Dead by Daylight Chapter XIV: Roots of Dread Releases Tomorrow #IntoTheFog #SketchingDetails
Tomorrow, 7 June, the new chapter arrive for popular asymmetrical horror game Dead by Daylight. Chapter XXIV: Roots of Dread dips its toes into pure body horror ala Clive Barker.
The Dredge is the result of a dangerous cult dedicated to toxic positivity. Otto Stamper leads the community that believe positive thoughts and actions will lead to salvation. Anyone who becomes negative or fall astray is punished, and those who refuse to change their behavior are exiled. Out of nowhere, someone begins murdering members of the community. Otto locks down, forcing stricter rules and total isolation from the outside world to prevent further attacks; this fails. The community, instead, is pushed so far into toxic positivity in the face of dwindling numbers that they collectively rage, ripping each other apart limb from limb until a mysterious fog comes over and leaves Otto alone.
The Dredge has a passive and active ability for its power Reign of Darkness. The passive ability is Nightfall. Nightfall builds as the Dredge uses his active ability, injures, or hooks survivors. When the meter fills, the map is cast in darkness for 60 seconds. Survivors have a significantly limited field of vision, but The Dredge can still see them.
The active ability is The Gloaming. This is a token-based teleportation ability. The Dredge can leave a Remnant of itself behind, teleporting into any locker on the map. This allows it to traverse the map unseen and surprise survivors. Survivors can block each locker once, trapping the Dredge inside for a few seconds. However, if survivors are in the locker or enter the locker while the Dredge is inside, they are instantly grabbed.
The Dredge also comes with three new perks. First is Dissolution. This is a map control perk centered around pallets. Three seconds after injuring a survivor, the power activates for 12/16/20 seconds. If a survivor fast vaults over a pallet in the killer’s terror radius, The Entity destroys the pallet and Dissolution ends. This is a very situational perk that I’m not particularly drawn to for any build. The pallet must be down and then vaulted to activate, and I imagine survivors would quickly learn to avoid fast vaulting pallets, if possible, like the reaction to Hex: Crowd Control and window vaults.
Darkness Revealed is a tracking perk. If the killer searches a locker, the aura of all survivors within eight meters of any locker is revealed for 3/4/5 seconds. The power has a cool down of 30 seconds. This, to me, is the best of the new killer perks. With the impending changes to dozens of meta perks (including Barbecue and Chili), this is an incredibly powerful perk to obtain information about where survivors are hiding on the map.
Septic Touch is a status effect perk centered around healing. When a survivor performs a healing action in the killer’s terror radius, they suffer from blindness and exhaustion for 6/7/8 seconds after the healing action is interrupted. I could see this being very useful on Doctor with his shock or more mobile killers who use Nurse’s Calling.
Haddie Kaur is the new survivor. If that name seems familiar, it’s because she’s a new player pull straight from the lore of the Tomes. Haddie has the misfortune of having psychic abilities that she uses to create a popular web series called Harbinger of Hell. She travels around the world attempting to expose the Black Vale, the cult dedicated to the worship of The Entity. She ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time, making her an almost-sacrificial victim to a cult when the Entity swoops in and brings her to the realm.
Coincidentally, Otto Stamper also comes from the extended DBD lore. He is a protege turned victim of The Doctor, left in a permanent vegetative state while the Doctor experimented with the electrodes and exposed brain you see in his own character design. Justice served.
Haddie has three new perks. First is Inner Focus, an information perk. You can see scratch marks from other survivors within 32 meters of you when running this. You also see the killer’s aura for 3/4/5 seconds when another survivor within 32 meters loses a health state. This is a solid information gathering perk like Kindred or Dark Sense that has the potential to give you information more often throughout the match.
Residual Manifest is the flashlight equivalent of Pharmacy. Once per trial, you are guaranteed to find a flashlight in a chest. After successfully blinding a killer, the killer suffers from Blindness for 20/25/30 seconds. If you love running flashlights, this perk should be your new best friend.
Overzealous is a totem and generator perk. After cleansing a totem, your repair speed goes up by 4/5/6%. The effect stops when you lose a health state. I would pair this with Inner Strength and/or Resilience and gain those speed bonuses with an easy heal just for cleansing totems.
Chapter XXIV also comes with a new map in a new realm. The Garden of Joy is part of Withered Isle, the location of the cult from The Dredge’s backstory. It’s a seeming idyllic community breaking off into the space beyond as pieces of streets, gardens, and homes float off into the sky. I’m not sure how well the new map runs as killer or survivor yet, but I know it’s gorgeous and filled with light. Well, until the Nightfall comes.
Chapter XXIV: Roots of Dread releases tomorrow around 11AM EDT in the in-game store. The Steam release is typically about an hour afterwards. The new DLC will cost $6.99 and will be available to purchase with Auric Cells and Iridescent Shards.
