“This place plays tricks on your mind…constantly I question whether I dream or if I am awake. This most recent horrid ghoul seems to bridge that gap – between the states of being awake or asleep. I saw him hunting another poor soul, someone who was not as lucky as me. A man with a hat and a claw clad hand, a scarred man of sorts. He spotted me and what actually happened next is still a mystery to me. Dreams took over, and I was sure to die. But I woke up. Not like in the manner where I awake at the campfire, but instead I just woke up…inside this wretched forest, with memories of nightmares within. I am now afraid to sleep, but also to stay awake.” | ||
~ Unknown (Potentially Benedict Baker) |
The Nightmare | |
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Name | Freddy Krueger |
Game Alias(es) | "The Sandman" |
Gender | Man |
Origin | American |
Realm | Springwood |
Power | Dream Demon |
Power Attack Type | Basic Attack |
Weapon | Clawed Glove |
Movement Speed | 115 % | 4.6 m/s |
Alternate Movement speed | 100 % | 4 m/s (placing Dream Snares) |
Terror Radius | 32 metres |
Lullaby Radius | 32 metres (Dream World) |
Height | Average |
DLC | CHAPTER 6: A Nightmare on Elm Street™ |
Voice Actor | Filip Ivanovic (BHVR) |
Cost | 500 Auric Cells |
Breathing | |
Lullaby | |
CharID | K10 |
Freddy Krueger or "The Nightmare" is one of 35 Killers currently featured in Dead by Daylight.
He was introduced as the Killer of CHAPTER 6: A Nightmare on Elm Street™, a Chapter DLC released on 26 October 2017.
He originates from the 2010 remake of the Horror Movie of the same name, A Nightmare on Elm Street.
Overview
The Nightmare is a nightmare Killer, passively pulling Survivors into his Dream World where Survivors are vulnerable to his Dream Abilities. His Dream Projection ability allows him to quickly appear across the map and put pressure onto Survivors.
His personal Perks, Fire Up, Remember Me, and Blood Warden, improve his abilities over time and make him stronger as the trial reaches its climax.
His Perks revolve around stopping Survivors from fleeing. They will make surviving a real pain for all, and managing to escape the Hunting Ground won't be easy.
Difficulty Rating: Moderate
(These Killers require the Player to be comfortable with the basics of the role, though they share common mechanics with easier ones)
Lore
Even while he lived, Freddy Krueger was a creature of nightmares for those who truly knew him. Hiding behind a mask of warmth and friendliness, Freddy's actual temperament was known only to his victims. When those victims were finally heard, the parents of Springwood tracked Freddy down and took the law into their own hands. They thought that fire had rid them of a monster that night, that their children were finally safe, but evil as strong as his has a way of surviving.
Years passed, the horror was buried, the victims mercifully forgot. Then, somehow, Freddy returned, and dreams became nightmares once again.
Freddy focused his anger on those he felt had wronged him, building up to his one true obsession, Nancy Holbrook. But he underestimated her strength and resourcefulness. Together with her friend Quentin Smith, she managed to weaken Freddy, mutilating him and leaving him for dead once more.
Death didn't want Freddy the first time he encountered it, why did they think it would take him now? He emerged once more, consumed with vengeance. Then he turned his sights on the boy who had blocked his path to Nancy, his number one.
Freddy invaded Quentin's dreams, terrorising him night after night, until his strength and defences would be at their lowest. When the time was right, he forced the boy to return to the dark reflection of Badham Preschool. Here he would have his final revenge.
Freddy stalked the boy through the school's halls. He took his time, savouring every moment of the hunt. This was what he enjoyed the most, the smell of their sweat in the air, the ragged gasps of their terrified breath. They were his to toy with.
There was the boy, at the end of a long corridor. Too tired and scared to run anymore? Resigned to his fate? Freddy closed in, arms wide, claws raking the wall. Their tips traced along a pipe, the metallic shrieking only adding to the boy’s apprehension.
A shower of sparks rained on the ground, and into the liquid that covered the tiled floor. A blue flame blossomed and quickly engulfed the room.
The boy took flight as Freddy burst from the flames in a fury. Rooms and walls raced past in a blur until they were in Freddy's basement. There would be no escape from here.
Slowly Freddy closed in on the boy. His fear was so strong now that Freddy could almost taste it, but his eyes burned with a defiant hatred that was almost admirable.
Freddy drew back his claws.
Then Freddy felt another presence with him; something old, powerful and dark. A miasma enveloped him and the only sensation was a sound like wooden beams flexing and creaking in the distance. The echoing groan of metal crushed against metal. Something arcane and unknowable, half-way between language and pure terror.
A moment of falling and spinning and then Freddy was back in the school. But not his school. It looked the same, but it felt different. His powers were tempered in some ways and focused in others. The boy had gone for now, but another prey walked the hallways. Some would be inconsequential; others would become his new favourites. All would fall before his claws.
Load-out
Unique Perks
The Nightmare comes with 3 Perks that are unique to him:
Blood Warden | As soon as one Exit Gate is opened, Blood Warden activates.
Once per Trial, hooking a Survivor while Blood Warden is active calls upon The Entity to block the exits for all Survivors for 30/40/60 seconds. | |
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Fire Up | The increased pressure of losing your preys fills you with anger and gives you unsuspected motivation.
Each time a Generator is completed, Fire Up grows in power and gains 1 Token, up to a maximum of 5 Tokens.
"Now why don't you just fucking die?" — Freddy Krueger | |
Remember Me | Whenever the Obsession loses a Health State, Remember Me gains 1 Token:
You can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time. "You don't remember? You must. You're my number one, and you'll never wake up again." — Freddy Krueger |
Prestige
Prestiging The Nightmare will automatically add Tier I of his Unique Perks to the inventories of all other Killers and unlock the ability for their higher-tiered versions to spawn in their Bloodweb.
Prestige The Nightmare twice more to automatically add Tier II and Tier III respectively into the other Killers' inventories.
Weapon: Clawed Glove
The Clawed Glove is the Primary Weapon of The Nightmare.
A homemade device, crafted to torture and kill.
Power: Dream Demon
"Death won't accept him and thus he remains, a calamity, indisputable master of his victims' nightmares."
SPECIAL ABILITY: DREAM DEMON
The Nightmare is cloaked from awake Survivors.
While they can hear his Terror Radius, he is not always visible to them:
- The Nightmare is invisible to Survivors farther than 32 metres away.
- The Nightmare is intermittently visible to Survivors from 16 to 32 metres away.
- The Nightmare is fully visible to Survivors closer than 16 metres.
SPECIAL STATE: MICROSLEEP
The mere presence of The Nightmare induces Microsleep in awake Survivors, causing them to passively fall asleep over 60 seconds.
Survivors who woke up with an Alarm Clock are protected from Microsleep for 30 seconds.
SPECIAL STATE: ASLEEP
Survivors who fall asleep automatically enter the Dream World and suffer from the following effects while inside it:
- Causes them to be susceptible to Dream Traps.
- Causes them to suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect.
- Causes them to hear a non-directional Lullaby instead.
Hitting Survivors with a Basic Attack immediately pulls them into the Dream World, unless they are still protected from Microsleep.
SPECIAL INTERACTION: WAKING UP
Survivors have several ways to leave the Dream World and wake up:
- Fail a Skill Check.
- Awake Survivors perform the Wake Up interaction on an asleep Survivor for 3 seconds.
- From the second time onwards, this interaction time is doubled to 6 seconds.
- Interact with their personal Alarm Clock for 3 seconds.
SPECIAL TRAP: DREAM SNARES
Press and hold the Power button to see the outline of a Dream Snare in front of The Nightmare.
Release the Power button to place the trap:
- Causes Survivors who enter its Area of Effect to suffer from a -15 % Hindered Status Effect for as long as they remain inside it.
- This effect lingers for 3 seconds.
- Notifies The Nightmare when tripped.
SPECIAL TRAP: DREAM PALLETS
This trap is only available when using one of 3 specific Add-ons.
Press the Power button when near a valid Spawn point for Pallets to place a Dream Pallet there:
- Dream Pallets are unable to stun The Nightmare and break immediately when dropped.
- Notify The Nightmare when dropped.
SPECIAL LOCOMOTION: DREAM PROJECTION
Press and hold the Active Ability button, once the Power Gauge is full, to perform a Dream Projection.
Release the Active Ability button prematurely to cancel the interaction:
- Grants the ability to teleport to any incomplete Generator.
- Causes blood to spew from the selected Generator during the interaction.
- Reduces the Cool-down duration of Dream Projection by a stack-able -15 % for each asleep Survivor, up to a maximum of -60 %.
Dream Projection has a Cool-down of 45 seconds.
"You have nothing to worry about. This won't hurt one... little... bit." — Freddy Krueger
Power Trivia
Movement Speeds:
- Placing Dream Snares: 4.0 m/s
Waking Skill Checks:
- It should be noted that it is the act of failing a Skill Check that wakes a Survivor from the Dream World and not the accompanying explosion and Loud Noise notification that does so.
Failing Skill Checks while using Perks such as Technician or Bite the Bullet, which suppress the explosion and Loud Noise notification, will therefore still wake Survivors up. - Failing a Skill Check while repairing a Generator will also wake up any other asleep Survivors that were repairing it at that moment.
The same is true for asleep Survivors that are being healed by someone who fails a Healing Skill Check.
Glimpses:
Awake Survivors only see glimpses of The Nightmare within a certain range:
- Glimpse duration: 2 seconds
- Glimpse cool-down: 2 seconds
- Glimpse Minimum distance: 16 metres
- Glimpse Maximum distance: 32 metres
Dream Projection:
- Charge duration: 3 seconds
- Cool-down duration: 45 seconds
- Cancelling Cool-down duration: 10 seconds
- Cool-down Reduction per asleep Survivor: -15 %
Dream Pallets:
- Placement range: 12 metres
- Placement angle: 40 °
- Indicator range: 16 metres
- Aura range: 24 metres
- This refers to the maximum range within which The Nightmare will see the Auras of placed Dream Pallets.
- Windows of Opportunity shows Dream Pallets the same way as it would regular Pallets.
Dream Snares:
- Minimum Charge time: 0.75 seconds
- This refers to how long a Dream Snare must be charged for, before it can be placed.
- Triggered duration: 5 seconds
- This refers to how long a Dream Snare remains active after being triggered, before it will dissolve.
- Hindered Linger duration: 3 seconds
- Hindered strength: -15 %
- Aura-Flare-up duration: 5 seconds
- This refers to how long the visual indicator of a Survivor triggering a Dream Snare will be visible to The Nightmare for.
Micro-Sleep:
Survivors passively fall asleep when playing against The Nightmare:
- Micro-Sleep duration: 60 seconds
- Micro-Sleep protection: 30 seconds
- This refers to how long a Survivor is protecting from falling asleep by any means after waking themselves with an Alarm Clock
- Wake-up action duration: 3 seconds
- This refers to how long it takes to interact with an Alarm Clock, as well as how long it takes to wake up another sleeping Survivor for the first time. Each successive co-operative Wake-up action on that survivor will double the time taken.
Add-ons for Dream Demon
Icon | Name | Description |
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Garden Rake | A small claw rake, a must have tool for any accomplished gardener.
Switches the type of Dream Traps used in the Trial:
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Kid's Drawing | An unattributed drawing clearly crafted by a young child.
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Sheep Block | A white and blue wooden block depicting two woolly Lambs grazing and the letter "S".
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Wool Shirt | A small boy's orange and yellow striped shirt. Identified with a sewn name tag to "Jesse".
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Cat Block | A white and purple wooden block depicting a sleeping Cat and the letter "C".
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Green Dress | A little girl's green dress with a silky white ribbon.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effects:
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Nancy's Sketch | A crude and bold sketch made with Fusain, signed by Nancy H.
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Outdoor Rope | Sturdy outdoor rope, handy to tie up anything.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effect:
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Prototype Claws | A home-made tool to facilitate bush trimming.
Switches the type of Dream Traps used in the Trial:
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Blue Dress | A little girl's pale blue dress with white lace which's front is ruined by large cuts.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effects:
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Jump Rope | A long Double-Dutch jump rope, stained with many years of use.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effect:
| |
Nancy's Masterpiece | A painting of a Character, made by Nancy Holbrook at Badham and kept as a treasure memory.
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Paint Thinner | A tin of a highly volatile and inflammable material.
Switches the type of Dream Traps used in the Trial:
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Unicorn Block | A white and red wooden block depicting a prancing Unicorn and the letter "U".
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"Z" Block | A deeply scratched and burnt wooden block which's only recognisable feature is the letter "Z".
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Class Photo | A large photograph taken at Badham Preschool showing the cheerful class of '94-95.
When channelling Dream Projection, the following effects apply:
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Pill Bottle | An empty pill bottle which once contained a medicine called Zoneral.
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Swing Chains | Rusty, but sturdy chains used to securely attach a swing seat.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effect:
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Black Box | A black cardboard box filled with photographs.
Survivors inside the Dream World suffer from the following effect:
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Red Paint Brush | A large paint brush, wet with crimson paint.
|
Achievements
- Main article: Achievements
There are 2 Achievements related to The Nightmare:
Icon | Name | Description |
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Adept Nightmare | Playing as The Nightmare, achieve a Merciless Victory using only his 3 Unique Perks: Fire Up, Remember Me, and Blood Warden | |
Dream Demon | Playing as The Nightmare, pull Survivors into the Dream World a total of 200 times. |
Cosmetic Options
Players can choose from a variety of Cosmetic options to customise The Nightmare:
Base Cosmetics
Default
Prestige
Perk Charms
Prestige Level 7 Reward | Prestige Level 8 Reward | Prestige Level 9 Reward |
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A keepsake gained upon mastery of a particular skill. |
DLC
- Main article: Downloadable Content
The Nightmare is part of 1 DLC:
History
Original Power
Death won't accept him and thus he remains, a calamity, indisputable master of his victims' nightmares. Dream Demon allows The Nightmare to pull Survivors into the Dream World. |
- Survivors who are awake do not see or hear The Nightmare.
- Once targeted by The Nightmare's Power, Survivors enter the Dream Transition for 7 seconds.
- During the Dream Transition they can see The Nightmare intermittently.
- When the Dream Transition has elapsed, the Survivor is pulled into the Dream World.
Once in the Dream World:
- Survivors' Auras are revealed to The Nightmare whenever they are outside of his Terror Radius.
- Survivors suffer an Action speed penalty of -50 %.
- To exit the Dream World, Survivors can find other non-sleeping Survivors to perform a Wake-up action.
- Failed Skill Checks can wake up the Survivor.
- Getting hooked wakes up the Survivor.
Original Power Trivia
- Terror Radius: 24 metres
- Dream Transition duration: 7 seconds
- Power range: 10 metres
- Dream World Action Speed penalty: -50 %.
- Aura-Reveal delay: 1 second after leaving the Terror Radius
- Glimpse Minimum distance: 6 metres
- Glimpse Maximum distance: 24 metres
Change Log
Patch 1.8.1
- Nerf: added a delay of 10 seconds after leaving The Nightmare's Terror Radius before a Survivor's Aura is revealed to him.
- Nerf: increased The Nightmare's Terror Radius from 16 metres to 24 metres.
- This change allows Survivors more room to manoeuvre around The Nightmare without having their Auras revealed for being outside his Terror Radius.
- This change brings his Terror Radius to the same range as his Lullaby.
- Nerf: increased the duration of The Nightmare's Movement Speed penalty for putting a Survivor into the Dream Transition from 1 second to 3 seconds.
- This change allows Survivors to put more distance between themselves and The Nightmare before they fall asleep and become vulnerable to his attacks.
- Nerf: dying Survivors who are healed to the Injured State are automatically woken up.
Patch 1.8.2
- QoL: reduced the Movement Speed penalty for continuously casting Dream Demon to 95 %.
- This change was motivated by the Developers deeming the old penalty as too intense.
- QoL: reduced the Interaction and Attack cool-down when successfully putting a Survivor into the Dream Transition to 0.5 seconds.
Patch 1.9.2
- Nerf: removed the (unintentional) ability to put Survivors inside Lockers into the Dream Transition.
Patch 2.0.0
- QoL: fixed an issue that caused The Nightmare to vault more slowly than other Killers.
Patch 2.3.0
- QoL: reduced the footstep audio.
Patch 3.1.0
- Rework: extensively reworked The Nightmare's Power:
- Awake Survivors see The Nightmare always within 16 metres, intermittently within 32 metres, and never when farther than 32 metres away.
- Survivors experience Micro-Sleep, passively falling asleep within 60 seconds.
- Asleep Survivors see the Aura of a Alarm Clock on a dresser far away.
- Asleep Survivors hear a 2-dimensional Lullaby instead of The Nightmare's Terror Radius.
- Getting woken up by awake Survivors will increasingly take more time after each successful attempt.
- The Nightmare received the ability to place either of two Dream Traps: Dream Snares or Dream Pallets.
- The Nightmare received the ability to teleport between unrepaired Generators using Dream Projection.
Patch 3.2.0
- Buff: added the Oblivious Status Effects to The Nightmare's Power.
- Survivors are Oblivious whenever they are asleep and in the Dream World.
Patch 4.7.0
- QoL: increased the brightness of the Dream World indicator on the HUD.
- Nerf: added a Movement Speed penalty while placing Dream Snares, slowing The Nightmare to 4.0 m/s or 100 %.
- Nerf: reduced the maximum number of placed Dream Snares from 8 to 5.
- Nerf: reduced the maximum number of placed Dream Pallets from 10 to 7.
- Nerf: Survivors using Alarm Clocks are granted full immunity from falling asleep for 30 seconds, including when The Nightmare attacks them.
- This is indicated on the HUD by a yellow sleep timer ticking down.
- Change: Revisited some Add-ons.
Unknown Patch
- Change: Reassessed the difficulty rating from Hard to Moderate.
Trivia
- The full name of Freddy Krueger is "Frederick 'Freddy' Charles Krueger".
- Though the character was popularised by Robert Englund in the original film series, his appearance in Dead by Daylight is based on that of the 2010 film reboot, where he was portrayed by Jackie Earle Haley.
- The Nightmare's corresponding Survivor is Quentin Smith, a Character who was created specifically for the 2010 film.
- The Nightmare's Memento Mori is a reference to the way he killed Jesse in the film.
- The Nightmare's Memento Mori animation is the second one in which the Survivor attempts to get up on their own.
- The Nightmare breathes the quietest out of all the Killers, with his breathing being similar in volume to that of Survivors.
- Unlike other Killers, who simply step over Windows when vaulting, The Nightmare grabs the window ledge with both hands and lifts himself over, this is due to Freddy being much smaller in height than most other Killers in the Game.
- The Pig and The Ghost Face also have this same animation, for the same reason.
- The Nightmare is the Killer with the least amount of cosmetics, with only his three Prestige cosmetics.
- The Nightmare was the fifth licensed Character to be introduced to Dead by Daylight.
- The Nightmare was the first Killer to receive a major rework to his Power.
- The Nightmare is currently the only Killer, who can change one of their abilities completely with the use of an Add-on.
Voice Actor
- The Nightmare is voiced by Filip Ivanovic, who at that time worked as the Art Director on the Game.
- The Nightmare shares his voice-actor with The Trapper, The Wraith, The Hillbilly, The Cannibal, The Ghost Face, and Jeff Johansen.
Gallery
For more go to the Nightmare's Gallery
In-game assets
Old assets
Added assets
Official art
Sketches of The Nightmare and The Cannibal
Models
Screenshots
Others