Dead by Daylight Developer Update (July 2022) – Progression Improved, Endurance Nerfed

The Dead by Daylight developers have been closely watching the Public Test Beta during its latest patch, since it’s probably the biggest balance patch the game has ever seen. Many players on social media have (as always) been voicing concerns about some of the changes set to come with patch 6.1.0, and today’s developer update addresses many of those worries — of particular note are the changes to Progression and the Endurance status effect. Read on to see all the key takeaways from today’s developer update!

Gameplay

Endurance

If there was one thing people freaked out about after seeing the 6.1.0 notes, it was the combination of Off the Record giving Endurance combined with the base-kit addition of Endurance for Survivors who are unhooked. While it was unlikely to be the issue Reddit balance experts thought it would be, the possibility of hitting a Survivor twice with no effect was a reasonable concern.

As a result, the Endurance effect will now no longer function to a Survivor who already has a Deep Wound — since the Endurance effect only ever prevented you from being put in the Dying State (and gave you a Deep Wound in the process), this means that functionally, stacking Endurance does nothing now, as it can only protect you from going down once.

Note that you can still apply the Endurance status effect to someone with a Deep Wound, and it will take effect if you’re hit after Mending your Deep Wound (assuming the Endurance status effect is still active).

Perks

A number of perks are being adjusted based on feedback and performance on the PTB:

• Spine Chill was changed to activate only when the Killer has a clear line of sight to the Survivor. However, this was affecting hard-of-hearing players who used Spine Chill as a replacement for the Terror Radius. To compensate for the change, Spine Chill will have a visual indicator of the Terror Radius’ strength.
• Dead Hard was changed to give 1 second of Endurance instead of a dash and temporary invulnerability — this has been nerfed to 0.5 seconds.
• Off the Record was changed to grant Endurance in addition to its existing effects — after players pointed out this could guarentee an escape if the gates were powered and the perk was active, this perk has been adjusted to deactivate once the Exit Gates are powered. Additionally, it will be affected incidentally by the changes to Endurance.
• Overcharge was changed to make generator regression the perk causes increase from 100% to 400% over 30 seconds — this has been nerfed to 75% to 200% over 30 seconds.
• Botany Knowledge was changed to increase healing speed even more, but the Med-Kit effeciency was removed. Because this change was making Med-Kits too strong (despite the nerf to efficiency), Botany Knowledge will now receive a 20% efficiency penalty to Med-Kits. Sorry, EMT cosplayers!
• Distortion was changed to regain a token after every 30 seconds spent in the Killer’s Terror Radius, and max/starting tokens was nerfed from 4 to 3 — it will now have an audio cue when a token is used, making it easier to tell when you’ve blocked the Killer reading your aura.
• Iron Will was nerfed to only reduce grunts of pain by 75% at max rank (rather than being silent), and to no longer function while Exhausted. While they aren’t changing it yet, they will be “reviewing the volume levels of each Survivor’s grunts to ensure that each of them can make use of this perk”.
• Inner Focus wasn’t changed with the latest patch, but will have its range requirement removed, allowing you to see other Survivor’s Scratch Marks at any distance.

The developers also specifically pointed out in today’s Dev Update that since the PTB doesn’t have enough players for proper matchmaking, they’ll be monitoring perk performance closely once the patch hits live, and adjust updated perks accordingly.

Progression

While the changes to progression should make it easier to unlock Perks on every character, it was also actually going to make it harder to afford all the items and add-ons you wanted. With that in mind, BHVR is making a few changes to reduce the grind.

Bloodpoint caps per category are being bumped up by 2,000 (from 8,000 to 10,000), meaning you can now earn up to 40,000 BP per match instead of only 32,000. This is a fairly significant increase, especially for games where you end up only being chased or only doing gens. Additionally, the Bloodpoint cap is being raised from 1 million to 2 million, which is great for players who don’t log in often and find themselves way over the cap after receiving random rewards.

In a “future update”, the rarity of Bloodweb nodes post-prestige is going to be modified. Currently, prestiging can make common quality noes more common– once the promised update comes, prestiging should not prevent a wide variety of add-on and item rarities from appearing in Bloodwebs. Prestiging is also getting a cost decrease, from 50,000 to 20,000 BP.

The catch-up mechanic is also being modified — this mechanic awards you bonus prestige levels based on your progress before the progression overhaul coming in patch 6.1.0. Currently, you’re getting one bonus prestige level for each prestige your characters had prior to the update — in the live patch, this will be increased to 2 bonus prestige levels per prestige level your character had pre-update. This will be limited to 9 levels total, however.

Cosmetics

Perk Charms will be unlocked at prestige 7, 8, and 9, but players had voiced concerns about how, well, ugly the charms were. The look of them has been updated based on feedback:

Additionally, a character portrait effect is being added for anyone who reaches prestige 3 prior to the progression overhaul — you’ve only got a little over a week to unlock this if you care about it, so get grinding!

New prestige icons will also be added with the upcoming Mid-Chapter update, as a way to flex your grind in the post-game lobby.

It’s great to see the devs paying attention to the PTB feedback, and personally, I’ve never been more excited for a Dead by Daylight update. Let us know what you think of the July Developer Update in the comments!