Dyllon Graham says that the 5.5.0 patch brings quality of life (QoL) changes and restructuring that, while not glamorous, is long overdue.
When it comes to Dead By Daylight, there are typically two types of updates—the main Chapter update that introduces several new and iconic characters, perks and even locales to the game and mid-chapter patches. While Mid-chapter patches often don’t revel in the same level of hype as their shiny counterparts, they still serve an incredibly understated purpose. These updates allow the development team to sit down and address balancing issues, recurring bugs and other concerns. Patch 5.5.0 doesn’t really do a lot to break new ground, instead taking time to lay pavement over areas of the game with consistent potholes.
Having spent nearly an entire week with the update, it definitely introduced quality of life changes that integrate seamlessly with the existing game—it’s hard to imagine these features didn’t exist on launch. Most notable are the sweeping accessibility changes that allow players to toggle their interactions with a single keystroke instead of continuously holding buttons for long periods of time. Even the “wiggling” mechanic has an opt-in beta replacement, substituting repetitive button mashing for stable and consistent skill checks, allowing players to remap the associated action buttons entirely. It’s this focus on making the game easier for players across all spectrums of play to enjoy that signals a development team invested in their community— especially when these decisions are in direct contrast to the initial creative vision for the game.
In addition to these important changes are numerous other implicative movements below the surface, like re-coding the bug laden Nurse killer, restructuring file compression for faster update downloads and diminishing Killer-sided hit validation visual feedback to lessen confusing gameplay moments. This signals that Behaviour Interactive is acknowledging some of the issues eating away at the bottom of the proverbial stack of updates that were making the tower of cards more likely to collapse. While these changes are quietly humming in the background, it’s important that we take a moment to realize that they exist. Amidst torch and pitchfork arguments over rebalancing and retooling what we think is subjectively broken, overpowered or otherwise, these structural reorganizations need to happen. If not, everything else begins falling apart. That isn’t to dismiss some of the odd perk balance changes that came alongside this update as discussed in detail in my “DBD’s Boil Over Is Causing Headaches” article on Medium. Instead, it’s strictly a reminder that the quieter updates that slip under the radar can often be equally as impactful.
An in-depth overview of the 5.5.0 patch notes can be found on the Dead By Daylight forums breaking down all of the changes to features, beta features, perk updates and other in-game content. If you want an overview of what's new in the Rift to unlock after the release of Tome 10: SAW you'll find it on YouTube. In addition to a new tome and unlockables the Modern Tales collection of cosmetics and Lurking Stripes event cosmetics celebrating the Year of the Tiger are also available to unlock with auric cells and as event rewards.