Tunneling Reduction
For survivors:
No scratch marks for a while after being unhooked.
If the killer hooks the same survivor twice in a row, the haste given from being unhooked does not go away until healed or knocked down.
For killers:
If the killer hooks a survivor who is not the same as the last hooked survivor, the generator with the most progress goes down slightly (and/or perhaps highlighted).
[If you dragged the game out], (this benefit).
—BHVR's original anti-tunneling system made it too easy for the tunneled survivor to protect other survivors, which was definitely unintended. With this system, the killer can continue to target the same survivor three times in a row if they wish, it is just more difficult to match with the massive benefit the killer gains from tunneling one player out. I don't enjoy tunnelling, but I think there should be leeway to kill the same person three times still. I would say it's generally well known that if you remove one player quickly, then the game slows down drastically in the killer's favour. This should come at an increased difficulty rather than be both A) easier to do and B) the far stronger choice to win.
I also think the original system was far too punishing on the killer when they just so happened to hook the same survivor twice in a row. This happens frequently without targetting the unhooked player or otherwise tunneling — so I would give the injured player with 2 hook states a choice: if they are getting tunnelled out of the game, they receive a speed boost to help with their final chases. But if they are safe, they can be healed a health state instead and lose the speed boost. I feel like this would punish the killer mostly in cases when they chase the tunneled survivor to finish them quick, but not really affect incidental back-to-back hooks as much.
In my opinion there should be some sort of extra entity-given incentive for killers who prefer spreading hooks and causing pain on living survivors for as long as possible to do that, because I think those types of matches are more fun/fair for everyone in the match.
So an incentive to drag out the game/torture probably given by the entity. However, I'm not sure what the best metric to differentiate a killer's torture pleasing to the entity and deserving of a reward, versus an instant execution of most players which doesn't give the buff/reward.
Comments
People don't understand why people tunnel still… They want to win a competitive game and take every advantage they can, so they run most meta possible and tunnel. Same as survivors take bst they can and rush gens. It always been like this but as 3 gen got removed and camping was made harder, not many strategies left. But tunneling is a standard competitive way to play in any pvp game and DBD is only game to deny this tactic to some point.
Your survivor idea is permanent sprinting. They get permanent speed for "getting unhooked" that will stay even after doing gens, unhooking others or whatever.
Do you really think thats not broken?
From my understanding, it's a speed boost that lets you outrun other survivors, but not killers. I don't think it is the same haste effect that lithe/SB/so on would apply.
In any case though, no, I was thinking more along the lines of the speed boost that Made For This gives. The killer can still kill them as per usual, but they have a slight speed boost.
The goal is not to take away from people who desire to win a competitive game using any advantage they can find. I do, however, think the advantage is much too great when you compare it to the difficulty of tunnelling. If tunneling is easier than spreading hooks but gives better results, that needs correction. Tunnelling should require overcoming something, because after you complete it, you're in a much better spot than if you had targetted separate players.
The game needs rebalance on killer side first. You should have equal chance to win with every killer. There is no reason why you would be punished for playing killer you enjoy because they are powercrept.
I agree that the killers are extremely disparate in power level.
That is another factor which contributes to DBD's identity confusion because killers can choose to make themselves powerful or extremely weak. Is it meant to be competitive and tunneling and kill everyone asap, or is it meant for playing around.
if you use tunneling to body block or protect an unhooker you have no argument against being tunneled in my opinion.
there are already multiple perks that help the unhooked to help you get away but if we are offering a solution to tunneling because people use the tunneling offensively than no solution is needed as it ceases to be the more problematic form of tunneling the second you use your protection as a weapon and not a defense.
I'm not entirely sure what you mean by this. My implementation would not let the tunneled player offer any extra protection to the other players, though an old version of behaviours might have given long invincibility for instance.
i guess im unsure how your system can account for tunneling as needed. for example if i am down 3 gens i really gotta start getting the ball rolling so i dont like the impact of being penalised because i have to tunnel.
I dont think tunneling should be penalised per se though i do recomend it has use cases which are very unfun.
In my perspective tunneling isnt really anywhere near as frequent that people claim at lwast in my servers.
if im accused of tunneling its always inadvertent. i move on map and you run in front of me, if im not already in chase or have a strategic need to go somewhere else, i will take the chase.
i feel the current system for handling slugging is fine though im not against it being changed, i just dislike if a change will penalise me for doing an action that im not doing maliciously like others might be doing.
and if i played a normal game i dont want to chase a guy who already takes 2 loops around the map in a straight line to catch up to now take 3 loops when i need to get this person out.
that being said i originally ready your message while working so i hadnt fully caught what you were saying.
In my opinion they should take away the "need" to "get this one person out" by incentivizing the killer with something like generator anti progress to simulate the benefit they would have gotten from tunneling. Then they should make it so the third time you chase one person in a row, if they don't heal, they get a made for this speed buff. I don't think this would penalize inadvertent tunneling as much as intentionally doing it, and as long as there were a greater incentive to "torture" survivors and make the trial longer it could work.
I am unsure why people dislike the infinite haste for tunneled survivor, technically speaking it's going to be a 1 time thing only (unless ofc Shoulder the burden but that's a different topic). Even with such system you still can pretty much tunnel someone out you just need 1 hook in-between 1st and 2nd hook of survivor you wanna tunnel out.
One can say it's again, hand holding, giving free stuff for survivors, but if it comes together with some good stuff for killers who spread hooks? Hell yeah count me in.
On the other hand, the flaws of your system are similar to design of Pain Res. It sounds like a design to discourage tunneling, but ends up working much better after tunneling. Similarly, if a killer tunnels a survivor out, they now also get the passive benefit of spreading hooks since that's usually what is done after.
It is why imo to design a proper hook spread or anti tunnel system, it needs to be separated into different scenarios, depending on the state of the game. Because frankly speaking, a full meta Blight killing someone at 5 gens, and a trapper on his last gen who really needs that kill as fast as possible shouldn't be treated as similar situations
It’s such a cheap ‘tactic’ and guarantees a win at the start of the match, I actually can’t believe it’s still in the game in the big 2026 🤣
This is good feedback
I agree that this system could fall into a "win more" trap and not really help killers who struggle to get the ball rolling as-is. The game could already be over by the time Trapper manages his second hook and the system is irrelevant, but it'll still benefit tunnelling somewhat.
Perhaps the buff could be applied on the first hook. But we are definitely falling into Pain Res territory where good killers get much better but bad killer don't benefit much at that point. That's a shame really but I do appreciate your comment pointing that out.
typically in pvp games and competitions in general you dont go easy on your opponents because they are playing poorly.
True, but this community is slower than molasses in an igloo when it comes to taking the fact of the matter into account.
Its also a curtesy only one side of this game's community is expected to give.
Theres a reason its called the survivor rulebook for killers instead of a "general community guideline"