New Blood in the Fog - Dead by Daylight’s Latest Chapter
“Sinister Grace”
At 9am PDT, Behavior Interactive released the newest Dead by Daylight chapter, “Sinister Grace.” While the update includes a wide range of number tweaks—perk buffs or nerfs, changes to certain killers, and more—this focuses on the new additions to the killer and survivor roster. Once purchased with auric cells (DBD’s premium currency) or iridescent shards (the free-to-earn currency), these characters are immediately available to play in-game.
The game’s newest killer, The Krasue, draws inspiration from Southeast Asian folklore and is already being hailed as one of DBD’s most visceral, gory killers yet. Her power allows her to exit body form and become a floating, disembodied head—bringing true body-horror imagery to the fog. Joining her is the latest survivor, Vee Boonyasak, whose music-themed perks give players the tools to accelerate healing potential and significantly shorten repair and recovery times.
The Krasue’s Tragic Tale
Before she became the Krasue, she was a young woman named Burong Sukapat with dreams of becoming a successful opera singer. Burong’s ambition led her to accept the mysterious gift from fellow performer Malai. What Burong did not know was that Malai had just cursed her, inviting someone—or something—to inhabit her body and spirit. By day, Burong Sukapat shone, her voice stunning audiences as she chased the fame she craved for so long, but at night, the spirit inside of her craved something else: flesh. Burong accepted her fate, having only ever wanted the fame she now had. So, while she thrived on the stage, she survived in the night by hunting to satisfy its hunger. That was until the Entity brought her into the Fog. Here, her keen senses and strong voice would feed not only the Krasue, but the Entity as well.
Body Form vs. Head Form
While hunting on her feet in body form, the Krasue infects survivors with her regurgitate ability. When survivors are hit with this projectile, they are marked with Leeching Glands. Once infected, the survivors become vulnerable to the Krasue’s head form. By transitioning into this form, the Krasue leaves behind her body and continues the hunt with only her head and dangling viscera. In this form, she can close gaps with her headlong flight—where she slithers close to the ground to catch survivors off guard or vault pallets and windows to cut off good loops—or she can also choose to attack with her intestinal whip, covering large distances in little time with this dash attack. There is one caveat to this form; The Krasue can only injure players affected by her leeched glands and, if they are not already infected, build up the infection slowly with her intestinal whip (which takes three hits in head form versus the single projectile needed in body form).
The Krasue (in head form) chasing Vee Boonyasak. DBD
The Krasue’s Perks
Ravenous
After hooking each survivor once, the survivors scream and become exposed for a long duration.
Wandering Eye
When starting a chase with a survivor, the aura of nearby injured survivors is revealed to the killer.
Hex: Overture of Doom
A hex totem spawns and curses the furthest generator. Once the generator is repaired for a specific duration, the killer’s terror radius is transferred to the generator and they gain undetectable.
Vee Boonyasak Joins the Fog
Vee Boonyasak was filled with a passion for music that drove her to teach herself how to play the drums. While she studied and listened to almost every style of music, Vee fell in love with modern rock and could play almost any song after a single listen on the radio. When a band she was watching needed a drummer, Vee offered her skills. The next day, Vee is quickly inducted into the group after captivating the audience and the other band members with her expertise. Her band, Axekick, released an EP and gathered enough of a following to pick up a few gigs. One of these gigs happened to be at a familiar and eerie opera house. After touring the venue, the group encounters strange, lingering voices but goes on to play anyway. Vee loses herself in the music, drumming as the Entity pulls her into the Fog. There, music would be her tool for surviving.
Vee Boonyasak’s Perks
Road Life
While injured and repairing a generator, hitting great skill checks gives you tokens. Once enough tokens are earned, they can be spent to heal up to 100% faster. Missing skill checks causes you to lose tokens.
One-Two-Three-Four!
Use an ability to start a performance. The performing survivor and any survivors within the vicinity are empowered, increasing the frequency of skill checks when repairing a generator or completing a heal.
Ghost Notes
While suffering from the exhuasted status effect, scratch marks are significantly reduced. In addition, survivors recover from the exhausted status effect slightly faster.
Welcome Changes and Hard Goodbyes
Overall, the Krasue is a welcome killer to Dead by Daylight. Her perks are decent—offering good information for where the survivors are, allowing instadowns, or even granting undetectable for a short period—but do not stand out on their own. Instead, their use might be more obvious when paired with other popular perks and builds. Wandering Eye might be a useful tool to know where other injured survivors are and get a quick down on survivors working in close quarters. This perk could be made more useful when built with other perks like Letha Pursuer, which extends the aura reading duration and can therefore extend the value of the Krasue’s perk. Beyond the perks in her kit, the Krasue is an incredibly strong killer. Her ability to close great distances, commit to a loop in chase, and apply a great amount of pressure to teams with her ranged leech effects is only countered by the fact that she is moderately difficult to pick up. With some skill shots and a few hours, the Krasue could easily be an oppressive powerhouse. That being said, the Krasue is not overpowered. If anything, how strong she is and can be will easily be balanced by the community learning to go against her in the following weeks after the release of “Sinister Grace.”
Vee Boonyasak, on the other hand, is a little more difficult to evaluate. Her perks are niche, offering great value if you have a perk slot to spare, but otherwise being rather difficult for newcomers. The barrier for Road Life needing to be great skill checks is not necessarily a bad thing, but can spell challenge for anyone new to the game, who has bad ping, or struggles with DBD’s skill checks. Other than that, Vee Boonyasak is an interesting addition to the survivor list, bringing them the second performance perk in the entire game, next to Aestri Yazar’s perk, Bardic Inspiration, from the Dungeons and Dragons collaboration. This perk is a fun and welcome addition to the massive list of survivor perks and could easily be seen in builds that use Hyperfocus and Stakeout for some great generator repair synergies.
In the end, “Sinister Grace” is an amazing chapter, and the many buffs and nerfs around the board make the game feel more balanced than it has been in a while. This does mean we have to say goodbye to some staple perks (Off the Record will be greatly missed) as we make way for all of the new changes in the game. Change can be difficult, especially when we’ve gotten used to so many of these characters or perks that we love, but it is exciting to see Behavior experiment with more as the game gets older every year. This gives me a lot of hope for the future of the game and, personally, I cannot wait to see what comes next for Dead by Daylight.
