Most Dead by Daylight Killer guides go stale because Behaviour Interactive moves the numbers. The Deathslinger is the opposite problem. We read every patch note Behaviour published on Steam from June 2023 to the current live build, and across 315 patch posts after Update 8.0.0 there is not one balance change to The Deathslinger's base kit or add-ons. Not a buff, not a nerf, not a tweak.
So the numbers in a 2024 Deathslinger guide are probably still right. What is wrong is the technique they teach, and two of the three perk descriptions every wiki-scraping site copies. This is Caleb Quinn as he plays on the live retail build, Patch 10.1.2a, released 17 September 2026.
Quick answer
- The Deathslinger is a 4.4 m/s Killer with a 32-metre Terror Radius and a ranged power, The Redeemer, that spears a Survivor at up to 18 metres and reels them in for a free hit.
- His last base-kit and add-on balance change came in the same patch: Update 8.0.0, 3 June 2024. Everything since has been bug fixes.
- The quickscope is gone, and has been since Patch 5.3.0. You sit through a 0.40-second Aim Down Sights animation before the gun fires, and a 0.60-second Exit Aim before you can swing. Any guide showing an instant flick shot is teaching 2020.
- The wiki page most guides copy is stale on two of his three perks. Live Dead Man's Switch blocks 25/30/35 seconds, not 40/45/50. Live Hex: Retribution applies Oblivious for 40/50/60 seconds, not 35/40/45.
- Dead Man's Switch is reworked in the 10.2.0 Public Test Build of 15 September 2026, and 10.2.0 has no live release date. Do not play around those values yet.
- Strongest live add-on pairing is Iridescent Coin plus Hellshire Iron. Safest all-rounder: Warden's Keys plus Wanted Poster.
- As a Survivor, the counter is the audio warning. If you hear his aim cue you are inside his cone and inside 18 metres, so break the line rather than keep running it.
Who is The Deathslinger in Dead by Daylight?
The Deathslinger is Caleb Quinn, a gunsmith turned bounty hunter from the Arizona Territory who built a prototype harpoon gun, The Redeemer, and used it on his own employer, Henry Bayshore. His melee weapon is a rifle-butt club named Death to Bayshore.
He arrived in Chapter 15: Chains of Hate on 10 March 2020, alongside Zarina Kassir and the Dead Dawg Saloon map. That chapter was retired from individual sale on 8 January 2024, which trips up newer players: he is still fully purchasable, just bundled into the Old Wounds and Terror Expansion packs, and still buyable with Iridescent Shards.
He was also the first male Killer released at the reduced 4.4 m/s movement speed, which the community has argued about ever since. The best-upvoted version of that argument on the subreddit this year: a Killer with so little map pressure should not share a speed class with Blight.
How does The Redeemer work on patch 10.1.2a?
Every number below is the live value on 10.1.2a.
Movement. Walking 4.4 m/s. Aim Down Sights 3.74 m/s. Reloading 3.08 m/s. Reeling 2.76 m/s. The ADS figure is not arbitrary: Patch 5.3.0 set the modifier to times 0.85, and 4.4 times 0.85 is 3.74 exactly, a sanity check against any guide quoting something else.
The shot. Maximum harpoon range 18 metres, firing delay 0.5 seconds, projectile speed 40 m/s. Entering ADS takes 0.40 seconds and exiting 0.60, and neither can be cancelled. ADS zoom is 125 per cent, horizontal camera speed drops to 40 per cent, vertical to 80.
Hit and miss. A spear gives a 0.5-second cooldown before you can reel and immobilises the Survivor 0.75 seconds. A miss costs 1.5 seconds before the reload can start, and the harpoon retracts at 25 m/s. Reload is 2.6 seconds. Firing also disturbs crows within 24 metres, free information most Deathslingers ignore.
The chain. It has 100 charges and depletes from three sources at once, which is where most Deathslingers lose their downs:
- Tension alone drains 2.5 charges per second: a passive Survivor stays speared 40 seconds.
- Tension plus the Survivor pulling away is 17.5 per second, about 5.7 seconds.
- Tension plus the chain hitting an obstacle is 22.5 per second, about 4.4 seconds.
- All three together is 37.5 per second, about 2.7 seconds.
Read that list again, because it is the whole Killer. Collision costs you more than the Survivor struggling does, so spearing someone through a window frame or around a rock halves your own window. When the chain breaks you eat a 2.7-second stun. And one detail most guides miss: the Deep Wound timer pauses while a Survivor is speared, so you cannot tick someone out of a Mend on the chain.
Why do old Deathslinger guides get him wrong?
Because of one 2021 patch that removed his signature trick. Patch 5.3.0 carried two buffs and three nerfs for him, and the nerfs changed how he is played forever. The ADS movement penalty was softened from times 0.75 to times 0.85 and the break-free stun dropped from 4 seconds to 3. In exchange, Behaviour forced the 0.40-second Aim Down Sights animation to complete before the gun could fire, forced the 0.60-second Exit Aim animation to complete before a Basic Attack, and pushed his Terror Radius from 24 metres to 32.
That first nerf is the one that matters: before 5.3.0 a good Deathslinger could flick into ADS and fire in one motion, which is why older video content looks nothing like the Killer you load into. The rest of the history is short:
- Patch 7.3.0, 10 October 2023. Reload cut from 2.75 seconds to 2.6, three add-ons retuned, with part of Warden's Keys folded into the base kit.
- Update 8.0.0, 3 June 2024. Three base-kit buffs, four add-on nerfs: "Every second counts, so we've made some tweaks to save The Deathslinger some time when reeling and when a Survivor breaks free. We have also increased his movement speed while reloading so he doesn't lose as much distance in the process."
- Everything after that. Nothing. Across 315 patch posts between 4 June 2024 and 17 September 2026 the only entries carrying his name are bug fixes, plus one 2v8 adjustment below.
Two of those bug fixes changed outcomes. Patch 8.6.0 on 2 April 2025 stopped him performing other actions while reeling. Patch 9.3.0 on 25 November 2025 fixed the break-free meter filling too fast when reeling near a corner or edge wall, quietly making cornered spears better than they had been for months.
What are The Deathslinger's perks, and what do they actually say now?
He has three unique perks, and this is where the internet is most reliably wrong. The Fandom page for Caleb Quinn was last edited on 24 February 2026 and still carries outdated descriptions for two, so every site that scraped it inherited the error.
Dead Man's Switch. Live: after you hook a Survivor, the first Survivor who stops repairing a generator has it blocked for 25/30/35 seconds — 9.2.0 numbers, set 23 September 2025, cut from 40/45/50. A guide showing 40/45/50 is quoting the 8.3.0 version from October 2024.
Gearhead. After a Survivor loses a health state it is active for 30 seconds, and any Survivor hitting a Good Skill Check while repairing has their aura revealed for 6/7/8 seconds. No change appears in any patch note in the window we audited, so its long-standing values stand.
Hex: Retribution. Live: Survivors cleansing or blessing any Totem suffer Oblivious for 40/50/60 seconds, and cleansing a Hex Totem reveals Survivor auras for 20 seconds. Patch 9.0.0 on 17 June 2025 buffed both from 35/40/45 and 15 seconds. The wiki still shows the pre-buff numbers.
One more flag, the likeliest source of bad advice this month. Dead Man's Switch is being reworked in the 10.2.0 Public Test Build, published 15 September 2026: a 2-second grace period before the block triggers, a 30/35/40-second block and a 30/35/40-second cooldown. Behaviour's dev note: "We found the combination of Dead Man's Switch with effects that caused brief forced interruptions lead to uninteractive moments. However we like the effect provided by Dead Man's Switch, when a Killer actively pressures Survivors off of Generators."
Behaviour has not announced a live release date for 10.2.0. Treat any tier list labelled "as of 10.2.0" as describing a build you cannot queue into. Our breakdown of the 10.2.0 perk changes covers what is on that PTB.
Which Deathslinger add-ons are worth running?
All 20 add-ons sit on their 8.0.0 values, grouped by what they actually do:
Reload and recovery. Warden's Keys cuts reload 0.35 seconds, Modified Ammo Belt 0.25. Tin Oil Can cuts missed-shot cooldown 0.5 seconds, Spit Polish Rag 0.25.
Aim Down Sights. Wanted Poster gives plus 3 per cent movement speed in ADS, Jaw Smasher 1.5. Gold Creek Whiskey cuts your Terror Radius 8 metres while aiming, Marshal's Badge 4.
Chain and reel. Prison Chain raises Survivor break-free time 10 per cent. Bayshore's Cigar cuts the break-free stun 0.75 seconds, Chewing Tobacco 0.25. Bayshore's Gold Tooth adds 5 per cent reeling speed, Snake Oil 2.5. Rickety Chain is a Bloodpoint add-on that actively hurts you, raising break-free speed 33 per cent.
Status effects. Iridescent Coin applies Exposed while a Survivor is speared, if you shot them from 12 metres or more. Hellshire Iron grants Undetectable while someone is speared and 10 seconds after. Rusted Spike applies Mangled 60 seconds on a spear, Honey Locust Thorn 70 on a break-free. Barbed Wire adds 3.5 seconds to Mending, Poison Oak Leaves 1.5.
The pairing worth building around is Iridescent Coin plus Hellshire Iron: Coin turns any 12-metre-plus spear into a one-shot threat, and Hellshire Iron hides your Terror Radius during the reel so the rest of the lobby gets no warning. For general play, Warden's Keys plus Wanted Poster is the lowest-variance pair. Skip Rickety Chain outside Bloodpoint farming, and treat the Mending add-ons as a Survivor-tax, not a chase tool.
Is The Deathslinger different in 2v8?
Yes, and this is the one place his numbers have moved recently. He debuted in 2v8 on 11 November 2024 with a 2-second reload instead of 2.6 and a 3 m/s reel speed instead of 2.76. Then Patch 9.6.0 on 28 April 2026 adjusted him again, 2v8 only: walk reload speed penalty raised from 0.7 to 0.8, fire miss duration cut from 1.5 seconds to 1.2. So a 2v8 Deathslinger recovers from a whiff noticeably faster than a 1v1 one.
Pairing him with Nemesis is strong for a reason players describe well: the zombies zone Survivors into tiles you can shoot through or over, exactly the geometry his power wants. Our 2v8 guide covers the full Killer roster.
How do you counter The Deathslinger as a Survivor?
The counterplay is informational, not mechanical.
Listen for the aim cue. When he aims at a Survivor who is inside maximum range and inside his Terror Radius, that Survivor hears a warning that gets louder as his aim centres on their hitbox. If you hear it, you are inside 18 metres and inside his cone, and running straight is the worst option available.
Make him pay for the animation. He cannot cancel the 0.40-second ADS or the 0.60-second Exit Aim. That is a full second of commitment on a 4.4 m/s Killer, so juking as he raises the gun costs him the shot and the distance.
Force collision, not distance. The chain loses 20 charges per second on collision versus 15 for your own pulling, so running behind a wall, car or rock frees you faster than mashing away in the open. Both at once cuts your time on the chain to about 2.7 seconds.
Do not bank on Mending through it. The Deep Wound timer pauses while speared.
Respect Gold Creek Whiskey. The warning only fires inside his Terror Radius, so an 8-metre cut while aiming can delete your cue entirely. If his heartbeat vanishes at mid-range, assume the gun is up.
For where he lands on the roster, see our DBD Killer tier list; our Huntress guide covers the same trade-offs from the hatchet side.
Frequently asked questions
Is The Deathslinger good in 2026? He is mid-tier and extremely consistent. He wins short loops and tiles with partial line of sight, and struggles on large maps because 4.4 m/s plus a 2.6-second reload gives him very little map pressure. Nothing in his kit has changed since June 2024, so an honest assessment from 2025 still holds.
When did Deathslinger last get buffed? Update 8.0.0 on 3 June 2024: break-free stun cut to 2.7 seconds, reel speed raised to 2.76 m/s, reload movement speed raised to 3.08 m/s. That same patch nerfed four of his add-ons.
Can Deathslinger still quickscope? No. Patch 5.3.0 required the 0.40-second Aim Down Sights animation to finish before The Redeemer can fire. Any footage showing an instant flick shot predates November 2021.
Why is Deathslinger only 4.4 m/s? Behaviour applies the reduced speed class to Killers with a projectile power. It is a long-standing community grievance rather than an open balance question.
How do you get The Deathslinger now that Chains of Hate was retired? The chapter stopped selling individually on 8 January 2024, but he is still available with Iridescent Shards and inside the Old Wounds Pack and Terror Expansion Pack.
What are the best perks to run on Deathslinger? His own Dead Man's Switch pairs naturally with the hook pressure his power creates, and Hex: Retribution punishes the totem-hunting a 4.4 Killer invites. For the generic strong options, see our best Killer perks tier list.
Is Dead Man's Switch changing? It is reworked in the 10.2.0 PTB published on 15 September 2026, to a 2-second trigger delay, a 30/35/40-second block and a 30/35/40-second cooldown. That is a test build with no live date, so the live values remain 25/30/35 seconds.
More Dead by Daylight guides
More on the roster and the current meta:
- All DBD Killers 2026
- DBD Killer Tier List
- Best Killer Perks in DBD 2026
- DBD Huntress Guide
- DBD Perk Changes in the 10.2.0 PTB
All values here were checked on 3 October 2026 against Behaviour Interactive's published patch notes for the live build, Patch 10.1.2a of 17 September 2026. The Patch 5.3.0 entries predate Behaviour's Steam news archive and come from the official change log.
