I Watched the Entire Dev Stream So You Don't Have To!

I took notes while watching the most recent dev stream, and have compiled all those notes into a single post for easy reference, for anyone that missed the stream or couldn't be bothered to watch it (or even those that did but can't remember everything that was said in it). Let me know if there was anything I missed!

Just as a disclaimer, while I tried to be as accurate as possible to what was said on the stream, these are my notes, not the devs'. Any only parts that are directly quoted from the stream are in quotation marks. So just bear in mind that this is essentially a record of official information, using unofficial wording. (I also reworded or condensed some of the questions, so they are not in the original askers' exact phrasing either.)

Here is a link to the stream, for those who want to watch it themselves: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/501700970

Dedicated servers

The reason why dedicated servers were kept on for so long (and are still live) is because (a) it allows the devs to update backend stuff without pushing out an update that players have to download, and (b) it allows them to test their new disconnection tracking/handling system.

They are still looking into all the various issues caused by the dedicated servers.

They put out some fixes for the projectile problems caused by dedicated servers in the 3.3.1 patch.

Halloween contest winners

The winners are still on track to be announced tomorrow as advertised.

Halloween bloodhunt

There is indeed a Halloween Bloodhunt, starting Thursday 31 October at 11AM ET and going to Monday 4 November at 11AM ET.

3.3.1 on switch

No ETA on this update as of the dev stream. There are still a lot of bugs they're trying to work through.

3rd anniversary cosmetic contest winners

"Demon Slayer" Feng and "Horrible Mascot Costume" Clown (as named by their creators, the contest winners) are in the process being worked on. Both currently have full 3D models, and the Clown has some texturing.

Q&A Responses

Questions about the archives

Will the tomes and Rift level be harder to complete as you progress? (from @indieeden7)

Tome challenges will increase in difficulty. Each tier on the Rift will be 10 Rift Fragments, but those Fragments will get harder to earn by nature of the challenges becoming more difficult. The amount of XP you need to earn each Rift Fragment without doing challenges (800XP) will not increase.

Incidentally, everyone who played since October 18 accumulated Rift Fragments through any XP earned during that time.

Will items on the Rift become available for purchase after the Rift expires? (from @Exerlin)

Items on each Rift will become available in the store around one year after their respective Rift closes. Seasonal items, like Halloween skins, will return to the store during the next relevant holiday season. It is still being discussed whether these items will be available for shards or just cells.

Should we expect the same amount of free and paid cosmetics in future Rifts, or will each one be unique in its item composition? (from @FishFry247)

They are trying to find a balance in distribution between the free and paid tracks, meaning that although there are no current plans to change these numbers in the future, they will be collecting data ongoingly and possibly adjusting things accordingly.

What were the motives behind creating the Rift? (from @Boss)

To allow players to earn more rewards just for playing the game (through challenges and XP).

The current/PTB Rift doesn’t seem to have much of a unifying theme between the cosmetics. Will it always be like this, or will there be more of a theme to the cosmetics on the future? (from @White_Owl)

Many of the outfits are linked through the lore presented in the Tomes. The outfits for characters other than those featured in the accompanying tome are not really linked in any way, and the plan is to keep going like this in the future – some outfits for the Tome characters, a couple of miscellaneous outfits for other characters.

Charms are not character-locked – survivor charms and killer charms, once unlocked, can be used by any survivor or killer, respectively.

What is the purpose of having the Tome levels time-locked? (from @PrincessPoop)

They wanted to create an episodic feel and incentivise players to keep coming back to the Archives over time. They also want to stop players from burning out trying to charge through all the content at once.

Can the Putrid Serum found in the Rift be collected until the Rift closes, or will it be removed after the Withering Blight event ends? (from @Theoretical_Heart)

Yes, serum will be available in the Rift until the Rift closes. The serum is not tied to the Withering Blight event (except thematically).

Will the Archives replace Daily Rituals? (from @Avocet)

There are currently no plans to replace Daily Rituals, but they are discussing the possibility.

Will existing cosmetics from the Store be available in future Rifts? (@MrCandyKiller)

No, they will not put the exact same items as those in the Store in the Rift, however future Rifts will include colour variants on existing Store items.

Would it be possible to create separate sets of challenges for survivor and killer, for those who only want to play one role? (from @DeadByTunnelight)

If you don’t want to play some of the challenges, you can still earn Rift Fragments through gaining XP by playing normally. However, you will earn all completion charms for reaching the end of the Tome regardless of what role you play to get there.

Will auric cells be added to the free track on the Rift? (from @sensualsatan)

No current plans to do so, but remember that you can purchase Hallowed Catalyst outfits with the serum available on the free track.

If you make progress on the free track and then switch to the premium track, will you be able to unlock all premium items for the tiers you’ve reached so far? (from @apathyinc)

Technically, as you progress on the free track, you are earning premium rewards at the same time, but you don’t unlock these rewards until you buy the premium pass. So basically, the answer is yes.

Will Rift items only be released for free characters? (from @JammyJewels)

They do want to include lore on DLC characters in the future, so there will be some of those in the Rift, but they want to be careful that the Rift still appeals to both DLC owners and non-DLC owners. Licensed characters, however, are not currently planned to receive Tomes/Rift cosmetics.

Will there ever be challenges for DLC killers in the Tomes? (from @A_Random_Nerd)

Challenges may be tied to the killers/survivors featured in the tomes, and if a DLC character is featured there may be challenges tied to that killer and their perks. These perks will be available on the Shrine for the week in which the relevant challenges are released to help players complete the Tomes. The time-gated Tomes are also linked to this, as releasing one Tome at a time allows them to make sure that the relevant perks are always in the Shrine at the right time.

No word on how DLC characters will be made more accessible to players for the purposes of completing challenges.

Questions about the nurse changes

Why does the Nurse have two bloodpoint addons? (from @DingDongs)

Actually, she has three (including Anxious Gasp). There is no rule that says killers can only have one bloodpoint addon. It’s meant to be an option for experienced players to be able to change things up a bit. In the case of the Nurse, it’s partly for thematic reasons – all addons related to the “anxious girl” character grant extra bloodpoints.

How did you determine that three seconds was the correct limit to use for the Blink cooldown? (from @NuclearBurrito) and Why was the Nurse given a cooldown and not just extended fatigue? (from @LapisInfernalis)

The choice was not made lightly. They really wanted to add a cooldown to allow survivors more time to react, but didn’t just want to extend the Nurse’s fatigue time, partly because the way the camera moves during the fatigue animation can make players feel a bit nauseous, and they didn’t want to prolong that experience. They didn’t want to remove fatigue completely, because they like the mechanic of the Nurse losing sight of the survivors temporarily, so they added a cooldown on top of the current fatigue time. The cooldown time is adjustable using addons, but not to the extent of removing the cooldown completely.

Will console Nurse be adjusted to make her less difficult in comparison to PC? (from @woundcowboy)

The devs are working on improving controller sensitivity to help with this and other issues.

Questions about clarifications on changes

Do Premonition and Spine Chill work against Michael Myers now, with the recent Undetectable changes? (from @thedevalex)

This was part of a consistency patch to make stealth killers more manageable and easier to work with both for the devs and for new players. All stealth abilities now trigger Undetectable, which removes the terror radius and red stain, and makes the killer immune to aura-reading perks. It does not stop perks like Spine Chill and Premonition from triggering, so these perks will now affect tier 1 Myers. However, the changes also mean that his terror radius in tier 1 is now zero, so in some ways it is a buff to the character.

Object of Obsession no longer reveals the aura of stealth killers, but will still reveal your aura to them.

Questions about Future changes

Will the Doctor be buffed after the Nurse? (from Imwrathan)

The Doctor is scheduled for changes in an upcoming release, but no hard dates available yet. The intention of the changes (as with all recent and upcoming character updates) is not necessarily to make the character stronger (or to “buff” them), but more to address QOL issues to make them more fun to play as and against.

Will there be more changes to addons, such as keys, moris, iri heads and prayer beads bracelet? (from @brokedownpalace)

They are trying to make updates to items and addons in pretty much every release they put out. They have discussed every item on that list, but not all of them are due to receive updates right away. However, they are slowly going through all the loadout options and “refreshing” them [so presumably all these items will be revisited at some point, though this was not explicitly stated in the stream].

Will there be changes to Mettle of Man to make it easier to activate? (from @Mc_Harty)

There is a long-term plan for MOM, beyond just allowing it to activate more. There will be changes coming to protection hits, to make them work more intuitively and reliably. Exact details are not available, but the changes will be coming soon™.

Will the Spirit be changed in the future? (from @Quol)

Nurse was not changed because she was too powerful, but due to specific issues with her kit. Spirit, on the other hand, is “overperforming” at the moment, so she will be receiving changes at some point, although no word yet on what or when.

Additional notes/highlights

Specific goals with nurse changes

• Removing omegablink (the ability to get a much larger range on blinks without any downside in terms of charge time)
• Making sure missing a blink actually matters, so removing the ability to blink many times in quick succession (5-blink). In other words, lifting her skill threshold.
• With the addon changes, avoiding disrupting the muscle memory which very good Nurse players rely on

General information about nurse changes

The Nurse now reappears sooner after blinking, but this is not a technical change, just a visual one, so that she is not invisible immediately after coming out of a blink.

The addons are themed according to the character in the Nurse’s lore to which they are related – Anxious Girl’s items give extra bloodpoints, Bad Man’s addons grant effects on-hit, Catatonic Boy’s addons reduce fatigue, Father Campbell’s addons grant reduced recharge rate, Kavanagh’s addons allow the Nurse to blink further. Mary Jenner is actually the Anxious Girl, but Jenner’s Last Breath doesn’t follow the above pattern because this was not known to the designers when the addons were changed. The character of Nurse Moris only has one addon associated with her (the Pocket Watch), so she also has no particular theme.

general information about instaheal changes (Styptic Agent and Anti-Haemorrhagic Syringe)

There was some conflicting information in the patch notes – the correct information is that the Styptic Agent now takes 8 seconds to trigger (down from 15 in the PTB) and the Syringe now takes 16 seconds to trigger (up from 8 in the PTB), which is the same amount of time it usually takes to heal.

The Syringe’s effect is essentially an automatic heal, so the time it takes is affected by anything that usually affects healing time. In other words, the Syringe is now essentially a one-use passive heal effect.

miscellaneous information

The Bloodhunt will affect bloodpoints earned in matches, but will not affect bloodpoints earned outside of a match, such as through Tome challenges.

There should be more statistical data [similar to the stuff in this post, I believe: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/61114/community-community-data-requests] released in the next couple of weeks. Fun fact: Freddy currently has the highest kill rate out of all the killers.