Pinhead: The Latest Killer No One Plays... Kinda like Trickster.
Is it just me or is there no one playing Pinhead? I barely if ever see him in my games when playing survivor for many hours each day. But then again, there is little reason for wonder as to why. When I play Pinhead, I can feel the struggle to match the power of any other Killer in the game.
The chains can be so easily broken free from, but the rate of missing chains and the cost of doing so is far greater in a chase. For some weird design reason, the chains even break from environmental obstacles like corners, which there are plenty in so many situations and maps. You can't efficiently use the chains in window jungle loops, indoor maps, the shack, or other places such as these.
The time for survivors to break the three chains when caught with no obstacles to intercept is also so tiny that Pinhead can hardly even make it to the other side of a loop before the survivor is already free and running.
Yes, I do realize he has certain places and points that make him "strong" but playing around those strong points comes very rarely in matches against good survivors. Remember, good survivors, know how to run around Pinhead and will abuse this knowledge to bully him to a point where Pinhead has very little to do on his part.
Pinhead can feel weakest without his red add-on "Engineer's Fang". But when he has it, he feels only decent enough to play, mildly satisfying.
If I were to make a suggestion to improve him, I would certainly increase the chain struggle time a bit and make it so that the chain does not break from corners/environmental obstacles, and maybe if not too much to ask, I would also make it so that some things could not be carried out while in chains like unhooking and/or pallet dropping, though perhaps this could accidentally make him a little too powerful, I don't know.
Throw your thoughts and let me know if you have also felt powerless when playing as Pinhead or if I am just weak saucing here.
Comments
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Trickster was an absolute nightmare to play when he came out due to how weak his power was, and how much his overall design suffered as a result.
Pinhead is actually pretty fun to play, even if his active power is janky and underperforming at times, BUT...
He's tied into the NFT debacle, which made me quit the game altogether. So that's at least one Pinhead main down.
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Nowadays Trickster is a lot more viable, unlike when he was released, yes. I actually see him every now and then, but it is funny to see that almost no one ever plays Pinhead.
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Yeah, the NFT situation put a bad taste in my mouth regarding Pinhead, I don't think I've played him once since that aired. Before then, though, while he isn't the strongest his power is one of the most fun to learn, so I don't think a lack of power is what's pushing people away.
I'm sure I'll pick him back up eventually, but for now, I'm focusing elsewhere.
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Pinhead's issue is a fairly high skill cap for not a whole lot of reward relative to similar options
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I played him for the first time last night and he seems fun, even got a 4k that match. I’m certainly in no position to talk about whether or not he’s balanced or weak or strong, etc, but in terms of how he felt to play liked him more than other ranged attackers. His chains weren’t hard to hit with, and I was pleasantly surprised that his teleport paid off with hits without too much trouble. (Some people never use the teleport for fear of resetting the chain hunt timer, but my thinking was if they’re about to solve the box anyway then I can at least get a hit on them and deny them the item they’d get for opening the box. I didn’t teleport when I was involved in something more pressing but if I wasn’t it ended up being a quick hit or down when I teleported.) And of course the chain hunt is pretty solid.
I can’t speak to other players obviously but at least for me I’m happy to play him more. (Not that I have a main killer, I typically play whichever killer I have a daily mission for that day a few times. I like the variety.)
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Honestly, pinhead really isn't that weak, even addonless. I wrote a large guide on him going over some big important stuff about him, in fact the only thing that pinhead needs is that his chains that respawn when broke by the environmental need to respawn instantly, and shoot without delay. They currently have 2 levels of delay which feel awful, just make that faster and he is in his perfect spot.
I think the main problem is all the trouble that arose around his character. It was like bad news upon bad news lmao like no voiceline? sad but that is ok. Oh wait now nft stuff? oh that is bumming but we will get the voicelines back right? Oh that was removed most likely due to connection with the nfts? Alright man this chapter is so bumming. Not to mention pinhead requires loads of mechanical skill and management more than almost every killer. People always say the engineers fang is the only way to play him, but that would be like saying huntress feels bad unless you use iri head. Pinhead is most definitely a good killer, I personally put him at about high B tier, low to mid A tier, but for me, it is the fact of all the bad news that just kept falling on pinhead, very disappointing stuff really.
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Currently Pinhead reminds me of Old Plague and he needs a few QOL changes to become really good
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I played him a ton up until the NFT rumours were announced to be true, havent played a match as him since.
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Trickster and Pinhead are avoided for different reasons.
Pinhead, well I don't really need to explain the obvious.
Trickster is avoided because he's pretty much if Huntress had to use all 5 of her hatches to down someone.
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I mean I'd love to play him, but I refuse to buy him, so I can never try him.
Maybe others are in a similar boat as me.
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I took a break for about a year. Been back for about a month now, playing pretty regularly. In that time I think I've gone against maybe 5 or 6 pinheads. I've seen pinhead more often than quite a few other killers. I'd estimate that the killers I've seen from least to most are: Hillbilly < Hag < Blight < Twins < Legion < Freddy < Demogorgon < Oni < Pyramidhead < Nurse < Wraith < Clown < Pinhead < Ghostface < Trickster < Pig < Myers < Deathslinger < Doctor < Huntress < Trapper < Bubba < Plague < Nemesis.
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I enjoy playing Pinhead, I play and I see him quite often. Don't remember when I saw Clown, DeatchSlinger, Legion or Pyramid last time. But Pinhead is there in the fog.
Chainhunt is strong, but his regular chains are weak and require strong add-ons.
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Basically this. He has the same problem of post-nerf Billy of being high skill/low reward. He's only kind of decent when you make builds focusing on the box but these are boring as hell, while also being a pain to go against.
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Pinhead is a one trick pony carried entirely by his passive. If they made his passive less severely punishing and buffed him so he doesn't break his own ######### chains, maybe people would enjoy playing him and against him. Instead all we have is Wonder Needles, the Box Slapper.
He exists now to slap the box out of your hand and that's it. It sucks and it sucks to go against too.
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But then he would be like all other killers and people would compare him to others.
Pinhead is unique for having a good 4v1, I'd rather that not be removed no matter what.
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I don't give 2 blue ######### how good his 4v1 is if it feels like garbage to play against. No, having chains passively rammed up your ass is NOT my idea of fun. It is lame and not interactive at all, and once again punishes SoloQ massively while SWF eat like kings.
Oh what luck, how fun, I have to leave this Gen I'm working on on the other side of the map while Ruin is up because one teammate is being chased, the other is hiding in a locker and the stupid ######### Claudette is too busy hiding in a bush 10 feet from the box and is too damn stupid to know to grab it.
It SUCKS and this Killer is entirely carried by something he doesn't even have control over, his power is a worse Clown bottle and if he didn't have this passive carrying him, he would be the worst Killer in the game by a country mile.
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Just get the box or let someone else get it.
"Oh what luck, how fun, I have to leave this Gen I'm working on on the other side of the map while Ruin is up because one teammate is being chased, the other is hiding in a locker and the stupid [BAD WORD] Claudette is too busy hiding in a bush 10 feet from the box and is too damn stupid to know to grab it."
No, the Killer isn't carried. Your team is just bad, you have the culprits in reverse. It sounds like you're at super low MMR or are focused on extreme scenarios to justify sweeping opinions (Example: My teammates are useless so Pinhead is therefore garbage to play against.), something that is frequently done when screaming for new Survivor perks to be nerfed.
I escaped low MMR by bringing Left Behind to ensure hatch escapes and it seems to have worked in raising my MMR to let me play with decent teams. You can do the same thing as me and run Left Behind if you seem to consistently get bad Survivors as Survivor.
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Hatch doesn't effect MMR, and MMR for Survivors is less than worthless because it only values escapes, and escaping is NOT what makes someone in DBD good at the game.
I don't think a Killer should be carried by a passive ability. It's boring and requires even less effort than Wraith, and Wraith is the easiest Killer to play in the game. That says a LOT.
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The chain power is such an effort to make land and they remove the chains before you can even catch up
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I see him occasionally. All of them run Ruin/Undying + Slowdown add-ons, so it's always a snooze-fest. (Why can chains hit me when I'm trying to solve the box?? BS.)
Pinhead may be weak against good teams, but he's quite oppressive vs. solos imo.
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He's fast becoming my favorite killer, alongside Hag and Demo.
He's unpopular for a few reasons though:
- The NFT drama, meaning that a lot of streamers feel like they can't play him without catching flak. He just doesn't get much publicity.
- The inexplicable removal of all his voicing.
- He's like a lot of the other idiosyncratic killers (Hag, Demo, Doctor etc.) and it's not obvious immediately how to approach him. A lot of people try to play him as a ranged killer, and this doesn't work. His strength lies in his chain hunts giving you windows for massive pressure. His chain summons are only really good in specific situations.
- He's not overly strong. Combined with the above, learning him can be tricky. You'll get hosed initially.
- He is reliant on certain perk combinations/addons to really succeed, much like pre-rework Wraith.
- People hate playing against him, and you'll get a lot of BM.
Yes and no. He certainly isn't all that powerful, outside of Engineers Fang (which won't survive the next balance pass).
However, he is totally unique in his kit.
Even high level groups struggle to deal with the box right, which creates an amazing opening for pressure. If a hunt goes off, it can be disastrous.
Yeah. That plus the voice's removal definitely left a bad smell on him. That said, if I was to avoid every game where the developers did something really annoying, I'd probably be stuck playing indie titles.
You can't really use it as a catch-up tool.
It's mostly for anti-loop. If someone is hanging out by a pallet, snag them and you can probably get a hit or force them to drop it preemptively. It's good against vaults too.
The major issue is that, yes, it's too hard to land for the gains it gives.
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I get atleast one Pinhead match everytime I play. He's pretty popular on PS4 with crossplay off.
Trickster I rarely see, even with Tome challenges requiring using him.
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Pinhead's chains shouldn't break from the environment, and he should also get a 10% haste boost whenever he hits someone with his chains
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