Dead by Daylight’s Walking Dead Update Is a Buggy Mess, and Fans Are Not Happy

TLDR: The latest Dead by Daylight Walking Dead update 9.1.0 landed with game-breaking bugs – from busted chase mechanics to audio glitches and a weird metal pole in the Offering Screen – making fans question Behaviour Interactive’s quality control.

Dead by Daylight’s Walking Dead chapter has finally dropped, but instead of a smooth rollout, players immediately noticed a bizarre visual glitch: a random metal pole appearing on the left-hand side of the Offering screen.

That was only the beginning. The 9.1.0 update quickly revealed a laundry list of bugs so bad that many are calling this the game’s buggiest patch in a long time.

The timing couldn’t be worse either. This year, Behaviour announced a Quality of Life Initiative, which was set to improve the overall health of the game and address community pain points. This whole update seems to undermine that premise, with the number of glitches and poor balancing choices.

Plus, DBD just rode a huge wave of success thanks to the FNAF chapter, which pulled in record-breaking player numbers on Steam. With so many fresh players just joining the game, launching a buggy update to this extent risks driving them away. 

The Chase Bug

The most serious problem is the “no chase bug,” which prevents killers from properly starting chases. Currently, many players are reporting that chases are not starting until the survivor is injured, which can severely affect the killer, as being in chase is necessary for Bloodlust to start working. Plus, if survivors vault over a window multiple times during chase, typically the Entity will block the window after three vaults – but if the survivors aren’t in chase because of this bug, then they can vault repeatedly without penalty. 

Audio Problems Hurt the Horror Experience

Sound is critical to success in Dead by Daylight, but the update introduced widespread audio issues:

• Killer power sounds, such as Vecna’s and the Xenomorph’s, sometimes play only through the left audio channel
  
• While many licensed characters only have voice lines (and not screams) from their actors, the screams and grunts of pain for Rick, Daryl, and Michonne just sound strange, and not really like the characters.
• Rick’s legendary cosmetic sometimes triggers Daryl’s screams at full volume.
  
• Michonne’s breathing while running sounds like she’s injured, even when she isn’t. Plus, just listen to Michonne’s vomiting sounds when you play against the Plague…

Matchmaking and Lobby Issues Persist

Many players are also struggling to create survivor lobbies or custom matches, repeatedly failing to join games.

Visual and Performance Bugs Reduce Polish

There are also several smaller visual bugs that don’t affect the gameplay itself, but contribute to the feeling that this patch was rushed.

• A mysterious metal pole appears randomly on loading screens
  
• Survivors hold fog vials incorrectly, including the new survivor, Rick Grimes
  
• Cosmetic colors don’t always display properly
  
• Players report stutters and frame drops, possibly related to engine updates
  

Questionable Balance Changes

The DBD community is no stranger to bugs and glitches, so if the chapter’s problems stopped there, it might not have been such a big deal. But on top of all this, some questionable balance changes make the game less than enjoyable to play.

The biggest problem-maker is the Clown, who received an insane buff to his yellow (speed bottles), which can make him faster than a survivor with sprint burst in certain scenarios. This update has boosted him from being low-down in the Killer tier list all the way to S-tier. Playing against the Clown feels so oppressive right now, and it’s honestly not a fun experience.

Killers are also calling some of the new survivor perks in the Walking Dead chapter far too powerful, specifically Michonne’s Conviction.

This perk allows you to recover from the dying state after recovering only 25%, meaning that if the killer leaves you on the ground for a few seconds, the survivor can get back up super fast.

Of course, Conviction forces the survivor back down after 30 seconds, but this is still a really strong way to waste even more of the killer’s time and reposition somewhere better on the map, and when combined with other perks and solid team-play, becomes really hard to play against as the killer.

Community Reaction Is Overwhelmingly Negative

The Dead by Daylight community has openly criticized this update, with the response across the forums, the DBD Discord and Reddit being overwhelmingly negative.

Hopefully, Behaviour takes the necessary steps to quickly address these issues and return DBD to a positive state.