Christopher's Dead by Daylight Killer Wishlist

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So last time on this blog, we took a gander at Dead by Daylight's killers (well, the non-movie ones at least). I had fun doing so.....but this article is probably going to be even more fun for me!

Dead by Daylight is still receiving new content, most significantly; new playable killers! I feel like there are a ton of potential monsters, both licensed and not, that would be perfect for this game, and we're gonna list off some of them today!

For the record, I'm gonna try to keep a balance between the licensed killers and original concepts, just to keep some variety going. Also, this list isn't any specific order (except for our last one....you'll see!), I'd be pretty hyped to see any of these killers in Dead by Daylight. Lastly, it's very likely this is going to be a multi-part series, I have a decent chunk of ideas for this game that definitely wouldn't fit in one article. It's just like slasher movies having a bunch of sequels! You gotta love the theming.

Anyhow, here's who (and/or what) I wanna see in Dead by Daylight! Starting with....

A robot

This might be a tad polarizing for the game's fanbase, but I think a robot would be a really cool addition to the game's roster of killers. It's very rare to see robots played for horror, which I think is a real shame. Don't get me wrong, I like me a good anime mecha or big lumbering aluminum beast, but robots have a lot of potential for spookiness. The idea of an unthinking metallic beast programmed only to stalk and kill survivors is pretty damn creepy; at least, I think it is. Seriously, if you don't think robots can be good horror monsters, go watch The Terminator, Demon Seed, or Neon Genesis Evangelion (well, Evas are kinda robots, anyway) and tell me that with a straight face. Besides a straight face that's grimacing from sheer fright, I mean.


On top of all of that, I absolutely love works of fiction that have both supernatural elements and sci-fi technology. Not necessarily in the "sword and planet" genre like She-Ra or Star Wars (although I do find that genre enjoyable as well), but more where the tropes visibly contrast with each other, like Ralph Bakshi's Wizards or the Shadowrun franchise. Given that every killer in Dead by Daylight has either been supernatural or a straight-up serial killer, I think something more from the realm of science-fiction horror would be a great way to shake things up.

Big Daddy (Bioshock)

The first Bioshock is one of my all-time favorite games (though I also enjoy the sequels to varying degrees). Fun as hell, creepy, atmospheric, and rich in story. Oh, and it has one of the coolest looking video game enemies ever; the Big Daddy!

Even taking out my love for Bioshock, I love Big Daddy from both a design and conceptual standpoint. Old diving suits look cool as fuck, and I adore any monster that uses it either as something to wear or even just as a theme. Conceptually? What's more awesome and scarier than a big, lumbering, but surprisingly fast humanoid abomination of science with a big-ass Gurren Lagann drill coming at you? Sure, you could take these things down with guns or weird sea slug magic, but if you're a survivor in the world of the Entity, you'd be lucky to stun this guy for a bit with a plank of wood.

Also, Big Daddy deserves to be in a good crossover game. He was in Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale and....uh, well, to say it's "Super Smash Bros. but with Playstation characters" would be preeeeeeeetty generous.

A mannequin

What is it about mannequins that are so damn creepy? There's something about life-sized quasi-humanoid slit-mouthed puppets that put a lot of people off, rightly so. Even worse (or better, depending on how you look at it)? Haunted mannequins!


"Mannequins as monsters" is a great concept, one I think would be rad as hell to see in Dead by Daylight. Playing as a creepy wooden/plastic puppet straight out of uncanny valley I imagine would be a lot of fun; not the least because imagine how enjoyable it must be to spook the fuck out of the other team with your gross slit-mouth!

On that note, playing against a mannequin killer as a survivor would be fun too. At least if your idea of fun is "shit your pants when you see this thing creeping up behind you that's itching to hang you on a meat hook from hell".

An SCP

We've had killers from movies, and so far I've suggested one from a video game, so why not add internet creepypasta to the mix? Many people would probably suggest Slender Man, which I'm not against; but me personally, I'd prefer to see someone from the SCP Foundation. (of course, I wouldn't be adverse to both)

For those unfamiliar, the SCP Foundation is a website designed to be a fictional, government-run(?) facility housing anomalies like supernatural objects or dangerous monsters and hiding them from the public, these being called "SCPs". Think of it as "The X-Files meets Men in Black".

Admittedly, there are a couple of problems with introducing an SCP monster to the game. For one, some of them are based on copyrighted images, such as the famous SCP-173 shown above, and not everyone who holds those copyrights are keen on seeing their creations in commercially released works.

Another problem is that many SCPs have abilities that would make them either too underpowered or just straight up broken in terms of gameplay. SCP-173 works like a Weeping Angel from Doctor Who (although 173 came first!) in that it will attack anyone who can't see it at extremely high speeds, including merely blinking for a fraction of a second. That'd be pretty difficult to implement in Dead by Daylight's gameplay, if not impossible.


SCP-106 (aka "The Old Man") I could sort of see working. His shtick, in the SCP universe, is that he can melt through solid surfaces, and takes people to a pocket dimension to play with and torture to death. Maybe he could sort of work like Freddy Krueger, minus being invisible and can slowly go through obstacles? Eh, I dunno. I'm just thinking out loud here.

SCP-076 is another obvious choice but....I dunno, kinda generic as the game's SCP representation? At least to me.

Okay, so maybe an SCP would be tricky to put into the game, but man, if they can pull it off, it would be tight as shit.

Somebody in an animegao mask

Can someone please tell me how in the rancid fuck no one has thought to do a slasher villain in animegao kigurumi cosplay?! Not even in Dead by Daylight, but in anything! A video game, a movie, an anime, whatever! This practically writes itself!!!

I don't know about you, but I think animegao masks are creepy as shit. Those unblinking eyes, the perpetually smiling mouth, the unsettling point in uncanny valley that hits right in-between "realistic" and "cartoony". It's like if you took Michael Myers and turned him into a weeb.

....of course, I do know a lot of people genuinely enjoy this stuff, even finding it cute, and I'm not one to judge. What many people think is creepy, I find cute. I think spiders, sharks, and snakes are friggin' adorable. There's also the more....fetishistic side of things, and I'm not judging there either. I'm into some weird shit myself.....which I'll spare you the details of, for the sake of every vanilla person reading this.

With that being said though, creepy and cute don't have to be mutually exclusive. Many super off-putting monster designs have an element of "silliness" to them. Just look at Trevor Henderson's stuff, and you'll know what I mean.


Of course, every great slasher villain has equally scary motives to them as well. In this case, there's a lot of directions you can go in; an obsessive J-idol fan (i.e. the killer in Perfect Blue), somebody who thinks their life is an actual anime and kills everyone thinking they're bad guys, that kind of stuff.

Me, though? I think the best direction to go in would be a not-so-subtle satire of otaku culture's....less than pleasant side. You know who I'm talking about. The guys who think they're entitled to sex from female cosplayers, the ones that use "autistic" as an insult, the ones that use the term "trap" even with full knowledge of its transphobic implications, the ones who wear those repulsive ahegao shirts. Those anime fans. A killer who's basically 8chan made flesh and blood....and who's after the flesh and blood of survivors so he can stick it to those "triggered snowflakes".

Wow, this article sure won't piss anyone off!

A B-movie monster

I'll admit, this one is a bit difficult to justify. Dead by Daylight's atmosphere is pretty grim, and having a monster from a cheesy B-movie might contradict with it in a way that won't work....but I think this could still be a lot of fun. Hell, one could argue the juxtaposition makes it more fun.

I've said before that I love monsters in this game that mix things up from the usual "guy in mask", and what could be more unexpected than going from straight-up creepy killers to a goofy looking creature from a 50s popcorn flick? (even if I do unironically like Ro-Man's design seen above)


My other argument in favor of this is that monster movies of the 1950s absolutely have their place in both popular culture and horror history. Both the genuine classics like Godzilla and The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, and the camp-fests like The Screaming Skull and The Giant Claw. 

Dead by Daylight, on top of being a fun as hell game, I also see as a celebration and love letter to monster movies, much in the same way Super Smash Bros. is a celebration of video games. I feel like including a monster from a 1950s creature feature would be a great way to honor all of horror. I like my 80s slashers and modern monstrosities, but we also gotta pay respect to our elders, you know?



Hell, I wouldn't mind seeing more than one B-movie monster show up. Why not have Ro-Man and a zombie from Plan 9 join the party? Actually, I think it would also be cool to have a wholly original monster that pays homage to these movies. Perhaps something in the vein of Paul Blaisdell's creature designs.

I know this won't be a popular choice among Dead by Daylight's fanbase, but I would love for this to happen. It would be simultaneously awesome and hilarious.

A dinosaur

Nope, shut up; whatever you're about to say, I don't care.

I don't care if you think this is a dumb idea. I don't care how it would work into Dead by Daylight's gameplay. I don't care if it would clash with the game's atmosphere. I don't care whether it has scientifically accurate feathers or not. I don't friggin' care.

I want to play as a dinosaur.

THE ALIEN!

Do I even need to explain my reasoning for this? It's the friggin' Alien!!! Or Xenomorph. Whatever. I have a decent bit of ideas for new killers in this game, as I said before, but if I could only pick one to show up, it'd be the Alien. It's not even close.

There's a whole frickin' Bible of reasons the Alien needs to show up....honestly, I genuinely don't even know where to start. It's actually one of the reasons that this article took so long to get posted.....well, that and my depression. But hey, seeing a Xenomorph in Dead by Daylight would sure help with my depression! Probably.


Alright, I gotta start somewhere, so.....to begin with: the Alien is an undisputed icon of horror movies. Hell, horror in general; given its history in video games, comics, and even art (mostly, but not exclusively, by the late H. R. Giger). Since we have other big horror names like Freddy and Leatherface, this only makes sense. Shit, it wouldn't even be the first time Alien and Leatherface were in a game together!

Secondly, I already mentioned how I love when pieces of fiction have both fantasy and science fiction tropes, and it goes without saying that the Alien would be a great way to introduce sci-fi imagery into Dead by Daylight. Even people who generally aren't into that kind of stuff can probably get behind the Alien being a killer in this game, so it would be a great way to ease them into the idea of Dead by Daylight having more extraterrestrial threats in addition to the usual supernatural beasts and slasher villains.

Third, imagine how cool the map would be! You can't really go wrong with any Alien-themed map. The Nostromo, Sevastopol Station, planet LV-426, even the prison planet from Alien 3 I can see work. All of them would be super atmospheric and look just plain cool as fuck. You could maybe even have the generators and obstacles be more appropriately futuristic looking for the maps!


Fourth; Ellen Ripley as a survivor. Come on. That by itself is a good enough reason to put the Alien in. She's one of the all-time great heroines in horror, science fiction, and film in general. What else even needs to be said to justify her appearance as a playable survivor?


Fifth, and finally, it's the freaking Alien!!! Imagine how cool it would be to play as. It has a ton of gameplay potential with all of the crazy abilities it has. Acidic blood, wall climbing, lunging at people, spearing survivors with its tail, the list goes on. There is so much you could do to make this creature a fun-as-hell killer. It would be both an absolute gas to play, and pants-poopingly terrifying to play against as a survivor.

So yeah, five whole reasons the Alien needs to be in Dead by Daylight. I think that more than justifies my argument for it showing up to slaughter survivors. If this happens, I will buy the crap out of it. I'll buy five of them. Five for each reason I posted in this article. Hell, I'll buy ten of them. Or twenty. Or a googolplexian. Whatever. I want the Alien.

Dev team, on the off-chance you're all reading this; let's make it happen.....please?

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