Otzdarva's thoughts on recent events

Dev stream & news about 9.3.0 PTB (Part 2) ✅ October 2025

• Skull Merchant is getting a buff. Drones will rotate faster, stronger hinder, shorter drone deployment time (and shorter stealth to adjust to it). They've also made it so that Survivors can once again be scanned during vault animations which was a significant nerf that is now reverted, as well as a few other small changes. The rework is still being considered but it's taking a LOT of resources so if these small changes are good enough there's a chance they'll keep her that way. The changes themselves seem appropriate but I still she's not close to being in a great spot.
• Trickster rework is confirmed to still be in development. Devs said he'll be "visually very cool" and teased the word "STYLE" in their presentation. Fingers crossed.
• Autohaven realm maps are getting brighter which is a massively welcome change. This realm of maps was unnaturally darker than almost everything else. I'm not sure about the new skybox and fog but I'm 100% in favor of making these maps brighter.
• Settings screen is getting an overhaul that will make it a bit more modern. They're also testing the feature that would allow us to customize the colors of scratch marks which I imagine will be extremely appreciated by colorblind folks. You'll be able to even switch them mid-game which means there might be a whole new strategy of adjusting the scratch mark color based on what map you get. The intro video will also not play after you've watched it once so that launching the game is faster, which is another welcome change.
• Frank Stone skin for Trapper is cancelled. Will still come to DBD in some way but they didn't clarify. Very baffling and I have no idea if they're just dropping it quietly and will only be some charm / player icon or if they'll turn him into an actual fully fledged Killer (but I sincerely doubt that).
• Player Survey about maps reveals top 5 maps most enjoyed by the community. Most enjoyed are #5 RPD West, #4 FNAF Map, #3 RPD East, #2 Ormond and #1 Saloon. I'm absolutely shocked that RPDs are this popular (cool license & ambience aside). They've said they'll boost the presence of these maps which is a little bit insane considering some of the AWFUL design issues that both RPDs have.

Video breaking down the issues of RPD's map design: https://youtu.be/5xxcloeBjGE

Dev stream & news about 9.3.0 PTB (Part 1) ✅ October 2025

• Devs have explained that facecamping, slugging and tunneling have been listed as top reasons why players are uninstalling the game. I know that obviously Survivors are the majority of players in this 1v4 game, but it was a little strange to see them not mention a single pain point or reason why Killers might be quitting.
• They brought up data showing that facecamping (staying within <2m) hasn't changed much, that hook patrolling is up slightly, and that Survivors now take +7s more on average before rescuing (average of 35s vs 28s before). Data shows low MMR players seem to camp more.
• Resolve bar will now be visible to all players. This is a great change which I wish they had introduced even earlier. They've also adjusted the facecamp meter to be slower but at a greater range. It will build up faster if the Killer stays within range for long.
• Devs showed that tunneling is down from 44% to 40% of matches according to their data. Data shows that high MMR Killers tunnel more (to absolutely no one's surprise). They explained that their goal is to ensure that all players retain agency and that their time is respected.
• Devs: The previous PTB's anti-tunnel experiment felt too intrusive according to player feedback. The new plan is to keep Survivor protections, keep Killer hook benefits but remove the harsh Killer penalties that applied when tunneling. Additionally, unhooked Survivors are now completely quiet (no coughing, puking, etc.) and have collision again.
• New Killer bonuses upon each unique hook; you gain Bloodlust haste for 15 seconds, which obviously goes away upon using most powers and also when entering chase. This seems like a slightly better solution that doesn't buff strong Killers and that perhaps will help the weaker ones the most. You also get a stackable BP bonus similar to old BBQ. Killers no longer have the enhanced gen damage or aura read from hooks which they had in the anti-tunnel 9.2.0 PTB.
• Syringes & styptics are most likely getting nerfed (seemingly to compensate for the other help that Survivors are already getting). Killer add-ons that induce Deep Wound are also getting reworked so they can't outplay anti-tunnel Endurance (Soma Family Photo & Original Pain). Some perks affected as well, but not too many details mentioned yet.
• Devs want to reduce the amount of excessive slugging (multiple Survivors downed for lengthy periods of time) but are okay with occasional or strategic slugging being part of the game. They've concluded that crawling + recovering at the same time was too strong in the previous experimental PTB, so this feature won't be coming back. They've increased the Resolve Bar to 120s, meaning that you'd need to be slugged for half your bleedout timer before being able to self-recover. However, the rate at which it fills is 33% faster for each additional Survivor downed. This is meant to help groups of Survivors get back on their feet more consistently if many of them are downed at once. My quick thoughts; this is better than in the PTB but they're somehow STILL not addressing a lot of the issues that cause & perpetuate slugging. Zero changes to the Blindness status effect or the terrible way in which skill checks work when healing someone on the ground. I strongly feel that there could have been simpler and more elegant ways to address this issue.

Myers rework gets a buff ✅ October 2025

• Myers gets a significant buff which makes his rework feel a lot stronger and less of a sidegrade. Lots of adjustments made; his Evil Within begins without an initial transition slowdown and the slaughtering strike moves faster and with a much shorter cooldown of 4s, which makes it a lot better at dealing with pallets. Evil Within also lasts longer (+20s) and gains a few passive buffs (break & stun speed) on top of its natural faster vault. His Terror Radius is lowered by 8m in both non-stealth modes. All of these will likely bring him up an entire tier at least and already has some really tricky implications with current perks and add-ons. I expect further adjustments but it was overall a good set of changes .

Hotfix 1 & 2 for Krasue update ✅ October 2025

• Hotfix 1 gave Krasue a small amount of nerfs (0.1s slower window vault, 0.3s slower pallet vault, less forgiving collision...) which were a step in the right direction but did not address her biggest issues and strengths.
• Hotfix 2 is more meaningful; it removes Leeched (infected status) after being hooked which discourages tunneling significantly and further nerfs some of her numbers (0.1s slower head form attack, 0.2s slower head form transition, bigger cooldowns on regurgitate spit attack & cancel, etc). She also has lost the ability to hit Survivors over certain low obstacles and the ability to completely ignore flashlight blinds in head form by looking up. These changes are another step in the right direction but still not enough to leave her in a relatively balanced way. Her biggest issue left unadressed right now is add-ons and the length of her head form flight in my opinion. After possibly one more balance patch, I imagine she'll be more balanced but still quite strong.
• Off the Record returns to being an actual anti-tunnel perk (but with a much more reasonable 40s duration). This is a decent fix for now and relieves some pressure away from Decisive Strike as the only real anti-tunnel perk in the game (which made it a pay-to-win issue in my opinion).

9.2.0 Release & Krasue ✅ September 2025

• Krasue is crazy strong after receiving several adjustments and mostly getting buffed from PTB. I really appreciate the tweaks that made her transition smoother and that allow her not to easily get stuck around corners during the intestinal whip attack. However, the overall buffs she got together with the removal of anti-tunnel features from the PTB have made her extraordinarily oppressive. Unlike in the PTB, she barely has any loops where her head form cannot be used to get quick hits. The fact that being hooked doesn't remove the Leech status is also a questionable design choice that encourages tunneling. This should absolutely be changed. People calling her S-tier are not exaggerating and we'll likely see her nerfed in a few ways soon.
• Anti-tunnel changes are postponed as announced and now Killers see Survivor hook stages instead (?). Also, somehow Off the Record still got nerfed. Devs have apparently confirmed they're looking at this. I have been against the idea of anti-tunneling being so reliant on one licensed perk (Decisive Strike) so I'm quite disappointed about this change which is basically a regression in time. Welp. Whatever.
• Myers update polishes some of the rougher edges that he had but it does leave a sour taste. It's not very thematic and I personally really dislike the way the UI works. But hey, probably a better state than before and no more tombstone/Evil Incarnate issues so that's nice at least.
• A bunch of Killers like Nurse and Artist become incredibly bugged and are unplayable. I don't even know what to say at this point, this happens every update. One of the new perks is also bugged and doesn't work. Sigh.
• Map changes are massive and way more encompassing than the patch notes suggest. I'd say they are decent overall (Disturbed Ward is now smaller for example!) but also brought some weird things that will hopefully be polished over time.

9.2.0 PTB: Other tweaks & balance (non-new content) ✅ September 2025

• Myers seems quite adequate in terms of strength; easy-to-use stealth, easy to activate T3 and instadown, etc... It's definitely kinda weird seeing him dash around but mechanically it seems to work okay. With Bubba's perks being basically nerfed across the board, I genuinely don't know why anyone would play Bubba over Myers now. Other than multiple instadowns, Myers seems just much much better for newer players.
• The changes to existing perks are pretty lame. Babysitter goes back to being useless, BBQ loses all identity and now becomes boring, OTR ends its run as being one of the top anti-tunnel perks, etc... Notably, most slowdown perks get nerfed which could lead to a more diverse landscape of builds for Killer but I somehow doubt this will happen.
• Oni changes are very minor, Clown's seems appropriate, Unknown's buffs are marginal (BUT he does gain the very interesting ability of doing vertical orbitals). Dracula's changes feel like a small nerf overall, and the way some of his add-ons got changed feels extremely arbitrary and "stat-driven".
• Twins are currently completely unable to hit "off-hook" Survivors in the PTB with Victor. He literally goes through them. Definitely a bug, but kinda funny that Twins really does get a new bug every update. Sad.
• Krasue's add-ons are oddly designed (with some of them having inexplicable downsides despite being mediocre) but there's definitely a few that stand out. Will probably make a tierlist when the Killer drops.

9.2.0 PTB: Anti-tunnel & Anti-slugging changes ✅ September 2025

• Anti tunnel changes are split into two different mechanics.
• A permanent 25% gen repair boost that happens if someone is killed while the Killer has achieved a total of less than 6 hook stages. This idea is salvageable, but the current repair boost is very high considering that 6 stages are pretty hard to secure before a kill sometimes. I seriously think they should move this number down and make it somewhere between 3-5 instead of 6.
• A permanent gen immunity effect that prevents all damage/blockage if a Survivor dies after being the most recent unhooked person. This is by far the worst of the two effects, since it can trigger even in the endgame and in situations where you genuinely have no logical option but to "tunnel" a certain person. This system genuinely needs a full reconsideration.
• Survivors also get a basekit 30s Endurance and other advantages (like their HUD icon being obscured) on top of the above, mostly disabled in the endgame. Some of these changes are fine and even welcome, but they also indirectly nerf a lot of Killers in unexpected ways. An unhooked Survivor can now safely solve Pinhead's box without triggering Killer Instinct, for example, which was never possible before.
• Other strategies are also less viable. Normally, tunneling being nerfed would encourage Killers to seek other strategies but it's really not that simple. Gen slowdown has been mostly nerfed across the board, slugging is much weaker and endgame builds also indirectly become weaker with the slugging changes.
• Killer hook rewards are lackluster, at least on the new Killer because she has the weaker version of them (the one that Blight/Nurse/etc also have). The built-in BBQ & Chili is particularly deceiving as it fails to show you Survivors with more hook stages than the one you're hooking. The game basically encourages you to always go for fresher, lesser hooked Survivors (similar to the existing 2v8 aura mechanics) which is a really quick way to lose the game immediately.
• Overall, I'd say these changes are far too extreme and will not sit well with the existing DBD balance. I wish a simpler system was considered instead that did not add such a thick layer of complexity on an already complex game.

• Once hit by one Regurgitate (or three Head-form hits), Survivors enter Leeched (I) and slowly infect themselves passively into Leeched (II) which will make them broken. There's seemingly no way to actively speed up this process from the Killer side, so reaching Leeched (II) is something that will happen rarely under normal circumstances.
• Survivors can use mushrooms that spawn around the map. When consumed after a short interaction, they slowly start removing all leech progress until fully cleansed. Reapplying Leech can interrupt it, but this can otherwise be done extremely efficiently by Survivors. In other words, infecting them with leech does not really waste much of their time if you only do it occasionally. You'll notice that a Survivor is currently being cleansed passively when their HUD infection appears green. You can also see the exact infection status by looking at the leeches in their model.
• Mushroom manipulation might be an important factor of playing this Killer successfully; there are roughly ~6 mushrooms around the map at the start and at least one of them spawns on a timer + also when you switch forms. Leeching Survivors aggressively can result in them eventually struggling to find enough cleansing mushrooms. According to feedback from the Survivors I played against, this made the match quite difficult as the only spawning mushrooms were right by the Killer and made it very difficult to cleanse safely. Being able to accurately leech people from a distance or learn "bounce spots" will be quite important.

9.2.0 PTB: First impressions of The Krasue ✅ September 2025

Switching to Head form and flying around for mobility and information gathering is a natural idea that can be done at the start of the game and between chases, but keep in mind that switching forms does spawn one mushroom (more info on this below).

• Head form should generally not be used as a way to start chase, as it cannot damage unleeched Survivors. Head form needs 3 successful hits before applying "Leech" and one more before damaging, making it very inefficient on its own.
• Instead, you must use the Regurgitate projectile in human form to immediately apply Leech (I) status effect. Regurgitate shoots a very small and fast moving projectile that travels on an arc. Shooting this projectile doesn't seem to slow you down very much at all so it's something that should be done as often as possible against unleeched Survivors. The projectile's size is quite small but making it bounce against walls makes it bounce and splincter into several parts, making it possible to even hit multiple Survivors (keep in mind that this bounce does NOT happen when hitting the floor or ceilings). After successfully leeching a Survivor, you should go for a basic attack if possible and switch to Head form when you're ready to chase the leeched Survivors.
• When using Head form in chase, it's very important to use the fly mode to catch up frequently. You can fly through Survivors (no collision) and then immediately stop ahead of them to bodyblock them before they reach a critical pallet/window.
• Head form has a charge "tentacle whip" attack with decent range but limited ability to hit around corners. Similar to a Demo shred, it's useful in the open or tiles with straight walls but quite tricky to use in round loops like rocks around certain filler pallets. Assuming that the Survivor is already leeched, this ability is generally quite strong.
• Head form is played in 3rd person view, allowing you to pull off many "Chucky-style" mindgames that'd be impossible for regular Killers in certain loops. Using the fly mode briefly to lower your height might also an interesting strategy to explore in some loops.
• Head form is unable to gain bloodlust or break pallets, but it can vault over them. Unlike some other vaulting Killers, Survivors cannot really phase through you and vault back without getting hit (even with Finesse!). For extremely safe pallets, this will often lead to a guaranteed hit after the Krasue catches up for a bit and the Survivor fails to do a full run around the loop. For less safe pallets with round loops, Survivors are typically able to run around the loop and vault again, forcing you to switch back to human form. This is one of the Krasue's biggest weakness as far as I can tell.
• Switching back to human form is VERY slow and hindering, giving Survivors a lot of distance. You reaally want to minimize the amount of times you do this unnecessarily and ideally do it when a Survivor is zoned and unable to just keep running.
• Switching into head form is quite fast and seamless, and you can begin to do things like vaulting much sooner than you'd think.
• Switching forms while getting pallet stunned doesn't interrupt the process, making it kinda possible to shrug off the effect of the stun.

Who the hell is reacting with a facebook icon

9.2.0 Dev Notes: Discussion video ✅ August 2025

• I've made a video discussing all of the major 9.2.0 changes since the post above simply does not have enough space to go into detail. It also speculates on what the future meta for both sides will evolve into.

https://youtu.be/uW-6b85rsy4

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/454770/developer-update-august-2025

9.2.0 Dev Notes: Massive Changes to Balance & Myers rework ✅ August 2025

• Myers gets a full power rework: He can now swap between a stealthy and regular mode and has a simplified stalking mode. After full stalking, he enters a temporary Evil Within mode where he has increased numbers across the board and gains the ability to charge a lunge and then dash forward. He will retain the ability to mori them in certain circumstances. Since this power seems so simple, I imagine that this rework is a safe choice and will probably be alright. It's definitely a step away from Myers' old identity, however.
• Bunch of perks getting changes, nothing confirmed yet. It's at least good to see that they're being ambitious with their changes compared to some years ago where we had 5 perk changes every 5 months. We'll wait and see the specifics soon.
• Oni gains more blood orbs when hooking. Great change.
• Clown bottles readjusted: slower-to-activate yellows but longer-effect pinks. Great change.
• Unknown's weakened is slower to remove and his Blurry Photo is even more basekit now. Great change.
• Ghoul can no longer "kidnap-tech" Survivors at pallets. Great change.
• Dracula has a bunch of changes to rebalance his forms. Seems like an overall slight nerf but at least he has increased hellfire range. Keep an eye out of the add-on changes, I have a feeling they're gonna mega-buff or mega-nerf something significant for the PTB release...
• Survivors get a new status effect, "Elusive". Elusive is effectively the Survivor version of Undetectable and it will simplify a bunch of current perks. I have no issue with this per se, although I'm concerned about how it will affect the balance of certain existing perks such as Lucky Break and Off the Record. You might see these perks receive an indirect or direct nerf, but we'll see.
• Slugged Survivors get a massive buff: They can now recover and move at the same time, crawl faster over time & after 90s of being slugged unlock the ability to self-pick up when fully recovered permanently for the rest of the match.). This is a crazy strong buff that fundamentally changes a Killer's win condition in a lot of scenarios. Now it's not a matter of if they can get up, just a matter of when. Some perks will be adjust accordingly as well. I think a change like this could feasibly be good for the game's health but I'm not sure if I agree with it in the context of the rest of changes coming along with this patch.
• Massive changes to discourage tunneling: Unhooked Survivors get more benefits, Killers do not see hook status in the HUD in real time anymore, Survivors lose collision with everyone, etc... which are active until endgame begins. Killers also get punished for tunneling; Killing a Survivor that was last unhooked prevents all gens from being blocked or regressed. Killing someone without reaching 6 hook stages gives all other Survivors a repair speed bonus for the reminder of the match. This is extremely game changing because some of these Killer debuffs will be basically unavoidable against competent teams. I'll be making a video explaining how I think this will affect the meta, so keep an eye out for that.
• Killers encouraged to split hooks with new "fresh" hook buffs. Hooking a Survivor non-consecutively now provides basekit versions of the perks BBQ & Chili (aura read), Pop (more gen damage) and Furtive (temporary haste). Funnily enough, S-tiers and other strong Killers have a weaker version of this effect. ( wonder why 🤔) This is an amazing change in theory that should encourage healthy gameplay on the Killer side. However... I have a strong feeling that these effects will simply NOT be enough for most Killers to compensate for the Survivors buffs. Long story short, having a basekit "Pop" effect is not gonna help if you first few chases aren't immediate and the first few generators are done before you have a chance to kick them.

9.1.0 PTB More opinions after further review ✅ July 2025

• Last Stand might be stronger than initially thought, because the unique "kicking" animation is seemingly faster than the normal vault, giving you a partial "Finesse" effect until the perk has been used up. I noticed that hitting Survivors with this animation on pallets seemed harder than usual, but others have timed it and confirmed that it appears to be quicker. We're not sure if this is intended, but perhaps the speed and hitboxes should be the same as regular vaults?
• I missed an important Clown change where now yellow bottles seemingly activate much faster than before. This is meant to help newer players, but it also makes it impossible to preemptively throw a bottle at a Survivor ahead of time to move into it when you catch up, as now you run the risk of actually giving them the effect. I really don't think it should be this quick and I'm now more worried that this update to Clown is not going to achieve a desirable effect.
• We're apparently getting a new map with some small elements of The Walking Dead structures that we saw in the PTB and located in the Withered Isle realm. This is a little surprising considering their initial communication suggested that these structures would be in other maps instead. But hey, let's hope it's good!

Source: https://x.com/DeadbyDaylight/status/1945891452761817262

9.1.0 PTB Killer Changes ✅ July 2025

• Pyramid Head add-on rework is really nice and actually seems to give players a wide variety of choices and slightly different playstyles. I'm a bit worried about a couple add-ons here and there but I really appreciate the ambition of changing 19 out of 20 add-on in a single patch. Good stuff.
• Pig changes seem amazing at first glance, her crouch movement speed felt great and she's not been nerfed in any meaningful way to compensate.
• Clown changes are a bit baffling. They nerf some of his best add-ons (Cigar Box) which is a bit strange. They've done this change because, presumably, Clown players were overusing the purple bottles and underusing the yellow ones. I think the main reason why Yellow bottles are used less is because they're more complex (need time to activate) and that new players might not even know how to use them due to lack of any proper in-game tutorial. These new players are not gonna be reading any patchnotes and I expect this to be an overall nerf for Clown at lower levels of experience. Why not nerf one of the stronger Killers instead? Experienced Clown players will probably be fine since they rely on yellow bottles a lot more and they'll benefit more from the basekit changes to them.
• Knight changes are also a bit strange. Sure, he gets the essential add-on Call to Arms partial basekit which is a huge win, but why make the Jailer and Assassin even weaker by nerfing their flag timer down to 4s?? Some people argue that the Jailer is now quite useless and I can see their point. Considering some of the VERY strange and odd add-ons that the Knight still has, I'd say that he still needs some more love.

9.1.0 PTB first impressions ✅ July 2025

• In 2v1 situations, you can die on hook early again so your team mate has a better chance to get the hatch. Thank you BHVR.
• BHVR has clarified that there isn't a new map but that rather a new tile will sometimes spawn on certain existing maps. They've also cleared up that this tile doesn't only spawn when you play as the licensed characters which is a relief.
• New Survivors look pretty cool even though Michone herself was disabled in the PTB.
• Maps & keys rework is fantastic and I really enjoy them in general. Kinda weird that the event map has unique stats but that's my only nitpick.
• Smoke bombs are a new item type and I'd say they are a little bit overwhelming. The distance they cover (especially with add-ons) is very large. Instead of charges, they work based on an approximately 60s cooldown so I'm a little worried that if you go against 4 people using this, you might genuinely spend half the game engulfed in gas that is very visually bright and overwhelming. I'm not worried about them being too strong, but rather about them being too annoying. Maybe a more limited and localized effect could be better?
• New perk: Apocalyptic Ingenuity allows you to build fragile pallets that break upon use. This seems like a really good effect but it requires you to find and search TWO different chests or to have an extra perk so that you can search a chest twice. Perfectly fine perk if you build around it, although I hate the idea of dying under a pallet as a strategy.
• New perks: Come and Get Me! + Teamwork: Toughen Up seem like pretty standard perks to help out team mates. Probably won't be super popular.
• New perk: Conviction is pretty insane. It basically allows you to pick yourself up Unbreakable style but in only 8 seconds, with the condition that you'll eventually go down again after a while. This is a really unprecedented effect when it comes to anti-slugging, since so far it's never been possible to pick yourself up that quickly without any prior setup. Extremely powerful in endgame situations, extremely powerful when paired with Decisive Strike, extremely powerful in "dying-under-a-pallet" scenarios... yeah it's just by far the strongest Survivor perk we've had in a long time.
• New perk: Last Stand is basically a Head On-like effect that allows you to kick and stun the Killer one time per match with your vaults. You can use to unzone yourself, rescue a team mate and so on. Probably the most innovative perk in this patch. Since it's limited to one per person, I don't expect this perk to be extremely powerful but it will definitely be a staple choice for teams that want to mess with the Killer directly. My only concern after seeing some clips like this is that we might have even more situations where a Killer literally cannot pick up a Survivor in a certain spot due to a mostly unavoidable save from above. But yet again, the fact that this is limited to ONCE per person is a huge safety net so I'm sure it won't be too bad.
• Teamwork: Throw Down is the second strongest perk in this update. If you blind or stun the Killer, everyone in the vicinity gets Endurance for 10 seconds (and also see the aura of the Killer). Since blinding is a very easy thing to do during pallet break animations and so on, this is actually a REALLY strong effect for coordinated teams especially. I imagine this perk might be nerfed at some point because it seems really abusable in lot of scenarios. I'm starting to get worried about the insane amount of different ways that Survivors can get Endurance in the middle of a chase right now. I hope they at least make it clear to newer players why their hit didn't down a Survivor, because it will probably be very confusing to them otherwise.

Pre-PTB announcements 9.1.0 Update ✅ July 2025

Some upcoming changes have been announced early! We don't have the final numbers yet but they seem overall quite promising:

• New item type for Survivors added: fog vials (which are basically smoke bombs similar to the ones we saw in the previous Haunted event). I really, really appreciate the developers adding a new item type which is something that basically hasn't happened since the game's launch. I also like the fact that this item actually adds a new layer of counterplay against dash-type Killers that are already pretty strong (ie. Blight) instead of being an item that only works against low-tier Killers. I just hope the smoke and sound effects aren't super annoying or cause any accessibility issues. We're yet to see the specifics, but hey, I'm hoping that it's good.
• Keys get a minor rework that makes them open chests fast, reveal auras and/or open the hatch with a limited number of uses instead of a charge bar. I think this seems perfectly appropriate and more beginner-friendly than the previous system, so I'm all for it.
• Maps get a rework as well that makes them reveal pallets/windows and even show gen auras to team mates, among other things. I love this change because it makes the perk Windows of Opportunity feel a bit less necessary.
• More build loadouts and cosmetic loadout slots, which can be named as well. Amazing change.
• Mouse & KB support finally coming to consoles. This doesn't affect me personally but it seems like a major step forward in making all platforms more equal. Good stuff.
• Even more settings for custom game spectating which is so helpful.
• Pyramid Head seemingly gets a full add-on pass and some features like increased range basekit. His cages, however, will no longer have zero protection to uncaged Survivors. From now on, they'll act like hooks and presumably have the usual 10s of Endurance & Haste. I'm slightly concerned about the fact that he's becoming slower when dragging his sword, I hope this doesn't make him feel even more clunky. Otherwise, the changes seem appropriate. Looking forward to seeing all the new add-ons.
• Clown gets a nerf to his purple bottles but a buff to his yellow ones, with some add-ons adjusted (no specifics revealed yet). Also a small reload speed increase across the board. I think these changes are fine but I'm not sure if they were even necessary. It might genuinely be a nerf to the average Clown player that does not properly use the yellow bottles yet. If you never bothered using yellow bottles before, maybe it's time to start!
• Pîg and Knight get basekit buffs that seem to improve the consistency of their power and make some popular add-ons basekit. These are welcome changes, especially on Pig.
• INSIDIOUS FINALLY REWORKED as well as some other Killer Perks adjusted. Most of them seem like reasonable picks for small reworks or buffs.
• Several Survivor perks also get reworked/buffed due to their low usage rate. Most of them also seem reasonable but I'm very scared about Streetwise getting an unreasonable number buff. EDIT: Nevermind, I missed the part where it's stated that it's a rework, not just a number buff. Let's hope it's good.

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/450197/developer-update-july-2025

^ source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/509

First day impressions of FNAF Chapter + 9.0.0 PTB ✅ May 2025

• Springtrap is an extremely solid Killer in every conceivable way; decent design, quite strong, high skill ceiling, some unique quirks, etc... My early impression is that he's most likely a High-B or Low-A tier Killer although currently there's one add-on that really stands out and that might bottleneck his strength if/when it gets nerfed (more info about this in an upcoming video). My biggest concern is that at the moment, Survivors seem to have very little incentive to use the security room doors and cameras, and that the interactions that happen in the security room seem to get more and more scarce. Not a huge deal, but that sort of interaction is one of the most fun parts of this Killer's kit.
• The new Killer perks are quite strong; a situational STBFLesque cooldown reduction (Help Wanted) which I think is mostly fine; and endgame perk that makes exit gates regress (Haywire) which I think will be completely useless EXCEPT in really oppressive endgame builds with things like Singularity + Remember Me; and finally Phantom Fear, which I expect will be a pretty solid info perk, very similar to old Ultimate Weapon but far less oppressive.
• His add-ons are pretty whacky and have some really fun effects which is a pleasant surprise, well done BHVR. I definitely see some adjustments and rarity swaps needed for a few them of them, however.
• The new map is pretty fun and has a lot of personality. I don't see any obvious game-breaking issues in it. My only gripe is that the main building has a few long walls reminiscent of Badham fences that force you to walk all the way around them to get around to a certain hook or point of interest. Seems a bit awkward with prop Killers like Springtrap or Xenomorph, whose power stations are hard to use sometimes. We've definitely come a long way since maps like Eyrie of Crows which were so bad on release.
• New ability to spend BP in bulk is incredible and you even get a summary of everything you've unlocked with it. 10/10, well done BHVR.
• Artist changes are honestly terrible. They nerfed her two strongest add-ons (Matias' Shoes & Severed Hands) as well as some of her very decent one¡s (Untitled Agony and Velvet fabric) and in return they gave some minor buffs to a bunch of weak add-ons that nobody used before and that nobody will use after either. Worst of all, they didn't touch her worst add-on (Charcoal Stick) or do anything else to make her more appealing. Artist currently sits at a very low pick-rate and pretty low kill-rate in public stats (plus a bunch of unaddressed bugs) and these changes won't help her. This really reminds me of other times when they've nerfed add-ons that were statistically "overperforming" and it's sad.
• Vecna gets a bunch of small changes across the board which are an overall buff. Despite nerfing his ability to attack soon after fly and buffing special survivor items, every other change makes Vecna more powerful or consistent. There's too many things to go over, and I'd like to test them in more detail, but I'm very impressed by how many of his previously mediocre add-ons will now be really decent and usable. I also celebrate the fact that using the sphere (big babble) won't lock your camera in place anymore. Good stuff.
• Bunch of Killer perks buffed; with most of them being very reasonable. Thrilling Tremors and THWACK! are the biggest ones, with these perks becoming honestly quite solid now.
• Bunch of Survivor perks buffed; with most of them being reasonable as well. Desperate measures is now a very good healing & unhooking perk, Counterforce is way better at finding totems and removing them faster, Champion of Light now has a shorter cooldown. Biggest buff is probably Botany Knowledge, which will be really good with medkits as it used to (since now it no longer has a item efficiency debuff). Maybe Botany should only work on non-medkit heals? Hmm...

QOL features announced for FNAF patch ✅ May 2025

• Survivors can no longer "go next" on hook by killing themselves. The option to self-unhook is now only unlocked by using a luck perk and/or offering. This is a pretty extreme measure but one that I'm very happy they're implementing it. I really hope this is a step to punish people that repeatedly go next and ruin otherwise perfectly good matches for everyone else. My only concern is that this update is also removing the ability to let go on 2nd stage. I'm a bit worried that in some situations where the game is already obviously lost, you won't be able to end things a bit sooner. EDIT: The devs have clarified that this system works at the start of the game, but the full details are still unavailable. Sadly, this also indirectly increases the effectiveness of tunneling. With 1 person dead and 3 people unhooked, a greedy Killer had to deal with the risk of one of them managing to unhook themselves in the endgame. This risk is now completely gone, as Survivors cannot even attempt the unhook without a specific build (that most people won't bother to bring). It really is starting to be a good time to implement important changes to make tunneling less efficient and more importantly, less necessary.
• AFK players will lose collision after accumulating 3 crows. This is a simple change that we've been asking FOR YEARS to avoid malicious actors from blocking you in a corner indefinitely. Thanks BHVR.
• You can now buy character levels in bulk and automatically spend your BP instead of doing it manually. I'm so happy to see this come to the game already. Great change for veteran players and will also reduce time between matches, hopefully leading to slightly faster queues.
• Basekit mori can be used a bit earlier now, without the need to wait for the 3rd survivor to die on the hook. This saves a bit of time for everyone and also seems appropriate, so good stuff.
• Map offerings are NOT 100% effective anymore, cannot be stacked, and are now hidden. This is a good change in my opinion, although a bit sad for people that just want to do certain harmless memes in specific maps.
• Survivors will now spawn together more often as a general rule. I'm okay with this in general, although I think it's not the antidote to fix some bad maps that are still too large (i.e. Disturbed Ward). This will make mobility Killers and perks like Lethal Pursuer a bit more useful, so be wise. Some offerings are also changed to be more useful than before for each role. With map offerings being nerfed, I can see how luck/spawn offerings might see a big increase in usage from Survivors at least.
• DBD finally gets a brightness setting and it was honestly about time. Good stuff.
• Custom games get more spectator slots, better controls and more upcoming changes in the future yet to be announced. Amazing stuff, thanks for listening BHVR.
• Small tweaks to the Artist, Vecna and several perks on both sides announced. These seem okay at first glance but we don't have all the details yet, so I'll wait until the full patch notes to give my proper opinion on each change.

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/446022/developer-update-may-2025/