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DBD absolutely needs more basekit anti-tunnel BUT

When is tunneling wrong? At 5 gens. Kind of at 4 gens.

Not at 3 gens. Not at 2 gens. Not at 1 gen.

At 5 and 4 gens.

There's nothing wrong with tunneling once a few gens have been completed.

We all know sometimes 3 gens pop before a single person is downed. Sometimes you just have to.

That's the but. That's my feelings on it.

Early game protections for anti-tunnel are what the game needs the same way killers have late game protections against anti-tunnel perks. No one should be hard tunneling at 5 gens and there's no doubt in my mind that it's bad for the game. Even if it's the most efficient way to play for killers, it's still bad for the game.

But you gotta allow tunneling at some point. Survivors can't be running around as untouchable gods and you know any power you give them they will use OFFENSIVELY against non-tunneling killers. you have to be careful and thoughtful with these changes.

personally, i think less is more. fix the problem by making the LEAST amount of changes. that's really i think what most people want. fix the problem, but don't overload the game with all this additional stuff. simplify it. do survivors need a million buffs? do we then have to counter-balance that with killer buffs and perk changes. the last PTB update was completely ridiculously and it was clearly toned down but probably not enough.

and just to point it out. there's very little tunneling in 2v8 and 2v8 doesn't need to overload survivors with all these anti-tunnel things. because there's a different hook system. and maybe that's the problem in 1v4. the hook system is ancient. it's like the one part of the game that has only received marginal changes in this game mode; maybe it's time for more. maybe that's a better way to do it. i mean the simplest way to fix tunneling is just for the killer not to know which hook the survivor is on. and also, i never saw a single killer complain about remote hooks and i don't see killers complaining that they can't find people to tunnel out in 2v8 either. maybe that's just a better way to play the game.

Comments

  • Roco45
    Roco45 Member Posts: 344
    edited November 2025

    So they should implement a similar hooking system. When a Killer carries a Surv to a hook and places them on there, they get teleported to a different hook on the map and the Killer cannot see the aura. That keeps scourge hooks in the game and sabo while also preventing camping/tunneling. If the Killer wants to go looking for the hooked Surv to camp/tunnel then they need to waste more time to do so.

  • jesterkind
    jesterkind Member Posts: 9,572

    Tunnelling doesn't stop being a balance problem at any stage of the game, though.

    The only time it's more understandable is when all the gens are done, because at that point the killer doesn't really have much else to do and the survivors have a much clearer shot to victory- survive this one chase, make this much distance, and you're out the gates.

    If you choose to chase someone as soon as they're unhooked at one gen remaining, you are still benefiting from a much easier chase for zero requirement, preparation, or tradeoff. The survivor still has to just outplay you with the deck stacked against them unless they dedicate part of their loadout to very specific perks. It's still a balance problem.

    I do agree that it's better to go for non-disruptive changes as much as possible - the Elusive change from this PTB is incredible for that, it's practically impossible to abuse and only benefits you for trying to escape the hook. It isn't enough on its own, obviously, but it's the right kind of change.
    Eventually I hope BHVR phase out anti-tunnel Endurance in favour of survivors fully losing collision, though there'd need to be some safeguards on that for sure. I've also seen it suggested that survivors hooked again before certain conditions are met do not gain a hook stage, and that's workable- it isn't disruptive, it preserves agency, but it limits the effectiveness of those easy chases.

    The bottom line though, is that tunnelling is, at its core, just a balance problem. Not a contextual problem or even a legitimate mechanic with bad edge cases like slugging is.

  • Royval
    Royval Member Posts: 1,121

    the game is now trying to be balanced around hooks but they already wasted years balancing around kills and survivors don’t need anymore

  • cogsturning
    cogsturning Member Posts: 2,250

    This topic has come up but you run the risk of over complicating things. I want tunneling at 5 gens deleted from this game, but protections falling away as the game progresses is also weird to me. I don't think Elusive is really that complicated, nor overtuned. They could cut the time down to match the basekit BT. It won't be very useful, but it's something.

    I'm a killer that complains about remote hooking. Getting someone to a hook without a denial is its own little mini game. It's a big part of a match, as is stragetic hooking placements. I wouldn't mind the hook teleporting away so much, but the hooking needs to be preformed by the killler. But just getting rid of the noise notification would be much simpler. I don't know why there is so much resistance to this idea. It's the simplest way to reduce killers hurling themselves back to the hook.

  • UnicornMedal
    UnicornMedal Member Posts: 1,553

    I don't care about when it's done, it's how powerful it is that's the issue. Tunneling should give Killer the ability to catch up so that the playing field is even again, but it should never give you a 4k.

  • Skeleton23
    Skeleton23 Member Posts: 521

    I do agree with this but I do have my own look at Tunneling. I think tunneling is one of those things it will never go away but it can be suppressed so its not as often. Tunneling at 5 gens can be ridiculous but with the changes coming soon it will only increase tunneling instead of what its ment for.

    We need to keep the freedom in the game to keep it alive. I think the best way to suppress tunneling is to rework The Obsession mechanic and allow killers to bring there own benefits on hooking fresh survivors. Like if I get a unique hook it will make the next pallet Kick faster or infict Deep wound on the next healthy survivor or the next pallet kick pops the most processed Gen and blocks it for 20 seconds. Just something to give no reason to Tunnel but still giving thr freedom.