Dead by Daylight Is Updating a Core Hook Mechanic

Behaviour Interactive is making a change to one of Dead by Daylight's core mechanics that's been untouched for a long time: The struggle system activated whenever players are placed on a hook. The struggle mechanic is being changed as part of the developer's plans to make the game more accessible, and once the changes are live, players will no longer have to mash buttons to prevent themselves from being sacrificed. Instead, they'll have to complete skill checks just as they would if they were healing another Survivor or repairing a generator.

A preview of the new way of struggling against the Entity whenever you're on a hook was shown off through the Dead by Daylight Twitter account. While the old system would require button mashes, the new one shown below on both the PC and on consoles should look quite familiar to any Dead by Daylight players who've played as a Survivor before.

For those curious, here's how the skill checks work on a controller: pic.twitter.com/9gqR5RLX2D

— Dead by Daylight (@DeadByBHVR) April 6, 2021

For those who haven't been hooked in a while, the struggle mechanic is not the same as the one players use whenever they try to escape from a hook. Struggling is the second phase of being hooked after players have been left hanging for a full minute or have failed three escape attempts. Once you enter that phase, you have to actively resist the Entity while you wait on a fellow teammate to help you. This previously involved pressing a lot of buttons but will now only require skill checks, a system that'll require a bit more focus but less active effort on players' parts.

Missing one skill check won't be a death sentence, however, so if you're not too confident in your skill check game, you'll have a couple of chances. Behaviour Interactive responded in another of its tweets to say that players will lose a portion of the meter that dictates how close they are to being sacrificed each time they miss a skill check until they're either saved by a teammate or sacrificed to the Entity.

This accessibility change follows the reveal of the colorblind mode added to Dead by Daylight to further accommodate players. No release date for the change to the struggling system has been announced yet.