Dead by Daylight’s 8th Anniversary live stream was an exciting event full of amazing announcements and insightful interviews. From the gameplay reveal of the upcoming Dungeons and Dragons chapter to the surprise drop of the DBD spin-off game “What the Fog”, this year’s live stream was truly one of the best in the game’s 8-year history.
I think the most exciting announcement – and something I’ve wanted to see for ages – is the brand-new game mode. Behaviour finally listened to the memes, and will be officially releasing a time-limited, 2 killer versus 8 survivors game mode!
As the name suggests, this new game mode will see 8 survivors trying to escape from the trial whilst 2 killers team up to sacrifice them to the mysterious Entity.
Rather than just boosting the lobby size and calling it a day, the developers have changed some of the core rules of the new mode so that it feels distinctive, balanced and fun. In fact, the mode aims to “fundamentally change the way that you’re playing Dead by Daylight”, and will run in a completely separate queue from the core game.
For example, killers will no longer have to pick up and hook survivors once they have been downed. Instead, they will teleport them to a cage across the map, similar to how Pyramid Head’s power works currently. They’ve altered this core mechanic as hooking 8 survivors 3 times each to win the match severely slowed the pace of the game down, so this change will keep the games quick and interesting.
Another change is that this game mode will not allow perks. Instead, survivors will be able to choose a specific class (exclusive to this mode), that provides them with a specific role within the team.
Some classes might boost healing, generator repair speed, or their power in a chase. Unfortunately, the devs didn’t go into too much detail about the classes in this live stream, but we will hear more info about this mode in July.
The killers already have their own powers in the core game. In 2v8, the killers will also have “team powers”, that will power each other up if they work together. The developers gave this example for The Wraith:
- When the Wraith is cloaked and your teammate is near, they will also become undetectable.
Killer team powers will hopefully create some unique and memorable moments of teamwork among the killers. One of the main reasons people prefer survivor over killer is that you can play with your friends, so it’ll be a blast being the bad guy in a group for once.
Speaking of killers, when the mode launches, you’ll only be able to pick from the 5 original killers. The devs mentioned that this was for accessibility reasons – as they are free and playable for everyone – but I’m sure that the thought of balancing all 35 killers in 2v8 played a role in this decision too. Don’t worry, they did mention that more killers will join this game mode as time progresses and they gather more feedback.
As to be expected, 2v8 will task the survivors with completing more than 5 generators, and the devs even mentioned that there will be more exit gates too. They’ve also expanded 5 of the current maps to fit the larger lobby sizes.
And that’s pretty much all the info we currently have on this new game mode. I’m super excited, as it’s something that the community has been wanting literally since the start of the game.
This newest game mode is set to launch this summer (instead of the summer event), and we will get more information about 2 versus 8 in an upcoming live stream in July. It sounds like 2 versus 8 will be time-limited to this summer, but will hopefully be a recurring mode that adds new killers, classes and more.
So keep your eyes peeled for that summer live stream. Horror Game News will have more coverage of the Dead by Daylight anniversary live stream shortly.
To see the announcement for yourself, watch the 8th anniversary livestream down below, and skip to 46:10 to hear about 2 versus 8 from the developers.