Dead by Daylight Releases New Update for February 2025

Summary

Dead by Daylight’s Feb 2025 update renews The Nightmare, adds Black Box effects, and previews the return of 2v8 mode with new characters and maps.
Many bugs fixed in the patch involving imbalances, unfair advantages, and smoother gameplay transitions, with audio, characters, environment, and perks adjustments.
Specific fixes for The Nightmare’s playstyle, like the VFX when teleporting, blocking exit gates, and other gameplay enhancements to balance the game for all players.

Dead by Daylight‘s February 2025 update has been released. With the eight-year-old competitive horror game showing no signs of slowing down, Dead by Daylight puts out these regular patches to keep gameplay competitive. Especially with the amount of new Killers and perks that have been added, many old mechanics are in need of some major tweaking.

One of the most requested changes involves The Nightmare’s play style. Many fans believe that Freddy Krueger’s power set was in need of a massive overhaul, especially with the diverse roster that the Killer section possesses. A January 2025 Dead by Daylight Developer Update detailed some of the new things planned for The Nightmare. And while the patch that previously went live completely renewed the character, other issues arose from it which needed further correction.

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The February 2025 Dead by Daylight tweaks some factors relating to Dead by Daylight‘s The Nightmare and fixes other bugs and issues. New FX has been added when The Nightmare teleports to a healing Survivor. His Black Box add-on was also updated to block exit gates for sleeping survivors for 15 seconds after being opened. These small changes help define Freddy Krueger’s playstyle even more. However, many other bugs involving other items and characters were also adjusted to allow for smoother gameplay.

What’s Been Updated in Dead by Daylight Version 8.5.1?

Perhaps the biggest addition to the February 2025 patch is the preparation of the return of Dead by Daylight‘s 2v8 mode. While older iterations of the mode featured a small selection of playable Killers, this new version is a two-week event that will feature a tome that offers Resident Evil-themed rewards. The said mode will be playable on February 10 and will also add The Legion, The Nemesis, and The Mastermind to the selectable characters on the Killer side. New maps such as the Raccoon City Police Department will also be available for play in 2v8.

Many of the bugs fixed involved imbalances and unfair advantages which lean towards one size of the player base. Some skins such as Dead by Daylight‘s The Spirit’s Tomie Legendary outfit used to be quieter when performing the Phase Walk, but that has been adjusted. In fact, many audio cues and visual issues were settled in this February 2025 patch. While it is still early to tell whether other issues may have developed from this latest update, it is safe to say that the Behaviour team has been working hard to keep the game balanced and fun by ironing out player concerns.

Dead by Daylight 8.5.1 Patch Notes

Killer Rework – The Nightmare

Base Changes

Added VFX when The Nightmare is teleporting to a Survivor being healed.

Addons

Black Box:
- Exit Gates are blocked for Sleeping Survivors for 15 seconds after they are opened.
- This effect lingers for 3 seconds after they Wake Up. (NEW)

Archives & Events

Game Mode: 2V8 returns February 10th at 11:00am Eastern.
- This two-week event features an event tome with new Resident Evil-themed rewards.

Features

Clairvoyance has been updated to use a progress bar.
Updated the “Memento Mori” entry in the Game Manual / Killers section, renamed to “Kill By Your Hand”, with updated information on different ways to execute the Kill action.
- Included in English and French, with other languages to be updated later.
General Perks can now be searched for using “Generic”, “Universal”, “General”, and “Global”.

Audio

Fixed an issue that caused the Spirit’s “Tomie” Legendary outfit to be quieter than the default outfit when performing Phase Walk.
Fixed an issue that caused the breathing SFX of the Spirit to be heard from the Husk during the Phase Walk.
Fixed an issue that caused the audio of the left and right trigger inputs of a controller to be heard in the Collections tab without having a visible effect.
Fixed an issue that caused the audio of the left and right trigger inputs of a controller to be heard in Lobbies without being useable.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors not to scream when injured or downed by the Knight’s Guards.

Bots

Improved Survivor bot healing and pathing against ranged Killers.

Characters

Fixed an issue that caused Yui “Murder Mill” torso customization to change her idle animations to the “Forest Guide” outfit animations.
Fixed an issue that caused the hair on the Pig’s “Pig Mask” and “Stretched Muzzle” cosmetics to disappear.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors to not be able to complete the Snap Out when in Madness Tier 3.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors to soft-lock when dropping the First Aid Spray immediately after the Spray Self interaction has been completed with network lag.
Fixed an issue that caused Killers to be able to pick up downed Survivors while searching a locker.
Fixed an issue that enabled the Houndmaster’s Chase Command ability to stop a Survivor from leaving through the Exit Gate by repeatedly starting a grab.
Fixed an issue that caused the Dog to sometimes not fall off ledges when following the Houndmaster.
Fixed multiple instances where the Houndmaster’s Dog could get stuck or not be able to pass through places where the Killer could.
Fixed multiple navigation issues with the Houndmaster’s Dog across multiple maps, elevations and vault areas.

The Nightmare

Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare to jitter when touching a Dream Pallet.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare’s Teleport Channeling audio to keep playing, even if it had been canceled with a basic attack.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare’s Dream Snare to continue moving off the balcony in the Raccoon City Police Station map.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare to teleport beyond the Exit Gate when teleporting with the Class Photo add-on in The Game map.
Fixed an issue that made it possible for the Nightmare to place a total of 9 Dream Pallets instead of 8.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare to not see the aura of completed generators when the End Game Collapse triggered.
Fixed an issue that caused Rupturing a Dream Pallet on the floor directly above or below a Survivor to hit said Survivor.
Fixed an issue that allowed Dream Pallets to be placed out of bounds.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare’s Husk to be briefly visibility at the initial teleport location when finishing a teleport.
Fixed an issue that caused the Nightmare to teleport directly onto healing Survivors instead of at a distance.
Fixed an issue that caused all Survivors in the trial to hear the Nightmare’s laugh when he hit an awake Survivor with his Dream Snare.
Fixed an issue that caused Survivors’ auras to not be revealed when triggering a static Dream Snare with the “Z” Block and Blue Dress add-ons.

Environment/Maps

Fixed an issue in the Forgotten Ruins map, in which Zombies could get stuck in certain areas of the dungeon.
Fixed an issue in the Coal Tower map, in which the intro camera clips into the Houndmaster.
Fixed issues in The Underground Complex map, in which the intro camera clips into the Houndmaster.
Fixed an issue in the Dead Dawg Saloon map, in which the Nurse could Blink into the prison cells behind the Exit Gates.
Fixed an issue in the Raccoon City Police Station map, in which the Nurse could Blink out of bounds.
Fixed an issue in the Raccoon City Police Station map, in which the Survivor’s body could clip through locker doors.
Fixed an issue in the Realm of Coldwind Farm, in which the Nurse could Blink on top of the shack.
Fixed an issue in the Realm of Yamaoka’s Estate, in which the Tanuki’s orientation did not match the Tanuki Statue.
Fixed an issue in the Mother’s Dwelling map to prevent the player getting stuck on the top of the spinning wheel inside the main building.
Fixed an issue in the Torment Creek map to prevent the Nightmare’s Dream Snare from clipping under the floor inside the main building.
Fixed an issue in the Torment Creek map to enable smoother navigation up the slope near the Killer Basement’s entrance.
Fixed an issue in the Badham Preschool map, in which the Nightmare’s Dream Snares would fail to go through the walls of the closed classrooms.
Fixed an issue in the Dead Dawg Saloon map, in which the skybox was missing galaxy star clusters.

Perks

Fixed an issue that caused Vigil’s status effect recovery to display the old values in-game.

UI

Fixed an issue in which the inventory arrow buttons in the bot loadout were non-interactive.
Fixed an issue in which the event popup would sometimes display incorrect info if it was opened through an event item in the Store menu.
Fixed an issue in which The Huntress’ “Ohmwrecker” mask customization item would use the default mask model.

Misc

Fixed an issue that caused some players to be unable to matchmake as Survivors.
Optimized the logic used to handle status effects during gameplay to improve general performance.