The Dredge launched as part of Dead By Daylight‘s 24th chapter, bringing a familiar and visceral terror and putting it under the control of the Entity. But don’t underestimate this killer just because of its twisted appearance: His kit could instill fear in the survivors and throw the realm into darkness.
In addition to his abilities, The Dredge also brings three unique perks, which are themed around “chaos, secrets, and corruption,” according to creative director Dave Richard. Here’s what you need to know about him, based on the Public Test Build (PTB).
All Dredge perks and abilities in Dead by Daylight, explained
The Dredge’s power has two dimensions to it: The Gloaming as its special ability and Nightfall as a supplementary mechanic that hinders the survivors and improves The Dredge’s teleport.
The Dredge’s Power: The Gloaming
As part of its ability, The Gloaming, The Dredge can teleport to and from lockers, which provides it with significant map pressure. Holding the ability button creates a Remnant, and The Dredge can teleport back to it. This can be used as an anti-loop tool, dropping it on one side of the pallet and returning to it after the survivor is within range of a basic attack.
While charging his teleport, lockers are highlighted, and the killer can teleport to any locker. Once inside, it can either teleport again and consume a Power Token (essentially a charge) or leave the locker. Exiting the locker activates the ability’s cooldown. If The Dredge teleports to a locker with a survivor in it, the killer will automatically carry the survivor.
There is an aspect of counterplay to The Gloaming. Survivors can touch the Remnant to disable it, and they can also lock down a locker. The Dredge can break the lock from the inside, which will hinder it slightly, or use a basic attack to smash it from the outside. Each locker can only be locked once.
The Nightfall mechanic
In addition to The Gloaming, the Dredge has a Nightfall mechanic. The killer builds up Nightfall by injuring or hooking survivors or when it teleports, and the meter fills up faster for each survivor in the Injured state. During Nightfall, the trial becomes darker, which impairs survivors’ visibility. Additionally, The Dredge is Undetectable and its teleport is shorter and has no cooldown.
The Dredge’s perks in Dead By Daylight
The Dredge’s perks, on the other hand, help with breaking pallets, stop survivors from healing in certain circumstances, and lend a hand with finding survivors if they are close to lockers, which could set up plays with The Gloaming. Here are The Dredge’s perks, according to the PTB patch notes. All of the values and functionalities could change after the chapter is released.
- Dissolution: Three seconds after injuring a survivor by any means, Dissolution activates for 12/16/20 seconds. While Dissolution is active, if a survivor fast vaults over a pallet inside of your Terror Radius, the Entity will break the pallet at the end of the vault, and Dissolution deactivates.
- Darkness Revealed: When you open a locker, the auras of all Survivors within eight meters of any lockers are revealed to you for three/four/five seconds. This perk has a 30-second cooldown.
- Septic Touch: Whenever a Survivor performs the healing action within your Terror Radius, they suffer from Blindness and Exhaustion. These effects linger for 6/8/10 seconds after a healing action is interrupted by any means.
Dissolution can help with chases, breaking a pallet, and clearing a way for the killer during a chase. The perk comes with a few downsides, though. First, it only applies when injuring a survivor. This means it will not activate if you’re chasing a survivor that’s already in the Injured state. It also only applies to survivors within your Terror Radius and can be affected by the lack of Terror Radius in Nightfall or by any perks that drop your Terror Radius.
Darkness Revealed feels suited to The Dredge due to its focus on lockers, especially since it can teleport to lockers fairly quickly and it could potentially show nearby victims when you exit a locker. That said, it’s circumstantial even on the Dredge, and few killers open lockers often enough to justify going with this perk.
Septic Touch also feels fairly circumstantial. The Blindness effect could hinder the survivors and Exhaustion could stop a survivor from using Dead Hard. Their lingering duration helps the case for Septic Touch a bit, but there are likely better alternatives from other killers.
