Dead by Daylight devs won’t change Decisive Strike, address Killer tunneling feedback

Behaviour Interactive has joined the conversation around Dead by Daylight‘s Decisive Strike buff, explaining how it was never intended to end tunneling and adding that if anyone believes that, “you would be setting yourself up for disappointment.”

Last week, as with every month, Dead by Daylight’s developer outlined what it’s been working on and what players can expect to see in the game’s public beta soon. Among the updates include a Decisive Strike Perk change that’s caused quite a stir within the community. The small buff will help Survivors, but some players and content creators believe it should go much further. Regardless, it sounds like the community ask is possible.

Decisive Strike buff was never intended to end Dead by Daylight tunneling

In the Dead by Daylight Developer Update notes for March 2024, Behaviour Interactive outlined every change it planned to bring to the DbD PTB this month for players to preview before hitting the live version. That includes the divisive Decisive Strike tweak, which gives Survivors a 5-second stun, instead of three, if they complete a skill check while being carried by the Killer. This change gives Survivors a better chance to escape, as the current drop animation delays their movement.

However, YouTuber not Otzdarva offered additional perspective, suggesting a long-term ‘fix’ for Decisive Strike should be giving it special conditions for specific Killers. These are Killers who recover quickly from stuns, such as The Nurse, and the condition would remove all their Tokens to effectively block Killer abilities for additional time after the stun.

It seems like quite a few Dead by Daylight players have taken this to heart, and believe it’s what Behaviour Interactive should do. There’s a general sentiment that the condition should block Killer abilities completely after a stun with the perk change. The discussion has taken off, so much so that the developer has weighed in on the game’s Subreddit to address this directly.

Primarily, the developer highlights how this change “is not intended to solve tunneling.” It’s designed to provide a more consistent value to Survivors when used, giving players a better chance of escaping their pursuer. The second part of Behaviour Interactive’s statement addresses the idea of making Decisive Strike disable Killer abilities upon stuns.

With over 30 Killers in the game and more on the way, this type of Perk is completely unrealistic. Not only is every Killer’s ability so varied that you’d need to make hundreds of considerations for just those with active abilities, but those with passive abilities would make this an impossible task. Not just because there are so many factors to consider and how to address them, such as removing placed objects or Tokens, but also what’s fair to players.

A great example of this is The Hag, who places Phantasm Traps around the map that she can teleport to once they’re activated. If Decisive Strike disabled Killer abilities, you need to decide if those traps are removed or remain, as well as the Tokens The Hag has at the time she’s disabled. Do you let her place more traps, or just remove the placed ones? Yet another factor would be to consider what happens to activated traps and whether she could still teleport after being stunned or not.

The final matter to consider is that Decisive Strike is a DLC Perk and must be purchased as part of the Halloween Chapter. Not everyone runs it, so it doesn’t necessarily need the kind of attention players are asking for. Personally, I think the change is great because it makes it a nice bonus, but completely optional still for those Survivors who have their own best builds that don’t use it.