Dead by Daylight’s mid-chapter update is here, and it’s bringing with it some controversial changes.
This patch brings with it the regular bug fixes, new UI elements, visual updates for maps, and the long-awaited Tome VII.
Let's get into the notes.
Killer Updates
Let's start out with the good stuff. This patch has rebalanced a few outlying characters including Freddy and Demogorgon.
Freddy Kruger
“For some time, The Nightmare has stood out with a particularly high kill rate, averaging roughly 3 kills per match. With that in mind, we’ve made some slight tweaks to bring him closer to the rest of the roster.”
To fix this, they’ve implemented a long-needed change to Freddy’s movement speed while placing a snare. No longer will he go unpunished when placing snares down. They’ve also reduced the number of dream pallets from 10 to 7.
He’s also had quite a few add-ons reworked – importantly, add-ons which reduced survivor action speed now just make various actions louder, be it generator progress, grunts of pain, or footsteps.
They’ve also added a new mechanic for survivors based around the alarm clocks. Alarm clocks now make survivors immune to sleep, including sleep caused by killer hits for 30 seconds.
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These sorts of nerfs have certainly been long needed for lots of the community. Making Freddy need to think about his positioning in chases is such a refreshing change from Behaviour. Let’s hope we can go a week without a “Freddy is OP” thread on Reddit.
Demogorgon
Demogorgon is receiving buffs to make his use of portal gameplay more appealing, instead of making him rely only on his right click ability. This includes:
- Increased speed while a portal
- Reduced cooldown after exiting a portal
- Increased Undetectable length after exiting a portal.
They’ve also done a few buffs to Demogorgon’s lesser-used add-ons. Hopefully, that'll make playing against him more dynamic than just running and dropping pallets early.
Huntress
Thankfully, they’ve not changed her base kit, but Behaviour felt they needed to update some of her add-ons, which is a refreshing change. The dreaded Iridescent Head has received a massive nerf that hopefully will deter its use.
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Twins
The Twins have been in an awkward spot since their release. Some have said they’re a little too strong, some have said they’re too weak. The main thing that the two agree on is that Twins is too rewarding to slug with, which seems to be what Behaviour have nerfed.
To do this they’ve increased the pounce cooldown after downing a survivor from 3 seconds to 5.
Behaviour also did a small quality of life change that ensures the camera control is immediately restored to Charlotte after taking control from Viktor. This is needed as it made little sense otherwise.
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Perks and Other Balance Changes
A few perks have received pretty substantial changes, I’ll go over the important ones.
Small Game has been buffed so finding totems is easier, but now doesn’t detect killer traps.
Lucky Break received a change that also makes it hide scratch marks when it activates.
Borrowed Time has been buffed substantially, now the terror radius is no longer needed for it to trigger, making it useful against Freddy and Ghost Face. However, the Endurance effect has been nerfed from 15 seconds to 12 at rank 3.
Object of Obsession received an overhaul, making it so it only triggers if the survivor's aura is revealed to the killer, and reveals them back while buffing the survivor substantially. This is a long-needed change as the perk has been hated by killer mains for years now and only seemed to reward players who played using comms.
Dead by Daylight Tome 7: All Challenges, Rewards and New Items
There’s been a change to struggle state, which should help those who had difficulty spamming the space bar over and over.
Instead, while the survivor is struggling, they will now receive a very easy skill check, missing one of the checks will remove a small portion of your struggle meter and if you don’t attempt to hit two in a row you will be immediately sacrificed.
Visual Updates
The Coldwind Farm Realm has received a graphical update. Finally, no more one-dimensional corn to lose the Survivors in. Now they're going to get lost in three-dimensional corn.
This is all part of the new Realm Beyond updates and so far we're loving it. Seeing these classic maps get a well-deserved facelift really modernizes the game.
The Doctor has received a VFX update too. This should help indicate to Survivors what madness level they are on as well as improving game performance.
Tome VII
Comes out with this patch. Here's the video overview:
That’s all for the updates. For a more in-depth look, check out Behaviour's detailed patch notes here.
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