Dead by Daylight September 2023 Developer Update – Everything to Come

Behaviour Interactive has shared its plans as a developer for Dead by Daylight over the month or so around September 2023. All the changes should be implemented over the course of the next month, building up the game between the Alien Chapter and the next major update.

There are quite a few changes coming in September 2023, impacting perks, Killers, maps, and much more. The game won’t change completely over this month, but it will look very different by the time the next Chapter is released.

Related: Dead by Daylight Update 7.2.0 Alien Patch Notes – The Perfect Lifeform Enters The Fog

Dead by Daylight September 2023 Developer Update Notes

Below, we’ve broken down the patch notes for the Dead by Daylight September 2023 Developer Update. The official notes are pretty hefty, so we’ve summarized each one to clarify what’s changing and what players should expect.

Anti-Face Camping

Face camping can be a huge problem in a Trial. It’s the term for when a Killer hooks a Survivor and then waits around that hook to ensure no other Survivors rescue them. While there are some cases where it’s necessary, some Killers abuse it.

To make face camping fairer for Survivors, a new system is being implemented. A meter will appear for Survivors who are hooked, and it’ll build up every time the Killer gets too close. When it’s full, the Survivor can leap off and unhook themselves with a 100% chance for success.

If other Survivors are close, the meter will slow or stop entirely. It’ll also disappear when the gate is opened because that’s when the Killer is on the back foot. It’s designed to stop the worst face camping experiences from ever happening.

The Skull Merchant

The Skull Merchant is incredibly efficient at guarding generators in every Trial in Dead by Daylight, but that’s no fun for Survivors. The following updates aim to reduce the Killer’s effectiveness just a smidge, balancing every Trial they enter for a better overall experience.

Lock On

Active Zones will be removed from The Skull Merchant’s drones. It’s these zones that gave the Killer way too much information. Now, drones will apply one stack of Lock On to the Survivors they detect. After being detected three times, equating to three stacks of Lock On, they automatically receive a Claw Trap.

While this might seem like quite a big punishment for The Skull Merchant, Behaviour Interactive has also balanced things in the Killer’s favor with the Two Modes drones now have.

Two Modes

Drones now have two modes: Stealth Mode and Scouting Mode. While in Stealth Mode, the drone’s spinning beams are invisible, and it’s much quieter and harder to detect. Survivors will need to look for the lights on the drone itself if they want to disable it.

When in Scouting Mode, the drone’s light beams are visible because it’s actively searching. This makes it tougher for Survivors to approach.

Regardless of mode, a drone can’t detect a Survivor who is standing still. This means that any Survivor repairing a generator is undetectable unless the Killer is using the camera on a nearby drone.

Claw Traps

Claw Traps now apply the following effects to Survivors who end up with three stacks of Lock On.

• Healthy Survivors become instantly injured.
• Injured Survivors receive a Deep Wound that doesn’t grant a speed boost.
• Survivors suffer from the Broken Status Effect until the Claw Trap is removed.
• The afflicted Survivor’s location is revealed to The Skull Merchant via their scanner for a short time.

When The Skull Merchant’s drones scan Survivors with a Claw Trap, they receive a 10% speed penalty for 6 seconds. These Survivors are also revealed to the Killer with Killer Instinct on their location for 3 seconds.

The battery for the Claw Trap lasts for 45 seconds and it’ll expire and drop off after that time has passed, if it’s not removed by a fellow Survivor.

Quality of Life

A bunch of quality of life updates have also been made to The Skull Merchant to make playing against her a fairer experience. These are all listed below.

• The SKull Merchant now has 2 more Drones for a total of 6.
• The Killer becomes undetectable for 8 seconds immediately after deploying a Drone.
• The minimum distance between drones decreased from 22 meters to 16 meters.
• The Skull Merchant’s movement speed is no longer decreased while checking the scanner.
• Lock On progress doesn’t decay.
• Drones can’t be manually reactivated once disabled.
• Drones can now be placed on a floor above or below another Drone.
• If Survivors fail to hack a Drone, they’ll be given one stack of Lock On.
• The Skull Merchant’s footsteps are quieter, making her harder to track through walls.
• New chase music applied to The Skull Merchant.
• All The skull Merchant Add-Ons have been adjusted with more or less effectiveness in specific circumstances.

All of these changes make The Skull Merchant more chase-focused instead of having her wait like a fox in the night, ready to pounce when Survivors make a mistake. More changes could come if this doesn’t make her a better Killer to play against.

The Shattered Square

The Shattered Square map in Dead by Daylight is getting some updates to relieve pain points fans have flagged.

Low Obstacles

All the small objects that looked like they could be passed but blocked Survivors have now been tweaked or removed to make for a less frustrating experience.

Size & Layout

The Shattered Square used to be a rectangle and one of the largest maps in Dead by Daylight. Now, though, it’s been reduced to a proper square to make for a more enjoyable experience.

Line of Sight

This map felt very difficult to play in because everything was pretty much open to see through from one side to the other. This has been altered so there are more obstacles to sight lines, allowing for guiding places. However, The Xenomorph Queen Skin is still so big it’ll stick out like a sore thumb.

Navigation

Various navigational improvements have been made to The shattered Square, making it easier to understand where a point on the map is and move around it coherently.

The MacMillan Estate

Each map in The MacMillan Estate Realm is being expanded and will eventually have alternative versions. These variants aim to add more variety to Dead by Daylight through similar but very distinct and different maps. It’ll offer more replayability without players getting bored of running the same maps.

Perk Changes

A handful of Perks are going to be updated in Dead by Daylight over September 2023. As always, these changes are redesigned to change up the meta and address issues the community has pointed out.

Furtive Chase

To boost this Obsession-changing Perk, it’s being tweaked to reduce the Killer’s Terror Radius by 5 meters for every Token for a maximum of 20 meters.

Background Player

This Perk allows Survivors to sprint when the Killer picks up another Survivor, allowing them to head to safe zones for a save, but applies the Exhausted status effect. To make it more meaningful, the speed boost is being increased from 4 seconds to 5 seconds, which should encourage players to run it more.

Killer Tweaks

To end things for the September 2023 Dead by Daylight Developer Update, Behaviour Interactive will be making tiny changes to a few Killers in the spirit of mining up the most common foes Survivors encounter.

The Trapper

When The Trapper is in play, 8 Bear Traps will now spawn instead of 6, and he’ll get a 7.5% Haste boost after setting up a Bear Trap. These changes aim to make this Killer more viable in high-skill Trials without detrimentally impacting lower-skill Trials. Since this is usually a player’s first Killer because he’s on the box, the developer wants to him to remain relatively intact.

The Huntress & the Trickster

Both of these Killers rely on reloading at lockers. That’s why so many players use Add-Ons to decrease that time. To make for a fairer game and more interesting builds, the reload time for both Killes has been reduced from 4 seconds to 3 seconds.

The Deathslinger

The Deathslinger now reloads at a default speed of 2.6 seconds instead of 2.75 seconds to reduce the need for Add-Ons. The Jaw Smasher and Wanter Poster Add-Ons have had their movement speed bonuses increased to 1.5% and 3%, respectively. The aim here is to make them more useful and viable as build options.

The Legion

The Legion’s BFFs Add-On has been adjusted so the movement speed increase for landing enough Frenzy strikes at the end of a Trial is now 6%. This is because the bonus must be earned, and those who earn it should benefit more from their effort.