Mid Chapter Developer Update Discussion

We’re back with another Developer Update, a series of posts outlining some of the upcoming changes to Dead by Daylight. You read that title correctly, this is part one; there’s so much to cover this time around that we couldn’t fit it all in one post. (And the writer passed out halfway through typing this.)

KILLER UPDATES

THE TRAPPER 

Starting things off with a bang (or rather, a snap), we’ve made a series of small changes to The Trapper. 

Did you know that the number of bear traps that spawn on the map is random? That’s right, each trial will spawn between 4-6 bear traps at random. Now you can take this interesting little fact and completely forget about it because that’s no longer how it works: now, 6 traps will always spawn (not including the traps you load in carrying). This takes away some of the random element in playing The Trapper and makes each match feel more consistent.

Having more traps is great and all, but wouldn’t it be nice to carry more than one without add-ons? We sure think so. The Trapper will now be able to carry—and start with—two bear traps by default. This will help you get up and running quicker without relying on add-ons. The Trapper’s bag add-ons have been adjusted or repurposed accordingly. 

Finally, on the subject of add-ons, we’ve done a pass on some of his least used add-ons and either increased their effects, removed their downsides, or gave them new effects entirely.

THE SPIRIT 

The Spirit has been a strong Killer since her release, and with that in mind, we’ve made some changes that aim to increase her skill ceiling whilst also giving Survivors some counterplay. 

When close to The Spirit’s husk, Survivors will not receive any indication that The Spirit is phase walking. Originally this was intended to be a fun mind game (“Is she using her power, or is she faking it?”), though in practice, it often doesn’t feel that way. This lack of feedback forces you to make a guess and hope it pays off, which can be great when it works out in your favour, but can also feel awful when it doesn’t. 

To add more skill into The Spirit’s counterplay, we’re making two changes: 

1. Any Survivor within 24m of The Spirit will now hear a directional phase sound. This lets you know whether or not she is phasing and also gives you a rough idea of which direction she’s coming from. 
2. The Spirit’s footsteps will now kick up dust while she is phasing. Keen Survivors may be able to pinpoint where she is, but tall grass and other obstacles may make it difficult. 

These two changes aim to add more skill into playing as and against The Spirit and reduce the reliance on ‘coin flips’ (where you make a guess and hope it pays off). 

Additionally, we’ve done a pass on some of The Spirit’s add-ons to bring them more in line and make the lesser used add-ons more appealing. Like The Trapper, some of these changes are small tweaks while others are completely new effects.

KILLER ADD-ONS UPDATE 

What does moderately mean? How much more is tremendously compared to considerably? If you ever found yourself in this situation, you’re not alone. We used descriptive words like these to keep descriptions simple, but they end up causing just as much confusion since it’s not immediately clear how much they’re doing. With that in mind, we have done a pass on all Killer add-ons to list their exact effects. We plan to extend this to the rest of the game—Items, perks, etc.—in the future. 

On top of that, Killer add-ons that apply a status effect will now have a brief description of what that status effect does. 

While our designers were going through hundreds of Killer add-ons one by one to update their descriptions, they also noted down a few for changes as well. There’s far too many to list here, but we’ve changed some add-ons for the following Killers: 

• The Hillbilly 
• The Nurse 
• The Shape 
• The Hag 
• The Oni 
• The Blight 
• The Wraith 
• The Pig 
• The Ghost Face 

These changes focus mostly on unused add-ons, or add-ons that are too weak/powerful.

PERKS UPDATES 

Variety is the spice of life, and incidentally, Dead by Daylight matches too. In an ongoing effort to give you more options to choose from, we’re updating a huge list of perks. Without further ado, let’s run through some of them quickly: 

Vigil 

Nice and simple: We’re increasing the recovery rate from 10/15/20% to 20/25/30%. Additionally, Vigil will now increase the recovery rate of the Broken, Exposed, and Oblivious status effects as well (where applicable). In short, more situations where it’s useful, and even faster recovery too. 

Babysitter/Guardian 

Another small tweak: The rescued Survivor will now receive a speed boost for 4/6/8 seconds in addition to not leaving Scratch Marks or Pools of Blood. The aura reading duration has also been doubled. 

For the People 

For the People can create some amazing moments, but the trade-off of being Broken can make it very risky to justify using. We’re decreasing the duration of the Broken status effect from 110/100/90 seconds to 80/70/60 seconds. 

Hex: Retribution 

Previously, Hex: Retribution would only make a Survivor Oblivious if they cleansed a dull totem. Now, interacting with any kind of totem will make them Oblivious. Additionally, we’ve increased the aura reading duration once a hex totem is cleansed to 15 seconds. 

Hex: Blood Favor 

This perk shipped with very safe conditions so it didn’t get out of control. Upon reflection, we feel comfortable with removing some of these restrictions. Hex: Blood Favor will no longer have a cooldown, and will also activate upon successful Special Attacks as well. 

Hex: The Third Seal 

Just like the above, we’ve added Special Attacks to Hex: Third Seal as well. This should make the perk more practical on Killers that focus more on dealing damage with their power. 

Hex: Thrill of the Hunt 

With Boon perks making their way to the game (more on this soon!), we decided to give Thrill of the Hunt some love by extending the speed penalty from Cleansing to Blessing as well.

ITEM & CHARACTER KILL SWITCH 

Last but not least, let’s talk about a game health feature: The Item & Character Kill Switch. With over 50 playable characters and their cosmetics, nearly 200 perks and hundreds more add-ons and offerings in the game, sometimes things do break. Rarely, things will break in a way that makes them exploitable, and that can make the next week or two before a fix really rough. 

Enter the Kill Switch. (It’s actually a lot nicer than it sounds!) 

The Kill Switch allows us to disable anything that’s causing an issue without needing an update. When something breaks and becomes exploitable, we switch it off until it is fixed. This is something we’ve been able to do with maps for a while now to great effect. Disabled items & characters will be clearly marked and cannot be selected. 

What this means to you: When that one thing breaks and people start to abuse it, you won’t have to play against it for a week or two until there’s a fix.

With that, we’ll give you a break from reading for today. But we’re just getting started. There’s a lot more to cover, so come back Monday for part 2. 

The Dead by Daylight team