The first Developer Update of the new year is here! In this series of blogposts, we take a look at some upcoming changes and improvements making their way into Dead by Daylight, as well as our progress on any pressing issues. This time around, we’ll be revealing the changes coming to Toolboxes and Items, changes to a pair of Killers, and a new game changing feature.

Matchmaking

We are working on a brand-new matchmaking and ranking system. In case you missed it, you can read up on the full details here: https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/124795/

Toolbox Repair Changes

Toolboxes have been on our to-do list for a while now. While they aren’t always a game changer on their own, they can quickly become problematic when multiple Survivors choose to bring one into a trial. Since repairing Generators is the Survivors’ main objective, we want to make sure that they cannot speed up their repairs too much. This is something we’ve kept in mind...

The disconnection penalty system is being re-enabled on PC, PS4 and Switch™️. Following our December 2019 test, we have fixed reported issues and made some changes to address Community feedback.

The system will be turned on Tuesday February 11th, 11 AM Eastern. A game update will not be required.

How does it work?

Users who disconnect from matches will be prevented from joining a new match for a predetermined length of time, which increases after each instance of disconnection. Our objective with this feature is to discourage players from quitting games and will serve a double purpose of excluding users who are already in a negative mental state from re-entering matchmaking until they’ve had a chance to cool down.

The system will also apply if one or more players in a group has an active disconnect penalty, preventing the entire group from joining the matchmaking queue until the penalized members have either cleared their penalty or leave the ...

RELEASE SCHEDULE

STEAM

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

WINDOWS STORE

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

PS4

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

XBOX

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

SWITCH

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

PATCH NOTES

STEAM

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1064073/#Comment_1064073

WINDOWS STORE

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1064075/#Comment_1064075

PS4

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1064076/#Comment_1064076

XBOX

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1064077/#Comment_1064077

SWITCH™

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1064078/#Comment_1064078

RELEASE SCHEDULE

STEAM

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

WINDOWS STORE

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

PS4

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

XBOX

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

SWITCH

Planned: 11 AM Eastern

PATCH NOTES

STEAM

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1042793/#Comment_1042793

WINDOWS STORE

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1042798/#Comment_1042798

PS4

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1042801/#Comment_1042801

XBOX

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1042803/#Comment_1042803

SWITCH™

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/comment/1042807/#Comment_1042807

We’ve observed a growing Community concern about matchmaking in recent months. Matchmaking wait times have exceeded our targeted limits and we’ve seen rank disparities fluctuate. In this Status Update, we will go in details on factors impacting the matchmaking, our current matchmaking system and our future solutions.  

Above are the three variable factors in matchmaking, with a fourth being the number of players on each role, with an ideal ratio of 4 survivors for 1 killer at all times. When dealing with matchmaking, we need to decide how much to focus on each of the factors. If we focus on one point, the other points will see some sort of impact. For example, if we focus on time, your matches will likely end up being less fair, and you might get paired with people further away. Dedicated servers have helped us ensure a stable connection, with over 90% of players being put into matches with 150...

This post is a written recap of our Q&A livestream. If you'd prefer to watch the stream itself, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Aoe1H282oY

News & ANNOUNCEMENTS

We will be at PAX East. There will be no booth, but we will have a DBD party.

The Lunar New Year event is on now. Log in this week for some exclusive charms, and next week for some exclusive cosmetics.

A hotfix is coming soon.

Known issues:

• Decisive Strike is not working with madness skill checks against The Doctor.
• Rank achievements unlock at random (you will not be banned if this happens).
• We have seen an increase in the rank update error.
• The Badham Preschool map has been disabled temporarily due to collision issues.
• Matchmaking is being looked into; we will have a detailed blogpost explaining the situation shortly.
• Sound issues are being investigated.

Dedicated servers and optimization are constantly being worked on. These changes are very technical, so they tend not to appear in patch notes.

Question & Answers

The Archives

"W...

Here, you can find a list of any newly reported known issues following today's update. Please be sure to check here before reporting a bug!

Rank Achievements Unlocking Randomly

We are aware that rank achievements are unlocking incorrectly. Do not worry, you are not at risk of being banned for this.

Decisive Strike does not stun the killer sometimes

We are looking into scenarios where Decisive Strike does not stun the killer in spite of succeeding the skill check. If you create a bug report, please be sure to let us know which killer you were playing against when this happened.

Totem and survivor pickup issues on Badham Preschool

Due to a collision change, some totems cannot be cleansed on Badham Preschool maps, and survivors cannot be picked up when next to certain objects. The map and its offering have been disabled until this issue is hotfixed.

RELEASE SCHEDULE

STEAM

Released

WINDOWS STORE

Released

PS4 EU & NA

Released

XBOX

Released

SWITCH

Released

CONTENT

The Doctor Update

Designer Notes: The Doctor, Hex: Ruin, and Gatekeeper

Lunar New Year

TOme II: RECKONING

The second Tome will arrive tomorrow, January 22nd! With it comes an all new Rift packed full of rewards.

Game On

Since the launch of Game On, we've noticed a gradual decrease in the number hosted tournaments and participants. While Game On had a good run, we've decided to remove the feature to avoid confusion and instead focus our efforts elsewhere. We have a lot of exciting things in the pipe, though, so stay tuned!

PATCH NOTES

STEAM

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion...

Note: This roadmap may be updated over time to include new information as it becomes available. Be sure to check back often. Entries marked (TBC) may be shifted around at any time.

JANUARY 6TH

Forum

Designer Notes: Doctor, Ruin & Gatekeeper

JANUARY 7TH

In-game

PTB opens

JANUARY 8TH

In-game

Dedicated Servers enabled for PS4

Winter Sale (In-game Store)

JANUARY 13TH

In-game

Rank Reset

JANUARY 14TH

Forum

3.5.0 Q&A thread opens

JANUARY 15TH

In-game

Cosmetic Release

Winter Sale ends (In-game Store)

JANUARY 16TH

Website

Doctor Update News

YouTube

Mash It Up

JANUARY 21ST

Website

News (TBC)

JANUARY 22ND

In-game

Cosmetic Release

JANUARY 23RD

Twitch/YouTube

3.5.0 Q&A Livestream

JANUARY 29TH

In-game

Cosmetic Release

Welcome to our Designer Notes, a series of blogposts presenting the fine details of upcoming design changes. Today, we’ll be going over the first update of 2020, which includes changes to The Doctor, the Gatekeeper Emblem, and Hex: Ruin. 

DOCTOR UPDATE 

In the next mid-chapter update, we will be changing core elements of The Doctor's gameplay. He's been a polarizing figure since his release, and we felt it was time to revisit his kit with an eye to making it less frustrating to play against him. We will keep his core identity as a Killer who shocks people with electricity and causes them to go insane, suffering several different kinds of afflictions and hallucinations. Some of his abilities and most of his add-ons will get an update pass. 

We identified a major source of irritation to be his Static Field. The problem is that The Doctor gets periodic notifications of Survivors' locations in his Terror Radius due to their Madness levels increas...

What is the relation between Rin and Kazan Yamaoka (Spirit and Oni)?

Kazan is Rin’s great, great, great, great, great grandfather. Kazan attracted the Entity through his dark actions and forever cursed the Yamaoka bloodline.

Why did you decide to give Oni his own chase music? Does it mean that Killers will get own chase music from now on?

This is something we’re looking into. We’ve tried it in the past with The Demogorgon and it was well received. We’d also like to consider creating unique chase music for Killers that are updated. The Doctor will be receiving his own unique chase music when he’s updated, for example.

Can we get the Oni power to work like PC? His movement during demon dash is weaker and his flick is non-existent with max sensitivity.

We have tweaked the rotation limitation on the newer hotfix patch, both PC and console should now have the same limitation. Tweaking the sensitivity or remapping the keys should no longer have an impact. The flick has never been an intended beha...

BALANCE

The Nightmare

• Outdoor Rope add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff from 6% to 2%.
• Jump Rope add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff from 9% to 4%.
• Swing Chains add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff per sleeping Survivor from 3% to 2%.

The Oni

• Renjiro's Bloody Glove add-on: Blood orbs are now absorbed by Survivors who come in contact with them. The aura reveal duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, however, the duration stacks if multiple blood orbs are absorbed. 
• Updated turn ratio of The Oni Demon Dash ability to improve controller turn-rate and hard-cap turning with keyboard.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when loading into a match.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to become stuck in the Play As Survivor pre-lobby when accepting an invite from a user in a full lobby.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when the user cycled through searching for a lobby and opening the Store.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Nemesis perk not to trigger on an Obsess...

BALANCE

The Nightmare

• Outdoor Rope add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff from 6% to 2%.
• Jump Rope add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff from 9% to 4%.
• Swing Chains add-on: Reduced the action speed debuff per sleeping Survivor from 3% to 2%.

The Oni

• Renjiro's Bloody Glove add-on: Blood orbs are now absorbed by Survivors who come in contact with them. The aura reveal duration has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, however, the duration stacks if multiple blood orbs are absorbed. 
• Updated turn ratio of The Oni Demon Dash ability to improve controller turn-rate and hard-cap turning with keyboard.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when loading into a match.
• Fixed an issue that caused players to become stuck in the Play As Survivor pre-lobby when accepting an invite from a user in a full lobby.
• Fixed an issue that could cause a crash when the user cycled through searching for a lobby and opening the Store.
• Fixed an issue that caused the Nemesis perk not to trigger on an Obsess...

Release Schedule

Steam

Update planned: 11AM ET

PS4

Update planned: 11AM ET

Xbox

Update planned: 11AM ET

Windows Store

Update planned: 11AM ET

Nintendo Switch™

Pending. The Switch™ version will receive both the 3.4.1 and the 3.4.2 hotfixes simultaneously.

Patch Notes

Steam

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/112053/

PS4

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/112059/

Xbox

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/112058/

Windows Store

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/112055/

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that could cause a Survivor to fall out of world (from their perspective) when getting hooked. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause Survivors to fall through the ground to the floor below when dropped from the Killers shoulder. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to flicker when getting interrupted. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to disappear after being picked up and dropped. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to disappear when getting picked up by the Killer with a Survivor nearby. 

For the past few months, we have been hard at work on an update to the forums behind the scenes. While our forums have their own charm, we want to bring them up to date and make them more inline with the rest of the game. We've tried out some different themes in the past, and we've taken your feedback from those tests to create something unique to Dead by Daylight. At this point, we're close enough to a final product that we're ready to share the changes with you.

Please keep in mind that this is a work in progress; some artwork is not final, there may be some placeholder stuff lying around, and there are some issues that will be fixed before this goes live. Some of the new features may not be available right away when we first launch this update.

Without further ado, here's a preview of what's to come for the forums.

Desktop

Layout

We've gone back and...

BUG FIXES

• Fixed an issue that could cause a Survivor to fall out of world (from their perspective) when getting hooked. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause Survivors to fall through the ground to the floor below when dropped from the Killers shoulder. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to flicker when getting interrupted. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to disappear after being picked up and dropped. 
• Fixed an issue that could cause the wiggle UI to disappear when getting picked up by the Killer with a Survivor nearby.