History of: The Trickster

Merry Christmas (at the time time of writing), and with the Trickster's recent rework, what better way to celebrate than to detail the journey this Korean pop star has gone through during his stay in DBD? He's had quite an extensive history, so I'm going to skim over a few minor bits, such as his iteration on the PTB (as there were very few differences between him on PTB and his release version).

The Release

The Trickster on release was 4.4m/s or 110%, the same movement speed as Huntress, Slinger, Spirit, etc. This is (or was?) the standard for ranged killers, the sole exception at the time being Plague until the addition of Artist.

As a rule, 4.4 killers are typically given a stronger-than-average power. They're more reliant on their power to get hits but crippled when in an area that diminishes their strength because of their slow speed. I'm reiterating this because, with Trickster's slow speed, he was reliant on his power.

There was just one itty-bitty problem...

The Power

His power was awful. When he was released, Trickster was, without question, the single worst killer in the game.

Trickster's power was simple: He carried 60 knives. He started throwing three knives per second and gradually ramped up to four knives per second. Each successfully landed knife adds one stack to a "Laceration" bar to a total of eight. If he landed eight on a survivor, they were damaged. If the survivor avoids getting hit by knives, their laceration will decay after 15 seconds.

Editor's note: I completely forgot to mention Main Event. If he landed twenty knives, he had access to Main Event for 10 seconds. During Main Event, he would constantly throw knives for 10 seconds (at no cost to his existing ammo supply) at a rate of 5 knives per second.

Okay, that sounds simple enough, and with 60 knives, what's the issue?

1. His knives had spread. For those unfamiliar with the term, imagine this: Instead of throwing in a straight line, there's a circle. When thrown, the knife can randomly land anywhere in this circle instead of straight ahead, meaning it was impossible to be precise.
2. Landing eight knives is/was not easy. Survivors run to tiles, and you're 4.4. You're not landing eight knives if the survivor is remotely competent.
3. There is also recoil. Yes, somehow, the act of throwing knives has recoil. On PC, this was a non-issue. On console? No. You were SoL. I'm not joking; this mechanic made him borderline unplayable on consoles.
4. Did I mention that as his throw rate built up, his movement speed when throwing knives dropped like a rock? When holding and initially throwing knives, he was 92%, which is the standard when killers use their power. However, as he throws knives, it drops all the way to 67%.
5. Main Event had a cooldown of 10 seconds. Not the fatigue itself (that lasted closer to 2.25-2.5 seconds), but for 10 seconds, he couldn't throw knives, his vision was darkened, and he had an annoying high-pitched ringing in his ear. Not to mention, a 10-second window to activate the power made it difficult to position in time for optimal use.

The quick buff

One week after release, Trickster received a multitude of buffs. I cannot stress how exceedingly rare it is for BHVR to give major buffs/nerfs to a killer after a mere week. His performance was that abysmal.

1. Removed Spread
2. Reduced recoil intensity. Sadly, this wasn't enough for most console folks, but it was still appreciated.
3. Buffed his movement speed when holding/initially throwing knives to 96.25%, with his final movement speed slowing to 92%.
4. Increased his windup speed (0.5 --> 0.35 seconds)

These weren't enough to save this sorry killer, but they were helpful.

The Depipster!

This was the name the community had given him: The Despipster. He was so bad that the mere act of playing him almost guaranteed that you would lose a pip that match. Not helped by the fact his knives were bugged and didn't count as damaging the survivor for the emblem system for a short time, outright ensuring you couldn't pip with him.

The Rework

In patch 5.1.0 came his first rework. Well, I call it a rework, but officially, they were just number tweaks. But those tweaks meant a lot. Some noteworthy ones

1. Reduced max laceration from 8 to 6 (meaning Trickster needed to land 6 knives instead of 8)
2. Increased Main Event window from 10 to 30 seconds
3. Reduced max throwrate multiplier from 1.3333 to 1.25
4. Increased Laceration decay rate
5. Reduced Max knife capacity from 60 to 44

There were some nerfs in there, but the buffs far outweighed them. You may be confused by the throw rate multiplier, and believe me, I was for the longest time, too. At the time, you'll see some content creators possibly saying they felt the nerf, but trust me, it was largely placebo.

How it works? 3x1.25 for a max throw rate of 3.75 from 3x1.3333 for 3.999. This didn't last long, and a week later, it was buffed to 1.3 for a max throw rate of 3.9 knives per second.

The Campster!

Yeah, this was inevitable. With Trickster's DPS being, in theory, the highest in the game, him being a camping little SoB was inevitable. Initially, he could do 1 health state of damage every 2 seconds, but with buffs? 1 health state every 1.5; he could down the rescuer, chew through BT, and then down the unhooked survivor in the blink of an eye. Yeah, it was bad.

Continued poor performance

Now, Trickster did find his niche. He really did. But Trickster consistently was one of the worst-performing killers in the game. Unlike Nurse, who is/was terrible in general but a high-performer in higher levels of play, Trickster was consistently low.

There are a lot of reasons for this. Some maps just didn't favor him; he was still 4.4, and the console still couldn't play him effectively because it was impossible to hit a moving target while compensating for recoil on an analog stick, especially with high sensitivity that console players typically have to help counter survivor spins and such.

Trickster remained like this for years until...

7.4.0 Rework

This was the big one. The most recent.

1. Increased movement speed from 4.4 to 4.6m/s (making him the second killer to have this done after Legion)
2. Removed Recoil
3. Increased Laceration back to 8
4. Reduced Laceration decay delay from 15 to 10 (later buffed back to 15)
5. Reduced Main Event duration from 10 seconds to 5 (later buffed to 6)
6. Added +0.5 seconds to Main Event for every combo level to a max of +3.5 seconds of duration (combo is how many knives you land without missing until a score event shows up, giving a letter grade from E to S)
7. Main Event is now gained after landing eight knives.
8. Reduced throw rate to a static three knives per second
9. Main Event multiplier nerfed to 1.33 (basically four knives per second)

There was a lot of good and a lot of bad with these changes. The obvious good is that he's 4.6, so he can play like a standard killer in tiles where his power would otherwise be ineffective. The obvious bad is that he has to land eight knives again.

However, nerfing his throw rate to a static three knives per second was crippling. Before, he could damage a survivor in 2-1.5 seconds. Now, he could damage a survivor standing still in 2.67 seconds, which was a big hit to his DPS, especially in clutch scenarios such as unhooks or even minor less problematic instances such as window vaults.

With the throw rate so slow and so many hits to deal damage (on top of his ammo still being 44), his power was pretty useless. It just took too long to do anything.

To say people were livid was an understatement. Survivors still didn't feel he was a very fun or engaging killer, while Trickster players had the power they had been mastering nerfed hard with only 4.6 speed to compensate. Virtually, the only agreed-upon good change was the removal of recoil---meaning he was playable on console, albeit gimped as typical of almost any killer.

Memento Blades

This is an add-on that went through some things. Before, it was a simple add-on that increased the laceration bar with bonus BP; a terrible meme add-on.

Post 7.4.0 rework, they became the sole add-on that affected Trickster's throw rate, which was 5%. That means you went from 3 knives to 3.15. Yeah. Useless.

Luckily, one week later, it was buffed to 10%. 3 became 3.3, which did start to make a difference. Not much of one, mostly being the difference between 1 knife or near hit/miss, but enough that it was basically his best add-on. Heck, it remains his best add-on even now...

Two weeks later

1. Throw rate buffed to 3.3 knives per second (memento blades unchanged)
2. Increased Laceration decay delay back to 15 seconds
3. Buffed Main Event throw multiplier to 1.66 (roughly 5.5 knives per second)
4. Main Event base duration is now 6 seconds (still with the combo mechanic intact, allowing a max of 9.5 seconds)

Suddenly, Trickster was scary again. While you still needed Memento Blades to really bring back his shredder status (with the add-on buffing his throw rate to 3.63kps), it helped him settle.

What now?

And that's where we are now. From Depipster to Campster to whatever this thing is. Trickster is still the bane of survivors, but hey, at least he's fun to play, I guess? They're still getting feedback, at least. I doubt this will be the last we see of him in recent memory.