Madness

Madness is both a Game Mechanic and a Status Effect featured in Dead by Daylight that is applied exclusively to Survivors.

It is used uniquely by The Doctor and was implemented in Patch 1.5.1.

Mechanic

Madness affects the sanity of the Survivors and affects/hinders their ability of performing certain interactions.

Madness is a Game Mechanic that is unique to The Doctor, as it is directly linked to Carter's Spark, his Power.

Madness Tiers

Madness comes in three Tiers, Madness I, II, and III.

Chevrons indicate the current Madness Tier to the affected Survivor.
The changing static noise on a Survivor's portrait in the HUD also informs other Survivors and The Doctor of their current Madness Tier.

Madness Tiers are fixed, meaning that once its tier increases, there is no way to lower it until Madness III is reached, at which point the Snap Out of It action allows Survivors to reduce it back to Madness I.
There is no possibility to completely lose Madness once it has been gained.

Madness Points

Madness works by applying Madness Points to the Survivors through Carter's Spark. The amount of Madness Points define the Madness Tier:

• Shock Therapy incurs +0.5 Madness Points.
• Static Blast incurs +1 Madness Point.

Tier I

Madness I is achieved after incurring 1 Madness Point and causes Survivors to suffer from the following afflictions:

• The Character icon's underlay shows a sphere with horizontal stripes.
• Causes Survivors to scream once upon Tier-up, showing The Doctor an Aura flare-up alongside a Loud Noise notification.
• Odds of 33 % for a Skill Check to be a Madness Skill Check.
  • Madness Skill Checks have an equal chance to be placed off-centre, be reversed (turn counter-clockwise), or both at the same time.

Tier II

A Doctor Hallucination / Illusionary Doctor

Madness II is achieved after incurring 2 Madness Points and causes Survivors to suffer from the following afflictions:

• The Character icon's underlay shows a sphere with vertical stripes.
• Causes Survivors to scream once upon Tier-up, showing The Doctor an Aura flare-up alongside a Loud Noise notification.
• Odds of 33 % for a Skill Check to be a Madness Skill Check.
• Causes Survivors to see Illusionary Doctors.
  • These Hallucinations are only shared with The Doctor if he uses any of the "Restraint" Add-ons.

Tier III

Madness III is achieved after incurring 3 Madness Points and causes Survivors to suffer from the following afflictions:

• The Character icon's underlay shows a sphere with tv static.
• Causes Survivors to scream upon Tier-up and then intermittently every few seconds, showing The Doctor an Aura flare-up alongside a Loud Noise notification.
• Odds of 100 % for a Skill Check to be a Madness Skill Check.
  • Applies only during the Snap Out of It interaction, as it is the only accessible skilled interaction at that time.
• Causes Survivors to see shared Illusionary Doctors.
  • These Hallucinations are intensified, sharing them to The Doctor and allowing him to read their Auras.
• Survivors are prevented from performing any of the following interactions:
  • Healing others and themselves.
  • Repairing Generators.
  • Sabotaging Hooks.
  • Unlocking Chests.
  • Blessing/Cleansing Totems.
  • Using any of their Items.

Additional Afflictions

Main article: Add-ons

Depending on the Add-ons equipped by The Doctor, Survivors can have additional afflictions based on their Madness Tier.

All Madness afflictions are induced simultaneously when using the Iridescent King Add-on.

Order

When any of the "Order" Add-ons are equipped, Survivors with any Madness suffer from the Order affliction.

Every 20 seconds, one random broken Pallet is replaced by an Illusionary Pallet.

Illusionary Pallets will spawn either upright or dropped, and will persist until a Survivor approaches them.
When approached, the Pallet will disappear and The Doctor will laugh.

Calm

When any of the "Calm" Add-ons are equipped, Survivors with Madness II or III suffer from the Calm affliction.

While in Madness II, Survivors will hear a distant Illusionary Terror Radius every 30 to 45 seconds.
This effect will last between 10 to 15 seconds when it activates.

While in Madness III, Survivors will constantly hear the Illusionary Terror Radius until they Snap Out of It.

Restraint

When any of the "Restraint" Add-ons are equipped, Survivors with any Madness suffer from the Restraint affliction.

While afflicted, Illusionary Doctors spawn more frequently, and last for an additional 6 seconds.
Furthermore, The Doctor is able to see the Auras of Hallucinations at any Madness Tier instead of the default Madness III.

Discipline

When any of the "Discipline" Add-ons are equipped, Survivors with Madness II or III suffer from the Discipline affliction.

While in Madness II and in a chase with The Doctor, the Survivors will perceive an Illusionary Red Stain and Terror Radius as if The Doctor were directly behind them. The Red Stain is projected onto the Survivor's back and moves with their camera.

The Doctor can see the Illusionary Red Stain, and can use this to aid in tracking Survivors. Discipline's effects persist for 6 seconds after a chase ends.

While in Madness III, these effects are always active until a Survivor Snaps Out of It.

Discipline closely emulates the Undetectable Status Effect, as The Doctor's real Terror Radius and Red Stain cannot be perceived by Survivors suffering from its effects.

Gaining Madness

Madness is applied through either the Shock Therapy or the Static Blast attacks:

Shock Therapy

The Shock Therapy attack is The Doctor's primary Power ability.

Fully charging Shock Therapy releases a spark of electricity into the ground that will propagate as a cone in front of The Doctor and shock any Survivors within its range.
The shock wave will also travel through walls and obstacles and is only blocked by Lockers and increased elevation differences.

Shock Therapy has the following effects on Survivors:

• Increases their Madness by +0.5 Madness Points
• Suppresses all interaction prompts for 2.5 seconds, which is indicated to Survivors by a debuff icon next to their Perk icons.
  • This prevents Survivors from vaulting obstacles and dropping Pallets.

Static Blast

The Static Blast is The Doctor's secondary Power ability that was added with Patch 3.5.0.

Fully charging Static Blast releases a burst of electricity into the ground, propagating outwards from The Doctor all the way to the boundary of his Terror Radius, instantly shocking any Survivor within said radius not hiding inside a Locker.

Static Blast has the following effects on Survivors:

• Increases their Madness by +1 Madness Point.
• Causes them to scream and reveal their Location.
• Survivors within the Terror Radius will hear a directional audio cue upon charging and firing Static Blast.
• Survivors outside the Terror Radius will hear a non-directional audio cue upon charging and firing Static Blast.
  • It is worth noting however, that the blast's visual representation is still visible outside of the Terror radius, and can as such be used to determine the location of The Doctor.

Static Field

The Static Field was a passive ability of The Doctor's Power until Patch 3.5.0, bound directly to his Terror Radius. Whenever he was in Treatment Mode, Survivors within his Terror Radius would see small sparks at their feet and hear a buzzing sound. This passive exposure to the Static Field would slowly and steadily increase the Survivor's Madness. This ability was directly bound to the range of his Terror Radius, meaning that Perks affecting the range of it would also affect the range of the Static Field.

The only way to prevent the passive Madness build-up from happening was either hiding inside a Locker or leaving The Doctor's Terror Radius as quickly as possible, though there was a delay of 5 seconds before the Madness would start decaying after leaving it.

Regressing Madness

Madness can only be regressed through a special action called Snap Out of It.

Snap Out of It

This is a unique action that is only available on Madness III and will regress Madness to Madness I.

Snap Out of It is a requirement for the afflicted Survivor to regain their ability to perform interactions inhibited by Madness III. It is also advised to do due to the periodic screams and Aura-reveals, betraying their location to The Doctor.

Snap Out of It takes 12 seconds to complete.

• It is not considered a Healing action and thus not affected by Perks such as A Nurse's Calling or Botany Knowledge.
• Reaching a quadrant of the progress bar will trigger a Madness Skill Check.
  • Failing the Skill Check will apply a Regression penalty of 25 % and make the Survivor scream, revealing their location to The Doctor.
• Interrupting the Snap Out of It action will save the current progress.

Change Log

Patch 1.5.1b

• Increased the duration of Snap Out of It from 4 seconds to 12 seconds.

Patch 1.6.2

• Snap Out of It can now trigger Madness Skill Checks.
  • Failing them fully resets its Progress and causes Survivors to scream and reveal their location.
• Madness III now prevents Survivors from performing any Repairing or Healing actions, as well as using any equipped Med-Kits or Toolboxes.

Patch 1.9.2

• Expanded the previous buff to Madness III to include all types of Items, as well as any interactions with a Prop that feature a Progress bar, with the exception of the Unhook action.

Between Patch 2.0.0 and Patch 2.4.0

• Snap Out of It was considered a Healing action.
  • This made it reveal the Survivor's Aura to The Doctor using A Nurse's Calling if he was in range and Botany Knowledge would speed up the interaction for Survivors using it.
  • Since interactions with Coulrophobia and the Mangled Status Effect were deemed too powerful and already exempt, the Developers decided to standardise the interaction as a non-Healing action.

Up to Patch 3.5.0

• Madness started to decay at a rate of -1 p/s after Survivors had left The Doctor's Terror Radius for 5 seconds.
  • Madness could not decay past its current Tier.
• Snap Out of It only dropped a Survivor to Madness II.
  • It was impossible to drop back to Madness I once a higher Tier was gained.

Patch 3.5.0

• Madness Skill Checks during Snap Out of It no longer trigger randomly between 2 to 4 times on average, but at fixed Progress milestones:
  • They now trigger at each quadrant (25/50/75 %, akin to the lights atop the Exit Gate Switch), guaranteed to trigger 3 times throughout the interaction.
• Failing a Madness Skill Check during Snap Out of It no longer fully resets its Progress, but now reset it to the previous quadrant (-25 %).
• Halved the Decay rate of Madness while outside of the Terror Radius from -1 p/s to -0.5 p/s.

Patch 3.6.0

• Madness no longer Decays over time.
• Updated and simplified all Madness Tiers:

Madness Tier	Madness Points (3.6.0)	Madness Points (pre-3.6.0)
I	1	5
II	2	55
III	3	105

• Shock Therapy applies +0.5 Madness Points (formerly 30).
• Static Blast applies apply +1 Madness Point (formerly 50).
• Added the reversed variant of Madness Skill Checks to the base-kit, resulting in the following chances:
  • Chance of 33 % that it spawns off-centre.
  • Chance of 33 % that its pointer turns in reverse (counter-clockwise).
  • Chance of 33 % that it both spawns off-centre and its pointer turns in reverse (counter-clockwise).

Patch 4.7.0

• Removed the visual horror effect showing The Doctor's face after failed Madness Skill Checks during Snap Out of It.

Patch 8.6.0

• Reinstated the aforementioned effect, though slightly modified.
  • Instead of showing The Doctor's entire face, it now shows various zoomed-in parts of it.

Trivia

• Illusionary Doctors at default last for 1 second.
  • When attempting to spawn one, the Game will pick a spawn point of 6 metres in the direction the Survivor's camera is facing, then it will place an Illusionary Doctor anywhere within the 4 metres from that initial point.
  • The Game will attempt to spawn an Illusionary Doctor randomly in a given time interval.
    • Madness II: spawns at any time between 16 to 32 seconds.
    • Madness III: spawns at any time between 8 to 16 seconds.
• Madness Tier III Aura flare-ups will happen at any time between 16 to 32 seconds.
• Survivors suffering from the Deep Wound Status Effect cannot Mend themselves while in Madness Tier III, due to the Snapping Out of It action taking priority.
  • However, Survivors will still have time to self-mend, as the Snap Out of It action is shorter than the Bleed-out timer.
  • If a Survivor is placed into Madness Tier III a second time before mending, they will have to find a teammate to mend them, or they will bleed out.

Videos

Shock Therapy Attack	Madness Tier-Up: Loud Noise notification + Aura flare-up
"Order": Illusionary Pallets	"Discipline": Illusionary Red Stain