23rd July 2025 DBD Team Reddit AMA | In text form for your convenience

Yo, doing another one of these because why not. Like last time I'll try not to shorten answers too much but I will shorten questions if I can word them in a much more concise way. Feel free to control + F if you're looking for something in particular.

The lovely people who took the time to answer our questions were:

• Jay
• Jeff
• Justin
• Kirby
• JP
• Mandy

It's possible I missed an answer or two buried in reddit replies but I tried!!

THE AMA ITSELF:

Question #1: Will you improve the in-game chat censor? Or allow players to disable it?

Answer: "This is always a question that comes up and the answer is that we always work on improving it. It's designed to censor names - even those included in the game, for privacy reasons.

We firmly believe that a chat filter is required, unfortunately not everyone is able to control what they say in end game chat - and people should not have to face abuse from others in this way and we will do whatever we need to do to limit that.

There is never going to be a perfect system that recognises what to filter out and what to not filter out, but we continue to work on improving it to be more accurate." - Mandy

Question #2: Will you ever add customizable lobby backgrounds? Some people miss the old ones.

Answer: "This is a feature request we've heard a lot recently and we have certainly taken notice.

I'm in fact very annoying about it when I have the opportunity to be, because I believe in it! We share your feeling on the quality of those and would love folks to get more time in each of them. Our team really gets to have fun when making lobbies and we'd love their work to be experienced and enjoyed by more folks, for sure. 

We can't share any specifics right now on plans as they are still in discussion but stay tuned." - Eric

Question #3: Is there any plans on updating general perks for both sides, many of them are not worth using/very weak at the moment (E.g Shattered hope, This is not happening, etc).

Answer: "This is an ongoing effort with our perk updates. We look at perks that are the least used and find ways to increase their value proposition. Having a dedicated update where we look at more perks is an interesting proposition!" - Jeff

Question #4: Is it possible to have voicelines for the older survivors?

Answer: "We've had a lot of fun adding voices and more character to survivors over the past years, and certainly want to do more to make DbD feel as alive as possible. Over time we are planning on updating to add voice lines to more characters.

That being said, there are constraints which may make it impossible for some. In the case of licenses, after we've released a character that's usually it, but opportunities do arise that let us revisit content." - Justin

Question #5: Skull Merchant rework. Any news to share?

Answer: "Following the Design Previews we did, we got a lot of good feedback on which parts were liked, which parts were disliked, as well as new ideas. We've taken all this feedback and have come up with a direction we're happy with.

What I can say is we're looking to retain the trap playstyle, remove the passive lethality, and introduce a new friend (The Buddy Drone). It's also worth pointing out that we're working out where exactly it'll fit on the timeline, which at this time is looking like sometime in 2026 (we're hoping early 2026, but it may be later depending on bandwidth from the different teams).

Keep an eye out for future communications!" - Jeff

Question #5.B: What about Trickster?

Answer: "Thank you for asking about this! Trickster hasn't left our mind since we first launched our Design Preview initiative. I'm pleased to let everyone know we have been hard at work to bring the Trickster's kit to the next level.

We had a wonderful focus group session with dedicated Trickster players to validate the direction we are going in. You can expect to hear more in early 2026." - Jeff

Question #6: Will we be able to change the colour of scratch marks/auras/red stain etc?

Answer(s): "Short answer: Yes, especially for scratch marks. We are targeting end of 2025 to customize color of scratch marks. Aura colour changing is also planned for this release as well." - Justin

Question #7: Would you ever consider releasing small video documentaries on your process of designing characters and their stories?

Answer: "This is on my list - have you been spying on my list??

(I agree that I think it will be really interesting for people to see, and might surprise quite a few about how much actually goes on through this process)" - Mandy

Question #8: Any plans to create maps with more unique themes and layouts such as urban maps or waterside maps?

Answer: "Let's just say - we've got you covered. And we think you'll be very pleased - but you'll have to wait until March 2026...;) " - Kirby

Question #9: I understand you want to keep Trapper as a simple choice for newcomers however he has fallen behind compared to the rest of the cast, any plans for improving him?

Answer: "We are in agreement that Trapper's kit is outdated. You are also correct that his kit being simple is important. That being said, we are looking into The Trapper's kit to give him a much needed update, whilst maintaining the simplicity of the character. No ETA as it's a work-in-progress." - Jeff

Question #10: Will the Shrine of Secrets recieve any further changes? It still has problems with rotating already very common perks.

Answer: "The general engagement & usage of Shrine of Secrets have been very satisfying so far, but we know we have a portion of our community, more engaged, who are not seeing enough value from it. Our economy design team is looking at how to find the sweet spot for this group." - Justin

Question #11: Is there any more news on Limited time game modes? 2v8 and chaos shuffle are good, but have been become a bit too frequent, are there plans to release other modes mentioned such as 5v5 for example?

Answer: "It has always been our intent to keep on building new Modes/Modifiers, it still is. Currently, Quality of Life initiatives, the events roadmap and many other things we won't detail here are consuming most of our bandwidth.

2v8 in particular is a huge success and a fan favorite so we try to run it as often as possible as the players requested. But it also requires a lot of maintenance to get to a level we feel satisfied with. We feel we are getting near and aim to start developing new Modes/Modifiers soon.

We got plenty of ideas already! If you've got any good ideas about what modes you'd like to see, please let us know we'd love to hear them! - JP

Question #12: Are there still plans to have legendary outfits include more than just the cosmetic (ie. lobby portait change, bloody/extra cosmetics) and when might we expect to see them?

Answer: "Yes!

Currently all new legendary or higher rarity outfits will have a Badge of outfit given alongside the purchase. We are also working to add those to our older legendary outfits as well, but that is going to be done in batches over a longer timeline.

Beyond that, we have a few proposals (such as new outfits for legendary characters) in the works but nothing officially in production yet." -Kirby

Question #13: I liked the idea of Blood Moon gas cans. Will there ever be another event or something in the normal 1v4 mode added where there will be other ways of escaping other than just doing generators? (E.g like in other games such as Friday the 13th).

Answer: "DBD has been built around generators for a very long time so it isn't easy to completely move away from the mechanic with all the dependencies. However, while we can't promise anything, adding variety on that aspect is something we definitely hope to achieve.

You probably noticed we are trying new objective types in some events (Like Blood Moon 2025), we definitely aim to do more of this in the future" - JP

Question #14: More licensed Killers in 2v8? If so which?

Answer: "Yes. As to which and when, only time can tell ;)" - JP

Question #15: Are there any plans to look at the bloat of addons and offerings? Many of these serve little purpose and could do with an overhaul.

Answer: "Our goal when it comes to addons specifically is to review them to ensure they provide value. A good example of this is the recent PTB with The Executioner addon pass.

For Survivor item addons, we're looking to reduce the amount of addons per item, as seen with the Key and Map update. As for Offerings, we believe the system itself needs an overhaul, which is an ongoing discussion internally." - Jeff

Question #16: Why is our MMR (Match-making rating) hidden?

Answer: "MMR is hidden as we do not see it as a goal that people should aim for in our game. The point of MMR is purely for matchmaking purposes it was never intended to be the driving force behind the game, fun is the number 1 factor." -Mandy

Question #17: Any further plans for The Shape (Michael Myers)?

Answer: "Yes! This is something we're actively working on. No details to share at this point, but keep your eyes peeled... Soon™" - (None listed, Maybe we'll never know…)

Question #18: Who was your favorite original killer and least favorite original killer to design? Same for survivors.

Answer: "Well, I've only worked on licensed killers so far, and each has provided a really cool challenge for me as a designer: Chucky was our first 3rd person killer, Dracula was a 3-in-1, and Springtrap had dynamically linked doors and the Security Office.

BUT if I have to choose one, it would probably be Chucky, mainly because he was my first killer. (Also those voice lines!)" -Jay

Question #19: Opinions on adding an incentive to play the more unpopular Killers in the roster?

Answer: "We use raw data, community feedback, and our consultants to determine why a killer is less popular; once we've figure that out, it takes time to schedule, design, implement, and test any changes we make, meaning the timeline tends to be quite a bit longer than one would think." - Jay

Question #20: Have you guys considered not letting hex totems spawn until their effect has triggered at least once?

Answer: "Yes. It's something we've discussed and would like to do, as we think it'll make Hexes feel better to use. That being said, we have it planned alongside some other things... 👀 No ETA." - Jeff

Question #21: Is it possible for the game engine to be updated or has it been deemed not worth it? Whether it be updated models/graphics or gameplay functionality how far can the current engine stretch?

Answer: "The game engine is being updated in the next release - so you can expect a bigger download than normal (as people saw on the recent PTB)...allow a bit of extra time Content Creators!

Stability is the number one factor here, working with an engine that can reliably work with the game before we even get into things like graphical updates. What sort of graphical updates are you thinking of - what would you like to see?" - Mandy

Question #22: Any plans to give Rebecca Chambers her Basketball outfit?

Answer: "We do our best to get the most iconic looks on our licensed characters, so while we don't have that one right now its always possible we may get it in the future. - Kirby

Question #23: What is the reasoning behind the changes to Knight and Clown in the recent Walking Dead PTB?

Answer: "For the Clown, the intention was to make Yellow bottles more useful, while making Purples less dominant in his kit. We're hoping this will encourage using both bottles more often. For The Knight, it was mostly quality of life. We tried lowering the Standard spawn time in hopes that it would make him less oppressive in "sandwich" scenarios, but it didn't pan out.

With the upcoming release, there are some changes from the PTB. The Clown's Purple bottles are being adjusted, and we've reverted the gas spread changes, as well as some of the addon changes. When it comes to Knight, we've reverted the Standard spawn time changes. We're thankful for all the feedback from the PTB, which helps us build better patches for all of our players! - Jeff

Question #24: "Hello! Been playing since 2018, and am a mega fan of the game. I work in software, and I’m curious as to how the software dev cycle looks like over there at Behaviour considering the amount of content produced in such timespans."

Answer: "First off, thank you for playing for so long, you've seen a lot of changes within the game during that time!

Whilst not everything is where we want it to be, we do have a kick-ass Production Team that keeps us to schedule, so the props go to them for managing so many different elements". - Mandy

Question #25: Any plans to change The Ghoul?

Answer: "The Ghoul is on our radar. We are aware there are some friction points, which we'd like to address. However given the fact that he's still new to the roster, we're taking the necessary time to review everything before setting things in stone. Once we've reached that point, we'll make sure to share all the details." - Jeff

(OP Side note - in the replies to this question they said Kaneki vaulting a pallet while locking a survivor in place was "not a bug" but I'd give them the benefit of the doubt on this being some kind of mixup or something.)

Question #26: Will you ever add a last man standing (1v7) event mode or anything similar?

Answer: "Could you explain more of your concept for 1v7 or "Last man standing"? We're always open to exploring any ideas our players find interesting and are always open to playtesting new concepts as well." - JP

Question #27: Is there any plan for previous deep rifts to come to the store?

Answer: "Currently no. However with recent and upcoming rifts all having far more deep rift outfits than our older ones, its certainly up for discussion.

The original intent was for the deep rift outfits to only be available through progressing in the rift as a way to show off that you were there when the rift happened. But its important for us to question if that still makes sense for what we want from the Rift in its latest form, and if it makes sense for what the players want!" - Kirby

Question #28: Any news on possible Switch 2 performance changes?

Answer: "We’ve seen the interest in Switch 2 which is totally fair! Right now, Dead by Daylight runs the same as it does on the original Switch. We know visual and performance upgrades matter, and we’re sharing that feedback with the team." - Mandy

Question #29: Updates on excessive slugging and/or "slugging for the 4k"?:

Answer: "With an upcoming update, we'll be testing some changes to slugging on a PTB. Our intention isn't to punish slugging as a form of pressure, but rather give Survivors a means to get out of extreme slugging situations. Keep an eye out, you'll hear about it soon!" - Jeff

Question #30: What's the name of Houndmasters poodle? (visceral skin). And how likely is it that we get more dogs in future skins?

Answer: "Her name will be revealed in the Houndmaster Tome that is in the works! To manage expectations that's still a year or more off from being released, but you will have your answer then.

In terms of more dogs, its a bit of conundrum. As is, we can do more in the form of visceral outfits. We treat the change of dog as a replacement for the mori changes that happen on other viscerals, and that means charging the big price tag for each one. The other option is to build a specific customization system only for Houndmaster that allows mix and match of the dog as its own cosmetic.

A much more ideal option IMO, but as you can imagine that wouldn't be a high priority for development resources because it is a very narrow impact.

To peel back the curtain a bit, we have a concept or two for Snug outfits. We do want to be able to do this someday so never say never!" - Kirby

Question #31: News on adding 'emoticons' to Singularities community cosmetic?

Answer: "Yes. We have an open task for it and are getting to it.

Summer vacations have us running a bit lower on resources for reactive changes like this, so I cant provide an exact timeline at the moment. Our wonderful devs are taking some well deserved time off!

Once they're all rested up we'll get those emoticons on there don't you worry" - Kirby

Question #32: Are their plans to limit the max use of fog vials? I find their infinite use frustrating, especially with certain addon combinations.

Answer: "The Fog Vial cooldown mechanic is a unique twist to how a Survivor item functions in Dead by Daylight. This gives Survivors a chance for trial-and-error. Given that they aren't as opaque as their predecessor (the Void Crystals), we feel having the opportunity to use them multiple times is good. From the PTB, we have made some changes to the Fog Vials.

Notably, we've decreased the opacity from the Visceral add-on, as well as added some downsides to it (uptime and maximum size). There are additional changes, so when they hit the live servers, try them out! We look forward to hearing your thoughts!" - Jeff

Question #33: Since the Tokyo Ghoul chapter was released, many killers have become bugged in some way shape or form. One of the most notable has been Huntress, along with the rest of the ranged killer cast. Are there any updates as to whether or not there is a fix on the horizon for the issues related to Huntress such as the major spike in validation issues

Answer: "Going to shout out the Community here, a few people have reached out with some impressive excel docs to list out the bugs that they're finding and that has been super helpful. The lullaby one is not on my list however - can you get more information to us on that - the forum bug report section would be the best way, then we can get that looked into.

For the others, there are bug fixes on the way, not just for Huntress. We have some coming up in the next release and in following releases." - Mandy

Question #34: Over time, Dead by Daylight seems to be shifting away from stealth-oriented gameplay, which used to be a major part of the experience. Has there been a design philosophy change behind this direction?

Answer: "While Stealth is still an integral part of Dead by Daylight, the game kind of evolved out of it. Through our players, we saw the rise of chase-oriented gameplay and looping.

We don't intend on eliminating stealth gameplay, but we want to embrace the direction our players have taken the game, as we believe in a player-first approach." - Jeff

Question #35: Are there any plans to give the props system a purpose to encourage players to be more positive about their teammates/adveraries?

Answer: "Currently, the thumbs up and reporting are centralized on the same button in-game. We are looking to untangle the two and update both the commendation and reporting systems separately, providing tools to foster a positive environment for players.

This may take some time to achieve all the goals we want for the two systems but expect to see small steps made towards these improvements over time :) " - Justin

Question #36: Any word on more monstrous killers? ( E.G Werewolf, Shark, Spider?)

Answer: "Welllllll, we're still in the early phases of The Grimoire, an initiative where we are calling on the community to help us bring a future chapter to life.

Who knows - maybe together we'll create something monstrous! Check back here at 12pm ET this Friday for the next Verse: https://thegrimoire.deadbydaylight.com/ " - Mandy

Question #37: Why does it take so long to add the cosmetic contest winner skins

Answer: I'M SO EXCITED YOU ASKED.

Making cosmetic skins in general takes quite a long time on DbD! To frame it, right now I'm actively working on cosmetic plans for March-April 2026, and pencilling in the major collections we want to do up until around July 2026 (I hope everyone is hyped for DbD's 10th anniversary! :D).

To break it down a bit further our usual timeline looks roughly like:

• ~8 months before a release we hold a kickoff meeting for all the outfits in that update. At this point we've already figured out all the collections we want to do and which characters will go in which collection or Rift. Usually this is around 25 outfits, not counting things like the tshirt collections or Deep Rift variants.
• -At this point it goes to the concept team to make concepts for all of these requested cosmetics, and its quite a lot! For licenses we can use references, 3D scans, or game models depending on what is available to ensure accuracy and even save time. Depending on feedback, we estimate it takes ~2 for a single concept to be made and approved
• -After concept it goes to 3D modelling, which takes anywhere from 5 weeks (a more simplistic survivor cosmetic) to 13 weeks (our most complicated killers, like the Dredge, or legendary outfits since they're typically a whole new character)!
• -Partway through modelling we can also start work on the skinning/rigging the outfit, to ensure everything moves well and doesn't have major clipping issues. VFX and sound work is also start around this point.
• All of the above should be finished within ~5 months to hit our feature complete date, which is about 3 months before update release. This gives us time to do QA checks and polish passes on the outfits with everything in the build.

Its really busy! Our artists are amazing for being able to keep up the quality of the cosmetics at this pace!

So, to more specifically answer your question, we have 4 survivors and 4 killer outfits that will win the contest. Since 1 of each gets released every 3 months with a rift, during our planning phase we need to decide what order makes to most sense to release the community outfits alongside our other plans for the year. While we do have a concept in hand, we often have to update it to match the DbD art style, make adjustments to make the outfits mix and match (if possible) and then check our changes with the winning artist. Then it goes through the rest of the process.

Once a rift is over, we try to align the release of the outfits into the store at a good time with the rest of the schedule, but failing that we try not to hold them in the back catalog for too long.

TLDR: Outfits take a long time to make, even for our amazing team.

I hope this answers your question! - Kirby

Question #38: Survivor Audio Normalisation, any updates?:

Answer: "With our Five Nights at Freddys release our audio team performed a full pass through all the survivor volumes and "normalised" these (audio engineering term!) sounds, So Survivor specific audio should be much more balanced now.

For the vaulting or getting hit - I'm a little unsure which areas you are referring to (if it's the character voice, this is independent of gameplay elements so is not intended to be normalised) and that also applies to the first hit on a survivor, it's the second hit where we consider it as gameplay feedback and those sounds should be at roughly the same level.

The noises a survivor makes when jumping over a vault (assuming you mean the fast vault) is standard across all our survivors so there should be no change there at all - but if you are noticing something, please head over to our forums and report this as a bug as we don't have this listed anywhere as a bug report currently. https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/categories/bugs - Mandy

Question #39: Any more QOL updates on the bloodweb (E.g picking which nodes to prioritise in bulk spending)

Answer: "The bulk BP spending was a huge request from players that we were aiming to get out in time for our anniversary, and we're glad everyone's been loving it so far!

Now that it's out, there are other higher priorities that require resources before we consider going back to update the bulk BP spending further. That's not to say we won't ever update do it, but it's not in the plans right now as we continue to tackle more quality of life oriented priorities." - Justin

Question #40: Will game rule customization ever be added for private lobbies?

Answer: "It's not out of the question, it really is a matter of bandwidth and priorities. We have a list of further things that we'd like to change in custom lobbies and we're gradually able to start implementing them - it will be done over a period of time, starting in this next update." - Mandy

Question #41: Any news on us being able to gift skins through the in-game store?

Answer: "We have a design for the gifting system! We are currently discussing what safety and security measures we want to implement for it.

So, in progress! Current target is the April 2026 update, but that could very well change (so you didn't hear it from me ;) ) " - Kirby

Question #42: The biggest struggle of this game right now is the new player experience. Do you have any plans in the works to overhaul the tutorial system or add/rework general perks such that new players have access to better options from the very beginning?

Answer: "I'm glad to say that we absolutely do have plans for both improving the tutorial system and improving player accessiblity to perks!

I can't giveaway when this (and more) will happen, but we've already made strides towards helping out new players with Character Trials and the Quest System. Improving the new player experience has become a big focus for us for the coming year with many changes that all players will benefit from as well :)" - Justin

Question #43: Any news on the Swamp realm rework/visual update?:

Answer: "For our March 2026 Chapter, we want to do something really special and are focusing our map resources there to create a very special brand-new realm. Still, we're looking at how we can prioritize swamp after this. - Justin

Question #44: P100 reward news?

Answer: "Yes, "soon", but we're working on unique player badges earnable per character with varying levels of frames as players prestige higher, with the fanciest, most show-off worthy being at P100." - Justin

Question #45: End game chat for consoles?

Answer: "Not currently planned, but we've discussed it internally on several occasions.

The big question in all discussions is what actual tools console players would have to participate in the chat - it's not as easy as just letting them type given only a minority of players have keyboards. There's always the possibility of using the console's on-screen keyboard but it's not an ideal interface for live communication.

That being said, we're open to hear ideas of what console players would expect from endgame chat to help us prioritize properly!" - Justin

Question #46: DBDLeague recently received an official endorsement from BHVR. Any word on what that might look going forward?

Answer: "There are currently no plans to run our own tournaments - these take an extraordinary amount of work, as we've been able to see with working closely with DbD League and Champions of the Fog - both of which receive our support.

We've been very lucky that with things like Custom Matches in particular, we've been able to put together Focus Groups from individuals connected with the competitive scene who've really helped to guide us on what things would be desired in Custom Matches in particular to help the leagues and community members run their own tournaments.

Some of the new features will be in the upcoming release and were seen on the most recent PTB and we do have further ones planned down the line. - Mandy

Question #46: Any plans to make anniversary cakes useable across all characters?

Answer: Not at the moment. This is a side effect of our character-specific inventory, and would re'vequire some reworking for how it could be managed to be shared on any character the player has unlocked. We heard your concerns and while this is not a priority right now, we are hoping to improve the inventory experience at some point in the future. - JP

Question #47: Will Licensed maps only be portions on pre-existing realms going forward? (E.G Pizzeria, D&D Map)

Answer: This is a fun one to answer - we know players are huge fans of these full maps to give the most accurate experience for the license as possible. (unpopular opinion: I personally love RPD as an RE fan)

I can't say future licensed maps will always be in pre-existing realms, but that it'll vary case-by-case where it makes sense to the playerbase and the respective license. Our map strategy is also evolving over time according to our resources and player feedback. - Justin

Question #48: Was hit validation removed or is it still active?

Answer: "The Hit Validation isn't removed - it has been adjusted though. When it was initially introduced it was at the extreme level and we needed to reduce this as it was too much at the time.

So right now the server does validate the hits which is why sometimes hits can feel a bit wonky from one perspective but looks perfectly natural from another perspective." - Mandy

Question #49: When will we be able to see our teammates perks in the lobby as Survivor?

Answer: "Actively working on this targeting Spring 2026! There are several potential issues that we have to consider like disconnecting players who may go next, etc. and want to get it right to encourage positive behaviour within a survivor group :) " - Justin

Question #50: Will we see another graphical 'Realm Beyond' style update any time soon?

Answer: "Our goal is always to keep the game as immersive and as up-to-date- as possible. We have an almost 10-year-old game; so yes we are aware that a graphical update will be necessary. We don't have any more info to share now but you will be the first informed." - (Not listed, we may never know…)

That's yer lot…

If I missed any lemme know I'll add em.

Until next time…