Otzdarva's thoughts on recent events

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 on top of the above, mostly disabled in the endgame.
• 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/

News & revelations about upcoming features ✅ May 2025

• Skull Merchant gets another preview of her power. The main gist is that she has drones that can be used to injure and detect people, but that she'll ultimately need to be there to down them with a dart. Overall it seems like a healthier type of power (with some compromises) but there'll always be some unhappy folks that miss her old playstyle. I don't have any strong opinions and will wait until we test her.
• Abandon feature gets some changes & clarifications. Namely, we've learned that Survivors abandoning NEVER leads to a loss and it's always a tie. Also, a Killer slugging until everyone abandons will somehow not win. This seems really ill-conceived and could be very problematic. Since this announcement, the devs have further clarified that the MMR is calculated in a more complex way HOWEVER they haven't explained how, so that leads me to believe that they haven't changed anything and the system is still exactly what it was before. Even after this clarification, I genuinely believe this system is broken and could be a source of trouble.
• Haste & hinder changes are cancelled. In other words, we'll still have instances of multiple perks making you faster at once. Awful, awful decision. I'm not sure what feedback BHVR listened to, but this was a great step to secure the safety and "future proofness" of upcoming perks and add-ons. A bit disappointed that they walked back on this decision, and I expect that they'll eventually A) stop making haste perks (don't think this will happen) or B) eventually change their mind about this again.
• Cheaters can now drop your FPS to single digits by constantly spamming animations in your game. Apparently we're getting a fix for this type of cheat next Tuesday, according to a tweet by a developer. Still, I find it very unacceptable that some streamers get harassed and targeted in any way. Devs should consider giving any streamer an immunity to DC penalties in some capacity.

Steady Pulse DLC Survivor, Ghoul nerfs, Haste stacking & more ✅ April 2025

• New Survivor is named Orela Rose, a paramedic with support-oriented perks. She's the first original character to be transgender which is a really nice step in representation.
• Her perks are overall decent and decently well designed. An interesting healing perk, an aura-reading perk with great synergies and a really strong haste perk that speeds up other Survivors when you take a hit. This last one is by far her strongest and might need some tweaks in the future.
• Ghoul receives some undocumented nerfs that might not be the final ones we see. They include a reduction in his range and autoaim, a small delay to his power when breaking a pallet and some adjustments to his add-ons. His enraged mode also lasts less time as well. These changes are completely reasonable and he'll still be really powerful. Let's see if that's all they end up doing or if there's more nerfs coming.
• Oni gets its turn limitations removed. Some Oni mains will be very happy about this, it seems like now it's even easier to flick in any direction. We'll see if it stays...
• Houndmaster's dog vaulting speed gets nerfed very slightly (0.2s longer). She's still very powerful and the vault speed is still very good.
• Rarities have been changed across the board, with yellow items/addons/etc being completely removed. Most items are now brown / green / blue / purple / pink (visceral). It's extremely jarring and weird but I guess it's one of those changes we'll eventually get used to..
• Haste/Hinder NO longer stack in any way, with only the strongest of the effects taking over (e.g. if you have 5% and 7%, you'll be capped at 7%). For Hinder, this is completely fine. For Haste, this effectively removes a lot of "fun" and quirky builds centered around stacking speed perks which is a bit of a shame, especially for Killers like Clown or Singularity since their natural Haste cannot be stacked along with any other form of Haste. Overall, however, I think this is an understandable and reasonable change that ensures that each perk/power can be balanced on their own without having to worry about problematic interactions, especially in the future when we have even more content.
• Some haste perks get buffed on both sides. Unbound is now a lot nicer and Champion of Light has a built-in Fixated haste added to it (but obviously does not stack with Fixated anymore). All of the buffs seem reasonable, though some perks like Batteries Included still could have used some buffs as well.
• Quests replace the Archives from now on, a new system where it's easier to do a bunch of missions at once rather than one at a time. I will miss the unique appearance of the archives but I guess this is a good step forward in simplifying the game and removing annoying playstyles (i.e. "hiding for 5 mins doing nothing to get a hatch archive").
• More quality of life additions: Match overview screen now shows who used which offering, Killer can no longer be held hostage in endgame situations, unhooking repeatedly to hold someone hostage is no longer possible, Doctor can no longer prevent unhooks indefinitely with shocks, etc... Great stuff BHVR, many of these small changes are really starting to make a difference.

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/501

Trickster & Skull Merchant update ✅ March 2025

• Trickster is no longer just getting some reversals, he's actually receiving a full-blown rework at some point. I'm honestly quite happy with this decision. I think the current version of Trickster (super high knife count, high laceration meter, constant Main Events...) is inherently diffcult to balance. I'm assuming that a future rework will make his power slower but more deliberate, and if that's the case I'm convinced it'll be an improvement. Fingers crossed.
• Skull Merchant's rework has been teased. She gets 5 drones that scan around and can be disarmed like before, but now they can also be remotely controlled to injure Survivors from afar. Some people are already claiming this could be like a "5-Victor Twins", although I'm not super worried about this. If the actual movement of the drones is fun to play as & against, I can see it working out. She also gets the occasional ability to detect people across the map, probably using her radar. People worried that she will lose her "identity" are absolutely justified, although this might be a necessary evil. I still believe that the new Merchant will still be one of the "complicated" and unintuitive types of Killers that has a very low pickrate (just like Artist).
• Remember that the DBD pipeline is incredibly busy and don't expect any of these reworks to see the light of day until later this year or even possibly later than that. Let's hope they're worth the wait.

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/497-design-preview-the-skull-merchant

Tokyo Ghoul PTB & other small changes ✅ March 2025

• New Killer, The Ghoul is introduced. A high mobility dash-type Killer with high potential to injure but not too many tools to down people directly. I think his design is mostly amazing other than a few nitpicks (i.e. Enraged can last the entire match which makes some add-ons redundant). The fact that his power does not directly down Survivors limits his potential but I can see him easily being a high C-tier or even B-tier Killer depending on a few things. Some janky things aside (which is common in PTB), this Killer has a lot of potential and might be the most popular since Wesker in my opinion, due to his ease of use and overall fun factor. Great job BHVR.
• Ghoul's perks are unremarkable. The pick-up speed perk is largely outclassed by Fire Up and is very weak, I expect it buffed somehow. The endgame pallet-window blocker one is scary but ultimately pretty fair. And then we have a basic-attack-induced Hinder perk which is a hex and has a pre-condition. A very wild perk that's probably unusable on most Killers but might become really annoying on things like Singularity. Honestly, I wouldn't be bothered if it wasn't for the fact that Hex: Pentimento still really messes with overall hex balancing.
• Eyrie gets a second variant map without the main building and the realm itself gets some changes. Our map expert AMGC is not too convinced by some of these changes but hey at least it's a move in the right direction.
• Xenomorph changes are a downright mega-nerf. The small buffs he got are absolutely NOTHING compared to the effect of the major nerfs he received. Turret damage builds up almost permanently over time (and critically, DOES NOT RESET upon entering a tunnel). In other words, you're basically guaranteed to lose power after 2-3 turrets almost no matter what. Xeno's tail attack is now noticeably much slower as well, which you'll notice right away. At the very least, the Turret fire damage needs to be looked at.
• Legion gets a mini buff that includes a slightly shorter fatigue duration and and extra 1 second of power duration even without the Mischief List brown addon. Excellent stuff in my opinion.
• Surrender option gets introduced which was about time. Didn't get to test it but I'm happy it's there.
• A few other changes have been introduced that I haven't tested yet, like the new Knock Out, so sorry about that, no big opinions on those yet.

Dev update ahead of upcoming Killer PTB ✅ March 2025

• Mending is now shorter and doing as a team is more efficient than before. Not a bad change in my opinion. This makes the Deep Wound status effect more forgiving and combines with the visual changes from the previous patch.
• Legion gets a sizeable buff to his cooldown, fatigue and duration since he is the most Deep Wound-intensive Killer in the entire cast, which is perfectly fine. No joke, Legion might be quite good for average players after this. Other deep wound related Killers like Deathslinger get nothing though.
• Xenomorph gets a soft-rework. His special cooldown is shorter, his portal abilities are enhanced and the power of each turret is greatly reduced BUT... his tail attack is now slower and the damage that turrets do carries over a long period of time. I'm genuinely unsure if this actually fixes anything. The buffs he's received can be mitigated by good Survivor play and aren't that significant in maps with awful station RNG (such as Grim Pantry). His nerfs will be very noticeable, I expect. Let's wait until we see the speicifc add-on adjustments, but I'm afraid this will be an overall nerf.
• Chucky has a slightly shorter cooldown and achieves his max speed in dash a bit earlier. Let's hope this makes him feel better. Seems like an appropriate change.
• Semi-stealth Killers get reduced 24m TR (Pig, GF, Skull Merchant). Good stuff, although keep in mind that this will make them even better in indoor maps and this could have consequences for the killrates (and thus, the balancing decisions in the future). Right now is a good time to start balancing indoor maps for beginner players a bit more I'd say.
• Mobility-dash Killers get an increased 40m TR (Blight, Billy). Seems like an okay change. I'm a bit worried about TR-related perks becoming really tough on characters like Blight especially. A slugging-type playstyle can be insane with Coulrophobia and will push teams into running Unbreakable even more. Even more potential punishment for solo players that aren't expecting to be slugged.
• Match surrender option will be introduced in certain rare scenarios. About time!! Good stuff.
• New Eyrie variation is introduced. I appreciate their creativity and willingness to give us more playgrounds, but this whole "map variation" trend is a massive mistake in my opinion. Map variations should be trimmed down. Currently they only add an unnecessary layer of complexity that hurts newer players and delays our ability to properly balance the existing pool of maps.
• Several stealth perks on Survivor get minor buffs (Quick and Quiet, Dance with Me, ...) which is a nice thing to see... However some of these perks like Red Herring are awfully designed and need proper reworks to be viable. Not bad though!
• Several Killer perks about stealth also get minor buffs. These are a lot more interesting, with perks like Alien Instinct now having a very decent duration that makes them more worth running.
• Knock Out gets reworked away from being a slugging perk (great stuff!!!) into a hinder-type of perk based on dropped pallets. I'm a little worried about how it will feel on certain Killers. Right now, predropping pallets early is actually one of the only decent strategies against some top tier Killers so it's a little scary. Let's see how it works before making our minds up.

Source: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/494-developer-update-march-2025

Health and QOL Initiative announced ✅ February 2025

• Devs have announced a 2-phase initiative to improve the game's health and focus on aspects that make gameplay boring or tedious. All of the suggested areas to be changed seem positive and I'm excited to see them be addressed.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uhlE1f927xo