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As a solo survivor: going back to 1v4 after 2v8 feels miserable.

I just wanted to share my experience as a solo survivor.

I had a lot of fun on the 2v8 gamemod. Games felt amazing, you had always something to do and rarely just sat on a gen from 0% to 100%.

As a solo survivor, I could see what my team chose and could adapt my choice. Once in game, survivors plays and decisions were more natural and understandable because I knew their roles, and they knew mine. Games felt more coordinated overall.
I loved playing scout and trying to give as much info as possible by following killers and creating resources for my team.

When downed, killers immediately hooked survivors.

Since the cage was teleported, they could not camp hooks and defend objectives at the same time. It did not feel like the usual situation where the hooked survivor is next to the generator and the killer would just camp.

Lasting 15 seconds while being chased by 2 killers felt amazing and getting double-slapped was fun.

Games felt swift and were not extended by some "gens patrolling" or slugging.

But since it stopped, I had to switch to 1v4, but it feels terrible.

1v4 :

I have no information about my team perks. It can be frustrating because miscoordination will often result in terrible mistakes.

This lack of communication and information implies less interaction between survivors. Most of the games does not feel like it's a 4v1 game but more like a 1-1-1-1 versus 1 killer game. Most of the time solo survivors only interact with one another when unhooking and healing right after.

The game feels slower overall. You just sit on gen and nothing happens.

Survivor to killer relation: Only chases and some killer powers bring interactions.

Most games, killers just camp hooks (and tunnels if you manage to rescue) or slug.
Those who do not camp or slug while trying to spread hooks ( average 8 hooks before first death) usually lose the game (2 escapes).

Comments

  • jamally093
    jamally093 Member Posts: 1,697

    I feel fine with it 2v8 after the second or third day feels dull. 1v4 feels better because it's unpredictable. After a while it was just Wraith,Huntress, Trapper there wasn't a reason to add more characters after that. Problem is 2v8 also messes with matchmaking since 2v8 doesn't have it and with no one playing 1v4 matchmaking as no idea what to do.

  • Peanuts
    Peanuts Member Posts: 12

    "for people who cant play actual DBD" xD

    Can't talk about killers' side on 2v8 as i did not play it.

  • 100PercentBPMain
    100PercentBPMain Member Posts: 1,143

    Dumbed down for people who can't play actual dbd, so why do I hear tons of complaints about double teaming? 2v8 must be harder if people can't handle being chased by 2 killers.

  • Gplays2000
    Gplays2000 Member Posts: 213

    I absolutely agree with you :) 2v8 is just that chill relaxing game mode where you can just meme around and have a great time. Not the sweat fest efficiency I must get 4 kills or gen rush the gens in 3 minutes type game.

  • Vishlumbra
    Vishlumbra Member Posts: 222

    My main concern with many of these statements is that they place all the blame solely on the players, particularly killers, for employing certain strategies. These strategies didn’t emerge because killers wanted to annoy survivors; they developed over thousands of hours as a response to the current state of game balance. When survivors play at a competent and efficient level, the game can progress so quickly that even securing a single hook can feel like it costs the killer the match.

    The solution isn’t to keep patching these issues with add-ons or surface fixes but to look at the overall balance of the game. Fun, diverse playstyles should be rewarded on both sides, ensuring neither is made overly weak while encouraging a fair and engaging experience for everyone.

    Efficiency drives the meta on both sides, and these strategies are often a necessity rather than a choice.

  • Peanuts
    Peanuts Member Posts: 12

    I think you are right more strategies is the better. But you can't say that the tunneling and slugging amont we are facing is minor.
    Killers need to be rewarded "basekit" for spreading hooks and survivors should have another objectif. But also survivors should have "basekit" answer to most common playstyle (game feature).

    Survivor side, you just do gens. That's the only escape possible.
    Maybe they should rework hatch to be a secondary possible escape (which survivors would need to work for). Back then I used to love finding keys on chest and escaping with some teammates using hatch.

  • BlackRose89
    BlackRose89 Member Posts: 519

    It may be true the 2v8 seems like some led back, chill, and chaotic mode for now but given enough time a meta will form and ppl will start playing more sweaty. That is just the nature of all pvp games and I think so many ppl need to come to terms with that reality. Every "casual" mode I've seen in a pvp game has always turned into a sweat-fest bc ppl like to win and to win you have to optimize. 2v8 isn't immune to this in fact I saw a meta form day one where killers ran the best combos and used strategies to win and the same for survivors, I saw them running the best classes and trying to compete gens as fast as they can. This is why I don't get why ppl say that 2v8 is some arcade mode where both survivors and killers are just goofing around…I say 70 to 80% of my survivor's matches (didn't play killer bc f those queue times) ppl on both sides were trying their hardest to win. Also, those who want to sweat and win no matter what will not always just stay in 1v4, they will come to 2v8 to get easy wins against players like you who just want to have fun. It happens in a lot of pvp games, look at quick play in ow2 as an example, a lot of comp players come to quick play to get easy wins against players and even use it to "warm up" bc they know they have an easier time against qp only players.

    Guess my point here is don't think 2v8 will stay this magic chill place for you in dbd, it will eventually have a meta and ppl will start playing more and more sweaty and then you be back to square one. Not trying to be a downer just stating the reality of these things.

  • angrychuck
    angrychuck Member Posts: 125

    And ruin matchmaking for most of the player base, yeah no thanks.

  • angel_pellegrino
    angel_pellegrino Member Posts: 99

    For me, the funnest part about 2vs8 was knowing that dying wasn't going to make my MMR crash. (As a solo player, the MMR crashing creates a very regrettable situation where you get ever worsening teammates.) So I could just go on and do my best, do gens, loop, help teammates and have FUN. I have no desire to play every trial like I'm fighting for my life. I don't feel the need to run the strongest build with the strongest add ons to escape every single time, no matter what.

    I'm not judging anyone, but sometimes I just want to have a chill game with some cool people without feeling like there's money on the line. (Or I'm gonna get terrible teammates if I die a certain number of times in a row) I'm looking forward to the next DBD event. Whether it's 2vs8 or chaos shuffle or whatever's.

  • MaTtRoSiTy
    MaTtRoSiTy Member Posts: 2,130

    As someone who absolutely despised 2v8, it grew on me when I realised I was not going to maps I hate like Hawkins and I was not facing killers I hate and I started to love it.

    Returning to normal mode feels… depressing. I also have to add that I forgot how miserable perks can make this game feel on top of tedious killers. At least with 2v8 everyone understood what was going on and if you didn't know it was easy to pick up.

    There is such a mess of perks and addons to deal with in normal mode it makes it so exhausting. I feel a bit lost now, like I want to play but I also don't :(

  • Peanuts
    Peanuts Member Posts: 12

    The fact that they balance game around kills and not hooks states or effective hooks (hooking action) is mind blowing.

  • Unequalmitten86
    Unequalmitten86 Member Posts: 332

    I agree and disagree. There are not enough players on survivor side to correctly matchmake if that even exists lol. The problem I see is newer players tend to watch creators play this game. More times than not creators do crap things instead of trying to play the game. I have seen face camping for the mori, slugging at 5 gens, tunneling. Most of the time there is no reason for it. I view tunneling, slugging, and camping to be reserved for certain playstyles.

    To be honest survivor is not fun. Even game is tunneling from the get go so who really wants to keep being out 2 minutes because the killer has an aura build. This is majority of the games too. Instead of a killer realizing you can easily turn a game around at 2 gens they tend to mass murder at 5 gens.

    As killer you tend to get survivors more who are salty and feel that all killers are the same and play that way. You are going to want use these tactics because of this.

    The game has a serious streamer problem and player problem. There is no way to fix this either.

  • SidneysBane1996
    SidneysBane1996 Member Posts: 896

    This. This is the elephant in the room. This is what nobody is talking about.

  • Phenomenal_Ox
    Phenomenal_Ox Member Posts: 48
    edited November 29

    for me as a solo survivor I will not play the normal Mod anymore I will wait for the 2v8 it was more fun and it didn't have the frustrating things, and I think it's more fun because there is no MMR this is how dbd used to be that's why it was more fun, it has very good potential to it they can add more classes and more killers I understand it has queue issues but I prefer it over the normal Mod.

  • Ayodam
    Ayodam Member Posts: 3,222

    it makes sense to balance around kills instead of hooks. During the Erupt-Over-Brine meta when killers were technically rewarded more bloodpoints for spreading hooks over speed killing survivors , they still camp-tunneled incessantly to speed kill survivors. There’s no incentive that’ll make it more tantalizing for killers to delay their objective.

  • GeneralV
    GeneralV Member Posts: 11,717

    I'm fine with going back to 1v4. I was getting tired of 2v8.

  • Rick1998
    Rick1998 Member Posts: 291

    i made the mistake of trying solo survivor this morning again. Everytime i never blame the killer it is always my temates. No ammount of hand holding the devs add will ever be enoufh . The killer go his first hook on me with only 2 gens left then procedeed to proxy. Instead of spreding out and doing gens all 3 of them were crouching around the hook until i reached second stage . Then i get unhooked and tunneled finally after that they decide to so gens. Do i blame the killer for this ?
    absolutelly not , they need to always be doing something in the hud and if my teamates decided to spend over a minute crouching around hook they are the ones to blame and that is the issue with solo q

  • I_Cant_Loop
    I_Cant_Loop Member Posts: 708

    60% kill rate is what the devs say it's supposed to be. If survivors players don't like that, then don't play survivor. I'll happily take the shorter queue times.

    Some people are only going to be happy if they can easily escape and t-bag the killer at the exit gate single match

  • angel_pellegrino
    angel_pellegrino Member Posts: 99

    After solely playing 2vs8 for a while, I have agree that my first night back doing 1vs4 in soloq was frustrating and not as enjoyable as I would have liked. I think, up to a point, it really is a numbers game in soloq. If I'm playing with seven randoms, at least some of them might be capable of playing the game well, or can at least pick up some of the slack for those who are struggling. But in 1v4, all it takes is one person blowing skill checks to cause a series of unfortunate events that makes the trial totally miserable. When you're playing with fewer people on a much smaller map, the avenue for error becomes tiny. Everyone has to either play super well or be extra skilled to make up for the person who isn't. And not everybody is at that extra skill level yet or wants to play sweatier because of someone's else's mistakes.

  • ChuckingWong
    ChuckingWong Member Posts: 447
    edited November 30

    These strategies didn’t emerge because killers wanted to annoy survivors;

    Its a bit of both, and it is a player issue. You dont have to tunnel in this game.

    In terms of annoyance and not just trying to play the game, that is a load of BS and you know it lol. Just look at any compilation of killer smack spamming survivors on hook and noding at them. Or WS spamming their slugs.


    People take something out of context that they hear/witness something from a tournament setting and think it applies to their situations.

    When in reality it doesnt

  • Reinami
    Reinami Member Posts: 5,653

    Would be nice if the game was balanced in such a way that those perks are built into the basekit regression in some way, and the perks didn't exist, and the killer was punished for tunneling and rewarded for spreading hooks and better yet, tunneling just wasn't possible, and the game was balanced around lots of chases and hooks instead of kills.

    Imagine such a world…

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,455

    2v8 really put a spotlight on how bad the pacing is in 1v4. 1v4 is way too slow with all of the regression and slowdown. There should never be a scenario in a PVP game where I can get up mid-game, put clothes in the dryer, and come back in time for Grim Embrace to end. Because what else am I going to do for 40 seconds? That's bad design.

  • Vishlumbra
    Vishlumbra Member Posts: 222

    @ChuckingWong

    First, you say "you don’t have to tunnel in this game." While technically true, it oversimplifies the situation. Facing a group of competent survivors, even without SWF coordination, can put a killer under immense pressure. Gen speeds, map design, and perks amplify that pressure. Tunneling becomes a natural response—not because killers want to ruin someone’s fun, but because they’re trying to salvage a match where they’re already at a disadvantage.

    Toxicity is not the norm. Everyday I encounter really nice people, both sides. Most killers aren’t going into matches to grief survivors, just as most survivors aren’t actively trying to bully killers. The issue is that when survivors mock killers with teabagging, flashlights, or running oppressive or troll builds, it’s rarely called out, often seen as “funny” or part of the game. Meanwhile, any killer strategy seen as “efficient,” like tunneling or slugging, is immediately vilified. This double standard is frustrating.

    As for "people taking tournament strategies out of context," the reality is that casual games often feel just as brutal. This is especially true when balance is tilted toward survivor efficiency, whether through SWF coordination or game mechanics. Killers aren’t pulling strategies out of thin air—they’ve been shaped by countless matches where they had no chance unless they played “sweaty.”

    If you need evidence, just look at the state of the game. So many killers are in desperate need of help, countless perks have been nerfed into irrelevance, and numerous killers require reworks or have been forgotten altogether. I main Sadako man. Hell, tunneling and slugging don´t even apply to me. Just to fix her intermittent invisibility bug took eight months—and it’s still not resolved.

    Perks like Shoulder the Burden only worsen the problem. They incentivize killers to play even sweatier, especially after being steamrolled by one tough group. The frustration isn’t about wanting survivors to lose—it’s about wanting balanced mechanics that allow both sides to have a fair chance without relying on bandaid solutions. If killers are expected to prioritize fun over winning, survivors should be held to the same standard.

    Honestly, I think the most toxic part of the game is this forum. I love playing DBD, but the endless cycle of entitled nerf requests here is exhausting. Survivor success heavily depends on teamwork and coordination, yet so much of the discussion ignores this core fact.

    I’ve tried in countless posts to highlight the why behind things like tunneling—why it exists and how it’s a response to the current balance. Understanding that would lead to better discussions and, hopefully, better balancing.

    At this point, I’m stepping away from the forums. I’ll keep playing and just hope for the best.

  • Autharia
    Autharia Member Posts: 460

    Its amazing how tournaments can make rules to balance the base game off hooks still having killers get 60%+ kill rates. Yet BHVR cant seem to see any of that as constructive use for base game some how.

  • Nazzzak
    Nazzzak Member Posts: 5,862

    Absolutely! In 2v8 if a survivor messes up there's usually others around to help clean it up. Mess up in 1v4 and the team feels the repercussions. The chaos is the key I think. If Meg messes up in 2v8 I've forgotten about it a minute later. If Meg messes up in 1v4 you better believe I'm side-eyeing her until the end of the game 🤣

  • MaTtRoSiTy
    MaTtRoSiTy Member Posts: 2,130

    Another thing I hate is now there is a new killer almost every match is versing the same thing, it is one thing I absolutely despise about new chapters - constantly having to verse the same thing.

    I was actually excited when I loaded in and got a Spirit, only to quickly have the joy wiped away when I realised they had a full gen regression build and were proxying and tunnelling every hook when it was totally unnecessary.

    Sigh