Late last week, Behaviour Interactive announced that the latest DLC installment will feature characters from the smash hit Netflix series "Stranger Things". The Demogorgon will join the ranks of the Killers, while Nancy Wheeler and Steve Harrington will join the Survivors at the campfire, marking the first time that a DLC pack has a twofer for either category of character. Perhaps the season three tagline ("One summer can change everything") had some truth to it after all, no?
The Demogorgon’s power allows it to set portals in the field, which it can use to teleport across the map. Survivors can close these portals at will, though the action is time-consuming. Add in a pounce attack that can hit multiple Survivors with a single charge, and we have a daunting Killer on our hands here in the Fog.
Natural perks of the Demogorgon include Surge, Cruel Limits, and Mindbreaker. Surge will blow up a Generator if a Survivor is downed close enough to it, hitting it with a regression penalty. Cruel Limits prevents any vaulting within a radius of a completed Generator. Mindbreaker is a doozy, imposing the Exhausted status effect when a Survivor works on a Generator that is less than halfway done.
With her native perks, Nancy plays like a determined, hardened Survivor. Her perk Better Together makes visible her Aura to Survivors when she repairs a Generator. Fixated allows Nancy to see her own Scratch Marks while running, and walking grants her a movement speed bonus. Inner Strength, her final perk, threatens to be the best Survivor perk this side of Borrowed Time, as once she cleanses a Totem, she can hop into a locker for a period of time to heal herself from Injured to Healthy.
Steve’s perks peg him to be like what David King should have been; that is, a hard-nosed, "fuck you, that’s why" type of Survivor who will take risks for the benefit of the group. Babysitter disables the blood trail and Scratch Marks of a Survivor he unhooks, allowing for a head start against a vengeful (read: camping) Killer. Camaraderie pauses the Struggle phase of the Hook if a Survivor approaches the Hook that Steve is hung upon. Second Wind activates when Steve heals a fellow Survivor. When he is unhooked after being hooked following activation, Steve gains the Broken status effect, but the perk will passively heal him after a period of time, after which he will drop the Broken status.
"Chapter XIII: Stranger Things" will drop around mid-September, and with the characters and playstyles the chapter will introduce, the game could be shaken up for months to come.
See you folks in the Fog.