The Terrifier Public Test Build is live, and it is the first chance anyone has had to play Art the Clown before he reaches every platform. It is also one of the trickier PTBs to get into: it opened a day late, on a Wednesday instead of the usual Tuesday, Steam renamed the menu you need, and the official forum where PTB feedback has always gone is about to shut down.
Quick answer: The 10.3.0 Terrifier PTB went live on Wednesday, 28 October 2026 at 11AM ET (15:00 UTC), one day later than first scheduled. It is Steam only. Right-click Dead by Daylight in your Steam Library, open Properties, go to Game Versions and Betas, and pick the public test branch. It contains The Terrifier (Art the Clown), Survivor Sienna Shaw, the Hartshorne Mall map, gore settings, a Mori system update and balance changes to six perks. Behaviour has not published a close date. The chapter's own Steam listing shows 24 November 2026. The live game stays on 10.2.2, with a backend tuning pass (10.2.2a) applied on 29 October.
Everything below is checked against Behaviour's 10.3.0 PTB patch notes on Steam, the Steam store and news APIs, and the official forum. Where a date is a pattern rather than an announcement, this guide says so.
When did the DBD 10.3.0 PTB go live?
Behaviour's 10.3.0 Terrifier PTB Patch Notes went up on Dead by Daylight's official Steam news feed at 15:00 UTC on 28 October 2026, which is 11AM ET and 8AM PT. The build went live at the same moment.
That was a day later than planned. The PTB was originally due on Tuesday 27 October, and the change was announced through DBD Pulse, Behaviour's new official X account for player communication. GamesRadar quoted it explaining the delay with "a lot in store for this PTB". The extra content is visible in the notes: a new Killer, a new Survivor, a new map, two new systems and a perk balance pass all landed together.
| Milestone | Date | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Original PTB date | Tuesday, 27 October 2026 | Delayed by one day |
| 10.3.0 PTB live | Wednesday, 28 October 2026, 11AM ET | Confirmed by BHVR's Steam post |
| 10.2.2a backend tuning (live game) | Thursday, 29 October 2026 | Confirmed by BHVR's Steam post |
| 10.3.0 PTB closes | Not announced | No BHVR date |
| Terrifier chapter release | 24 November 2026 | Shown on Behaviour's Steam DLC listing |
When does the Terrifier PTB end?
Behaviour has not said. Nothing in the patch notes, the Steam announcement or the forum category gives an end date, so anyone quoting a specific day is guessing.
The official wiki documents the usual pattern: a PTB stays open for 6 days and closes on a Monday evening ET. This one already broke the pattern by opening on a Wednesday, so treat early November as a rough window and not a deadline. Once the build closes, the official wiki is blunt about it: "After the Public Test Build is closed, it is impossible to access it until the next one opens."
When does the Terrifier chapter come out on live servers?
Behaviour's own Steam listing for the DLC, Dead by Daylight: Terrifier, shows a 24 November 2026 release date and is still marked as coming soon, with no price yet. That is a first-party store listing, not a launch announcement, but it is the best date available.
The 17 November date repeated by aggregator sites, and the "around Tuesday, 17 November" estimate GamesRadar based on the usual schedule, both come from leaks and patterns. Behaviour's own store says a week later. 24 November is also the day Chucky is removed from every platform store at 11AM ET, so if you have been putting off buying The Good Guy, both deadlines fall on the same Tuesday. Our Chucky leaving guide covers what owners keep.
How do you join the DBD PTB on Steam?
There is no separate download page, no key and no sign-up. You switch your existing Steam install to a beta branch, and Steam downloads the test build.
- Open the Steam desktop client. Game properties are not reachable from the web store.
- Right-click Dead by Daylight in your Library and choose Properties.
- Open the Game Versions and Betas tab. Older guides call this the Betas tab, and that is the same place.
- Pick the public test branch from the dropdown. It only shows while a PTB is running.
- Let Steam update. If the branch does not appear, close Steam completely and relaunch it.
- Launch the game. Your library entry shows a public-test tag while you are on the test build.
To go back, return to the same tab and choose the default public version. Steam re-downloads the live build and your normal save is untouched.
Why can't I play the DBD PTB on PS5, Xbox, Switch or Epic?
Behaviour only runs the PTB through Steam's beta-branch system, so other versions of the game cannot join it. The official wiki says the Public Test Build "is only available to Players of the Steam version of Dead by Daylight, which excludes any other PC-version and the Console versions."
That rules out PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, the Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store and Game Pass. On those platforms the first time you can play Art is the live release.
What is in the 10.3.0 Terrifier PTB?
This is a full chapter test. September's 10.2.0 PTB was a mid-chapter update with a big perk rework and new systems such as Survivor Intent and the Abandon option, but no new Killer. Here is what Behaviour's 10.3.0 notes list.
The Terrifier (Art the Clown). His power is the Bag of Toys. Hold the Ability button to open it and pick one of two random Toys, then the bag goes on cooldown. There are five Toys: Acid Bottle, Flail, Handgun, Flamethrower and Bike Horn. Each one is single-use. Toys damage healthy Survivors, and on injured Survivors they apply Torture. BHVR's own summary of the loop: "Use a Toy to inflict a Torture effect on an injured Survivor. Then, use a different Toy on the Survivor to down them and inflict Terrified."
Two more layers sit on top of that. Taunting a Terrified Survivor who is hooked or downed gives every Toy 1 point of Deadliness and removes Terrified. Every time a Toy applies Torture it also gains a point of Deadliness, and a Toy at maximum Deadliness can down injured Survivors on its own. A max-Deadliness Bike Horn interrupts Survivors repairing or healing and instantly regresses their progress, but it never downs anyone. Our Art the Clown guide goes through each Toy and his three perks in full.
New Killer perks: Laughingstock, Kill Spree and Funny Business.
New Survivor: Sienna Shaw, with Valkyrie's Rage, Shared Trauma and Best Gift Ever.
New map: Hartshorne Mall, in a new realm called The Subdivisions.
Gore customisation. A new Gameplay settings section lets you tone down Death Sequences, switch blood to a neutral green, and use a Regional Streamer Mode that also anonymises player information.
Mori system update. Moris now fall into three categories (Finisher, Power, and Memento Mori offering and Perk moris), all on the Attack input. Behaviour says The Terrifier is the first Killer built this way and older Killers will follow "over time".
Redeem-code fix. The notes add protection against "spamming the redeem button for a promo code that might already be expired". Useful to know if you are working through our DBD codes list.
Which perks change in the 10.3.0 PTB?
Six perks from the 10.2.0 rework get another pass, and not all of them are buffs: Ravenous loses Exposed time, and Slippery Meat and Dark Arrogance trade strength in one place for another. Behaviour's reasoning: "we were conservative with some of the numbers and after reviewing, we felt they could be buffed further."
| Perk | Side | PTB change |
|---|---|---|
| Dark Sense | Survivor | Now earns 1 Token at trial start and per completed Generator, up to 5; spends one when the Killer comes within 20 m |
| Calm Spirit | Survivor | Totem and Chest speed 23/24/25% (was 8/9/10%) |
| Slippery Meat | Survivor | Unhook speed bonus 65/70/75% (was 90/95/100%); post-unhook Haste 7% (was 5%) |
| Dark Arrogance | Killer | Vault bonus 15% (was 25%); successful basic-attack cooldown 13/14/15% shorter (was 10% on all basic-attack recovery); blind, Pallet-stun and missed-attack penalty 15% longer (was 25%, blind and stun only) |
| Ravenous | Killer | Exposed lasts 60/65/70s (was 80/85/90s) |
| Whispers | Killer | Haste outside range 7% (was 5%) |
The clearest dev note is on Dark Sense: "With this PTB, we are adding a token system to allow players to have more chances to activate the perk." Slippery Meat goes the other way. Behaviour says it "had the possibility to eliminate risk for the Survivor unhooking you", so some of the unhook speed moves into Haste after the unhook. Players have already noticed that Whispers and the Flamethrower look strong together on Art.
Among the bug fixes, one is causing arguments. Lay Waste used to apply its regression speed increase before other regression perks triggered, and the fix changes that order. Several players on the patch-notes thread read it as a quiet nerf to stacking Lay Waste with other regression perks. Our patch notes hub has the full 10.3.0 change list and the known-issues section, which runs to 11 entries.
What do you get on a PTB account, and does anything carry over?
The PTB runs on a separate copy of your profile, taken before the build opens. The official wiki documents what that copy normally gets: 12,500 Auric Cells, 1,000,000 Bloodpoints, every Steam-owned character at Level 50 and Prestige 3, and 99 of every item, add-on and offering. Characters you bought outside Steam, including through the in-game Store, are locked on the test build. The Auric Cells are there so you can buy them again inside the PTB.
Behaviour's 10.3.0 notes do not restate any of this, and on day two at least one player reported finding no items, add-ons or offerings in their inventory. The only reply on that thread said to open the Bloodweb. If your PTB inventory looks empty, spend some of the Bloodpoints there before assuming you were skipped.
Nothing carries over in either direction. Bloodpoints, prestiges, Auric Cell purchases and challenge progress from the PTB disappear when the build closes, and anything you do on live this week does not show up in the PTB copy.
Two more things to plan around. PTB queues are long. One player put Killer waits at roughly 20 to 30 minutes on day two, which is normal when everyone wants to try the new Killer at once. And the live event clock keeps running: Haunted by Daylight ends on 3 November, so a week spent on the PTB is a week not spent on the event. Our Halloween event guide lists what is left to claim.
Where do you send DBD PTB feedback now that the forums are closing?
This changed this cycle. Behaviour did open a 10.3.0 PTB Feedback category on forums.bhvr.com on 28 October, as it does every cycle. Even that went wrong at launch: players pointed out the banner link at the top of the forum pointed to a broken address while the link on the main page worked.
The bigger issue is that Behaviour announced on 21 September that it would "close the Official Forums at the end of October 2026", moving players to "the official Discord server, Steam Discussions and the r/DeadbyDaylight subreddit". The 10.3.0 feedback category opened just days before that closure date, so do not count on it lasting through the whole test.
For bugs, Behaviour's BetaHub project already carries a 10.3.0 Terrifier PTB Patch Notes release, and players have filed bug reports through BetaHub earlier this year. For balance opinions, use the official Discord or Steam Discussions. Whichever you use, say you were on the PTB build and describe what you expected versus what happened. A clear repro of one Toy interaction is worth more than a general complaint about Art.
What changed on the live game while the PTB is running?
The live game is still on 10.2.2, but Behaviour used its new Backend Tunables system on 29 October to push a balance pass called 10.2.2a with no download. You only need to restart the game.
The Executioner gets faster Rites of Judgment (0.8s to activate, was 1s), maximum charges cut to 8 (was 10), recharge doubled to 0.5 charges/s (was 0.25), and Punishment of the Damned range raised to 16 m (was 10 m). The Good Guy gets a 10s Hidey-Ho cooldown (was 12s), a 0.8s Slice and Dice vault (was 1s) and a 2s maximum Slice and Dice (was 1.8s). Behaviour's note on The Executioner: "our goal is to make The Executioner feel snappier when using his power". If you main either Killer, these changes are on live right now. You do not need the PTB for them.
Is the PTB worth installing this week?
On Steam, yes, if you want to play Art early. The download costs nothing, your live save is safe, and BHVR changes numbers between PTB and live every cycle, so early feedback has a real chance of shaping the release. For scale, Dead by Daylight had 63,010 concurrent players on Steam at about 15:40 UTC on 29 October, according to Steam's player-count API, and only that Steam slice of the player base can test.
It is not worth it if you are behind on Haunted by Daylight, or if long Killer queues will put you off. The chapter is planned for every platform at release, and Behaviour's own listing puts that at 24 November, though PTB content and numbers can still change before then. For where the new Killer might land among the current roster, keep our Killer tier list handy.
More Dead by Daylight guides: dates, codes and builds, refreshed as BHVR publishes.
- DBD patch notes: 10.3.0 PTB and what is live
- Art the Clown: power, Toys, perks and release date
- Dead by Daylight codes, verified and dated
- DBD roadmap: every confirmed chapter and event
FAQ
When did the DBD Terrifier PTB start? Wednesday, 28 October 2026 at 11AM ET (15:00 UTC), when Behaviour posted the 10.3.0 Terrifier PTB patch notes on Steam. It had been planned for Tuesday 27 October and was pushed back one day.
When does the 10.3.0 PTB end? Behaviour has not announced a close date. PTBs have usually run about six days, but this one already opened a day late, so expect it to close in early November and check BHVR's channels for the actual date.
How do I get the DBD PTB on Steam? Right-click Dead by Daylight in your Steam Library, open Properties, go to Game Versions and Betas, and pick the public test branch. If it is missing, fully restart Steam. Choosing the default public version in the same menu takes you back to live.
Can I play the Terrifier PTB on PS5, Xbox or Switch? No. The Public Test Build is Steam only, so there is no PTB on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, Epic Games Store, the Microsoft Store or Game Pass. Those players get Art when the chapter releases.
When does Art the Clown come out in Dead by Daylight? Behaviour's Steam listing for Dead by Daylight: Terrifier shows 24 November 2026. The 17 November date going around comes from leaks and schedule guesses. 24 November is also the day Chucky leaves all platform stores.
Does PTB progress carry over to the live game? No. The PTB uses a separate copy of your profile, and nothing you earn or spend there transfers back. Anything you do on live while the PTB is open is not copied into it either.
Is Hartshorne Mall in the PTB? Yes. Behaviour's 10.3.0 PTB notes list Hartshorne Mall, in the new realm The Subdivisions, under the chapter content.
