Almost every Michael Myers guide you can find right now is describing a power that no longer exists in Dead by Daylight. Evil Within I, II and III were removed in September 2025. The Shape's own Fandom infobox still lists them. If you loaded into a match expecting a Tier 1 Myers who creeps at 4.4 m/s with a 6-metre terror radius, the killer you actually meet moves differently, sounds different and downs you with an attack that did not exist a year ago.
This guide is written against Patch 10.1.2a, released 17 September 2026 — the live build at time of writing. Every number below comes from Behaviour Interactive's own patch notes rather than from a wiki page that stopped being updated.
Quick answer: what changed about Michael Myers?
- Patch 9.2.0 (23 September 2025) replaced Evil Within I/II/III with three named modes — Stalker Mode, Pursuer Mode and Evil Incarnate Mode — and added a new special attack, Slaughtering Strike.
- Patch 9.2.3 (21 October 2025) is the tuning pass most guides missed: Evil Incarnate went from 40 seconds to 60 seconds, Pursuer's terror radius dropped from 24 m to 16 m, and Slaughtering Strike's cooldown fell from 6 s to 4 s.
- Patch 9.4.0 (27 January 2026) removed The Shape and Laurie Strode from the store permanently and renamed six of their perks for everyone who does not already own them.
- He is still fully playable if you owned him before the delisting. He can no longer be bought at any price, in Auric Cells or otherwise.
- The old Exposed-on-Tier-3 rule is gone. Evil Incarnate now lets Myers kill survivors on their final hook stage instead.
Why can't I buy Michael Myers in Dead by Daylight anymore?
Because Behaviour's licence for The HALLOWEEN Chapter lapsed and the content was pulled from sale. Patch 9.4.0's notes state it plainly:
"The Shape, Laurie Strode and their respective outfits are no longer available in the store. These characters will remain playable for players who already had them unlocked."
This is the single most common question about Myers in 2026, and the answer people get wrong most often. Retracted is not the same as retired. Retired content is still buyable somewhere. The HALLOWEEN Chapter is not — there is no bundle, no rotating sale, no Iridescent Shard route. Licensed characters never had a Shard price to begin with; they cost 500 Auric Cells, and that storefront entry no longer exists.
The knock-on effects hit everyone, not just people who wanted to buy him:
- Lampkin Lane was removed from the map rotation and from custom game selection. Haddonfield is out of your map pool whether or not you own the chapter.
- Achievements were renamed. Adept Shape became Share the Pain ("As a Killer, have all four Survivors injured at the same time"), Adept Laurie became Key to Success, and Evil Incarnate became Prized Possession.
- Six perks were converted into General Perks with new names for non-owners.
If you did not own him, the practical answer is that you play someone else. The closest stalking-and-ambush killer still on sale is Ghost Face, covered in our Ghost Face guide — and he is the substitute the community recommends most often.
What are Michael Myers' perks called now?
If you own him, nothing changed: your perks keep their original names. If you do not, you get the renamed General Perk versions. Both sets are the same perks with the same effects — only the licensed names were stripped.
Killer side (The Shape):
- Save the Best for Last → Keep Them Waiting
- Play With Your Food → See How They Run
- Dying Light → Cull the Weak
Survivor side (Laurie Strode):
- Decisive Strike → Will to Live
- Object of Obsession → Bound by Obsession
- Sole Survivor → Down to the Last
Two traps to avoid here. Do not repeat the claim that Decisive Strike was removed — it was not, it is still in the game under a second name. And Will to Live is not a new perk; treating it as one is how people end up building around a perk they already had.
Keep Them Waiting, with live 10.1.0 numbers
This is The Shape's signature perk and it was buffed as recently as Patch 10.1.0 (25 August 2026):
"Whenever you damage a Survivor who is not the Obsession with a basic-attack, you earn 1 Token, up to 6/7/8. For each Token, your basic-attack cooldown are 5% shorter. (was 4%)"
At maximum stacks that is a 30/35/40% shorter basic-attack cooldown, up from 24/28/32% before the buff. You lose 2 Tokens for damaging the Obsession, which is the whole design tension: the perk wants you to ignore the one survivor your own power is built around.
See How They Run
The old Play With Your Food. You gain a Token each time you chase the Obsession and turn away without hitting them, to a maximum of 3 Tokens, each giving 3/4/5% Movement speed. Spending any Basic or Special Attack consumes one Token, and there is a 10-second cooldown between Token gains. It is the classic Myers speed engine: farm three Tokens off the Obsession, then move across the map faster than the survivors expect.
Cull the Weak
Formerly Dying Light. Every time you hook a survivor who is not the Obsession you gain a Token, and each Token slows non-Obsession Repair, Healing and Sabotage actions by 2% / 2.5% / 3% at tiers I/II/III. In exchange, the Obsession gets a bonus to unhooking and healing others — which means killing the Obsession early is usually a mistake if you are running this perk.
How does The Shape's power work on Patch 10.1.2a?
Three modes, one meter. You climb the meter by stalking, and each mode changes your speed, terror radius and what your attacks do.
Stalker Mode (the patch notes call it "Previously Evil Within I"):
- Movement speed 4.2 m/s
- The Shape is Undetectable — no terror radius at all
- Hold the Power button to Stalk
- Filling the meter automatically moves you to Pursuer Mode, and Stalker becomes unavailable
- "No longer decreases lunge range" — the old Tier 1 lunge penalty is gone
Pursuer Mode ("Previously Evil Within II"):
- Movement speed 4.6 m/s
- Terror radius 16 m since Patch 9.2.3 (it was 24 m at launch of the rework)
- +20% to lunge range, breaking, vaulting and stun recovery
Evil Incarnate Mode ("Previously Evil Within III"):
- Tap the Ability button at a full meter to activate
- Lasts 60 seconds since Patch 9.2.3 (it was 40 s)
- Terror radius 32 m since 9.2.3 (it was 40 m), movement speed 4.6 m/s
- Unlocks Slaughtering Strike and the ability to kill survivors who are on their final hook stage
- Cannot be used on survivors with Endurance
- The patch notes are explicit: "Note: Survivors are no longer Exposed."
That last line is the most important sentence in the whole rework, and it is the one that guides written before September 2025 get wrong. Tier 3 Myers is no longer a walking one-shot for the entire lobby. He is a 60-second window in which anyone already on their last hook can simply be killed where they stand.
Slaughtering Strike
The new special attack, available only in Evil Incarnate Mode. Hold the Power button to charge, then press Attack. Charging extends the lunge duration up to 1.5 seconds, and the attack moves at 7.5 m/s since Patch 9.2.3 (it was 6.9 m/s). It instantly downs healthy survivors and it breaks pallets and breakable walls on contact. Cooldown is 4 seconds, down from 6. Patch 9.2.3 also raised its score event to 800 Bloodpoints from 200 and removed the vertical camera restriction; Patch 9.3.0 (25 November 2025) then made its camera controls identical to normal ones.
How stalking actually works now
- The meter takes 5 points to fill (the old system needed 3 for Tier 1 and 6 for Tier 2)
- Your movement-speed multiplier while stalking is 60%, raised from 20%
- Stalk rate is reduced 25% while you are moving
- After 20 seconds of not stalking, progress decays down to 50%
- Maximum stalk range is 32 m, cut from 40 m
- "Survivors no longer have a limited amount of Stalk points" — you can no longer be stalked out
- "Stalk rate is no longer affected by distance"
The last two bullets are why infinite Tier 1 Myers builds behave completely differently now. Nobody drains out, and standing at maximum range no longer punishes your stalk speed.
Which Michael Myers add-ons still matter?
The 9.2.0 rework touched nearly every add-on. The notable survivors of that pass:
- Fragrant Tuft of Hair — makes survivors Exposed during Evil Incarnate and gives +50% lunge, but disables Slaughtering Strike. Behaviour dropped it to Uncommon rarity and explained why: "This add-on makes The Shape's power work similarly to how it used to. We've made it more common so those who prefer the original power can keep a steady supply."
- Judith's Tombstone — hooking a survivor refreshes Evil Incarnate, but limits it to 40 seconds
- Tombstone Piece — grants Undetectable for 20 seconds when Evil Incarnate activates
- Memorial Flower — raises Stalker Mode speed to 4.4 m/s
- Tacky Earrings — +20% movement while stalking, up from 10%
- Jewelry Box — −16 m stalk range in exchange for +30% stalk rate
- Hair Bow — +20 seconds of Evil Incarnate (reduced from 30) at the cost of −20% stalk rate
Fragrant Tuft of Hair is the honest tell for how the rework landed: Behaviour left a legacy button in the game and made it easier to farm for the players who wanted the old Myers back.
How do you counter Michael Myers in 2026?
Break line of sight early, not late. Stalk rate is no longer affected by distance, so backing up across the map does nothing on its own. Only a wall works.
Watch for the terror radius switch. Stalker Mode is Undetectable, so the first time you hear a heartbeat at all, he is already in Pursuer with 16 m of terror radius. That is a short heartbeat — treat any faint music as much closer than it feels.
Stop pre-dropping pallets in Evil Incarnate. Slaughtering Strike breaks pallets and breakable walls on contact. A pallet you drop from range is a free resource removal for him.
Track your hook stages. Evil Incarnate no longer makes anyone Exposed, but it does let him kill anyone on their last hook. If you are on second stage during his power window, you are the only survivor genuinely in danger — and Endurance blocks the kill outright.
Take the Obsession role seriously. If he is running Keep Them Waiting, he is actively avoiding hitting the Obsession. Being the Obsession is a defensive position; body-blocking as the Obsession costs him two Tokens.
Where does Myers sit in the roster?
The Shape is one of 44 killers across 41 chapters, of which 19 are licensed. He is unusual twice over: he was the star of CHAPTER 2: The HALLOWEEN Chapter, released 25 October 2016 — Dead by Daylight's first paid DLC and first licensed chapter — and he is now one of a very small number of killers you cannot acquire.
For where he lands competitively against everyone else, see our killer tier list and the full all killers list. If you are building around Keep Them Waiting, our best killer perks tier list covers what pairs with it, and the perk changes in 10.2.0 tracks what the PTB is doing to the wider perk pool.
What are players actually saying?
The community reaction to the reworked Myers has been unusually warm, largely because the new Stalker Mode reads as more faithful to the films. One player summed up the appeal of watching a Myers who just stands still and stares: "Gotta love a Myers that just stands there menacingly lol"
The other recurring thread is disappointment from newer players who discover the delisting only after deciding they want him. The community's answer is consistently the same: play Ghost Face instead.
What's next for Dead by Daylight?
Patch 10.2.0 is on the Public Test Build, which opened 15 September 2026. Behaviour has not published a live release date for it — the wiki entry still reads TBA — so treat anything you see on the PTB as provisional. PTB values regularly ship different from what was tested.
Chapter 42 is Terrifier, bringing Art the Clown. Behaviour has said it is set to release sometime in November 2026. There is no PTB for it yet and no exact date has been announced, so be sceptical of any site quoting one.
For Halloween itself, Behaviour has not published 2026 event dates. The Haunted by Daylight event has historically run from mid-October into early November, but until BHVR posts a date, nobody has one. That is worth saying plainly, because Myers traffic spikes every October and the sites chasing it tend to invent a date rather than admit they do not have one.
More Dead by Daylight guides
FAQ
Can you still get Michael Myers in Dead by Daylight? No. Patch 9.4.0 on 27 January 2026 removed The Shape, Laurie Strode and all of their cosmetics from the store permanently. If you already owned them, they remain fully playable — but there is no way to purchase them now, in Auric Cells or anything else.
Does Michael Myers still have Evil Within tiers? No. Patch 9.2.0 on 23 September 2025 replaced Evil Within I, II and III with Stalker Mode, Pursuer Mode and Evil Incarnate Mode. Behaviour's patch notes label each new mode with its old tier in brackets, which is why so many outdated guides still describe tiers.
Does Tier 3 Myers still make survivors Exposed? No. The patch notes state directly that survivors are no longer Exposed. Evil Incarnate Mode instead lets him kill survivors who are on their final hook stage, and it cannot be used on survivors with Endurance.
What is Michael Myers' movement speed? It depends on his mode — this is the detail most guides get wrong by quoting one number. Stalker Mode is 4.2 m/s, while both Pursuer Mode and Evil Incarnate Mode are 4.6 m/s.
Was Decisive Strike removed from Dead by Daylight? No. It was renamed to Will to Live as a General Perk for players who do not own Laurie Strode. Players who already owned her keep the original name. The perk itself is unchanged.
How long does Evil Incarnate Mode last? 60 seconds as of Patch 9.2.3, released 21 October 2025. It was 40 seconds when the rework first shipped in 9.2.0, which is the figure most third-party guides still print.
What patch is Dead by Daylight on right now? Patch 10.1.2a, released 17 September 2026. The 10.2.0 PTB opened on 15 September 2026 and Behaviour has not announced a live date for it yet.
