The current chapter of Dead by Daylight has one of the most interesting killers so far. Even if he is literally disgusting, Cortyn thinks.
It has been nearly two weeks since the newest killer was released in Dead by Daylight. The eleventh chapter “Demise of the Faithful” brought a killer with fresh mechanics and a large portion of disgust factor to the asymmetrical survival game. After a pretty long play phase, I conclude: The religious killer “The Plague” does everything right.
The Plague brings a fresh breeze to Dead by Daylight
The Plague does many things differently than previous killers in Dead by Daylight, and it starts with her backstory. Unlike all other killers, The Plague does not come from recent decades but has her origins several thousand years ago.
She was the high priestess of a temple. Her people struggled with a plague that ultimately claimed her as well.
Just before she died, she sent a last desperate prayer to her deity. However, someone else answered: The mysterious entity that made her a killer in his world.
These unique gameplay mechanics are used by The Plague
As a special ability, she can – and this is no joke – vomit. The green beam infects affected survivors as well as objects like generators, pallets, or totems.
When survivors come into contact with the green substance, they become infected and the incubation begins. During this time, the survivors cough but have no other restrictions. However, if survivors work (such as running or repairing), the incubation progresses until the survivor is fully affected by the plague. This has several effects:
- The survivor is permanently “broken” – meaning injured and goes down with one hit. They cannot be healed by other survivors.
- The survivor coughs and vomits at irregular intervals, which is quite audible, in addition to the constant blood loss.
- When an infected survivor comes into contact with objects, these also become vectors of infection. They not only infect generators, windows, and pallets but also their teammates.
- Infected as well as fully diseased survivors can interact with scattered wells on the map to rid themselves of the disease and heal completely.
Alternative attack through infected wells
Especially the last point opens up further gameplay mechanics for the killer. Because if a survivor uses a well, it becomes infected and can now be used by the killer.
This, in turn, leads to the normal green “vomit attack” being replaced by a red spray of boiling blood for about a minute.
This does not infect players and objects anymore, but instead inflicts direct damage on hit! Since a single spray can hit multiple players simultaneously, several survivors can be taken out at once.
The Plague has a high skill cap
As simple as it may sound, handling the newest killer is not that easy. Because if you really want to be successful, you have to master the killer’s vomit attack. However, this is not a simple projectile but a comparatively slow beam with quickly flattening trajectory. Only those who skillfully aim over objects and “into the path” of the survivors will hit and can spread the plague or inflict direct damage.
Experienced killers can manage to bring a survivor directly from “healthy” to “infected” with just a single green spray, allowing only a quick melee attack to take the player down.
At the same time, skilled survivors can seek cover or prevent inexperienced killers from landing a hit with the plague by zig-zagging.
The balance is simply successful.
The Plague compensates for Legion
However, it should be mentioned that it was quite easy for “The Plague” to impress me. Because the previous chapter brought the killer “Legion,” which turned out to be a flop shortly after its release.
Legion’s gameplay is boring and not fun – neither for the killer nor for the survivors. His abilities and addons allow for a pretty specific playstyle (with very little variation).
The Plague is different. Essentially, you can aim for two different playstyles. Either focus on infecting opponents and maintaining many diseases or switch as quickly and frequently as possible to the ranged attack that inflicts damage. Different perks and addons allow further customization of the playstyle, even enabling stealth actions or setting traps in the form of infected objects.
In summary, “The Plague” has become a well-thought-out, challenging, and interesting killer that Dead by Daylight desperately needed.
I haven’t had this much fun vomiting on people since I got to play as a bloated Boomer in Left 4 Dead – and that’s quite a high standard.
What do you think of the killer “The Plague”? Have you gotten used to her abilities and are you managing with them? Do you think the abilities are too powerful or even too weak?
By the way: Dead by Daylight is coming to Nintendo Switch soon!
