Crows
Crows are the sole interact-able wildlife featured in Dead by Daylight
with a double-role of providing Players indirectly with information about the location of others and detecting inactive Survivors.
Overview
Often found in pairs, Crows are usually perched atop various environmental objects around the environment.
Some Crows also just sit on the ground.
Startling Crows
If a Player is too close to a Crow, they will make a small noise and fly above the skybox.
They will then return 15 seconds later, possibly making another smaller sound as they land.
This event can be triggered by both the Survivors and the Killer.
The noise of Crows will not present a visual cue to the Killer, unless they have the Perk Spies from the Shadows
, which provides a visual cue at a certain range.
Survivors can avoid startling Crows by crouching past them.
However, if they come much too close to a Crow while doing so, it will still get startled.
The Perk Calm Spirit
will prevent startling Crows while walking or running past them, with the aforementioned exception.
Killers will always startle Crows with the exception of a cloaked Wraith
, a crouching Pig
or Ghost Face
, and a crawling Xenomorph
.
A shot from The Redeemer (Deathslinger
) will always startle any Crows within 24 metres of the gun.
Conditions
- Stepped-on radius: 0.6 metres
- If a Player comes this close to a Crow, it will always fly away, regardless.
- Fly-away radius: 4 metres
- If a Player comes within this range of a Crow, the Game will start to check whether it should fly away or not every 0.5 seconds.
- If a Player is farther away than this, Crows will not be startled.
- Fly-away base chance: 95 %
- Fly-away speed threshold: 1 m/s
- A Player's momentary Movement speed influences the chances of startling Crows: the faster they move, the higher the chance.
- (Movement speed divided by Speed threshold) + Base chance
- A Player's momentary Movement speed influences the chances of startling Crows: the faster they move, the higher the chance.
AFK Crows
AFK Crows (also previously known as Idle/Stillness Crows) are a special set of 3 Crows that spawn one after the other above any Survivor the game detects as being inactive or AFK for too long.
The AFK Crows fly in circles above the Survivor's head and caw constantly, alerting nearby Players with their ruckus.
If a Survivor accrues them while hiding inside a Locker
, they will perch atop its roof instead.
Once a Survivor has accrued the third and final AFK Crow, their location will be continuously indicated to the Killer with a Loud Noise Notification, preventing Survivors from hiding all game long.
If an AFK Survivors starts interacting again, the AFK Crows will start to de-spawn in reverse order.
Accruing AFK Crows
All Survivors have a hidden Inactivity timer.
Whenever a Survivor is considered inactive, this timer starts counting the elapsed seconds since the last tracked interaction.
There is grace period of 30 seconds before the timer starts counting.
Each elapsed second that the Inactivity timer is active adds +1 AFK point to the Survivor's hidden AFK meter.
This is equivalent to a charge rate of +1 c/s.
The charge rate is not constant, with various external factors able to apply a multiplier to it:
- Reduction multiplier for Interactions: x10
- This multiplier accelerates the Decay rate while performing interactions.
- Accumulation multiplier for Movement: x0.25
- This multiplier reduces the Charge rate while moving around the Map.
- Accumulation multiplier for End Game: x0.25
- This multiplier reduces the Charge rate after the Exit Gates are powered.
- Accumulation multiplier for Killer Proximity: x0.5
- This multiplier reduces the Charge rate whenever the Killer is in proximity to the Survivor (i.e. within a fixed radius of 32 metres).
Spawn Thresholds
The table below list the thresholds of the Inactivity timer when each of the AFK Crow spawns:
| Crow | Threshold | Loud Noise Notification |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 120 seconds | 
|
| 2 | 140 seconds |
|
| 3 | 180 seconds | 
|
Tracked Interactions
After performing any of the following Prop-related interactions, the AFK meter is reset to 0 points.
However, the Inactivity status is not, meaning that any accumulated AFK Crows still remain until they naturally despawn:
- Activated any Glyph.
- Collected an Invitation Scroll.
- Cleansed or blessed a Totem.
- Hacked a Drone.
- Healed any Survivor to the next Health State.
- Mended yourself or another Survivor.
- Opened or rummaged through a Chest.
- Opened a Supply Case or Treasure Chest.
- Sabotaged a Hook.
- Solved the Lament Configuration.
- Uncaged another Survivor from a Cage.
- Unhooked yourself or another Survivor from a Hook by any means.
After being attacked by the Killer, -10 points are deducted from the AFK meter and the Inactivity status is reset:
- Hit with a Basic Attack
- Hit with a Special Attack
After performing either of the two special interactions, a bonus of 60 seconds is applied.
It is possible that is might refer to the grace period, extending it by that amount as a one-time bonus:
- Complete the Repairs on a Generator.
- Complete the interaction with a Killer-specific Prop.
Tracked Exceptions
The following interactions or special states are exempt from the mechanic and will not accumulate AFK Crows, regardless of how long it has been since the last interaction:
- Being chased by the Killer.
- Being healed.
- Being hooked.
- Being in the Dying State.
- This includes entering the state voluntarily with the Perk Plot Twist
.
- This includes entering the state voluntarily with the Perk Plot Twist
Change Log
Patch 9.0.0
- Rework: reworked the AFK Crow System to be more aggressive in detecting Survivor doing what was dubbed "Extreme Hiding" by the Developers:
- Survivors are now considered to be AFK 10 seconds without performing any interactions in the Trial.
- This includes interactions with objectives, Props, or other Players.
- While considered AFK, Survivors now accrue AFK points, causing the AFK Crows to spawn as usual.
- AFK points are removed by completing interactions.
- At max level, Survivors now also lose collision with other Players for 10 seconds.
- The system is now disabled once the Hatch
becomes available for the Last Survivor Standing or when the Endgame Collapse
is triggered by any means.
- Survivors are now considered to be AFK 10 seconds without performing any interactions in the Trial.
Patch 9.0.1
- Changes: adjusted several values as the first iteration was deemed much too aggressive, leading to multiple false positives during regular gameplay for Survivor Players.
- Increased the Spawn thresholds for the three AFK Crows from 60/75/90 seconds to 120/140/180 seconds.
- Increased the grace period from 10 seconds to 30 seconds.
- Halved the AFK-points-multiplier while moving from x0.5 to x0.25.
- Added a new AFK-points-multiplier that applies once the Exit Gates are powered.
- AFK points are now fully reset upon completing tracked interactions, instead of removing 60 points.
Trivia
Locker Crows
- AFK Crows perched atop the metal roof of a Locker always indicates an AFK Survivor hiding inside it.
Crow Bombs
- The Crow Bomb refers to a unique feature of the two Backwater Swamp Maps.
- On either Map's main landmark (i.e. the paddle steamer and the pantry), there is a large murder of Crows, which flies off with a map-wide audio cue when spooked by any approaching Player.
Video
Gallery
Crows standing on a rock
