Hit Detection Needs a Fundamental Rework and Better Consistency Between Both Sides
Dead by Daylight’s hit detection often does not match what survivors are shown on screen. Attacks that visibly miss, pass beside the survivor, or occur after a pallet or window interaction can still register as hits. Even when the result looks correct on the killer’s screen, the system cannot be considered accurate when the two players are shown significantly different events.
I understand that latency will always cause some differences between perspectives in an online game. However, the current inconsistencies are too large and too frequent, especially from the survivor’s perspective. Visual information must be reliable because survivors make decisions based on the displayed distance, the killer’s weapon animation, the direction of the attack, and the timing of pallet drops or vaults.
This particularly affects players who try to use pallets and windows at the latest possible moment. Instead of rewarding precise timing, the game often punishes it with hits that appear visually impossible. This makes survivor gameplay feel less dependent on skill and more dependent on the killer’s connection and the game’s latency compensation.
There appear to be several related problems:
- Survivor hit detection is too broad and does not accurately match the visible body or current animation.
- Killer weapons and projectiles can register hits beyond what their visual models suggest.
- Hit detection does not always update accurately during vaulting, pallet drops, crouching, falling, or other animation transitions.
- High latency can allow the killer’s perspective to override what the survivor has already seen happen.
- Some attacks remain active for too long or register in directions that do not match the visible attack animation.
This is not a request to make killer attacks artificially weaker. It is a request to make successful hits look like successful hits and missed attacks look like missed attacks for both players.
I would like the developers to consider the following changes:
1. Use more accurate, body-shaped hit detection instead of one large simplified survivor hurtbox.
2. Update the survivor hurtbox continuously so that it properly follows posture and animation changes.
3. Make weapon and projectile hitboxes closely match their visible size and movement.
4. Review attack active frames, direction changes, and hit validation during lunges.
5. Improve server-side validation so that extremely delayed hits are rejected.
6. Prevent players with unusually high latency from gaining an advantage in hit registration.
7. Make pallet, window, and attack outcomes appear as consistently as possible on both the killer’s and survivor’s screens.
Hit detection is one of the most fundamental parts of a multiplayer action game. New events, cosmetics, characters, and perks cannot compensate for players being unable to trust what they see on screen. I believe this issue should receive much higher development priority.
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