Developer Update | August 2025
The 9.2.0 Update arrives next week, so let’s check out the notable gameplay changes you can expect from this Public Test Build. Plus, stay tuned for next week's PTB Patch Notes where we’ll share the precise values that are changing for each of the topics below!
Read on for all the details:
NEW FEATURES
- If a Survivor is left in the Dying State for a total of 90 seconds during a match, they gain the ability to pick themselves up after fully recovering.
- Added the option to enable or disable this mechanic in Custom Games.
- Note: Perks that enable you to recover from the Dying State - like Boon: Exponential - will continue to function as before, without needing to meet this requirement.
- Gradually increases crawling speed for Survivors who are left in the Dying State.
- Added the ability for Survivors to recover while crawling. Recovery now occurs passively with no need to hold a button.
- Updated several Survivor and Killer perks to account for these changes.
Passive recovery while crawling
Pick yourself up if you’ve been in the Dying State for 90 seconds
DEV NOTE: When it comes to slugging, we know it can be frustrating if you're on the receiving end of it too often or for too long, but we also know that sometimes it's the smart move. This updated system acknowledges this, allowing the Killer to slug occasionally when they feel like it's the right call, but will eventually kick in and swing in the Survivor's favour if slugging is used excessively.
A big part of this is also about making the experience of being slugged more pleasant (as much as being slugged can be, at least). The recovery changes and crawling speed will give you a bit more agency when downed so you aren't just holding a button and waiting for someone to come save you.
- When a Survivor is hooked, their hook status is hidden from the Killer. When they’re unhooked, there is no notification and their hook status isn’t revealed immediately.
- This is disabled once all generators are completed.
- Unhooked Survivors gain the following effects for a limited time:
- Haste, Endurance, and Elusive (see below) status effects.
- No collision with other players (both Killer and Survivor).
- Immunity to Killer Instinct and sees the Killer’s aura nearby.
- These effects are lost when the affected Survivor perform a Conspicuous Action.
- All these effects (except Haste and Endurance) are disabled once all generators are completed.
- Added a unique effect to the Killer hook state UI that indicates the last Survivor they hooked.
- After completing a “unique hook” (the same Survivor is not hooked consecutively), Killers get the following benefits:
- Bonus damage for the next generator kick.
- Temporary Haste status effect.
- Temporarily reveals Survivors (think basekit BBQ & Chili) that have less or equal hook states to the hooked Survivor.
- These effects are slightly lessened for The Blight, The Dark Lord, The Ghoul, The Hillbilly, and The Nurse.
- These effects are disabled once all generators are completed.
- Added new effects that disincentivize tunneling:
- If a Survivor dies before 6 total hook states, all remaining Survivors gain a repair speed bonus for the rest of the Trial.
- If the Survivor that was last hooked is Sacrificed or Killed, generators cannot be regressed or blocked.
- Added the option to enable or disable these new mechanics in Custom Games.
- Updated several Survivor and Killer perks to account for these changes.
DEV NOTE: It’s no secret that tunneling can be seen as an efficient way to play for Killers. While this can be true, it’s also true that the results of this can be frustrating for Survivors, leading to Trials ending too quickly for some, while leaving others to fend for themselves in a match that is now much more difficult.
The intention here is for both roles to feel the benefits and incentives that come from spreading hook states. On the one end, Survivors have better opportunities to evade and reset after unhooks, while also limiting those tough situations where losing a Survivor too quickly causes things to go south quickly and snowball. On the other end, Killers are able to apply more map pressure to push back against efficient teams, covering ground post-hook and strengthening gen regression.
- Added a new status effect that silences grunts of pain and suppresses Survivor aura, pools of blood, and scratch marks.
DEV NOTE: To start, we’ll be using this new status effect as part of the tunnelling reduction update, but plan to integrate this into relevant existing perks down the road to make their descriptions more streamlined. Arguably the easiest way to look at this is a Survivor version of Undetectable, in that when it’s active, you know you’re in stealth mode.
- Updated “The Tomes” menu to feature new Tomes and accompanying lore alongside each Chapter release.
- New lore is unlocked each week within the active Tome.
DEV NOTE: Ever since we reworked the Tome, we’ve seen how much you’ve yearned for more lore. We’re happy to share that beginning with 9.2.0, lore is back! While previously, lore was tied to challenges, we want all players to have a chance to immerse themselves in these stories, so we’ve shifted to a weekly unlock, not linked to any quest completion.
KILLER UPDATES
- Replaced “Evil Within” with two modes that can be toggled with a button press:
- Stalker Mode: 4.2m/s movement speed, Undetectable, and can stalk Survivors.
- Pursuer Mode: 4.6m/s movement speed, 24m Terror Radius, increased vault speed, bonuses to lunge range, break speed, and stun recovery, and cannot stalk Survivors.
- Once the stalk meter is full, Evil Incarnate mode can be triggered at will, granting the following effects for a limited time (note: Survivors no longer become Exposed):
- 4.6m/s movement speed, 40m Terror Radius and an increased vault speed.
- Unlocks Slaughtering Strike ability:
- Hold the power button to charge this ability, reducing movement speed.
- Press the attack button while charging to quickly lunge forward, adjusting your angle as you move. The length of the lunge depends on charge time.
- If a Survivor enters the Killer’s attack range while lunging, they are knocked into the Dying State.
- This ability can also be used to destroy pallets.
- Unlocks the ability to grab and kill or perform a regular Mori on Survivors who would die the next time they are hooked.
- Adjusted some of the mechanics of stalking:
- Removed the limited pool of stalk points per Survivor.
- Reduced stalk range to 32m and removed distance modifier.
- Moving while stalking has increased movement speed but incurs a reduced stalk rate.
- Reworked his add-ons.
Slaughtering Strike in action
DEV NOTE: By moving away from linear “Evil Within” tiers, we wanted to give players more tools they can use to adapt to each Trial’s unique situations, while keeping the core of what makes him “The Shape”.
Slaughtering Strike makes for a high-threat offensive attack, offering up an insta-down opportunity with an extended lunge that's particularly effective in loops and for ripping through pallets quickly.
Understanding his kit has changed quite a lot, we’ve done a pass on nearly all his add-ons, reworking many of them to offer more unique effects. In particular for those who prefer his old playstyle, Fragrant Tuft of Hair will change Evil Incarnate to function like old Myers, offering an Exposed effect and no Slaughtering Strike. Stay tuned for patch notes for the full details on these changes!
- Increased activation time of the Afterpiece Antidote.
- Increased how long the Afterpiece Tonic’s Hindered effect lingers after leaving smoke.
DEV NOTE: We’ve heard your feedback that The Clown’s easier-to-activate Haste can make instigating and maintaining chases less interactive for Survivors. That, coupled with nerfs to his purple bottles has pushed players towards this frustrating tactic. To make both bottles feel like viable options without being too oppressive, we’ve adjusted the values of their most impactful qualities to strike a balance between pre-9.1.0 values and Live values.
- Increased the additional time added to Weakened when injured by a UVX projectile.
- Increased movement speed recovery after teleporting.
- Increased camera vertical range.
- Adjusted several add-ons.
Increased vertical camera range in action
DEV NOTE: The Unknown is largely considered to be fun to play as and against, and we want to preserve that while adapting to the current state of gameplay. We’ve buffed the UVX slightly, while also taking what we learned from The Animatronic to allow for orbitals, improving UVX aiming and making for even more fun gameplay.
It’s also likely no surprise that Blurry Photo is the most used add-on for the Unknown, given the importance of speed recovery. To help create an opportunity for more add-on experimentation, we’ve converted a portion of this add-on into a basekit buff, while also doing a pass on other add-ons that are due for some adjustments.
- Vampire Form:
- Slightly reduced Hellfire cooldown.
- Increased total Hellfire pillars by 1.
- Reduced Hellfire charge movement speed.
- Slightly increased slowdown time after casting Hellfire.
- Wolf Form:
- Increased Pounce Attack charge time.
- Increased Scent Orb spawn time.
- Bat Form:
- Increased movement friction to make flying easier to control.
- Adjusted his add-ons.
DEV NOTE: Vampire Form is slightly less oppressive in short loops where movement slowdown had less of an impact, and toning down Wolf Form’s mobility, which has been outclassing some dash Killers. On the flip side, you’ll find Bat Form easier to control in tighter spaces and can use Hellfire slightly more frequently and reach further with it.
- When grabbing a Survivor on the other side of a vault with Kagune Leap, the Survivor is released at the start of The Ghoul’s vault instead of at the end.
DEV NOTE: It’s no secret that it’s been a common pain point for Survivors to be locked in place when hit with a Kagune Leap Grab-Attack across a vault. Survivors shouldn’t have to wait for The Ghoul to finish their vault before being able to move again, so we’ve removed this tech.
- Hooking a Survivor now spawns more blood orbs.
DEV NOTE: We understand that with the changes we’re making to address slugging, this will impact The Oni slightly, so we want to mitigate this. By turning hooked Survivors into a greater source of power gauge build-up, The Oni is rewarded with more quickly snowballing power by hooking.
- Updated various perks.
DEV NOTE: In addition to the general perk balance updates you can expect each release, we've also made a number of adjustments to account for the new systems coming to DbD this update, specifically relating to slugging and tunneling.
Stay tuned on Wednesday, September 3 for the PTB Live Balance preview on Discord, where we'll dig into the details of these perk changes, and then follow that up with patch notes, where you can find the nitty-gritty numbers.
Until next time...
The Dead by Daylight Team
Comments
DBD the “horror game” where feelings guide the developers and the most iconic horror killers play by a rule book so players who play survivor don’t feel bad about themselves.
I'm not sure why you keep bringing up getting someone tunnelled out of the game, if I'm being honest.
We were talking about aggressively using/weaponising anti-tunnel, if you're mostly interested in tunnelling that'll never affect you because the defensive uses of those perks will affect you. The entire premise of the conversation is the idea that you're trying to chase someone else, at which point getting someone tunnelled out clearly isn't a priority.
Which is why it is two good outcomes potentially. You have the potential good outcome of picking them up, and you have the guaranteed good outcome of leaving them on the ground while you pressure their teammate.
I don't quite understand how people do not get that hitting a survivor who is not at risk of getting hooked is a massive tempo loss for killer. If you are an M1 killer especially, bodyblocks are an extremely powerful tool that survivors have access to. Surely we've all seen how powerful they are when trying to run to exit gates, right? The distance a survivor can gain on the killer after the killer has to go through an entire attack recovery animation is absolutely massive in terms of how long the chase can last.
This is why some Clown mains (for instance) run forced penance, to at least get some value out of the situation.
It's a tempo loss if they aren't giving anything up for it. If they're left on the ground and unable to contribute to the match for 90 seconds without someone coming off their generator to help, the chase extension they buy often isn't worth keeping them out of the match for that long.
If they just get injured or put in Deep Wounds, that's a lot more worth it, they can go back to progressing the objective afterwards and it's often a net gain.
Though, I do think everyone should keep in mind that post-unhook bodyblocking in particular is being removed in this PTB, so this is getting weaker overall.
I would absolutely love if unhooks now cause deep wound that need to be mended to make up for the delayed notification for unhook.
It really makes sense
Could you please clarify if condemned or reverse bear trap kills will also trigger this?
Hey folks! Popping in here with a quick update on the PTB Live Balance preview for Discord, as well as the PTB itself. The Discord preview will take place tomorrow, Wednesday, September 3, at 10 AM ET, and then the PTB will go live right after at 11 AM ET.
There's obviously a lot to dig into with this PTB, so we're looking forward to seeing you there, and will be at the ready to gather your feedback from the PTB!
Thank you for the heads-up! Are the patch notes also delayed till tomorrow?
I'm so done with this conversation. They aren't equally good outcomes.
This is exactly the same thing that you do with buff/nerf conversations. You refuse to acknowledge that different things have different weights. Like, if a killer gets a huge nerf, and a minor buff, you say things like "1 buff + 1 nerf = neutral overall changes".
I'm done with this.
Hey Ryan if its possible can you clarify that some stuff has changed when you mentioned the preview will be in the discord before actual PTB drops?
Or the valued remain the same
The big problem is that post-unhooking bodyblocking is still in the game, because the survivor has the control to end it early. For example, a recently unhooked survivor can tap their medkit, and instantly be able to bodyblock the killer if they wanted to.
Happy to help! Patch notes will also release tomorrow.
Apologies if I'm misunderstanding your question. If you're asking about whether changes have been made to what's laid out in this Developer Update, there have not. We want to ensure that players have time to dig into these changes and test them before evaluating potential adjustments.
Oh okay no worries, nah you got it thats what i was basically asking my bad if i made it hard to understand haha!
Cheers for the update much appreciated for clarifying!
See you in the fog
No problem whatsoever and believe me, you didn't make it hard to understand. Glad I could clear that up for you!
Allright, thank you!
if you do it before the 6 hooks, yeah, it specifies there "sacrifice OR KILL"
that would be completely against the idea of the change, its made to buy time, so stealing time would kill the idea, also deep wound deactivate endurance, so it would make the unhooked fragile, what obviously they dont want
If killer runs endgame perks, or there are least 3 survs left, anti-camp/tunnel measures should work on endgame, endgame perks hard carries killers and 3 survs are easy to kill (especially when they try to save that person on hook) so they should get benefits from anti camp/tunnel more!
Can BHVR please include these lives on YouTube and Twitch for those that don't use Discord and to give people more options where to watch.
most big streamers will stream themselves watching the livestream before joining the PTB. Highly recommend FarmerJohn on Twitch, he’s the most skilled DnD player there is and definitely not just a corn farmer trying to play video games.
I'd rather BHVR just do the stream themselves on their channel than watch someone watching it. People shouldn't have to resort to watching people making videos reacting to the stream to watch it on other platforms when BHVR can just stream the live on multiple platforms themselves. Plus I find the watching people watching/reacting to videos thing pretty annoying.
Can this not be abused by the survivors, if a survivor doesn't like the way a killer is playing can't they not just abuse this and force being hooked by pestering the killer and just annoying the killer in general no?
Also if this does happen do we not want to nerf survivor as well to counter act the effects this will have on all killer players
Does this not just kill Onryo by the way because her core mechanic is to kill survivors no matter the state of the game as long as they have full condem?
Yeah I've tried watching BHVR streams a couple times through big streamers and gave up quickly. The streamers still talk with chat or make comments constantly throughout, and I end up missing half the info from the stream.
The only think he gained was the ability to break pallets with his lunge, and lost the ability to effective camp with "T3" and prevent body blocking in "T3"
This is a latency issue, same with Huntress hitting you through walls/missing and still injuring.
This is fine, on the condition it lowers to 10% if you use gen perks like Pop or Pain Res. Otherwise those perks will be nerfed to a point they are not usable.
They lose collision, did you not read the entire section? They cannot body block anymore.
There's already Anti-Vision, it's called Dredge.
Myers is the same killer, it's just slightly tweaked and has QoL changes…
And you know what happens when they do this? you just walk through them (cause they have no collision)
Exactly. Plus they will have at minimum a facecam blocking a portion of the screen so they can make over exaggerated faces when reacting. If people enjoy that that's fine but for those of us that just want to watch the stream somewhere that isn't Discord BHVR should make it available on Twitch and YouTube as well.
I'm not sure if I'm reading this right, but it sounds like killer's are losing any ability to keep track of whether or not a survivor is hooked, has been hooked and how many times they've been hooked. Which is incredibly valuable information that can be used to prevent accidentally tunneling, which is now heavily punished by removing the use of some of the more powerful perks killer's have if a survivor who you don't know is on death hook gets downed too early?? Also sounds like survivor's could intentionally allow the first hook to go into second stage and use that survivor to bodyblock for everyone else since the killer would be kneecapping themself for killing them and downing them has little to no consequence??
Fortunately, enough people talked about it and rejected it that BHVR realized it was flawed.
The changes were sent back in the metaphorical oven to be polished and to make sure that normal gameplay isn't wrecked and the systems can't be abused/weaponized. They will be back in a futur PTB when they are ready for another attempt.
That is moderately good to hear, I would like to see changes made in this general direction, even as a killler main when I play, I don't imagine being told "you're not playing this game" is very fun. I just also don't want to see it swing too far the other way either. A lot of the changes proposed seem fine enough but taking away vital information from one side, especially when it can lead to unintentionally causing the problem that it's attempting to solve, isn't the best way to solve the problem. Looking forward to seeing what happens!!