Castlevania fans, rejoice! One of the most iconic horror game franchises of all time has finally entered the world of Dead by Daylight. This highly anticipated licensed chapter is out today, featuring a brand new killer – Dracula – and a new survivor – Trevor Belmont. Plus, if you’re playing on any of the original maps, you might notice a recognizable castle looming ominously in the sky…
About Castlevania
Castlevania is a legendary Japanese gothic horror action-adventure game franchise published by Konami. Since the original game came out in 1986 on the Famicom (and in 1987 for the NES), dozens of games have been released in the franchise.
The original game introduced players to Simon Belmont – a vampire hunter – as he traversed through Dracula’s castle to kill the dark lord. Subsequent entries in the series follow descendents of the Belmont clan who continue their eternal struggle against Dracula.
In fact, Castlevania has now become one of the best-selling horror game franchises of all time, despite not releasing a new entry since 2014.
In 2017, Netflix published a popular and critically acclaimed Netflix anime adaptation of Castlevania, which spanned 4 seasons.
New Killer – Dracula (The Dark Lord)
The iconic Dracula makes his way into Dead by Daylight today, with an insanely fun power and some intriguing perks.
Killer Power
Dracula’s ability, Vampiric Shift, allows him to shapeshift between three distinct forms, each with its own unique abilities:
Vampire Form: This is Dracula’s default state. In this form, he can unleash the Hellfire spell, which summons a pillar of flames that extends 7 meters in front of him. This ability functions pretty similarly to Pyramid Head’s Rites of Judgement but works across low obstacles as well.
Bat Form: In this form, Dracula becomes undetectable (suppresses his terror radius and red stain). As a bat, Dracula can fly over vault points, and teleport to any vault point within 32 meters. Similar to the Spirit’s Phase-Walk ability, the killer cannot see any survivors in this form, but he can still track scratch marks.
Wolf Form: As a wolf, Dracula has increased movement speed and pools of blood and scratch marks are more visible. Plus, survivors leave behind “scent orbs”, which help to charge Dracula’s pounce attack. This pounce is fairly similar to Demogorgon’s shred, but it can be used twice if you miss the first one.
Dracula’s Perks
Just like every other killer, Dracula has three unique perks.
Hex: Wretched Fate
After a generator is completed, Hex: Wretched Fate activates and lights a random Dull Totem, cursing the Obsession. This curse reduces the obsession’s repair speed by 27/30/33%, but the aura of the totem is revealed to the obsession when they are within 12 meters of it.
Human Greed
Grants the killer the ability to kick opened chests, which closes them. Additionally, the perk allows the killer to see the auras of unopened chests, as well as the auras of survivors entering within 8 meters of unopened or closed Chests for 3 seconds.
Human Greed has a cool-down of 60/45/30 seconds for kicking chests.
Dominance
Dominance blocks chests and totems for 4/6/8 seconds when a survivor interacts with them for the first time. Chests and totems that have been blocked with this perk will be visible with a white aura.
New Survivor – Trevor Belmont
On the opposing side, we have Trevor Belmont – a fan favourite vampire hunter that featured both in the Castlevania games and Netflix series.
Trevor Belmont’s Perks
Trevor Belmont has 3 unique perks:
Exultation
Stunning the killer with a pallet will upgrade the rarity of your held item to the next tier. Additionally, this will recharge your item by 25%.
Exultation has a cool-down of 40/35/30 seconds.
Eyes of Belmont
Whenever a generator is completed, the aura of the killer is revealed to you for 1/2/3 seconds.
Similar to how Lethal Pursuer works for killers, Eyes of Belmont will also extend the duration of all instances of the killer’s aura being revealed to you by 2 seconds.
This means that this perk’s original effect actually lasts for 3/4/5 seconds, as the perk benefits from its own secondary effect.
Moment of Glory
After unlocking or rummaging a chest twice, this perk activates with the following effects:
- When you become injured, you instantly suffer from the Broken status effect.
- You are automatically healed 1 health state after 80/70/60 seconds.
- This effect is canceled if you enter the Dying State.
After Moment of Glory heals you, the perk deactivates.
I think both Eyes of Belmont and Exultation sound like pretty fun perks. Exultation should be great for survivors who love to use their items – looking at you, flashlight abusers – and Eyes of Belmont just sounds like a great way to increase the effectiveness of your other aura-reading perks. I’m not too sure about Moment of Glory, as it feels like a lot of effort to unlock 2 chests and wait up to 80 seconds just to heal once.
Finding Dracula’s Castle
While this chapter doesn’t contain its own map, you’ll still be able to find Dracula’s castle if you look hard enough. When you’re playing as or against Dracula on any of the original maps (i.e. not the licensed maps), Dracula’s castle will be visible in the sky. Pretty damn cool if you ask me.
And that’s your roundup on the newest chapter in Dead by Daylight. Are you excited for Castlevania in DBD, and what franchise do you want to be added to the game next? Let us know on Instagram or Threads.
