Behavior Interactive is scared. He is scared and doesn’t know what to do. That is what emerges from his last move. one that will change Dead by Daylight, its asymmetric multiplayer horror video game, forever and which has the diminishing users of the title in suspense. A few weeks ago, the Canadian company reported that a gigantic patch was on the way that would renew fifty perks, the most used by players. In the end there were 39 and now we have already begun to know the changes. In that sense, Dead by Daylight plays it to an all or nothing and the question that goes around the heads of the fans is very clear: is his end near?
To situate ourselves at the juncture that the video game is going through that pits a murderer against four survivors, let’s start with the numerical. Behavior watches with fear the constant loss of active players on Steam, the platform on which the work was born and on which it has historically been most successful. From September 2021 to April 2022, Dead by Daylight has lost users for seven consecutive months. The anniversary event that the game is holding in June has revived the player base, as it always does. But that resurrection has an expiration date and it is the 30th of this month, the day the event ends.
The alarming figures from last April date Dead by Daylight back to poor February 2020, a month before the covid-19 confinement catapulted the game to its final boom. Behavior has tried in different ways stop bleeding, but the only thing he has achieved by fireworks in the form of blood points giveaways, iridescent shards as rewards or skins giveaways has been to put a Band-Aid on an amputated leg. Dead by Daylight’s problems are at the base and the entire fan community knows it. Behavior is the only one who does not know or ignores it.
5 reasons why Dead by Daylight keeps losing players
The rush gene and the increasing toxicity of the premades, on the one hand, and the camping and tunneling of the assassins that embitter the survivors (especially those who play solo), on the other, are the real headache of the fans. The Canadian study thinks differently and that is why it has now revealed the first perks wanted by the most regular players who have decided to kill and bury. Let’s take some example. Goosebumps, which lights up when the killer is looking in your direction and used to help some of the hearing-impaired community, will now only work in certain circumstances, reducing its usefulness. Iron Will, the only ability in the game that allowed the survivor to be silent, will now make them silent at 75%; that is to say, that it is not at all. On the assassin side, who have to deal with lightning-fast generator repair, some useful perks to curb this issue are also affected. Handyman, who warned you when a generator was close to being completed, will be changed forever.
ICYMI: We’re shaking up the goal😵💫
On the killer side💀BBQ & Chili, Hex: Ruin, Pop Goes the Weasel, Corrupt Intervention, Tinkerer, Hex: NOED, Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance pic.twitter.com/c5KNJ9LBmI
— Dead by Daylight (@DeadByBHVR) June 27, 2022
The reading of these “reworks” better called nerfs and that will also affect such popular perks as Borrowed Time, Decisive Blow, Slasher or Nobody escapes death is evident: Behavior wants to stop losing users who take the role of assassin and for this this willing to sacrifice its weakest link, the SoloQ survivors, those who play alone. The aforementioned premades can continue to play in constant communication and cushion the blow of the destruction of the most used perks (not because they are broken, but because they are the only truly useful ones in the entire game). Players who enjoy or try to enjoy Dead by Daylight solo are going to have a harder time. More powerful killers and fewer tools to deal with them. All this in a scenario full of campeos, tunnels, disconnections that are not punished and toxicity.
As if that were not enough, this controversial announcement by Behavior Interactive has occurred at the same time as that of the prestige rework and how to progress in the blood tree and get the skills. From now on, once we unlock the perks of one character, we will have unlocked them for everyone. So far so good. However, the prestige will no longer be three per character to be one hundred. Yes, you read correctly, one hundred. With each new prestige you will keep all the items and perks previously unlocked, so Behavior returns to attack the same sector: the veteran player. If for six years you have been following “the rules” of Dead by Daylight, making prestige and spending points on getting perks when your characters were already at level 50, I am sorry to tell you that you have wasted time and resources. A server is included at this point.
TLDR : Overhauled progression system🩸⬇️
🔓Prestiging a character for the 1st time will unlock Tier 1 of their perks on all characters, making them available to use right away. Same for prestige/tiers 2&3.
👀 No more resets!
🏆 Prestige to 100 and earn rewards along the way pic.twitter.com/y0O6gc32LR
— Dead by Daylight (@DeadByBHVR) June 27, 2022
At this time, Behavior has not spoken of no compensation for those who have progressed in the game with the twisted and infernal formula, which forced you to invest millions of points and then lose them and have to invest them again. So, over and over and over again. The Canadian company is still in time to offer a solution for which it is silent at the moment, but seeing its history it would not count on it.
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Behavior Interactive’s movements make it clear that the course varies depending on how the wind is blowing at any given time. However, those responsible for Dead by Daylight they had never made such a drastic decision. Users have been enduring all sorts of bad decisions for months, if not years, simply because the formula of the game is still so much fun and, make no mistake, it has managed to stay fresh over time. But everything has a limit. Behavior’s new strategy is a direct attack on SoloQ survivors, a fundamental part of the community, veterans and, ultimately, anyone who still enjoyed the experience despite everything. Dead by Daylight faces an all or nothing. It is not a drama. All games as a service are born and die one day, but seeing what is coming, it is likely that the end of this already legendary video game is very close to its inexorable end.