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How long should a DBD game last?

Just want your opinion guys on what the ideal length of the game is and if there should be any mechanics to ensure the game usually doesn't take longer.


The past few days I've come across primarily Knights, but many killers can play this way too, where the central gens are getting disturbed from the start of the game and unless you force them out you get stuck in a 3-gen. Many of these games have easily lasted 20+ mins (the Knight games particularly have lasted at least 30+ mins).


Besides the potential BP gain, I don't think this duration is optimal because the XP you can gain I think has a cap (correct me if I'm wrong) so at most I can get around 600 XP per game even if the game last half an hour. In the span of 30 mins I could have played 2 games and gotten double the amount of XP. If they uncapped the XP gain from a single game I would be less bothered by it.


On top of that playing 30 mins of the same match on DBD does feel kinda torturous, would be nice if there was a mechanic that sped up the game after a specific point.

Comments

  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 16,275

    10-15 minutes.

    Sure, outliers are possible, but they should be rare. If we look back at the Eruption-Meta, games took longer than 15 minutes on quite a regular basis. This was too long, if the Killer needs 20+ minutes to win the game (most likely they won, I did not really experience many games where the game took this long and the Survivors won, simply by the way how DBD works), they were not even good, they just used enough to prolong it to that.

    And anything below 10 minutes, especially if it comes close to 5 shows that the Matchmaking for that game was really bad, because either the Survivors won too fast or the Killer won too fast.

  • Vanishlord
    Vanishlord Member Posts: 555

    15 is the sweet spot it means you've gotten chases in and its not just gen simulator. 20 is max and 10 is ok as well for me.

    I still have nightmares from the gen kicking meta. I still find it funny that when they nerfed eruption they added SM which was even worse. Thankfully I think we're out of there now.

  • OrangeBear
    OrangeBear Member Posts: 2,770

    7 minutes

  • Smoe
    Smoe Member Posts: 2,913

    Personally fine with 15-30 minutes.

  • HerInfernalMajesty
    HerInfernalMajesty Member Posts: 1,840

    I enjoy games that last a little longer so 15- 20 min is ideal. But I can also understand when people say 10 min.

  • The_Daydreamer
    The_Daydreamer Member Posts: 744

    I agree with most of the comments and simply say 15 Minutes as well.

    It gives both sides enough time to complete the objective - everything above that is in my opinion a lose and honestly I don't want to stay in that match any longer since it does not add to my fun nor really to the bloodpoints that I will gain.

  • GentlemanFridge
    GentlemanFridge Member Posts: 5,709

    Typically, around 15 minutes, sometimes approaching 20. Anything over 20 tends to be the result of 3-genning, be it from the survivors not paying attention or actively forced by the killer.

  • crogers271
    crogers271 Member Posts: 1,819

    10ish minutes, give or take a few. I've been in a few games that went to 20 and were still good, but they are a rarity.

  • tjt85
    tjt85 Member Posts: 954
    edited October 2023

    As Killer, I need roughly 20 minutes of "fair play" to sacrifice all the Survivors. Ideally, that means giving everyone a chase, not going after recently unhooked survivors until they are healed up (or a few minutes have passed), giving weaker teams a reset or two and getting at least six hooks before making a sacrifice. Sometimes it's not possible to play like this if half the team is very good at hiding or way across the map, but I try.

    I prefer Survivor games to be around this length as well. Basically, games should give enough opportunities for both sides to earn a decent amount of BP and get a tome challenge progressed. That's about 20 minutes for me.

    10 minutes is too fast and usually a one sided stomp.

    Over 30 minutes is too long. Games like this usually happen because the Killer is either too strong at holding a 3 gen, or a low tier Killer with no quick way to down Survivors (or both, like The Legion and Trapper. I've played quite a few matches like this). Then the match is mostly likely to be decided by which side is willing to give up first, which never feels great.

  • Annso_x
    Annso_x Member Posts: 1,611

    Between 10-15 minutes, I can't handle long games.

  • Hex_Ignored
    Hex_Ignored Member Posts: 1,914

    No longer than 10 minutes. Exp gain caps at 10 minutes so every game lasting longer than that is a waste of time.

  • DemonDaddy
    DemonDaddy Member Posts: 4,167

    20min minimum if Im winning as killer, 5 full minutes of chase for each surivor to be fair. At that point gens shouldve been done or failed altruism has let someone bleedout. If nobody abandoned teammates to die then I will just give them the gens.

    As survivor, as short as I can possibly make it.

  • Devil_hit11
    Devil_hit11 Member Posts: 8,805

    survivor want games to last around 5-7 minutes for 5 gens. 8-9 minutes if we include end game. Killer want games to last around 12 minutes with 1-2 minutes for end game. that type of question is survivor vs killer question.

    either way, you should not be having 30 minute games.

  • JustAnotherNewbie
    JustAnotherNewbie Member Posts: 1,941

    How is it possible to have 5 full mins of chase for every survivor when probably by minute 10 most pallets/all are destroyed. Doesn't that mean the survivors who are caught after that will be an easier down?

  • DemonDaddy
    DemonDaddy Member Posts: 4,167

    Depends on the survivor's tile knowledge, but yes the downs happen more quickly when they boldly walk in deadzones without using stealth. The quicker they use resources in the beginning the sooner altruism becomes their primary objective.

    Using slugging in place of hooks; every survivor gets as many chances as their team's altruism will allow. Solo Survivors average about 10-13 chases in my games, with swf getting far more if not completely knocking out gens right away.

  • pigslittlepet
    pigslittlepet Member Posts: 483

    That's only if your playing for exp only.

    There are other reasons to play though. Chases tome challenges and just having fun

  • sizzlingmario4
    sizzlingmario4 Member Posts: 6,905

    10-15 minutes in most cases. 20 is occasionally fine, but anything longer than that usually has to do with 3 gens. Anything under 10 and it probably wasn’t a close game.

  • NerfDHalready
    NerfDHalready Member Posts: 1,749
    edited October 2023

    just here to echo what everyone else said: 10 to 15 minutes. longer most of the time means you either have a hit&run/3 gen killer or hiding survivors which are all boring playstyles to play against.

  • drsoontm
    drsoontm Member Posts: 4,903

    It should be about 15 minutes.

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 5,653

    And yet survivors and killers all seem to be in agreement in this thread so far

  • Nightmarefan
    Nightmarefan Member Posts: 65

    5 minutes minimum 30 minutes max with the sweet spot being 15-20.

  • gnehehe
    gnehehe Member Posts: 510

    10-12 mins

  • Maelstrom808
    Maelstrom808 Member Posts: 685

    As long as it takes for everyone to have some fun; less time than it takes for it to stop being fun. It varies from match to match. Winning or xp or bp aren't the primary objective for me.

  • IamFran
    IamFran Member Posts: 1,616

    15 minutes at most, after that the match start to become boring imo, specially if the killer is 3-gening or the survivors are hiding.

  • SMitchell8
    SMitchell8 Member Posts: 3,302

    When I play as Knight, my games last around 15-20 mins, more if they get 3 genned which I don't play from the offset.

    As Oni I can end them in 10 but if good survivors cause me to miss or its a difficult map to manoeuvre, then again 15 mins or so.

    My survivor matces are about 15 and are spot on imo.

  • oxygen
    oxygen Member Posts: 3,325

    I'm on the 10-15 min boat as well. Generally implies it wasn't a complete squashfest through the killer being blitzed or the survivors dying immediately, but at the same time it wasn't a drawn out 3gen scenario or survivors playing giga hide and seek.

    Of course shorter matches in both directions will happen. Both because matchmaking can quickly be turned into a suggestion by a dodge or two and because of the snowbally nature of the game, but most games that really make me think "damn, that was a good game" no matter if it was a win or loss are in that 10-15 minute ballpark.