Apr 5

Apr 5 Dead by Daylight 4.6.0 Patch Review (Game Patch, 2021)

The new Dead by Daylight chapter patch 4.6.0 and DLC “All-Kill” came out last week. After spending some time just playing the game to test the overall health, I did purchase the new DLC. Remember, the last DLC and mid-chapter patch were so broken upon release that I actually took over a month off from the game out of a mix of frustration and disappointment.

Let’s go into the overall state of the game first. Behaviour finally added in colorblind options. You can choose between different modes that specifically impact the color of the blood and auras onscreen.

There are three colorblind settings in the game: Deuteranopia (red-green), Protanopia (red-green), and Tritanopia (blue-yellow). In game, they do change the color of the blood, scratch marks, and yellow/red auras. I appreciate that there’s actually an intensity slider, so you can choose how much you want to alter the colors in-game.

I think they missed a trick in setting the default intensity at zero. If you don’t notice the slider, that bar of colors does not change when you flip modes. It does feel like a good gauge, though I do find it odd that a colorblind menu that features Tritanopia options doesn’t include blue on the color scale. That seems like an oversight. Purple will only tell you so much.

The two big focuses on the new Patch are Wraith and Blight.

Poor Wraith. My precious bing bong boy has been with the game since the beta and Behavior never quite found the right kit for him to work correctly. Even after a total rework of his add-ons in 2.3.0, he was still underpowered. With 4.5.0, he became completely invisible beyond 20 meters. That was closer, but he still lacked map control without add-ons.

Now, with 4.6.0, Wraith is much faster when he’s cloaked. It takes longer to uncloak, but you’re better able to navigate the map and find survivors. His Windstorm add-ons are more powerful than ever now that there is no uncloaking penalty. Wraith is quickly becoming one of the more popular killers in the game and the overall game greatly benefits from having a wider variety of killers in rotation.

Blight is finally the height he is meant to be. I enjoyed playing as the human pinball (his ability is bouncing off walls to gain a super fast attack against survivors), but Behaviour admittedly messed up with the graphics. His head was considerably lower than intended in first person view, dropping his FOV so low to the ground that survivors easily got away. Blight is standing tall and proud and his collision no longer slides along various objects on the map. When people get the hang of his ability again, he’s going to be a real threat to survivors.

I will say one of the most frustrating parts about playing Dead by Daylight is their patch notes. Behavior routinely tweaks the lighting, shadows, and textures in the game without actually acknowledging it in their patch notes. I can go back to old videos and see how dark the game was by default two months ago. Right now, I don’t need to run any external graphics adjustments for the game to be bright enough and have enough contrast for me to see. The only mention of a graphics change is in the lobby, store, and tally screen. I don’t like the surprise of “whoops, I can’t see anything” or “everything is too bright, what happened?” when I load into my first game after a new update. And to be clear, the “too bright” issue happens if I don’t shut off my external graphics adjustments before playing after a patch.

A pleasant and unlisted surprise is that Behavior finally fixed the bloodweb. For years, you really had to click and hold each node on the bloodweb to get your perk, item, add-on, or offering. Now, you claim them instantly. It’s a good quality of life update that makes spending bloodpoints a little less frustrating.

The major issue in the game right now is pallets. Survivors are getting hit through pallets almost by default now. It feels cheap on the killer side and frustrating on the survivor side. Furthermore, do not run Spirit Fury as a killer right now; your character will get physically trapped in the pallet animation, rendering the perk worthless.

There’s also a very specific issue from the last PTB still in the game. On Mount Ormond, you have a visual indicator of when the killer is using their power no matter where you are on the map. If Trickster, Huntress, Doctor, Billy—anyone, really—is holding their ability button, the snowflakes on the map run super fast across the screen horizontally. It happens a little bit on the killer perspective, but it’s very noticeable for survivors. I haven’t noticed a similar tell on any other map. It’s also not particularly game breaking. It’s just funny that I can see the snow defy physics before a Doctor shocks or a Pig comes charging out of nowhere.

Dead by Daylight, the base game, is in a pretty good place right now. I’ve been having fun getting back into the game. The focus on adjusting the balance of the maps has made even incredibly frustrating realms like The Game actually fun to play. I eagerly await the Lampkin Lane fix that will surely make it so that killers with any kind of distance attack (Huntress, Clown, Plague, Deathslinger, Demogorgon, Pyramidhead, Trickster, Pig, and The Twins) actually have a fair shot on that map.

I’ll be putting up a review of the new DLC Chapter XIX: All-Kill later this week. I need to spend more time with the survivor to really get a feel for her new perks. What I will say is people’s enjoyment of the new killer, the Trickster, totally depends on how you play as killer. I was a Freddy main before the rework. I also enjoy playing Plague. I’m having a great time chucking knives at survivors that slowly add up to injured or down states. Your mileage may vary.

Dead by Daylight is available on PC, PS4/5, Xbox One/Series S/X, Nintendo Switch, and Google Stadia. You can get the game and various DLCs for 55% off using my Humble Bundle link for the next nine days.