Dead by Daylight sprints out of the starting gates as their third year approaches.
Today has been amazing day for the Dead by Daylight community. It has been a few months since this game has seen some major balance changes or content additions. After the Dead by Daylight team finished their live stream today, I can see why we have had such a drought. It is definitely going to be worth the wait. A new teaser for the upcoming chapter was shown off, a complete rehaul of the game’s economy is undergoing construction and new player accessibility was finally addressed and is on the path of being taken care of. This amount of announcements in such a short amount of time is truly building up a hype third year celebration for this game.
Official teaser for the upcoming third anniversary chapter. Name still unknown.
First off, the teaser. What is going on it? Well, we got what looks like to be a new survivor strumming an acoustic only solo next to the infamous campfire in the Entity’s realm. The camera slowly zooms in until finally, a glass shatters and the female figure gasps… Cutting to the game’s logo. Followed up shortly after, shows the broken glass with a mysterious purple mist arising from the inside. The past few trailers you can really put together the clues of the subject matter into play to get a feel of what is upcoming. However, this trailer did the most minimal amount of presentation to gameplay mechanics but rather focused on setting the scene. The new survivor looks pretty badass and hopefully the ingame model stays pretty close to the same quality shown in the teaser. For the killer however, we only know of the bottle that was teased. What is it and what is it emitting? That also was not very clear and just having the mist only raises more confusion and curiosity. If I wanted to guess, it may leave survivors exposed either audibly or may weaken them down if it is a poison like gadget. That is my guess so far and knowing the Dead by Daylight team, this power is going to switch up the meta of chase and escape. Every DLC so far has continued to impress the boundaries of the game and I know for a fact it will not stop anytime soon.
After the teaser was shown, Gabriella (not_queen), David Richard (creative director) and Isabelle Mocquard (production manager) transitioned the stream into showing off a four pillared approach to how it will be handling it’s decisions among the community in regards to monetization and with the games development process.
The Four Pillars of Dead by Daylight's new approach and guidelines to keeping the game running strong.
One Community - All content will be released on all platforms and no exclusives will be enabled. There has been some licensing issues over the character, Bill, from the "Left 4 Dead" series. Bill is present on PC but not the consoles due to a steam licensing restriction. Same thing with a legacy cosmetic that was rewarded to the early adopters of the game and prestiged their characters during a certain time period. This first approach wants to make sure that no more content is released that will isolate the player-base. This also includes major game changing elements like maps for example. The maps will not be locked out due to the inability to purchase them since they impact the game-play and player-base alike. Matchmaking would suffer if content got locked out and they want to keep it buried in the pillar for the best results.
Non-Licensed Characters Become Accessible With Playtime - A new currency system is coming out that I will explain soon. This pillar shows that any character that are not licensed, like The Pig or Michael Myers for example, are unlockable just from playing the game. So besides licensed characters, everyone will be unlockable just from playing. Characters that this would affiliate with now would be The Doctor, Feng Min, The Hag and Ace Visconti. Since these were all the original and independent DLC’s. It is an interesting gesture but it does not lock out the options of just outright buying them either. Which I am really happy about. There is just an option now for those who love to grind or unlock their content instantly. Remember, this pillar only applies to the original characters of the game. Not any licensed characters (Michael Myers, The Pig, Freddy Krueger and Leatherface.)
We’re All in With Cosmetic Items - The new economy makes this next pillar much more enticing. Cosmetics all over the place! Before, cosmetics would either be part of DLC bundles or exclusive event unlocks. These will continue to be a thing but after what they showed off today, there are brand new cosmetic alternatives and even recolors to switch up the look and personality of the characters. I am so excited for this implementation and it gives the grind so much more meaning now. Goals to unlock new items and cosmetics it is wonderful. It is split in between four tiers as well to determine how much it will all be worth. The final tier which is Ultra Rare will not be unlockable through grinding the new economy but rather part of microtransaction bundles. “Eighty percent of the game can be unlocked through playtime…”, is what was emphasized by Isabelle. Depending on how the Ultra Rare’s look for some characters, especially the Killers, I might be caving into this new system. It is commendable that this is finally part of the world of Dead by Daylight.
Transparency - This pillar pretty much means they want to be upfront about what they are doing and why. All these new unlocks through playtime got balanced out with the economy of the upcoming update. Cosmetics and character unlocks will cost what they are and are bundled at default to get into this new transition. Players will be able to buy DLC's like they have prior when new chapters drop and will even be rewarded with more now. However, the price of all the content has gone up by at least thirty percent than what was present before. This is because with the new development process. They are able to pump out much more but want to make sure they can reach their financial quota as well to push out the content that is in high demand. It is a fair trade off honestly. Right now, I am concerned as a veteran player for the prices alone. I have been buying content the day it comes out anyway so I feel as though my grinding will be rewarded when the next batch of content drops. Just have to adjust to the new pricing methods. The economy of the game has also gotten buffs and will reward more Iridescent Shards than before to balance out how much content there is to gain now.
Top - Brand new store load-out in the "Characters" category. Bottom - Cosmetic tier list.
Iridescent Shards? That is the next category of discussion since I keep bringing up the economy of the game. So right now, there is Bloodpoints and Iridescent Shards to gain after every match. Bloodpoints are your base currency to level up characters, get better items and gaining perks to play with. Iridescent Shards are gained by every minute you spend in the game. So for example, once you are in a match, every minute playing you will accumulate up to a max of 10 Iridescent shards. These shards allow the unlocking of teachable perks from other characters in a weekly Shrine pool. Now, Iridescent Shards are getting a lot more easier to gain since the new store addition will make them have much more worth. Alongside Iridescent Shards, Auric Cells are being added to the game. Auric Cells are a premium microtransaction currency that will allow the unlocking of major content like cosmetics and characters. Again, this content can be earned but Auric Cells will remove the grind if you so please. I may get some Auric Cells depending on, again, if the Ultra Rare cosmetics are actually worth it it to me. Ultra Rare items will only be unlocked through the Auric Cells and not Iridescent Shards. Auric Cells also have a payment model pretty similar to other in-platform purchases. This is the pricing information for Auric Cells; 500 for 5 USD, 1100 for 10 USD, 2250 for 20 USD, 4025 for 35 USD and 6000 for 50 USD. In perspective, all characters will be worth 500 Auric Cells (Per Killer and Survivor) and Ultra Rare cosmetics will be 350. The most expensive ceiling for unlocks shown so far.
Left - Auric Cells (Premium Currency). Right - Iridescent Shards (Earnable In-Game Currency)
Then the last subject that made me so happy to see was their approach to getting new players more comfortable with the initial start up of the game. There is now a interactive solo tutorial that players will be able to go into for both Survivors and Killers. It seems to lay down the basics and abbreviate what is going on in the game in a stress free and tinier environment than what we are use to seeing in game. I love it so much considering I am constantly pushing people to try this game. Check the video I clipped below to get a glimpse of what the basics look like so far.
A glimpse of the upcoming interactive tutorial for Killer's.
Apart from the tutorial, they are doing another great quality of life change for new players and even veterans. New characters, when unlocked, will be granted beginner tier perks. This was a huge step in the right direction for ease of access into Dead by Daylight and even suggested it multiple times. Perks are a complete game changer and actually make your character feel unique in the sense of game-play. The amount of times I have had to explain that to new players grew unnecessarily exhausting and only left me hoping that they would understand that the grind would make the game-play feel more comprehensive. That is going away now. Now, if players want to experiment with play-styles that the game is describing to them, they will be able to do so properly now. No more running perk-less situations and grinding to an obscene amount of levels just to get a feeling for the game. This will allow new players to experiment with true game-play styles, make it more enticing to keep trying and even allow us veteran players to get the new characters perks as they come out. There have been times when I got the new DLC and did not get my character related perks until level 15 out of 50 for that character. This is due to the current state of the game where I own almost all teachables for ninety percent of the game so I never get what I want in my level ups. It is a lot of Bloodpoints to commit and that was just to try two of the perks at once since the other slots are locked due to level restrictions. This is being reworked and definitely is for the best. It took a long time but they are making the absolute right choices now and are not forgetting about their new players.
The character, "Claudette", starting with her three unique perks rather than no perks at level 1.
So much news with such a highly anticipated amount of implementation and feature additions. Hell, they are even fixing major awkward spots of the game in terms of it's game-play as well. No more awkward "pallet vacuuming" or hopeless "hatch stand off" situations. Both of these design choices have been long overdue for a change since it created a lot of frustration in core design choices of the game. The feedback is not falling on deaf ears and with so much revamped elements to Dead by Daylight, it is going to emerge an immensely powerful title. Two months ago I wrote a review on Dead by Daylight and a lot of my gripes are being tweaked and carried out as they enter their third year. I will say it again peeps, there is not better time to jump into Dead by Daylight than now. Once this update goes live, everyone needs to get on it and really get the best experience possible.
This discussion was gathered off of Dead by Daylight's live-stream Thursdays. Note, all images provided were taken from official press releases advertising "Dead by Daylight" or recorded with the live version of the current live-stream.
Disclaimer: I was not paid nor offered any incentives to write this review by the accompanying publisher, developer or any outside force. This is solely for personal production and interest. My opinions and recommendations are based off my personal interpretation of the product and it's design.