Dead by Daylight Reveals Jason Voorhees Powers and New Outfits
When Behaviour Interactive finally revealed that Jason Voorhees was coming to Dead by Daylight as part of the game’s tenth anniversary celebrations, horror fans collectively lost their minds. After a decade of requests, rumours and wishful thinking, Camp Crystal Lake’s most infamous resident was finally stepping into The Fog.
Now, following that unforgettable 13-hour livestream reveal, Behaviour has pulled back the curtain on exactly how Jason will play, and it looks like the developers have gone out of their way to make him feel every bit as relentless, brutal and unpredictable as he has been throughout his 45-year history.
Known in the game as The Slasher, Jason officially joins Dead by Daylight on June 16, though players on Steam will get a chance to test him earlier through the Public Test Build beginning May 26.
For Behaviour, this wasn’t just another licensed killer.
“There was never a question that our 10th Anniversary Chapter couldn’t just be big, it needed to be something really special,” explained Senior Creative Director Dave Richard. “When we started to see a path to finally making this partnership a reality for our 10th, we knew then the perfect Jason moment had come.”
It’s hard to argue with that sentiment. Since Dead by Daylight launched in 2016, Jason has been the glaring omission in a roster packed with horror royalty. Michael Myers arrived early. Freddy Krueger eventually followed. Leatherface, Ghost Face, Chucky, Pinhead, Sadako, Dracula and the Xenomorph all found homes within the Entity’s realm. Yet Jason remained frustratingly absent due largely to the lengthy legal battles that surrounded the Friday the 13th franchise for years.
Now that those rights issues have finally been resolved through the Jason Universe initiative, Behaviour has wasted no time bringing one of horror’s most iconic killers into the game.
What makes Jason particularly interesting is that his powers aren’t simply based around brute force. While he remains the unstoppable killing machine fans expect, Behaviour has cleverly incorporated elements of stealth and surprise that mirror some of the most memorable moments from the films.
Jason’s power is split into two distinct mechanics.
The first is called Omnipresent Evil, and it sounds absolutely terrifying for survivors. Activating the ability causes Jason to completely disappear from the map. While hidden, he moves faster and can track survivors through visual cues such as footsteps. Unlike many killers in Dead by Daylight, survivors won’t know where Jason is, where he’s heading or when he’s about to strike.
That uncertainty feels incredibly faithful to the films. Jason has always had an almost supernatural ability to appear exactly where he needs to be. One moment a victim is running through the woods believing they’ve escaped, the next Jason is somehow standing directly in front of them. Behaviour appears to have translated that feeling into gameplay.
When Jason decides to reappear, things get even nastier.
He can emerge from key environmental points including pallets, vault locations and breakable walls, often smashing through obstacles as he does so. Nearby survivors can even scream from the shock of his sudden appearance. If you’ve ever watched a Friday the 13th film and wondered how Jason somehow teleported halfway across Crystal Lake, this mechanic seems designed to recreate exactly that sensation.
The second half of Jason’s toolkit embraces another key part of his legacy: his creative brutality.
Throughout the map, Jason can collect environmental debris and weaponise it. Broken generator parts, shattered pallets, fragments of lockers and even pieces of hooks can be picked up and hurled at survivors with devastating force.
Unlike traditional ranged killers, these projectiles are limited resources. Jason must actively gather them and can only replenish his supply after entering Omnipresent Evil again. This creates an interesting balance between aggression and strategy rather than simply allowing players to endlessly bombard survivors.
The payoff sounds particularly vicious.
A successful hit will stagger a survivor, but if they’re already injured and standing near a wall, Jason can pin them in place. Helpless and trapped, they remain suspended until Jason casually strolls over to collect them. It sounds exactly like the sort of over-the-top brutality fans expect from the man who once killed people with sleeping bags, harpoons, axes, machetes and pretty much anything else he could get his hands on.
Of course, Jason wouldn’t be complete without some cosmetic options.
Launching alongside the chapter is the Jason Collection, featuring several outfits inspired by different interpretations of the character.
His default appearance uses the Jason Universe design created by special effects legend Greg Nicotero, complete with the iconic hockey mask, weathered clothing and machete. It’s a look that immediately captures the classic image horror fans know and love.
The Backwoods Terror outfit takes a slightly more rustic approach, replacing the jacket with flannel and suspenders while swapping the machete for a hefty axe. It feels like Jason stripped back to his rural slasher roots.
Meanwhile, Death Forsaken offers a far more grotesque version of the killer, complete with decaying flesh, exposed bone and a grim shovel as his weapon of choice. If zombie Jason from the later sequels is your favourite incarnation, this one will probably be hard to resist.
Perhaps the most visually striking of all is Depths of Despair, which depicts Jason emerging from the water covered in coral, barnacles and seaweed. Longtime fans will immediately recognise the inspiration. After all, Jason has spent a surprising amount of time at the bottom of lakes, rivers and oceans throughout the franchise.
While fans continue speculating about whether Camp Crystal Lake itself will eventually arrive as a map, or whether survivors such as Tommy Jarvis and Ginny Field could follow in future updates, one thing is already clear.
Behaviour hasn’t treated Jason as just another licensed character.
They’ve built a killer that feels unmistakably Jason Voorhees, combining his supernatural presence, brute strength and terrifying unpredictability into what could become one of the most memorable additions in Dead by Daylight history.
And after ten years of waiting, that’s exactly what fans were hoping for.
