Dead by Daylight (2016)

***Dead by Daylight*** is an asymmetric multiplayer survival horror online game developed by Canadian studio Behaviour Interactive. It is a one-versus-four game in which one player takes on the role of a Killer and the other four play as Survivors; the Killer must impale each Survivor on sacrificial hooks to appease a malevolent force known as the Entity, while the Survivors have to avoid being caught and power up the exit gates by working together to fix five generators. Alongside original characters, the game licenses characters and settings from franchises such as *A Nightmare on Elm Street*, *Attack on Titan*, Crypt TV, *Evil Dead*, *Halloween*, *Hellraiser*, *Left 4 Dead*, *Resident Evil*, *Ringu*, *Saw*, *Silent Hill*, *Stranger Things*, and *The Texas Chainsaw Massacre*.

The game was released for Windows in 2016; PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in 2017; Switch in 2019; and Android, iOS, PlayStation 5, Stadia, and Xbox Series X/S in 2020. Swedish studio Starbreeze Studios published the game from 2016 through 2018, when Behaviour Interactive bought the publishing rights. Italian company 505 Games publishes the Nintendo Switch version, while Austrian company Deep Silver publishes physical copies for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions. The game received mixed reviews upon release, though it was a commercial success and has since attracted more than 50 million players.

## Gameplay

*Dead by Daylight* is an asymmetrical horror game where one player is the Killer and the other four are Survivors. The Survivors' objective is to escape the map by repairing five of seven generators scattered throughout it to power the two exit gates. The Killer must impale all Survivors on hooks before they escape, which will cause them to be sacrificed to a malevolent force known as the Entity. If only one Survivor remains, an escape hatch opens. If the Killer closes the hatch or an exit gate is opened, the "Endgame Collapse" begins and the Survivors must escape within two minutes.

When hunting Survivors, the Killer must capture them by either striking them with their weapon (one strike injures Survivors and a second strikes puts them into a dying state) or by grabbing them in one move by catching them unexpectedly. Although Survivors can attempt to escape the hook the first time they are impaled, success is unlikely. They can also be saved by other Survivors. If they are hooked a second time, they enter a "struggle phase", where they must resist the Entity as it attempts to take them out of the game by performing skill checks until they are either killed or rescued. If they are hooked a third time, they will be sacrificed to the Entity.

The Survivors' movement options consist of sprinting, walking, crouch-walking, or crawling. They must elude the Killer by losing their line of sight in a chase or by successfully hiding from them. Most Killers can only move at a pace that is moderately faster than that of a sprinting Survivor. However, the Killer is slower in other movements, such as vaulting obstacles. With some exceptions, Killers cannot leap over obstacles that Survivors can throw down into their path and must instead go around them or destroy them. The Killer also has an aura-reading ability, constantly revealing the location of generators, hooks, and sometimes Survivors. Every Killer has their own unique power. For instance, the Wraith can turn invisible and move faster (though is unable to strike Survivors while hidden) and the Hillbilly wields a chainsaw which allows him to dash quickly along the map and instantly knock down any Survivors in his path. These powers can be altered using add-ons obtained through gameplay.

Survivors can search chests to find useful items, such as maps, keys, toolboxes, med-kits, and flashlights. Most Killers have an innate "terror radius" that surrounds them. Survivors inside the radius will hear a heartbeat, which increases in intensity with proximity to the Killer. They can also see a red light (called the "red stain") emanating from the Killer's head onto the ground, which reveals the direction they are facing and can help the Survivors determine when the Killer is about to come around a corner. Some Killers have the ability to suppress their terror radius and red stain under certain conditions, enabling them to surprise unaware Survivors.

### Objectives

Survivor interactions with many objects in the game can cause random skill checks to trigger. The player can either perform a good skill check which has no consequence, a great skill check which speeds up the progression of the action the player is taking, or a bad skill check which usually notifies the Killer of the Survivor's location and may also cause a loss of progress. Great skill checks require more precision, and may not always be possible depending on the type of interaction or the perks being used by either the Survivor or the Killer. Killers have the ability to damage generators, which will slowly regress their repair progress over time until a Survivor resumes repairing it.

If the Killer catches a Survivor, the Killer can pick them up and carry them to one of many sacrificial hooks scattered throughout the map. While being carried, the Survivor can attempt to wiggle out of the Killer's grasp before they reach the hook and then run away. If the Killer succeeds in impaling a Survivor on a hook, a teammate can rescue the impaled Survivor or, more rarely, the impaled Survivor (with a 4% chance) can rescue themselves from the hook. Self-rescue is only possible the first time a Survivor is hooked.

Once five generators are repaired, a Survivor must find a switch next to one of two exit gates and hold it for twenty seconds in order to open the door. The game only ends when all Survivors have either escaped or have been killed; thus, while some Survivors may escape and finish early, those still inside must keep playing. Players who have escaped or died have the ability to observe the remaining players through the game's conclusion or return to the menu and join a new game.

If only one Survivor remains, repairing generators is usually not practical. Regardless of whether the other three Survivors escaped or were killed, an open escape hatch will appear in a random location. If the Survivor finds this hatch first, they can escape through it, but if the Killer finds it first, then they can close it. If the Killer closes the hatch, the two exit gates become powered as though the generator objective was completed, allowing the remaining Survivor one final way to escape the trial. If one of the Survivors possesses a special kind of key, either obtained from a chest in the trial or brought into the trial, they can open the hatch and escape. Otherwise, the hatch will remain closed, opening automatically when only one Survivor remains in the trial.

### Perks

Survivors and Killers each have the option to use up to four perks in their load-out, which gives their characters special abilities. Perks differ between Survivors and Killers; a Survivor perk may not be used by Killers and vice versa. Survivor perks include a burst of speed when running from the Killer (sprint-burst), the ability to self-heal without a first aid kit (self-care), sabotaging meat hooks without a toolbox (saboteur), and many more. Killer perks include seeing Survivors' auras, hindering their struggle time while being taken to a hook (iron-grasp), locking down generators to prevent them from being worked on (corrupt-intervention), and many more.

There are a number of "general perks" that start unlocked for any character to learn. Additionally, each specific character starts off with a set of three perks that are unique to them. Perks, add-ons, and items can be unlocked through the Bloodweb, a skill tree where each character can spend in-game currency. Advancing to level 50 in a character's Bloodweb allows the player to "prestige" that particular character. Doing so resets the character back to level 0, keeps all previously earned perks, add-ons, and items, and unlocks tiers 1-3 of the character's unique perks to every single other character owned of the same role.