One of the things that have made Dead by Daylight as popular as it has since it first launched is that its developers are bringing new heroes and villains into the game on a fairly regular basis. Behaviour Interactive continued to stay true to that approach earlier this week when it announced a brand new monster is entering the ring. Pinhead from the infamous Hellraiser movies is officially joining the game and is actually already there when it comes to Dead by Daylight's test servers. Horror fans from the 1980s and early 1990s likely already know who Pinhead is and what he can do. However, as is the case with most of the characters in the game, he's got a bit of an original spin this time around.
For Dead by Daylight fans who might have heard about Pinhead but don't know exactly what makes the character tick, there's plenty of information out there. The biggest thing to know about this character is that he's going to fit right in, considering how much he enjoys bringing every variety of pain.
Dead By Daylight's New Villain Has A Long History
In order to really understand the new monster in Dead by Daylight, players should know the long cinematic history of the character. The fact of the matter is that in Clive Barker's Hellraiser movie, the monster was once a man who as the title might suggest went to hell. There, as part of his endless torture, he had pins inserted into his skull. That is, of course, how he got the name Pinhead.
In Dead by Daylight, the character is not specifically referred to as Pinhead all that often. Instead, he's known as the Cenobite, which is also the kind of monster he is, in the movie. In subsequent films, viewers met other Cenobites who had similar backstories as Pinhead. One of the most interesting things that could allow the character to stand out in Dead by Daylight is that he's a killer who has real intelligence. Whether or not that shows up in future gameplay is something users will have to find out, but it's a backstory that could eventually come literally into play.
Dead by Daylight's Pinhead's Perks
As is the case with Dead by Daylight's other killer collaborations, The Cenobite comes with his own perks and they are very clearly a callback to the movie character in a number of different ways. That includes that one of his best perks is the scourge hook that brings the "gift of pain." There is also a hex that "toys" with a survivor's health. That hex is almost certainly supposed to be a callback to the movies' toy-like puzzle box that unleashes Pinhead and the other cenobites onto the world.
Finally, the newest killer character coming to Dead by Daylight actually has the ability to "induce mental suffering" on survivors. This is very obviously a callback to the fact that Pinhead comes from hell itself and imposes that mental suffering on his victims in the movies. Just how these particular perks work as more rounds are played and more players get to see them will be known once Pinhead moves from Dead by Daylight's test servers and onto consoles as well.
Dead by Daylight is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.