What Advice Would You Give To New Players?
I have 2-3K hours on Console DBD, however I suck really bad at putting my thoughts into words, so I thought I would just lean on the community a bit to handle this for me.
I have a friend who is interesting in DBD, and has bought the game but is really afraid to play it, they arent the best when it comes to handling scary games but they think the chasing aspect of the game looks fun (which is why they got it).
What advice and recommendations would you give them?
(Please be kind with your words since I will be linking them the thread to look at later on.)
Comments
I've been playing for about six months so think I still have a good memory of being new. My advice would probably differ based on how much experience your friend has with video games generally, but here goes. I'm going to gear it toward survivors because I presume as a friend you're looking to play together.
1: The game isn't scary. It's tense, but not really conceptually different than a first person shooter were you can get hit out of nowhere. It can be really intense and stressful where a single mistake feels like it changes the game, some people love that aspect, nothing wrong if you don't.
2: Play both sides. Even if a survivor main play the killers to get an idea of how they work.
3: It's a tough game to start because likely everyone will have more experience than you. You'll be trying to just figure out the maps while others are flying around.
4: As a new survivor, be cautious and stay on gens. Let the other survivors worry about chases and rescues. Those concepts will come with time.
5: Don't take self-care.
6: As a survivor, you will be caught. That's inevitable. The goal is to make it take as long as possible. Against most killers, running in a straight line will burn time. Add in loops, pallets, etc. as you get more comfortable with the controls.
7: The killer's vision is poor. On some maps there are lots of places you can crouch and blend in. Don't panic if you make the decision to hide. I've frequently caught survivors who were hiding because they ran and thought I spotted them when I never did.
8: Headphones are a necessity.
9: Don't hide while injured. The sounds of pain make you really easy to pick up.
10: Some people are jerks. I find it more rare than others and not that much different than other multiplayer games, but they exist. Best you know it happens beforehand.
11: Ignore lockers.
12: Some killers feel way stronger than they are. As an example: Wraith's invisibility feels way overpowered when you are new, and kind of inconsequential after awhile.
13: The game can be frustrating, but worthwhile. As survivor it's easy to go on streaks were it feels impossible. You'll know after a few escapes whether the game is for you. For me, escaping in DBD feels incredible. If you don't get that same rush and only have the frustration, you'll know its time to look for something else.
Run away.
"Ignore lockers" is terrible advice, though. Overreliance on lockers and jumping into them at terrible times is something that needs to be learned, but they're definitely a resource to exploit.
Play both roles, to understand better the strengths and weaknesses of each.
Be kind. Most times, your opponents are just... regular people like you. They're not out to ruin your day. Being respectful and kind brings tends to bring out the best in my opponents, and in turn makes losses less frustrating.
Don't expect toxicity in every game. If you go into a game steeling yourself in case it's toxic people, you'll only make yourself more anxious, often for nothing.
Don't take out your frustrations on the next opponent(s) (or teammates) you get. They have nothing to do with your past games.
Exhaustion perks are nice, but they're not a necessary fixture in your builds to have a good game. Perks that favor the group are important as well. Don't be shy in taking aura perks, perks that boost healing speed, or such.
Dont' try a late game rescue against an instadown killer. Don't try one at all against a facecamper at all if your teammates can't assist you.
Against a facecamper, don't hang around the hook looking for an opening. There won't be one. Do gens, and come for a trade (unhook at the cost of you being hooked next) at the right time so that the rest of the team can keep doing gens and escape. A team that goes for trades at the right times, on a medium sized map can hope for 3 escapes if everything goes well.
Best way to learn is to watch experience players play the game. Ask questions if you have to, but I asked Lilith one question in my entire blight career. It was completely unrelated to playing the character well, just didn't know what fatigue cancel was. Everything else I have learned about this game has come while watching content creators without asking any questions.
About the game being scary: I hate scary games or movies, but that was not much of an issue with dbd. Sure, at the beginning it can be scary or tense, but you get used to that pretty quickly and after that there is just the occasional jumpscare from Killers like Myers.
Don't shy away from challenges. You will never improve by dodging lobbies. That mainly refers to killers, but it can also apply to survivors as well. Resist the temptation to make up for skill gaps with builds. You'll eventually reach a point where you're running a bonkers build, still lose half the time, and have bad mechanics and game sense. DbD is designed to make up for skill gaps with load outs, but that won't make you a better player at all. Focus on the fundamentals.
Real example: Killer feels like they're getting gen rushed. It's because they have no idea how to use their power or run tiles efficiently, but they believe it's a lack of slowdown. They run 4 slowdowns and start to win games again. But they still suck at using their power and have zero game sense. Then they reach the next MMR bracket and still lose games, except they lose in 15 minutes instead of 5 minutes. My friends and I had a game against a 4 slowdown long mend add on Legion that took 20 minutes the other night. They got 5 total hook stages in 20 minutes because they were completely reliant on slowdown and had no clue how to actually play killer.