Dead by Daylight Mid-Chapter Patch 4.1.0 Review (Game, 2020)

Updated 5 August in response to the 4.1.1 hotfix patch that largely changed add-ons for Hillbilly and Leatherface in addition to bug fixes.

Dead by Daylight is trying. That’s the best way I can describe the state of the the increasingly popular 4v1 asymmetrical horror game with their new 4.1.0 mid-chapter update patch. They want to make improvements to the game whenever they can based on their observations of gameplay patterns.

The Mid-Chapter Patch tweaked a few things here and there (the aura change is going to get patched out soon, so it’s not even worth addressing (UPDATE 5 August: The auras have been altered to be much more visible in the 4.1.1 hotfix patch)), but the main attraction is the rework of The Hillbilly and The Cannibal (Leatherface). Hillbilly has been one of the top killers since the game first began, a chainsaw wielding mountain man with massive map control and a one-shot down. Leatherface, meanwhile, has existed in the game as a way to get Barbecue & Chili, a tracking and BP point for killers that let’s you see where all the survivors are on a map when someone is hooked. The two chainsaw killers were nowhere near each other in ability or popularity and Behaviour Interactive wanted to address that.

Let’s start with the good. Leatherface is a viable killer now. He gets three charges on his chainsaw, a one-shot down that swings back and forth and can take down all four survivors in one push if they’re standing close enough enough. His base movement speed while using the chainsaw is significantly faster, changed from 5.06m/s to 5.29m/s. The chainsaw only lasts 2 seconds long in his base kit, but chaining the three attacks together and using the right combination of completely reworked add-ons makes it last much longer.

Here’s some perspective. In the 10 Leatherface games I’ve played since the 4.1.0 patch came out, 37 out of 40 survivors died on hook. I was playing base Leatherface with no add-ons and some pretty terrible perks for the character (BBQ aside). He moves so fast now with his power that if you start at the right time, the survivor cannot escape your attack without a pallet or window.

I’ll say it. I think base Leatherface is overpowered right now. There’s no fun in guaranteed wins in this game. If I used add-ons, none of those survivors would have escaped. It’s something Behaviour should keep an eye on and adjust with more data. My anecdote is just one story, but I’ve seen quite a few streamers have the same reaction. He’s a killer that requires no strategy other than hit special and avoid flashlight blinds now.

Hillbilly is the opposite story. Full disclosure: I’m a terrible Hillbilly. I cannot control his chainsaw at all and avoid playing him unless he’s connected to an exclusive event cosmetic or a mission in the Tome challenges. However dominant he could be in the game, there was a level of skill required to play him well. His comparatively high kill rate in game is best attributed to being in the game since day one (four years ago) and not something unbalanced.

I’m not opposed to the changes Behaviour made in theory. Every other killer had a bigger downside to using their power than Billy. This just treats him like everyone else: setting up clear risk and reward.

Billy’s chainsaw can now overheat if you rev the engine too long. Every action you take with the chainsaw adds to the overheat meter. If you overheat, you need to wait for the chainsaw to cool down completely to use it again. The biggest drawback used to be a quick stun if you hit a wall. Now you have to be wiser with how you use his power.

I don’t know if it’s an error or a tweak that’s not in the patch notes, but Hillbilly’s chainsaw feels so slow now. Once you’re running with it, he’s zooming like usual, but it felt like an eternity for the engine to warmup and start sawing. I distinctly remember being able to get some pretty easy downs in the right gameplay tiles that just aren’t possible anymore. He takes so long to rev his chainsaw and move with it that the survivor gets away every time.

The result is very few people playing Hillbilly and most people playing Leatherface, Spirit, and Oni. Spirit was the other most powerful killer in the game next to Hillbilly and Oni received an amazing Minotaur skin in the past week that has a lot of people going back to him. If the goal was to change the meta of the game, they succeeded by taking one of the most popular, enduring killers and turning him into something no one wants to play.

The biggest positive I can acknowledge is the new Hillbilly sounds. Behaviour is not promising that every killer will get customized chase music anytime soon, but Hillbilly did receive his own version of the score with this update. It’s really good. He also screams when he starts his chainsaw runs. Behaviour has said that is a bug, but it’s hilarious and I hope they keep it forever. They’ve let actual game-breaking bugs last for years in game without patching them out (like Trapper’s dye add-ons doing nothing from 2018 until 2020). I can only hope we’ll hear Billy screaming for years to come.

UPDATE 5 August: With the 4.1.1. hotfix patch, Behavior changed quite a few of Hillbilly’s perks to allow for the older Hillbilly playstyle to come back. This makes a huge difference in his playability even with some common add-ons. He should be at a pretty good spot now, not top tier but viable and fun.

A few killer perks got tweaked and they’re all pretty underwhelming. On the overall negative side, Franklin’s Demise knocks an item out of the survivor’s hand that is permanently destroyed if it stays on the ground for 150/120/90 seconds; items are always picked up before then and it’s not cumulative. Knock Out now reduces crawl speed by 50% for 15 seconds and adds blindness instead of just adding blindness; that still doesn’t make the perk useful. Knock Out was great with the older version of Freddy, allowing you to hide survivors in the dream world where no one else could ever find them. I didn’t find a good build with the old version since and see no effective strategies with the new version.

On the overall positive side, Lightborn now stops you from being blinded by flashlights and firecrackers instead of reducing the chance of it happening. It also reveals the survivors auras for 6/8/10 seconds, which isn’t necessary since you never lose sight of them now. Tinkerer activates at 70% generation completion (down from 85%) and gives you undetectable for 8/10/12 seconds. That would be great if one of the few killers who could take advantage of that knowledge, Hillbilly, didn’t get nerfed into oblivion. Tinkerer is slightly better on Spirit and Nurse now.

A lot of the work being done on the game right now is anticipation of a few features that will be coming soon to the game. We will be getting crossplay between PC and console sooner rather than later. There’s also a massive graphics update in the works, which is why we get random bugs like the very strange looking auras and constantly changing UI sizes from update to update. Cross progression might also be possible, but that’s much farther down the pipeline.

Though I’m mixed to negative about a lot of these changes, the 4.1.0 patch isn’t terrible. I appreciate that they’re making efforts to balance out the game and encourage more diverse gameplay styles. I think Leatherface got turned up to 11 when bring him him up to 7/10 would’ve been fine and Hillbilly went from 9 to 5 (UPDATE 5 August: with the 5 August 4.1.1 hotfix patch, Billy is totally playable again with much better add-on options; I’d say he’s a 7/10, which is about the same level as Oni, Hag, Demogorgon, Pyramid Head, and Plague). That said, the Hillbilly released to the public is far better than what they tested in the last PTB build, which would have put Hillbilly around a 2/10 with how punishing the overheat mechanic was. I can see Behavior finessing a few of these big swings and getting the game back to a more comfortable space pretty easily (UPDATE 5 August: Spoiler alert, they did with the 4.1.1 hotfix patch).

Dead by Daylight is available to purchase on Steam, Windows Store, PS4, XBox One, and Switch. DBD Mobile is a separate version of the game available for free on Android and iOS.