What if the Basement was actually a second objective for Survivors? - GAMEPLAY IDEAS
Hey everyone!
I had this idea right before going to sleep and I couldn't stop thinking about it, so I wanted to throw it at the community and see what you guys think.
Also, I play both Survivor and Killer, so I'm trying to look at this as objectively as possible from a balance perspective.
The basic idea is: What if Survivors had a second way to win that revolves around the Basement?
And I think it could solve several problems at once.
First, what problem am I trying to solve?Dead by Daylight has a LOT of perks, items and mechanics that interact with things other than generators.
The problem is that Survivors have one overwhelmingly important objective:
Do generators.
Because of that, things like chests and totems are often optional unless a specific perk/build is involved.
Why spend 30 seconds opening a Chest when those 30 seconds could be spent progressing a generator?
The same goes for a lot of items.
Flashlights, Toolboxes and Med-Kits are by far the most commonly relevant items, while Keys and some other mechanics barely see play.
Killers have a similar problemKiller gameplay can become pretty linear:
Find Survivors → Chase Survivors → Kill Survivors before they finish generators
Most Killer builds revolve around slowing generators down, with chase perks filling the remaining slots.
And one of the most interesting locations in the game, the basement, is often barely relevant strategically.
Usually, the Killer only really cares about the Basement when:
- A Survivor happens to go down near it
- The Killer is running a build that specifically interacts with it
- The map happens to make it convenient
Otherwise, there's not much reason for either side to care about it.
So I started thinking:
What if we gave Survivors another objective?Not something that replaces generators.
Something that competes with them.
The Secret Basement TunnelImagine that the Basement contains a secret tunnel, similar to the classic escape tunnels you see in horror movies.
At the start of the match, the tunnel is sealed by 4 locks, all controlled by the Entity.
Every time Survivors complete a generator, the Entity becomes weaker and one lock becomes available to be opened.
However, Survivors need a special item to actually open them.
The Cursed KeyA new purple Key.
Each lock requires one Cursed Key to open.
Whenever a lock is opened, the Killer receives a notification.
Once all 4 locks have been opene, the secret tunnel becomes an alternative escape route.
So instead of:
5 generators → Exit Gates
Survivors could potentially do:
4 generators → Unlock 4 Basement locks → Escape through the tunnel
"But how do Survivors get the Keys?"This is where Chests become important.
Cursed Keys could:
- Be brought into the trial.
- Spawn inside chests.
- Become available through chests as generators are completed.
Whenever a generator is completed, one random chest would become associated with a Cursed Key.
If all Chests have already been opened, one random chest could become available again.
This means there would always be a reason for Survivors to interact with chests.
And there could be some interesting strategies.
For example:
All 4 Survivors bring a Key.
They leave the Keys somewhere safe at the beginning of the match, then open chests looking for other items.
Or maybe only one Survivor brings a Key.
Or nobody brings one and they rely entirely on Chests.
There would actually be a strategic decision here instead of: "Is opening this Chest worth losing generator time?"
But there's a catch!
The Cursed Key shouldn't be free value.
Anyone carrying a Cursed Key suffers from:Exposed + Oblivious
And I think this is actually one of the most important parts of the idea.
The Survivor carrying the Key becomes the person who has to make a risky journey across the map.
They have to:
Get the Key → Reach the Basement → Avoid the Killer → Unlock the lock
And because they're Oblivious, they can't rely on the terror radius to know when the Killer is nearby.
It creates this little horror-movie moment where you're carrying something extremely important while constantly checking your surroundings.
"Is the Killer behind me?"
"Did I just see him?"
"Should I go for the Basement now or wait?"
The time required to open a lock could be the same as an unhook.
And, obviously, the Killer would receive a notification whenever a lock is opened.
Why 4 generators instead of 5?This is one of the things I like most about the idea.
If Survivors need to complete 5 generators AND then unlock the tunnel, there's no reason to use the tunnel.
But if the tunnel becomes available after 4 generators, suddenly Survivors have an actual choice.
Do we do the 5th generator?
Or...
Do we start working on the Basement?
This also gives Killers a new strategic decision.
Instead of simply thinking:
"I need to protect these generators."
They now have to consider:
"Do I protect my generators, or do I control the basement?"
And this could make certain locations much more important.
For example, on maps where the basement is in the shack/main building, controlling that generator suddenly becomes much more strategically valuable.
And this could help with 3-gensThis is another reason I like the concept.
If Survivors are forced into a bad 3-gen situation, they aren't necessarily forced to finish it.
They could potentially pivot toward the Basement objective instead.
So the Killer can't simply say:
"I'm going to defend these 3 generators forever."
There would be another objective they need to account for.
This could be particularly interesting for solo queue, where coordinated generator strategies are much harder.
What about hex perks?Here's another idea I'm not completely sure about:
Give Killers a 5th perk slot.
But there's a restriction:
The 5th slot can ONLY contain a hex perk.
Why?
Because a lot of hex perks are simply too risky to use.
You equip a hex perk, spawn into the match, and sometimes the totem gets cleansed almost immediately.
Now you've effectively lost one of your perk slots.
If Killers were guaranteed to have at least one hex perk in the match, this could also make survivor totem-related perks more relevant.
It would create another little layer of interaction between both sides.
Personally, I actually love running around the map looking for totems, so I'd be pretty happy about this.
So, TL;DRNEW SURVIVOR OBJECTIVEA Secret Tunnel in the Basement.
4 locks must be opened to activate it.
The locks become available as generators are completed.
NEW ITEM — CURSED KEYUsed to open the Basement locks.
Carrying it gives the Survivor:
Exposed + Oblivious
4 Keys can potentially be obtained through Chests.
NEW KILLER PERK SLOTA 5th perk slot exclusively for Hex perks.
Perk ideasThese are obviously just rough ideas to show where the mechanic could go.
Survivor perks1. Gain X% Haste while carrying a Cursed Key. Lose the Haste effect while in a chase.
2. While running with a Cursed Key, leave no Scratch Marks for X seconds. Causes Exhaustion.
3. Whenever a generator is completed, reveal the aura of the Chest containing a Cursed Key to you.
4. Gain Endurance after unhooking a Survivor from the Basement.
5. Whenever you unlock a lock, gain a token. Repair generators X% faster for each token.
6. Whenever you become Oblivious, reveal the Killer's aura for X seconds.
7. After staying inside a Basement locker for X seconds, teleport to a random locker outside the Basement. If healthy, become injured. If injured, become Broken for X seconds.
8. While suffering from Exposed, perform healing actions X% faster.
Killer perks- Gain a token whenever a lock is opened. When you down a Survivor, consume a token to make all generators explode and regress by X%.
- Reveal the aura of a Survivor carrying a Cursed Key for X seconds. X-second cooldown.
- After a Survivor opens a Chest, all other Chests become blocked for X seconds.
- Hooking a Survivor in the Basement blocks all locks for X seconds.
- When you down a Survivor carrying a Cursed Key, the Key returns to its Chest.
- Whenever a generator is completed, block the Basement locks for X seconds. When the tunnel becomes unlocked, block all generators for X seconds.
- After hooking every Survivor at least once, Survivors suffer from Exposed while inside the Basement for the rest of the match.
- Survivors carrying a Cursed Key suffer from Exhaustion.
I'm not saying this is perfectly balanced or that all of these perks are good ideas.
I'm mostly interested in the core concept:
Would giving survivors a second objective centered around the basement make Dead by Daylight more interesting?
It would give Survivors another meaningful thing to do besides generators, make chests and keys more relevant, give the basement an actual strategic purpose, create more decisions for killers, potentially help with 3-gens, and open up a whole new category of perk interactions.
And honestly...
I'd love to see this in a PTB
What do you guys think?
I'd especially love to hear feedback from both survivor mains and killer mains, particularly about the balance implications.
If you think the core idea is terrible, that's also useful feedback.
Comments
That's a lot. I'm going to focus on the concept.
There's a couple of big problems with different ways to win the game.
1: Soloq vs SWF - swfs have a much easier time switching off strategies. Now, this advantage is always going to be there, but at least with just gens/gates soloq doesn't need to communicate on what the overall focus is. A SWF could simply say 'let's all do basement', while soloq could be split up all over the place.
2: Perks and gameplay - there becomes an issue with counterplay. Inevitably if there was another escape method BHVR would eventually make perks for and against it. This leads to trials being decided by a guessing game in the lobby (which already exists, and I think too much of it, but something like this would make it worse).
Even outside perks, there's a gameplay element. You'd need to give just the right amount of feedback to the players. Otherwise you get possibilities where the survivors escape via the tunnel and the killer wasn't even aware it was happening (thus not feeling like a satisfying game), or situations where the killer is wasting time guarding a basement the survivors have no interest in. However, give too much and it just becomes something the survivors never try.
Not to mention this would probably need to be considered every time a new killer came out.
This is kind of like when killer could win by spreading pressure, or tunneling, or 3 genning, or slugging. It became an absolute guessing game on what would happen with SWFs having a noticeable advantage because they could change tactics in response.
3: I wasn't really playing at the time, but I think hatch used to have a function similar to what you are talking about.
I think this is an amazing idea and should be tested out in an event mode first to see what actual gameplay looks like. But you are right that survivors need alternate objectives because right now the devs have nerfed or removed essentially anything else survivors can do besides generators.
This just reminds me of old hatch where survivors could use keys to avoid having to do all the gens.