Dev Update January '24: Gens, FoV, Hillbilly, Onryo, And More!
Developer Update | January 2024 - BHVR
Developer Update | January 2024
Happy new year! Our team is back in action, and we’ve got a doozie of a Developer Update in store for you today. In this edition, we’ll be covering everything coming to Dead by Daylight in our first major update of the year, from various Killer, Perk, and Map updates and more. We’ve been busy, so buckle up, it’s a long one.
Generators
Kicking things off (no pun intended), we have a few updates to Generators. More specifically, these changes target how Generators are damaged by the Killer and how their regression can be stopped by Survivors. The goal with this update is to bring an end to excessively long matches (3 gen scenarios in particular) and at the same time improve the Killer’s ability to damage Generators. 3 gen scenarios are those where the killer aims to defend 3 generators that are close by in particular, and does not participate in normal gameplay – not chasing survivors etc, in this instance survivors are not able to make any meaningful progress to those generators.
Going forward, each Generator can only suffer from a maximum of 8 ‘regression events’ – where a regression event is any time the Killer or their Perks removes at least 2.5% of the Generator’s progress in an instant. An indicator will show the Killer if a Generator can no longer be damaged. In the overwhelming majority of games, this will not come into play. However, in scenarios where the Killer is defending a set of Generators and refusing to chase Survivors, there will eventually come a point where they can no longer damage the Generator, helping bring an end to excessively long matches.
At the same time, we want to address a point of frustration for Killers as well: Survivors working on a generator briefly to stop it from regressing, or “Gen tapping” for short. Given that the number of regression events is now limited, stopping a Generator from regressing is more meaningful than ever. To prevent Survivors from tapping a Generator to negate one of those regression events, we have made two changes:
- The base damage from kicking a Generator has been increased to 5% (was 2.5%).
- At least 5% of the Generator’s total charges must be repaired to stop regression, otherwise it will begin regressing again when the Survivor stops repairing.
This will help ensure that the Killer always gets some value from kicking a Generator and encourage Survivors to think twice before attempting to stop the regression.
FOV Setting
Is Shadowborn permanently locked into one of your Perk slots? Well, that’s about to change thanks to the new first-person field of view (FOV) slider. Starting with this update, Killers in first person will be able to adjust their FOV to something they’re more comfortable with, ranging from 87 degrees (the current default) to 103 degrees (the current maximum with Shadowborn).
Perks which alter your FOV (Shadowborn and Monitor & Abuse) will need to be adjusted. We’ll cover exactly how those Perks are changing later in this post.
Bear in mind this option only applies to first person field of view and therefore will not affect Survivors. Since Survivors play the game from the third person perspective, a wider FOV would add to an already advantageous camera view.
Initially this feature will be accessible through the Beta Tab in game.
The Onryo
A few months ago, we released a major update to The Onryo. Though some players were pleased with the changes, many longtime Onryo mains felt that her gameplay had changed too much from the Killer they once loved. In this update, we want to revisit Sadako once more to find a middle ground which better appeals to all her players, old and new.
Condemned
In the last update, Condemned would spread to all Survivors who were not holding a tape whenever Sadako projected to a TV. This allowed her to spread her curse more often, but many felt that this favoured teleporting as soon as possible rather than strategically during a chase. We have a few changes in mind to restore this gameplay while keeping Condemned more prominent:
- When The Onryo teleports, Survivors within 16m of a powered TV will receive a stack of Condemned.
- The teleport cooldown has been removed, allowing her to teleport more frequently.
- When a Survivor is hooked, their current Condemned progress becomes locked in, preventing it from being removed.
This will make it very risky for Survivors to ignore Sadako’s curse. Survivors will want to shut off nearby TVs and deposit their tapes before it’s too late. Speaking of tapes…
Cursed Tapes
We’ve also reviewed the way Cursed Tapes work to bring back some of their fondly remembered behaviour.
- Cursed Tapes no longer protect Survivors from gaining Condemned.
- Cursed Tapes are no longer destroyed or inflict Condemned when a Survivor is hit.
- Cursed Tapes can only be deposited in the further TV from where they were picked up.
This will once again force the Survivors to spend some time crossing the map in order to delay the curse.
Demanifested
The previous update made it so The Onryo couldn’t start a chase while Demanifested. This had a side effect of making it very obvious when she Demanifested in the middle of a chase, allowing Survivors to anticipate and play around it.
- The Onryo can now chase Survivors while Demanifested.
Additionally, many pointed out that one of The Onryo’s changed Add-Ons, Reiko’s Watch, was very fun to use. Rather than add the effect back into the Add-On, we instead incorporated it into her base kit to make the Add-On feel less essential.
- The duration of invisibility while Demanifested has been increased to 1.2 seconds (was 1 second).
Add-Ons
With all these changes in mind, we’ve reviewed a handful of The Onryo’s Add-Ons which either no longer have a purpose or promoted strongly disliked playstyles.
The Hillbilly
Uh oh, watch out Survivors, it looks like someone unwrapped a brand new chainsaw. It’s The Hillbilly’s turn for an update!
Overdrive
The controversial Overheat mechanic is no more; Overdrive is the new talk of the town. As The Hillbilly uses his chainsaw, it will generate heat just like before. When the heat meter is full, not only will he continue being able to use it, but his chainsaw will kick into Overdrive and gain the following effects for the next 20 seconds:
- Chainsaw charge speed is increased by 5%.
- His Chainsaw Sprint movement speed increases to 13m/s.
- Chainsaw Sprint cooldowns are reduced by 10%.
The short version? Heat is good now.
Cleaning Up
At the same time, we’ve made some general improvements to The Hillbilly’s kit and smoothed out some of the rougher edges.
- The base Chainsaw Sprint movement speed has been increased by 10%.
- Reduced the size of the Chainsaw’s collision detection to make Chainsaw Sprints more maneuverable in maps with high density tiles
- Camera sensitivity is no longer incorrectly tied to the controller sensitivity setting while using a mouse & keyboard. (Chainsaw controls are now equal to 100% sensitivity before.)
Add-Ons
Last but certainly not least, we have done a pass on The Hillbilly’s Add-Ons with these changes in mind. This blogpost is long enough as is, so keep an eye on the patch notes when the Public Test Build (PTB) goes live for more details!
The Blight’s Add-Ons
Next up, we have changes in store for a handful of The Blight’s Add-Ons.
Blighted Rat & Blighted Crow
These Add-Ons are fairly strong, making it far more difficult to get out of the way of his Rush in time. We have reduced the Rush speed bonus of these Add-Ons to 2% and 3% respectively (was 4% and 6%).
Adrenaline Vial
This Add-On has a lot going on, making it jack-of-all-trades. To simply it and bring it closer in line with other options, we are removing the following effects:
- No longer decreases time to recharge a Rush token by 1 second.
- No longer increases Rush speed by 10%.
The Add-On now does the following (these effects are unchanged):
- Increases maximum Rush tokens by 2.
- Increases maximum Rush look angle by 20 degrees.
- Decreases Rush turn rate by 55%.
Alchemist’s Ring
(The one you probably aren’t surprised to see on this list.) Restoring Rush tokens on hit is incredibly powerful, so we’ve reworked this Add-On entirely.
- Increases Rush duration by 20% for each consecutive Rush.
Compound Thirty-Three
Reducing the Survivor’s movement speed acts very similarly to increasing The Blight’s Rush speed. We’ve decided the best course of action is to give this Add-On a new effect:
- Each consecutive Rush which is longer than 4 meters increases turn rate by 33%.
Iridescent Blight Tag
This Add-On can also be extremely powerful in the right hands. It also promotes the awkward gameplay of repeatedly slamming into a wall to take advantage of the effects of the last Rush. We’ve given this Add-On a brand-new effect as well:
- Enables Rush to be performed without spending tokens.
- Rush bonuses are capped after 3 consecutive rushes.
- Blighted Corruption goes on cooldown for 20 seconds after a successful Lethal Rush attack.
Perk Updates
Next up, we’ve got a bunch of Perk updates to share!
Save the Best for Last
This Perk indirectly became stronger when the successful basic attack cooldown was reduced some time ago. Certain Killers can also circumvent the downside by using their special attack to injure the Obsession. To tone it down and make it more consistent across all Killers, we have made the following changes:
- Each Token grants a stackable 4% decreased successful basic attack cooldown (was 5%).
- 2 tokens are lost when the Obsession loses a health state by any means (was basic attacks).
Grim Embrace
Grim Embrace blocks Generators for a substantial duration. However, it only activates once and requires the Killer to hook every Survivor once, it can be a little inconsistent and hard to activate. Therefore, we’re adding a secondary effect on top of the existing effect:
- The first time a Survivor is hooked, all generators are blocked for 8/10/12 seconds once the Killer moves at least 16 meters from the hook.
This will ensure the Killer is always able to get some value out of their Perk even if the last elusive Survivor manages to evade them and reward Killers who switch targets.
Quick Gambit
This Perk grants other Survivors a repair speed boost when you are being chased nearby. However, its range is fairly low, making it difficult to get close enough for other Survivors to benefit from without also putting them in danger.
- We have increased the range to 36 meters (was 24 meters).
- We have reduced the repair speed bonus to 3/4/5% (was 6/7/8%).
Hex: Ruin
We toned this Perk down in a previous update. In retrospect, since the Perk could already be disabled by being cleansed, the added activation condition did not feel necessary.
- Hex: Ruin is no longer disabled once a Survivor is killed or sacrificed.
Shadowborn
With the new FOV slider being introduced, Shadowborn is now obsolete and needs a new effect.
- When blinded by any means, gain a 6/8/10% Haste effect for 10 seconds.
Monitor & Abuse
Likewise, the FOV altering effects of Monitor & Abuse are now unnecessary considering the added FOV slider. Monitor & Abuse allows for some interesting niche playstyles as is, so we have simply removed the FOV adjustments from this Perk and left the Terror Radius effects unchanged.
Ormond Gameplay Update
The newly renovated Mount Ormond Resort is open for the season! This update consists of layout changes to the front & back of the lodge, as well as miscellaneous loop adjustments.
The front of the lodge currently has a long row of rocks stretching across it. This can get in the way and make it difficult to traverse the map. Additionally, there’s no room in this portion of the map for any windows or pallets, essentially making it a big dead zone. We’ve given this portion of the map an overhaul to create more interesting gameplay.
The back of the lodge, meanwhile, is comprised of mostly picnic tables. Great for enjoying a meal in the freezing cold, but not very impactful when it comes to gameplay. Pallet loops around these tables are fairly short, making them incredibly unsafe. We have similarly adjusted this area to improve gameplay.
Game Modifiers
Whilst these will not be in the upcoming PTB, our first limited time modifier Dead by Daylight – Lights Out, will be available to play in the coming months. Stay tuned for more information!
Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of this very long Developer Update! Everything we’ve mentioned here will be available to test on the Public Test Build starting tomorrow.
For more information on the Live Game Changes, please join us in the Dead by Daylight Community Discord on the 9th January at 9.30am ET.
As always, we’ll take the time to read through your feedback and make further adjustments as needed before this update goes live on all platforms in the weeks following.
Until next time…
The Dead by Daylight team
Comments
I can confirm that regression from missed skill checks, including those caused by Perks, are not considered regression events. That progress loss is caused by the Survivor missing, not the Killer.
Thx for confirming
1.Is Sadako still undetectable in her ability?
2.How long will the Tv cooldowns be?
3.Do the tapes only deactivate TVs and remove condemned, when putting them in a TV? (Passive condemned, when holding one?)
Edit: I changed the first question, because I got it wrong.
otz said same thing. the perk looks nerfed.
Yes, in fact I have played more against old onryo than the new one, it was one of my favourite killers to verse because of the visual heartbeat letting me prerun and waste more of her time. I have versed really good ones, ones that got 4 codemn kills with the old condemn playstyle.
However I must also add that the games lasted around 20+ minutes which consisted of them taking down all resourses in the map until there were only windows and deadzones, because before that looping her was as easy as any m1.
Hence why all of them too had 4 or 3 slowdowns, not only was old onryo boring as any m1 killer, if they were good it was just an endurance match that ended in two ways, first outcome the pallets got destroyed before gens got done because people were bad at looping: sadako wins, people are decent at the game and gens get done before the map is a deadzone: the survivors win.
I was 4th highest on public steam leader boards with sadako and mained her from launch.
I used Stbfl, face the darkness, Discordance and surge. For addons, I only used cabin sign.
Got 2 - 3 condemn moris almost every game. Mostly hooking, rarely slugging.
The rework on the Ptb tomorrow will give her a stronger map pressure (all TVs in a 16m radius will give one stack condemned per tp), stronger chase (reikos watch basekit buff) and strategic thinking (predicting tvs).
Tapes will be very scary and can't be ignored.
She will be a string killer with a strategic skill cieling.
I'm really glad they finally listened and gave her the changes she deserves.
What your describing is basicly every m1 killer with 4 slowdowns. Sadako was better with other stuff. Mostly info. I do t think you played against GOOD Sadakos. At least from what your describing. Sorry.
@Peanits
I have one more important question.
Will passive condemned be making a return?
It wasn't quite clear in the dev notes.
My instinct as a player is that it probably should? Otherwise we're still engaging in brain-unnecessary counterplay territory: Are you working on a gen? Take tape, done, work on gen. Given the sheer potential for impact that locking in could have, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable with survivors receiving a full stack just from taking a tape, but taking one needs at least some risk-reward aspect.
Weighing in: I'm 110% behind the Sadako changes, to the limited extent I can be without the full changelog. This is everything I wanted to see from a Sadako rework - tweaks to improve her capabilities and make tapes more relevant, not a wild reimagining.
Quick question: Do failed skill checks also count as regression events? I would especially like to know how this might impact Huntress' Lullaby.
Edit: Nevermind. I withdraw the question.
Look up
No it does not count as regression event.
He wrote something like, it‘s the survivors vault, when missing and so the killer doesn‘t do anything.
Whoops. Someone forget to refresh the page. 😳
Thank you.
She need the newpapper not the clock
And other part, the old condemned was super bad, 16 meters i dont know if will be enought for apply preasure to the survivors and incentive the tvs... I dont like NOTHING, honestly
I believe these things are explained in the Dev update on the first page of this thread.
Cursed Tapes
We’ve also reviewed the way Cursed Tapes work to bring back some of their fondly remembered behaviour.
That does not answer my questions.
1.Will she be undetectable in her ability?
2.There is nothing about the TV cooldown, only about the tp cooldown.
3.Does it do anything else than turning of TVs like giving a survivor condemned by holding a tape.
I'm quite excited for this! There are a lot of interesting changes.
Generators: I never saw this idea coming and actually can see this working well for both sides in theory. In practice, the PTB will show for sure. I don't recall ever having to regress a gen 8+ times before as Killer, so if that's the case then this adds pressure to Survivors more, whilst also ending any frustrating final 3 stand-offs.
FOV: Good all round, I believe. Can't assess the Perk changes well enough currently, but I can see Lightborn and Shadowborn going well together. Monitor amd Abuse is still useful, so overall good.
Onryō: I personally love this. Jumping around TVs rapidly was something I missed with the change and the fact the curse affects all active TV's 16m radius will get some decent use.
Hillbilly: ...... absolutely nothing bad with this change at all. Welcome back, Hillbilly! We've missed ya!
Blight add-ons: Seems like fair changes. No real complaints here.
STBFL: It will still have its uses and I don't see a 1% decrease per stack as a painful change. Besides, people may use a wider variety of Perks as a result, which is only good for the game.
Grim Embrace: A nice change and I can see it used more. Helps earlier on in the game a little, halting progress and allowing the Killer to return to the chase with a bit more freedom.
Quick Gambit: Not sure how this will get it used more, but I may be wrong. Interesting change which may be played around with, but I can see this Perk still falling into the background.
Ruin: Fair change. No issues.
Ormand: I'm all for change to remove heavy dead zones, so am looking forward to this.
Overall, a good set of changes in theory! With the new Survivor coming out too, it should be an intriguing PTB!
FOV: Good all round, I believe. Can't assess the Perk changes well enough currently, but I can see Lightborn and Shadowborn going well together. Monitor amd Abuse is still useful, so overall good.
I'd expect that they won't work together. You can't be blinded if you use Lightborn, and you can't use the new Shadowborn if you can't be blinded.
Can someone explain the portion about Condemned progress being locked when hooked?
So if I get a Survivor to 5 Stacks of Condemned before hooking that Survivor, that Survivor cannot lose Condemn progress for the rest of the match even if they deposit tapes?
Dude I'm excited about this. He had to be my main and I may come back now!
great job devs! No sarcasm
I kinda disagree with the save the best for last nerf but overall pretty good changes
I also think so too. Now that tp has no cd, she can spam every TV at the start of the match to instantly build a lot of Condemn and disable every TV preventing survivors from grabbing Tapes. The strat would probably be:
About her changes, I always think about no/short TVs cooldown lead to constant spamming. Even if survivors are not near TVs/holding a tape. Its always about teleporting just to deny tape for survivors.
This was my only complaint with the update. Ormond is my least favorite map to play as killer. Map should be like 15% smaller.
This sucks.
No, really, the only good thing I'm reading is the killer FOV stuff and Billy maybe being pulled out of his D- dumpster fire tier into a solid C+.
What the hell are killers supposed to do when you gut regression AND chase? I guess we can just tunnel harder but man that's frigging boring.
c33 - I'll have to use it to see how good it is
speed - Still really strong, it's still multiplicative with itself
vial -- Pretty bad add-on now
Ring - If anything it will have some wacky tech interactions, no ones ready for the 6 second long quadruple back moonrush XD.
sure you are
C33 will only be good cause it could possibly bring J flick back. Other than that, turn rate add-ons are really useless. I don't think vial's hitbox has been touched so I think pairing vial with new C33 could call for some cheesy flicks. Think that'd be the only reason I'd run it, but I'll probably be running crow/ring. Yeah, a 5% loss to speed ain't that big of a loss. I can't wait to create "drift blight" with iri tag/ring. Moonrushing is gonna be hilarious with iri tag & ring. Just infinite moonrushes.
From a solo queue perspective, I can guarantee the way this will work out is if a survivor is hooked with a high number of Condemned, they're just going to let go or DC. Not being able to remove Condemned is just going to make people feel like there's no point in continuing the game once they reach a certain point. That won't be evident in the PTB, but I know how it'll go from 3 years of experience in solo queue.
J flicks won't come back because turn rate doesn't affect look angle on flicks.
As a fellow Bubba main, I am terrified of them touching Bubba. I sure would like a basekit Bamboozle though! And maybe some changes to make chilli green instead of purple.
33% turn rate + the 15% from umbra salts. And iirc, J flick was achieved from his old turn rate, before they capped the rate he can turn. Lilith was somewhat able to do it with vial and umbra salts when his add-ons got buffed originally. We won't know until tomorrow though, but I am pretty sure J flick will be achievable again with this add-on change.
c33+Adrenaline vial is going to be decently strong. Iri-tag+Alchemist ring likely will not be popular because of 20 second cooldown but it will have interesting gameplay.
I think your likely to see people run Shredded notes+Blighted crow as new "old Alchemist ring+ Blighted crow".
C33 seems strong for sure. I think the classic alch ring/green-speed will be strong as well.
Shredded + crow isn't very good honestly, double speed will still be a lot stronger
Iri-tag/ring is really just a gimmick for fun though.
blighted crow currently is 6% and blighted rat is 4%. this is strong because your passing a really high movement speed threshold. new version, 3%+2% is 5%. These two add-on don't even add to current green crow. I am pretty sure that yellow speed is kinda dead add-on.
Green speed is still useful because it increases his map traversal and it is alternative to Alchemist ring which is the better map traversal add-on but ring no longer gives you recovery and Adrenaline vial does not give you that insane recovery. Shred notes+Crow is only combination that is close to current Alchemist ring/Blighted crow. The speed and recovery is obviously worse because the changes are intentional nerfs but it is as close as you get to current blight.
Shredded Notes is more of a memey add-on. You’re nerfing yourself putting it with crow. It’s good with current vial cause of the recharge time but mostly for the laughs.
You might see iri tag/alch ring for a bit but double speed will still be popular and more than likely still ran. I honestly might main crow/ring now. I wonder if that will become meta cause of speed and distance, but I fear it’s gonna be even easier overshooting where you’re trying to go.
Alright, I have three very big issues with the anti 3 gen system as proposed.
This mechanic would have been far far far less problematic if instead of capping the number of regression instances, you guys had capped the total BONUS regression applied to each gen. That way the killer never feels helpless because they still will always have access to the old base of -0.25 c/s regression (which also wasn't ever problematic), we aren't somewhat forced into big bursty regression or nothing, and non regression kick perks don't get caught in the cross fire.
Why not just make surge basekit, make it do 0.0001% and make it so killers cant damage the gens at all?
Its good too because most 3gens were created by survivors just slamming out the gens and not thinking about which ones to do, now they can just do whatever :)
Great job guys.
This games getting so far from what make it good its unreal.
The Onryo changes are looking quite promising so far. Anxiously awaiting the PTB to decide for sure, but the blending of the old and new Sadako kits is really creative in concept. Having condemned be locked down on someone with 5 or 6 stacks would be pretty brutal by the sound of it.
Don't crush my dreams like that! :((
Agree!
I'm so happy!
will it give condemn in 16m area around TV Sadako teleportes to? Since she turns it off, i'm not sure of it
Yes it's written as though it's in addition to the one you teleport to.
16m was good if played correctly.
It's now gonna be 16m around EVERY TV.
TVs are around gens. Therefore people have to get off gens and have to interact with tapes.
Do you think without getting passive condemned from tapes, it will be a bad counter for her?
So people always take tapes and shut down whole areas of the map, because there is no risk.
There is risk.
The cooldown on TVs is very short and predicting the target TV can mean certain death for the survivor if the team is not playing together.
If course the sadako has to play strategically well and pay attention to taken tapes and TV cooldowns.
Its skillful. Something she desperately needed to return.
If you play her badly, she will not be as strong as right now. If you play her really well, she could even outperform the current version I bet.
Depends on the addon changes.
I mean when they won‘t get condemned, then people will just turn TVs off around gens and with the current cooldown, it will be 70s (I think).
Because most of people want this game to be balanced around a professional 4-men SWF
Needs to be tested.
I'm gonna play a lot on the Ptb and find out about the rougher edges.
That's what a Ptb is for (hopefully).
I’m excited for the changes! I’m a little iffy on the 8 gen limit affecting perks but I’m sure it will be okay. Wow how exciting! 😊