September 2023 Dead by Daylight Update Adds New Anti-Camping System, Map Adjustments, and More

The 4v1 online horror game Dead by Daylight is getting another major update this September 2023 as Behaviour Interactive is set to test a new anti-camping feature, and changes to a lot of Killers, one major change is on The Skull Merchant.

Anti Face-camping just for early game

The biggest change is how developers are planning to address Killers camping Survivors who are hooked, particularly during the early stages of a match. The new system allows the hooked Survivor to gain the ability to unhook themselves if the Killer decides to stick around longer than they should. The closer the Killer is to the helpless Survivor, the faster this mechanic will become available to them.

Thankfully, the developers thought of the possibility of aggressive Survivors abusing this new mechanic as the time it takes for a hooked Survivor to get the ability to unhook themselves will slow down or even deactivate depending on how many Survivors are nearby the area, which makes sense as if they are near the hooked Survivor, the chances of them being saved is quite high in that scenario. This new mechanic will also be disabled when Exit Gates are powered up, so camping will still be a thing during endgame collapse.

The Skull Merchant long game no more?

The Skul Merchant is getting a massive overhaul with her drone ability, as active zones will no longer be a thing when this patch goes live. The new version of this Killer will have more emphasis on Claw Traps as the drones will now slowly increase the chance of getting a claw trap when scanned by these devices.

The drones will also have two modes:

Stealth Mode

The drone’s spinning beams will be invisible, and the drone will be much quieter. Survivors will want to watch closely for the lights on the drone itself to tell where the beams are so they can sneak up and disable it.

Scouting Mode

The drone’s scan lines will be visible and rotate much faster, making them more difficult to approach or run by undetected.

In either mode, the drone’s scan lines will not detect a Survivor who is stationary, effectively preventing them from being used to guard generators. A Survivor can interact with a drone in either state to disable it for 45 seconds, after which they will return to Stealth Mode.

Claw Traps will now also give the following effects to Survivors caught by one depending on their health state:

• If they are healthy, they will be instantly injured.

• If they are injured, they will receive Deep Wounds. This will not grant the Survivor a speed boost.

• The Survivor suffers from the Broken Status Effect until the trap is removed.

• Their location will be revealed on the Killer’s scanner for a short duration.

There are also some changes to the Killer that will hopefully make her feel better to not only play but play against:

• The Skull Merchant now has 6 drones available (was 4).

• The Skull Merchant will now immediately become Undetectable for 8 seconds after deploying a drone.

• The minimum distance between drones is now 16m (was 22m).

• The Killer’s movement speed is no longer decreased when checking the scanner.

• Lock On progress no longer decays.

• Drones can no longer be manually reactivated.

• Drones can now be placed above or below other drones deployed on different floors.

• Failing to hack a drone will now grant one stack of Lock On instead of instantly Locking On.

• The Skull Merchant’s footsteps are now quieter, making her harder to track behind walls.

• We have updated The Skull Merchant’s chase music.

• We have reviewed The Skull Merchant’s Add-ons, adjusting some and giving new effects to others.

We’ll see if these changes will make an impact as The Skull Merchant is currently in a state where there’s only one vital way to play her and that way is not fun for either side.

Other Killer Changes

This update is adjusting Trapper, Legion, Deathslinger, Huntress, and Trickster. Minor changes are done to Legion as they are tweaking an addon while Deathslinger, Huntress, and Trickster have their base time to reload their projectiles reduced.

Trapper has an interesting change as there will now be eight bear traps available in a match compared to the current six, and after the Killer sets a bear trap, he will earn a 7.5% haste buff. A nice buff that could make him more deadly against more experienced Survivors.

Map Changes

In this update, the developers are looking to improve The Shattered Square and The MacMillan Estate. Shattered Square is the biggest map in the game and they are reducing its size while removing any obstacles so small players would get stuck on them because they couldn’t see it was in front of them.

MacMillan Estate will now have different variants of these maps. It’s generally the same maps but key areas will spawn in different locations. One example given by Behaviour is the mineshaft in Suffocation Pit as that tile can now spawn in different locations, giving more variety.

Those are the major changes coming to Dead by Daylight in the future. Just like previous major updates, a Public Test Build will go live on Wednesday this week, at 10 AM ET that will feature all the changes mentioned above, giving their community a chance to play around with the adjustments and give their feedback before it gets implemented in the game’s live servers.

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