DBD is making serious changes to killers and perks in next update

The next Dead By Daylight update is imminent. This is the patch that will welcome Chapter 33.5 and start Tome 21, Dominus. While the new Tome is exciting, BeHaviour Interactive has also announced some pretty big changes coming to DBD killers and perks within the next update.

Make sure to check out the Dead By Daylight October 2024 roadmap to see all of the upcoming events and skin collections. In addition, a new code has become available to redeem, and you can get early access to one of the new Hallowed Blight skins. As for the further future, the Chapter 34 killer has leaked, and the next licensed killer is said to be “out of the box” and possibly controversial.

While we’re looking forward to new chapters and this month’s Halloween event, before then we will get the Chapter 33.5 update. This is set to be a huge update as it is reintroducing Finisher Mori while also making changes to killers and perks.

Dead By Daylight next update changes to killers and perks

Below are the changes to killers and perks coming to Dead By Daylight for Chapter 33.5 in update 8.3.0 on October 8th:

The Skull Merchant:

• [NEW] The Skull Merchant gains 5% Haste when a Survivor is scanned within 5 seconds of placing a drone or changing its rotation.
• [CHANGE] Increased Hindered effect when scanned by a drone to 8% (was 5%).
• [CHANGE] Increased drone rotation speed to 95 degrees per second (was 85).
• [CHANGE] Decreased movement speed while deploying a drone or inspecting the radar to 4.4m/s (was 4.6m/s).
• [CHANGE] Fast vaults are no longer detected by drones.

Dev note: While this update is intended to reduce The Skull Merchant’s strength, we received feedback that the changes may have gone too far. We’ve done some further tweaking and found a compromise between the old and new versions.

We’ve also reintroduced the Haste effect for a short time after a drone is deployed or its rotation is swapped. This will reward the Killer for using their Power actively rather than setting and forgetting or randomly gaining Haste from Survivors across the map.

We intend to revisit The Skull Merchant in a future release for a larger rework.

The Hillbilly:

• [CHANGE] Increased Overdrive Chainsaw movement speed to 12m/s (11.5m/s).

Dev note: Many found that The Hillbilly’s movement speed during Overdrive was a little low during the PTB, making it feel similar to his normal Chainsaw movement speed. We have increased it slightly, landing it between the PTB & previous live speed.

Distortion:

• [CHANGE] Reintroduced tokens. Tokens now recharge over 30 seconds while in chase, up to a maximum of 2.

Dev note: Many found a single use of Distortion to be very limiting, so we have reintroduced the token mechanic. These tokens now recharge while in a chase rather than by being in the Killer’s terror radius. This will prevent Distortion from hiding a Survivor for the entire match and reward those who are play well during a chase.

Zanshin Tactics:

• [NEW] Survivors who drop a pallet have their aura revealed for 6/7/8 seconds.
• [CHANGE] Reintroduced aura reading for pallets & vaults within 32m.
• [REMOVED] No longer reveals the aura of Survivors near dropped pallets.

Dev note: Though rarely used, some players found niche uses for the original Zanshin Tactics effect. We don’t want to stifle that creativity, so we have brought it back!

Constant aura reading around dropped pallets proved to be a little strong on the PTB, so we have replaced this with a temporary aura reveal after the pallet is dropped.

Corrective Action:

• [CHANGE] Corrective Action once again turns missed skill checks into good skill checks.
• [NEW] When Corrective Action activates, reveal the aura of the Survivor who missed a skill check for a few seconds.
• [REMOVED] Corrective Action no longer has a range limit.

Dev note: We challenge you to push things to the limit on the PTB – and boy did you ever. Corrective Action had some strong combos, so we’re moving onto a new design. Corrective Action will once again convert missed skill checks into good skill checks, and to make it more appealing, it will work no matter where you are in the map. This makes it far less dependent on being right next to someone when they happen to miss a skill check.

Deathbound:

• [CHANGE] Effect now ends when losing a health state.

Dev note: With the Oblivious effect being removed only when hooked, Deathbound ended up being active for far too long in most cases. We’ve switched it to deactivate when a health state is lost, but kept the other improvements as is.

In addition to all of the above, below are the changes made to Finisher Mori:

Mori update:

• [REVERTED] The Ivory & Ebony Memento Mori Offerings once again allow the Killer to kill Survivor(s) who have been hooked twice.
• [RETIRED] The Cypress Memento Mori Offering has been retired.

Dev note: We’ve received a lot of feedback about the changes made to the Ivory & Ebony Memento Mori Offerings during the PTB. This came down to the loss of mid-match kills & group photo opportunities, as well as concerns that the Bloodpoint reward would encourage unfun behaviour. With that in mind, we have reverted the changes to the Mori Offerings.

As a result, the Cypress Memento Mori Offering is now obsolete and will be retired. We will offer 1 Million Bloodpoints for any unused Offerings, which you can claim simply by logging in between October 8th and October 17th.

As the 8.3.0 update approaches, we've got some adjustments to share thanks to your feedback 👇

Reddit 👉 https://t.co/GxVBtg3bqF
Forums 👉 https://t.co/cLza19p2Go pic.twitter.com/d7VASZKP6z

— Dead by Daylight (@DeadbyDaylight) October 3, 2024

For more Dead By Daylight content, check out our ranking of the top 10 DLC expansions to buy along with a ranking of the best killer perks and best survivor perks.