Dead by Daylight has changed many times through its six-year lifespan, but the July 19, 2022, Mid-Chapter update might be the biggest shakeup yet. This patch changes dozens of perks and completely changes the meta, especially for survivors. There are countless overall changes in the Mid-Chapter patch, but the perk changes are especially noteworthy.
Players are used to seeing perks like Ruin, No One Escapes Death, Dead Hard, and Decisive Strike in nearly every lobby. These four perks have been rooted in the meta for both killers and survivors, but this patch changes all of these perks—and many more! These changes are only of a few of the biggest meta-changing modifications to perks in the Mid-Chapter patch of Dead by Daylight.
10 Barbeque & Chili
Barbeque & Chili was considered one of the best killer perks in the game since the introduction of Bubba, the Cannibal killer from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Previously, the perk allowed killers to build stacks after reading survivor auras. These stacks would give the player controlling the killer a good bloodpoint bonus at the end of the game.
This, combined with the perk’s general strength, made it one of the most commonly used killer perks. After the July 19th Mid-Chapter patch though, BBQ & Chili will no longer give a bloodpoint bonus, which makes it useless for farming bloodpoints. This is a big nerf to the perk although its core power of being able to read survivor auras after a survivor is hooked remains.
9 Corrupt Intervention
Not all killers are made equal in Dead by Daylight. Some need a lot more setup time than others, and for those killers, Corrupt Intervention was an absolute must. Killers like Trapper, Myers, and Ghost Face could often be found running this perk, as it blocked the three generators farthest from the killer spawn for up to 120 seconds.
While this core power remains, the perk received a huge nerf in the latest Mid-Chapter patch. Now, Corrupt Intervention deactivates after the first survivor enters the dying state. This means that once a killer downs their first survivor, Corrupt Intervention ends, and the blocked generators can be worked on as normal.
8 Hex: No One Escapes Death
No One Escapes Death (commonly shortened to NOED) is a perk universally despised by survivors. Many survivor players found the perk to be completely unfair, as it put all remaining survivors in the trial in the exposed state once the exit gates were powered. Many killers with weaker late-game powers used this perk as a way to secure more kills near the endgame.
NOED received an interesting nerf that many players hope will balance it more. Now when NOED activates, the hex totem is revealed to survivors who are within four meters of it. This detection range gradually grows to 24 meters after 30 seconds, giving survivors a much better chance of finding and cleansing the totem before they and all their friends are sacrificed in the late game.
7 Hex: Ruin
Ruin was one of the most common generator regression perks for killers to run. When playing killer, there are tons of things to handle. Killers need to correctly manage hooks, manage their powers, cleanse boon totems, and much more. Ruin made slowing down generator progress a background process with no generator kicking needed.
This patch gave Ruin a massive nerf. Now, once a survivor is killed by any means, the hex totem auto cleanses and becomes a dull totem again. This is a massive nerf to the perk, so expect to see a larger variety of slowdown perks in the future.
6 Lethal Pursuer
Lethal Pursuer, named aptly after the Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 was already a decent perk for killers to run. Its biggest flaw was that it deactivated after the first 10 seconds of a match. Players running this perk basically had to play the rest of the trial with three perks, as Lethal Pursuer became useless after the first 10 seconds of a game.
The perk was buffed nicely with the ability to synergize with other aura-reading perks like I’m All Ears or Darkness Revealed. Now, Lethal Pursuer offers a two-second extension to all aura-reading perks.
5 Tinkerer
Tinkerer received a decent nerf. Before the patch, Tinkerer could activate multiple times on a single generator. This was a crazy-good perk to run with Ruin, as survivors could be chased away, the generator could regress, and Tinkerer could proc again and again on that same generator.
After the patch, Tinkerer can only proc once per generator. This is a pretty big nerf to the perk, so expect to see less of it when playing as a survivor.
4 Iron Will
Iron Will received a nerf. This perk was especially useful for survivors with loud grunts of pain like Jill Valentine or Bill Overbeck. Before, the highest tier of Iron Will completely masked the grunts of pain of an injured survivor. Now, the highest tier only masks grunts of pain by 75% and t he perk won’t activate if a survivor is affected by the exhausted affliction.
3 Saboteur
Saboteur was a must for survivors looking to run hook sabotage builds or flashlight save builds. After the Mid-Chapter patch, the perk is even more powerful. Saboteur now allows survivors who are within range of a carried teammate to see a killer’s scourge hooks. Scourge hooks are special hooks that activate when a player is set on them. The most popular scourge hook perk is Pain Resonance.
Survivors running this perk will now be able to identify scourge hooks and destroy them. The hooks will obviously come back eventually, but the ability to temporarily remove a killer’s perk is quite powerful in the right hands.
2 Decisive Strike
Decisive Strike (normally referred to as DS) was the bane of many a killer. This perk allows survivors to temporarily stun the killer and escape their grasp if the survivor has been picked up twice in a row without performing a number of certain actions. The perk received a massive nerf which some think will remove it from the survivor meta entirely.
DS now only stuns for three seconds; previously it was a five-second stun. To add to this nerf, DS deactivates once the exit gates are powered. This means that survivors can no longer escape using DS in the late game if they are somehow caught. This nerf is quite controversial in the community, with players who prefer killer celebrating and survivors feeling that the Mid-Chapter patch was a little too killer sided!
1 Dead Hard
Dead Hard was the single most controversial perk in Dead by Daylight. It was a ridiculously powerful survivor perk that granted a small speed boost and temporary invincibility when used. The perk could be activated any time once a survivor was injured, and killers literally had to learn to adjust their playstyles to accommodate Dead Hard, as it was run by nearly every survivor in the game.
The perk has gotten a colossal nerf. Dead Hard no longer grants a speed boost in its animation, so it cannot be used for distance. It no longer grants as many frames of invincibility either. In fact, it basically only offers a couple of frames of safety. The perk grants players a 0.5-second window to avoid damage from the killer. With the nature of online games, latency alone will surely ensure that even the best survivors struggle to consistently avoid damage with Dead Hard. This nerf stands as the biggest in the patch and will force a massive shift in the meta for both killers and survivors.
Dead by Daylight is available on Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, Steam, IOS, and many other platforms.