What kind of killer playstyles are we still yet to see?

zonkednb

With 41 killers now, we have oodles of variety in terms of kit and effective playstyle. There's no indiciation the pace of new killers will slow, meaning there will be even more playstyles added.

Something I have noticed is a fair few killers have considerable overlap in how they are expected to play. While it wouldn't be reasonable to expect every new killer to be entirely distinct, as this would be a nightmare from just an ideation perspective, let alone balance, I often wonder what we are missing.

I see a fair few 'Imposter' style killers suggested, like a doppleganger or a licensed The Thing killer, but I'm in agreement that this would be too counterable via SWF, as fun as the concept sounds.

So…

What kind of playstyle archetype do you think DBD is missing?

Do you have any suggestions or ideas for what could be added and how it would work?

How would it be balanced?

ImWinston

• I don't know, even if the killers all appear different, they actually have characteristics that unite them. The most common families are: killers who throw something (Huntress, Trickster, Deathslinger, Nurse throws herself🤣), fast and lethal killers (Billy, Blight, Kaneki), killers with dash (Wesker, Victor), killers good at zoning (Knight, Skull Merchant), stealth killers (Ghostface is 100%, others partially exploit stealth), killers with traps (Trapper, Hag), and killers who combine two or more types of abilities (old Vecna, Dracula, to a certain extent even Springtrap). Perhaps an underused concept (because it's unpopular) are killers with "deadly" secondary objectives... besides Sadako and Pig, they're the only two that come to mind (other killers have secondary objectives, but none of them lead you to your inevitable death).

zonkednb

@ImWinston said:

• I don't know, even if the killers all appear different, they actually have characteristics that unite them. The most common families are: killers who throw something (Huntress, Trickster, Deathslinger, Nurse throws herself🤣), fast and lethal killers (Billy, Blight, Kaneki), killers with dash (Wesker, Victor), killers good at zoning (Knight, Skull Merchant), stealth killers (Ghostface is 100%, others partially exploit stealth), killers with traps (Trapper, Hag), and killers who combine two or more types of abilities (old Vecna, Dracula, to a certain extent even Springtrap). Perhaps an underused concept (because it's unpopular) are killers with "deadly" secondary objectives... besides Sadako and Pig, they're the only two that come to mind (other killers have secondary objectives, but none of them lead you to your inevitable death).

Nurse being her own projectile is a hilarious way to look at it.

So dya think there's room for another 'family' of killers? That's kinda my thought here. Or are we at the limit for feasible playstyles?

ConsAnthroid

So technically Knight and Twins tried doing "more than one killer", but it turned out to not really be that.
+ all the anti camp features really gutted their powers. You can literally ignore a ghost and run straight for the hook xD.

I am still waiting for something that feels like 2v4. Kind of like Lost Vikings in HotS where you control 3 really weak heroes instead of 1 normal.

I am thinking a 110% MS killer who has 2 bodies which he can switch between while also sending basic commands to the other one kind of like dog with Houndmaster.

Walk there.
Kick that gen.
Pick up that survivor if possible.
Hook there if possible.

crogers271

I'm going back a couple of years, but we had some long threads on this that it will be easier for me to link to. For my answers I didn't worry about engine feasibility or even if it would be good, just unique possibilities.

@crogers271 said:

There was a post on this 3 weeks ago if you want to read through people's ideas: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3637876

I'll just copy my post from back then with a few minor changes:

A killer who could disguise themselves as a survivor, but the difference between soloq and SWF would be even more enormous than normal.

Maybe a killer who isn't even on the map at all, but instead just summons different creatures to attack the survivors. That might be a bit too much like Evil Dead: The Game though.

A stealth sniper. Very slow moving until he tags a survivor from range and goes in for the kill, but also he has to retreat if he gets spotted before a successful shot.

A stealth infector who can dart survivors with a poison they can spread to others / causes hindrance, but they don't know they have it until it actually afflicts them (so it has a meter like the plague before injuring, during this time survivor can spread it, but they don't actually know they have it if they didn't spot the killer).

A jumper/rampager, like existed in Deathgarden, who can vault across the map. Would require that certain maps never occur if selected.

Someone who could alter the map, changing the way loops look and the position of windows, but I don't think the engine could handle it. Would probably be a good design for Freddy.

A killer who can teleport the survivors closer to him instead of teleporting to the survivors. The way I see this is that maps would be divided up into sections and the killer could target a section and teleport all survivors there to his section, being able to stop gen progress and not having to chase them, but if chooses the wrong section he's wasted time.

A killer who randomly shifts between other killers in the game (out of control Shang Tsung). Killers whose powers need to build / be set would probably need to be excluded (Oni, Trapper), but you could have a killer shift between the various stealth, ranged, anti-loop killers.

A weapons master killer who has weapons spawn around the map that he can gather to gain more powers, but survivors can also interact with the weapons to deny them to the killer.

A killer who can move the gens around the map (move them to spots they could have spawned in, or switch completed and non completed gens). This would be a bad design, but it would be unique.

A killer that can fly and has an aerial attack, but is incredibly weak when he is on land. Like a jumper would require that only certain maps be in his rotation.

An arena based killer who can draw survivors into a maze/arena where they face off. Killer could get quicker downs this way, but if the survivor escapes its wasted time.

A killer who is unable to kick / regress gens, but instead when he 'kicks' a gen he charges his power (the closer the gen is to finished, the more power he gains). He then goes into an overdrive mode like Oni when fully charged where he can rush around the map (or deploy projectiles, some type of charged up power).

A killer with no power, but he gets 8 perk slots.

A killer who has to trigger his traps. Like a combination of Hag and Skull Merchant, imagine an electric net on the ground, but it doesn't auto trigger, the killer has to actually set it off, but it instantly deals damage and hindered.

Some of those are bad, but I tried to jot down any possibility that crossed my mind.

zonkednb

@crogers271 said:

I'm going back a couple of years, but we had some long threads on this that it will be easier for me to link to. For my answers I didn't worry about engine feasibility or even if it would be good, just unique possibilities.

https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/discussion/comment/3656236#Comment_3656236

The sniper idea is kinda dope. It'd feel kinda like getting exposed by Ghostface but you wouldn't know immediately that he's close, so there'd be a brief period of tension where you know he's coming for you but when and where from is a mystery. Maybe tagged survivors are made oblivious via an addon.

I think this quote does show off the main issue, that being the age of the game and limitations. The most ambitious ideas here are awesome but I could never see them being added.

Royval

FPS

KytLuna

Imo, in the current condition of the game, every possible killer playstyle has been implemented already. I think for there to be a new killer playstyle implemented, more new/original features would need to be added to the game. The core concept of dead by daylight is pretty simple, and that unfortunately limits the kinds of possible playstyles/types of killer power. I'd love to see more variety and unique gameplay, but without more additions to the games general features, I just don't really see that happening.

100PercentBPMain

I think a thing type thing could work from Parasyte, only let them use non licenced stuff. this could be a smart way to get killers to buy survivor cosmetics. the real power would be Claudette opening her face like a Demogorgon so the fake survivor bit doesn't need to be relevant

turboyabo

mimic killers , a fake gen ,fake hook, a fake pallet, fake window , fake totem,this type of killer is lot better then simply just mimicking the suriviors.

they probably have a 2 hit range ability .

and would likely be a late game killer

Skillfulstone

I'd like it if, at some point, we got a Killer who could affect the map directly.

Not like Dredge or Freddy or Vecna 2, I mean literally able to switch map mid-match, or re-roll the pallet/gen/tiles rng of the current map.

They would need to have a teleport of some kind so that their own power don't screw them over if they suddenly end up in a huge map.

Xray

A godview killer, idk how that would work but it would be funny for a killer to just mark an area divebomb you like Radahn from Elden Ring.

zonkednb

@Xray said:

A godview killer, idk how that would work but it would be funny for a killer to just mark an area divebomb you like Radahn from Elden Ring.

I thought about that tbh. We kinda have a scuffed version of this with Singularity, if you place your cams high up. But having a map-wide view where you can tactically deploy area effects/debuffs/pressure before engaging more directly would be fun. Maybe when you 'deploy' the killer and control them, you have limited time to get the down before they have to be recalled and go on cooldown, so you cycle through setting up an area, spawning in, zoning towards that area and making use of your devious plan to get a down quickly enough.

When a survivor is picked up the timer pauses so you can always consolodate your down.

ShanoaLegendaryPlz

Something like Critters where theyd either be a little mobile swarm that turns into a big rolling bouncy ball of teeth. Not like blight bouncing but in general it rolls over pallets n survivors and coliding off walls slow it down.

zonkednb

@niteowl said:

I suppose we haven't seen more hybrid concepts? Like a killer who sets up traps that somehow enable their power rather than directly act on their own. Random example, a killer who would set up vine pods or something and then when around them be able to tarzan swing around them and off them etc.

So placeable mobility?

So you can use them for pure traversal but if you zone a survivor into an area where you know you have a pod placed, you've got chase plus added mobility options.

I could see this as pretty fun because the traps themselves don't earn injuries, but when placed well they could be very oppressive in an area. Killer would have mobility, traps/setup/strategy, and even slowdown because I would imagine survivors would have a secondary objective, like a task, skillcheck or item they need to collect in order to dispel the pod and regain control of the area.

Get the movement right and it'd be a super high skill floor/ceiling killer that'd earn a lot of respect.

zonkednb

@ShanoaLegendaryPlz said:

Something like Critters where theyd either be a little mobile swarm that turns into a big rolling bouncy ball of teeth. Not like blight bouncing but in general it rolls over pallets n survivors and coliding off walls slow it down.

The potential cosmetics already have me hyped for this one. A momentum killer with a swarm that gets progressively more and more dangerous, either through being impossible to avoid at a certain point or just much more lethal. Survivors have to keep the numbers in the swarm down somehow to counteract. if they neglect this, the swarm just bulldozes everything.

Maybe the swarm drops down a stage after getting a down to prevent new players from getting annihilated immediately by a 4-man-slug.

Alicina Dimetrescu's daughters, mayhaps?