Quick answer (prices checked on Steam US, 8 November 2026, live Patch 10.2.2a): Steam sells 34 paid DLC that add playable characters, but two of them only repeat characters from newer packs. The 32 that don't overlap cost $285.68, or $305.67 with the $19.99 base game, and get you 81 of the 95 characters on Behaviour's roster. Licensed chapters cost $4.99 to $11.99, original chapters $4.99 to $7.99, and the four bundle packs $9.99 to $19.99. Start with the Maddening Darkness Pack ($9.99, 8 characters including S-tier The Spirit) and Tokyo Ghoul ($4.99, S-tier The Ghoul). Don't buy the old Terror and Escape Expansion Packs: three newer packs give you the same 23 characters plus outfits for one cent less. Two dates matter this month. Chucky leaves every store at 11am ET on 24 November, at 50% off on Steam from 10 November. Terrifier (Art the Clown, Sienna Shaw) is listed for the same day, with no price yet.
"Dead by Daylight DLC" is a confusing search, because Steam lists about 40 add-ons for the game and nobody tells you which ones overlap. Steam's own search for the game's DLC returns a soundtrack, a charity chest, two old expansion packs that duplicate newer bundles, and three chapters that were always free. This guide lists every paid add-on that unlocks characters, with the price Steam charged on 8 November 2026, and works out which purchases are worth it and which you should skip.
The trigger for writing it was a fresh r/deadbydaylight thread from 7 November, titled "Do these skin sales ever actually end?". It's a fair question. The answer for chapters is in the sale section below, and it is more useful than "wait for a sale".
What does Dead by Daylight DLC actually include?
Paid DLC in DBD comes as Chapters. Behaviour's own chapters page puts the rule in one line:
"Purchasing a Chapter unlocks new Killers, Survivors, and exclusive items. Maps remain free for all players." (Behaviour Interactive, official Dead by Daylight chapters page)
So you never pay for maps. A chapter buys you characters, their unique perks, and usually a charm, badge or banner. Three things trip up new buyers:
- Perks are not locked behind DLC forever. Characters' unique perks rotate through the weekly Shrine of Secrets, where you can buy them with Iridescent Shards. Only four perks appear each week, so a specific one can take a while to show up.
- Original characters have a free route. Any character Behaviour created can also be unlocked with Iridescent Shards, which you earn by playing. Licensed characters (Chucky, Ghoul, Vecna, Pyramid Head and the rest) can only be bought with real money or Auric Cells.
- Every character costs 500 Auric Cells in the in-game store, and older originals are permanently cheaper: 250 Auric Cells for originals up to and including Tools of Torment, and 125 for those up to and including Shattered Bloodline (per the Official Dead by Daylight Wiki's Auric Cell page). The smallest Auric Cell pack is 500 cells for $4.99, so a single cheap Killer can cost less cash than a pack.
If you're unsure whether paying for Auric Cells beats the Steam price, our Auric Cells price and pack guide does the per-cell maths.
How much does every Dead by Daylight DLC cost on Steam?
Here is every character DLC on Steam with the price it showed on 8 November 2026 (US store, no discount active), sorted newest first. Character counts come from each Steam listing and Behaviour's chapter records.
| DLC | Released | Steam price | Characters | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terrifier | 24 Nov 2026 (listed) | Not priced yet | The Terrifier, Sienna Shaw | Licensed |
| Chorus of Sin | 25 Aug 2026 | $7.99 | The Judgment, Aurora Stardotter | Original |
| Jason | 16 Jun 2026 | $4.99 | The Slasher | Licensed |
| Stranger Things Chapter 2 | 27 Jan 2026 | $11.99 | The First (Vecna), Dustin, Eleven | Licensed |
| Sinister Grace | 23 Sep 2025 | $7.99 | The Krasue, Vee Boonyasak | Original |
| The Walking Dead | 29 Jul 2025 | $7.99 | Rick Grimes, Michonne | Licensed |
| Five Nights at Freddy's | 17 Jun 2025 | $4.99 | The Animatronic (Springtrap) | Licensed |
| Steady Pulse | 6 May 2025 | $4.99 | Orela Rose | Original |
| Tokyo Ghoul | 2 Apr 2025 | $4.99 | The Ghoul (Ken Kaneki) | Licensed |
| Doomed Course | 28 Nov 2024 | $7.99 | The Houndmaster, Taurie Cain | Original |
| Castlevania | 27 Aug 2024 | $7.99 | The Dark Lord (Dracula), Trevor Belmont | Licensed |
| Tomb Raider | 16 Jul 2024 | $4.99 | Lara Croft | Licensed |
| Dungeons & Dragons | 3 Jun 2024 | $7.99 | The Lich (Vecna), Aestri Yazar | Licensed |
| All Things Wicked | 12 Mar 2024 | $7.99 | The Unknown, Sable Ward | Original |
| Alan Wake | 30 Jan 2024 | $4.99 | Alan Wake | Licensed |
| Chucky | 28 Nov 2023 | $4.99 (50% off from 10 Nov) | The Good Guy | Licensed, leaving 24 Nov |
| Alien | 29 Aug 2023 | $11.99 | The Xenomorph, Ellen Ripley | Licensed |
| Nicolas Cage | 25 Jul 2023 | $9.99 | Nicolas Cage | Licensed |
| End Transmission | 13 Jun 2023 | $7.99 | The Singularity, Gabriel Soma | Original |
| Resident Evil: PROJECT W | 30 Aug 2022 | $11.99 | The Mastermind, Ada Wong, Rebecca Chambers | Licensed |
| Sadako Rising | 8 Mar 2022 | $7.99 | The Onryō, Yoichi Asakawa | Licensed |
| Resident Evil | 15 Jun 2021 | $11.99 | The Nemesis, Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine | Licensed |
| Silent Hill | 16 Jun 2020 | $7.99 | The Executioner, Cheryl Mason | Licensed |
| Stranger Things | 17 Sep 2019 | $11.99 | The Demogorgon, Nancy Wheeler, Steve Harrington | Licensed |
| Ghost Face | 18 Jun 2019 | $4.99 | The Ghost Face | Licensed |
| Ash vs Evil Dead | 2 Apr 2019 | $4.99 | Ash Williams | Licensed |
| Saw | 23 Jan 2018 | $7.99 | The Pig, David Tapp | Licensed |
| A Nightmare on Elm Street | 26 Oct 2017 | $7.99 | The Nightmare, Quentin Smith | Licensed |
| Leatherface | 14 Sep 2017 | $4.99 | The Cannibal | Licensed |
The other four paid listings are bundle packs that hold the 16 retired original chapters (next section). Add them and you get the 32 non-overlapping listings, $285.68 total from the quick answer. The two Expansion Packs below would push the Steam total to $335.66 without adding a single new character.
Three Steam listings carry no price at all: The Last Breath (The Nurse, Nea Karlsson), A Lullaby for the Dark (The Huntress, David King) and Left Behind (Bill Overbeck). Steam describes each as free, so those characters come with the base game.
Two characters on Behaviour's roster, Kwon Tae-young (All-Kill: Comeback, March 2026) and Shane Wiigwaas (The Life Road, June 2026), don't appear in Steam's DLC list for the game. Unlock them in the in-game store.
Which DLC packs are worth buying?
In January and May 2024 Behaviour retired 16 original chapters and folded them into four packs, all still on sale. These are the best value in the store by a wide margin.
| Pack | Steam price | Characters | Price per character | What's inside |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maddening Darkness | $9.99 | 8 | $1.25 | The Hag, The Doctor, The Clown, The Spirit + Ace, Feng Min, Kate, Adam |
| Endless Hunt | $19.99 | 9 | $2.22 | The Artist, The Dredge, The Knight, The Skull Merchant + Jonah, Haddie, Vittorio, Thalita, Renato |
| Old Wounds | $19.99 | 8 | $2.50 | The Legion, The Plague, The Oni, The Deathslinger + Jeff, Jane, Yui, Zarina |
| Macabre Tales | $19.99 | 7 | $2.86 | The Blight, The Twins, The Trickster + Felix, Élodie, Yun-Jin, Mikaela |
Compare that with a normal chapter: $4.00 per character for a two-character $7.99 chapter, $4.99 for a single licensed Killer, and $9.99 for the Nicolas Cage pack, the worst rate in the store.
Each pack also includes outfits: 8 in Maddening Darkness, 4 in Old Wounds, 7 in Macabre Tales and 9 in Endless Hunt, according to the Steam listings.
Should you buy the Terror or Escape Expansion Pack?
No. This is the trap in the Steam DLC list. The Terror Expansion Pack ($24.99) holds 11 original Killers and the Escape Expansion Pack ($24.99) holds 12 original Survivors. Check the names and they are exactly the 23 characters in Maddening Darkness + Old Wounds + Macabre Tales.
- Terror + Escape: $49.98 for 23 characters and one charm.
- Maddening Darkness + Old Wounds + Macabre Tales: $49.97 for the same 23 characters, 19 outfits and DLC items.
Same characters, more content, one cent cheaper. If you already own one of the packs, either Expansion Pack mostly re-buys characters you have.
Which Dead by Daylight DLC should you buy first?
Buy for the Killer you want to play. Survivor perks rotate through the Shrine, and every Survivor runs the same base kit. Here are the six Killers in S tier on our Patch 10.2.2a Killer tier list, and every way to unlock each:
| S-tier Killer | Steam DLC | In-game store | Free route |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Nurse | Base game | Included | Included |
| The Hillbilly | Base game | Included | Included |
| The Spirit | Maddening Darkness Pack, $9.99 | 125 Auric Cells | 2,250 Iridescent Shards |
| The Blight | Macabre Tales Pack, $19.99 | 250 Auric Cells | 4,500 Iridescent Shards |
| The Ghoul | Tokyo Ghoul, $4.99 | 500 Auric Cells | None (licensed) |
| The Mastermind | Resident Evil: PROJECT W, $11.99 | 500 Auric Cells | None (licensed) |
That gives a simple buying order:
- Maddening Darkness ($9.99). The Spirit, three more Killers and four Survivors whose perks are still used. Nothing beats $1.25 a character. If you only want The Spirit, 125 Auric Cells or 2,250 Shards is cheaper, but the pack adds seven more characters for about $5 more than the smallest 500-cell Auric Cell pack.
- Tokyo Ghoul ($4.99). The cheapest S-tier Killer you can only buy with money, and the third most-played Killer outside Japan in Behaviour's yearly stats to 31 July 2026.
- Chucky ($4.99, about half that from 10 November), but only if you'd ever want him. He can't be bought after 24 November.
- Resident Evil: PROJECT W ($11.99). The Mastermind plus two Survivors, three characters at $4.00 each.
- Then follow your taste. Five Nights at Freddy's (The Animatronic, A tier and the most-played Killer outside Japan in that same BHVR data) or Castlevania (The Dark Lord, A tier) are the strongest next $5 and $8 picks.
If you're on a strict budget, remember that original Killers can be unlocked with Iridescent Shards at 9,000, 4,500 or 2,250. Our Iridescent Shards guide shows how fast you earn them per level. Save your real money for licensed Killers. Shards can't buy those.
Why should you buy Chucky before 24 November?
Because after that day nobody can. Behaviour's FAQ is unusually blunt:
"Chucky content in Dead by Daylight will be unavailable to acquire after 11am ET on November 24th 2026." (Behaviour Interactive, FAQ: Chucky DLC License Removal)
The same FAQ lists a Last Chance Sale at 50% off for Chucky and his cosmetics. Every store's sale ends on 24 November, but they start on different days:
| Store | 50% off from | Ends |
|---|---|---|
| Epic Games Store | 26 Oct | 24 Nov |
| Xbox / Windows Store | 26 Oct | 24 Nov |
| Nintendo Switch | 26 Oct (NA), 27 Oct (EU), 28 Oct (JP) | 24 Nov |
| PlayStation | 2 Nov | 24 Nov |
| Steam | 10 Nov | 24 Nov |
So Steam players should wait until 10 November, two days from now, instead of paying $4.99 today.
What you keep matters too. If you own Chucky before the deadline, the FAQ confirms you keep the character, his three perks under their original names, his add-ons and his Prestige rewards. Everyone else gets the three perks as General perks under new names: Hex: Two Can Play becomes Hex: Eye For An Eye, Friends Til the End becomes One Track Mind, and Batteries Included becomes Gaining Steam. Outfits are a different matter: "There will be no future Outfits," so buy any Chucky cosmetic you want before 11am ET. Our Chucky leaving guide covers the full timeline.
Chucky isn't the first. The HALLOWEEN Chapter (The Shape, Laurie Strode) was retracted on 19 January 2026, and Hellraiser (The Cenobite) left in 2025. Neither can be bought now. That's why "I'll buy it later" is a real risk with licensed DLC. Original characters have a safety net: even the 16 retired original chapters are still sold in packs, and every original can be unlocked with Shards.
Is the Terrifier DLC worth pre-planning for?
Steam lists Dead by Daylight: Terrifier for 24 November 2026, and Behaviour's own chapters page shows the same date. Steam's description gives the contents:
"Dead by Daylight: Terrifier brings horror icons The Terrifier and Sienna Shaw into The Fog alongside a new original Map, Hartshorne Mall." (Steam store listing, Dead by Daylight: Terrifier)
Buying it also unlocks the Art Crispies Cereal charm and the Clown Cafe Banner. There is no price yet. Every two-character licensed chapter released since 2024 has been $7.99 on Steam, and the three-character ones $11.99, but that's a pattern, not a published price. The Hartshorne Mall map is free for everyone, just like every other map. Our Art the Clown first look covers his Bag of Toys power and the PTB perks.
Do DBD chapters go on sale, and when is the next Steam sale?
The confirmed sale this month is the Chucky one above. For the rest of the store, Valve's Steamworks calendar lists the Steam Winter Sale 2026 from 17 December 2026 to 4 January 2027 (Valve, Steamworks upcoming events). The 2026 Autumn Sale already ran on 1 to 8 October.
Valve publishes the window but not each game's discount. We won't promise you a percentage Behaviour hasn't announced. What we can say: on 8 November no Dead by Daylight DLC had a Steam discount active, so buy now only if you want to play now. If you're happy to wait, the Winter Sale is the next store-wide event.
The in-game store runs its own discounts on cosmetic collections, which is what the 7 November thread was about. Those cover in-game cosmetics, not Steam chapters, so they don't change anything in the price table above.
Does DLC carry over between Steam, Epic, PlayStation and Xbox?
Mostly yes, through cross-progression, which went live for every platform on 22 July 2024. Behaviour's cross-progression FAQ adds two rules that affect buying:
- Nintendo Switch is one-way. DLC owned elsewhere carries to Switch, but DLC bought on Switch doesn't carry from it. Auric Cells bought on Switch also stay on Switch.
- Don't buy the same DLC twice. Once your platforms are linked, owned content is shared, so a second copy on another platform adds nothing. The Shard payout Behaviour gave for duplicate DLC was a launch-period reward and isn't on offer now.
So buy on the platform where you play most, and avoid buying on Switch if you might move later. The full setup is in our cross-progression guide.
How many DBD chapters are there?
Behaviour's own chapter index numbers Chorus of Sin (25 August 2026) as Chapter 46, with Terrifier listed next. The numbering isn't a simple count: four smaller drops carry half-numbers, Leatherface (5.5), Ash vs. Evil Dead (11.5), Hour of the Witch (21.5) and Nicolas Cage (28.5). The count includes free chapters, Killer-only drops (Leatherface, Ghost Face, Chucky, Tokyo Ghoul, Five Nights at Freddy's, Jason) and Survivor-only chapters (The Walking Dead, Steady Pulse, The Life Road and others). So the chapter number doesn't equal the number of Killers. The roster currently has 42 Killers and 53 Survivors with a page on Behaviour's site. See our list of every DBD Killer for the full set.
More Dead by Daylight guides that we keep current with the live patch:
- DBD killer tier list (Patch 10.2.2a)
- DBD Auric Cells: pack prices and cost per cell
- DBD roadmap: next Killer and every date
- DBD codes this month
FAQ
What is the best Dead by Daylight DLC to buy first? The Maddening Darkness Pack at $9.99 on Steam. It unlocks 8 characters, including the S-tier Spirit, for $1.25 each, the best rate in the store. If you want a licensed Killer, Tokyo Ghoul ($4.99) is the cheapest S-tier pick.
How much does all Dead by Daylight DLC cost? On Steam US on 8 November 2026, the 32 non-overlapping paid character DLC add up to $285.68, or $305.67 with the $19.99 base game. Steam also sells the Terror and Escape Expansion Packs, which only repeat characters from newer packs. That covers 81 of the 95 characters on Behaviour's roster. Twelve come free with the base game, and two are only listed in the in-game store.
Can you get DBD DLC for free? Original characters, yes: any Killer or Survivor Behaviour created can be unlocked with Iridescent Shards, which you earn by playing. Licensed characters can't. Their perks still rotate through the Shrine of Secrets, so you can learn any perk without owning the chapter.
Is the Terror Expansion Pack worth it? No. Its 11 Killers and the Escape Expansion Pack's 12 Survivors are the same 23 characters as Maddening Darkness, Old Wounds and Macabre Tales. Those three packs cost one cent less in total and add 19 outfits.
Will Chucky come back after 24 November? Behaviour hasn't said. Its FAQ only says the DLC "will be removed from all Platform Stores on this date" and that owners keep everything they unlocked. Stranger Things did return in 2023 after being delisted in 2021, but no licensed chapter has a promised return date.
How much will the Terrifier DLC cost? No price had been published on 8 November. Steam lists the DLC for 24 November 2026 with The Terrifier, Sienna Shaw, a charm and a banner. The new Hartshorne Mall map is free for all players.
