Dead by Daylight Developer Update – Tools of Torment PTB

The latest Dead by Daylight patch went live on the PTB last week, bringing with it a new Killer in The Skull Merchant. Today’s update from the BHVR devs goes over a significant number of changes to the new Killer, plus some further modifications to Eruption and some of the newer perks. Many players will no doubt be bummed to see no mention of the community feedback on the character’s aesthetics or overall design, but it was never likely they would alter the core aspects of the Skull Merchant at this stage.

One particularly notable change is to the Background Player perk. In its original iteration, it let you sprint away from the hook after rescuing someone — not a very altruistic move. In the next update it will instead grant a Haste effect when a fellow Survivor is picked up, letting you get into position for a clutch flashlight save (or just letting you run away from the Killer, that’s up to you). You can check out the full list of changes and their justifications by going to the official Developer Update, but as always, we’ve created a quick summary of the changes for folks who just want the highlights.

TL;DR summary of the Dead by Daylight Developer Update on the Tools of Torment PTB:

• The Skull Merchant’s drones have been generally buffed:
  • Drones will now have their own cooldown, down to 10 seconds (from 12.5)
  • Drone initialization time down to 3 seconds (from 4)
  • Drone unhackable window up to 10 seconds (from 5)
  • The Undetectable Status Effect granted by standing in an active drone’s radius now triggers after 2 seconds (from 3)
• The drone Lock On mechanic that exposes Survivors has also been buffed:
  • Lock On duration increased to 60 seconds (from 30)
  • Incomplete Lock On starts to decay after 10 seconds (was 5)
  • Survivors who enter an active zone while Locked On will rest their Lock On duration to 60 seconds
  • Skull Merchant can now see Lock On progress of Survivors
• Drone Tracking has been buffed:
  • Claw Trap battery life to 45 seconds (from 25)
  • Survivors no longer notified when their location is revealed by Skull Merchant’s Scanner
  • Skull Merchant speed while checking radar to 4.4/ms (from 4.0m/s)
  • Improved SFX on tracking Survivors
• Some aspects of Skull Merchant’s traps and drones have been nerfed or changed:
  • Approaching a drone with a Claw Traps will no longer cause it to become unhackable
  • Survivors with a Claw Trap can now disable drones (note that entering a drone’s range will recharge your trap’s battery)
  • Survivors who fail a hack will now be immediately Locked On
• New Perks and Eruption have been modified:
  • Eruption’s regression is being returned to 10% of the generator’s total progress (instead of current progress)
  • THWACK!’s timer has been removed, and will now remain active upon hooking a Survivor, and will only deactivate upon use
  • Background Player now activates whwen the Killer picks up another Survivor; Haste duration to 4 seconds (from 6)

Let us know what you think of Skull Merchant, or today’s Developer Update, in the comments below!