Dead By Daylight’s Newest Doctor Killer Getting Reworked

If you’ve been playing the asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight in recent months, you’ll undoubtedly have seen the crazed Doctor Killer running about, cackling and raising Survivors’ madness levels. He’s not too shabby at keeping track of Survivors by making them scream out, but he’s got some issues with his skills, and the game’s devs have agreed to change him up after the community voted for the Doctor to be reworked first.

“So the Doctor won the survey for who people thought should be reworked first,” Dead by Daylight game director Mathieu Cote said a few days ago in a dev stream. “Obviously, this means the others will get reworked, just later on.”

A poll was opened to the players to ask which Killer they thought should be reworked first and the results were posted on the game’s Twitter page. The Doctor beat out the Wraith and the Hag, receiving just under 50 percent of the votes.

The devs assured viewers during their stream that the other Killers up for changes will get reworked at some point, the Doctor will just be the first one to receive the update. This is welcome news by many Wraith players who were hoping for him to get the changes first, though they’d probably prefer him to get the changes before the newly-released Doctor. Many would consider the Wraith the least effective Killer — he can sneak up on people, sure, but once he’s uncloaked, it becomes a normal chase.

So what kind of changes are being proposed for the Doctor? The devs had five proposed changes that they’re looking at:

1. Have the Doctor’s snap out of it mechanic changed to have some synergy with healing add-ons and perks.
2. Randomized skill check placements on the Survivors’ screens will be part of his base kit and will scale with the madness level.
3. The Doctor’s heartbeat will be replaced by a buzzing noise while in Treatment mode and at madness level 3 in Punishment mode. You won’t know how close he is, but he’ll be close.
4. Shock Therapy attack will cause Survivors’ actions to be interrupted for 3 seconds — no unhooking, pallet-dropping, or repairing generators.
5. The Red Stain will be put on Survivors instead of the Doctor during a chase, making it a bit more difficult to keep up with exactly where he is.

The devs are also considering adding skill checks to the snap out of it mechanic, but releasing yourself from level 3 of madness with skill checks will also allow them to earn more points.

All of these suggested changes may be changed between now and the time they’re rolled out, but this appears to be the direction that they’re headed. The full stream that contains some map discussions and advice for console players can be seen here.

Dead by Daylight is now available on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4.