Dead by Daylight's Hellraiser update, chapter 21, launches on Tuesday, September 7, bringing Pinhead with it. Behaviour's 5.2 version will also permanently implement a new skill-based matchmaking system and a change to player rankings.
The Cenobite—Hellraiser's horrifying pin-covered killer—makes his debut after weeks of testing on Dead By Daylight's player test build. In Behaviour's latest update, the studio noted that player feedback would prompt changes to the killer before his release into the public branch, going through the usual tweaks you see for game balance. The Cenobite's chains will see some polish, fixing annoying spawn errors that caused them to immediately break, and now backup chains will spawn much faster if something in the environment causes them to break.
Chain hunt is also changing, so the number of chains you get is no longer based on how many survivors are left in the game. You'll always get a cluster of three and each chain will spawn three seconds apart, increasing the spawn speed between clusters based on how many survivors are left. The Lament Configuration also gets a tweak, with a pause that now only keeps other survivors 'safe,' but not the box's carrier. There's a smaller list of fixes to things like Bloodpoints earned and gateways listed in the official overview.
It's assumed that the update will also permanently bring skill-based matchmaking to Dead by Daylight after Behaviour's earlier tests of the system. Now, you'll be judged based on skill level with different killers, while all survivors are judged as equals. Behaviour's update says that recent tests "resulted in fairer matches across the board for players of all skill levels," but you should still expect matchmaking times to remain the same.
Since the MMR system is changing, that means ranks and rewards will too. Grades will replace what you once knew as your rank, sporting new icons that represent grades Ash to Iridescent. You still earn pips, but the new system won't let you drop too far, and the grades will still reset every month on the 13th. Killers and survivors will also get bloodpoint rewards, with a pool of up to 250,000 available.
Dead by Daylight's Hellraiser chapter is just on the heels of its record breaking Resident Evil collaboration—but that doesn't mean that there's any lack of Pinhead thirst. In a game about hunting down and hooking four people stuck in hellish arenas, we sure are weirdly obsessed with weirdly thirsty details like Pyramid Head's butt.