I think DBD is kinda Pay-to-Win

Nurse: "Am I a joke to you?"

Jokes aside, do you really think Behaviour would let people earn Auric Cells for FREE? (pardon for the eventual bad English, I'm Italian)

Dude, do you understand how is this game going?

The only way they can get money to "improve" the quality of the game is with cosmetics, special characters, etc. They're in a bad situation where balancing the game is really hard and they are still adding more and more features, the community is very little and new people are not involved to play DBD because the gameplay is not simple, fun and for everyone. Also I think is good to mention that their marketing strategy is too weak.

Talking about the gameplay, personally I think that what you said is wrong: I play both killer and survivor (mostly killer) and I manage almost all the "free" characters available. Part of them doesn't even have good, or just, not-free perks and I still play, without so many problems.

Also there are so many killers in high-tier free to use or purchasable with Iri-shards too like Nurse, Huntress, Hag, Oni and perks like Nurse's Calling, Ruin, Pain Resonance, Bamboozle, Pop, etc.

Honestly, I think the Shrine of Secret is worth because sometimes gives you limited perks, that's the only positive thing. Iri-Shards are also quite easy to farm as long as you play the game.

So, I agree with the reroll on the Shrine, It's a cute feature they can add... but the gameplay doesn't depend on money at all, just bad balancing.

I would also say "dbd is kinda pay to win", or at the very least "pay to grind less".

BBQ is very popular not only because the effect is decent, but because people who play it want the extra bloodpoint. Why is bubba the most popular killer among beginners? How many people recommend Bubba as 1st killer?

The shrine of secret is cute, but the time it takes for a specific perk you're looking for to appear there is ridiculous too. So yes, technically, you don't have to pay to get perks, but be ready to play a ton and wait a year.

I think the author's statement is fair, and I think the game shouldn't have shame to agree on that. You guys need to make money after all.

The only P2W thing I can think of is DS. New players kinda need an anti tunnel option and having it licked to paid only dlc is an issue

Lol dbd p2w omg if only you had any idea. I'd say killers are more like expansions then p2w also they do have a random 4 perk buying system so you can get perks they have sooner or later.

In the simplest terms, "pay-to-win" describes a game where paying real money gives players a significant advantage over those who don't spend any money. Simply having microtransactions does not make a game pay-to-win.

Kinda like how wow is p2w via their token.

Dbd may not be perfect but it's far from p2w say Mikey was the strongest so what you won't run into him every match in a real p2w environment they would force you into a match as much as possible with him to get you to buy him I don't think bvdr does that .

I mean, you could say that there are strong perks that only paid DLC's has then we might get a solid ground to debate on.

I tend to agree, DBD is indeed pay to win. Almost a quarter of all perks in the game are from licensed characters, including some REALLY meta defining perks like Decisive Strike, BBQ and Chili, Lethal Pursuer, etc.

Without paying money for characters that have a certain desired perk, your only option is to wait every week for the perk you’re looking for to appear on the shrine, and even then, since the shrine is “random” (I’m not even convinced of this. I’m almost certain that certain perks have a higher chance of appearing than others), you’re probably going to want to buy whatever killer or survivor that has your desired perk because waiting for an unknown period of time is not feasible.

Personally, I hate the shrine. There’s a ton wrong with it. It doesn’t reset often enough, and it definitely feels rigged, especially when they put the perks of characters featured in tomes. BHVR could have instead kept the 4 random perks, and added an additional two perk slots to the shrine to accommodate the tome challenges.

It’s especially frustrating to see the same perks popping up in the shrine over and over again (Enduring especially). Personally, I have been waiting for Mettle of Man to appear in the shrine since I started playing the game (the week Pyramid Head came out) and that was around the last time Mettle of Man has shown up in the shrine. That’s almost 2 years ago! And that’s even including the daily changing shrines during the 5th anniversary event. That is around 100 shrine resets in total. I refuse to buy Ash because I dislike him and I don’t wanna throw money at things I don’t like, but you’re telling me my only option is to buy him or continue waiting for over 2 years to get a single perk? That’s ridiculous. I know Mettle of Man isn’t a perk that wins games, but any licensed perk is subject to the same shrine rng bull that I’m going through at the moment, and for that reason, I 100% believe that this game is pay to win. No game should have “pay to instantly get this perk or potentially wait over 2 years to get it with in-game currency”

It's definitely pay to win.

The grind involved has set that in stone.

It absolutely, undeniably is pay to win, by definition. Some players are only good with paid characters, hence they had to pay in order to win. Literally PtW lol.

Games like Overwatch give characters to everyone in order to keep an even playing field.

It's clear that the way DBD wants to make money is by holding the best killers/perks behind a paywall

Ghostface is great, but don't forget about all the paid Survivor perks that counter all the paid Killer powers. It's utter BS - for example, the best perk against Mike Meyers is the one that comes in the same paid DLC LMAO.

There's really no defending this.

ntm hag is free on consoles + spirit is free on switch and/or other editions of the game

Again, "best killer" is subjective and therefore a moot point

We can debate the best perk all day, but it doesn't address the main point. You're only on the right side of this if your opinion is that literally every single premium killer and perk is worse than every freely available killer and perk.

Except in P2W games the objectively best character's aren't, you know, free and available the second you boot up the game.

Perk? No. But I've never tried arguing for perks once. That's not the argument I'm putting forward here, and never once have I mentioned them. I'm simply arguing for killers, and I am objectively correct in that The Nurse, a free to play character, is objectively better than every premium, licenced or non-licenced, by any reasonably standard of measurement that applies to DBD.

And what perks ate you considering most effective?

Only good licensed killers are Pyramid, Bubba, Demo and Pinhead. Other licensed ones are trash.

While i dont consider dbd P2W, or at least not a predatory one, it does bother me that some perks that solve core gameplay issues are stuck behind a pay-wall.

You dont want to be tunneled? Buy Decisive strike

You dont want to be face-camped on hook? Buy Reassurance

That just sucks, because it really makes you feel the game is purposelly flawed to force you to buy this perks.

That's why I said reasonably measure. Anyone who uses kill rate, and nothing but kill rate, of one specific singular killer gets mocked in these forums for a reason.