Dead by Daylight News

Another special edition of the Developer Update! Next week’s update will feature changes for screams and the newest Killer, The Skull Merchant. We wanted to take this opportunity to share what’s on the way as well as the reasoning behind these changes.



[h2]The Skull Merchant[/h2]

Between the Public Test Build (PTB) and live release of the Tools of Torment Chapter, we made a wide variety of changes to The Skull Merchant to help address some of the feedback we received. We’ve been keeping a close eye on her since, and while it seems like these changes have had a positive effect on her performance, there are a few frustrations we want to address sooner rather than later. In no particular order, these are:

• It doesn’t feel like The Skull Merchant’s Power helps her enough in a chase.
  
• It doesn’t feel as though there’s enough risk to having a Claw Trap.
  
• The Skull Merchant is too good at holding 3 generators, causing very long matches.
  

The pain points are a common thread between the feedback many of you have given since the Chapter released. To rectify each of them, we have made a large number of changes.

[h3]On the Hunt[/h3]

The Skull Merchant’s drones will Lock On to Survivors, making them Exposed for some time. This can push Survivors away from stronger structures and into a sparser part of the map. However, as many of you have pointed out, this doesn’t really pose a threat if you’re already injured; getting hit will already put you into the dying state.

Likewise, Claw Traps don’t feel equally threatening to all players. While the thought of having your location constantly broadcasted to the Killer is enough of a deterrent for some, more confident Survivors may actually welcome a chase, opting instead to keep the Killer distracted for their teammates.

To improve her strength in a chase, we have made a couple changes.

First, The Skull Merchant will now gain a growing Haste effect for each Survivor tracked on her radar. This bonus starts at 3% for one Survivor, raises to 5% for two, 6% for three and 7% for four. Both Claw Traps and active drone zones will contribute to this, and the Killer does not need to inspect their scanner to gain the benefits. This will reward the Killer for efficiently using their Power to keep tabs on their prey.

Second, vaulting a pallet with a Claw Trap will cause that pallet to break, destroying the Claw Trap in the process. This was previously part of the common Ultrasonic Trap Speaker Add-on. With this change, being chased with a Claw Trap attached becomes a lot more dangerous.

These combined adjustments allow The Skull Merchant to more frequently get value out of her Power, regardless of whether or not the Survivor she’s chasing is injured.

[h3]Generator Defense[/h3]

The Skull Merchant excels when it comes to defending a cluster of three generators. Not only will her drones notify her any time a Survivor approaches a generator, but she can also easily replace them once they are disabled. This can make matches go on for an excessively long time with neither side making much progress. These matches tend not to be too terribly interesting for anyone involved and only end when someone gives up.

To put a damper on her ability to defend generators, drones are no longer immediately returned to The Skull Merchant once they are disabled. Instead, they will be returned once their respective traps are destroyed. This will make it more difficult to replace disabled drones on these generators.

That said, this will limit how often The Skull Merchant can deploy new drones. Therefore, we have a series of changes to compensate for this loss of power.

First, to ensure Survivors cannot hold a Claw Trap indefinitely to deny her from using her Power, Claw Traps will now be instantly destroyed as soon as their battery expires, and Claw Trap batteries will no longer refill when entering an active zone. This way, Claw Traps will always return after a set amount of time.

Second, drones will enter an unhackable state whenever a Survivor with a Claw Trap is near. This will prevent a single Survivor from running around and disabling every drone, meaning the Killer will always have some combination of four Claw Traps or drones available to them. Combined with the changes to Claw Traps mentioned above, The Skull Merchant will always get value out of her ability whether it’s through deployed drones or traps.
[h3]
Add-ons[/h3]

Last but not least, we have a few Add-on changes to round out this update.

Ultrasonic Trap Speaker

Since this Add-on has been incorporated into the Killer’s base kit, it needed a new effect.

Ultrasonic Trap Speaker now reduces the time taken for Undetectable to take effect when inside an active zone by 50%.

Expired Batteries

This Add-on has been changed to Ultra Rare to match its high effectiveness.

Since Claw Traps now provide a Haste effect, this would make the Killer very fast at the start of the match in addition to revealing the Survivors’ positions. Therefore, we have reduced the duration of the Claw Traps Survivors spawn with to 40% of the normal battery life (was 150%).

Prototype Rotor

This Add-on has been changed to Very Rare to better suit its effectiveness.

Adaptive Lighting

Adaptive Lighting now increases the length of the Undetectable effect by 50% (was 20%).



[h2]Screams[/h2]

I scream, you scream, we all scream when the Killer is using a Perk or Power that makes people scream. Unless you’re using Calm Spirit.

In 6.6.0, we changed screams caused by perks. Historically, these Perks would cause the Survivors to use the same scream sound as when they were hurt. We decided to change this considering the Survivor was not actually being hurt, just scared. When we made this tweak, these screams became ‘3D’ – meaning you could tell which direction they were coming from – and limited their range as a side effect.

In this update, we’ll be readjusting these Perks to bring them back to the original functionality, but with the proper scream sounds. Screams caused by Perks will once again be ‘2D’ – meaning you can’t quite tell which direction they’re coming from – and be heard map-wide.

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With that, we’ve reached the end of this special edition Developer Update. The changes in this post will be live in next week’s update. We are also hard at work on our next major release and we look forward to sharing more details about that soon.

Until next time…

The Dead by Daylight team

[h2]Release Schedule[/h2]

• Update Releases: 11AM ET
  

[h2]Features[/h2]

• Updated UI for The Skull Merchant's Power.
  

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Archives & Challenges[/h3]

• Fixed an issue where the "Glyph Graduate" Yellow Glyph challenges were not recognizing the Player's input within a good skill check zone.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Near Miss" challenge could gain progress if the Killer's attack missed a Survivor from a distance greater than the intended 5 meters.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Gruesome" challenge would gain two (2) points of progress instead of one (1) during the End-Game Collapse.
  
• This fix also addresses other Hook action challenges that gained double progress during the End-Game Collapse.
  

[h3]Audio[/h3]

• Fixed an issue with The Spirit where the audio for her phase ability would not be played for Survivors while using the Furin add-on.
  
• Fixed an issue where granted currency and item pop-ups in the Main Menu would play twice.
  
• Fixed an issue where the SFX for changing pages using a controller would be missing while in a bot lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game's audio could be heard while in the Loading Screen before entering or leaving a Trial.
  

[h3]Bots[/h3]

• After playing a Custom Game with Add-ons disabled, the Tally screen no longer shows incorrect Add-ons.
  
• An injured Bot will now think twice before attempting to heal a downed Bot within the Terror Radius.
  
• Bots can now use the Repressed Alliance Perk.
  
• Bots no longer shuffle at a slow pace while at a pallet if the chasing Killer is slightly far away.
  
• Bots now respect Killers more by not getting into lockers while in the Killer's line of sight.
  
• Bots will now avoid backtracking to Pallet to stun the Killer, as it often led to an injury.
  
• In the Custom Game lobby, Bots now correctly display the Item equipped even after changes in party members.
  
• When playing against a Killer with the Iron Maiden Perk, Bots are now more careful about getting into Lockers, especially when equipped with Locker-based Perks like Flashbang.
  
• When playing against Freddy Krueger with Add-ons allowing Dream Pallets, Bots will now remember which Pallets were replaced by fakes.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots avoid loops covered by a Drone zone.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots are now capable of vaulting near Drones.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant with the Iridescent Unpublished Manuscript Add-on, Bots now respond to the change in Terror Radius.
  

[h3]Characters[/h3]

• Fixed an issue that cause the Door breaking animation to play too fast when playing as The Legion with Brutal Strength and equipped Frank's mix tape.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause all Survivors' left hands to be distorted when receiving healing.
  
• Fixed an issue that causes The Artist's arm to jitter backward awkwardly when she walks into and past a tall asset.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause All Survivors' hands and heads to clip through the locker when fast exiting.
  
• Injured Survivors have no more crooked wrists when moving and holding a Pocket Mirror.
  
• Fixed an issue causeing killers to sometimes be unable to hit a Survivor healing a downed Survivor.
  
• Fixed an issue where The Knight's Healing Poultice, The Onryo's Distorted Photo and The Oni's Iridescent Family Crest Add-ons incorrectly revealed auras for the duration of their effect.
  
• The Dredge no longer incorrectly becomes Invisible when teleporting during Nightfall.
  
• Survivors who scream during the Cenobite's teleport no longer become stuck.
  
• The Skull Merchant's Drones no longer appear invisible when in the Active State.
  

[h3]Environment[/h3]

• Fixed a lighting issue that caused the Onryo's well to look incorrect in the lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue with a rock that could be climbed in the Mount Ormond Resort map.
  

[h3]Perks[/h3]

• The Survivor's Aura no longer fails to be revealed by Grim Embrace when the obsession is transferred by Game Afoot.
  
• Teamwork: Power of Two no longer fails to deactivate if the other Survivor disconnects.
  
• Healing an injured Survivor who has the Perk Adrenaline equipped while all Generator are completed no longer triggers the effect of the Perk Teamwork: Power Of Two
  
• The Teamwork: Power of Two buff external icon now properly appears on all of the Survivors using the Perk.
  
• The Teamwork: Collective Stealth's external perk icon now correctly appears on the affected Survivor instead of the perk owner when both Survivors have this Perk equipped.
  
• The Friendly Competition repair bonus speed buff is now properly maintained if the Perk owner disconnects from the Trial.
  
• Using the Perk For The People on a dying Survivor now properly gives the Survivors the Teamwork: Power of Two and Teamwork: Collective Stealth buffs.
  
• The End Game Collapse timer now updates properly when the last remaining survivor gets back up from the Adrenaline perk's effect.
  

[h3]Platforms[/h3]

• All available Maps now correctly show in the Custom Game settings for players on the Epic Games Store.
  
• Fixed an account mismatch issue when using the in-game Store on the Windows Store.
  
• Fixed an intermittent crash when launching the game on Switch.
  

[h3]UI[/h3]

• Fixed an animation issue when quickly changing pages in the Edit Bot Loadout popup.
  
• Fixed a layout issue in the Edit Bot Loadout popup when the UI Scale Setting is not 100%.
  
• Fixed an incorrect tooltip message for unavailable add-ons in the Edit Bot Loadout popup.
  

[h3]Misc[/h3]

• Hooking Survivors during the End Game Collapse no longer counts for 2 Hooks for the Hooks challenges progress
  
• The Hack the Mainframe Achievement now unlocks correctly upon Killer disconnection.
  
• Adept Renato and Adept Thalita are unlocked if the Killer Disconnects after the Exit Gate was opened.
  

Hello People of The Fog!

Experience the world’s deadliest game of hide and seek during our Steam Free Trial from now until Monday, March 13th. You can also save 60% off the base game and up to 50% off select DLCs through Thursday, March 23rd.

As a Killer, you'll hunt, chase, and attack Survivors, before bringing them to a Hook as a sacrifice for The Entity. As a Survivor, you'll find and repair Generators to then open the Exit Gate to escape alive. Don’t forget to evade the Killer and rescue your teammates before they are sacrificed!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube] [previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]











To get you started, check out some new player and gameplay information. Once in the game, the tutorial is a step-by-step guide that teaches you the basics needed to master Killer and Survivors. You can play the tutorial as often as you want, or practice as a Killer against Survivor bots in a Custom Match.

Once you're ready, choose either “Play as Killer” or “Play as Survivor” and jump into a Public Match.

Good luck and see you in The Fog!

The Dead by Daylight Team

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[h2]FAQs [/h2]

[h3]What Killers and Survivors are available during the Steam Free Trial? [/h3]

During the Steam Free Trial, you will have access to five Killers (The Trapper, The Hillbilly, The Huntress, The Nurse, and The Wraith) and seven Survivors (Dwight Fairfield, William Overbeck, Nea Karlsson, Meg Thomas, David King, Claudette Morel, and Jake Park) when you first play Dead by Daylight.

[h3]Can I purchase items in the in-game Store during the Steam Free Trial?[/h3]

You will be able to purchase Auric Cells during the Steam Free Trial. You can also earn Iridescent Shards while playing, which can be used to purchase some Killers, Survivors, and Outfits.

[h3]Can I purchase and install DLCs during the Steam Free Trial? [/h3]

You will be able to purchase Chapter DLCs during the Steam Free Trial. However, you will lose access to this content unless you have a paid copy of Dead by Daylight. We recommend players buy the base game before purchasing Chapter DLCs.

[h3]Will I have access to the game and its content after the Steam Free Trial ends? [/h3]

Once the Steam Free Trial ends, you will lose access to any Dead by Daylight content, including Auric Cells and Chapter DLCs. You will need to purchase the Dead by Daylight base game to re-gain access to that content.

[h3]How do I continue playing Dead by Daylight after the Steam Free Trial ends? [/h3]

Any progress you have made leveling up your character(s) during the free trial or unlocking the Bloodweb will be saved. To continue playing, you will need to purchase the Dead by Daylight base game or a Dead by Daylight bundle from the Steam Store page.