Stranger Things is the only Dead by Daylight licence that has been sold, removed, and sold again. Most guides cover one half of that story, and almost all of them get the perk renames backwards.
This page covers both chapters at once: what each contains, what all 18 perks do at live values, and what the delisting actually cost players who already owned the content. Verified against the live build, Patch 10.1.2a, on 20 September 2026.
Quick answer. There are two Stranger Things chapters. CHAPTER 13: Stranger Things launched on 17 September 2019 with The Demogorgon, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington and the Hawkins map. CHAPTER 38: Stranger Things 2 launched on 27 January 2026 in Patch 9.4.0 with Henry Creel, "The First", plus Eleven and Dustin Henderson — and no new map. The first chapter was pulled from sale on 17 November 2021 and returned on 6 November 2023. Owners kept their characters the whole time; the map was removed from everyone. All 18 Stranger Things perks are untouched by the 10.2.0 PTB.
What is the Stranger Things chapter in Dead by Daylight?
CHAPTER 13: Stranger Things arrived with Patch 3.2.0 on 17 September 2019. It added one Killer, two Survivors and one Realm: Hawkins National Laboratory, whose only map is The Underground Complex. That is still true today, and it is one of just 21 Realms in the game — our full map and Realm list has the complete breakdown.
The Killer is The Demogorgon, whose power Of the Abyss places up to 6 portals around the map. An Inactive Portal is invisible to Survivors and cannot be sealed. Travelling through a portal turns both ends Active, which makes them visible and sealable, and grants Undetectable for 12 seconds after emerging. Channelling Of the Abyss also triggers Killer Instinct within 4 metres of each Active Portal. Its second ability, Shred, is a charged lunge that travels at 19 m/s and breaks pallets and breakable walls on contact.
A stealth teleport network plus a pallet-breaking dash still earns the Demogorgon a respectable spot among all 44 Killers in our DBD Killer tier list.
What is Stranger Things Chapter 2 and when did it release?
CHAPTER 38: Stranger Things 2 went live with Patch 9.4.0 on 27 January 2026, after a Public Test Build that opened on 6 January 2026. Two hotfixes followed: 9.4.1 on 3 February and 9.4.2 on 10 February 2026.
It added three characters and, unusually for a full chapter, no new map and no new Realm — The Underground Complex is still the only Stranger Things map in the game.
- Henry Creel, "The First" — Killer, CharID K42. Also referred to in the show as Vecna and as One. Weapon: Foul Intent. Movement speed 110%, or 4.4 m/s, with a 32 metre Terror Radius and average height. Voiced by Andrew Morgado.
- Jane Hopper, Eleven — Survivor, CharID S51, drawn specifically from Season 5. Voiced by Abby Espiritu.
- Dustin Henderson — Survivor, CharID S50.
How does The First's power work?
The First's power is Test Subject #001, the most mechanically layered Killer power added in 2026. It has three moving parts.
Vine Attack. Hold the Power button to charge, release to cancel. Pressing Attack while fully charged creates an area of effect on the ground; Survivors caught inside it take 1 Worldbreaker Token.
The Upside Down. Press the Secondary Power button to enter it. Inside, The First moves at 8 m/s, gains Undetectable, and ignores the collision of breakable walls, pallets and windows. Exiting puts the ability on a 35 second cooldown — but at the start of the trial it begins at 50% of that base cooldown, so his first entry comes early.
Undergate Attack. Performed from inside The Upside Down, this grows an area of effect around his position until it hits full radius, at which point he exits. Survivors caught inside take 2 Worldbreaker Tokens.
Tokens are the win condition. A Survivor can hold up to 4 Worldbreaker Tokens, and Worldbreaker activates when any Survivor reaches 2 or 4 tokens, or when a Survivor already at 4 is hit again. While it is active, both attacks stop applying tokens and start applying damage instead.
Worldbreaker runs in two phases. Phase One lasts 60 seconds per Survivor still in the trial — 240 seconds in a full lobby, dropping as Survivors die. Phase Two lasts a flat 50 seconds. The countdown pauses while The First is carrying a Survivor, and 4 Grandfather Clocks spawn that Survivors can interact with during Phase One to speed it up. Those clocks are the only lever Survivors have on it.
Then there is Mind Break. A Survivor at their second hook stage holding 4 tokens becomes exposed to it; if Worldbreaker is active and that Survivor is downed by Vine Attack or Undergate Attack, they float into the air and The First can press Secondary Power beside them for a Mind Break Mini-Mori.
His three perks are Hex: Hive Mind (the first hook of any Survivor converts a random Dull Totem into a Hex Totem, highlighting generator auras with intensity showing repair progress; once 4 generators are complete, every remaining generator explodes, loses 6/8/10% and regresses, then the perk disables for the trial), Secret Project (blessing or cleansing any Totem blocks a random unblocked generator for 20/25/30 seconds, and whenever any generators become blocked he gains Undetectable for 30 seconds), and Turn Back the Clock (for 40/50/60 seconds after a hook, press Active Ability to make a generator within 20 metres explode, lose 10% progress and regress). Turn Back the Clock also appears in our generator regression perk ranking.
What perks do Eleven and Dustin bring?
Eleven's kit is built around information at a cost. Extrasensory Perception requires crouching still for 4 seconds to activate, then reveals the auras of Survivors, the Killer, and objects — chests, the Exit Gate, generators, the Hatch, items, pallets, totems and windows — in an expanding 44 metre radius, granting Elusive and Oblivious while it runs. It ends when you stand up or after 11 seconds, with a 60/50/40 second cooldown. Teamwork: Soft-Spoken cuts generator repair noise range by 15/20/25% per other Survivor repairing with you, plus 5% faster repair with at least one partner. We See You banks a token each time the Killer reveals your aura, on a 10 second per-token cooldown; at 4 tokens all are consumed and the Killer's aura is shown to every Survivor for 10/12.5/15 seconds.
Dustin's kit is more practical. Bada Bada Boom arms after you have completed 20% worth of generator repairs, letting you install a trap on a window for 40/50/60 seconds that inflicts 50% Hindered for 6 seconds when the Killer vaults it, with trapped windows shown in yellow to all Survivors. Change of Plan starts with 2 tokens; inside a locker holding a non-event Toolbox, spend a token to convert it into a same-rarity Med-Kit with a random same-rarity add-on at 80/90/100% of its charges. Teamwork: Full Circuit increases good Skill Check zone size by 15/20/25% per Survivor repairing with you, again with a 5% repair bonus alongside at least one partner.
Where these land against the wider pool is covered in our Survivor perk tier list.
Why was Stranger Things removed from Dead by Daylight?
Behaviour announced the removal on 16 August 2021, and the content left the store on 17 November 2021.
The part almost every guide gets wrong is what that removal actually did. Players who already owned the chapter kept the Demogorgon, Nancy, Steve and all their cosmetics, and could keep playing them. The map was a different story — it was pulled from everyone, owners included. Behaviour said so directly in its own FAQ:
"It is important to note that except for the Hawkins Underground Complex being completely removed, all players who owned the Stranger Things content did not experience any change in gameplay or appearance with the removal of the content."
— Behaviour Interactive, FAQ: Stranger Things Returns
That is the asymmetry: a lapsed licence pulled a paid character from sale but not from accounts, while pulling a map from every player. The community wiki records it as inaccessible for almost two years.
When did Stranger Things come back?
The content returned on 6 November 2023 — Stranger Things Day — in Patch 7.3.3. Characters, cosmetics and the map all came back on the same day, with the original names, flavour text and perk icons restored.
The return happened in two steps. Behaviour set out the plan in the same FAQ: "Initially the perks will return to Stranger Things Perks with the original flavour text and icons, but will remain General Perks for now. In a later patch, they will return to being Character specific Perks […]" That later patch was 7.4.0 on 28 November 2023, which made all nine of the original perks character-exclusive again — no longer appearing in the Bloodweb unless you own the DLC.
Every Stranger Things perk and its old name
Between the delisting and the return, all nine 2019 perks were renamed. This happened in Patch 5.3.0 on 19 October 2021, before the store removal, and the direction matters: the Stranger Things name is the original, and the replacement was the placeholder. Most lists state this backwards for the best-known pair.
| Character | Original name | Placeholder name (2021 to 2023) |
|---|---|---|
| The Demogorgon | Surge | Jolt |
| The Demogorgon | Mindbreaker | Fearmonger |
| The Demogorgon | Cruel Limits | Claustrophobia |
| Nancy Wheeler | Better Together | Situational Awareness |
| Nancy Wheeler | Fixated | Self-Aware |
| Nancy Wheeler | Inner Strength | Inner Healing |
| Steve Harrington | Babysitter | Guardian |
| Steve Harrington | Camaraderie | Kinship |
| Steve Harrington | Second Wind | Renewal |
Cruel Limits also had its flavour text rewritten, and four perks — Second Wind, Inner Strength, Babysitter and Better Together — had their icons altered and then restored.
What do the 2019 perks actually do?
The Demogorgon. Surge causes generators within 32 metres to instantly explode and lose 6/7/8% progress when you down a Survivor with a Basic Attack. Mindbreaker applies Blindness and Exhaustion while a Survivor repairs, both lingering 3/4/5 seconds after they stop. Cruel Limits blocks every window on the map for 20/25/30 seconds when a generator is completed — the 32 metre range limit was removed in Patch 7.1.0 — and shows the blocked windows in yellow to the Killer. Surge in particular still earns a place in our Killer perk tier list.
Nancy Wheeler. Better Together shows the aura of the generator you are repairing to all other Survivors, and reveals their auras to you for 20/25/30 seconds whenever the Killer downs another Survivor while you are repairing. Fixated makes you walk 10/15/20% faster and shows your own scratch marks. Inner Strength heals you one health state after 10/9/8 seconds hidden in a locker, once a totem has been cleansed.
Steve Harrington. Babysitter suppresses the Scratch Marks and Pools of Blood of the Survivor you unhook for 20/25/30 seconds, stacks a second 10% Haste on top of the base-kit 10% for 10 seconds, and shows you the Killer's aura for 8 seconds. Camaraderie pauses your struggle timer for 26/30/34 seconds once another Survivor comes within 16 metres of your hook. Second Wind heals you one health state after 28/24/20 seconds once you have healed another Survivor and are then unhooked, leaving you Broken until it triggers.
Does the 10.2.0 PTB change any Stranger Things perk?
No. The 10.2.0 Public Test Build that opened on 15 September 2026 contains 58 perk changes, and none of the 18 Stranger Things perks appear in that list — we checked all eighteen against the full change set in our breakdown of all 58 perk changes.
What do both chapters cost?
Each chapter is 1,500 Auric Cells, and each individual character inside them is 500 Auric Cells. The official wiki lists both chapters at $11.99 as standalone DLC. Regional store pricing varies and we did not verify a discounted dollar figure, so treat the Auric Cell numbers as the reliable ones.
FAQ
Is the Demogorgon the same character as The First? No. The Demogorgon is a creature from the 2019 chapter; The First is Henry Creel, a humanoid Killer added on 27 January 2026 with a completely different power. Both are playable at the same time.
Can I still buy the original Stranger Things chapter? Yes. It returned to sale on 6 November 2023 and has been purchasable since.
Did I lose anything if I owned the chapter during the delisting? Only the map. Behaviour's FAQ is explicit that owners saw no change to gameplay or appearance apart from The Underground Complex being removed — and that removal applied to every player, not just to people who had not bought the DLC.
Why does Stranger Things Chapter 2 use Season 4 visuals when it launched after Season 5? Players on r/deadbydaylight noticed the same thing, and the common explanation in those threads is scheduling: the chapter was originally lined up to arrive before Season 5. Behaviour has not published a statement, so treat that as community reading rather than fact. The wiki does confirm The First draws on Seasons 4 and 5 while Eleven is sourced specifically from Season 5.
Is there a Stranger Things map from the second chapter? No. Stranger Things 2 shipped with no new map and no new Realm. The Underground Complex, inside the Hawkins National Laboratory Realm, remains the only Stranger Things map in Dead by Daylight.
Are the Stranger Things perks available without buying the DLC? Not from the Bloodweb. Patch 7.4.0 on 28 November 2023 returned all nine original perks to character-exclusive status. They can still appear in the Shrine of Secrets.
Want more Dead by Daylight guides? Our chapter and perk coverage is checked against the live build and updated the day Behaviour publishes new numbers.
>
Sources: Behaviour Interactive's FAQ: Stranger Things Returns, the official Stranger Things and The Demogorgon pages on deadbydaylight.com, and current character, power and perk entries on the official Dead by Daylight community wiki, including Henry Creel and The Underground Complex. Community observations are drawn from r/deadbydaylight discussion threads. Last verified 20 September 2026 against live Patch 10.1.2a.
