Dead by Daylight's The Nightmare Receives a Major Rework
Freddy Krueger, or The Nightmare, is getting a significant overhaul in an upcoming Dead by Daylight patch. Currently considered one of the weaker Killers, this rework aims to boost his competitiveness and better reflect his iconic abilities. The changes, detailed in the January 2025 Developer Update, focus on increased flexibility and more impactful power usage.
Key improvements include the ability to seamlessly switch between Dream Snares and Dream Pallets, offering dynamic tactical options. Dream Snares are enhanced, moving at 12 m/s, traversing walls and stairs (though not ledges), and interacting differently with sleeping and awake Survivors. Sleeping Survivors are hindered, while awake Survivors accumulate additional sleep timer. Dream Pallets gain an explosive function, inflicting injury on sleeping Survivors and increasing the sleep timer for awake ones.
The Nightmare's teleportation also receives a boost. He can now teleport to any generator (completed, blocked, or endgame) within the Dream World, and will instantly appear near healing Survivors in the Dream World. This teleportation, however, reveals nearby Survivors with Killer Instinct and adds to their sleep timer. The teleport cooldown is reduced from 45 to 30 seconds, and cancellation is no longer possible. Importantly, healing Survivors in the Dream World will be consistently revealed via Killer Instinct, providing The Nightmare with prime targeting opportunities. Alarm clocks now have a 45-second cooldown after use.
Add-ons are also being adjusted to encourage creative Killer loadouts. However, The Nightmare's perks (Fire Up, Remember Me, and Blood Warden) remain unchanged, potentially to preserve the original character design.
Here's a summary of the changes:
- [CHANGE] Swap between Dream Snares and Dream Pallets via active ability.
- [NEW] Dream Snares: 12 m/s speed, 5-second cooldown, wall and stair traversal, unique interactions with sleeping (4-second hinder) and awake (30-second sleep timer increase) Survivors.
- [NEW] Dream Pallets: Explode 1.5 seconds after activation (3-meter radius); sleeping Survivors are injured, awake Survivors gain 60 seconds to their sleep timer.
- [NEW] Teleport to any generator (completed, blocked, endgame) or healing Survivor (within 12 meters). Teleport reveals nearby Survivors (Killer Instinct, 15-second sleep timer increase).
- [CHANGE] Teleport cooldown reduced to 30 seconds (from 45), cancellation removed.
- [NEW] Healing Survivors in the Dream World are revealed by Killer Instinct (lingering 3 seconds after stopping).
- [CHANGE] Sleeping Survivors can use any Alarm Clock to wake up.
- [NEW] Alarm Clocks have a 45-second cooldown after use.
These changes aim to significantly improve The Nightmare's viability and gameplay experience, making him a more formidable and strategically interesting Killer in Dead by Daylight. While a release date hasn't been specified, these mechanics are currently available on the Public Test Build (PTB).
