The newest Dead by Daylight chapter – ‘Doomed Course’ is out now on the Public Test Build (PTB) for players on Steam. The surprise update features a brand new original killer called the Houndmaster, and her friendly, cuddly, loyal, and definitely-not-deadly dog Snug.
The Houndmaster – whose real name is Portia Maye – is a seafarer who spent her days at sea with Snug – until her father was brutally murdered by pirates. In the years following, she turned into a vicious killer in the name of vengeance.
The chapter also features a new survivor – who is part of the game’s mysterious group of cultists known as the Black Vale – and a new map, which will not go live with the chapter’s full release in a couple of weeks.
The Houndmaster – Special Abilities
So, let’s first dive into the Houndmaster’s abilities, which – unsurprisingly – revolve around her AI-controlled hound.
She has two different commands for Snug – Chase and Search. Chasing sends out the hound in a straight line – similar to how the Artist sends out her crows. If Snug catches a survivor on his path, he will grab the survivor, hinder them, and slowly them toward the Houndmaster. This gives the killer a short period of time to catch up to the survivor and injure them.
If the hound is sent out, but the survivor is out of direct line of sight, the killer can quickly take control of the Hound as it runs out and redirect its course. This allows for some really cool plays where you redirect Snug around a corner to catch a survivor off-guard.
When a survivor is grabbed, they can either stun the dog or be rescued by another survivor. They can also “fight back” directionally against the hound by moving away from the direction they are being pulled towards, to slow down the pull. They can also directionally “fight back” against getting pulled toward the Houndmaster, similar to how survivors can partially withstand the Deathslinger’s harpoon.
The other command for Snug is “Search”. This sends the dog to a specific location (i.e. an area in front of the killer or a generator). If any survivors are within the radius of the path, they will be revealed by Killer Instinct and are affected by Houndsense, the Houndmaster’s special effect. This causes healthy survivors to receive deep wounds when they are injured. Another benefit of using the Search command is that the Houndmaster gets a speed boost if she follows the Snug’s search path.
Right now, there are quite a few bugs on the PTB relating to Snug’s pathing. He seems to struggle if the survivor is on an awkward elevation, so hopefully this improves before the live release.
The Houndmaster – Perks
As is tradition with every new killer, the Houndmaster has three unique perks that can be transferred to all other killers when you prestige. The three perks are:
All-Shaking Thunder
After you fall from a height, your lunge attack distance is increased by 75% for 8/12/16 seconds. This perk has a 5-second cooldown.
Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass
At the start of the trial, up to 4 random hooks are changed into scourge hooks. You see their auras in white. When a Survivor is unhooked from a non-scourge hook, it becomes a scourge hook. When you hook a Survivor on a Scourge Hook, the aura of the generator with the most progress is revealed in yellow for 6/8/10 seconds.
No Quarter
When a Survivor reaches 75% of a self-heal, they are faced with continuous skill checks. If one of these skill checks is missed or the heal is interrupted, the Survivor becomes broken for 20/25/30 seconds.
From initial impressions, I think that No Quarter sounds like a good perk to use, sort of like the Onryos “Merciless Storm” but for healing instead of completing generators. I also think that Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass will be really strong, especially with its effect of turning non-scourge hooks into scourge hooks when a survivor is unhooked from it. This should allow the killer to consistently monitor generator progress.
Taurie Cain – The New Survivor
In Dead by Daylight lore, there is a cult known as the Black Vale. They are immensely loyal to the Entity, and often perform human sacrifices and rituals for the Entity. So why am I mentioning all of this? Well, the newest survivor Taurie Cain is one of these Black Vale cultists.
Taurie Cain also has three new perks:
Invocation: Treacherous Crows
When in the Basement near the circle, press the ability button 2 to begin the Invocation.
Invocations take 60 seconds. Other Survivors will see your aura during this and can join an ongoing interaction. Once the Invocation is completed:
- You become injured and broken for the rest of the trial.
- When a Survivor is in the Terror Radius and the Killer scares a crow, their aura is revealed to all Survivors for 1/1.5/2 seconds.
- Completing the Invocation disables that perk for all Survivors.
Clean Break
After you finish healing another Survivor, while being healed by another Survivor, press the ability button 1 to gain broken. After 80/70/60 seconds, you become healthy.
This perk does not activate if you are already broken. The effect is canceled if you go in the dying state.
Shoulder the Burden
Once per trial, as long as you are not on death hook, press the ability button 2 in front of a hooked Survivor to unhook them. When they are unhooked, they lose 1 hook state and you gain 1 hook state. You also scream and become Exposed for 30/25/20 seconds.
Out of the three, I think Shoulder the Burden is by far the best and will likely be a game-changing perk. We’ve all had those games where one player has been on the wrong side of the killer, and quickly approaches death hook whilst everyone else is untouched. Being able to swap a hook state seems like such a powerful ability, and can help delay a survivor being tunneled out of the match. I’m a little worried however about how this will work if multiple survivors use it – you could potentially hook a survivor 4-5 times without them dying if the other survivors trade their hook states correctly!
I’m also super glad that they have added another Invocation perk into the game. I was stoked when they introduced Invocation: Weaving Spiders with goth girl Sable Ward, even though the perk usually just wastes a bunch of time and provides little benefit to the survivors. I think it will probably be the same case for Invocation: Treacherous Crows as becoming broken for the rest of the trial is such a harsh punishment for quite a mediocre reward which hinges upon the killer scaring crows
The Ormond Lake Mine
The PTB includes a new map set in the Mount Ormond realm, called the Ormond Lake Mine. This map features a snowy aesthetic similar to the Mount Ormond Resort but, as its name suggests, it features a mine rather than a cozy resort.
Unfortunately, this map won’t be included in the Chapter’s public release – for reasons that I don’t quite know. Perhaps it’s just not ready yet?
There are also a bunch of killer and perk updates included in this update. Check out the PTB patch notes for the full details.
The Doomed Course chapter is currently only playable on the game’s PTB on Steam. Everyone else will have to wait a few weeks until the Chapter’s full live release on all platforms.
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