[Dead By Daylight] Possibly In a Functional State For Now... Maybe? (2024)

The Trapper

Can set beartraps around the map. Stepping into one causes a healthy survivor to become injured, and immobilizes them until released by themself (may require multiple attempts) or a fellow survivor. Traps can be disarmed by interacting with them, but creates a loud noise notification. A very territorial killer, but he has to retrieve his traps from around the map and reset them if they're disarmed, so takes a while to set up. Be careful around tall grass and in narrow loops against him.

The Wraith

Can become invisible. While invisible, he moves extremely fast and his red stain and terror radius are suppressed, but from a close distance, you can see a shimmer in the air and hear his gurgling. He must reappear before he can attack. While uncloaking, he rings a bell and his speed is drastically slowed, but gets a large speed boost for a moment once fully visible. Currently a very strong killer for his ability to traverse the map, approach undetected, and be extremely aggressive at loops due to his uncloak speedboost. A bunch of his add-ons are extremely powerful (too many to summarize here), so he can be rough to go against.

The Hillbilly

Has a chainsaw that he can rev to enter a dash with limited left/right steering (basically think Mario Kart). Colliding with a survivor during a chainsaw dash instantly puts them in the dying state. Hitting a dropped pallet destroys it. Good map control thanks to his dash speed, and can down survivors that he catches in the open. Tinkerer (see above) is one of his innate perks, and works well with his movement speed, so be wary of that against him. Use vaults/windows against him. Juking as he revs his chainsaw to make him miss his dash and go sailing off elsewhere can be effective too, but most will use the chainsaw from up-close only (basically unmissable) in a chase.

The Nurse

She's able to blink/teleport around the map with a brief fatigue after each blink, but her default movement speed is slower than survivors. She can chain up to two blinks together (the second shorter than the first) as she moves. Her ability to blink lets her ignore a lot of normal looping to teleport right to survivors and makes her extremely strong in experienced hands, but it takes a sh*tload of practice to master the positioning of her blinks. Against her, try to break line of sight and trick her into blinking in the wrong direction. Don't underestimate how much time you can waste against her just by running in a straight line, but a good Nurse will tear almost any team apart.

The Shape

AKA Michael Myers from Halloween. Myers is complex. His power is Evil Within and has 3 tiers. In tier 1, he has the Undetectable status, but moves only slightly faster than survivors run, and has a reduced lunge. He can stalk a survivor in his field of view, and after stalking them sufficiently, progresses to Evil Within 2. In tier 2, he is basically a regular killer with regular movement speed, but a slightly faster vault and a slightly smaller terror radius. He can continue to stalk to progress to tier 3. Tier 3 lasts for 60 seconds by default before returning to tier 2 (no way to return to tier 1). While in Tier 3, his terror radius grows to regular size, he gets an extended lunge, and all survivors are inflicted with the Exposed status. All survivors hear the Halloween theme whenever he increases/decreases Evil Within. He has a bunch of strong and gimmicky add-ons to be aware of (too many to go into here), but is usually pretty basic to play against. Break line of sight, don't let him stalk you, be wary because he can be deceptively stealthy in both tier 1 and tier 2, and try to stay clear while he's in tier 3, especially if he took a long time to reach it because he may be bringing one of his nastier add-ons.

The Hag

She's able to set traps which appear as a dark triangle on the ground. When a survivor gets near a trap, a mud phantasm of the Hag spawns with a BWAAAGH, jumpscaring the survivor and staring at them for a moment. The Hag can teleport to any active mud phantasm, letting her move around the map. She has a slightly reduced terror radius and small profile, but slightly reduced movement speed. This is an extremely territorial killer and is very difficult to go against in solo queues because the strategy against her is to actively harass her, disrupt her web of traps, and keep her from setting up. She is also very weak in chases due to her reduced speed and most will not want to leave their trapped area.

The Doctor

Doc's power is Madness. He inflicts it two ways. First is a Static Blast which hits all survivors within his terror radius (being in a locker blocks it). Static Blast is on a very long delay. The second is Shock Therapy, which sends out a small cone of electricity in front of him after a short delay. Being hit by either of these causes a survivor to scream, blocks them from taking any action for about a second, and increases their Madness. At Madness 1, skill checks have a chance of spinning backwards instead of forwards, and appearing somewhere besides the center of the screen. At Madness 2, reverse skill checks are more frequent, and illusory Doctors will occasionally appear around the survivor. At Madness 3, the survivor screams intermittently and is unable to perform any action except "Snap Out of It," a series of Skill Checks (which can be reversed) which restores Madness to tier 1. He has a bunch of nasty add-ons which cause additional effects in Madness. Try to stay out of his shocks and control Madness against him. His shocks can also be used as an anti-looping tool because you can't vault/drop a pallet while screaming. Move early if you see a shock coming.

The Huntress

She's a ranged killer who can throw hatchets that injure/down a healthy/wounded survivor, but has a large lullaby that notifies you of her presence long before she shows up and moves slightly slower. She can only carry a limited number of hatchets, but they can be refilled from any locker. Because she can throw over pallets and through windows, she can't be looped at normal and her slower speed needs to be used against her. Be careful hiding in lockers against her because many use Iron Maiden, a killer perk that speeds up her locker refills, but also causes survivors to scream and become Exposed upon exiting a locker.

The Cannibal

AKA Leatherface from Texas Chainsaw Massacre aka Bubba. Bubba also carries a chainsaw that can instantly down survivors, but his dash is slower than the Hillbilly's (still much faster than a running survivor) and has a constant AOE in front of him as he moves. However, if he bumps into an object while chainsaw dashing, he throws a tantrum, becoming immobile and slashing the area around him. Use windows against him and try not to be caught in the open because he will easily run you down. BBQ (see above) is one of his innate perks, so almost all Bubbas will run it. His ability to AOE down survivors also makes him essentially unstoppable if he decided to be a miserable asshole and camp somebody on hook.

The Nightmare

AKA Freddy Krueger from Nightmare on Elm Street. Against him, survivors are automatically pulled into the dream world. They also enter the dream when struck with an attack, but leave it when hooked, by interacting with an active alarm clock (always the most distant one when you enter the dream), or having an awake survivor wake them up. While awake, he appears and disappears from view when in the distance, but has a normal terror radius. While in the dream, survivors are inflicted with Oblivious, but instead hear his Lullaby. He's able to teleport to any uncompleted generator and set dream snares. He has good map presence with his teleports, and his disorienting lullaby makes it hard to know which direction he's coming from. You want to try to stay awake as much as possible because that prevents dream snares from working on you and just loop him well.

The Pig

AKA Jigsaw from Saw. She can crouch, moving at a reduced speed but gaining Undectable and an extended lunge to ambush survivors. She can also place a limited number of reverse bear traps on a downed survivor's head. When a generator is finished, the trap becomes active and the survivor must quickly remove it or be killed. Traps are removed by interacting with Jigsaw Boxes scattered around the map, whose auras are visible while a trap is on their head. Her natural slowdown and essentially random kills from forcing an additional objective makes her a dangerous killer, but she's not very strong in a chase or in loops in general, so long as you stay alert for her and don't let her get the drop on you.

The Clown

He can throw two flavors of bottles that explode in a cloud of smoke. Pink ones cause survivors to scream and become slowed down briefly. The yellow ones grant a small speed boost to anybody who enters them, survivor or killer. It takes him a moment to refill his ammo, where he can't move. A killer who works by shutting down loops by dropping gas where survivors want to go, or using the speed-up from the yellow gas to quickly catch up, but most other killers can just directly use their powers to inflict damage, so isn't the strongest around.

The Spirit

She has a smaller terror radius and moves at a slightly reduced speed, but can phase out, leaving a husk behind while she moves at a greatly accelerated speed, completely invisible to survivors, able to reappear right on top of them. While phasing, she cannot see new scratch marks, but can hear survivors and see environmental moves (eg rustling grass). Considered one of the top tier killers who you need to out-think and trick when she phases. Survivors outside her terror radius hear a whoosh sound when she begins phasing, but those within only see her husk stop moving, which also lets her fake it by just standing still, increasing her mindgaming potential.

The Legion

A gang of murder-kids who can enter Frenzy, giving them accelerated movement and the ability to quick vault windows and pallets. If they hit an attack in Frenzy, the survivor is put into the injured state, inflicted with Deep Wound, Frenzy's duration is refreshed, and all survivors in their terror radius not suffering from Deep Wound will emit Killer Instinct. Missing an attack in Frenzy (or after a certain duration) stuns them for a moment. They excel at putting survivors into the injured state, but can't down a survivor with Frenzy, so need to rely on winning the normal chase without any real power to do so. It's better to try to stay injured and slam out the gens against them if you can, but they can be hard to go against for inexperienced people and/or without coordination because you want to spread out and force them into long chases to limit the effectiveness of their power.

The Plague

She is able to vomit sickness that infects survivors and temporarily infects interactible objects like windows, generators, and pallets. Once infected, survivors start coughing and their infection level grows with any action (eg repairing a generator, running, etc), but being vomited on quickly raises it. A fully infected survivor becomes injured, Broken, intermittently vomits, and infects anything they interact with. Infection can be cleansed at pools around the map (auras highlighted once infected), which restores a survivor to full health, but corrupts the pool. The Plague can ingest a corrupted pool which cleanses it, but temporarily changes her vomit power to injure/down instead of infect, making her extremely dangerous while it's active. A mapwide sound effect plays while her Corruption is active, and whenever a survivor cleanses. Like against Legion, it's best to stay infected and just force her to be an essentially powerless killer and slam out gens rather than heal. If you must cleanse, do so near already completed generators in corners of the map so she needs to go far out of the way to get her power to full strength.

The Ghost Face

From Scream, but for licensing purposes, is just a costume. A stealthy killer who can crouch Shroud, which gives him Undetectable and lets him Stalk survivors by staring at them while motionless. He gets bonus stalk for leaning out from the side of things. A fully stalked survivor becomes temporarily exposed, but a basic attack removes all Stalk. Survivors can break him out of Shroud by focusing on him for about 2 straight seconds, which puts his Shroud on a long cooldown, but also signals him to the location of the survivor who broke him out. He wants to catch survivors together so he can '99' a stalk on one, and then chase the other, so when he finds the first one again, he can get close, Shroud, stalk for a fraction of a second and then immediately down them. He's weak in chases, but can crouch to hide himself and sneak up on people, so just stay on guard and master looping to give him a rough time.

The Demogorgon

From Stranger Things. His first power is that he can set down portals and then travel between them close to instantly. Once a portal has been used, it becomes active and, survivors can close them, but become Oblivious and have to complete skill checks while doing so. His second power is Of The Abyss. While using Abyss, he growls, slows down slightly, and all survivors near active portals emit Killer Instinct. Using Abyss also lets him Shred, which is a leap straight forward that breaks pallets/doors it hits or injures/downs a healthy/injured survivor. Demo-doggy has a lot of map presence if he gets his portals set up, and can end chases if given a straight line to Shred in, but is loud as absolute sh*t, so may not be able to get close before survivors hide.

The Oni

When injured against the Oni, survivors drop blood orbs which he can absorb to fuel his power. Once full, he can Demon Dash at an accelerated speed around the map (with reduced steering), instantly break dropped pallets, and instantly down healthy survivors he attacks. He's pretty much opposite Legion/Plague. You want to heal quickly against him to keep him from using his Demon Dash as much as possible, but is otherwise a pretty basic killer, albeit an extremely dangerous one if he can keep his power up.

The Deathslinger

Another ranged killer with slightly reduced movement speed and a smaller terror radius. He's able to fire his spear gun and reel in survivors. He can basic attack while a survivor is speared to injure/down them, or the spear can break if he can't reel them in quickly enough (which can only really happen if obstructed by terrain). Terrain colliding with the chain also causes it to break faster. The chain breaking this way stuns him briefly. After a survivor is speared, they are always inflicted with Deep Wounds, regardless of whether they took a basic attack or the chain broke. He needs to reload (slows him) after each shot. He's basically a sneakier Huntress, who you can't loop normally against and can punish windows/pallets. He's more able to get close undetected, but significantly reduced range and a bit more precision needed.

The Executioner

AKA Pyramid Head from Silent Hill. Triangle Man can drag his sword to create a long lasting trail behind him. Survivors that walk or run through it (crouching is fine) become Tormented and emit Killer Instinct for a few moments. A downed Tormented survivor can be Caged, teleported to a far corner of the map in what is essentially a hook, but doesn't activate any hook perks. While caged, they must succeed at skill checks or their hook timer will count down at an accelerated rate. Being rescued from a cage, or rescuing someone from a cage are the only ways to remove Tormented. While dragging his sword, if he attacks, it causes a short narrow shockwave ahead of him that can injure/down. His ranged attack makes him similarly dangerous at loops to other ranged killers, but he has a pretty big tell when using it, so many survivors can fake it. The shockwave ignores walls, so smart Triangle Heads know how to predict survivor locations and hit them through it.

The Blight

This killer can suddenly dash straight forward for a brief duration, redirecting a few times if he runs into terrain, basically pinballing around the map. After slamming at least once, he's able to attack during his rush. A fairly simply mechanic, but playing him well requires a lot of experience in knowing map setups, what you can bounce off of and what you'll slide off, and just generally being able to navigate and reposition very very fast. A ton of map pressure though, and can end chases fast, so in experienced hands, is one of the top tier killers.

The Twins

Charlotte is the big girl, Victor is her little twin. Charlotte can release Victor, switching control to him while she goes dormant. Victor moves fast and lacks a terror radius and can't see scratch marks (but can see blood trails), but is constantly shrieking. He can pounce, which downs an injured survivor, or makes him cling to a healthy survivor, injuring them. While Victor is on a survivor, they can't work on a gen or heal (but can vault or drop pallets). It takes a few seconds to crush Victor, after which he returns to Charlotte. If Victor misses a pounce, there's a few seconds where he's vulnerable and can be kicked, destroying him until he returns. Charlotte can also return control to herself, which leaves Victor immobile but vulnerable to being kicked. Any survivor near Victor emits Killer Instinct. The Twins are very good at slugging survivors and camping areas. Staying healthy so Victor can't track easily or get downs is the best way to deal with them. Working in pairs so one person can kick Victor after he misses a pounce can also help.

The Trickster

Another slower movement, smaller terror radius, ranged killer, able to throw a flurry of knives. After hitting enough, survivors become injured/downed, but gradually recover if not knifed for a short while. He only has a limited number before needing to reload at any locker. After hitting enough knives, his power temporarily goes into overdrive, letting him throw an unlimited number at an increased rate. He technically has a lullaby instead of a terror radius, so despite the smaller terror radius, isn't very stealthy, although his lullaby/chase music is fairly quiet. Considered a bit on the weak side, but he can still tear you apart if you give him a straight line of sight through a window, over a pallet, or in the open.

The Nemesis

From Resident Evil. The newest killer with two powers. First, he can whip people with a very short range ranged attack. The first time a whip hits, it infects a survivor and they begin coughing. Whipping an infected survivor injures/downs them. His whip can level up as you infect more survivors. At level 2, it can break pallets. At level 3, it has extended reach. He also has a passive that spawns two zombies on the map who shamble around and attempt to attack nearby survivors (same rules as getting hit with the whip). He can also whip them to level it up. Four chests with vials spawn around the map that survivors can use to remove infection one time each, but cause Killer Instinct when they do so. He appears to be pretty similar to Pyramid Head in most regards, except can take care of pallets easier without being able to attack through walls. Be aware of zombies, because they can get ya.

And also Pinhead, Artist, Dredge, Sadako, Wesker, Knight, Skull Merchant, Singularity, and Xenomorph since this thread was made.

Looping
Basically just the act of running a survivor running the killer around some kind of environmental obstruction. A good killer will almost always be able to hit a survivor due to their speed advantage, but a good survivor knows how to absolutely maximize the amount of time it takes them to do so. Understanding the best way to run each kind of possible map tile is one of the big things that makes people good at the game.

Mind Game
Part of looping. Out-thinking the killer or survivor, tricking them into moving the wrong direction, and gaining distance on them. A common mind game for a killer player, for example, is to show your red stain to make a survivor think you're going one direction, and then moonwalk the other direction.

Unsafe Pallet
These are pallets at very short loops that are difficult to play around, usually because the killer can just to the side of the pallet and lose no time at all, or even hit the survivor after they drop it.

God Pallet/God Loop
A god pallet is a pallet that completely blocks the killer's path and forces them to break it to continue a chase. These are extremely safe pallets and can be dropped early and still get significant value out of them.

3-Gen
When four generators have been repaired, only three are left for survivors to work on. If those three generators are all in close proximity to each other, the killer has a significantly easier time defending them. Survivors want to avoid being 3-genned, and killers usually want to be at least a little territorial if they're losing generators to be able to better defend them, although the ability to do so varies significantly depending on the killer's power. Some killers will aggressively try to force a 3-gen situation.

SWF
AKA Survivor Friends. Survive With Friends is just what it's called when you're in a pre-made group, or playing with friends. A lot of the game is based on information, which is limited when playing solo, and the game becomes extremely survivor-sided at upper levels because of the advantages that playing with friends can give.

Clicky Clicky
A lot of survivors know how to loop killers extremely well and like to troll/abuse them. One of the big ways is by blinding them with flashlights when they pick up a survivor, which causes them to drop them. These trolly survivors tend to click their flashlights a lot to try to get attention so they can bully killers.

Matchmaking
Matchmaking is a bit weird in DBD, but you have a rank for survivor and a rank for killer. You get scored each game and can rank up, but the metrics prioritize doing a little bit of everything, and so long as you do that, you'll naturally rank up more than down, even if you don't get a ton of kills as killer, or frequently escape as survivor. A survivor team really only needs one strong player to occupy the killer and the rest can just work on gens. This means that there's an absolutely MASSIVE range of skill in the top (red) ranks, especially for survivors. Skill based matchmaking (aka MMR) is supposedly being worked on and coming eventually, with a test-run of it every few months, but each test has been pretty badly received by all but the very tip-top players, and in my own opinion, survivor teams kind of need weak links to give a lot of killers a real chance because they have to capitalize on mistakes while survivor teams more just need to not be totally ineffecient. Additionally, each month, on the 13th, everybody is dropped to the next lowest category of rank, so there's a bit of churn for those who play infrequently.

Exhaustion Perks
This isn't a perk, but a class of them. Exhaustion is a temporary status effect that blocks use of some strong survivor perks which gradually recovers as long as a survivor is not running (or upon being hooked). Generally, exhaustion perks are those that give a brief burst of speed to lengthen chases. Most survivors generally run some form of exhaustion perk to help them gain distance in chases. The two most popular are Sprint Burst (3 seconds of extra speed when you first start running), and Dead Hard (while injured, on command, extremely quickly sprint forward for ~.5 seconds with I-frames)

Kindred
When a survivor with Kindred is hooked, all survivor auras are revealed to all other survivors, and the killer's aura as long as they're near a hooked survivor. When any other survivor is hooked, the survivor with Kindred gets those bonuses instead (sees all other survivor auras, and the killer's aura when near a hooked survivor). An extremely powerful information perk, especially for new players. Helps hugely to coordinate with other players even without comms. As a killer, be aware that when you leave after hooking someone, survivors will often have advanced warning for which direction you've gone in because of this perk, even before they hear your terror radius.

Spine Chill
A common perk immediately available to all survivors from the start, and great when you're starting out. It lights up when the killer is looking in your direction, even from a relatively far distance, so you know when they're coming your way, or if they're just passing by when you hear their terror radius. It's also a direct counter to the stealthier killers, although it can be tricked by looking away as they approach.

Borrowed Time
AKA BT. A survivor perk that gives the Endurance status effect to an unhooked survivor when you unhook them. Endurance lets an injured survivor take a hit and receive a Deep Wound status effect instead of being put into the dying state for a brief time. It helps protect against tunneling and lets survivors go for unsafe unhooks when the killer is nearby, but safe hooks are still preferred.

Decisive Strike
AKA DS. A perk that lets a survivor who was recently unhooked stun a killer if they're picked up by them by hitting a skill check. Recently nerfed, so far less common, but still good for anti-tunneling and a reason to not tunnel if you're playing killer.

Unbreakable
A survivor perk that lets a survivor self-recover from the dying to injured state once per trial. One of the very few anti-slugging perks.

Self Care
Allows a survivor to heal from injured to healthy on their own, at reduced speed. It has a bad reputation because it takes a long time to heal like this and even more time is often wasted running to a far/safe corner of the map, but mathematically, so long as you do finish healing, since it only takes one person's time instead of two, it isn't actually less efficient, as the other person isn't wasting their time chasing you to try to heal you.

Windows of Opportunity
Highlights all nearby windows and pallets. Fantastic informational perk for beginners and experts to show all the options you have around you so you can move towards them and use them.

Barbecue and Chili
AKA BBQ. A killer perk that reveals all survivor auras to the killer outside a certain range for a few seconds when hooking a survivor. It also provides a huge amount of extra BP. Extremely popular perk to be on killers, and you can generally assume they have it by default, so expect most killers to be able to see you for a couple seconds after hooking somebody.

Tinkerer
When a generator is 70% repaired, the killer gets a loud noise notification at it (survivors see nothing) and temporary gets the Undetectable status, letting them sneak up on survivors that are about to finish a generator. A popular information perk for killers, especially those with an insta-down ability.

Hex: Ruin
AKA Ruin. Causes generators to automatically begin regressing at twice the normal rate when nobody is repairing them. Another extremely popular killer perk. It causes generators that a killer chases survivors off of to regress very quickly, passively negating all progress on them. Is disabled when the hex totem is cleansed. Is frequently run with Hex:Undying, which protects it and causes survivors to have to find and cleanse multiple totems. A game where Ruin goes uncleansed for a long time can become unwinnable for survivors.

Pop Goes the Weasel
AKA Pop. The most common regression perk after Ruin, and frequently run with it because regression is the killer meta at the moment. After hooking a survivor, the next generator kicked within a short time will explode and lose an extra 25% progress. Can't be disabled like Ruin, and provides an immediate major knock off of progress that can save a gen from being finished.

Corrupt Intervention
Temporarily seals half the generators at the start of the match, preventing survivors from working on them. Another very popular killer perk to prevent survivors from immediately jumping on a gen and having to run around the map to look for something to do.

Hex: No-one Escapes Death
AKA NoED. A hex perk that only activates once five generators are powered. If at least one totem hasn't been cleansed yet, one randomly becomes active. As long as it's active, all survivors are Exposed and the killer receives a speed boost. Often run by newer killers because it almost guarantees at least one kill in the end game, and makes it almost impossible to save a camped survivor while it's active.