Dead by Daylight News

Developer Update | January 2025

We’re back with another Developer Update, and some might say it’s pure nightmare fuel. That’s right – Freddy Krueger is getting a rework, and we’ve got you covered with everything to know about what’s coming.

The Nightmare – Freddy Krueger himself – is one of horror’s most iconic slashers. While he has proven himself to be a formidable foe for newer players, he’s begun to feel a little left behind in Dead by Daylight’s current landscape. We’re excited to help players rediscover the macabre joy of donning into the signature sweater and wreaking havoc like only Freddy can.

We’ve made several adjustments to his Power, which should help Freddy feel like the Dream Demon he was always destined to be. Our philosophy was to make The Dream World’s presence affect Survivors even when they’re awake, giving The Nightmare a consistently threatening edge with more flexibility than ever before.

[CHANGE] Press Active Ability to swap between Dream Snares and Dream Pallets.

Dev Note: This has been long requested, and we’re thrilled to finally make it happen. With consistent access to two impactful abilities, The Nightmare can live up to his name by slowing Survivors down and shattering them psychologically. Having the ability to quickly swap between Powers has the added benefit of raising the Killer’s skill ceiling, while providing him with two different tools to utilize in a chase.

[NEW] Dream Snares now move at 12 m/s with a cooldown of 5 seconds. They can go through walls and up stairs, but not off ledges.
[NEW] Dream Snares now have unique interactions with Survivors whether they are Asleep or Awake. Sleeping Survivors will be Hindered for 4 seconds, while Awake Survivors will gain 30 seconds on their Sleep Meter

Dev Note: This change grants The Nightmare additional flexibility while using the Snare, allowing him to use them against a wider variety of opponents. Making it so Survivors don’t need to be asleep to be affected will make quite the impact – not just on a Power level, but thematically as well.

[NEW] Dream Pallets can be triggered to explode in a geyser of blood. The explosion occurs 1.5 seconds after activation with a 3-meter radius. When a sleeping Survivor is hit, they become injured. When an Awake Survivor is hit, they gain 60 seconds on their Sleep Timer.

Dev Note: Dream Pallets have been a fun and rewarding way to mind game Survivors, and we wanted to add even more benefit to landing a successful deception. Now, even if the Survivor does manage to escape the chase, they run the risk of sustaining a dark souvenir to remember you by.

[NEW] The Nightmare can now teleport to completed, blocked, and endgame Generators, as well as any Survivor healing in the Dreamworld. Dream Projection on a healing Survivor will teleport The Nightmare within 12 meters of their position. Upon completing a teleport, Survivors within 8 meters will be revealed with Killer Instinct and gain 15 seconds to their Sleep Meter.
[CHANGE] The Teleport cooldown has been decreased from 45 to 30 seconds, and the Teleport can no longer be cancelled.

Dev Note: An important part of The Nightmare’s playstyle is creating the illusion of being everywhere at once, and his Dream Projection is a major part of that. We’ve made a few changes to make this even more effective and removed the pain point of having Survivor progress rendering The Nightmare’s Power obsolete.

Finally, the Dream World. Don’t let the name deceive you – this psychological torture chamber is far from a dream. We wanted this update to inject sleeping Survivors with a sense of terror, paranoia, and urgency – so we made a few small but crucial tweaks.

[NEW] In the Dream World, Healing Survivors will be revealed by Killer Instinct for as long as they’re healing (lingering for 3 seconds once they stop), allowing The Nightmare to teleport to them.

We’re also giving the Dream World a slight visual polish, which should help immerse players further into the fantasy. We have plans to continue improving this in the future, so keep your eyes out for even more to come.

[CHANGE] Sleeping Survivors can use any Alarm Clock to wake up.
[NEW] After using an Alarm Clock, it goes on cooldown for 45 seconds, during which it cannot be used.

Dev Note: On the Survivor side we wanted to address a few notable frustrations, mainly around Alarm Clocks and the general process of Waking Up. We’re confident these changes will improve the experience of playing against The Nightmare without having a significant impact on the overall balance.

We hope you enjoy this updated version of The Nightmare, and we’ll be keeping a close eye on your feedback. Unless, of course, we happen to fall asleep...

[h2]The Nightmare’s Add-Ons[/h2]

Rounding out this rework is a substantial pass to all The Nightmare’s Add-Ons, which will incentivize creativity whenever you’re preparing your next loadout. While the full list is too long to include, here are a few notable Add-Ons coming with this update:

[h3]Red Paint Brush (Iridescent)[/h3]

[OLD] All Survivors start the trial in the Dream World. Failed Skill Checks do not wake up Survivors in the Dream World.
[NEW] Reveals the aura of Survivors in the Dream World when they are further than 32 meters away. Increases each Survivor's Sleep Meter by 50%.

[h3]Black Box (Iridescent)[/h3]

[OLD] Recently opened Exit Gates are blocked for 15 seconds.
[NEW] Exit Gates are blocked for Sleeping Survivors for 15 seconds when they are opened.

[h3]Swing Chains (Very Rare)[/h3]

[OLD] Rusty but sturdy chains used to securely attach a swing seat. While Survivors are in the Dream World, the sounds of their footsteps are 50% louder.
[NEW] After using Dream Projection, block all vaults within 16 meters for 6 seconds.

Keep an eye out for the full list once the update goes live, but rest assured that the Dream Demon will have plenty of terrifying tools to work with moving forward.

To decrease Realm repetition, we’re implementing a Realm Prevention System, which will replace the existing Map Repeat Prevention System.

If you’re not familiar, there is a distinction between Realms and Maps. A Realm is a unique world, generally drawn from the memories of a character and contorted into a nightmarish landscape by The Entity. Some examples are the MacMillian Estate, Coldwind Farm, and the Red Forest. Maps are a variety of different locations drawn from within each Realm, and while they are different from one another, this new system will ensure that you’ll never be sent to the same Realm for back-to-back Trials. Note that using Map Offerings will override the system.

Deep Wound Update

While experienced players have grown familiar with the Deep Wound mechanic and Mending, it has been a continuous source of confusion for newer players.

To help clarify things, we’ve implemented a visual update similar to the Anti-Face-Camp bar. This bar will be a lot easier to track, appearing front and center in the UI and remaining there until you are fully Mended.

We’ve also reduced the blood spatter and darkening effects that appear whenever you’re in the Deep Wound State. Several subtle visual updates will now be added to the bar, highlighting the dire nature of the status. Check out a screenshot below:

Dead by Daylight features a massive – and growing – roster of characters. To make matters even more complex, each character brings 3 unique Perks into the game, with Killers having an additional Power to learn and master.

It can be especially tricky to gauge which characters might suit your preferred playstyle. Long-time players may even remember specific Offerings that let you play as a Killer you didn’t own, giving you a taste of what they’re capable of.

We’re excited to be launching a new system that will allow you to use specific characters for free during an Event Period, while in the Event’s queue. Note that only select characters will be available, chosen at our discretion, but they will be accessible to everyone.

While this will be for a limited time, with restricted access to the Bloodweb, it will allow players to really get a feel for a new character and even complete character-specific challenges.

That’s it for today’s Dev Update! Thanks for sticking with us, and we can’t wait to see you trying out The Nightmare in our upcoming PTB.

Until next time...
The Dead by Daylight Team

DBD Mobile is shutting down soon, so players get free rewards in the full game

NetEase Games has announced that Dead by Daylight Mobile will soon leave app stores, followed by a complete shutdown in the coming months. The game is currently still available on iOS and Google Play, but will leave both in early 2025. NetEase Games adds that any DBD Mobile players can opt-in for a welcome package on PC and console, which rewards you with Bloodpoints, Auric Cells, and Iridescent Shards in relation to money spent and level reached.

Read the rest of the story...

8.4.2 | Bugfix Patch

[h3]Content[/h3]

[h2]Killer Updates[/h2]

[h3]The Houndmaster - Basekit[/h3]

Chase Command cooldown reduced to 3 seconds (was 4 seconds)
Increased the time it takes The Houndmaster to recover movement speed from cancelling Chase Command to 1 second (was 0.85 seconds)
Reduced the movement speed penalty from cancelling Chase Command to 3.0 m/s (was 2.0 m/s)
Increased hitbox of Dog while performing Chase Command to 0.65 meters (was 0.5 meters)
Increased Window and Pallet vault time of Dog while performing Chase Command to 0.45 seconds (was 0.9 seconds)
Reduced Chase Command camera transition time from The Houndmaster to Dog when activating Redirect to 0.15 seconds (was 0.25 seconds)
Reduced Chase Command camera transition time from Dog to The Houndmaster after ending Redirect to 0.15 seconds (was 0.25 seconds)
Updated Dog pathfinding during Grab to pull Survivors towards coordinates where the Grab was started (was previously towards The Houndmaster's location at moment of Chase Command activation)
Increased the amount of Hindered status effect applied to Survivor caught in a Grab to 10% (was 3%)

[h3]The Houndmaster - Addons[/h3]

Knotted Rope: Basic attack cooldown against grabbed Survivors reduced to 2% (was 10%)

[h3]Killer Perk Updates[/h3]

Hex: Thrill of the Hunt:
For each Dull and Hex Totem remaining on the map, gain a Token.
Survivors' Cleansing and Blessing speed is reduced by 8/10/12% for each Token. (was 10/12/14%)

[h3]Archives & Events[/h3]

Chaos Shuffle returns January 16, 2025 at 11:00am Eastern.
This event includes an event tome featuring Dungeons & Dragons themed rewards.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]
[h3]Bots[/h3]

Trained survivor bot to use the perk Invocation: Treacherous Crows

[h3]Characters[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster to temporarily become stuck during the break generator animation when spectating.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Dog's Search to have the wrong icon when charging the power.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Swap Command icon to remain lit up when charging the power.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Chase command not to injure vaulting Survivors.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Dog to vault at the same vault location being used by a Survivor.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Dog to bring the Survivor back to the location that the command was given when in a struggle.
Fixed an issue that caused the Detected killer instinct to linger indefinitely on affected survivors if The Houndmaster's Dog remains next to them after the patrol detection radius is gone.
Fixed an issue that caused The Houndmaster's Dog to vault over elevated vaults that players normally fall from.
Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when The Houndmaster left a trial.
Fixed an issue that caused The Demogorgon to be missing the Hold arrow icon for Traverse Upside Down action.
Fixed an issue that caused The Nurse to be able to cancel her blink when releasing the input while looking down at an obstacle.

[h3]Environment/Maps[/h3]

Fixed a window on Ormond Lake Mine map that caused a Killer projectile impact issue
Fixed various issues with fading on Mori animations
Fixed an issue that allowed the Dark Lord's pillars of Hellfire to go outside of the Exit Gates with the Add-on "Alucard's Shield"
Fixed issues in The Nostromo Wreckage map that prevented the power of The Nurse and The Houndmaster from working properly
Fixed issues in The Underground Complex where The Nurse could use her power and get out of bounds on the map
Fixed multiples issues in all realms where the camera rotation at the beginning of a game would clip inside the head of The Houndmaster
Fixed issues in The Underground Complex where some of the ground did not appear
Fixed an issue Gideon Meat Plant where an invisible collision would prevent the players from navigating from the bottom floor to the second floor
Fixed an issue in Raccoon City Police Station where the players could stand on top on a couch
Fixed an issue in Suffocation Pit where a snowman would block the path of the players
Fixed an issue in Crotus Prenn where The Nurse would get stuck when blinking on wooden ramp on the second floor of the building
Fixed an issue in Haddonfield where The Nurse or The Cenobite could use their power outside of the limit of the map around the exit gates

[h3]Perks[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused Save the Best for Last not to lose tokens when damaging a Survivor with The Houndmaster's Dog.
Fixed an issue that caused Play With Your Food not to lose tokens when damaging a Survivor with The Houndmaster's Dog.
Fixed an issue that caused THWACK! not to display Survivor auras when destroying a pallet or breakable wall.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors to still have grunts of pain when using Clean Break with other interaction.
Fixed an issue that caused a missing audio cue when dropping a Flashbang.

8.4.1 | Bugfix Patch

[h3]Content[/h3]

[h2]Killer Updates[/h2]

[h3]The Houndmaster - Basekit[/h3]

Chase Command cooldown reduced to 4 seconds (was 5 seconds)
Completed Generators now appear light orange to The Houndmaster after charging Search Command (previously Completed Generators were visible at all times)
Houndsense Radius only visible to a Survivor when the dog is within 20 meters of them (previously was visible at any range)
Survivors afflicted with Houndsense appear with reduced color and opacity outline to The Houndmaster (red tint used to blend too much with Killer Instinct feedback)

[h3]The Houndmaster - Addons[/h3]

Training Bell:
Increased the Survivor aura reveals to 8 seconds (was 5 seconds)

Spiked Collar:
Increase the duration of the Mangled and Haemorrhage status effects to 60 seconds (was 45 seconds)

Gunpowder Tin:
Reduced the action speed bonus to 30% (was 40%)

Marlinspike:
Updated effect to exclude grabbed Survivor from receiving Houndsense (was previously all Survivors within 20m of location of Dog Grab)
Description updated to reflect change of effect

[h3]The Dark Lord - Addons[/h3]

Medusa's Hair:
Decreased the Hindered penalty to 8%. (was 15%)
Decreased the Hindered penalty duration to 3 seconds. (was 5 seconds)

[h3]The Demogorgon - Basekit[/h3]

Increase Upside Down suggested velocity to 32 m/s (was 28 m/s)

[h3]The Good Guy - Basekit[/h3]

Increased Hidey-Ho Mode's cooldown to 14 seconds (was 12 sec)
Increased Slice & Dice duration to 1.8 sec. (was 1.2 sec)
Decreased Slice & Dice movement speed to 8 m/s. (was 10 m/s)

[h3]The Shape - Basekit[/h3]

Increased the Evil Within gain multiplier when stalking from up close to 0.6 (was 0.4)

[h2]Killer Perk Updates[/h2]

Human Greed:
You see Unopened Chests auras and Survivor auras are revealed for 3/4/5 seconds when they enter a 8/8/8-meter range. (was 3/3/3 seconds)
You also gain the ability to kick chests to close them. This ability has a 10/10/10-second cooldown. (was 30/25/20 seconds)

Weave Attunement:
When any item becomes depleted for the first time each match, it is dropped. You see the auras of dropped items.
Survivors within 12 meters of dropped items have their auras revealed to you. (was 8 meters)
Affected Survivors see the item's aura.
When a Survivor picks up a Survivor item, they suffer the Oblivious status effect for 20/25/30 seconds.

[h2]Bug Fixes[/h2]

[h3]Archives & Events[/h3]

Fixed an issue where the challenge "Means To An End" in Tome 6 - DIVERGENCE was not properly tracking progress from successful pallet stuns after a dropped pallet was reset.
The Tome 6 challenge Means To An End can now be correctly completed

[h3]Audio[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused Memory Shard idling sound to be audible after collecting it.
Fixed an issue that caused the Demogorgon to be able to spam Grunts while interacting with a Glyph.
Fixed an issue that caused The Skull Merchant's Radar to persist when inspecting the Radar multiple time.
Fixed an issue that caused The Spirit and Yun-Jin Lee to play the wrong menu theme music for their 'Cozy Break' outfits.
Fixed an issue that caused The Dark Lord Hellfire's sound to keep playing after getting Stunned during charging.

[h3]Characters[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused the Lute to not dissolve after selecting any item for Aestri Yazar or Baermar Uraz.
Updated the animation for Female Survivors: it is now intentional for them to no longer grip the Huntress's axe during the Memento Mori.
The Lich's Fly spell can now correctly fly through vaults when the Survivor is on another side
Survivors' M1 action to remove The Doctor's Madness no longer randomly fails
Getting downed by Deep Wound while in the Struggle phase with a Mimic no longer locks the animation
Fixed an issue that caused the Plague to no longer have a cooldown when cancelling Vile Purge.
The Cenobite's chains correctly spawn faster while a Survivor blesses a totem while carrying the Lament Configuration

[h3]The Houndmaster[/h3]

Fixed an issue that caused the Dog to grab Survivors that are being killed by the Entity during the End Game Collapse.
Fixed an issue that caused the Dog's Chase command to always vault if it is next to a vault location in Redirect mode.
Fixed an issue that caused the trail boost to have no effect when starting a chase on the search path.
Fixed an issue that caused the Dog to get stuck on walls and fail to dash when the Killer quickly sends the dash command on the other side of a wall.
Fixed multiple path finding issues with the Dog in various maps.
The Dog no longer teleports at the start of a dash.
The Dog patrol path can appear above ground level when the patrol is sent to a different elevation.
Fixed an issue that caused the Houndsense Killer Effect to be removed when an injured Survivor is grabbed.
Fixed an issue that caused the Houndsense Killer Effect timer to reset if a Survivor was hit while having the Endurance effect.
Fixed an issue that caused the power not to visually appear on cooldown when spectating.
Fixed an issue that caused spectators not to see the reverse Red arrow marker when The Houndmaster points at objects with the patrol ability
The Nipping at Your Heels score event is no longer earned twice when the survivor escapes the trial with Houndsense

[h3]Environment/Maps[/h3]

Fixed issues of Camera Fade exclusion for the Mori Update feature.
Fixed a placeholder textures in the main building tile on the Eyrie Of Crows map.
Fixed issues related to the collisions around the Shuttle on the Nostromo Wreckage map
Fixed issue in the Raccoon Police Department where collisions were preventing The Nurse, The Houndmaster, and The Cenobite to use their powers properly in the front part of the building

[h3]Perks[/h3]

The Corrective Action perk no longer gains tokens on a successful "Snap Out of It" Skill Check from The Doctor.
Fixed an issue that caused the Invocation perks to use the wrong input button prompts.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors auras to be missing around a newly created Scourge Hook when using Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass and Scourge Hook: Hangman's Trick while carrying a Survivor.
Fixed an issue that caused the Clean Break prompt to be seen briefly after recovering from the Dying State with the Broken status effect.
Fixed an issue that caused Unnerving Presence to only affect the first skill check when No Quarter is active.
The White Aura of the Invocation Ring is no longer visible to all Survivors after an Invocation has been completed
The Dance With Me perk is no longer missing 3 seconds of cooldown

[h3]UI[/h3]

Fixed an issue with a superfluous Blood Mark displayed behind the Survivor's HUD portrait icon when a Survivor stuns the Houndmaster's Dog using a Pallet while being chased.
Fixed an issue where the Perk Inventory was not instantly refreshed after purchasing a perk in the Shrine of Secrets.
Fixed an issue with the Inventory Tooltip in the Tally Scoreboard that could be partially cut-off.

[h3]Misc[/h3]

Fixed an issue where unowned perks show up as disabled in the loadout presets with "None Remaining" in tooltip description

The Steam Awards 2024 - Nominate Dead by Daylight!

As 2024 is coming to an end, it's already time to reflect and celebrate the games that made your year!

Thanks to your feedback, we've been able to make impactful iterations on live balance and new features that wouldn't have been as successful without the involvement of our players. We can't wait to keep building this world with you for the years to come.

You can now nominate Dead by Daylight in the "Labor of Love" category for the Steam Awards.

You have until December 4 at 1PM ET to nominate your favorite games. Make sure to take a look at all the other categories, 2024 was a year full of incredible releases!

See you in The Fog,

The Dead by Daylight Team