Dead by Daylight's new survivor is 'a legendary character that epitomizes the spirit of survival instinct,' and her name is Lara Croft

Image of Lara Croft in Dead by Daylight
(Image credit: Behaviour Interactive)

The asymmetric horror game Dead by Daylight has finagled a lot of high-profile crossovers over the years—Alan Wake, Nicolas Cage, Ellen Ripley, Vecna, the list goes on—and the latest addition to the lineup is no exception. Lara Croft, the OG tomb raider, is coming to the game in July, and is playable right now via a public test build on Steam.

Sadly for Lara, she does not enter the Fog with the tools that would probably be most useful in such a situation, those being her guns and bow. The good news is that after years of getting herself into tough scrapes, she's become pretty good at handling her business anyway. 

That experience will come in handy during her trip through the Fog: Lara's unique perks enable her to vault faster, repair generators more quickly, and stay quiet in moments when most survivors would scream, thereby alerting whatever psycho killer happens to be nearby and on the hunt.

"In Lara’s case, it felt fitting to welcome a legendary character that epitomizes the spirit of survival instinct," the official Tomb Raider website explains. "Her own experiences have been riddled with brutal encounters, driving her to the brink and back. 

"One dance with death after another, Lara has persevered with unwavering resolve. From battling Stormguards on the cursed island of Yamatai, to enduring Baba Yaga’s nightmarish hallucinations in the Wicked Vale, Lara Croft proves she meets each challenge with a survivor’s determination."

Lara is set to go live in Dead by Daylight on July 16, but you can step into her shoes now in the public test build now underway on Steam. The PTB runs until July 1 and as always, progress will not carry over to the live game, but players will be given a pile of in-game currency so they can more readily play around with outfits and characters.

The PTB update features a number of other changes and additions to the game, including a new "disconnect bot" that will spawn if a player disconnects during loading, enabling games that would have been cancelled for not having enough players to continue. The full patch notes are up on Steam.

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.