Dead by Daylight – How To Enjoy Being Killer

Dead by Daylight – How To Enjoy Being Killer 1 - steamlists.com
Dead by Daylight – How To Enjoy Being Killer 1 - steamlists.com
Tricks and builds to get enough satisfaction from even worst matchmaking output. Beware: a lot of text and potentially toxic ideas.

 
 

Why This Guide

 
I used to play Space Station 13 often few years ago. 
I was afraid of taking killer roles because of so many responsibilities these needed and so high individual skill requirement! 
Also, I was always suprpised by post-session chat in which a hot discussion between killer and non-killer roles ALWAYS happened. 
 
If killers failed to complete their objectives – non-killers called them names. 
If killers did succeeded with their objectives with fair deal of killing – non-killers called them munchkins. 
If killers did their best in stealth – non-killers called the round boring. 
 
As one old wise player said, ‘Killer’s role is not about doing objectives – it’s about entertaining non-killers’. 
 
And indeed, sessions with witty killers tended to be less boring and more dynamic! And dying to someone’s well-prepared practical joke was not even remotely as depressing as catching stray bullet or being simply beaten to death. 
 
Few years later. I returned to Dead by Daylight again, played few sessions as Killer, got my share of negative energy again… and, for a change, started thinking. And remembered these wise words. And altered these words a little, to make them fit into DbD gameplay. 
 

Originally posted by Old Wise Player:

Killer’s role is not about sacrificing four Survivors – it’s about entertaining Survivors.

 
While Survivors DO have Surviving as a victory condition, 
Killers DO NOT have Killing as a victory condition! 
 
Even better, while Survivors DO depend on Killers, Killer does NOT depend on anyone. 
 
Remember, anything but ‘Entity Displeased’ is a victory of sorts. And those pips and Killer Ranks – who cares about these if matchmaker is so broken so getting Rank based session is a novelty? 
 
You don’t need to sacrifice anyone to get Brutal Killer result. 
I did so multiple times – and sessions during which I achieved that were satisfying for all involved parties, believe me. 
 
Dead by Daylight - How To Enjoy Being Killer 
 
Here, Killer psyches himself up for an enjoyable game while Survivors are freaking out for nothing. 
 
Bear with me. We’re about to learn how to be entertained by entertaining in Dead by Daylight. 
 
 

Horror Games are Horror Movies’ Successors

 
Before we advance, I suggest borrowing a copy of Nightmare on Elm Street (old one, from year 1984) then watching it thoroughfully. Watching and evaluating it as if it was an actual DbD session footage. 
 
Good horror movies utilize tension, surprises and visuals so decadent so these instill great deal of disgust in viewers. If audience is not on the edge of their seats – they’re either hiding under their blankets or running away, looking for someone to be comforted with. 
 
Why Dead by Daylight should be different? 
 
I’ll help you remember what you got yourself into, my boy. 
 

Originally posted by Dead by Daylight pitch:

Dead by Daylight is a multiplayer (4vs1) horror game where one player takes on the role of the savage Killer, and the other four players play as Survivors, trying to escape the Killer and avoid being caught and killed.

 
It’s not a multiplayer version of Hitman. Not Splinter Cell, nor Battlefield, neither any-other-action-game-you-may-recall. Dead by Daylight is a Horror Game – and its developers are not ashamed of it. 
 
Yes, it is Survivor-centric – because at least some survivors survive (or attract more future survivors before their bloodied demise – but it’s a bit outside of game’s scope at this moment) in any good horror movie. Anyone can be a Survivor, for thrills and giggles. 
 
But it’s Killer, Killer’s personality and Killer’s deeds which make or break horror movie. Which make it work. Which entertains Survivors – and the audience. It’s a helluva hard work, a work BHVR do not pay you for, – but it can be enjoyable. 
 
If you do your job bad – of course you’ll be teabagged at every corner, flashed by flashlight at and, overall, disrespected. 
 
But if you do your job good – they’ll see you in their nightmares. For too damn looooong, hehehehehehehe… 
 
Dead by Daylight - How To Enjoy Being Killer 
 
Here, you see a result of being outplayed by especially able Pig player. I wonder how many horror movie crossovers that artist made after that incident… 
 
 

Pips and YOU

 
Enough with jokes, time to learn. 
 

How To Prevent ‘Entity Displeased’ Result

 

 
deadbydaylight.fandom.com – https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Emblems#Pip_Conditions that you don’t have to care about session outcome at all until Killer Rank 15. 
 
From Killer Rank 15 onwards, it is enough to get a handful of Silver emblems to keep your pips in your pockets (and, occasionally, to raise your Killer Rank) and your Entity pleased. 
 
Since it’s not a guide about getting pips, further calculations and explanations have been omitted. There are more useful text ahead so don’t waste your brain power on redundant information. 
 
 

General Principles of Being Entertained

 

Originally posted by Mitten Squad:

This is where the real game begins…

 
Screw pips – we’re about to start preparing ourselves for having fun. 
 
As we mentioned earlier, tension, surprises and visuals is all we need. 
 
Tension (in this context) is a sense of impending doom, a Sword of Damocles which is about to strike – but it’s never certain when. 
 
Surprise is an act of actual striking with a Sword of Damocles. 
 
And visuals… ahem… are visuals. Unfortunately, there are not many options for us in this category. 
 
Each Killer have some means for providing each of these components – but some excel in some, even absolutely nak*d (perk-less). 
 
 

Tension

 
Two extremities are possible here: either Killer is nowhere to be found or Killer is literally everywhere (sic!) 
 

Nowhere

 
If Survivor doesn’t pick any signs of Killer’s presence for long enough, he’ll become antsy and start making mistakes – or will stop paying enough attention (and that’s when we get’em off-guard!) 
 
Believe me, most survivors will gonna scream in real life after being SUDDENLY pulled off that generator. 
 
Without perks, only The Wraith, The Shape, The Pig and The Ghost Face have some means for becoming undetectable reliably enough. 
 
Notable perks include Insidious (available for everyone, stealthed while standing still) and Trail of Torment (from Silent Hill DLC, stealthed after kicking the generator). 
 
Use those pesky generators as baits! Remember in which direction the Survivor ran, kick the generator, then hide at some place where returning Survivor would not spot you. How many Survivors were jumpscared by me simply standing around the corner, without Terror Radius, minding my own business… 
 

Everywhere

 
What’s the point in survelliance if it gives so many false alarms? Too many signals is as bad as no signals for this purpose. And with absolutely same consequences. 
 
Being everywhere at once is, on average, harder than being sneaky ninja. But it’s so much more thrilling! Be the lion, make the ground tremble with your uproar and make everyone duck and cover in your wake! 
 
While Hillbilly’s running-with-chainsaw capabilities are still unrivaled, perk-less OMGHE’SEVERYWHERE Killer list includes The Hag, The Nightmare, The Clown, The Legion, The Demogorgon, each of which possesses either some means for teleportation – or some source of speed boost which might allow scaring the pants off multiple Survivors at once. 
 
Unfortunately, due to extreme prejustice from BHVR and Survivors alike, there are not many mobility-enhancing perks. There, however, is another category of perks which help with being everywhere at once. Terror Radius. Your lion’s uproar. 
 
Most people consider Terror Radius as Killer’s inconvenience and Survivor’s chance to avoid the inevitable. 
But what if Terror Radius would become too big? 
 
Distressing (for everyone, increases Terror Radius to 40m total) and Monitor & Abuse (Spark of Madness DLC, 8 more meters in a chase – 8 less outside of chase) are not being used together often. 48 meters total (instead of default 32 for most Killers) is quite a lot – poor Survivors will get hiccups from you merely passing by. 
 
 

Surprise

 
Now he’s up – SUDDENLY then he’s down. Surprise! It’s simple! 
 
In a broader sense of definition Surprise refers to unexpected (and, as a rule of a thumb, dramatic) situation change. 
 
The art of being Nowhere (as discussed above) implies a great deal of Surprises by default – but there are never enough Surprises regardless of how many of these occurred already! There are many more opportunities to introduce thrills and chills in your Killer routine. 
 

Instant surprises

 

 
If you’re all close and personal with your Survivor already – you can implement a fair deal of tricks which are descriped in other guides. In guides which describe how to be a good Killer – since if you’re almost touching Survivor, there’s not much you can do except hitting them. 
 
But. 
 
There is a category of Killers which have access to the joy of sparing the Survivor – while leaving them at some disadvantage. Like, real disadvantage. The Pig’s traps are a great example – but too straightforward (and traps quantity is finite). Or making their lifes worse by other means. 
 
The Wraith. Its cloaking. And those pesky flashlights which de-cloak him. Take Lightborn, proceed with punishing for decloaking you. Nobody expects Lightborn – even on its donor character, Hillbilly – but on The Wraith it may lead to absolutely ridiculous situations! 
 
The Doctor. He doesn’t need a thing – show your mental domination over Survivor by zapping him over and over again until he’s at Madness 3 then leaving to find another Survivor to dominate! 
 
The Twins. Hide the girl somewhere and go for a walk as Viktor. Only. Victor. 
 
The Nemesis. Carrying the survivor to nearest Zombie instead of sacrifice attempt seems to be a valid tactics at test server for now… Probably one of very few useful uses of R (Drop Survivor) key in whole game. 
 
The Pig. Landing Ambush successfully… priceless… Misses are fine too for as long as you make Survivors RUNFORMYLIFE!!! 
 
For Perks, Beast of Prey (become stealthed for a duration of Bloodlust) seems to cause enough confusion. Franklin’s Demise (slapped Survivors drop their precious carried items) is a good one too. The latter is expected in quite specific builds which is a surprise on its own… 
 
Corrupt Intervention, while not explicitly a surprise, will set up the scene for everything else while causing enough inconvenience. Also, people seeing Corrupt Intervention inact expect quite specific Killer builds… 
 

Delayed surprises

 

 
While Survivors expect you to be THERE, they’re not expecting stuff going south HERE. But it may and should go south, as often as possible! Surprises for everyone! 
 
The Trapper excels here. If you know about surprise probability but don’t know when to expect it – it’s twice as horrible! Bear traps, Freddy’s Snares, Hag’s Phantasms, stray axes from Huntress… 
 
Pestering people working on Generators with Clown’s bottles (Just. Throwing. Bottles. No approaching) is… let’s say, decent. Some target practicing is necessary – and indoor maps are extremely bad for this kind of entertainment. Still, a good artillery-like throw made from closed position can do wonders to Survivors’ mental health! Worth practicing. 
 
There is only one category of Perks which allow making delayed surprises – so-called ‘booby traps’. Although, on average, it’s disadvantageous to pick one: almost all perks of this kind are highly situational and do not contribute towards other entertainment categories, effectively reducing possible fun per session generation. But if you’d like to do something gimmicky just for YOUR giggles… 
 
Dragon’s Grip (kicked generators make Survivors scream and Expose them), Eruption (scream + Incapaciated, active for longer – needs downing someone to make Generators explode), Overcharge (icing on a cake – trying to repair kicked Generator regresses it further) and Oppression (kick 1 – regress 4? gimme 2!) together make an especially irritating setup. 
 
Hexes don’t change things as grastically and, in general, should be avoided (while doing totems is meta, totems may spawn in weird locations). 
 
However, if you encounter too many premade groups which do totems – you may toss Retribution (for Oblivious + free aura readings) and Undying (Retribution may proc twice + some more free aura readings) into the mix. Plus, Haunted Ground (2 more Hex Totems which don’t do much on their own, just distract) if you somehow ended up with 3 free perk slots (which, on average, shouldn’t happen in any setups except The Executioneer, which is quite strong AND entertaining even nak*d). 
 

Unexpected deeds

 

 
Infamous Survivors Rulebook have too much stuff Killers are expected to do. It’s absolutely possible to actually do that stuff – while making everybody’s life more fun! 
 
Bodyblocking someone in a corner with Twins girl seems to be a good start. If someone complains about this – stop doing bodyblocks yourself, you arrogant whiner! Bodyblock deactivates after 30 seconds anyway… 
 
Using hooked Survivor for target practicing with Huntress’s Hatchets, Trickster’s Kunai, Clown’s Bottles, etc, etc will leave a lasting impression on your Survivor. Bonus points for doing so outside of descore range (i. e. far enough from the hook). We don’t care if they’ll be sacrificed or not – we need target practicing! 
 
Following someone as The Plague, just to barf at them… priceless… And if someone teabagged at you – down them then barf on them until the end of session. Saving a teammate from such predicament is quite a quest for Survivors! 
 
If, by any chance, you as The Executioner ended up against a party with a dedicated lookout, which sits at some high grounds and monitors your moves, – draw something unusual with your Trail of Torment for him. Like duck. Or a thing which spells similarly with duck. He’ll appreciate that. 
 
Iron Grasp (less stagger from carrying Survivors + carry Survivors for longer) with Agitation (more Terror Radius + Movement Speed while carrying Survivors, it’s one of only that many move speed bosts for Killers!), Starstruck (bystanders in your Terror Radius are Exposed while you’re carrying anyone – and then some), Mad Grit (on hit with Basic Attack, carried Survivor stops struggling for awhile, removes penalty for missed attack while carrying anyone) allow really weird stuff to do: grab a Survivor then run at another Survivor until you down him too. Drop previous Survivor, grab a fresh one, run at third Survivor… Encourages tunneling though. We’re for entertainment here, not for being toxic. 
 
Beware. Swapping something in that list for Knock Out (nobody notices knocked down Survivors) is possible – and may result in chain-knocking all four Survivors… then making Entity Displeased because most of them would bleed themselves to death. 
 
And remember: unless you’re in a session with exceptionally good people which are just farming Bloodpoints politely (believe me, such groups exist – I encountered these once), ALWAYS open the gates for Survivors. 
 
If they’re Premade group – they’ll likely lose their precious Bloodpoints due to underfarming. So kindly avoid doing so to adequate people. 
 
If they’re not Premade – you may witness hilarious arguement among them! 
 
‘What do you mean by ‘Killer opened the gates’?! Are they allowed to do so?! You’re griefing, you did this to deny us our income!’ 
 
 

On Obsession

 
Every Killer have an Obsession nowadays. 
 
As a rule of a thumb, it is quite likely that your Obsession do have perks which benefit them while you do not have perks which provide benefits for having an obsession. 
 
And, in general, it’s derimental to have such perks since once your Obsession is gone – so do these perks! 
 
But… There is an extremely awkward perk setup which allows Killer to mess with Obsessions for as long as he pleases. 
 
Nemesis allows you to switch Obsessions. Original Obsession may kiss goodbye to their Obsession perks! Icing on a cake: Oblivious status effect for new Obsession, free of charge. 
 
Furtive Chase makes unhooking Survivor a new Obsession upon unhooking Obsession. Bonus Terror Radius reduction! 
 
Play With Your Food is the one of only that many perks which give movement speed boosts – and since the game may deem your Obsession escaped too damn often, you’ll have increased movement speed most of the time. 
 
And Save The Best For The Last for increased attack speed. If you’re exceptionally unlucky and can’t bump onto Obsession for too damn long – you can exercise your LMB! 
 
Roam the map. If you bumped into non-Obsession – get tokens from Save The Best until getting hammered by pallet, then either get few Play With Your Food stacks or go for a kill. 
 
If you stumbled upon Obsession – get Play With Your Food token then go for Furtive Chase stacks! 
 
It’s a loss/loss/win for Obsession/other Survivors/Killer, correspondingly! 
 
And if, by any chance, you have a free perk slot – take Nemesis if you need to keep your Terror Radius, Furtive Chase if you can afford (or even NEED) reducing it. 
 
 

Tactics for tension

 
With so many tools at our disposal, it’s easy to miss the main point of our grand affair: to be entertained by entertaining. 
 
The feeling of a living soul slipping through your fingers and running away because you allowed it to is… priceless… but how do we make them slip? 
 
Priority Zero: punish toxic players, you have all tools and (probably) developers’ blessing to do so. 
For bullies, there is GTA Online, Rust and so many other toxicity encouraging projects like Overwatch – and if they missed GTA Online free giveaway, joke’s on them. 
But don’t get too carried away with being Paragon of Sportsmanlike Conduct… 
 
Then, once only healthy players are remaining in the session, stalling. Stalling means more action AND more income for all involved parties. 
If you can either kick the Generator or follow injured Survivor – kick the Generator first, since it means free Bloodpoints for everyone! 
 
If you can either hook already-downed Survivor or pursuit someone – well, if nearest hook is far, hook is preferrable! I know that it sounds weird but each down is a punishment on its own – and each successful hook usage brings the game to an end faster. 
Using more distant hook gives Survivors that tiny bit of time to regroup – and they may even start thinking that THEY are running this session, hehehehehe… 
And unless you’re running Knock Out, teammates will surely help downed Survivor. 
If they won’t – remember: regardless of bleedout timer, wiggling free from your grasp will restore downed Survivor to Injured! 
Although helping Survivor to get up is… let’s say, an edge case we’d like to avoid. Killers are not expected to do so since it may raise too many weird questions… 
 
If you can either go for a kill or set up a surprise – set up a surprise. After all, it’s a horror game, not a Battlefield clone! no needs in going all in with guns blazing, use some subtlety! 
And those, who think that it IS better going in with guns blazing, may look at what happened with Deathgarden Bloodharvest. Go save it from untimely demise. Blaze your guns there, I dare ye. Announcement of Discontinuement: https://steamcommunity.com/app/555440/eventcomments/1657817111850152944 
 
If you’re passing by yet another Claudette which sits in a dark corner and thinks that she’s invisible – well, pass by! let her remain in her delusions if it will make her happy once! And when she’ll hide in that very same corner in a different session with different Killer player, she’ll gonna be surprised 🙂 
 
Remember: tension and surprise, surprise and tension. And some stalling. 
 
 

Builds, builds, builds!

 
Need to stir your creativity up a little? Here’s a fix for this. Built to amuse, born to annoy! 
 
Here and below we’re assuming that no add-ons neither offerings are being used. What’s the point in using consumables if you’re not expecting any income to offset this? 
 
We’re here for FUN! Presumably, for ALL involved parties! 
 

Booby Trapper

 

 
His innate power ensures constant supply of surprises. Be smart and hide your traps well. 
Unfortunately, add-on which makes traps rearm themselves is of unreasonable rarity – so we have to offset necessity to roam around whole map TWICE (once to place the trap and once to get the trap)! 
 
Booby trap setup (Overcharge, Oppression, Mindbreaker instead of Eruption for constant Exhaust effect – and Trail of Torment instead of Dragon’s Grip for free stealth and mindgames) is expected to stall the session for long enough. All survivors will gonna survive – but if done right, they all will be very, very sweaty… 
 

Crazy Uproar Wraith

 

 
One trick pony for Those Special Days where simply making Survivors sweaty is not enough. As we’re starting Chases out of our Cloaking, we don’t have to care about Terror Radius reductions from Monitor & Abuse – and good movement speed while cloaked makes lack of monitoring perks way less derimental for us. 
 
Lightborn, Distressing, Monitor & Abuse and – suddenly – Beast of Prey will ensure that: 
1. Once you start chasing someone, half of the map will gonna hear it and will lose their wits. 
2. Once you chased someone for long enough, you will make everyone think that you’ve entered cloaking mode – which may cause them to fumble too damn often. And if some poor sod would gonna try to de-cloak you with a flashlight, they’re toast… 
 

Fred Fury

 

 
The Nightmare have enough tools for map control. His original toolkit revolved around getting faster over time – why don’t we take it to eleven? Enter Obsession Setup! 
 
Nemesis! Furtive Chase! Play With Your Food! Save The Best For The Last! Other Killers can go for kill upon reaching Obsession – or go roaming, risking to lose precious time. But not Freddy since his ability allows teleporting to places where other survivors are bound do appear. To Generators. 
 
Freddy is a real nightmare which, with enough skill, is CONSTANTLY in a chase on its own. But Freddy with few stacks of movement speed bonus, miniscule Terror Radius and basic attack speed of a pneumatic hammer? Have mercy! 
 
The downside is, we’re losing our ALL endgame advantages. On the brighter side, once our harassment machine got enough tokens – we can even make it out of the Trial with 3-4 sacrifices without breaking a sweat! 
 
Rancor (you see every Survivor and Obsession sees you upon each Generator repair completion) may or may not fit into this setup. As we can teleport, we don’t have to be afraid of giving our position away. Teleportation also allows to meet Survivors face to face after they gave away their positions… if teleportation is not on cooldown, if it wasn’t the last generator, etc, etc. 
 
Taking it instead of Save The Best For The Last may or may not be a fair tradeoff, and since we HAVE to be chasing someone constantly anyway there are even fewer reasons to do so… except for annoying your Obsession(s) further! 
 

Tunnel Rat Pyramidhead

 

 
Insiduous. Trail of Torment. Dragon’s Grip. Overcharge. 
 
Extremely salty setup. 
 
Kick the generator, hide somewhere near it, once it explodes in Survivor’s face – slap him with your area of effect attack. Or go roaming and laugh quietly at the sound of distant explosion. Make Survivors be afraid of Generators! 
 
Insiduous allows repeating abovementioned trick twice in a row – and guarding hooked Survivors. Remember: your area of effect attack may damage both unhooking and unhooked Survivor, if timed properly! 
 
Excellent at punishing teabaggers – and excellent for building suspense up. 
 

Myers-no-Mori

 

 
If previous build is a salt shaker – this build is a salt bag. For extremely bad days for all involved parties, since it’s everything Survivors hate – in one sneaky package. And for extremely bad matchups we still have Evil Within III! 
 
Reach Evil Within II. And never upgrade it. Dead Rabbit usage is encouraged. With full movement speed and miniscule Terror Radius, you’ll surely make them look in ALL directions at once… 
 
Knock Out. Reason to look down for Survivors. Picking downed Survivors up is not necessary! 
 
Fire Up (do everything except walking faster for each repaired Generator). 
 
Bamboozle. Faster window climbing – now even faster. 
 
Brutal Strenght. Waste even less time on breaking things. 
 
It plays somewhat akin to Pyramidhead: we punish for looping and, instead of sending people to cages, we’re leaving them on the ground to be found by other Survivors… eventually. Just with 200% more salt. 
 
Swapping Brutal Strenght with Franklin’s Demise may lead to even funnier consequences – and occasional Vulture achievements for your Survivors. Remember: if they’re looking down – they can’t look around so you’ll catch them off-guard even more often! 
 
Lock your Steam Profile comments prior to pulling it off – people just calmed down about infamous Tombstone Myers popularity surge… 
 
 

Epilogue (and, by extent, disclaimer)

 
Most ideas described in this guide can be used for unhealthy purposes. 
 
Even worse, most ideas (and especially Killer builds) described in this guide are… let’s say, quite toxic. 
 
Remember: it’s a Horror Game. Survivors are expected to survive – sweaty, bloodied, with pants full of soil, but survive nonetheless. 
 
You as a Killer have all tools for making the session interesting – or toxic. 
 
You as a Killer have all tools for making Survivors enjoy the session – or not enjoy the session. 
 
Even worse, as a Killer armed with this knowledge you have the power to hold 1-4 Survivors at your mercy. 
 
The problem is, if you hate Survivors so much so you’d like to use this guide’s content to make their lives miserable – why complications? Insiduous perk is available for all killers, hide in a corner and enjoy ruined farming for your objects of hate. Laugh at them or read a book or whatever while they’re roaming around, confused by lack of their personal menace in a form of you. 
 
But. 
 
If, by any chance, you’d like to make each session a healthy mini-horror movie – feel free to reuse and improve the ideas described in this guide. 
 
Mental BD*M, one of rare variations of which Dead by Daylight is, is still being built on ‘safe, sane, consensual’ base. 
 
If you as Killer the Session Master is not sure if your Submissive Survivors would enjoy the perils you’re about to put them through – kindly avoid doing so. 
 
Even such practices MUST be enjoyable for ALL involved parties – or avoided at all. There are no other options. No perk, no guide, no skill can mitigate this. 
 
Be safe. Be sane. Keep it consensual. And drink from the cup. 
 

Written by DrinkFromTheCup

Hope you enjoy the Guide about Dead by Daylight – How To Enjoy Being Killer, if you think we should add extra information or forget something, please let us know via comment below, and we will do our best to fix or update as soon as possible!
 
 
 
 


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