http://dbd.game/killswitch
The Most Unfair Experience Disparity in DBD History, Thanks to the Abandon Feature
Since the implementation of the abandon feature, killers have been forced into a new role — a “loser’s duty”:
Escorting taunting survivors to the exit gates with grace and patience.
Survivors, as the winners, are granted the right to a victory lap, full of emotes and teabagging.
Meanwhile, killers are expected to remain until the end, acting as pitiful, defeated stage props, helping highlight the survivors’ glorious moment.
Now, what happens when survivors are the ones who lose?
They simply go “gonext” the moment they’re downed.
No waiting, no cinematic moments, no obligation — just instant exit.
And the cleanup? That’s left entirely to the killer:
Bot survivors running in circles, and the killer choosing between two joyless options:
• Chase bots alone in a meaningless epilogue, or
• Quit the match despite “winning.”
This is the end result of a system supposedly introduced to “protect survivor agency” from slugging.
A system implemented without fully considering the consequences.
It’s time that we acknowledge the growing disparity in endgame experience.
Let’s address the usual disingenuous and biased counterarguments:
1.“But killers can still move, farm points, and interact. Survivors can’t do anything after going down, so of course they need to forfeit quickly.”
→ Take a real look at the current state.
Survivors now routinely gonext instantly. Their downtime is practically zero.
Killers, in contrast, are left to “clean up the stage” — watching survivors dance in the exit gate,
breaking leftover pallets just to scrape together a few more bloodpoints.
And we’re supposed to believe this is “fun”?
Sure, some killers may enjoy that.
But the majority of killer players just want to move on the moment defeat is clear.
That desire is not so different from survivors who skip hook or mori animations and quit immediately.
Killers are players too. We feel the same way.
2.“But killers have strong endgame perks!”
→ Survivors also have perks to counter slugging.
→ More importantly: Why are killers expected to build their loadouts assuming they’ll be stuck cleaning up the endgame?
Both sides should have freedom in their builds.
Balancing the game based on the assumption of EGC is flawed and irrational.
As it stands, the situation is blatantly one-sided.
Killers are expected to carry the match from beginning to end — even when the outcome is already decided.
Survivors?
If they win, they can celebrate.
If they lose, they leave immediately.
In both cases, it’s the killer who stays behind to clean up the mess.
This game is asymmetrical, yes.
But that should never mean asymmetrical freedom and burden at the end of a match.
Comments
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Killer behavior is why the abandon feature was even added.
10 -
I do think it'd be nice to abandon once the endgame collapse has started from a survivor opening a gate. But as much as I can agree with your point this entire post just feels kinda salty. Its not a burden or cleaning up a mess, its just a few minutes at the end of the game that you can choose to either wait out to protect your dignity or force people out to get it over with. Lets not turn this whole thing into a fiasco that its not. It'd just be a nice quality of life feature to avoid some BMing and get into the next game faster if the killer doesn't think they have a chance to make a comeback.
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Hit them out. An option not available to slugs, since it's an asymmetric game.
This is also bhvr's official stance:
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The desire for fairness and the Devs catering to it is the true burden to the game. Especially when it boils down to -Survivors can do it so why can't I?-
-1 -
Don't just remake your thread after the last one died. If you wanted to resume the discussion by adding something meaningful, pick the old thread back up. And if you have nothing new to say, don't just spam the forums with the same take repeatedly.
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Then we have similar scenarios like 3 gens which were created in 90% by survivors rushing all gens clousest to them, creating so called 3 gens. Then things like gen kicking perks as meta and killers like skull metchant were cherry on top and what happened 3 grns are super rare snd got fixed.
Yes some killers slug on 5 gens and tunnel but for me slugging entire team wasnt my main objective, it was survivor mistake like being injured on highly progressed gen when i played killer capable doing the slug and their poor decisions on positioning.Its like unhooking teammate on dead hook 5 seconds after killer hooked him. What do you expect him to do, when you serve kill right into his face almost free.
-6 -
Well as survivor you can abandon when all are sluged or skip mori animation if you dont like it, see it as humiliation, as killer you can only abandon if entire team against you are bots, thats it. So as killer only option to leave without getting dc penalty is when you won and as survivor you can leave when you failed and skip mori. You can leave as killer when survivors are hiding for 10 minutes not doing objective. Happened to me few times they tapped gens and still abandon was there. Another situation for killer to abandon when you basically won and game still wont help you locate them for not playing if you want to continue.
Now tell me why should killer be force to try impossible in endgame when he doesnt have hooked survivor, injured one far from powered exit gate or downed one. He basically lost and is forced to try force them out if there is timer its 2 minutes. Why survivor can move next when in 30 you will mori him and killer must wait plus, minus two minutes, doing something that is pointless for him and game outcome?
0 -
You just need to keep one person up and they can't abandon
-5 -
Fairly confident this is NOT "The Most Unfair Experience Disparity in DBD History"
Realistically, it isn't even top ten.
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Why survivor can move next when in 30 you will mori him and killer must wait plus, minus two minutes, doing something that is pointless for him and game outcome?
This is the entire problem with this thread, and the exact same, previous thread.
People aren't opposed to killers being able to surrender once the exit gates are powered.
But you CAN'T compare killers being able to leave four survivors slugged for up to four minutes to a couple of survivors stretching the game out by a few seconds max.
It's not that you want that surrender option, it's that you take that issue and somehow use it to fuel a completely unreasonable 'us vs. them'. All you have to do is let go of the 'survivors are unfairly advantaged' angle and you will have practically no pushback.
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^ This. And for some reason people who complain about such a disparity just ignore this fact.
When a Killer decides to slug until Bleedout, the Survivor can do the following:
- Crawl around the map at the lowest speed possibly.
They cannot speed up the process or anything. And this for four minutes.
If Survivors decide to wait at the Exit Gate the Killer can do the following:
- Force them out to end it quicker
- Walk around the Map, gathering BPs, using their power, breaking Pallets
And even if they decide to just go into a Corner, it would be only for two minutes.
This of course only applies if you are a somewhat mature person and dont get annoyed by the immature pressing of a single button. (Even tho this is quite hypocritical considering that the first thing Killers did with Ghostface was teabagging and it was not uncommon to have Killers humping Survivors for 4 minutes straight…)
If anything, there was a disparity before. And the Abandon-Feature is probably the mildest solution BHVR could have gone for, because it only applies if all Survivors are slugged. If the Killer decides to just not hook someone, you can still be slugged for the full 4 minutes and just bleed out, as long as at least one other Survivor is standing. (Yes, there are Anti-Slugging measurements announced, but we dont know what they will be and they can arrive as late as December…)
2 -
Lies, 4 surivors t-bagging at gates was why it was added
-10 -
Totally agree, BHVR have a history of being terribly survivor sided.
-9 -
They really should put in a delay timer to give the killer a chance to hook. I've seen survivors purposely run towards me just to get down and trigger the abandon feature.
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Yes, most features come from survivor complants. But that doesn't mean what the Devs came up with is a perfect system.
-2 -
But why does it matter if you hook the remaining player(s) instead of the Bots?
5 -
This whole issue has been kind of eye opening for me.
Whenever the issue of the remaining survivors just standing at the exit gate tbagging the killer comes up everyone seems to post 'that's BM, it's not good, people shouldn't behave that way, but most of the ideas on how to fix it wouldn't work'.
I never expected quite so many people to be open about not just wanting to win as killer, but feeling it necessary that survivors be there as they spike the ball.
5 -
Yeah, I did not want to say it, but it sounds like it is important that the Survivor sees that they lost. Because gameplay-wise, there is 0 difference if there is a Bot or the actual player being hooked. Hooking a Survivor requires 0 skill. And I personally dont care if the last Survivor abandons once I downed them, since I downed the actual player, so I won against them. And if I hook them or a Bot, this should not matter.
And when it comes to actually beating a player, it also does not make a difference if they abandon or not if they were running to the Killer and giving up. Because regardless if the player or the bot get hooked, the Survivor gave up.
4 -
I'll just repeat what I said in the other thread about this:
A lot of people are arguing that for killers, there is a much easier "way out" than for survivors, when taking a look at the way in which the Abandon system is implemented. This argument is fair in and of itself but does not really go into what killers are arguing here: Yes, there is an easy way out, but having to expose yourself to a larger measure of frustration than necessary, with very little to gain in 90% of the cases, is just not healthy. The match is over, there is realistically little left to do, bar from the singular time a survivor is stupid enough to run out and get caught.
I think this is also why Mandy's response drew so much ire: not because what she said was unreasonable, but because the "solution" misses the point. The frustration is about having to expose yourself to even more humiliation, in a situation where there is very little to gain for the Killer player, rather than the actual inability to do anything other than wait (as is the case with slugged survivors).
I think in the end there is relatively little harm in allowing Killers to abandon whenever the match is essentially over - Survivors get their automatic escape (or Killer bots, if or when that ever happens) and the Killer doesn't need to go through another humiliation ritual.
And to address something else being said - I also find it a little odd that Killers feel the need to rub in their victory by essentially wanting a delay timer on the Abandon feature. I do hope in the future they add some sort of thing where bots give up after a certain period on the hook though - having to sit there and wait for the bot to go into stage 2, stage 3… is a little tedious.
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Exactly!
If four man slugging wasn't as prominent as it was, there would be no need for the abandon feature.
But… why? Hooking a bot and hooking a player is the exact same thing.
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Everytime I heard this, the response was dead silence or "I don't get satisfaction out of hooking/moring bots". So the truth is it all comes down to rubbing the victory in, just like a survivor complaining the killer didn't show up at the gate to see them taunting.
3 -
I'm glad they can go next. I'm still getting my game done with the bots.
3 -
To be honest, I’m genuinely surprised to learn that there’s a group of players who equate finishing a match by hooking or mori’ing a real survivor with the kind of taunting that happens at the exit gates.
That said, if that’s your perspective, I have no intention of denying it.
However, for the vast majority of killer players in Dead by Daylight, the core enjoyment lies in defeating real human opponents.
There’s no sense of satisfaction in cleaning up bots, and the experience left behind is ultimately hollow.
Once again, I must say — discovering that there are people who equate the act of legitimately executing a real survivor as a killer and winning the match, with the kind of taunting and mockery survivors do at the exit gates, was both surprising and — in its own way — deeply revealing.
-3 -
To be honest, I’m genuinely surprised to learn that there’s a group of players who equate finishing a match by hooking or mori’ing a real survivor with the kind of taunting that happens at the exit gates.Well that's not what people are arguing at all.
Saying that your enjoyment is somehow dependent on other people being present after the match has been decided (example from your post:
There’s no sense of satisfaction in cleaning up bots, and the experience left behind is ultimately hollow.) is saying you want some form of taunting. At this point all we're discussing is degrees.When the match is over and neither side has a realistic chance of improving its position, people should be able to leave. Feeling the need to hook a real human is the same as the need to only exit when the killer is there to see it.
The difficulty, as many have mentioned, is that determining when the killer is in a position where the game is no longer able to be advanced is much more difficult as just the gates being powered or opened isn't just an end of the match, killers frequently gain kills after this point.
2 -
Sportsmanship
Would it be alright for the killer to leave the match once the gates are powered, or even when the last gen pops? The result would be the same, right? Survivors would receive all due points without wasting the killers time having to chase them out or wait out the collapse timer.
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It's the same as saying an AI girlfriend is the same as a real one.
Lets say you're up against a strong team and they completed gens faster than you can get any hooks in. But they make a mistake and snowballs to a defeat. Say one is dead, one on the hook and another on your shoulder. Instead of unhooking the last survivor runs up to you and body blocks the hook. You down them because what else can you do. Then almost instantly all three abandon the match. Leaving you to clean up.
Let me ask you, how is this healthy for a PvP game? You don't play this game to face bots. You don't play this game to beat bots.
If you play any real world sport and the other team/player just walks away, without warning or concession, wouldn't that be poor sportmanship? Isn't that a problem?
-2 -
It's the same as saying an AI girlfriend is the same as a real one.
No?!?
That is a very, VERY different scenario.
Lets say you're up against a strong team and they completed gens faster than you can get any hooks in. But they make a mistake an snow ball to a defeat. Say one is dead, one on the hook and another on your shoulder. Instead of unhooking the last survivor runs up to you and body blocks the hook. You down them because what else can you do. Then almost instantly all three abandon the match. Leaving you to clean up.
But you didn't play against bots in this scenario, you played against players and they happened to lose, it happens. By the time the abandon feature becomes an option the game is over.
There is no more gameplay except picking up survivors and hooking them. There is no difference between hooking bots and hooking people. All of the gameplay is done.
2 -
You're missing the social aspect. If a match end by everyone quiting then what is the point if an end? The Devs might as well kept the automatic mori system.
-1 -
You've already defeated the real players. Like I said it's the same as survivors only getting the satisfaction of escaping if the killer shows up at the exit gate to see them leave.
0 -
Allow me to give a hypothetical.
You are playing chess in a puble match setting. When it's clear you will win the other player flips the board and walks away. You technically won and are able to go onto the next match. You pick up the pieces and play the next person. They too flip the board when it's clear they will lose.
Now for how long would you continue to play?
-1 -
But there is no social aspect, because there is no more interaction at all. You're just picking people up and hooking them, allowing them to leave at that moment just saves them time and awards you the exact same rewards.
The only downside is if you want to give them hatch. Then it is unfortunate, I agree. But the hatch is never a guarantee, as a survivor you're better off going for another match than gambling hatch.
Even the post-game chat can still be completely silent if none of the four players used the abandon feature. There is nothing lost in allowing players to move on to the next game once the match is, quite literally, over.
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I’m genuinely curious — given your perspective, how would you feel about offering killers the ability to abandon the match after the gates are powered, just as survivors can now go next immediately once they’re all downed?
And please — I’d be especially interested in hearing your thoughts beyond the usual “killers still have agency” argument. I’m asking specifically about fairness in match closure.
-1 -
I'm not against it. Killers should be able to abandon, as long as a killer bot takes over.
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Who is the person flipping the table in DbD? This sound more like someone who said mate in 3 and the other player conceded (though with the added detail that the mate in 3 wasn't necessarily a few quick moves).
You can't just discount the 'killers have agency' argument because its true. All the survivors being down is not equivalent to the gates being opened. Its an asym, things don't always have a direct comparison between the sides.
If there was an equivalent scenario, absolutely. Like if they did it so all remaining survivors were in the exit gate that would probably be about the closest to the all survivors downed scenario.
-1 -
After the gates are opened, yes, I don't think that would be unhealthy for the game if the killer is replaced by a bot.
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Only if the game ends right there but it does not. The killer has two choices. Hook the bots or abandon the match as well. So pick up the pieces or leave the table too.
-1 -
But the pieces are still right there, on the board, totally unchanged. In this scenario the person playing chess can still play out the same exact moves as they would have if they desire to do so.
Nothing the survivors have done have inconvenienced or slowed down the killer in anyway. If the killer wants to play it out its going to take the same amount of time as if they survivors stayed in the game. If the killer doesn't want to stay, they now get the added benefit of leaving the match more quickly. The only thing that has changed is the awareness that there is no human on the other end watching the screen.
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In my scenario the pieces are thrown about because the player left with other player having to clean up.
But lets just take your scenario for a second and say the other player just left without destroying the board. Are you then asking the remaining player to make their move? To what end does that accomplish? The game at that point is over. To make a move is pointless because you are no longer playing a game you are performing a chore.
-2 -
The remaining player can do whatever they want. They can play it out, they can leave, its absolutely their preference.
To what end does that accomplish? The game at that point is over.The game has always been over at this point. The abandon system changed nothing about it. That's why I mentioned something like mate in 3. You could have a human being in the other seat, the best chess playing computer in the world, or an empty chair, and the result will be absolutely the same.
To make a move is pointless because you are no longer playing a game you are performing a chore.The killer has always been performing a chore at this point. Nothing about that has changed. The quicker we can get past something pointless like that, the better.
1 -
The end result of this will be players changing how they play. If the mentality becomes, you win when the other player gives up, that will become the goal. During the PTB where they changed the mori system to end the match as soon as all four are down. Well that will become the norm.
Because what does it matter if the survivor is a person or a bot, right? Getting survivors to abandon will be the win.
0 -
It feels like this is a different argument, but okay:
The end result of this will be players changing how they play. If the mentality becomes, you win when the other player gives up, that will become the goal. During the PTB where they changed the mori system to end the match as soon as all four are down. Well that will become the norm.So what has changed?
In the game before the abandon system a killer can try to down all the survivors either as a challenge to themselves or because they see slugging as a superior tactic. It is usually not tried because no hooks at all is a considerably harder strategy. However once they down everyone that's it, game is over, with or without the abandon, the chance of a comeback in that scenario is incredibly minuscule especially if the killer just let's everyone bleed out.
With the abandon system, the killer can try the same strategy. It has exactly the same level of challenge as its always had. Except if the killer pulls it off, the survivors don't have to wait around for the killer to come and pick each of them up or to bleed out. And once they abandon if the killer doesn't want to do boring clean up, they can leave as well.
And the killer won. I have no problem with that at all. Good for them.
Because what does it matter if the survivor is a person or a bot, right? Getting survivors to abandon will be the win.Except this isn't like the 10 minute no gens completed that people were treating as a win that created a new strategy. The ability to slug the survivors hasn't changed in difficulty.
Which is what keeps coming up with these scenarios. Nothing has changed about the difficulty, there aren't any new strategies, the only thing that's changes is the ability of people to get out of a pointless match more quickly.
1
