The next DBD update will make the game significantly less bloody most of the time

Sometimes updates land with a whimper, a few changes and tweaks here and there, and everyone carries on as before. Other times, patches land like a grenade thrown into a room, and the next one for Dead by daylight looks like the latter. The September developer update is now out, showing everyone what Behaviour Interactive is working on, and it looks like it will be one of the most impactful updates the game has seen in a long time.

The main upcoming change involves Moris, animations that Killers can trigger that end a Survivor's life in a Dead by Daylight match, similar to Mortal Kombat's finishers. Previously, these were activated by accepting certain offerings in a trial, with Killers able to kill Survivors after being hooked twice. That's all about to change now, as the horror game will build some sort of Mori offering into Killers by default – making them more predictable, but potentially much less common to see.

In the game's next major update, Killers will only be able to kill the last survivor in a match with Mori, and they can do so without an offering. Mori offerings will instead give Bloodpoint bonuses for killing the last player. This means that players will see these bloody animations much less often in general – although they are almost guaranteed to appear in any match where all survivors die.

Aside from Moris, there's a lot more to talk about soon. The Skull Merchant, one of the game's most unpopular assassins, is getting a massive nerf. She will no longer speed up when scanning survivors, enemies will be less hindered, and her drones will be much easier to disable or avoid. The effectiveness of almost her entire toolkit has been reduced, and it will be interesting to see how much this impacts the pick rate of this already very unpopular character in the game.

Both the Twins and Hillbilly have been slightly nerfed to counteract certain playstyles encouraged in the previous versions. The Unknown has been altered in several ways to incorporate a popular add-on into his base kit and provide his players with more clarity regarding teleportation and cooldowns.

The big news doesn't end there, though, as perks have also come under fire from Behaviour Interactive's change beam. For example, Teamwork: Power of Two and Teamwork: Collective Stealth have both been significantly improved, cooldowns have been removed, ranges have been increased, and their Haste and Claw Suppression abilities will persist for a period of time when they are out of range of their targets. There are many other perk changes in the update, but the biggest for many will be the Distortion rework.

This survival perk protects the player from having their aura visible to the Killer, using a token each time it is activated. These tokens can be recharged by staying close to the Killer, causing Survivors to become completely stealthy and sneak up on the Killer to remain invisible to their aura reading abilities.

This type of gameplay is why Distortion has been reworked. It now lasts longer each time it is activated, but its charges are removed entirely. It only works once, with that single charge being restored when you are chased by the Killer. This means that it won't be possible to simply hide forever with this perk, and Killers who have multiple Aura Reading tools will be able to find them without having to use up a stack of charges. It's a drastic change, and many fans are already lamenting that it means the end of this perk's usefulness.

There is no date yet for the Dead by Daylight September 2024 patch, but players will be able to play the updated Lights Out – Castlevania modifier between Thursday, September 12 and Thursday, September 19.. If you want to know more about what's coming to DBD, head over to the Steam announcement for all the details.

If you need a little help on your journey, our guide to all the current DBD codes will help you get your hands on free stuff, while our DBD Killer Tier List will keep you up to date with the best and weakest enemies in the game.

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