Dead by Daylight Update 6.6.2 Changes Skull Merchant

Behaviour Interactive has released a new update for Dead by Daylight that addresses feedback regarding the asymmetric horror game's newest Killer, the Skull Merchant. Skull Merchant launched less than two weeks ago but has been heavily criticized by the Dead by Daylight community as both weak and specialized for a certain playstyle. Behaviour's turnaround time for a Skull Merchant update is perhaps more surprising than the fix itself, though.Adriana Imai, known as the Skull Merchant, was released in Dead by Daylight on March 7 as part of the Chapter 27: Tools of Torment update. She's said to have been influenced as a Killer by her father's dark manga about a woman that hunts the weak. Her in-game abilities revolve around the utilization of four drones that can track Survivors, as well as Claw Traps. As a result, Skull Merchant can cover a relatively small area well, but can be very weak when spread across a whole map.RELATED: Blumhouse Is Prepping Another Horror Video Game Adaption Behaviour has responded to criticisms by buffing several key aspects of the Skull Merchant's kit. The most prominent change is the addition of a flat Haste Status Effect buff for detecting Survivors with the Skull Merchant's drones. A haste buff of between 3-7% is given for tracking between 1-4 Survivors, which will allow the Skull Merchant to rush around the map and hunt players much more easily.

Several changes were also made to how the Skull Merchant's Drones, Claw Traps, and the Traps' batteries work and interact with Survivors. These changes weaken the Claw Traps and Skull Merchant overall, allowing players to have a bit more counterplay to her. For example, you can't hack a Drone with a Claw Trap, while hacked Drones only return after a Claw Trap is returned. Claw Traps also die after a set period of time now, as all battery resets are gone.

The idea is that Skull Merchant could focus her drones in an area and make it difficult for Survivors to enter that area. These changes allow Survivors to counter Drones a little better, but in doing so allow Skull Merchant to cover a larger area of the map through general speed. She's still probably going to be played with Dead by Daylight 3-generator strategy, but hopefully doesn't have to be just that.

The 6.6.2 Dead by Daylight patch makes several other changes, too. Survivor bots are more intelligent and can even ask other players to get out of their way. Fixes for Yun-Hin, as well as Killers including The Nurse and The Knight should end some obnoxious visual issues. Various other fixes have been issued for Perks, the user interface, and more. Overall, it's just a healthy update for Dead by Daylight with a surprisingly quick turnaround time.

Dead by Daylight Update 6.6.2 Patch Notes

Killer: The Skull Merchant
- Base power changes:
  - The Skull Merchant gains a flat Haste Status Effect for each Survivor detected on the radar. This bonus is lost when no Survivor is detected on the Radar.
    - One Survivor: +3%
    - Two Survivors: +5%
    - Three Survivors: +6%
    - Four Survivors: +7%
    - Note: You do not need to be Inspecting the Radar in order to get this bonus.
- Failing the Claw Trap hack no longer recharges its battery
- Entering an Active Zone no longer recharges Claw Trap batteries
- Drones only return to the Killer after their respective Claw Trap battery is empty
- Survivors with a Claw Trap cause Drones to be Unhackable while they are nearby
- Claw Trapped Survivors who fast vault pallets break the pallet and their Claw Trap at the same time
- Claw traps are automatically removed when their battery is empty
- Addon changes:
  - Ultrasonic Trap Speaker (NEW EFFECT): Decrease the time it takes for Undetectable to take effect by 50%
- Increase the “Expired Batteries” addon rarity to Ultra Rare (was Very Rare)
- Decrease the “Prototype Rotor” addon rarity to Very Rare (was Ultra Rare)
- Increase Adaptive Lighting to 50% (was 20%)
- Decrease Expired Batteries to 40% (was 150%)
Miscellaneous
- A previous patch note stated that the perk Leverage no longer worked on self-healing. This was not the case. Leverage has worked on self-healing and still does.
- Updated screams caused by Perks to be heard map-wide, as they were prior to version 6.6.0.
Bug Fixes
- Archives & Challenges
  - Fixed an issue where pallets broken by The Knight's Guards were not contributing progress towards applicable challenges, such as "Rault's Strength" and "Unleash the Rage".
- Audio
  - Fixed an issue in the Archives where the French voice over for Memory 714 of Tome 13 would cut before the end.
  - Fixed an issue where The Trapper would fail to trigger a voice over when a Survivor escapes his grab.
- Bots
  - Bots can now ask other players to move out of their way.
  - Bots no longer give up when Broken and within the area of a Boon: Circle of Healing.
  - Tentatively fixed an issue where Bots would shut themselves down when injured by an Artist's Dire Crow.
  - When playing against Freddy Krueger with the Dream Pallets Power, Bots no longer stop moving after passing a Dream Pallet.
  - When playing against The Skull Merchant, Bots can now disable Drones placed on stairs.
- Characters
  - Fixed an issue that cause Yun-Jin and a few other female survivors' face to be different when been on the hook.
  - Fixed an issue that cause The Nurse's Grim Veil to stretches unnaturally on the tally screen.
  - Fixed an issue that cause Males survivors grabbed from lockers to have stretched eyebrows.
  - Fixed an issue where The Knight's Healing Poultice, The Onryo's Distorted Photo and The Oni's Iridescent Family Crest Add-ons incorrectly revealed auras for the duration of their effect.
- Map
  - Fixed a bug that made two chests spawn in the Shattered Square basement of the main building.
- Perks
  - The Haste status effect icon no longer appears on screen when Teamwork: Collective Stealth is active
  - The Friendly Competition repair bonus speed buff is no longer lost if the Perk owner disconnects from the Trial.
  - A Survivor fast vaults a Pallet with the Skull Merchant Claw trap no longer triggers the Perk Thwack!
  - Failing one skill check caused by the Merciless Storm Perk no longer causes subsequent skill checks to fail
- Platforms
  - Intro cinematics should no longer stutter on Xbox One.
- Killer - Skull Merchant
  - Drones no longer show the scanning VFX for one frame when starting the scan phase.
  - Claw-Traps removed by hacking now correctly self-destruct instead of disappearing
- UI
  - Fixed Perk description tooltips being incorrectly positioned in the Edit Bot Loadout menu.
  - Corrected 'Shotgun Speakers' add-on icon to avoid trypophobia trigger.