Skull Merchant: A step in the right direction, but some buffs are needed
For context, I have many hours on Skull Merchant. I have mained her ever since she first released (no I did not do Chess Merchant) and have been playing her through her many changes. I know what I am talking about with her and I care about the state she is in.
I genuinely believe the changes to her in the PTB are a step in the right direction. They have made the killer much more manageable to go against and have took away some of the confusing status effects.
The one scanline is amazing and is arguably the best change. Because of the one scanline, Skull Merchant is forced to interact with her power more, rotating drones at the right time to scan survivors. Much more interactive gameplay that increases Skull Merchant’s skill floor.
Despite this, I think she could use some buffs as she is quite weak in this state. Nothing too crazy, just some stuff to help her. Here is what I would suggest…
- The scan immunity is lowered to 2.25 seconds, essentially making one of her brown add ons basekit. Every Skull Merchant player would agree that this add-on is a must. Making this base-kit would open up room for more varied add-on combos.
- The scanline visibility radius is decreased to 12 metres from 16. The 16 metres kind of destroys the trap playstyle. The 12 metres would help a ton in catching survivors off guard while still giving them lee-way to avoid them.
- I mentioned this in the PTB bug report forum, but PLEASE make the drone scanline start in front of Skull Merchant. This is how it works in Live. I’m not sure why it’s different here unless it’s a bug.
These are changes I would prioritise. Here’s some more that are less important, but I think would increase her power in a healthy way.
- The amount of time survivors are tracked on the radar is increased by 5/10 seconds. Now that Skull Merchant no longer gains haste, I think it would be good to put more power into her tracking/information ability.
- Lower the placing drone cooldown by 2 seconds. Perhaps the Undetectable timer would have to be lowered as well if this change were implemented.
- Increase the amount of drones held to 7 or 8. Would help Skull Merchant’s map control now that she has only one scanline.
- Increase the hindered effect to 7%. Less than Live, but more than waiting for bloodlust. In return, perhaps lower the amount of time the hindered is in effect?
I believe the Skull Merchant changes are a great thing, but she just needs a few compensation buffs. Those are my ideas.
Thank you so much BHVR!
Comments
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Are you aware that BHVR confirmed that the changes to SM were to discurage players from playing her until a full re-work is ready in 2025?
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2025….Good lord.
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Yep, and they didnt even say when in 2025
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That is unacceptable.
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Well yes. That doesn’t mean she can’t be in a fun state until then.
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Their whole point were to make her unfun. How can she be fun while being unfun?
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That’s not their point. They stated this themselves during the sneak peak of the patch in their Discord. Their intention is not to take her out of commission. Please stop spreading this narrative. They are open to feedback.
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I think your suggested changes would be great as they seem simple to implement, especially the time survivors are on the radar and the scan immunity buff would be good.
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My impression is not that they're trying to gut her or discourage people from playing her, they're trying to implement practical nerfs to lower her kill rate while they get the resources together for a bigger rework more people will be happy with.
And Lamb I think your proposed changes here would be WONDERFUL and make her transition period here be a lot more enjoyable for everyone!
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Here you go, it was said on Tofu's stream.
Edit: i found the clip : https://x.com/PixelBushYT/status/1834672286449783255
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Don't worry, given BHVR's track record with reworks it'll either be pushed back in favor of other stuff (Freddy) or never released live (Twins).
Likely Skull Merchant will stay in this state for the rest of the game's life.
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This quote is taken out of context, and they never said that they wanna “kill her off”. They said in the sneak peak of the PTB on the Discord that this is not their intention. There is no recording of this but Pixel Bush was also there, you can ask him yourself.
They are not going to leave the character like this. There is no point doomposting if you aren’t gonna say anything constructive about it.
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They did say it was later than the first half of 2025. So either around the anniversary or after that.
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You, of all people, should understand how BS this is. 4+ years and no Freddy rework in sight, even though they said they were working on it.
2 years for a Twins rework that got completely thrown in the bin.
BHVR is not to be trusted with ANYTHING they say.
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Out of context? I provided you with the clip its from, thats the full context, or am i missing something?
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Yeah, remember the "old" dead hard? - that was ment to be a placeholder, it stayed for years before they got that reworked. And that was just 1 perk.
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Oh, don't get me wrong, I have no doubt this will be another Freddy or Twins situation. I'm just providing some additional information here.
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Out of context as in, applying that quote to them “killing Skull Merchant”. In reality, no dev has said that. The changes are to lower her kill rate and give survivors more breathing room.
Post edited by LambLamb on0
