General Discussions
General Discussions
March 2025 Dev Update
By ThatRyanBLast Updated: Mar 7, 2025
EDIT: Updated the Good Guy changes and dev note to clarify that the quicker acceleration will also apply to the start of Slice and Dice.
With the 8.6.0 Update quickly approaching, it's time once again to give you a look at the notable gameplay changes you can expect from the Public Test Build next week.
Read on for all the details:
STATUS EFFECT UPDATES
- [CHANGE] Decreased self-mending time to 10 seconds (was 12)
- [CHANGE] Decreased altruistic-mending time to 6 seconds (was 8)
DEV NOTE: We know that Deep Wound can be a frustrating mechanic to come up against as it slows down the pace of the game for Survivors. By reducing mending times, we hope to reduce this friction slightly. We want players to feel the urgency of triaging this status effect, but once they make the choice to act, we don’t want them to feel pulled away from the game for too long!
KILLER UPDATES
- [CHANGE] Decreased fatigue time to 2.5 seconds (was 3)
- [CHANGE] Increased fatigue move speed to 2.3 m/s (was 2.07)
- [CHANGE] Feral Frenzy lasts for 11 seconds (was 10)
- [CHANGE] Feral Frenzy cooldown is now 15 seconds (was 20)
- [CHANGE] Movement speed earned by hit during Feral Frenzy is now 0.24 (was 0.20)
- [CHANGE] Adjusted several Add-Ons.
DEV NOTE: To account for reduced mending times, we’ve adjusted Legion’s kit to ease the downtime between power uses. By extending Feral Frenzy and adjusting its cooldown and movement bonus, the goal is to provide Legion with a slight buff to their ramp-up as they weaken Survivors, giving them more opportunities to lean on their mobility. Then, with the adjustments to fatigue, they’ll be able to get back into chases quicker after Feral Frenzy ends to better close the deal.
These changes will make Legion feel like more of an active and mobile threat, reducing their reliance on a more passive status effect.
- [CHANGE] Increased tail attack charge time to .35 seconds (was .2)
- [CHANGE] Increased tail attack charge sound volume for survivors
- [CHANGE] Reduced missed attack cooldown time to 2.5 seconds (was 3)
- [CHANGE] Increased the Killer Instinct range when exiting a tunnel to 16m (was 12m)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the time it takes to get out of a tunnel to 1.5 second (was 2.25)
- [CHANGE] Increased amount of fire needed to burn The Xenomorph out of crawler mode to 175 (was 100)
- [CHANGE] Increased delay before the Xenomorph’s heat starts to dissipate to 15s (was 1)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the Xenomorph’s heat dissipation rate to 2/s (was 25)
- [CHANGE] Adjusted several Add-Ons to align with these changes.
DEV NOTE: In its current state, Xenomorph's tail attack tends to be a little too difficult to dodge, with a short window between wind-up and attack. To give Survivors more of a chance to anticipate and react to it, we’ve adjusted its charge time and made the wind-up louder. To balance this out, we’ve reduced the cooldown on misses so Xenomorph can keep pressure up.
We’ve also found that turret impact can be inconsistent, providing huge value at high skill levels and being very ineffective at lower levels. Rather than having turrets act as an immediate threat that dissipates quickly, heat build-up will remain for longer. This should help give a little more value to smaller bursts of heat that aren’t enough to knock Xenomorph out of crawler mode, as weaker turret placements can still build up over time. To ensure this sustained heat isn’t too punishing, we’ve balanced it with a higher heat threshold for Xenomorph.
We also did a pass on Xenomorph’s Add-Ons to buff some of its weaker, less used ones, while re-aligning some turret-based Add-Ons to fit with the above changes.
- [CHANGE] Reduced Hidey-Ho Mode cooldown to 12s (was 14)
- [CHANGE] Reduced time to reach max speed at the start of Slice and Dice and after Scamper
DEV NOTE: We know that the Good Guy’s utility and mobility in chases has historically been one of his core draws. While recent changes have made him less oppressive at lower MMR ranks, we've made some adjustments to help get him back in the action quicker and improve “movement feel”, particularly accelerating quicker as you activate Slice and Dice and after the Scamper action to get you up to max speed.
- [CHANGE] Increased the Hillbilly’s Terror Radius to 40 (was 32)
- [CHANGE] Increased the Blight’s Terror Radius to 40 (was 32)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the Pig’s Terror Radius to 24 (was 32)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the Ghost Face’s Terror Radius to 24 (was 32)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the Skull Merchant’s Terror Radius to 24 (was 32)
DEV NOTE: We’ve adjusted several Killer Terror Radiuses to better fit with their intended playstyles. Killers with high mobility that can zip across the map at high speeds have had their radiuses increased to give Survivors a greater chance to react to their approach.
We’ve also reduced the radiuses for stealthy Killers to better fit their playstyles. The Skull Merchant is a slight outlier here. While she can gain Undetectable by deploying a drone, we felt she could still benefit from added stealth support.
NEW FEATURES
- [NEW] If one of the following conditions is met, the "Surrender” option will become available on the Match Details screen
- When all remaining Survivors are bots, the Killer can Surrender without a disconnection penalty
- When no generator has been completed for 10 consecutive minutes, the Killer can Surrender without a disconnection penalty
- When all other remaining Survivors are bots, the Survivor can Surrender without a disconnection penalty
- When all Survivors are in the Dying State, the Survivor can Surrender without a disconnection penalty
DEV NOTE: We know it can be frustrating to find yourself in a scenario that’s unwinnable when you would rather move on. To address these scenarios, as well as cases where the opposing side has been fully replaced by bots, we’ve added a Match Surrender option.
We’re currently targeting the most disruptive cases but will continue to monitor player behaviour to identify if there are further opportunities for expanding on this option.
And for all you Plot Twisters out there, we see you – this will not trigger the Surrender option.
- [NEW] Expanded the Forsaken Boneyard realm with a Shack-focused map
- [NEW] Updated the existing map tiles to improve navigation
DEV NOTE: We’re expanding the Forsaken Boneyard realm and map pool with a new map layout with the Killer Shack at its center, featuring updated map tiles. Specifically, we’ve heard your feedback that Eyrie of Crows can be difficult to navigate at times thanks to collisions with certain aesthetic elements.
We’ve opted to remove the large bunches of branches from map tiles on this Shack map, while also introducing double pallet tiles that we hope will add some exciting new looping possibilities.
PERK UPDATES
QUICK AND QUIET
- [CHANGE] Decreased the cooldown to 25/20/15 seconds (was 30/25/20)
DECEPTION
- [CHANGE] Increased the time during which you leave no scratch marks to 5 seconds (was 3)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the cooldown to 25/20/15 seconds (was 30/25/20)
DANCE WITH ME
- [CHANGE] Increased the time during which you leave no scratch marks to 5 seconds (was 3)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the cooldown to 25/20/15 seconds (was 30/25/20)
RED HERRING
- [CHANGE] Decreased the minimum generator repair time needed to trigger this perk to 1 second (was 3)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the cooldown to 25/20/15 seconds (was 60/50/40)
DEV NOTE: While these Perks specialize in misdirecting the Killer, we’ve found that their cooldowns don’t match their value. By reducing their cooldowns and increasing the duration of their effects (specifically Deception and Dance With Me), we hope to give these off-meta Perks a better chance at value in deception-based builds.
KNOCK OUT
- [CHANGE] When a Survivor drops a pallet, if they move 6m away from it within 6s they gain 5% Hindered for 3/4/5s
DEV NOTE: Knock Out is a perk that’s associated with slugging, leading to some particularly unfun game styles. We’re looking to make changes to the perk whilst keeping it useful for Killers.
ALIEN INSTINCT
- [CHANGE] Increased the aura reveal duration to 8 seconds (was 5)
- [CHANGE] Increased the duration of Oblivious to 40/50/60 seconds (was 16/18/20)
HYSTERIA
- [CHANGE] Increased the duration of Oblivious to 30/35/40 seconds (was 30/30/30)
- [CHANGE] Decreased the cooldown to 20 seconds (was 30)
DEATHBOUND
- [CHANGE] Shortened the range at which this perk activates to 12/8/4 meters (was 16/12/8)
NEMESIS
- [CHANGE] Increased the aura reveal duration to 8 seconds (was 4)
DEV NOTE: Similar to the above, we identified some Killer Perks that have also been underperforming, boasting lower pick and kill rates.
We’ve adjusted their values to help increase their viability in more specialized Perk builds.
Until next time...
The Dead by Daylight Team
Comments
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All of these are great.
Aside from the new Eyrie map (what do you mean "double pallets"), as if we didn't have enough issues with it already.
4 -
I dont know. We have Double Pallets on Greenville Square and the new Ormond-Map and those are completely fine. And the Tile in question looks like it will be very similar to those.
If anything we will most likely have to fear that the new Eyrie-Map looks incredible ugly, since they probably put in only a few weeks in re-arranging the tiles instead of the careful work they usually do when creating a Map.
13 -
I assume like the double pallet loops on Greenville, which imo are pretty fun. Not a big fan of new Eyrie maps if they're not gonna address how unbalanced they are though.
3 -
I don't think Red Herring and Hysteria are going to be any better because of these changes, ngl, but everything else here looks pretty sick.
Special shoutout to the death of Knock Out slugging though, that's cause for celebration!
10 -
LETS GOOOO LEGION BUFF
-4 -
Hysteria will be decent. I already liked the old version and now they’ll buff it. Red herring tho will stay bad.
0 -
except for xeno who is completely gutted despite already being one of the lowest pick rate killers with a low winrate.
3 -
Very happy about legion and chucky buffs. Was really hoping we'd get more of the quality of life updates though, but as long as it's before anniversary.
-2 -
The deception buff is awesome and my highlight, but I want to be able to fast enter a locker when using it.
0 -
Ive been waiting for this moment for so long😭
-3 -
Those Legion changes look pretty good! Making them less reliant on Slowdown and more effective in their power is what I've wanted to see for a while.
4 -
I know right Im so happy :D
and if you really think about it lowering mending times is really a buff for legion because it will encourage people to actually mend during frenzy without knowing-3 -
Still wish for base movement speed for legion to get a slight buff as well but this is amazing
-2 -
That is a great patch.
I especially like the Xeno changes. Might need some further tuning but it shows that the devs understand the design issues of the character across the different levels of play.
-4 -
I am ready for these changes to come to live, but I am hesitant at how they will perform. In the end, I know the developers can and will course correct immediately if things do not play out as intended — but I still worry a bit. A minority of the player base uses Dead by Daylight as a vehicle to act out their anger — and that behavior makes things difficult to balance. You can't assume perfect intent.
I see the Match Surrender Option playing out in two ways.
- Inner Thought: "I can no longer make other players miserable by leaving them all on the ground."
- Outcome #1: Find new ways to make players just as miserable, or attempt to circumvent the mechanic.
- Outcome #2: Continue forward and intentionally slug all survivors to gain enjoyment by watching them all Surrender.
It does not make sense to penalize players for having the Surrender mechanic activate — but this will become a win condition.
1 - Inner Thought: "I can no longer make other players miserable by leaving them all on the ground."
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Overall looks like great changes. Definitely need to see Xenomorph in action on the PTB to have a better opinion on that but most everything else looks completely fine to me.
5 -
Excellent changes and updates. Kind of surprised more things weren't walked back on Chucky, but I guess we'll see how much the reduced time to reach max scamper is.
Also expect / hope the surrender option can be increased to a few other areas to speed up the boring end games.
-1 -
So they nerfed xeno and gave Knock Out the knotted rope treatment. lmao
-12 -
Kock Out is not being nerfed in to the ground like Knotted Rope. Its just getting a new effect that is much healthier for the game.
The Xeno changes are a step in the right direction even if the numbers need further tuning. Currently Xeno is very strong against your average pub team but can struggle a bit against teams that can properly use double turrets.
0 -
They most certainly did not give it the Knotted Rope treatment, the rework actually seems like a decent perk. Knotted Rope by comparison is useless.
Either way Knockout needed to be changed, it was a very unhealthy effect and the game will be better without it
6 -
Dumbest change I've ever seen for Xeno, it's mostly baby survivors who think he needs a nerf. These same people don't know where to place turrets and tend to put Xeno high on tier lists. Won't be surprised if playrate goes below twin's. Not to mention its kill rate will go from worst in the game to even worse.
Oh well, sucks for Xeno mains lol.
1 -
If they fixed the chest bug, it'd at least be stomachable
1 -
Pig gets her old TR back?!?!?!?!?
Is this the real timeline?????
LETS GOOOOO!!!!
✨🐽✨
5 -
Even then these changes are overkill. According to nightlight Xeno is the only killer below 50% kill rate, currently at 48.87%. Not sure what the devs are smoking nerfing tail attack AND dissipation. I can see them making changes to the latter to force Xeno to use tunnels more often, but nerfing m2 in addition makes no sense.
Also most people will never experience playing Xeno against good survivors, it will be even more miserable now.
9 -
Thanks for the additional context. I guess my main point was to say that it's pretty damn silly for BHVR to nerf the killer, without addressing their biggest problem that players have been complaining about for a while now, and double down saying "it's a feature, not a bug" like WHAT
0 -
Speaking as someone who has played Xenomorph almost every day since it came out, at least once a play session on average.
They only addressed the new player problems with Xenomorph, and they have severely nerfed it against good survivors.
Xenomorph is particularly effective against bad and inexperienced survivors. I have gotten lots of complaints about Xeno being uncounterable due to the turrets being so ineffective at burning it out of its power when the Xeno player knows what they're doing. The tail is also extremely difficult to dodge on reaction, bordering on you needing to predict when the Xenomorph is likely going to try to tail attack and begin dodging pre-emptively.
This results in bad survivors thinking the turrets are a waste of time.
However, good survivors know the turrets will rarely burn a good Xeno out of their power. They set them up as distractions in chase. They place them in ideal locations in loops where it would be most useful to have an ally come in and take a protection hit.
Xeno did need some extra resistance to being burned, there's a reason why Emergency Helmet is often regarded as a mandatory addon. But that rate at which the xeno recovers from being burned has to be a typo. That burn effect on the UI is distracting and causes overstimulation issues on some players. It's effectively going to be a semi-permanent effect on the Xenomorph's UI if that goes through.
I sometimes use the Ovomorph and Ripley's Watch addons for a "chill Xeno" build where I play it mostly as an M1 killer and ignore the turrets. I might end up using that build more seriously if this goes through, because the turrets will be far too effective in the hands of good survivors to be worth the time and distance lost in chase to break them, especially when the survivor I'm chasing is just going to be using the extra space to run to the next turret.
5 -
I sure hope this isn’t the final change to deal with situations where survivors are hiding and not doing anything to advance the game. Hopefully there will be a reveal mechanic when survivors don’t work on objectives for a certain period of time so that the survivors rather than the killer are being punished in this situation.
-1 -
great work devs. I like the terror radius change especially.
4 -
I think blight should only be 40 meters, Billy’s chainsaw is already loud for survivors to be aware.
-2 -
Just to show how bad the new Knock Out is:
Knock out - 5% hindered for 5 seconds = Catch up by 1 meter
Brutal strength - 0.468s faster break = Catch up by 1.87 metersNot to mention you only have a 6 second window, so if you continue looping around the pallet the perk may never even trigger, this may also force the killer to break it at inopportune time just to get it to work.
5 -
Terror Radius changes?!?!?! 🤩🤯🤩🤯🤩
5 -
Knock out change was much needed, the new effect is actually very strong.
-5 -
It is just the start, there will be anti hiding changes later to help prevent survivors hiding for long periods of time avoiding the gens.
I would like to point out, if survivors think they can hide for 10min to try make me surrender they best make themselves comfortable because I wont be surrendering, not in 10min, not in 20min, not ever lol.
2 -
I agree a change was needed since it only punished solo Q players, but no, the new effect is laughably weak. See my last post, brutal strength alone gives killers almost twice the catch-up distance.
2 -
Yes the recovery speed for the burns seems to be way too slow and will need to be adjusted if its not a typo. But the idea behind these changes has potential.
That burn effect on the UI is distracting and causes overstimulation issues on some players. It's effectively going to be a semi-permanent effect on the Xenomorph's UI if that goes through.
That is a good point that I did not consider. Hopefully the burn effect on the UI gets adjusted.
3 -
I think in this scenario 'surrender' should be called end game. The goal is that the killer should be able to move on without any penalty.
1 -
I meant the new effect, not the numbers to said effect. Hindered at a loop is very strong, and will definitely result in a hit within a few seconds of the perk popping off.
2 -
Which changes exactly nerf him so much? And how?
Genuinely asking, since I don't know a lot about Xeno's power.
2 -
Legion buffs are cool, but i can't comment until I see what "addon adjustments" mean. My anxiety is the loss of iri button, haha
Welcome buffs for my one true main above pinhead
Oh, that Terror radius changes are nice! Thank you! That gives me hope foe the Unknown
1 -
Everything is nice cept the boring mend simulator and annoying doll buffs that is not needed. Ugh was nice not seeing chucky every 15 out of 20 matches.
-4 -
I still would like them to change the button prompt. It sucks when you deception a locker and there's a double locker nearby.
I still won't use it, but I'm glad you're able to use it more frequently.
I'm very surprised with the Dance With Me changes, definitely good all around.
2 -
Everything related to the flamethrower. They also still didn't revert the tail attack cooldown to pre-nerf levels after fixing the bug on PTB.
The tail is very underwhelming after the nerfs from PTB before xeno was actually released, basically the PTB had a bug where the power had no cooldown penalty, where you didn't slow down at all for missing. They fixed that bug, then like doubled the penalty at the same time, when really all they needed to do was fix the bug. As it stands currently, the penalty for missing a tail attack is around 50% more than what most other killer's penalties are after missing an attack (like, nemesis, demo, pyramid head, dracula, etc)
For the flamethrower stuff, look at what they do.
- It takes 100 "units" of fire currently to be knocked out of your power, now it will take 175, a little less than double.
- Currently after 1 second of not being burning by fire, you lose 25 "units" of heat per second, so generally once you destroy the turret, you are good unless they stack multiple turrets or you quickly are in another turret range. They are changing this to FIFTEEN (15) seconds before it starts to decay.
- They also make it so you are only losing TWO (2) "units" of heat every second from TWENTY FIVE (25)
Massive massive nerfs. Sure, 1 turret probably won't knock you out of your power, but as soon as the survivor goes to a second turret, you probably are gonna get knocked out of your power now, and you are effectively a powerless killer. Keep in mind that CURRENTLY if you aren't running the heat reduction or range reduction addon for turrets (usually you want both), that if you get hit by a turret you WILL get knocked out of it before you can physically hit the turret. And even with those addons you have to be very quick. I believe they generate around 25 charges per second currently and the notes make no mention of changing that.
7 -
Ohhh...
Yeah that sucks.
Even more ironic is the fact that Xeno is already a rare killer so...
3 -
Its even worse than most realize too.
So with the new changes, 1 second of a turret hitting you generates 25 heat, and it takes 15 seconds before that heat starts disappating, and another 12.5 seconds to remove that fully.
So when a turret hits you for 1 second, you need to spend 27.5 seconds removing that heat.
At this point the heat mechanic is pointless and you just HAVE to expect to get knocked out of your power and then forced to go into a tunnel.
The only POTENTIAL saving grace here is that they meant to say "1.5 seconds" instead of "15 seconds" for heat dissipation to start kicking it. Which is certainly BETTER, but going from 25 per second to 2 per second is a massive nerf still. And really it should probably be like 10 per second to start, or that the heat needed to knock out of your power is increased to say 200-250.
2 -
I agree killer should be able to move on if they want. But many killers including myself will never surrender to a couple of survivors that refuse to touch a gen when there are 2 or 3 gens left. In my eyes as a killer I have won that match and I'm taking the win, no chance I'm surrendering. I'm sure many killers will feel the same.
0 -
Yeah, I agree - even though I do think Knock Out should be changed - whether reworked into something else entirely or a more diminished effect.
The new change is more situational than anything as people will often stand at a pallet to watch what the killer does, especially if they're at a safe pallet. @beater15
-1 -
I'm not a Xenomorph player by any stretch of the imagination, I do think the wind up time and time it takes to burn him was an odd change. If anything, I would swap that around but I am not too sure about how Xenomorph mains feel about him being more tanky as a whole.
I honestly don't have much input here, but the tail changes are what Xenomorph players feel like need to be changed. I don't think they need more of a charge time, to be honest.
Additionally - a side note: I hope they include Unbreakable in with Plot Twist for the surrender mechanics! If a survivor is on the ground with Unbreakable and three other survivors are on the ground, there should be an exception here just like with Plot Twist.
1 -
all i need now is for pig to get her own main menu theme and chase theme (maybe hello zepp for rbt countdown music pretty please)
1 -
It's really nice that Eyrie gets a rework and its tiles get a nerf but why do we need a different version of it. We already have enough maps and with FNAF right around the corner (that will bring a lot of new players), it does not seem like a good idea to add new maps.
The double pallets on Greenville and Ormond Lake Mine are funny but I am a little bit worried about the Screenshot for the Eyrie version since it has a window on the one side and maybe another one on the otherside - or is this a "door"?
Xenomorph changes look like a nerf with the 15 seconds timer and longer time to remove the burn points. Also, the developers say turrets are good when used by good players and bad when used by bad players and therefore they buff the burn? It does not make any sense. The issue is that turrets are strong but many players don't know how to use them since the game doesn't explain anything. It's a communication issue and not a turrents are inconsistent.
Chucky buff is nice
Legion buff is nice but wish his Freenzy start movement speed would be 6.0m/s to use it as a little mobility tool but also to threaten survivors more with his fifth hit.
New TR for some killers is cool
Perks buffs are nice. I like the buff to Alien Instinct and Nemesis but Deathbound will still be bad since they missed the point. The cooldown for Hysteria is still weird and should be removed completly.
The surrender option is cool but has some issues. I wish a killer player could surrend at two bots and a surrender after 10 minutes when no gen got touched should not be a surrender for the killer since the survivors gave up and not the killer - the change should be that the killer can claim the win after 10minutes and get the BPs they would get when killing the last two too.
Really sad that we didn't get the map offering nerf. Its a simple change and we need it asap.
1 -
If Eyrie's getting another map, can it please get a footstep sound update? Scratchmarks too?
It's notoriously annoying to track people on this map due to the sand sound being drowned out by chase music and orange scratchmarks being placed on tan terrain.
2
