Announced during today’s sixth anniversary livestream, the next chapter will be named Roots of Dread and features a new killer, survivor and map. Down the line there will also be another Resident Evil chapter, Attack on Titan costumes, and a Dead by Daylight dating sim. Roots of Dread will include new killer The Dredge. Inspired by the boogeyman, the “formless mass” is a manifestation of darkness with the ability to teleport between lockers to catch survivors. Haddie Kaur is the new survivor, an Indian-Canadian character first introduced in the Archives mode. Details of both of these characters were previously leaked. The new map is the Garden of Joy, a twisted take on the idyllic American home that becomes “a ghostly symbol of domestic horror set against a cold and dreadful backdrop”. “We’re thrilled to be offering our players an original Chapter for the game’s anniversary this year. Dead by Daylight has grown and diversified itself tremendously since its creation, and with Roots of Dread, we focused on the essence of the game: visceral fear and the thrill of the hunt,” said Dave Richard, creative director for Dead by Daylight. “The Dredge is a strange and creepy monster with a unique design, a first for Dead by Daylight Killers. It lurks and hunts from the shadows with the power to engulf Survivors in darkness, and I believe this makes for a very intense experience for all players.” The new chapter will be available across all platforms from 7th June. Later in the year, a new Resident Evil chapter will be released in collaboration with Capcom. Named Project W, it follows the inclusion of Nemesis, Jill Valentine and Leon Kennedy last year. No further details have been released, though presumably Wesker’s been up to something. Available soon will be Dead by Daylight’s first major crossover with an anime, in the form of an Attack on Titan outfit collection. Ten outfits, for killers and survivors, will be released, including Dwight as Eren, Zarina as Hange, and the Oni as the Armored Titan. The developer is also working on the heavily-rumoured Dead by Daylight dating sim visual novel, due out later this year. Called Hooked on You, players can flirt with four sexy killers: The Huntress, The Spirit, The Trapper, and The Wraith. Further additions and improvements are also planned for the game in year seven. As usual, a total of four chapters will be on the way, including the usual addition of killers and survivors, as well as two new maps. This is inclusive of Roots of Dread. Four Tomes will also be added to the Archives mode. Perhaps the biggest shakeup to the game will be a change in the perks system. Around 40 killer and survivor perks will be changed, to force players to adapt and use new tools. Behaviour is hoping to balance matchmaking queues with new incentives. The game will show whether playing as a killer or survivor will be faster for you, with extra blood points awarded upon completion of that match. Preset loadouts will be added today in the next update, allowing players to preconfigure their preferred loadout for both killers and survivors - perks, items, and cosmetics. The team is also working on four events throughout the year: this sixth anniversary, Halloween, a winter event, and the lunar new year. These will include special gameplay and items. On mobile specifically, new leaderboards, quick match and social systems are planned, as well as improvements in control layout, visual performance and fluidity of gameplay. The mobile version has proven incredibly popular in Japan, and has now reached 25 million players globally. A closed beta for the mobile improvements will hit the US in the next few weeks. Behaviour also announced that the game now boasts over 50 million players globally across all platforms, with up to two million players each day.
