Freddy Krueger is getting love in Dead by Daylight. A lot of it. He is now one of the best killers with exciting abilities.
There are killers in Dead by Daylight who feel neglected by the developers. For years, they have been at the bottom of the tier list and are hardly played at all. One of these killers is “The Nightmare,” better known as Freddy Krueger from “A Nightmare on Elm Street.”
In the latest patch 8.5.0, the developers have taken the time to fundamentally revise this killer. Freddy is back now – stronger and more versatile than ever before. We will tell you what has changed.
The current newest killer is the Dog Master:
What has changed? Freddy’s revisions are quite extensive. In brief, the following changes occur:
- Freddy can now permanently switch between dream traps and dream pallets. He is no longer limited to one or the other.
- Dream traps are now projectiles.
- Dream pallets can now be manually detonated by Freddy.
- Dream projection (the teleport) can now be used on all generators – whether they have been repaired or not – and also on survivors who are sleeping and are currently healing or being healed.
What do the changes mean in detail? Freddy now plays much more dynamically and interactively. With the dream pallets, he can now do more than just start mind games. The pallets can be manually detonated – they explode in a fountain of blood. Affected survivors are injured if they are already sleeping, while awake survivors are pushed much closer to sleep.
As a trade-off, Freddy can now also be stunned by dream pallets, but that is manageable – his abilities are now more versatile.
Especially the ability to teleport to healing survivors who are asleep offers entirely new options. Survivors are almost always forced to wake up before they can spend time healing. Otherwise, Freddy might appear nearby and ensure that the healing effort is entirely in vain.
A somewhat closer look at the playstyle can be found with YouTuber Otzdarva, who has already extensively tested the new Freddy:
Cortyn says: For me, Freddy Krueger was a killer that I completely avoided after the first few days. He just wasn’t fun enough, and his abilities were from a time when significantly less was possible, and survivors generally had worse perks. The game simply evolved over the years – only Freddy was left behind.
Now Freddy is back in a solid position and is fun to play. His abilities are interesting, allow for more exciting “mind games,” and provide a lot more entertainment. Whether he is now overpowered, I won’t claim just yet. After a rework, it usually takes a few days for survivors to learn how to handle the killer properly.
But right now, Freddy feels fresh and interesting and could become one of my favorite killers again with his abilities. That’s a good thing for now – the fine-tuning of the balance, whether up or down, can still follow afterwards.
We will have to see if we can liberate Freddy from his status as an “F” killer on the next update of the tier list …
