Map balance tier list
Just for fun I made a map tier list, and am curious what other people think of the current map situation in DBD. Personally, I think BHVR has improved a lot when it comes to map balance and design, with far more maps being very well balanced and fair. Of course there still have been some misssteps, like the new reworked Haddonfield, that is definitely too killer sided. But in general, BHVR has been doing a fine job with map balance, even if not all of the balanced maps are balanced in an ideal way in my opinion.
So the following is my tier list:
There are a few things to note here.
Within one tier, the further right a map is, the more survivor sided it is, the further left, the more killer sided it is. However there generally aren't big differences within a tier.
Also, this is judging the average version of each map. I am aware that RNG can sometimes tilt a map towards one side a bit, but this is more about maps with their average rng.
And this map balance tier list is also generally considering a good killer player against a good survivor team, with the killer that is being played being A tier, or possibly B tier. So no low tier killers, or broken killers like Nurse.
A few extra notes on certain maps: I have seen some people say that the Coldwin maps lean towards killer now, but except for Rancid Abattoir, I couldn't disagree more. I think they are generally well balanced. Torment Creek is balanced for the wrong reasons, being very big, but having quite large deadzones. On the other hand, Fractured Cowshed is now one of the very best maps in the game in my opinion.
Azarov's Resting Place is also a killer sided map in my eyes, because as a killer you can just split the map pretty much in half and easily defend that half of the map. And I consider Grim Pantry slightly killer sided because 6 of the 7 gens spawn on one side of the map pretty much, with only 1 gen spawning on the pantry.
But as I said, I am curious what other people think of the current maps in DBD.
Comments
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it seems like a great list. Bad ham is horrid as most killers but I love it cause it’s the first map I played on. But as a killer it sucks so much. Open streets but also horrid buildings
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Good list. I would not say that Coldwind is entirely killer-sided (aside from Rancid Abattoir), but I think Survivors burning Coldwind-Offerings dont really do themselves a favor.
I would personally bump all second versions of the MacMillan-Maps up a bit. They are all weaker for Survivor than their originals, with often enough featuring very small distances between Gens.
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This was an extremely quick throw together so I could for sure swap my immediate thought on a few of these. Hard to not think of a specific killer as this can very wildly depending what the killer choice is. There is no left to right on mine, just threw them in the category willy nilly. Pretend the letters are the same as yours.
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Ah fair enough, I haven't played on the new macmillan maps that often yet, but the matches I did have, they all seemed pretty balanced.
Personally I really do like what they did with the Coldwin maps, though I can acknowledge that with bad rng they can sometimes spawn some nasty deadzones, except for Fractured Cowshed as far as I experienced. However in general I really think the maps are well balanced. I am just not a fan of Torment Creek, as I said, it's very big, but spawns too many deadzones.
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Yeah Badham maps are pretty sucky, always frustrating when one ends up on them.
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Yeah we will definitely not agree on map balance it seems. But that's fine, everyone has their own opinion.
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Dead Dawg killer sided? Are we playing the same game? Lery’s, Purge, Swamp? Na
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I can't believe people don't have Gideons in the top, in my opinion that's the most survivor sided map in the whole game, the amount of God pallets on that map are unreal and no other map has that much safety, the only map that could outdo it in terms of saftey has been gone and that was the old crotus prenn disturbed ward with like 6-7 god pallets in main building alone not counting the rest of the map, majority of the maps now have like 2-3 god pallets and my definition of that is a pallet you must break in order to continue chase, j I'm talking like shack pallet where you're not gonna leave it down and catch a good survivor there.
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pretty solid list
i would put rancid abattoir and sanctum in the killer favor section. Both of them maps have extremely weak building with low amount of resources. i would move gas heaven to slightly favor survivor and eyrie definitely still clearly survivor sided
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- Rancid Abattoir can transform into the most "killer side" map in the whole game whenever RNG wants… This map is really brutal at times
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Gas Heaven balanced? Yeah IDK about that one with most of the fillers being some of the easiest to play as surv with the huge gen spread still.
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All I know is that Toba is the most well rounded, balanced level.
I personally preferred OG Toba(sorry Chainsaw Bros and Blight players), as I feel new Toba is too easy to 3 gen but this level is a diamond in the rough. Much superior outer space level than Nostromo....gosh that level fills with anxiety and dread in solo
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Wreckers Yard killer sided, whaaat? Very wild take, i think it's one of the most balanced maps in the game. It can be slightly killer or survivor sided because of rng, but put it as second best killer map is insane. This is poll about this map btw:
Grim Pantry, Dead Dawg, PRD and Hawkins depend on killer, still can be very rough for them. Gas Heaven definately is slightly survivor sided. Eyrie is no doubt completely survivor sided.
Disturbed Ward i don't think that survivor sided, just slightly survivor sided. Family Residence is balanced imo, never had too hard matches here as killer.4 -
for the most part I’d say this is accurate, Coldwind is niche as a lot of killer struggle on it where as more mobile killers are strong on it(I hate it when playing either side lol) Ever since the alien map released I’ve probably only seen the survivors escape via exit like twice so idk if I’d call that one balanced.
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Not saying that Coldwind-Maps are killer-sided (aside from Abattoir, this one is 100% killer-sided). But I just think that if Survivors burn a Coldwind-Offering, they get less advantage than they think they would get AND they might end up on Abattoir, which would even be a disadvantage.
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cool list which I agree with for the most part!
the one I’d be inclined to disagree with is Lerys being killer sided. Hear me out: this map has a lot of unsafe pallets, however a lot of those pallets are right by windows/vaults so it’s super easy to just chain on this map. If you go against a skilled survivor on this map running WoO, it’s super easy for them to juice a chase out of you. It’s not like Dead Dawg or Greenville which have similar unsafe pallets, but it can be really easy to get caught in a dead zone.
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In my opinion yes. Dead Dawg is a very small map with a lot of mindgameable and some unsafe pallets. Plus it can spawn an absolutely nasty 3 gen that is very hard to counter even with the new anti 3 gen system. The only good part for survivor is the main building.
Temple of Purgation is less killer sided, but is still a very small map with an optimal form for killers. And Grim Pantry has like 6 of it's 7 gens spawn within half of the map.
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Gideon for sure has the most safe pallets of any map, but it's also a very small map that allows killers to apply a lot of map pressure, therefore I don't consider it the worst killer map in the game.
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That's fair, but personally didn't have that experience yet with Sanctum. Eyrie of Crows has a lot of safe pallets, but a decent size, which is why I put it in the slightly killer sided tier.
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I was a bit conflicted on Gas Heaven, but aside of the main building window in my opinion the map is pretty well balanced. It has the same filler tiles as other Autoheaven maps, which is why I don't see a big problem there. And it's size is also fairly reasonable.
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That's not Wrecker's Yard in the killer sided tier list, that's Azarov's Resting Place. I agree that Wrecker's Yard is one of the most balanced maps in the game, and one of the best designed ones on top of that.
My matches on Eyrie have also never been that bad to consider it completely survivor sided. I think it's size is fairly decent, the only problem it has is that it has too many safe pallets. And Gas Heaven has always been rather balanced in my experience, with the window in the main building being the only pain point.
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That's fair, I wasn't completely sure about Lery's, but I put it into the slightly killer sided tier because of it's small size, and the fact it's harder to find gens on that map.
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But you're forgetting it's also two floors that have to be traversed for gen patrol, a good squad that separates with all those god pallets can easily waste a ton of time and any killer that doesn't have a mobility will struggle more on that map than anywhere else due to that, just for a reference I base map strength off of the weakest killer in the games potential there because it shows the true strength of the map
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Well yes survivors luckily don't get much of an advantage on these maps anymore, since they are pretty balanced. It's not like it used to be, where coldwin maps were pretty survivor sided.
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I don't know why but I often struggle on Nostromo Wreckage as killer. I think it has enough useable pallets and loops, as well as a fairly decent size, to be considered balanced.
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Chapel can be awful for a lot of Killers, mainly because of how the main building is designed and connects closely with other loops. Greenville can be rough for Killer depending on RNG, but it also feels difficult for Survivors sometimes? DDS is very Killer-friendly. Toba could be balanced but the amount of ambient noise on the map makes it really hard to find Survivors who are stealthing, which I think knocks it down a bit.
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But you have Wrecker's Yard on picture. That's one for Azarov.
And i also can't say Azarov's is so bad for survivors. I would say it's even balanced, just in a bad way, because it's bad for multiple reasons for both sides.
And you definately underestimate how strong Eyrie and Gas Heaven. I'm not fan of arguing about maps with stats, because it's not direct indicator of balance at all, but those two maps never leave top-5 less deadliest. Right now they are #1 and #2. Eyrie is most popular offering in my matches for a reason, you need to be really awful at the game to lose here as survivor.
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I'd put midwich at the top, yes the hook spawns are horrid on that map but other than that it might be the only map I can pick a low tier killer like Trapper or Myers and still feel confident when I spawn in. The hold W nature of the map combined with the size makes unintended sandbagging really common.
Swamp I'd put more in the middle. I know it's supposed to be an average but any killer with props like plague, Xeno, Pig those maps are terrible and then you have Artist and Twins who hate it because of all the changes in elevation and it starts to add up there's a bunch of tiny annoying things about the map for killer.
But it's a really good list overall.
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You are right, I mixed them up. That's my bad.
But I disagree with Azarov's. I think it is killer sided.
I get where you are coming from with eyrie, but I disagree on that one as well. I think it's size and form kind of balances it's many safe pallets out. And the same with Gas Heaven. I think it is pretty balanced except for the strong window it has.
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I would never base a map's strength off the weakest killer though, because they don't represent the average at all. I rather base off the strength of maps on A tier or B tier killers, because that's where killers should be strength wise.
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Yes but we're talking about survivor maps so the weakest killer would show the full strength of the map for survivors in general because it's a m1 killer, if you took the weakest killer to every map in this game you would struggle more on gideons due to the double floors and the 6-7 god pallets in the map that no other map has anymore, and regardless of how you slice it that safety still transfers over to the other killers and they have to deal with it too. If you're going to argue for A-B tier killers than the maps at the top will constantly change depending on who the killer is just due to their abilities, a good example is hawkins being a bad map for nurse due to the amount of walls and spots you get screwed out of your blink on even though nurse is the strongest killer that doesn't mean hawkins is the strongest map for survivors just because it's not her best map
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i wouldnt say midwhich is killer sided nor is RPD id put in slightly survivor sided
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Imo Gideon is the most survivor sided map of all time. You can pre throw pretty much every pallet you come across and you will still have available pallets at the end of the game
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haha turns out some of my favourite maps are more killer-leaning!
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The whole game is survivor sided
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I wouldn’t say that Leri and Gideon are on the side of the killers, Leri has the most windows and a lot of good pallets, and on Gideon, even with anti-pallet killers, the killers will lose faster than breaking all the pallets
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This list seems way off if Ormond, forgoten ruins, sanctum of wrath, shattered square are balanced over killer sided and Ironworks isn't survivor sided but listed as balanced.
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All the badham maps are safter then eyrie since 8.3.0.
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so basically badham maps need some serious nerfs for survivors and same for haddonfield that need some huge buffs.
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The game should be in a tier of its own. It's either extremely killer favored or very survivor sided.
Solely depends on the killer and perks used.
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Well this post is half a year old. Forgotten Ruins isn't even on the tier list, and shattered square i would only consider killer sided since they added those weird edge tiles that are kind of useless, but take away from the pallet count. Ormond I still consider to be a pretty balanced map. None of the versions seemed tilted towards one side, not yet at least. Ironworks also makes a pretty balanced impression to me.
Sanctum of Wrath I am not so sure about to be honest.
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I would say so. Haddonfield is arguably a bit too small, or at least it definitely doesn't have enough pallets for survivors to work with.
And the Badham maps are a bit too big for how many houses it has, and it has too many safe pallets.
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Midwich consistently has the highest KR of any map (maybe this has changed since the Haddonfield and Coldwind reworks). It’s very killer-sided. RPG always spawns a three-gen. It’s slightly killer-sided for that reason but I think closer to balanced that midwich. Neither map leans survivor though.
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Rancid abattoir and Haddonfield is full of dead zones.
Pale rose is another map with dead zones but it actually got some strong places unlike the previous mentions. The docks & the boat good but you often get a pog log loop, shack ,and 1 filler pallet for the entire other side.
RPD, Greenville, Dead dawg, Forgotten ruins- Built in 3gens that hard to break. Can favor survivors once broken....sometimes
chapel, dead dawg, wreckers yard- small maps = easier gen patrolling
The variation of suffocation pit have no easy 3 gen to hold while still maintaining plenty of strong tiles. People don't really talk about it but this map survivor sided if u ask me.
groaning storehouse, grim pantry, mother dwelling- Main to strong to chase.
All of the extremely survivor sided maps like badham are a instant gg for half the killer roster
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