After a long hiatus from Dead by Daylight (Kaneki finally got to me one too many times), I found myself beginning to log back in more and more often, especially with the new killers and survivors I have missed. The first came from the The Life Road DLC, and it introduced to us our first ever Native American survivor.
His name is Shane Wiigwaas, and what draws me to him is his charismatic biker appearance, coupled with some very interesting perks to help try to spice up the long-standing survivor meta-game. But first, why is Shane in the Entity’s realm?
In case you’re new to Dead by Daylight, we’ve covered some of its killers and past DLC’s before, but to make a long story short, the realm of Dead by Daylight is run by a god simply named The Entity, who drags killers and survivors alike to serve in its trails, in order to feed it pain and suffering. Shane finds himself dragged here after he investigates a case for his cousin.
Shane is an attorney you see, but when his cousin was arrested and the arresting officer disappeared into the mess of black fog (a calling card for The Entity), Shane’s cousin was convicted of murder and sentenced to life without parole. Feeling responsible, Shane left his home town and travelled the country, until mention of the black fog leads him down a path to damnation.
Shane’s perks are just as special as he is, and I find them very interesting, to say the least. I don’t think they’re strong enough to replace long-standing perks that most survivor players will fall back on, but I certainly think they’re worth the try.
The first is Cross-Examination. While you stand on a Light Mark (a mark left by the killer when you are close enough to them, as well as not being chased) you gain Elusive for a varying degree of seconds, which hides your aura and prevents you from making injured sounds. This is the weaker of the three, and while I can see it having niche uses in some builds, overall there are better perks to use.
The second is Lend a Hand. This one activates after you cleanse or bless a totem, so it’s more situational already. However, once active, once per survivor, while healing them, you can permanently make it a little bit faster to heal them in the future. I don’t hate this perk, considering my most used build revolves around healing people super quickly. However, considering it has something you need to do to activate it, there is a chance you may never get to activate it at all, making it a dead perk. Still, it could see some use.
The third and final perk Shane brings, and the most interesting, is Wide Open Throttle. Whenever you fast-vault a pallet (i.e, sprint over one) you gain haste for a few crucial seconds, as well as reset the pallet back to its upright position, allowing you to use it again after a short cooldown. It also reveals the aura of this pallet to your other fellow survivors, before going on a cooldown itself. This perk, I think, is bananas. Pallets are very limited resources for the survivors, and anything that allows you to either restore them, or reset them, in my eyes is borderline busted. If the killer decides not to waste their time breaking a pallet, you can use this to your advantage and bring the chase back here later. A very strong perk if used correctly.
All in all, not only is Shane a very cool new survivor, he’s bought some very wicked perks that, while niche, could provide some fun to mess up some killers. If you haven’t played Dead by Daylight for a while, hop back in; it’s still wicked good fun!
Shane Wiigwass is now available to play on Dead by Daylight, which is available on Steam, Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo Switch.