What Freddy's biggest issue truly is.
REMOVE. THE. SLEEP. MECHANIC.
This single mechanic is what holds Freddy back, making him weak and boring. Think about it: when survivors are awake, you're essentially playing against a powerless killer, which is not only unengaging but also reduces him to a basic M1 killer. This creates one of his biggest weaknesses—being ineffective in chase.
By simply removing the sleep mechanic, most of Freddy's issues could be resolved. It would make him less boring because players wouldn’t spend half the game looping a killer with no active power. While his power might still lack excitement, at least he'd have something meaningful to use during chases.
Yes, the sleep mechanic adds a hint of uniqueness, but it ultimately restricts creative design. The developers are stuck working around the awake/asleep dynamic, which doesn’t fit a game like Dead by Daylight. If the Dream World were just a default state, Freddy could function more effectively, and the devs would have more freedom to innovate with his power.
Edit: I am aware it could be reworked or something I'm not saying it absolutely HAS to get removed (I do see it as a issue regardless)
Comments
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I'd be ok if the sleep mechanic was just permanent (so no waking up, period) and the maps when vs'ing freddy always have that dream state look. Or ditch the dream state look entirely (I'd miss it personally). But either they stay asleep, keep the look. Or just normal maps, they stay awake, but everything still works like when you're asleep. Either or. Each function the same, just one has the dream look, and the other doesn't.
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Well, I've seen this discussion before, from a content creator if memory serves me right, but as a long time Freddy I strongly disagree with this idea.
In my opinion the sleep mechanic is not the problem with Freddy, at all.
The problem is that Freddy's power is still designed around his original, flawed rework. Freddy's rework basically deleted his previous version and replaced it with a power that lacked an unique identity and his original playstyle, but it was a very strong and downright unhealthy power. Chasing an awake survivor was not a severe issue with Freddy's post-rework power.
However, we all know that post-rework Freddy had to be changed. And he was changed, but no compensation buffs were given after his nerfs. Meaning we now have a power that is designed to work with a broken level of strength, and said strength no longer exists.
Now, the original idea of pulling survivors into the Dream World in order to attack them made sense and it was much better thematically than what we have now. The problem was being unable to stop survivors from finishing a generator or getting an unhook during the Dream Transition, but that could be easily fixed nowadays with the Incapacitated status effect. Or it could have been fixed back then by giving it something similar to Madness 3, which, unlike the Incapacitated status effect, was a thing in the Old DBD.
I know we have confirmation that Freddy is not getting his old power back, and for that I'm truly sorry. I really did the best I could for him. But the sleep mechanic itself should be the same as the one he used to have. From my own proposal, this is what I'd like to see:
Pull survivors into the Dream World
-Survivors who are awake do not see The Nightmare.
-Once targeted by The Nightmare’s power, survivors enter the Dream Transition for 7 seconds.
-During the Dream Transition Survivors can see glimpses of The Nightmare and they suffer from the Incapacitated status effect.
-When the Dream Transition Lapse, the Survivor is pulled into the Dream World.
Even without the 50% slowdown or the aura-reading, the "Pull in Dream" mechanic is a perfect fit for him, in my honest opinion as a long time Freddy main.
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I guess we'll see with his upcoming rework. Personally I like the mechanic but it just seems like it's holding back creativity because the devs have to worry about the mechanic instead of being able to fully focus on his power, my hope for this rework would be giving Freddy multiple abilities to choose from like Vecna and make it so this mechanic works in a way that isn't so boring and more engaging (Like it used to be) but honestly I wouldn't be surprised if the mechanic is gone. I mean it even holds back community creativity because almost everyone worries about making the mechanic work.
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this argument is like saying, "Remove Oni's Demon fury mechanic", This single mechanic makes Oni ineffective. the whole point of freddy is that he is strong when your asleep and weak when your awake. The problem with current freddy is that freddy is weak when your asleep and has no ability when your awake. the reward doesn't meet drawback. in fact, you could remove freddy entire awake/wake mechanic and he'd still be among worst killers in the game because there is no potency in his ability.
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I don't think the mechanic holds anything back, and honestly speaking I wouldn't like it if he became something like Vecna.
I think a simple fix to the reveal mechanic plus making Freddy good at controlling the map, as he used to be, is enough for a good rework. But, as you've said, we will have to wait and see.
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The Sleep isn't what's wrong, it's how they implemented it.
Honestly something as simple as taking old Freddy and slapping Incapacitated on survivors during the dream transition would've fixed a lot of the issues with it.
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And I understand the mechanic is lore accurate and everything and yes his power is still bad in general but no other killer has a mechanic that makes them unable to use their power, they need to change something about it if not remove it because it's just way too detrimental atm n (Not to mention how it was originally but at least it was more engaging)
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Yeah a simple rework to it could fix it
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Exactly!
<3
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I really hope they use old Freddy as the foundation for what they're going to do and not the current Freddy we have. I find pallet/trap Freddy to be completely unoriginal and not matching his theme at all.
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I agree, my friend.
Even if we are not getting a full revert, there is plenty of room for some aspects of his old power to come back.
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the reason why i played freddy in the past was twofold. first, I liked being able to do macro gameplay decisions by seeing aura's cross map and second reason why i liked freddy is that i dislike playing against body-blocking. His -action speed penalty punished survivors that body-blocked because it would take too long to heal making bodyblock ineffective. additionally, survivors would be more incline to stay injured allowing him to function as pseudo instant down after the first hit. Current freddy doesn't have any of features that i value or enjoyed using in the past. the dream world exists as mechanic because it activates some semi-strong passive abilities for freddy. after his passive abilities were removed, one by one, the dream state became drawback to his abilities as his active abilities were never strong.
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Choy had a video that said this. I like his sleep mechanic. I just want a way to force them to sleep instead of waiting when chasing. I also love the dream world so it be so sad to see it go
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he simply needs a full rework. Really no point wasting dev time on him until they're ready to actually commit to making him have a power worth using
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Freddy has a lot of potential to be one of the most creative and fun killers around because of the dream power. Unfortunately, he's been hurt pretty bad by the reworks and his power hasn't reached its potential.
One aspect I feel they could have brought in - which falls neatly into the remake - is to introduce a "micro sleep" aspect. I wasn't a fan of the remake, but one thing I actually really thought was great were those moments where the protagonist fell asleep for a second and Freddy would attack. That scene where he tries to slash at Quentin at the school for that fraction of a second was a fun moment and it could be enhanced.
There's so much which could be done when survivors are fully asleep. However, the micro-sleep could be a fun alternative mini-game. As a rough idea:
Whilst survivors are awake, Freddy cannot interact with any survivor or object (except gens). However, he is also invisible and undetectable. He can hear survivors with a built-in Stridor-lite mechanic and can see movement in vegetation, and can see scratch marks.
Survivors have "Micro sleeps", where for a few seconds at a time they briefly appear in the dream world. Freddy sees them for these moments and, during this time, he uses a mechanic he had at the start where he sucked people into the dream world. Survivors can see Freddy for those moments too, and once "zapped" the Survivor has a few seconds and a brief Haste effect before they are sucked in permanently. Micro-sleeps occur more often the closer Freddy is.
This aspect brings back an alternative version of his original power. Once in the dream world, add-ons could be made to create an array of powers, from Snares and pallets, to new periles such as harmful generators/totems/chests, disorientating status effects, hallucinations and such. A faster gen teleportation would also be good.
Basically, go nuts in the dream world and make the micro-sleeps anxiety-inducing for Survivors, whilst not making it so Freddy can get cheap hits.
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