In the world of Dead by Daylight, The Skull Merchant is scheduled for substantial upgrades aimed at boosting her appeal among players who prefer playing as Killers. The spotlight is on making her powers more active, as opposed to her current reliance on passive abilities. This overhaul primarily targets her drone-based skills.
Introduced in March 2023 as part of Chapter 27, The Skull Merchant is among the more challenging Killers to play. Her strength lies in strategic planning and precise, calculated strikes rather than overwhelming physical force. Equipped with drones, she excels at reconnaissance and executing long-range attacks, often capitalizing on keeping Survivors injured and hooked.
Despite periodic updates in her first year post-launch, The Skull Merchant hasn’t garnered the following seen with other Killers, largely due to the complexity of her abilities. Now, with insights from Behaviour Interactive, she’s being redesigned to enhance the fun factor for both those controlling her and her adversaries. This redesign will make her skills more intuitive and transition her play style to emphasize active hunting. While there’s no release date for these changes yet, they’re poised to make a significant impact.
The changes focus heavily on her drones. While these devices continue to gather intel, their scanning pattern will become harder for Survivors to anticipate, increasing chances of detection. Moreover, The Skull Merchant will gain the ability to direct drones in attack mode, sacrificing a drone to reduce a Survivor’s health. When controlling drones, she becomes undetectable, urging Survivors to destroy the active drone before its power depletes. Additionally, a new, unnamed detection ability will expose sprinting Survivors but will notify them when it’s active.
On the flip side, Survivors retain the ability to hack and disable drones, but with heightened risk. Successful hacks will reveal The Skull Merchant’s position, while failures will temporarily prevent further hack attempts and expose the hacker’s location through the Killer Instinct mechanic.
In the broader context of Dead by Daylight, it’s fascinating to observe how Killer mechanics continue to evolve, ensuring gameplay remains fresh and challenging for all players involved. With these updated dynamics, The Skull Merchant is poised for a resurgence that promises more engaging and dynamic gameplay experiences.
