

They are definitely the most powerful survivor item in the game, it can be argued that it's singlehandedly the strongest item in the game! The ability to escape without needing to complete some of your objective is huge because the game is balanced around survivors needing to finish their objective, not some of it! 😊

Therefore, I would say absolutely not, keys are definitely OP and should be looked at (which they are from what I've heard)! However, I'd like the developers to buff the aura reading aspect of keys because well, it's very underused from experience and observations! 😅

I'd suggest keys don't instantly open the hatch, but will instead take time! To add on, the killer gets some kind of warning when someone is attempting to open the hatch just to add some counterplay! Of course, I'd like to see the aura reading aspect of keys get a huge buff, such as more add-ons and built-in aura reading abilities! 😋

I play about 60/40 as survivor, but a lot more killer lately, I think keys are fair. It sounds like I'm in the minority though.

Ideally, it should take the survivor awhile to open the hatch — This is to give the killer time to reach the hatch and prevent the escape regardless where they are at! 😊

Just to answer some future comments... 😋

Q: What's the point in opening the hatch if the killer always have enough time to prevent the escape?

This is where you need to be clever and use the key tactically! Use it to make the killer stop whatever they are doing and focus on you, this will allow your teammates to focus on generators or recover from the killer's momentum!

As a side note: I would prefer if the HUD warns the killer about someone unlocking the hatch — Just so we're sticking to the theme of "Whoever finds it first, wins".

The big issue with DBD is there is a lot of focus on power, or which side wins, or whatever, and not about the actual flow of the game.

A good example is stuff like survivors complaining about tunneling, when making tunneling too weak neuters the threat of the killer because you feel too safe at hooks, or when killers complain about genrush, when in reality survivors who aren't being pressured have nothing to do with gens.

DBD is a delicate balance of interacting gamestates where both sides are struggling to engineer a result under pressure from each other preventing them from freely acting: Killers have an almost 'absolute' power to block objectives by design, be it a hooked survivor or gen, but can't be in more than one place at a time, and thus if they aren't clever about pressure in reality they are leaving multiple objectives undefended rather than really defending. Likewise, survivors are forced to capitulate to the killer's pressure, even if they don't succumb to their attempts to down and remote them from the game. A survivor, outside of specific circumstances, can't 'force past' the killer's attempts to block them, as all their tools to survive require them to do nothing but utilize them. In exchange for being so vulnerable to pressure, survivors have more map presence and pressure. An individual survivor can't force jack through the killer's attempts to defend, but they can always win if they correctly predict the killer, run good loops, and never play into the killer and do things like feed hookstates on sloppy rescues or refuse to back down.

Anything that messes up this dynamic is generally extremely toxic. Classic example is old DS and old BT, which both, in attempt to save survivors from the 'bad feelings' of being tunneled, utterly destroyed the killer's ability to play defensively on an objective correctly. This was such a bad design it resulted in the longest Q times ever when the devs just refused to back down and the Civ meme was born. We don't live in those times anymore, as it actually threatened the survival of the game, DBD was at the risk of pulling a death garden and just having one side entirely fall out of the game. It turns out that while it sucks to die 5 minutes into a game not doing anything, its WORSE for you to be playing a game for 10 minutes unable to do anything because mechanics keep screwing you over for doing well and blocking a sloppy unhook or whatever, and without the negativity of being hooked, survivor play actually became EXTREMELY BORING because there was absolutely no tension in losing chases, meaning stuff like having to make hard decisions on taking hits to save pallets or having to track the killer didn't matter anymore and the game became 'gen simulator.' DBD just was frustrating for killer, and boring for survivor, it just sucked.

Keys completely demolish this intricate balance in a way even moris, or old BT and DS don't. They are less powerful, but one interesting thing about game design is that its often not the most powerful stuff that is the most toxic, but the stuff that aggressively messes up the negotiated relationship of gameplay, AKA the way players interact with each other. Keys are, in fact, probably one of the worse mechanics I have seen in a game, because ultimately they are a mechanic that rewards survivors for doing poorly (Which is fine, you actually want comeback mechanics in the game, hatch ON ITS OWN is a really healthy mechanic!) but in a way that doesn't just not feel super great for them (A duo key-win is hardly a survivor victory) but feels AWFUL for the person who got the script flipped on them.

Keys are mega toxic because killers lose the game for doing well in a way they have almost no control over. You basically don't pip in key games simply because the survivors decided to bring an easily obtained item. This is unlike Moris, where good play generally still works and the change is more subtle and simply accelerates the game rather than actively punishing the killer. So while moris are more powerful, and did deserve a nerf, in many ways they were better mechanically because they amplified tension in the game rather than draining it. A killer, somewhat rightfully, has every reason to say 'Why should I even bother?' when looking at a key, because it anihilates both the in game scoring method and violates the entire concept of a skill based game outside of it (not because its op or easy, but because the promise of a skill based game is that good gameplay is rewarded, but keys... punish good gameplay quite heavily, so you almost paradoxically are punished for doing well in chases and consistently downing surviviors). Keys are beatable for sure, but losing to a key is sorta unnaceptable to the entire gameplay loop of DBD in a way that losing to a mori isn't.

TL;DR: Keys are not only unbalanced, but they completely destroy the entire reason DBD is enjoyable as a skill based negotiated conflict between two groups trying to engineer gamestates by anihilating the gamestate a killer is meant to be powerful in and just removing any real win condition from a role.

Keys are definitely not balanced.

The problem with keys is that they can end the game prematurely that's what makes them strong.

Just like moris it's not fun for the other party.

It turns situations where are the survivors should have lost or the game was still winnable on The Killers end into just automatic losses for the Killer.

Hell as a Survivor I've accidentally had games where we've given the killer a perfect free gen strat and by right that was our mistake and we should have had a difficult time getting through that but because we had a key we managed to basically avoid it completely and get the three people out

My 2 cents as a newer player: hatch appearance mechanics are fine. Keys should appear slightly less frequently, always open the hatch immediately, and the hatch should close after being used by a survivor "preventing the killer from following," figuratively, with the option to be held open by other survivors (killer grabs, FTW!) Introduce lockpicks that utilize skill checks. No opinion on the other key abilities as I haven't used those.

Edit: replace broken key for a key that opens chests immediately and lockpicks slightly expedite chest opening

No ❤️

No, mostly because it's simply too strong. A free escape for the entire team (potentially) with one item is a bit too much, although these situations are rare. 

It depends on what you mean by balanced.

In some way they are, because keys rarely change the outcome of a match, unlike moris. A lot of matches you won, the key did nothing at all. In lots of matches you lost, it also did nothing, because the killer had franklins, tunneled you, or whatever.

While moris changed the whole gamedynamics if you would tunnel out one survivor early, keys dont (unless you play against a swf with a dedicated key strategy, then it might. Against solos, it doesn´t .

However, if your only metric for winning and losing is escape or kill, then a key allows at least one person an escape it wouldnt normaly have, unless the person did get killed earlier (even as survivor, i often only realize after the game someone brought in a key), or the killer gets you before you find the hatch (which you still has to find).

So its not a question that could be answerd in general, because a lot depends on your own perspective about what winning, losing, and balance actual mean.

My only issue with this is the opening times. Most hatches I've seen have been beside exit gates lately. Shouldn't be that easy to patrol gates and the hatch...

Not at all and even if you close the hatch it will open itself if there is one survivor left in the trial which is really absurd.

Similarly, if the killer finds it first the survivor won't know where it is. And killers move faster than survivors and don't have to worry about being seen when looking for it.

I honestly don't understand what point you're trying to make here...

If you're the last survivor in the EGC, it's not going to be easy — what do you expect when you're going against the power role when you're the minor role? You're not going to have a cake walk, the killer will have the advantage. A key shouldn't be your solution to escape, that should be working as a team to get the gates open and getting out of there.

I tried offering a solution to door spawns, but it wasn't popular and was disregarded by most of the community.

You use the key when the killer is occupied and that should force the killer into a dilemma: Drop whatever they are doing or let the survivor open the hatch. Either way, you're getting value from the key. If you're the last survivor during the EGC, then you failed as a team and shouldn't be giving an easy solution out. Like I said about, I offered a door solution so that killers can't keep both of them in line of sight, but it was disregarded by the community. 🤷‍♂️😅

Well, you certainly don't just because someone DCed.

Why do you think you should be having a higher chance of escaping through the doors, or the hatch for that matter when the killer already beat you? How is that not entitlement? You had a fair fight to escape and the killer ended up on top. Why is it you believe the game owes you good door spawns or a hatch escape? If anything, shouldn't the killer be rewarded because he won?

It just doesn't make sense to me at all...

You should try playing killer before saying something like this. Do you realise that depending on the killer and perks you usually have to hit healthy survivor twice to down them? And that exit doors can be far enough for you to escape safely with the right approach even against fast killers.

Start opening the exit door before the first light turns on and stop. Wait for the killer to check that door and leave. Now you have time to open them and escape before the killer comes back like 90% of the time. That is what I do as last survivor.