Progress & save data information has been copied from the Live game to our PTB servers on March 20. Please note that players will be able to progress for the duration of the PTB, but none of that progress will make it back to the Live version of the game.

• PTB goes live: 11AM ET

• Updated the layout to reduce the concentration of low line-of-sight tiles.
  
• Updated the placement of the main buildings.
  
• Updated the Maps' layouts.
  
• Updated the Car Piles tiles to be able to navigate through them.
  
• Added a variation of the Bus tile.
  
• Updated the maze tiles that had unsafe loops.
  
• Updated empty fence tiles with blockers and gameplay.
  
• Updated the Gas Station tiles to have a door open in the garage section.
  
• Updated loops inside the Gas Station.

We are removing Killer-specific light interactions.

• The Nurse can no longer be lightburned out of her Blinks.
  
• The Hag's Phantasm Traps are no longer removed by lights.
  
  • Survivors can now remove them by approaching them carefully and wiping them away.
• The Wraith can no longer be lightburned when cloaked.
  
• The Artist's crows are no longer affected by light.
  
  • Crow swarms cannot be removed by light.
    
  • Dire Crows cannot be removed by light.
• The Spirit
  
  • Can no longer burn The Spirits Husk

The Hillbilly
Power

• Less heat added on starting to rev the Chainsaw
  
• Less heat added while revving the Chainsaw
  
• More heat added during Chainsaw Sprint

Addons
Death Engravings

• Sprint speed +10% (was +15%)
  
• Chainsaw charge time +15% (was +12%)
  
• Heat generated while charging the Chainsaw -10% (was -14%)

Doom Engravings

• Sprint speed +15% (was +20%)
  
• Chainsaw charge time +15% (was +12%)
  
• Heat generated while charging the Chainsaw -10% (was -14%)

The Pig
John's Medical File Addon

• Increase crouched move speed by 10% (was 6%)

The Oni
Addons

• Blackened Toenail: Increases movement speed while absorbing Blood Orbs by 0.4 m/s (was 0.3 m/s)
  
• Bloody Sash: Increases movement speed while absorbing Blood Orbs by 0.7 m/s (was 0.6 m/s)

The Nightmare
Addons

• Sheep Block: Triggering Dream Snares or Dream Pallets inflicts Blindness for 60 seconds (was 30 seconds)
  
• Unicorn Block: Triggering Dream Snares or Dream Pallets inflicts Blindness for 90 seconds (was 60 seconds)

The Clown
Redhead's Pinky Finger Addon

• Start with 3 fewer bottles, and maximum bottles is decreased by 3 (was 2 and 2, respectively)

The Cenobite

• The Lament Configuration will now teleport if the Cenobite stands on it for 5 seconds.

Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance

• You start the Trial with 4 tokens. The first time each Survivor is hooked on a scourge hook, lose 1 token and the generator with the most progress explodes, instantly losing 11/13/15% progress, and will start to regress. Once you have no tokens, Pain Resonance deactivates for the rest of the Trial.

Gearhead

• After a survivor loses a health state by any means, Gearhead activates for 30 seconds. While Gearhead is active, the every time a Survivor performs a good Skill Check while repairing, their aura is revealed to you for 6/7/8 seconds.

Boon: Circle of Healing

• Any Survivors within the Boon Totem’s range gain a 40/45/50% healing speed bonus to healing others. Medkits do not stack with Boon CoH. Injured Survivors have their auras revealed to all other Survivors when inside the Boon Totem’s range.

Dead Hard

• Dead hard activates after you have unhooked a Survivor safely or unhooked yourself. Press the Active Ability button 1 while running to gain the Endurance status effect for the next 0.5 seconds. Causes the Exhausted Status Effect for 60/50/40 seconds. Dead Hard then deactivates.

Overzealous

• After cleansing or blessing any totem, this perk activates. Your generator repair speed is increased by 8%/9%/10%. This bonus is doubled if you cleanse/bless a Hex totem. This Perk deactivates when you lose a health state by any means.

Call of Brine

• After kicking a generator this perk becomes active for 60 seconds. The generator regresses at 115%/120%/125% of the normal regression speed and you can see its aura in yellow. Each time a Survivor completes a good Skill Check on a generator affected by this perk, you receive a loud noise notification.

Overcharge

• Overcharge a generator by performing the Damage Generator action. The next survivor interacting with that generator is faced with a difficult Skill Check. Failing the Skill Check results in an additional 2%/3%/4% loss of progress. Succeeding the Skill Check grants no progress but prevents the generator explosion. After Overcharge is applied to a generator, its regression speed increases from 85% of normal to 130% of normal over the next 30 seconds.

• Increase Survivor heal interaction seconds to charge from 16 to 24 seconds.
  
• Decrease the bonus on successful Healing skill checks from 5% to 3%.

• Camping Aid Kit: 24 charges. (was 16) Increases the speed that you heal others by 20%. (was 25%) Unlocks the self-healing action.
  
• First Aid Kit: 24 charges. (was 24) Increases the speed that you heal others by 25%. (was 35%) Unlocks the self-healing action.
  
• Emergency Med-kit: 24 charges. (was 16) Increases the speed that you heal others by 30%. (was 50%) Unlocks the self-healing action. (Self-healing buff removed)
  
• Ranger Med-kit: 24 charges. (was 32) Increases the speed that you heal others by 35%. (was 50%) Increases Skill Check success zone size by 10%. (was 14%) Increases Great Skill Check zones size by 10%. (was 15%) Unlocks the self-healing action.
  
• All Hallows' Eve Lunchbox: 24 charges. (was 24) Increases the speed that you heal others by 25%. (was 35%) Unlocks the self-healing action. Makes you considerably more visible.
  
• Anniversary Med-kit: 24 charges. (was 24) Increases the speed that you heal others by 25%. (was 35%) Unlocks the self-healing action.
  
• Masquerade Med-kit: 24 charges. (was 24) Increases the speed that you heal others by 25%. (was 35%) Unlocks the self-healing action.

• Rubber Gloves: Increases progression bonus for succeeding Great Skill Checks by 2%. (was 3%)
  
• Butterfly Tape: Increases healing speed by 3%. (was 5%)
  
• Sponge: Increases progression bonus for succeeding Great Skill Checks by 3%. (was 5%)
  
• Needle & Thread: Increases the chances of triggering a Skill Check by 10%. 100% Bonus Bloodpoints granted for succeeding Great Skill Checks. Increases healing speed by 10%. (was 15%)
  
• Medical Scissors: Increases healing speed by 12%. (was 15%)
  
• Gauze Roll: Adds 10 charges to the Med-kit. (was 12 charges)
  
• Surgical Suture: Increases the chances of triggering a Skill Check by 15%. 150% Bonus Bloodpoints granted for succeeding Great Skill Checks. Increases healing speed by 10%. (was 15%)
  
• Gel Dressings: Adds 14 charges to the Med-kit. (was 16 charges)
  
• Abdominal Dressing: Increases healing speed by 20%. (was 25%) Decreases Med-kit charges by 12. (was 8 charges)
  
• Styptic Agent: Press the Secondary Action button while healing with the Med-kit to use the Styptic Agent. When the Styptic Agent is used on an injured Survivor, they gain Endurance for 5 seconds. (was 8 seconds) Consumes the Med-kit on use.
  
• Anti-hemorrhagic Syringe: Press the Secondary Action button while healing with the Med-kit to use the Anti-Hemorrhagic Syringe. The affected Survivor will passively gain a health state 24 seconds after use. (was 16 seconds) The time required is modified by perks, items and add-ons that affect Healing Speeds. This effect is canceled when the affected Survivor changes health state or is picked up. Consumes the Med-kit on use.
  
• Refined Serum: Increases your Movement speed by +5% for 15 seconds. (was 20 seconds) Creates a Blight trail behind the affected Survivor. Can be used on other Survivors or yourself. Consumes the Med-Kit on use.

You asked for it for a long time, and it's finally here: using the Bloodweb has been made much simpler!

• By default, nodes can now be claimed by pressing on them rather than holding. If you want to revert to the old behaviour, a setting in the Accessibility tab allows you to toggle between Press and Hold behaviour.
  
• Hovering the cursor over any node in the Bloodweb that is not currently purchaseable shows a red outline of a path of nodes leading up to it and displays the total Bloodpoints needed to buy all those nodes.
  
• Pressing/holding on any such node automatically purchases all the nodes one-by-one on the hovered path. This may not complete if purchasing all nodes becomes limited by your Bloodpoint total or the Entity consuming nodes on the way.
  
• After reaching Prestige 1 with a character, the Bloodweb for that character will contain a new center node. Pressing/holding on it will automatically claim as much as possible of the whole Bloodweb level. The automation will prioritize Perks first and attempt to spend the minimum amount of Bloodpoints second. This will stop if you run out of Bloodpoints, but will continue with Entity consuming nodes.

• Heartbeat Visual Support: Displays a visual indicator for Survivors being affected by a Terror Radius or a Lullaby. Can be toggled ON/OFF in the Accessibility tab of the Settings.
  
• Cinematic video files are now stored in Bink format.

• Bots in the Tutorial now have their names correctly localized.
  
• Bots are less likely to drop a pallet while standing still on the same side as the Killer.
  
• Bots no longer slow down while traversing the area of a Skull Merchant's Drone if inside the Terror Radius.
  
• Bots are less likely to run into a Killer while attempting to evade them.

• The Knight can no longer enter a broken state when ordering a guard to destroy a Pallet that is also being destroyed by the Dissolution perk.
  
• The Huntress’ Wooden Fox Add-On now properly grants the Undetectable effect while reloading.
  
• The Killer Instinct VFX  is now properly displayed when equipped with the Mother’s Glasses or Dried Cherry Blossom Add-Ons when playing as the Spirit.
  
• The Kinship perk no longer activates when reaching the Struggle Phase while in the Executioner’s Cage of Atonement.
  
• The auras of Survivors standing near the Exit Gates when the Blood Warden Perk activates are now properly shown.
  
• The Perks of the Skull Merchant, Thalita Lyra and Renato Lyra now appear in the correct order in the Character Info screen.

• The Chase activity indicator is now properly removed if players disconnect while in chase.
  
• The Killer’s HUD reappears properly when survivors disconnect as they are being Moried.
  
• The remaining time text in the Shrine of Secrets is no more cut-off in certain languages.
  
• Fixed localization issues in some of the system error messages.
  
• Title texts on AI Bot Loadout popup is consistent with Loadout menu.

• Fixed an issue in Red Forest where The Blight slid off trees.
  
• Fixed an issue in Raccoon City Police Station where the zombies would get stuck in a door frame.
  
• Fixed multiple issues where the drones of The Skull Merchant would clip in the door frames.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Bear Traps would clip into the ground on the Autohaven bus.
  
• Modified the placement of the generators in Haddonfield.
  
• Fixed an issue where the Bear Trap would appear under a generator in Lerys Memorial Hospital.

• The Yellow Glyph Skill Checks can now be properly completed.
  
• Equipping Cosmetics that have unique voice lines should now have the subtitles always in sync.

• The in-game description of Overzealous is not correct.
  
• Using the Hold interaction in the Bloodweb and pressing the center button may lead to a soft-lock with a low amount of Bloodpoints owned.
  
• Claiming a chain node too fast after leveling a character can cause menus to break. Restarting the game will fix this issue.

The Tools of Torment Mid-Chapter Update is quickly approaching, so that can only mean one thing: It’s time for another Developer Update! In this series of posts, we cover some of the biggest changes and additions making their way to the game. In this edition, we’ll dive into various quality of life and accessibility improvements as well as an extensive list of balance adjustments. Without further ado, let’s kick things off with a highly requested feature.



Who would have thought that too many Bloodpoints could ever be a problem? After our progression overhaul last year, many of you found yourself with a hefty amount of Bloodpoints- so many in fact that finding the time to spend them before your next match could be difficult. We’ve seen many suggestions for ways to improve the spending process, and rather than picking just one, we’ve implemented a few fan favourite ideas. We hope these new features will allow you to spend more time playing and less time shopping!

The first new addition is very simple; select any node and the game will automatically buy anything needed along the way. This allows you to purchase multiple nodes with a single button press and ensures that you can get exactly what you want.

But as always, The Entity is ever-present and may consume one of these nodes before the chain can be completed, so plan wisely!

If you’re just looking to level up your character quickly and cheaply and don’t care what you get, the new center node in the Bloodweb is perfect for you. Selecting this node will automatically purchase items until the current Bloodweb has been completed. This will prioritise Perks, then the cheapest option available.

This can also be used on partially completed bloodwebs, allowing you to grab anything you’ve got your eye on first.

To ensure that players familiarize themselves with the contents in a Bloodweb, this button will only appear once the character has been prestiged for the first time.


Ever wanted to watch the Bloodpoints fly from your pockets at an alarming rate? The new default interaction only requires you to press a node to purchase it, instead of having to hold it. This can be used in conjunction with the other options mentioned above to further speed up the spending process. The interaction can be toggled if you would rather use Hold instead. 



The terror radius is an integral part of the game, both warning Survivors about the approaching Killer and activating multiple Perks. This can make things difficult for our deaf or hard of hearing players since there is no visual representation of the terror radius’ strength, forcing them to use a perks which work in the terror radius as an alternative. This is of course not ideal, we’d like everyone to be able to use the perks they’d like and not be forced to use one to have access to a core part of the game.

But we have some good news: A visual terror radius option is here!



When enabled in the Accessibility Options, a heart will appear in your Survivor’s chest whenever the Killer’s terror radius can be heard. Lullabies will also appear as a haze in their chest. This heart will become more vibrant and beat more intensely the closer the Killer comes. If your character is ever offscreen, an indicator will appear if the Terror Radius is heard signaling that you should look at your character to see the current state of the Terror Radius visual feedback..

For those who may need it, this heart will also be affected by colorblindness settings to ensure that it is adequately visible.



This option will not provide a competitive advantage compared to the usual audio terror radius and will respect any terror radius Perks, Add-ons, and Powers.



This update will feature balance updates to two Autohaven Wreckers maps, namely Blood Lodge and Gas Heaven.

Blood Lodge can be a bit of a mixed bag: Depending on how the map generates, there can be plenty of safe pallets near the center or very few, creating either a very safe area or a deadzone. This area also has very few line of sight blockers which can make it difficult for stealthy Killers to sneak up on Survivors. Around the edge of the map, on the other hand, features several maze tiles (high walls with a pallet and/or window). Clever Survivors can combine these tiles to create stronger loops making them very difficult to catch.

To remedy this, we are making significant layout changes to this map. The Blood Lodge itself will now appear closer to the center of the map, breaking up line of sight and separating some of these safer loops. The maze tiles have also been separated from one another, making it more difficult to combine them together.


Gas Heaven features unique car piles which stretch several tiles long. These special tiles can get in the way of gameplay, however, making it difficult to traverse the map. Chasing a Survivor around these walls of cars can also waste a lot of time if they start the chase with a significant lead.

Going forward, these car piles will be broken up into smaller single-tile chunks. These car piles will also feature potential spawn locations for pallets, helping reduce the potential for deadzones to appear.



The Gas Heaven gas station itself has also been moved closer to the center of the map. Since this makes this building much easier to get to from anywhere on the match, we’ve reviewed its spawning rules to prevent strong combinations of windows from spawning and adjusted its pallet spawn locations.

Some of these changes will spill over into the remaining Autohaven Wreckers maps, including new edge tiles (small tiles that run along the map’s boundaries), some of which include new gameplay such as possible pallet spawn locations.



There’s no better way to avoid being put on a hook than healing your injuries. Even if the Killer is relentless, an extra health state can buy your team more time to work on generators. Having easy access to quick and plentiful heals can cause problems, particularly for highly skilled Survivors who can evade the Killer for quite some time. An Emergency Med-kit alone can heal the damage done after a long chase in roughly 10 seconds. This doesn’t even begin to factor in all sorts of Perks and Add-ons which can speed up healing even further and grant more heals before your Med-kit is depleted.

For Killers, this means that any chase that doesn’t end with a hook- even if they managed to damage a Survivor- can be completely undone in a matter of seconds. Keeping Survivors injured and switching targets are often wise decisions, and with this in mind, we have a few changes in store for healing to make this more practical.

First, healing will now take 24 seconds by default (previously 16 seconds). This will make each hit more impactful, ensuring that Survivors need to spend longer to heal their wounds.

Second, we have rebalanced Med-kits across the board. All Med-kits will now have 24 charges by default, allowing one heal before they are depleted. The different rarities of Med-kits are as follows:

• Camping Aid Kit (Common)
  
  • Increases the Altruistic Healing speed by 20% (was 25%).
• First Aid Kit (Uncommon)
  
  • Increases the Altruistic Healing speed by 25% (was 35%).
• Emergency Med-kit (Rare)
  
  • Increases the Altruistic Healing speed by 30% (was 50%).
    
  • No longer increases the speed at which you heal yourself.
• Ranger Med-kit (Very Rare)
  
  • Increases the Altruistic Healing speed by 35% (was 50%).
    
  • Increases Skill Check success zones by 10% (was 14%).
    
  • Increases Great Skill Check zones by 10% (was 15%).

Lastly, we have done a pass on Med-kit Add-ons, bringing those which were overperforming in line with the rest. Add-ons which add more charges to your Med-kit have also been reviewed with the new healing time in mind, though it is now impossible for a Med-kit to fully heal a Survivor more than twice in a match.



Moving on to Perks, we have a bundle of tweaks for this update targeting both meta and non-meta options.

First up, Gearhead currently reveals the aura of the next Survivor to hit a great skill check after a Survivor loses a Health State. These conditions require quite of bit of work and luck on the Killer’s part to get value out of it.

Gearhead will receive a slight rework: When a Survivor loses a Health State, Gearhead activates for 30 seconds. While active, any Survivor who hits a good skill check will have their aura revealed to the Killer for 6/7/8 seconds.

This allows Gearhead to potentially provide information multiple times for each hook. Killers who efficiently catch Survivors will be able to keep Gearhead activated for a good portion of the match.

Overzealous grants a repair speed bonus when Cleansing a Totem, and a larger bonus when Cleansing a Hex Totem. Little did we know the skirmishes this would cause between the Boon lovers out there. Moving forward, Overzealous will also activate when Blessing a Totem in addition to Cleansing. We’ve also slightly increased the bonus to 8/9/10% (from 6/7/8%).

This perk has gradually found its way back into the meta. To address this, we have given Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance a slight rework. The first time each Survivor is hooked on a Scourge Hook, the generator with the most progress will explode and lose progress. We’ve also reduced the difference between different Tiers of the perk (now 11/13/15%).

Though Dead Hard initially fell from grace after the 6.1.0 Update, it has steadily climbed back to being one of most prominent Survivor perks. Dead Hard already requires some precision to use, and further reducing the invulnerability window would make it far too unreliable and frustrating. Therefore, Dead Hard has also received a slight rework.

Dead Hard will activate after safely unhooking a Survivor. When activated, press the active ability button while injured and running to gain the Endurance Status Effect for 0.5 seconds, then become Exhausted. Dead Hard will deactivate when it successfully protects the user from damage.

This will put a damper on how often Dead Hard can be used, keeping it as a powerful reward for Survivor who have earned it.

Call of Brine quickly rose in popularity following the meta shake up last year. Granting a large increase to the regression rate of generators, it’s not uncommon for a generator to fully regress once a Survivor is chased away.

To tone down its power, we have reduced the additional regression speed to 115/120/125% (was 150/175/200%).


Similar to Call of Brine, Overcharge saw a similar rise in power over the past year. This perk also increases the regression rate of generators pretty substantially.

To bring it in line with other perks, we reduced the maximum regression speed to 130% (was 200%). This would make it take longer for the regression rate to become beneficial, so at the same time, we’ve increased the starting regression speed to 85% (was 75%) to help offset this.

Additionally, the penalty for missing the special Skill Check has been reduced to 2/3/4% (was 3/4/5%).

This perk has become the ‘jack of all trades’ of healing perks. Not only does it allow you and your fellow Survivors to heal without a Med-Kit, but it also increases the speed of healing across the board.

Going forward, Boon: Circle of Healing will no longer allow Survivors to heal without a Med-Kit. Instead, it will provide a 40/45/50% healing speed bonus to healing others. This bonus will not apply to healing done with a Med-Kit. Additionally, the auras of injured Survivors with the Boon’s range will be revealed to all other Survivors.



Starting with this Mid-Chapter, we’d like to include a bundle of small tweaks to various Killers in each update. These will be smaller scale than the reworks we’ve done in the past, focusing more on number tweaks than new features or significant changes. Larger reworks are still planned, be we want to show some love to our growing roster along the way!

Start your chainsaws- and don’t worry about them overheating- we’ve adjusted The Hillbilly’s overheat mechanic to be much more forgiving.

The amount of heat generated from both starting to rev and continuing to rev your chainsaw has been dramatically reduced, making the overheat mechanic almost a non-factor when used in loops and over short distances, much akin to how he used to play. Just as before, heat will begin to dissipate as soon as the Chainsaw Sprint ends, meaning most of the heat generated from a short sprint will already be gone by the time your chainsaw is ready for another attack.

The amount of heat generated while Chainsaw Sprinting, on the other hand, has been increased slightly. Though the changes above will help counteract this, longer sprints will cause your chainsaw to overheat quicker, so be careful not to let it overheat in an empty corner of the map!

Last but not least, we’ve toned down the Doom Engravings and Death Engravings Add-ons. These Add-ons will provide less movement speed than before and increase heat generation further.

The John’s Medical File Add-on increases The Pig’s crouched movement speed. This Add-on hasn’t been performing very well, so we’ve decided to nerf The Pig increased this Add-on's movement speed bonus to 10% (was 6%).

Two of The Oni’s Add-ons- Blackened Toenail and Bloody Sash- allow him to move faster while absorbing Blood Orbs, losing less ground in the process. These Add-ons weren’t performing as well as we’d like, so we’ve given them some slight improvements. They will now increase movement speed while absorbing by 0.4m/s and 0.7m/s respectively (was 0.3m/s and 0.6m/s).

The Nightmare’s Sheep Block and Unicorn Block Add-ons inflict Blindness on Survivors who trigger a Dream Snare or Dream Pallet. These Add-ons weren’t doing so well, so we’ve increased the duration of the Blindness Status Effect on each of these Add-ons by 30 seconds.

The Executioner’s Scarlet Egg Add-on increases the duration of Killer Instinct inflicted by Rites of Judgement by 1.5 seconds. This doesn’t provide much value since Killer Instinct only updates its position periodically. To make it more meaningful, we are increasing this bonus to 3 seconds.


The Redhead’s Pinky Finger Add-on can be incredibly powerful, allowing The Clown to instantly down a Survivor after hitting them directly with a bottle. We’ve previously toned this Add-on down by reducing the maximum number of bottles The Clown can hold, but it seems like this downside was not enough to bring it in line with other Ultra Rare Add-ons.

Going forward, this Add-on will reduce the maximum held bottles by 3 (was 2).



When Dead by Daylight first released, only three Killers were in the game. It wasn’t unreasonable to bring a Toolbox just in case you faced off against The Trapper or a Flashlight to burn The Wraith when it was a 1-in-3 chance.

But as the Killer roster has grown, these mechanics have started to feel out of place. The majority of Killers do not have any interaction with Survivor items, leading to the ones that do feeling unfairly punished by something beyond their control. In the past, we removed the ability to sabotage The Trapper’s Bear Traps to alleviate this issue. In this update, we’ll be removing Flashlight interactions with various Killer Powers. Since some of these actions aren’t very well known, we’ll quickly run through each of them.

We have removed the ability to burn The Wraith out of his cloak. This would also stun him in the process.

Similar to The Wraith, The Nurse could also be burned while blinking. This didn’t come up very often since it was very risky and difficult to pull off, but it is also being removed.

Survivors could shine a Flashlight at crows to scare them away. This also didn’t come into play very often since crows could easily be shooed away without using Flashlight charges.

Arguably the most impactful, Flashlights have long been the sole counter to The Hag’s Phantasm Traps. Not only could they reveal the aura of nearby traps, but shining a Flashlight at the trap would destroy it. Removing the Flashlight effect from The Hag’s Power is a little trickier since it would leave Survivors with no option but to set off a trap and risk The Hag teleporting to it.

To ensure that this doesn’t make The Hag too oppressive, we are adding the ability to wipe away a Phantasm Trap. In order to do so, Survivors will need to spot the trap, crouch over to it to avoid setting it off, then perform a several second long action to clear it.

While this will allow all Survivors to clear traps, it will now be much more difficult and time consuming to do so. Additionally, this prevents a Survivor with a Flashlight from destroying The Hag’s traps mid-chase.



Late last year, a deeper level of the Rift was revealed, allowing players who had already reached Tier 70 to go above & beyond and continue progressing to earn alternate versions of Outfits. Starting with the Tools of Torment Mid-Chapter Update, this Deep Rift will feature unique visuals to better differentiate the bonus Deep Rift Tiers from the regular Rift.

As for Tomes, you may notice a new trend emerging where the most recent Chapter’s lore is expanded in the following Tome. It’s no coincidence; this is something we’ll be doing for all new original Chapters moving forward. This will allow us to expand further on the most recently introduced characters’ lore in a more natural and exciting way.

Licensed Chapters, meanwhile, may be an exception to this. While we would love to expand upon their stories- as we have done in the past with the likes of Ghost Face and Bill Overbeck- licensed characters come from franchises of their own with their own stories to tell. Therefore, the Tomes followed licensed Chapters may feature existing original characters instead.

And if you’ve been waiting to learn more about your favourite characters from years past, don’t worry, they won’t be forgotten! Older characters will still be featured throughout new Tomes as minor characters.

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With that, we’ve reached the end of this month’s Developer Update. The Public Test Build for the Tools of Torment Mid-Chapter Update will open next week. We look forward to reading your feedback once you’ve had a chance to try it out!

Until next time…

The Dead by Daylight team

• Update Releases: 11AM ET

Base power changes:

• The Skull Merchant gains a flat Haste Status Effect for each Survivor detected on the radar. This bonus is lost when no Survivor is detected on the Radar.
  
  • One Survivor : +3%
    
  • Two Survivors: +5%
    
  • Three Survivors: +6%
    
  • Four Survivors: +7%
    
  • Note: You do not need to be Inspecting the Radar in order to get this bonus.
• Survivors with a Claw Trap cause Drones to be Unhackable while they are nearby
  
• Drones only return to the Killer after their respective Claw Trap battery is empty
  
• Entering an Active Zone no longer recharges Claw Trap batteries
  
• Failing the Claw Trap hack no longer recharges its battery
  
• Claw Trapped Survivors who fast vault pallets break the pallet and their Claw Trap at the same time
  
• Claw traps are automatically removed when their battery is empty

Addon changes:

• Ultrasonic Trap Speaker (NEW EFFECT): Decrease the time it takes for Undetectable to take effect by 50%
  
• Increase the “Expired Batteries” addon rarity to Ultra Rare (was Very Rare)
  
• Decrease the “Prototype Rotor” addon rarity to Very Rare (was Ultra Rare)
  
• Increase Adaptive Lighting to 50% (was 20%)
  
• Decrease Expired Batteries to 40% (was 150%)

• A previous patch note stated that the perk Leverage no longer worked on self-healing. This was not the case. Leverage has worked on self-healing and still does.
  
• Updated screams caused by Perks to be heard map-wide, as they were prior to version 6.6.0.

• Fixed an issue where pallets broken by The Knight's Guards were not contributing progress towards applicable challenges, such as "Rault's Strength" and "Unleash the Rage".

• Fixed an issue in the Archives where the French voice over for Memory 714 of Tome 13 would cut before the end.
  
• Fixed an issue where The Trapper would fail to trigger a voice over when a Survivor escapes his grab.

• Bots can now ask other players to move out of their way.
  
• Bots no longer give up when Broken and within the area of a Boon: Circle of Healing.
  
• Tentatively fixed an issue where Bots would shut themselves down when injured by an Artist's Dire Crow.
  
• When playing against Freddy Krueger with the Dream Pallets Power, Bots no longer stop moving after passing a Dream Pallet.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots can now disable Drones placed on stairs.

• Fixed an issue that cause Yun-Jin and a few other female survivors' face to be different when been on the hook.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause The Nurse's Grim Veil to stretches unnaturally on the tally screen.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause Males survivors grabbed from lockers to have stretched eyebrows.
  
• Fixed an issue where The Knight's Healing Poultice, The Onryo's Distorted Photo and The Oni's Iridescent Family Crest Add-ons incorrectly revealed auras for the duration of their effect.

• Fixed a bug that made two chests spawn in the Shattered Square basement of the main building.

• The Haste status effect icon no longer appears on screen when Teamwork: Collective Stealth is active
  
• The Friendly Competition repair bonus speed buff is no longer lost if the Perk owner disconnects from the Trial.
  
• A Survivor fast vaults a Pallet with the Skull Merchant Claw trap no longer triggers the Perk Thwack!
  
• Failing one skill check caused by the Merciless Storm Perk no longer causes subsequent skill checks to fail.

• Intro cinematics should no longer stutter on Xbox One.

• Drones no longer show the scanning VFX for one frame when starting the scan phase.
  
• Claw Traps removed by hacking now correctly self-destruct instead of disappearing

• Fixed Perk description tooltips being incorrectly positioned in the Edit Bot Loadout menu.
  
• Corrected 'Shotgun Speakers' add-on icon to avoid trypophobia trigger.

Another special edition of the Developer Update! Next week’s update will feature changes for screams and the newest Killer, The Skull Merchant. We wanted to take this opportunity to share what’s on the way as well as the reasoning behind these changes.




Between the Public Test Build (PTB) and live release of the Tools of Torment Chapter, we made a wide variety of changes to The Skull Merchant to help address some of the feedback we received. We’ve been keeping a close eye on her since, and while it seems like these changes have had a positive effect on her performance, there are a few frustrations we want to address sooner rather than later. In no particular order, these are:

• It doesn’t feel like The Skull Merchant’s Power helps her enough in a chase.
  
• It doesn’t feel as though there’s enough risk to having a Claw Trap.
  
• The Skull Merchant is too good at holding 3 generators, causing very long matches.

The pain points are a common thread between the feedback many of you have given since the Chapter released. To rectify each of them, we have made a large number of changes.


The Skull Merchant’s drones will Lock On to Survivors, making them Exposed for some time. This can push Survivors away from stronger structures and into a sparser part of the map. However, as many of you have pointed out, this doesn’t really pose a threat if you’re already injured; getting hit will already put you into the dying state.

Likewise, Claw Traps don’t feel equally threatening to all players. While the thought of having your location constantly broadcasted to the Killer is enough of a deterrent for some, more confident Survivors may actually welcome a chase, opting instead to keep the Killer distracted for their teammates.

To improve her strength in a chase, we have made a couple changes.

First, The Skull Merchant will now gain a growing Haste effect for each Survivor tracked on her radar. This bonus starts at 3% for one Survivor, raises to 5% for two, 6% for three and 7% for four. Both Claw Traps and active drone zones will contribute to this, and the Killer does not need to inspect their scanner to gain the benefits. This will reward the Killer for efficiently using their Power to keep tabs on their prey.

Second, vaulting a pallet with a Claw Trap will cause that pallet to break, destroying the Claw Trap in the process. This was previously part of the common Ultrasonic Trap Speaker Add-on. With this change, being chased with a Claw Trap attached becomes a lot more dangerous.

These combined adjustments allow The Skull Merchant to more frequently get value out of her Power, regardless of whether or not the Survivor she’s chasing is injured.


The Skull Merchant excels when it comes to defending a cluster of three generators. Not only will her drones notify her any time a Survivor approaches a generator, but she can also easily replace them once they are disabled. This can make matches go on for an excessively long time with neither side making much progress. These matches tend not to be too terribly interesting for anyone involved and only end when someone gives up.

To put a damper on her ability to defend generators, drones are no longer immediately returned to The Skull Merchant once they are disabled. Instead, they will be returned once their respective traps are destroyed. This will make it more difficult to replace disabled drones on these generators.

That said, this will limit how often The Skull Merchant can deploy new drones. Therefore, we have a series of changes to compensate for this loss of power.

First, to ensure Survivors cannot hold a Claw Trap indefinitely to deny her from using her Power, Claw Traps will now be instantly destroyed as soon as their battery expires, and Claw Trap batteries will no longer refill when entering an active zone. This way, Claw Traps will always return after a set amount of time.

Second, drones will enter an unhackable state whenever a Survivor with a Claw Trap is near. This will prevent a single Survivor from running around and disabling every drone, meaning the Killer will always have some combination of four Claw Traps or drones available to them. Combined with the changes to Claw Traps mentioned above, The Skull Merchant will always get value out of her ability whether it’s through deployed drones or traps.

Last but not least, we have a few Add-on changes to round out this update.

Ultrasonic Trap Speaker

Since this Add-on has been incorporated into the Killer’s base kit, it needed a new effect.

Ultrasonic Trap Speaker now reduces the time taken for Undetectable to take effect when inside an active zone by 50%.

Expired Batteries

This Add-on has been changed to Ultra Rare to match its high effectiveness.

Since Claw Traps now provide a Haste effect, this would make the Killer very fast at the start of the match in addition to revealing the Survivors’ positions. Therefore, we have reduced the duration of the Claw Traps Survivors spawn with to 40% of the normal battery life (was 150%).

Prototype Rotor

This Add-on has been changed to Very Rare to better suit its effectiveness.

Adaptive Lighting

Adaptive Lighting now increases the length of the Undetectable effect by 50% (was 20%).




I scream, you scream, we all scream when the Killer is using a Perk or Power that makes people scream. Unless you’re using Calm Spirit.

In 6.6.0, we changed screams caused by perks. Historically, these Perks would cause the Survivors to use the same scream sound as when they were hurt. We decided to change this considering the Survivor was not actually being hurt, just scared. When we made this tweak, these screams became ‘3D’ – meaning you could tell which direction they were coming from – and limited their range as a side effect.

In this update, we’ll be readjusting these Perks to bring them back to the original functionality, but with the proper scream sounds. Screams caused by Perks will once again be ‘2D’ – meaning you can’t quite tell which direction they’re coming from – and be heard map-wide.

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With that, we’ve reached the end of this special edition Developer Update. The changes in this post will be live in next week’s update. We are also hard at work on our next major release and we look forward to sharing more details about that soon.

Until next time…

The Dead by Daylight team

• Update Releases: 11AM ET

• Updated UI for The Skull Merchant's Power.

• Fixed an issue where the "Glyph Graduate" Yellow Glyph challenges were not recognizing the Player's input within a good skill check zone.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Near Miss" challenge could gain progress if the Killer's attack missed a Survivor from a distance greater than the intended 5 meters.
  
• Fixed an issue where the "Gruesome" challenge would gain two (2) points of progress instead of one (1) during the End-Game Collapse.
  
• This fix also addresses other Hook action challenges that gained double progress during the End-Game Collapse.

• Fixed an issue with The Spirit where the audio for her phase ability would not be played for Survivors while using the Furin add-on.
  
• Fixed an issue where granted currency and item pop-ups in the Main Menu would play twice.
  
• Fixed an issue where the SFX for changing pages using a controller would be missing while in a bot lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue where the game's audio could be heard while in the Loading Screen before entering or leaving a Trial.

• After playing a Custom Game with Add-ons disabled, the Tally screen no longer shows incorrect Add-ons.
  
• An injured Bot will now think twice before attempting to heal a downed Bot within the Terror Radius.
  
• Bots can now use the Repressed Alliance Perk.
  
• Bots no longer shuffle at a slow pace while at a pallet if the chasing Killer is slightly far away.
  
• Bots now respect Killers more by not getting into lockers while in the Killer's line of sight.
  
• Bots will now avoid backtracking to Pallet to stun the Killer, as it often led to an injury.
  
• In the Custom Game lobby, Bots now correctly display the Item equipped even after changes in party members.
  
• When playing against a Killer with the Iron Maiden Perk, Bots are now more careful about getting into Lockers, especially when equipped with Locker-based Perks like Flashbang.
  
• When playing against Freddy Krueger with Add-ons allowing Dream Pallets, Bots will now remember which Pallets were replaced by fakes.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots avoid loops covered by a Drone zone.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots are now capable of vaulting near Drones.
  
• When playing against The Skull Merchant with the Iridescent Unpublished Manuscript Add-on, Bots now respond to the change in Terror Radius.

• Fixed an issue that cause the Door breaking animation to play too fast when playing as The Legion with Brutal Strength and equipped Frank's mix tape.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause all Survivors' left hands to be distorted when receiving healing.
  
• Fixed an issue that causes The Artist's arm to jitter backward awkwardly when she walks into and past a tall asset.
  
• Fixed an issue that cause All Survivors' hands and heads to clip through the locker when fast exiting.
  
• Injured Survivors have no more crooked wrists when moving and holding a Pocket Mirror.
  
• Fixed an issue causeing killers to sometimes be unable to hit a Survivor healing a downed Survivor.
  
• Fixed an issue where The Knight's Healing Poultice, The Onryo's Distorted Photo and The Oni's Iridescent Family Crest Add-ons incorrectly revealed auras for the duration of their effect.
  
• The Dredge no longer incorrectly becomes Invisible when teleporting during Nightfall.
  
• Survivors who scream during the Cenobite's teleport no longer become stuck.
  
• The Skull Merchant's Drones no longer appear invisible when in the Active State.

• Fixed a lighting issue that caused the Onryo's well to look incorrect in the lobby.
  
• Fixed an issue with a rock that could be climbed in the Mount Ormond Resort map.

• The Survivor's Aura no longer fails to be revealed by Grim Embrace when the obsession is transferred by Game Afoot.
  
• Teamwork: Power of Two no longer fails to deactivate if the other Survivor disconnects.
  
• Healing an injured Survivor who has the Perk Adrenaline equipped while all Generator are completed no longer triggers the effect of the Perk Teamwork: Power Of Two
  
• The Teamwork: Power of Two buff external icon now properly appears on all of the Survivors using the Perk.
  
• The Teamwork: Collective Stealth's external perk icon now correctly appears on the affected Survivor instead of the perk owner when both Survivors have this Perk equipped.
  
• The Friendly Competition repair bonus speed buff is now properly maintained if the Perk owner disconnects from the Trial.
  
• Using the Perk For The People on a dying Survivor now properly gives the Survivors the Teamwork: Power of Two and Teamwork: Collective Stealth buffs.
  
• The End Game Collapse timer now updates properly when the last remaining survivor gets back up from the Adrenaline perk's effect.

• All available Maps now correctly show in the Custom Game settings for players on the Epic Games Store.
  
• Fixed an account mismatch issue when using the in-game Store on the Windows Store.
  
• Fixed an intermittent crash when launching the game on Switch.

• Fixed an animation issue when quickly changing pages in the Edit Bot Loadout popup.
  
• Fixed a layout issue in the Edit Bot Loadout popup when the UI Scale Setting is not 100%.
  
• Fixed an incorrect tooltip message for unavailable add-ons in the Edit Bot Loadout popup.

• Hooking Survivors during the End Game Collapse no longer counts for 2 Hooks for the Hooks challenges progress
  
• The Hack the Mainframe Achievement now unlocks correctly upon Killer disconnection.
  
• Adept Renato and Adept Thalita are unlocked if the Killer Disconnects after the Exit Gate was opened.

Hello People of The Fog!

Experience the world’s deadliest game of hide and seek during our Steam Free Trial from now until Monday, March 13th. You can also save 60% off the base game and up to 50% off select DLCs through Thursday, March 23rd.

As a Killer, you'll hunt, chase, and attack Survivors, before bringing them to a Hook as a sacrifice for The Entity. As a Survivor, you'll find and repair Generators to then open the Exit Gate to escape alive. Don’t forget to evade the Killer and rescue your teammates before they are sacrificed!













To get you started, check out some new player and gameplay information. Once in the game, the tutorial is a step-by-step guide that teaches you the basics needed to master Killer and Survivors. You can play the tutorial as often as you want, or practice as a Killer against Survivor bots in a Custom Match.

Once you're ready, choose either “Play as Killer” or “Play as Survivor” and jump into a Public Match.

Good luck and see you in The Fog!

The Dead by Daylight Team

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During the Steam Free Trial, you will have access to five Killers (The Trapper, The Hillbilly, The Huntress, The Nurse, and The Wraith) and seven Survivors (Dwight Fairfield, William Overbeck, Nea Karlsson, Meg Thomas, David King, Claudette Morel, and Jake Park) when you first play Dead by Daylight.


You will be able to purchase Auric Cells during the Steam Free Trial. You can also earn Iridescent Shards while playing, which can be used to purchase some Killers, Survivors, and Outfits.


You will be able to purchase Chapter DLCs during the Steam Free Trial. However, you will lose access to this content unless you have a paid copy of Dead by Daylight. We recommend players buy the base game before purchasing Chapter DLCs.


Once the Steam Free Trial ends, you will lose access to any Dead by Daylight content, including Auric Cells and Chapter DLCs. You will need to purchase the Dead by Daylight base game to re-gain access to that content.


Any progress you have made leveling up your character(s) during the free trial or unlocking the Bloodweb will be saved. To continue playing, you will need to purchase the Dead by Daylight base game or a Dead by Daylight bundle from the Steam Store page.

Get ready to earn fun rewards in the Alienware Arena just by playing Dead by Daylight! Unlock The Merchant avatars for the Alienware forums and other cool prizes based on the cumulative playtime for you – and the rest of the Alienware Arena community.

Check out the rewards you can unlock:

• Milestone 1: DBD Skull Merchant Mask Avatar Cosmetic
  
• Milestone 2: 20 ARP (Alienware Arena Points)
  
• Milestone 3: DBD Skull Merchant Suit Avatar Cosmetic
  
• Milestone 4: 30 ARP
  
• Milestone 5: DBD Skull Merchant Boots Avatar Cosmetic
  
• Milestone 6: 40 ARP
  
• Milestone 7: DBD Skull Merchant Razor-Sharp Dual Blades and Skull Drone Avatar Cosmetic Duo
  
• Milestone 8: 50 ARP

Head over to the Alienware Arena Community event to learn more and sign up. How many milestones will the community unlock before it ends on March 21?

See you in The Fog!

Dreams are free. Innovation requires sacrifice. Dead by Daylight’s Tools Of Torment Chapter features a new Killer – The Skull Merchant – and two new Survivors, Thalita Lyra and Renato Lyra. The Shelter Woods Map has also been updated to include The Skull Merchant’s Hunting Camp. Purchasing this add-on unlocks 3 exclusive Cosmetics: The Skull Merchant’s Slipshod Prototype, Thalita Lyra’s Golden Ambition, and Renato Lyra’s Golden Touch.



Forever driven to hunt a worthy target, her reign is built on a mountain of bone. With eyes patrolling from above, her pursuit is relentless.

Dead by Daylight: Tools of Torment also includes two Survivors – siblings Thalita and Renato Lyra. Once beloved pillars of the community, their kite-flying dreams came crashing down, swept into a blanket of nightmarish Fog.

• New Killer: The Skull Merchant
  
• New Survivor: Thalita Lyra
  
• New Survivor: Renato Lyra
  
• 3 exclusive Cosmetics: The Skull Merchant’s Slipshod Prototype, Thalita’s Golden Ambition, and Renato’s Golden Touch.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2294610

Keep your eyes to the sky.

See you in the Fog,

The Dead by Daylight team.

• Update releases: 11AM ET
  
• DLC releases: 12PM ET

Note: These times are estimates and may very from platform to platform.
Game Afoot: While you are chasing the Obsession, this perk activates. Damaging Generators and destroying Breakable Walls and Pallets gives you a 5% Haste Status for 8/9/10 seconds. Whenever you hit the Survivor with the total most time in chase with a Basic Attack, they become the Obsession. The Killer can only be Obsessed with one Survivor at a time.

THWACK!: After hooking a Survivor, this perk activates. The next Breakable Wall or Pallet you break will make Survivors within 28/30/32 meters scream and reveal their aura for 4 seconds. (Changed from PTB: removed activation timer and distance is now a tiered value)

Leverage: Each time you hook a Survivor, gain 1 token, up to 10. When you Hook a Survivor, this perk activates for 30 seconds. For each token, reduces the speed at which Survivors heal by 3/4/5%.

Cut Loose: After performing a rushed vault in a chase, this Perk activates. While active, your rushed vaults are silent for up to 4/5/6 seconds, and successfully performing a rushed vault during that time resets the timer. This perk goes on cool-down for 45 seconds.

Friendly Competition: Whenever you finish Repairing a Generator with at least one other Survivor, this Perk activates. You and other Survivors who finished Repairing the Generator with you get 5% increased Repair progress speed for 45/60/75 seconds. Survivors can only have one instance of this Perk's ability active at once.

Teamwork: Power of Two: Whenever you finish healing another Survivor, you both move 5% faster as long as you stay within 12 meters of the Survivor you healed or until one of you loses a Health State. Teamwork: Power of Two can only trigger once every 180/160/140 seconds. Survivors can only be affected by one Teamwork: Power of Two effect at a time.

Background Player: When the Killer picks up another Survivor, Background Player activates for 10 seconds. When you start running, you break into a sprint at 150% of your normal Running Movement speed for 4 seconds and become exhausted. This perk cannot be used while exhausted. This perk causes exhaustion for 60/50/40 seconds. (Changed from PTB; now activates on pickup for 10 seconds, triggers on starting to run, increases move speed for 4 seconds)

Blood Rush: This Perk activates once you are one Hook away from instant death. While healthy, running, and suffering from Exhaustion, press the Active Ability Button 1 to lose a Health State and recover from Exhaustion instantly and gain the Broken status effect for 28/24/20 seconds. You are automatically healed from injured to healthy after 28/24/20 seconds. Being put into the Dying State will cancel the healing effect. Activating Blood Rush will disable it for the remainder of the trial. Exhaustion prevents Survivors from activating other Perks that cause Exhaustion. Broken prevents Survivors from being healed.

Teamwork: Collective Stealth: Whenever another Survivor finishes healing you, you both leave no scratch marks as long as you stay within 12 meters of the Survivor who healed you or until one of you loses a health state. Teamwork: Collective Stealth can only trigger once every 180/160/140 seconds. Survivors can only be affected by one Teamwork: Collective Stealth effect at a time.

A makeshift command center was erected here, its rigid walls and sharp angles standing in stark contrast to the twisted wood and soil. For those who chance upon this crude structure, the realization that this complex belongs to an apex hunter—a hunter whose prey is human—usually comes too late.

We’ve taken a lengthy visit to the Red Forest Realm, which includes the Maps Temple of Purgation and Mother’s Dwelling. How about a nice, long walk in the woods?

• Visual improvement to eyes and hair.
  
• Hair shape and color adjusted to be more reflective of her lore.
  
• Added blood to Prestige hair.
  
• Visual update to her uncommon skin makeup.
  
• Icons and portrait updated.

This update improves the Map selection process. Now, the possibility that players in a Trial will see the same Map as their previous Trial has been reduced to near-zero. It’s also unlikely that they will be sent to a recently visited Map, though the likelihood will be a little higher than near-zero.This will not impact the efficacy of Map Offerings, nor will it affect Custom Games.

• Any Means Necessary: removed cooldown.
  
• Eruption: After kicking aGenerator, its aura is highlighted in yellow. Whenever a Survivor enters the Dying State, every affectedGeneratorexplodes, losing 10% worth of progress and starts to regress. Any Survivor repairing aGeneratorwhen it explodes will scream and reveal their aura 8/10/12 seconds. Eruption has a cooldown of 30 seconds. (Changed from PTB: now 10% of total progress, not current progress)

After analyzing the data on our side, we have established a set of expected loading times for each of the steps while loading into a Trial. As a result, if any player crashes or hangs while loading, we will now be able to return everyone to the Tally much earlier.

We know that sometimes you may face unsportsmanlike behaviour even before a match. We have now added the option to report a player from the online lobby.

We have done a consistency pass on the following perks and addons which trigger audio feedback when the position of a Survivor is revealed:
Deathbound, Dragon's Grip, Eruption, Hex: Face the Darkness, Infectious Fright, Iron Maiden, Make Your Choice, Kanobo Yamaoka Family Crest, Incensed Oinment, Healing Poultice, Greasy Black Lens.

When a Survivor screams to reveal their location, the scream will be a 3d scream (instead of a 2d/mapwide scream), with a 19m max range, and a loud noise sfx is triggered.

• Bots are now assigned to specific slots when added in the Custom Match lobby.
  
• Players can now edit bots to make them use a selection of Perks, Offerings, Items and Add-ons in Custom Games.
  
• Players can save up to 4 bot loadout presets to re-use them at a later time or to apply them to different bots in order to face bots with unique loadouts.
  
• Players can now manually select which Survivor should be used as a Bot.
  
• Dev Note: Not all options for loadout are currently supported by Bots. You may notice that some options of Perks, Items, Add-ons or Offerings are missing; these exclusions are intentional.

• Bots respond better while in the Terror Radius on multi-floor Maps.
  
• Bots are more likely to pick up dropped Items.
  
• Bots will use the Haste Effect more effectively after being hit by the Killer.
  
• Bots are no longer overcome with existential dread when Broken and holding a Medkit.
  
• Bots no longer automatically know where their rekindled Hex: Pentimento Totem is located.
  
• Bots no longer automatically know the Perk associated with a Hex Totem.
  
• Bots should now make more strategically sound rescues in the Killer’s presence.
  
• Improved Bot decision-making while dodging ranged attacks and looping.
  
• Improved Bot pathing while obstructed by a teammate.
  
• Bots now prioritize gaining distance from the Killer over seeking a nearby loop.
  
• Bots react more accurately to sound, especially from Killer Powers.
  
• Injured Bots are now more effective at healing one another.
  
• When searching for the closest Locker, Bots are no longer confused by Lockers on a floor below or above.

• Bots are more willing to solve The Lament Configuration when playing against Pinhead.
  
• Bots no longer automatically know which Generator Freddy Krueger will emerge from while using the Class Photo Add-On.
  
• Bots no longer automatically know which Portal The Demogorgon will emerge from while using the Red Moss Add-On.
  
• Bots no longer fear approaching Charlotte while Victor is active.
  
• Bots now know to crouch to avoid triggering The Hag’s Phantasm Traps.
  
• Bots no longer attempt to blind The Demogorgon while it is travelling in the Upside Down.
  
• Bots no longer automatically know which Pallets are fake when playing against Freddy Krueger or The Doctor.
  
• Bots more accurately react to the Terror Radius when the Obsession is affected by Dark Devotion.
  
• Bots are far more willing to disarm The Trapper’s Bear Traps when required.

• Bots can now use the following Perks:
  
  • Deception
    
  • For the People
    
  • Saboteur
    
  • Blast Mine
    
  • Wiretap
    
  • Tenacity
    
  • Self-Care
• Bots can now use the following Add-ons:
  
  • Styptic Agent
    
  • Anti-hemorrhagic Syringe
    
  • Brand New Part
    
  • Glass Bead
• Bots can now sabotage Hooks with a Toolbox.
  
• Bots can now use Keys and their Add-ons.
  
• Bots no longer crouch in place while looping a Killer.
  
• Bots now avoid using particularly small loops.
  
• When playing against a Trapper with the Tension Spring Add-on, Bots run away from Bear Traps before healing.
  
• Bots no longer attempt to stand up from the Dying State while lying down on a Trapper's Bear Trap.
  
• When playing against The Artist, Bots now cancel the Repel Crows action to vault or drop a pallet.
  
• Bots now correctly vault a specific window in the Dead Dawg Saloon Map.

• Pallets now react as intended when kicked during the Pallet breaking animation.
  
• The Huntress' legs now move forward while performing basic attacks.
  
• Female Legion members no longer have the Male Legion walk animation while inside Trials.
  
• Correct transition now plays after being stunned when The Legion has the Julie's Mix Tape equipped.

• A collision in the Mother's Dwelling Map no longer blocks projectiles.
  
• Addressed level-of-detail issues in the Yamaoka Estate Map.

• Fixed an issue where a Survivor's scream would continue to play after being unhooked rapidly.
  
• Fixed an issue where Thalita and Renato's screams were muffled when activating the Eruption perk.
  
• Fixed an issue in the Tome 14 Rift where only The Knight would produce sound when highlighting rewards.
  
• Fixed an issue where using the Visual Data torso cosmetic for The Legion would use the default sounds instead of Julie's.
  
• A subtitle from William Birkin's voiceover lines no longer appears when playing as The Blight with a different Cosmetic.

• Players affected by a disconnection penalty should now see it correctly when returning to the lobby after a Match.
  
• Fixed a few cases where subtitles for voiceover lines would linger longer than the audio itself.
  
• Players are no longer stuck in an infinite loop when matchmaking fails while queueing for a Custom Match.
  
• Fixed a potential crash when closing the game.
  
• Fixed a softlock in the Main Menu after selecting a Game Mode and quickly selecting the Store or Archives button at the same time.
  
• Fixed a positioning issue of the loadout item tooltip in the Tally screen after displaying the Killer Power tooltip.
  
• Cybil no longer remains idle when interacting with or using Killer objects.
  
• Fixed some cases where Adept achievements could not be completed.
  
• Hex: Huntress Lullaby no longer affects Hook struggle Skill Checks
  
• Whispers now deactivates correctly when a Survivor is killed or disconnects in the Perk's range.
  
• The Killer's Obsession is now applied to the correct survivor while "Decisive Strike" is equipped.
  
• Fixed a server crash which happened in some cases after a Survivor is interrupted.
  
• Bots now cancel a pending Crow removal when waiting to vault or drop pallet.
  
• Add-Ons from The Knight, The Onryo and The Oni no longer cause Survivors in Lockers to scream.
  
• Victor's Aura is now correctly displayed after a successful Pounce.
  
• William Birkin voice line subtitles no longer appear when downing survivors as default Blight.
  
• Fixed a crash on the server when certain Status Effects are imposed.
  
• Blood Warden no longer permanently blocks the Exit Gates.
  
• Wiggle Skill Checks now disappear once becoming Hooked.
  
• Fixed an issue where Survivors are unable to wiggle off of a Killer's shoulders.

• Updated The Nurse's Power description to include the fact that she can interrupt and grab Survivors between a Blink and the ensuing fatigue.
  
• This change will propagate to other languages in a future update.
  
• A player disconnecting during the Trial introductory camera rotation now correctly cancels the match.
  
• Survivors no longer risk receiving a disconnection penalty when the Killer disconnects.
  
• Fixed an issue where editing a Bot in an invalid state in a Custom Game lobby could crash the game.
  
• Fixed a crash when selecting the "Edit Bot" option in the Lobby after disabling some items from the Match Management settings.
  
• Fixed an issue where Bot Loadout items were not affected by the Match Managament settings.
  
• Fixed an issue with animations in the Bot Edit Loadout popup whe changing pages.
  
• Fixed a positioning issue of the Perk tooltip in the Bot Edit Loadout popup.
  
• Fixed some formatting issues in Inventory's tooltip in the Bot Edit Loadout Popup.
  
• Fixed an issue with the UI Scale setting not being applied to the Bot Edit Loadout popup.
  
• Fixed an issue that caused different cosmetic issues when a Survivor enters a Drone's active detection zone.
  
• The Rite of the Skull Merchant Daily Ritual should now progress correctly.
  
• Survivors with a Claw-Trap no longer see the wrong decal when observing Scouting Drones.
  
• The Leverage Perk's external icon now correctly displays a timer.
  
• Rancor's Exposed Status is no longer immediately activated when the Obsession is transferred through the Game Afoot Perk.
  
• Game Afoot's Obsession transfer is now triggered at the end of a hit, preventing the Remember Me perk from gaining a Token too early.
  
• Using Blood Rush with the Background Player Perk active now properly removes the Exhaustion Status Effect imposed by another Perk.
  
• Leverage now applies only when healing others and not self-healing.
  
• The Cut Loose icon now reflects the proper state and duration.
  
• Sprint Burst triggers correctly when using Blood Rush.
  
• Teamwork: Collective Stealth and Teamwork: Power of Two now activate correctly when using a Anti-Haemorrhagic Syringe.
  
• Teamwork: Collective Stealth is no longer deactivated when one Survivor runs in a different direction from the others.
  
• Teamwork: Collective Stealth no longer fails to deactivate if the other Survivor disconnects.
  
• The icons of Teamwork: Power of Two and Teamwork: Collective Stealth now correctly matches the Perk state.

• "Glyph Graduate" Yellow Glyph challenges
  
• Skill checks for the Glyph Graduate challenge are not behaving as intended and may not recognize the Player's input in the "good" Skill Check zones.
  
• Affects all instances of the Glyph Graduate challenge across all applicable Tomes.

• Stuttering present for Tools of Torment intro video on XB1.
  
• The description of achievements do not scroll on the side on the EGS launcher social panel.

• The Boreal Hill on the Red Forest has unclear pathing.

It’s been about a week since the Tools of Torment Public Test Build (PTB) went live, and we’ve been busy combing through your feedback in the days since. Today, we’d like to share a large package of polish and balance adjustments which we’ve prepared for the Chapter’s release on March 7th.

As always, we want to give our appreciation for everyone who took the time to share their thoughts on this new content. Your feedback is invaluable in shaping the game!

Now, without further ado…


First up, deploying a drone to begin with. In the PTB, releasing a drone would put your power on cooldown for 12.5 seconds. This could feel a little limiting considering drones already cannot be placed within a certain range of one another. We’ve decoupled deploying drones from the power’s cooldown. The cooldown is now solely used for reactivating existing drones, and furthermore has been lowered to 10 seconds (was 12.5).

Once a drone is deployed, it would take 4 seconds to become active. This gave Survivors a lot of time to react and move away before it began locking on. For the release, we are lowering the initialization time of newly placed drones to 3 seconds.

Speaking of newly placed drones, Survivors were previously capable of disabling a drone after only 5 seconds. This could allow bold and coordinated Survivors to disable a drone before it could have any meaningful effect. For release, we’re increasing the unhackable window to 10 seconds. Once the drone becomes hackable, it will remain active for an additional 20 seconds (for a total combined active time of 30 seconds, much like the PTB). The Killer can reactivate a drone at will using their scanner.

As the Killer, staying inside an active drone’s radius for 3 seconds would grant you the Undetectable Status Effect, allowing you to ambush Survivors. This could create some awkward moments where you’d be standing around waiting for the effect to kick in, so we’re reducing this to 2 seconds.

For Survivors, spending too long in an active zone can be dangerous. Active drones will Lock On to Survivors in their radius, making them Exposed. However, the short duration could make it difficult for the Killer to react unless they were already chasing a Survivor. We’ve made a few changes to the Lock On mechanic for release:

• The Lock On duration has been increased to 60 seconds (was 30).
  
• An incomplete Lock On will start to decay after 10 seconds of exiting an active zone (was 5).
  
• Entering an active zone while Locked On will reset your Lock On to 60 seconds and prevent it from decaying until you leave the zone.
  
• The Skull Merchant can now see Survivors’ Lock On progress in order to better plan their chases.

Besides Locking On, the drones are also a powerful tool for tracking Survivors. In the PTB, we found it to be a little difficult to fully take advantage of your Eyes in the Sky, so we’ve made some changes in that department as well:

• Claw Trap battery life has been increased to 45 seconds (was 25), allowing the Killer to track Survivors for longer. The “Overcharge” Add-on has been adjusted accordingly.
  
• Survivors will no longer receive an indicator when their location is revealed by The Skull Merchant’s scanner.
  
• The Skull Merchant will move faster when checking her radar (now 4.4m/s, was 4.0m/s).
  
• SFX have been updated to provide a clearer notification when a Survivor has been tracked.

With all this in mind, Survivors will want to be much more wary when they come face to face with The Skull Merchant. To ensure that this doesn’t make her too frustrating to play against, we’ve taken some additional considerations to accompany these changes- but be warned, there’s risk involved!

• Approaching a drone with a Claw Traps will no longer cause it to enter an unhackable state (preventing Survivors from interacting with it).
  
• Survivors with a Claw Trap can now disable drones – but keep in mind that entering the drone’s range will cause it to activate and recharge your traps’ battery!
  
• Survivors who fail a hack will now be immediately Locked On

Whether her drones are Locking On to Survivors or she’s tracking their every move, we hope you’ll find these changes make The Skull Merchant a much bigger threat when she releases March 7th.


Alongside tweaks to the new Killer, we’ve also mode some modifications to a few perks following feedback in the PTB.

Eruption
During the PTB, Eruption was changed to no longer make Survivors Incapacitated, and its regression was changed from total to current progress . While the removal of the Status Effect worked exactly as we’d hoped, the shift to current progress proved to be a little too far.
For the Chapter release, Eruption’s regression will return to 10% of the generator’s total progress.

THWACK!
Beyond being a fun name to say, THWACK! causes Survivors to scream and reveal their aura to the Killer. This perk requires the Killer to hook a Survivor in order to activate. To avoid any unneeded pressure for the Killer to seek out and break a pallet or wall, we have removed the timer from this perk. THWACK! will now remain active indefinitely upon hooking a Survivor and only deactivate upon use.

Background Player
This new perk for Renato Lyra caused him to break into a sprint upon unhooking a Survivor. Many pointed out that this left the unhooked Survivor alone at the hook, making them easy prey for the Killer. Background Player is receiving a rework in time for the release.
This perk now activates when the Killer picks up another Survivor, and the duration of its sprint has been reduced to 4 seconds (was 6).
How you choose to use this speed is up to you! Whether you’re trying to get into position for a save, get closer to the hook for a rescue, or simply to get away as fast as possible- we leave that to you to decide.


The Tools of Torment Chapter launches March 7th. Keep your eyes to the sky, but don’t forget to check if the Killer’s heading your way every once in a while. We’ll be watching. 👀

Until next time…
The Dead by Daylight team