If for some reason you can't get enough of Stranger Things' Vecna, you can now play as him in Dead by Daylight's latest crossover

Vecna floats all menacingly in Dead by Daylight's second Stranger Things collab.

(Image credit: Behaviour Interactive)

I can't pretend to be anything other than relieved that Stranger Things is over. While I enjoyed the first few seasons of its pulpy Spielberg pastiche, it ultimately became far too big for its Nike high tops. But if you still haven't had enough of the gang explaining its preposterously convoluted plans to kill Vecna, you can carry on the adventure via Dead by Daylight, in the latest crossover for Behaviour Interactive's multiplayer slash 'em up.

Titled Stranger Things: Chapter 2, the collab sees three more playable characters from the Duffer Brothers' cultural megalith to join Steve and Nancy, who were added to the game back in 2019. On the survivor side, players can assume the roles of Eleven and Dustin, while sentient butcher's shop window Vecna arrives as an all-new killer.

Vecna's dimension manipulating powers enable him to travel undetected around the map via the Upside Down, bursting out back into reality to damage survivors. He can also conjure fleshy vines that will lash out at players. Eleven and Dustin, meanwhile, have their own unique skills to help them survive Vecna's threat. Dustin can booby-trap windows after completing a certain amount of repairs, while Eleven's extrasensory perception lets her see auras from further away after crouching for several seconds.

Dead by Daylight | Stranger Things Chapter 2 | Official Trailer - YouTube

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The pack also adds two legendary outfits to Dead by Daylight, with Dustin able to don the denim-heavy guise of deceased metalhead Eddie Munson, while Chapter 1's Nancy gets an outfit themed around Steve's best pal Robin Buckley. There's no legendary outfit for Eleven at present, though Steve can masquerade as Jonathan Byres in an outfit added in the first collaboration.

Ironically, this is far from the strangest licensing crossover the multiplayer slasher has done. May saw characters from The Witcher turn up in Behaviour Interactive's game, while August weirdly brought characters from Assassin's Creed Shadows into the slaughter.

2026 will see Dead by Daylight celebrate its tenth anniversary, with Behaviour having revealed a special Collector's Edition and teased some bigger plans for celebrations at the end of last year. The studio spent most of 2025 working on a major quality of life initiative, after pushing back plans to expand the game to address "many longstanding concerns" voiced by players.

Stranger Things: Chapter 2 is currently available to play via Dead by Daylight's public test build, with the official release taking place on January 27.

Rick has been fascinated by PC gaming since he was seven years old, when he used to sneak into his dad's home office for covert sessions of Doom. He grew up on a diet of similarly unsuitable games, with favourites including Quake, Thief, Half-Life and Deus Ex. Between 2013 and 2022, Rick was games editor of Custom PC magazine and associated website bit-tech.net. But he's always kept one foot in freelance games journalism, writing for publications like Edge, Eurogamer, the Guardian and, naturally, PC Gamer. While he'll play anything that can be controlled with a keyboard and mouse, he has a particular passion for first-person shooters and immersive sims.

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