Ten years. 70 million players. One decade of asymmetric horror. The 10th-anniversary event - The Black Banquet - kicks off June 25 at 8am PT (11am ET / 4pm BST) and runs until July 16, 2026. It's a food-themed anniversary with Anniversary Cakes spawning in the Bloodweb, a free 10M-Bloodpoints promo code, themed outfits for the whole roster, and a 4-week Twitch Drops window. This is the complete guide: how to maximize every reward, the recipes for each Anniversary Cake tier, and what to do before the event ends.
The Black Banquet: what it is
The Black Banquet is Dead by Daylight's 10th-anniversary in-game event, themed around food and indulgence. The tagline from BHVR's official social announcement: "Indulgence isn't without consequences." It runs for three weeks - June 25 to July 16, 2026 - overlapping with the 10th-anniversary Broadcast (which already happened in Montreal on June 14) and the launch of Shane Wiigwaas as the first Indigenous Dead by Daylight Survivor.
Unlike past anniversary events (Twisted Masquerade, Sixth-Anniversary Crown Hunt), this one is built around a single currency: Anniversary Cakes. They spawn inside the Bloodweb of every character for the event's duration, and you spend them to unlock the cosmetic rewards from the event shop. The food theme runs throughout the outfits, the offering art, and the way the rewards unlock.
The free Bloodpoints code (do this first)
BHVR has shipped a one-time-use promo code that grants 10 million free Bloodpoints. The code is:
DBD10BIRTHDAY
Redeem it through the in-game Store (click the Store tab, then look for "Redeem Code" at the bottom of the page). It works for every platform - Steam, PlayStation, Xbox, Epic, Switch, Stadia successors. One redemption per account. The 10M Bloodpoints are enough to prestige any character multiple times or power-level your roster ahead of the event's Bloodweb-heavy economy. Do this before you start grinding Anniversary Cakes - the points compound across all the characters you'll be leveling for the event.
How Anniversary Cakes work
Anniversary Cakes are a new Bloodweb-rarified offering that spawns automatically in every character's Bloodweb during the event. They are event-exclusive - they do not exist in the regular game economy and they vanish when the event ends on July 16. Spend them in the Anniversary Shop (a dedicated tab that opens with the event).
There are three tiers of Anniversary Cakes:
- Tier 1 - Single Slice: Drops regularly from any character's Bloodweb. The most common drop. Spent on basic cosmetics: charms, banners, basic outfit recolors.
Tier 2 - Full Cake: Rare drop from Bloodwebs, more frequent on Prestiged characters. Spent on mid-tier rewards: themed outfit recolors, weapon charms, badge variants.
Tier 3 - Decorated Cake: Very rare, often requires daily login streaks or event challenges. Spent on the high-tier rewards: full themed outfits, animated charms, premium banners.
The exact tier weighting hasn't been published by BHVR yet, but datamines from the r/LeaksDBD community suggest the drop rates skew toward Tier 1, with Tier 3 requiring multiple daily logins or specific event challenge completions. The strategy: play your highest-prestiged characters first, since higher prestige = more Bloodweb nodes = more Cake drops per hour.
The anniversary shop rewards (datamined + officially revealed)
The Black Banquet shop features food-themed cosmetics for the whole roster, plus universal charms and banners. From the 10th Anniversary Broadcast reveal and datamine leaks, the confirmed reward set includes:
- Outfits: Themed food-service / chef / banquet-guest outfits for killers and survivors including The Trapper, The Huntress, Sable Ward, and Mikaela Reid.
Charm: A new Anniversary Charm that displays the year "10" - universal across all characters.
Banners: Food-themed player banners (cake slice, banquet table, Entity fork).
Badges: Anniversary badge for your profile.
Offering variants: Multiple Anniversary Cake offering rarities, including a guaranteed ultra-rare "Golden Cake" offering that grants bonus Bloodpoints for the entire team in a single match.
Specific costume names and exact Tier 3 cosmetics will be revealed when the event goes live on June 25. We'll update this post the moment the shop contents are confirmed.
Twitch Drops: 4-week window
The Black Banquet ties into a 4-week Twitch Drops campaign. Watch any Dead by Daylight streamer on Twitch with drops enabled, and you'll earn:
- Week 1 (June 25 - July 2): Moonbite Charm - a special anniversary charm unlocked by watching 2 hours of any DBD stream.
Week 2 (July 2 - July 9): 10th Anniversary Badge - profile badge unlocked at 4 hours of watch time.
Week 3 (July 9 - July 16): Anniversary Banner - player banner at 2 hours.
Week 4 (July 16+): Bonus Bloodpoint offering drops. Confirm your Twitch account is linked to your Behaviour account before June 25 to avoid missing the first drop.
The drops are retroactive - if you watch 6 hours total in week 1, you qualify for both the Week 1 and Week 2 drops as they become available. There's no penalty for missing a week, but the cumulative watch-time only counts once per platform.
How to maximize Anniversary Cakes (the strategy)
The Black Banquet's grind is straightforward but punishing if you don't plan ahead:
- Step 1: Redeem the DBD10BIRTHDAY code for 10M free Bloodpoints.
Step 2: Pick your 3-4 highest-prestiged characters (P100+ ideally, but P50+ works). They have the densest Bloodwebs and drop the most Cakes per hour.
Step 3: Play the event's daily challenge (login, complete one match, complete one generator, hook one survivor as killer). Each daily grants bonus Cakes.
Step 4: Don't prestige during the event if you can avoid it - the prestige animation doesn't grant extra Cake drops and you lose Bloodweb progress.
Step 5: Spend Cakes as you earn them. The shop rotates stock daily, so a Cake spent on Day 5 might unlock a charm that's unavailable by Day 10.
Players who start on Day 1 and grind 2-3 hours per day will hit the Tier 3 rewards within the first 7-10 days. Casual players (1 hour per day) will unlock Tier 1 cosmetics comfortably and Tier 2 by event end.
What to play: the killer + survivor meta inside the event
The event doesn't change the core gameplay, but the Bloodweb grind does favor killers and survivors that earn Bloodpoints fast. As of patch 10.0.0:
- Best Bloodpoint farming killers: The Nurse and The Blight are still the highest-BP-per-minute killers when played well. The Slasher (Jason) has solid BP economy if you can land Jump Scares consistently.
Best BP farming survivors: Meg Thomas with Sprint Burst + We'll Make It + Borrowed Time + Kindred is the meta safe-loot build. Nea Karlsson with Urban Evasion + Lithe is the chase build.
Best for Cake drops specifically: Bring an Anniversary Cake offering (once unlocked from the shop) to your match to boost Cake drop rate for the entire team.
What's NOT in the event (so you don't get confused)
A few things the event does NOT include, despite community speculation:
- No new map: The Black Banquet reuses existing maps. The next new map (Liminal Space concept map) is scheduled for late 2026 / 2027.
No new killer or survivor: Shane Wiigwaas launches on the same day (June 25) but is part of The Life Road half-chapter, not the anniversary event itself.
No paid battle pass: The Black Banquet is a free event - everything in the shop can be earned by playing.
No Rift: The Rift pass is paused for the anniversary window and resumes after the event ends.
Beyond the event: the 2026 roadmap continues
The Black Banquet is the appetizer. Here's what's coming up:
- Late June 2026 (TBA): Patch 10.0.1 hotfix - bugfixes following the 10.0.0 Jason chapter, likely with Jason balance tweaks and possibly the perk changes the community has been asking for.
August 25, 2026: CHAPTER 41: Chorus of Sin - the first community-designed chapter, with a new killer The Judgment and new survivor Aurora. Voted on through The Grimoire earlier this year.
November 2026: CHAPTER 42: Terrifier - the Art the Clown crossover, confirmed during the 10th Anniversary Broadcast.
2027: CHAPTER 43: The Casting of Frank Stone, official mod support, and the long-awaited visual overhaul.
DBD is heading into its second decade with more content lined up than any year prior. The Black Banquet is the launch event for that run.
Final tips
- Set a daily reminder for 2-3 hours of play until July 16. The grind is real but manageable.
- Don't prestige during the event. Prestige AFTER July 17 to bank your Bloodweb progress for the next event.
- Stack your Twitch watch-time across multiple streams to hit all 4 weeks of drops. Mobile Twitch counts.
- The Golden Cake offering is the rarest drop - if you get one, save it for a match where the team can capitalize on the BP boost.
- If you main one killer or survivor, prestige them to P100 before the event ends. The P100 Bloodweb has the densest Cake drops per hour of any character state.
Ten years in the Fog, and we're just getting started. See you in the Banquet.
Sources
- "Indulgence isn't without consequences." - BHVR Official Facebook announcement
"DBD The Black Banquet release date and details" - GamesRadar
"Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary: Claim 10 Million Free Bloodpoints" - Neon Lights Media
"Dead by Daylight: How to Get 10 Million Free Bloodpoints" - GameRant
Datamine - Black Banquet - r/LeaksDBD
"The Black Banquet will run from June 25 to July 16" - BHVR Official X / Twitter
"Dead by Daylight The Life Road Launches June 25 With First Indigenous Survivor" - TechTimes
CHAPTER 41: Chorus of Sin - Official Dead by Daylight Wiki
"Dead by Daylight 10th Anniversary Broadcast: Everything Announced" - IGN