How Dead By Daylight’s Freddy Rework Makes the Killer a Real Nightmare

Posted by By our-little-miss-is-home January 14, 2025 2 Views 6 Min Read
How Dead By Daylight’s Freddy Rework Makes the Killer a Real Nightmare

Freddy Krueger is one of the most iconic names in horror film. In the A Nightmare on Elm Street franchise, he stalks the dreams of his victims, carrying out brutal kills in the nightmare realm that are just as gruesome – and fatal – in reality. But, in the asymmetric horror title Dead by Daylight, Freddy Krueger did not exactly live up to his “nightmare” reputation. The source of frequent fan complaints, Freddy was often considered one of the worst killers in the game. But, after a long-awaited rework, Dead by Daylight‘s version of Freddy is finally the truly terrifying nightmare horror film buffs remember.

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Why Freddy Krueger Was Considered A Low-Tier Killer

Freddy Krueger was released under the name “The Nightmare” in Dead by Daylight’s sixth Chapter paid DLC. The DLC, released in October 2017, included both Freddy and the survivor Quentin Smith, a character originating from the 2010 remake of A Nightmare on Elm Street. He is still available for players to purchase.

Freddy quickly became considered a fairly weak killer due to his niche – most of his abilities only worked on sleeping survivors, and survivors have multiple options for waking themselves or each other up. His teleport ability also got weaker as generators are repaired. Survivors trapped in Freddy’s Dream World also heard his sinister lullaby from 32 meters away, making it hard for Freddy players to run a stealth-focused build. On top of his mechanical issues, some players were disappointed that Freddy had no voice lines, as his film incarnation – originally portrayed by the iconic Robert Englund – often taunts his victims.

Freddy’s Rework Turns Him Into A True Nightmare

Dead by Daylight developer Behavior Interactive recently announced that Freddy will be getting a major rework. The new version of Freddy is currently available as part of a public test build before being launched in the main game. The changes to the Nightmare’s abilities include:

  • He can switch between setting Dream Snares and putting out Dream Pallets mid-match.
  • Both Snares and Pallets now affect non-sleeping survivors, primarily by adding time to their sleep timer. Dream Pallets can even explode in a grisly shower of blood, affecting all survivors who get splattered.
  • Freddy can now teleport to any generator, even those which have been repaired or blocked.
  • Freddy can detect and teleport to healing survivors in his Dreamworld.
  • Survivors within 8 meters of Freddy’s teleport are revealed to him and have time added to their sleep timer.
  • The cooldown of Freddy’s teleport has been reduced to 30 seconds.

These changes turn Freddy Krueger into a killer who can much more easily trap survivors in the dream world and stalk and hunt them there. Even though sleeping survivors can still wake up, the many elements shortening their sleeping timers mean that sleep is a much more frequent and dangerous issue. Once asleep, the survivors are at Freddy’s mercy with his enhanced teleportation and detection abilities. His shortened teleport timer also makes him a highly mobile and versatile killer who is much more difficult for survivors to escape.

This rework of Freddy Krueger debuts alongside a character trial system, in which players will be able to try out paid DLC characters for free for a limited amount of time. Of course, the Nightmare himself – along with Quentin Smith – will be the first character made temporarily free-to-play as part of this system. This will allow all Dead by Daylight players to give the reworked Freddy a try. Overall, the changes to Freddy are a good sign for Dead by Daylight – they show that the developer is willing to address issues the player base has raised with killers, and improve those who are seen as falling behind. It is possible that other killers will even get the Nightmare treatment and see reworks of their own in the future.

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