Dead by Daylight is adding D&D killer Vecna, voiced by Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer, with Castlevania also on the way
There’ll be a supersized 2v8 mode this summer, too
After teasing an upcoming chapter inspired by Dungeons & Dragons, Dead by Daylight has revealed its next killer pulled from the pages of the fantasy pen-and-paper RPG: Vecna, long-running mega-baddie and inspiration for the Stranger Things villain. He’ll be voiced by Critical Role dungeon master Matthew Mercer and haunt a new dungeon map, where you’ll be able to do battle as new elf and bard survivors able to roll a literal d20 when they crack open treasure chests.
After teasing a D&D crossover last week with a clip of a Beholder banging on cell bars, Dead by Daylight devs Behaviour Interactive revealed their plans for the next chapter during an eighth anniversary steam for the multiplayer horror game.
Rather than the Beholder, it’s Vecna who’ll be the D&D-inspired killer when the chapter launches on June 3rd (though you can give it a go right now in the game’s Public Test Build). The Mercer-voiced lich will have four spells - a first for DBD - to wield, including the power to fly, fire off a hail of nasty projectiles, lift up or drop wooden pallets using D&D favourite Mage Hand, and negate magical items and reveal survivors in a Dispelling Sphere.
Those magical items can include Vecna’s own Hand and Eye, which can be found in treasure chests around the new Forgotten Ruins map alongside other magical items that help survivors to move more quietly or teleport between lockers. When those chests are opened, the game will roll the classic d20 to see what players find, granting Vecna’s powerful gear on a nat 20 - though a critical fail will cause trouble for them instead.
The new survivor(s) will be The Troupe, comprised of Baermar Uraz and Aestri Yazar - human and elf bard characters with the power to create illusions, cast Bardic Inspiration to speed up their allies’ generator-fixing and spot nearby generators and items with Still Sight.
After the D&D chapter releases in early June, Behaviour teased an upcoming chapter inspired by Castlevania. We’ll know more about that on August 6th, though a bloodsucking Dracula and a Belmont survivor of some kind - perhaps in an upside-down castle? - is a fairly safe bet.
Also arriving this summer will be a brand new supersized casual mode, which doubles the number of players to pit two killers against a whopping eight survivors. Instead of being hooked, caught survivors will be caged - presumably to help balance the killers’ odds - with perks disabled and replaced by a class system, I’d assume for the same reason. There will be team abilities for the killers to use, though, to help make up for a limited roster of five killers at first: the Trapper, Wraith, Hillbilly, Huntress and Nurse.
More details on the 2v8 mode will be shared in July, Behaviour said, with the mode launching in an early form later in the summer.
Elsewhere during the stream, Behaviour gave another look at Supermassive’s narrative spin-off The Casting of Frank Stone, teased an Insider Programme for codenamed PvE game Project T and revealed another DBD spin-off: a two-player co-op roguelite set inside a Jumanji-like cursed board game titled What the Fog, which is out now and costs less than a fiver.