Dead by Daylight: Evolution — Make Prestige Matter
Dead by Daylight: Evolution — Make Prestige Matter
This is kind of long, but hear me out. I’ve been working on this idea for months. I love Dead by Daylight, but I keep thinking about one thing: what if Prestige actually changed what your character could do in normal matchmaking? Right now, Prestige shows how much time and Bloodpoints you’ve invested into a character. But imagine if every 25 levels, that character actually evolved.
Prestige Evolution:
P0–24 — Brown / Base: normal character.
P25 — Green: first evolution.
P50 — Blue: second evolution.
P75 — Purple: advanced evolution.
P100 — Gold/Red: maximum mastery.
And this applies to Killers AND Survivors.
Killers:
Killers would evolve their original power over time. At higher Prestige, they could also equip a limited secondary ability from another Killer they’ve prestiged, balanced through cooldowns, reduced strength, and restrictions. If your secondary Killer is only P25, you only get the P25 version of that ability. Somebody running two maxed-out powers had to actually earn that.
Pyramid Head: His evolution could strengthen Torment, trails, and Punishment of the Damned. Then imagine a high-Prestige Pyramid Head equipping a reduced ability from The Judgment. You already have to worry about Torment. Now you’re wondering: “What the hell else can he do?”
The Judgment: His evolution could build around Divine Light, Heresy, and battlefield control. Instead of simply hitting harder, higher Prestige could make different parts of his power interact in new ways. A mastered Judgment should feel like somebody who has learned how to control the entire Trial.
Vecna: His evolution should focus on psychic pressure, information, control, and confusion. A P100 Vecna shouldn’t just feel stronger. He should feel like he’s inside your head.
The Slasher: Jason should become more relentless. Higher Prestige could improve stalking, pursuit, environmental control, and his ability to keep pressure on Survivors after they think they escaped. The point of P100 Jason should be simple: You got away from him. You did not escape him.
The Unknown: This one is almost too perfect. Come on, it’s called The Unknown. P25 might alter hallucinations. P50 could change teleport behavior. P75 could introduce another mutation. At P100, The Unknown could gain a mechanic lower-Prestige versions literally do not have. Survivors should occasionally have to say: “WAIT… IT CAN DO THAT?”
Survivors:
Now here’s where things get even cooler: Survivors get powers too. Not powers that let them hurt or kill the Killer. Their abilities would revolve around intuition, evasion, survival, traps, leadership, tracking, deception, support, and environmental control. If you’re going to put iconic characters in Dead by Daylight, they should eventually feel like those characters.
Eleven: Come on. It’s Eleven. Her nose could begin bleeding when a Killer gets close, warning her that danger is nearby without giving her the exact location. After successfully juking or outplaying the Killer, she could earn Psychic Hold, briefly freezing the Killer in place. Using it causes Psychic Strain: heavier nosebleeds, Exhaustion, distorted vision, and temporary loss of the ability. She can’t hurt the Killer. But she’s still Eleven.
Lara Croft: Lara’s power should be environmental survival. She could notice escape routes other Survivors don’t, interact with certain parts of the map differently, discover hidden paths, or use limited traversal mechanics. She’s survived tombs, ruins, collapsing structures, and supernatural threats. Let Lara actually feel like Lara.
Rick Grimes: Rick’s power shouldn’t be supernatural. His power is leadership. He could improve team awareness, identify teammates in danger, and activate a limited Rally ability during critical moments. A P100 Rick should make the Killer think: “I need Rick gone because he’s holding this whole team together.”
Bill Overbeck: Bill’s whole identity is survival. Under strict conditions, he could get one final opportunity to recover when another Survivor would normally be finished. Not repeatedly. Not for free. One moment: “Not yet.”
Daryl Dixon: Daryl’s ability should revolve around instinct and tracking. He could notice recent Killer activity, detect disturbed areas, identify safer routes, or create distractions. No magic. No attacking the Killer. Just somebody who is really hard to hunt.
Maps Should Change Too:
If characters evolve, maps should evolve with them. Keep generators. Keep Exit Gates. But stop making them the only way every Trial eventually works. Different maps could have different escape objectives.
Underground Facility: restore an elevator.
Destroyed City: activate a subway escape.
Laboratory: unlock a containment exit.
Mine: repair an industrial lift.
Upside Down: stabilize a portal.
Now you don’t always load in thinking: “Five gens. Open gate. Leave.” Sometimes you load in thinking: “How do we get out of THIS map?”
Bloodpoints:
If Prestige suddenly matters this much, Bloodpoints have to evolve too. Higher-level matches should give better rewards. P25, P50, P75, and P100 characters could increase potential Bloodpoint earnings, and playing against highly evolved opponents could increase rewards too. Because if I’m fighting a P100 Pyramid Head carrying another evolved power, I better get paid for surviving that.
New Killer Idea — The Surgeon
License: The Human Centipede. Killer: Dr. Josef Heiter.
His power could be called The Procedure. When Heiter injures a Survivor, that Survivor becomes Linked and the aura of the closest other Survivor is briefly revealed. If Heiter downs the Linked Survivor, the closest healthy Survivor becomes Exposed and revealed. Down that Survivor before the effect expires and the chain jumps again.
Survivor A falls. Survivor B becomes Exposed. Survivor B falls. Survivor C becomes Exposed. Then D.
The whole team starts realizing: “OH NO, HE’S CHAINING US.”
If Heiter successfully downs all four Survivors while the chain is active, he unlocks FINAL EXPERIMENT. The Trial transitions to his surgical room, the Survivors are restrained, Heiter prepares his instruments, then the screen cuts to black before anything graphic is shown.
Instead of the normal result message:
EXPERIMENT COMPLETE.
His entire Killer identity would be momentum and connection. The Survivors themselves are basically leading him to the next victim.
New Killer Idea — The Creeper
License: Jeepers Creepers.
The Creeper should become more dangerous every time he successfully claims somebody. After a Survivor reaches second hook, Creeper could gain the ability to Mark them. If he downs that marked Survivor, he can Consume them instead of hooking them again.
And when Creeper kills somebody, he steals a weakened piece of what made that Survivor special. Kill Rick? The team loses leadership and becomes less composed under pressure, potentially creating more difficult or frequent Skill Checks for a limited time. Kill a healer-type Survivor? Healing becomes less effective, or Creeper gains information whenever somebody begins healing. Kill Eleven? Creeper temporarily develops psychic awareness and becomes better at sensing nearby Survivors. Kill Lara? He becomes better at detecting unusual routes and cutting off escape paths. Every successful kill makes the remaining team think: “Oh no. He just got something from them.” Creeper could also gain Predatory Scent, causing nearby Survivors’ auras to briefly flash after he has successfully consumed somebody. The fewer Survivors remain, the more dangerous he becomes.
That fits the Evolution system perfectly: if Survivors finally have powers and identities that matter, some Killers should be able to interact with those identities in terrifying ways.
The Point
This would not be a separate side mode. This would be part of normal matchmaking. A P100 should mean something. When Survivors see P100 Pyramid Head, they should immediately know: “This is not the same Pyramid Head I fought at P10.” And when the Killer sees P100 Eleven, they should think the exact same thing. Prestige wouldn’t just mean: “This person plays this character a lot.”
It would mean:
“This character has evolved.”
That’s the idea. Keep Dead by Daylight recognizable. Keep it balanced. But make characters feel different. Make maps less predictable. Make Prestige rewarding. Make iconic characters actually feel iconic. And make loading into a Trial scary again because you don’t completely know what everybody is capable of.
(P.S. If you’re looking for more Killers, there’s a really good movie called Cabin in the Woods with over a hundred different killers and creatures to pull inspiration from. And please put Jeepers Creepers in this game. It’s not fair.)
Comments
Five Arguments I Know People Will Make
1. “This turns Prestige into grind-to-win.”
Bet. Then the goal shouldn’t be to make a P100 character automatically stronger in every situation. Higher Prestige should unlock more options, new mechanics, and different ways to play, but those abilities still need cooldowns, tradeoffs, counters, and restrictions. A P100 should feel evolved — not unbeatable.
2. “Secondary Killer powers would be impossible to balance.”
That’s why they wouldn’t be full copies of another Killer’s power. Secondary abilities would be reduced versions based on how far you prestiged that second Killer. Shared cooldowns, weaker effects, restrictions, and banned combinations could keep the crazy ######### under control. The point is variety, not making every Killer a ######### final boss.
3. “New or casual players would get destroyed.”
Matchmaking should still try to pair similar Evolution tiers together. But if a lower-level player gets thrown into a much harder match, the game should compensate them with a Bloodpoint Risk Multiplier. The bigger the Prestige gap, the bigger the payout. You shouldn’t even have to escape or get a 4K to benefit — chase time, gens, saves, hooks, healing, downs, stuns, and overall performance should all count. There could even be rare Jackpot Trials with huge Bloodpoint multipliers. Harder match = bigger reward = faster progression.
4. “Survivor powers would make certain Survivors way better than everyone else.”
Only if the powers are designed like straight buffs. They shouldn’t be. Every Survivor ability should have a completely different strength, weakness, cooldown, and purpose. Eleven might have psychic awareness. Rick might have leadership. Lara might have environmental survival. Bill might have endurance. Nobody should be “the best Survivor.” They should be different Survivors with different roles.
5. “There would be way too much hidden information and too much ######### to learn.”
That’s fair — but the game can solve that through UI. Before the Trial starts, players could see the opponent’s Evolution Tier and maybe a symbol showing what category of secondary ability they brought without revealing the exact power. Survivors could also have visible ability icons. You should know enough to prepare, but not enough to completely solve the match before it starts. Part of the horror should still be figuring out:
“What the ######### can this person do?”
I’m not saying every number or mechanic I suggested would be perfect on day one. That’s what testing, balancing, PTBs, and player feedback are for.
These are just the five biggest concerns I could already think of. What other problems, balance issues, or ideas do you guys see with this system? I actually want people to pick this apart and add onto it.
Because the core idea I keep coming back to is:
Prestige should become gameplay.