The next killer of Dead by Daylight is being significantly revised. A lot of buffs are on the way. But can they save the ‘Skull Merchant’?
In general, the anticipation of a new killer in Dead by Daylight is always high. However, with the test realm of ‘Tools of Torment’, the developers faced a wave of negativity. There was a lot of criticism about the design of the killer and the abilities of the ‘Skull Merchant’. The criticism came even from streamers supported by Dead by Daylight, and it was devastating.
Therefore, the developers are drastically adjusting the ‘Skull Merchant’ for the release on March 7. There are plenty of buffs and changes to the gameplay mechanics designed to make them a deadly threat.
One of the biggest changes is the removal of the cooldown for placing drones. Previously, there was a 12.5-second wait after each drone – that is no longer the case. The Skull Merchant can now place drones as quickly as she wants, as long as she is not too close to another drone.
The cooldown is now only used to reactivate inactive drones and is reduced to 10 seconds for this purpose.
But there are also many changes to the drones themselves:
- Newly placed drones become active after 3 seconds (previously after 4 seconds).
- Drones are not hackable in the first 10 seconds (previously in the first 5 seconds).
- The active zone of a drone grants the killer the ‘Undetectable’ effect after just 2 seconds (previously after 3 seconds).
Not only from the killer’s perspective are there changes, but survivors also have to deal with stronger or more dangerous mechanics, as the drones and their active zones have also become more dangerous for them.
- The ‘Targeted’ effect now lasts 60 seconds (previously 30 seconds).
- An incomplete ‘Targeted’ effect begins to expire 10 seconds after leaving the active zone (previously after 5 seconds).
- Entering an active zone while still having a ‘Targeted’ effect resets the duration to 60 seconds and prevents the effect from expiring as long as you remain in the zone.
- The killer can now see the ‘Targeted’ progress of each survivor, allowing them to better decide whom to pursue further.
Further changes are made to the way survivors are tracked and how they interact with the claw traps, which attach to them after hacking a drone.
- The battery duration of the claw trap now lasts 45 seconds (previously 25 seconds).
- Survivors no longer receive a notification when they are marked on the radar by the killer (previously an “eye” symbol was displayed).
- The Skull Merchant moves at 4.4 m/s (110 %) while her radar is open (previously 100 %).
- Approaching a drone while a claw trap is on the character will no longer make the drone unhackable.
- Survivors with a claw trap can now hack drones. However, getting close to a drone completely fills the batteries of the claw trap.
- If hacking fails, the survivor is immediately fully targeted.
That a killer receives so many changes before the release is unprecedented in the history of Dead by Daylight. It remains to be seen whether the Skull Merchant will gain favor with players.
