Dead by Daylight’s latest update is out, bringing with it plenty of new content for the game — including the Archives that provide players with a great deal of in-game lore for its original Killers and Survivors as well as the newly-implemented Rift (a system that is quite clearly inspired by Fortnite’s Battlepass). In this article, we will mainly focus on the Rift itself and whether or not this is a good fit for the asymmetrical horror game.
First thing’s first — when I said that this was clearly inspired by Battlepasses from Fortnite, I meant it. It seems like Dead by Daylight’s developer, Behavior Interactive, more or less copy-and-pasted the whole system into their own game. That isn’t at all a knock on the system itself though, and while I do think the Rift has its faults (which I’ll be getting into shortly), I don’t think much of it is to blame on the developers implementing an extremely-successful system into their own game.
The Rift, much like in Fortnite’s Battlepass, offers a plethora of unlockable tiers (70 to be exact), with each one giving the player some sort of in-game item. The Rift can be played for free, which will allow players to unlock a small amount of the items as they progress, but purchasing the Rift Pass for 1,000 Auric Cells (or $10 worth of in-game currency) will allow players to get the most out of their Rift levels. It should also be noted the players who purchase the Rift Pass are able to earn back all of those Auric Cells, if they progress far enough in the Rift. This means that the next Rift Pass could be potentially free for anyone capable of making it far enough. Still, players will have to complete 68 of the 70 tiers if they hope to get all of their Auric Cells back, which will be quite the grind.
But Auric Cells are just one of the many in-game items players can expect to find within the Rift. Most of the rewards are purely cosmetic — from pieces of outfits for both Killers and Survivors, to the newly-implemented Charms, like small tokens that hang either on the Killer’s sacrificial hooks or the Survivor’s belt.
Also unlockable within the Rift is Putrid Serum, which is a currency tied directly into Dead by Daylight’s Hallowed Blight event. Putrid Serum can be used to unlock Hallowed Blight cosmetics for certain characters. I think (for the most part) that tying events into the Rift is an interesting idea, but I would also say that I seem to remember earning Putrid Serum slightly faster in last year’s Hallowed Blight.
Thus brings me to the Rift’s biggest problem — it really is one heck of a grind. Tiers can be unlocked by progressing through the new Archives as well as just playing regular matches. Regardless, progressing through the Rift is fairly slow. It seems like players who want to unlock everything the Rift has to offer will have to dedicate a great deal of time to Dead by Daylight. At least, if they don’t want to use even more Auric Cells to just outright purchase tiers for 100 Auric Cells a piece.
Overall, I will say that I think the Rift is a good idea on Behavior Interactive’s part. I was afraid that the whole thing would feel like one gigantic money grab but after progressing a bit, I don’t think that’s the case. That being said, I do feel like there’s some room for improvement to make the Rift feel slightly less of a grind. Without challenges from the Archives, it will take roughly 10 matches just to complete one tier of the Rift — which in this game, could quite easily burn someone out.
Only time will tell just how difficult it is to complete all tiers with all of the Archive’s four levels. At the moment, on the first level is unlocked, meaning players will have to wait before they can continue to progress any further into the Archives.
For more on Dead by Daylight’s latest updates, stay tuned to GamingLyfe.com!
