By DBD Perk Combos
Lights Out Returns for Summer Screams 2026

Lights Out Returns for Summer Screams 2026

Lights Out returns in Dead by Daylight Summer Screams 2026 Aug 4-11. Patch 10.0.3 adds Candelabra aura reveals and a 15s killer blind. Map pool + tips.

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Quick answer

Light's Out returns to Dead by Daylight on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 AM EDT / 16:00 BST, running for one week as the second leg of the Summer Screams 2026 rotating limited-time mode event. The full map pool is shrouded in permanent darkness, all Perks, Items, and Add-ons are disabled, the Killer has no Terror Radius, and Survivors leave no Scratch Marks. The big 2026 update is the Candelabra Lantern quality-of-life pass in Patch 10.0.3: holding the Lantern now reveals Pallets, Vaults, and Breakable Walls within 32m, and a Lantern left on a completed Generator blinds the Killer to the remaining Gen auras for 15 seconds. It is a stealth, game-sense, and audio-cue check, and it is the most rewarding Light's Out yet.

This article is for: Dead by Daylight players who want to know when Light's Out 2026 runs, what is different from the previous two iterations, and how to play around the new Lantern mechanics added in Patch 10.0.3. If you only have 60 seconds, the TL;DR above is the full picture.

What is the Summer Screams 2026 event?

Summer Screams is Behaviour Interactive's annual three-week rotating limited-time mode event. For 2026, it runs from July 28 to August 18, 2026 and brings back the three most popular limited-time modes the studio has shipped, one per week. The order of rotation is:

  • Week 1: Chaos Shuffle - July 28 to August 4, 2026
  • Week 2: Light's Out - August 4 to August 11, 2026 (this article)
  • Week 3: 2v8 - August 11 to August 18, 2026

Each mode runs for exactly seven days before swapping. Completing the Summer Screams quest line during any of the three weeks unlocks the summer-themed cosmetics. The Waterfront Massacre Collection also returns to the in-game store, with new outfits for Quentin Smith and Vee Boonyasak (Vee is shown in the leaked in-game preview in a 1,080 Auric Cell floaty pool outfit, with a banner set for the whole event). Source: BHVR Patch 10.0.3 notes + GamesRadar Chaos Shuffle schedule.

Light's Out week: dates, timing, and where to queue

Light's Out takes over from Chaos Shuffle on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 AM EDT / 16:00 BST and runs for exactly seven days, ending at the same time on Tuesday, August 11. After that, 2v8 takes the spotlight for the third and final week of the event. The mode is queued from the standard DBD matchmaking screen, no separate playlist, no opt-in toggle. Just queue for a normal Trial and the modifier will be active for the next seven days. Source: BHVR Patch 10.0.3 notes.

Dark map environment in Light's Out with chandeliers casting dim warm light

This is the third iteration of Light's Out. The first ran February 7-14, 2024 (no Lantern). The second ran September 12-19, 2025 (introduced the Castlevania-themed Candelabra Lantern, added Dead Dawg Saloon and Greenville Square to the map pool). The 2026 version is the first "quality-of-life" pass on the modifier, with no new map or item but several meaningful Lantern and HUD fixes that change how the mode feels.

What's new in Light's Out 2026 (Patch 10.0.3 changes)

Patch 10.0.3 is the bugfix patch that dropped alongside the Summer Screams announcement, and the Light's Out section is the longest single change block in the entire patch. The 2026 changes are not flashy but they are the most-requested quality-of-life fixes from the second run. If you played Light's Out v2 and bounced off the modifier because the HUD was too dark to read, the new version fixes that. Concretely, here is what changed:

  • Lantern reveals Pallets, Vaults, and Breakable Walls within 32m when held. This is the biggest single change. In v2 you had to place the Lantern to get any information, which left you defenseless during the placement animation. Now holding the Lantern gives you a basic Windows of Opportunity effect in your hand. The 32m range matches the Killer aura reveal range from placing the Lantern on a Generator.
  • Completed Gens with a Lantern on top blind the Killer to remaining Gen auras for 15 seconds (or until the Lantern is removed). In v2, the Generator reveal only lasted as long as the Lantern was placed. Now completing the Gen extends the effect 15s into the future, which is a meaningful change in long chases.
  • Deep Wounds and anti-camp bars are now visible again. In v2 the HUD was so dark that the Deep Wound timer and the anti-camp progress bar both disappeared, which was the most-cited frustration in the v2 community thread. This is a clean bug fix and not a balance change.
  • Gate Exits stay lit once all objectives are completed. Previously the Exit Gates went dark after the last Gen popped, which made the end-game a coin flip. Now you can see the Exit Switches all the way through the escape animation, which removes a real bug from v2.
  • Fog Vial is now supported in the modifier. A small but real fix for The Shape (Myers) and a few add-ons that use the Fog Vial system. They were broken in v2 and now work.

Source: BHVR Patch 10.0.3 notes + Otzdarva Summer Screams preview.

Light's Out rules: the full breakdown

The whole point of Light's Out is to strip away your crutches. The mode is BHVR's "horror game" version of DBD, and it works best if you lean into the suspense instead of trying to play it like a normal Trial. Here is everything the modifier does, including the rules that carried over from the v2 base.

  • Map is shrouded in permanent darkness, similar to The Dredge's Nightfall power. You can only see what your immediate light source reveals.
  • No Perks for either side. The full Perk screen is greyed out and the add-on loadout is locked. Whatever you have unlocked does not come into the Trial.
  • No Items or Add-ons in your loadout. Survivors can find Items in Chests during the match, but you cannot bring one in.
  • The Killer has no Terror Radius. Heartbeat music is gone. You cannot rely on audio to know the Killer is near. Breathing, footsteps, and lunge audio still work, but they are subtle.
  • Survivors leave no Scratch Marks. The Killer cannot track you by your running trail. This is the second big stealth swing after the Terror Radius removal.
  • The HUD is largely obscured. Most of the standard DBD HUD is hidden. You only see what the Candelabra Lantern reveals.
  • Chests spawn more frequently, and they contain Rare-or-better Items only. In v2 they only drop Candelabra Lanterns, Med-Kits, Flashlights, Toolboxes, and Maps. Keys are excluded from the pool.
  • Generators start with 5% progress and repair slightly faster than normal. This compensates for the lack of Toolboxes and makes the audio-cue (you can hear Gens from the start) a real navigation tool.
  • Anti-face-camp range is increased. This is a Survivor-quality buff that makes camping noticeably less effective than in a normal Trial.
  • No Killer Lullabies. The standard DBD Killer music stingers do not play. The audio design is intentionally minimal.

Source: BHVR official Light's Out deep dive + r/deadbydaylight Light's Out summary.

The Candelabra Lantern: how it works

Added in the second iteration (September 2025) and refined in this one, the Candelabra Lantern is the only Item Survivors spawn with, and it is the entire reason Light's Out is playable. The Lantern is themed as a gothic candelabra in honor of the Castlevania chapter, and it has three distinct uses. Here is the full breakdown:

Generator lit by a placed Candelabra Lantern, revealing the gen aura within 32m

  • Starts every Survivor with one Lantern. The Lantern is a 90-charge unique Survivor Item. You spawn holding it. Extra Lanterns can be found in Chests, but you are unlikely to need a second one in a single Trial if you manage charges.
  • Passive: pushes back the Fog around the holder. Walking with the Lantern gives you a small bubble of visibility. In v1, this was the entire mode. In v2 and v3, it is the floor you can always count on, not the ceiling.
  • Hold Use Item to see the aura of the nearest incomplete Generator. This is the most-used action. It costs charges. The aura reveal is short range (matches the placement reveal range of 32m), so you have to walk near the Gen to find it.
  • Place the Lantern on top of a Generator. All Survivors within 32m of that Gen see its aura. This is the team-play loop. You walk to a Gen, drop the Lantern, repair under the aura reveal, and the rest of the team knows exactly where to come.
  • Once the Gen is completed with the Lantern still on top, the Killer temporarily loses the ability to see the auras of all remaining incomplete Generators for 15 seconds (or until the Lantern is removed). This is the new 10.0.3 buff and it is huge. It lets the Survivor team rotate freely for 15 seconds while the Killer is blind.
  • The Killer can destroy a placed Lantern by interacting with it. This is the counterplay. A smart Killer patrols Lantern Gens and breaks them as soon as the Gen pops.
  • The Killer can knock Items out of Survivors' hands on a down. This is a modified version of Franklin's Demise that applies in the modifier. The Lantern drops on the ground and the Survivor can pick it back up, but the moment is exploitable.
  • NEW in 10.0.3: 32m aura reveal of Pallets, Vaults, and Breakable Walls while holding the Lantern. This is the second of the two big 10.0.3 buffs. It is a free Windows of Opportunity in your hand. The 32m range is identical to the Generator reveal range, so the Lantern is now a single-item information source for the whole map.

Source: BHVR official Light's Out Returns article + BHVR official Light's Out deep dive.

The Light's Out map pool (6 maps in 2026)

Light's Out runs on a curated six-map pool, not the full DBD map rotation. The map pool has not changed since v2, and the 10.0.3 patch did not add or remove any maps. Here is the full list:

  • Lery's Memorial Institute - the original Light's Out map. Tight indoor corridors, very dark, very chase-heavy. Brought back because the building is small enough that you cannot get fully lost in the dark.
  • The Game - long sightlines and a multi-floor layout. Good for Lantern play because you can stand at one end and see Gens light up at the other end.
  • Hawkins National Laboratory - tight indoor spaces with multiple floors. The Stranger Things chapter map. Rewards map knowledge above all else.
  • Coldwind Farm - Cowshed - a tighter indoor farm building. The original Light's Out cold-and-corners map. Good for stealth Killers.
  • Dead Dawg Saloon - the Western-themed indoor map added in v2. Multiple rooms with a bar, an upstairs, and a back area. Very tight, very chaseable.
  • Greenville Square - the outdoor main-street map added in v2. The only outdoor map in the pool, and the only one where the Lantern's Fog-pushback really matters because the Fog is so much thicker outdoors.

Source: BHVR official Light's Out Returns article.

Rewards: banners, charms, badges, and store skins

Completing the Summer Screams quest line during any of the three weeks (not just Light's Out week) unlocks the full set of summer-themed cosmetics. The Light's Out specific rewards come from the new Event Tome. Here is what is on the table for 2026:

  • 3 summer-themed Player Card banners featuring Sable Ward, Vee Boonyasak, Yun-Jin Lee, and The Trickster. The banners are unlocked through quest completions across all three weeks, not just Light's Out week.
  • The Waterfront Massacre Collection returns to the in-game store, with new outfits for Quentin Smith and Vee Boonyasak. The Vee outfit (leaked via the in-game preview on July 22) is the floaty pool outfit priced at 1,080 Auric Cells.
  • Light's Out Event Tome with 6 challenges. 3 unlockable cosmetics: Gothic Lantern (Charm), Pixel Dark Lord (Badge), and Dracula's Castle (Banner). These are the same three from the v2 Event Tome and have carried forward.
  • Rift Fragments to progress the active Rift (the Sun-kissed Rift that launched July 21). Each Tome challenge completion gives Fragments, which feed into the wider Rift reward track.

Source: Otzdarva Summer Screams preview (3:25 mark) + BHVR Patch 10.0.3 notes.

Tips for surviving Light's Out 2026

Light's Out is the closest Dead by Daylight gets to a pure horror game. The default loadout does not matter, your main Perk builds do not matter, and your rank does not matter. What matters is map knowledge, audio cue reading, and Lantern charge management. Here are the tips that held up across v1 and v2 and that still hold in 2026.

  • Do not chase, use stealth. The natural instinct is to play aggressively because there are no Perks slowing you down. Resist it. Light's Out rewards breaking line of sight and rotating through dark corridors, not chasing. Run the playstyle you would use if you were playing The Pig or Ghost Face as a Survivor in a normal match.
  • Hold the Lantern sparingly. 90 charges goes fast if you hold the Use Item button while running. Tap to peek a Gen aura, then release. Save the placement action for the Gen you actually plan to commit to.
  • Use audio cues aggressively. The Killer's breathing, lunge audio, and footstep sounds are louder in Light's Out because there is no Terror Radius music to mask them. Headphones are basically mandatory.
  • Place Lanterns on Gens the Killer is NOT patrolling. The biggest mistake new Light's Out players make is dropping the Lantern on the first Gen they find. The Killer will eventually patrol that Gen, break the Lantern, and the 15-second aura blackout is wasted. Place on the Gen you have the cleanest repair window on.
  • As Killer, the new 15-second aura blackout is your biggest threat. When a Gen pops and the aura reveal is gone, you have 15 seconds of being unable to see Gen auras. Use that window to chase. The Killer who patrols Gens and breaks Lanterns has the easiest Light's Out games.
  • Memorize the 6 maps. The map pool is small. The Survivors and Killers who win the most Light's Out Trials are the ones who know every pallet and every wall on every map. Spend a match or two in normal DBD on Lery's, The Game, Hawkins, Cowshed, Dead Dawg Saloon, and Greenville Square before Light's Out week starts. It pays off immediately.
  • Prioritize stealth Killers as Killer. The Pig, Ghost Face, The Shape (Myers), The Wraith, and The Dredge all gain disproportionately from the dark map and the lack of Terror Radius on the Survivor side. The Nurse and The Blight lose some of their mobility advantage because the audio cues are more subtle.

Official Light's Out 2026 coverage

The closest official BHVR video to the 2026 Light's Out iteration is the Silent Hill x Castlevania 2v8 announcement from November 2025. The Light's Out sections of that video are the cleanest visual explainer of how the Candelabra Lantern and dark map mechanic work, and they map directly onto the 2026 version. If you have not seen the Lantern placed on a Generator, watch this first.

Dead by Daylight - Official 2v8: Silent Hill x Castlevania Announcement Trailer (BHVR). Click to play. The Light's Out segments at 1:10, 2:15, and 3:30 explain the Candelabra Lantern placement, the dark map, and the Generator aura reveal mechanics.

For a Summer Screams 2026-specific walkthrough of the Patch 10.0.3 quality-of-life changes, this community preview is the cleanest demo:

Watch the Otzdarva Summer Screams 2026 preview on YouTube (8 min)

Frequently asked questions

When does Light's Out start in 2026?

Light's Out starts on Tuesday, August 4, 2026 at 8:00 AM PDT / 11:00 AM EDT / 16:00 BST. It runs for exactly one week, ending at the same time on Tuesday, August 11. After that, 2v8 takes the spotlight for the third and final week of Summer Screams. Source: BHVR Patch 10.0.3 notes.

Is Light's Out hard?

Yes. It is the most demanding limited-time mode in Dead by Daylight. The combination of no Perks, no Items, no Terror Radius audio, no Scratch Marks, and a permanently dark map means that every chase is decided by raw game sense, audio cue reading, and map knowledge. The 10.0.3 Lantern aura reveal changes help Survivors, but the mode is still harder than Chaos Shuffle and noticeably harder than 2v8 for both sides.

Do I get rewards for playing Light's Out?

Yes. The Light's Out Event Tome has 6 challenges that unlock 3 cosmetics (Gothic Lantern Charm, Pixel Dark Lord Badge, Dracula's Castle Banner) plus Rift Fragments for the active Sun-kissed Rift. The 3 summer-themed Player Card banners (featuring Sable Ward, Vee Boonyasak, Yun-Jin Lee, and The Trickster) are unlocked by completing Summer Screams quests across any of the three weeks, not just Light's Out week. Source: Otzdarva Summer Screams preview.

Which Killers are best in Light's Out?

Stealth Killers dominate. The Pig, Ghost Face, The Shape (Myers), The Wraith, and The Dredge all gain disproportionately from the dark map and the lack of Terror Radius on the Survivor side. The Nurse and The Blight lose some of their mobility advantage because the audio cues that Survivors rely on are more subtle, and the Killer has to read line of sight rather than chase audio. Newer Killers like The Houndmaster and The Animatronic are still viable but not top-tier in this modifier.

What maps are in Light's Out 2026?

Six maps. Lery's Memorial Institute, The Game, Hawkins National Laboratory, Coldwind Farm Cowshed, Dead Dawg Saloon, and Greenville Square. The pool has not changed since the September 2025 second iteration. Dead Dawg Saloon and Greenville Square were added in v2 and are still the two newest entries. Source: BHVR official Light's Out Returns article.

References and sources

Every fact in this article was cross-checked against at least two of the following sources: