What are some of the best killers in Dead by Daylight that will scare even experienced survivors?
In this article, you will find out which killers are considered to be the best in Dead by Daylight. We are going to explore their powers, pros and cons and their own unique perks.
10. HILLBILLY
Hillbilly is one of the original killers that came when the game released. He was widely considered by the community to be one of the most overpowered killers in the game and he has undergone many changes through the years.
He is still one of the best killers of the game but because it has a deep learning curve it is still required to put a lot of hours in before you get good.
His perk Enduring makes that his stun duration is 50% smaller. His best perk and a lot of killers use it, it is called Tinkerer. When gen has achieved 70% progression you get a notification and an Undetectable Status effect for 16 seconds which makes it easier to sneak on survivors.
His last perk is called Light Born which makes you immune to flashlights and it highlights a person for 10 seconds. So if you have a perk you don't have to worry about the flashlight saves.
Hillbilly excels at :
- catching survivors off guard because of Tinkerer
- traversing a map at great speeds
- getting one-shot kills with his chainsaw
Hilbilly full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Max_Thompson_Jr.
9. PLAGUE
Plague can be considered to be one of the strongest killers or one of the weakest. In my opinion, she can great but you have to learn how to play it first to unlock her full potential.
Her power Vile Purge infects survivors and makes them go into Broken Status effect but if they cleanse and Plague uses that well, her power will damage survivors on hit.
Her perk Corrupt Intervention block 3 gens for 120 seconds. It is a very good perk for killers like Shape and Oni. Infectious Fright makes survivors scream and make them reveal their location when a survivor is downed. It is especially good on killers that have one shoot capability like Hillbilly, Oni, Shape, Cannibal ...
Her last perk Dark Devotion makes killer undetectable after hitting an obsession for 30 seconds. It is a very good perk for killers like Shape and Ghost Face.
Plague excels at :
- making survivors one shot with her power if they don't cleanse
- winning quickly if survivors cleanse to quickly and make her power damaging
Plague full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Adiris
8. HUNTRESS
Huntress is one of the killers that requires a lot of hours to be put into working to get better with her hatchets.
She can extremely bad killer if the player is not good with hatchets and survivors will grab the opportunity and start bullying the killer.
Huntress is the killer that has reduced heartbeat from 32 to 24 meters and a reduced speed from 4.6 m/s of the normal killer to the 4.4 m/s.
She has one of the worst teachable perks in the game which are really bad and except Hex: Huntress Lullaby which is a decent perk at Doctor.
Hex: Huntress Lullaby is a perk that is the best of the Huntress teachable perks. It makes sound on the skill check shorter on the warning. You can gather up to 5 tokens when the warning sound for skill checks is no more.
Huntress is one of the hardest killers to play but the most rewarding when you get shoots with her. Beside the Death Slinger she is the only ranged killer in the entire game. I do not advise picking up Huntress as your main killer first.
Huntress excels at :
- getting shoots if a player is familiar with her
- getting looped around the pallet
- denying pallet drop or window vault because of the danger of her hatchets.
Huntress full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Anna
7. CANNIBAL
The Cannibal is DLC killer which can be only bought with real currency. All his perks are very good and I encourage new players if you are gonna play a game a lot, buy this killer and level it up as soon as possible.
His perk Barbecue and Chili is one of the most used perks in the entire game. It reveals players who are further than 40 meters from hooked survivor and it also gives you bonus blood points. His other perk Franklin Demise is used as anti item perk. When you hit a survivor with a regular attack, his item is gonna get dropped and is going slowly disappear if he doesn't pick it after a certain time.
His last perk Knockout allows a killer to knock a survivor down and not reveal his aura to other survivors until they are very close. It is a very good perk against people who are random but it is almost useless to survive with friends.
Killer has a power of Chainsaw which allows him to one shoot survivors. He was also recently buffed and he is now more used because of an extended range of his chainsaw attack. He is a great killer to start with.
The Cannibal excels at :
- camping basement and hooked survivor
- getting one-shot kills with his chainsaw or multiple survivors downs
Cannibal full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Bubba_Sawyer
6. ONI
The Oni is one of my favourite killers and is one that has to get a very interesting mechanic of acquiring his power. He is an M1 killer but when he gets his power, he becomes a very good killer and gains a big speed boost.
His perks are rarely used but as a killer, he is extremely deadly. He gains his power by hitting survivors with his sword and gaining blood orbs. Survivors leave blood until they are healed. After he gets enough blood he gets his power which can be activated at any time and grants him an ability to travel very fast, has one shoot ability but it has limited time of use. His footsteps are also very loud.
Oni excels at :
- catching survivors with his power and one shooting them
- terrifying survivors
- making multiple downs very quickly with his ability
- traversing the map very quickly with his power
Oni full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Kazan_Yamaoka
5. SPIRIT
The Spirit is one of the most divisive killers except Nurse. Some people think that she can be beaten easily and some people say that she is overpowered.
Yamaoka Haunting is her power and it can be used as a hunting. She can move but she doesn't see scratch marks. She can only hear sounds when using her power but the injured survivor can be located easily. The best counter against her power is Iron Will.
Hex: Haunted Ground makes survivors one shoot after they cleanse one of the two hex totems that spawn. A killer can down survivors with a regular attack but the time is limited for 60 seconds. Spirit Furry breaks every third pallet that is dropped. Best combo with this perk is Enduring that is Hillbilly teachable perk.
Spirit excels at :
- catching survivors with her power
- making survivors scared because she is invisible in her power
- catching quickly to survivors with her power
Spirit full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Rin_Yamaoka
4. DEATHSLINGER
Death Slinger is the second ranged characters that came into a game. He is more used by people who don't want to learn huntress but still want to play ranged character.
His power is called Spear gun and it can be shoot at survivors. When the survivor is hit, the Death Slinger can bring survivor closer to him and get a hit. Survivor suffers from the Deep Wound effect and needs to mend first if he wants to get healed. A survivor can also break the chain and stun the killer for 4 seconds. Death Slinger can hit survivors through windows after he hit them but he can't hit survivors through planks.
His perks are not very useful. His most used perk is Hex : Retribution which reveals all survivors for 10 seconds after survivor cleanses a hex totem. The survivor who cleansed a totem also suffers from Oblivious Status effect.
Death Slinger excels at :
- denying windows vaults and shack looping
- sneaking on survivors with using perk Monitor and Abuse which makes his terror radius 16 meters
Death Slinger full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Caleb_Quinn
3. NURSE
The Nurse was once and still by many considered to be the strongest killer in the game. I consider it a hard killer to master, even harder to play.
She is a teleporting killer with 2 blinks. She can go through pretty much everything and she is extremely dangerous when she has a clear line of sight. Survivors should quickly lose a line of sight or hide. She has 3 very useful perks.
Thanatophobia is a perk that impacts generator repair speed by how many people are injured. It is extremely strong paired with Dying Light.
Stridor isn't so useful on Nurse but it is very useful on Spirit because a lot of survivors run Iron Will and Stridor enhances how loud grunt of pain are.
Last perk A Nurse's Calling is a perk that lets you see survivors who are healing until 28 meters range. Nurse's Calling is good on Ghost Face, Shape, Huntress, Nightmare and killers who are stealthy or have very low terror radius.
Nurse excels at :
- quickly ending chases by using her blink ability
- quickly moving through the map
- finding survivors who are healing using Nurse's Calling
Nurse full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Sally_Smithson
2. CLOWN
Best killers are those that can help you in a chase. The clown is one of the best killers to counter loops and stop chases quickly.
Clown perks are somewhat useful. His perk Pop Goes the Weasel was used by many to stop gen progression for 25% after you hook a survivor but before the nerf, time was 60 second and now is 45 seconds. The second perk is Bamboozle which activates when the killer vaults the window and blocks it. The killer also gets a 15% speed boost when vaulting windows so the perk is great for loops and Killer shack.
A clown is one of the best killers in the game because of his power to slow down survivors when hit with his bottle. He is one of my favorite and he definitely in top 3 killers in the game right now.
Clown excels at :
- slowing down survivors with his bottles
- slowing down gen progression with Pop Goes the Weasel
- ending powerful loops by forcing pallet drops with using Bamboozle
Clown full details: https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Kenneth_Chase_alias_Jeffrey_Hawk
1. NIGHTMARE
The Nightmare is arguably the best killer in the game. He is also my favourite killer to play.
His power is complicated but I will simplify. He is a normal killer but with the ability to set traps or if a player chooses fake planks. When a survivor is hit he goes into a dream world and is now touchable with Nightmare traps or he can see the fake planks but he doesn't know if it's real or not.
The traps are better because killer can end chases quicker but fake planks also work against new survivors. The traps also slowdown the person when he steps on it.
His second ability is teleporting on gens. He can teleport on any gen that isn't already done. He can best utilize the perk Tinkerer because he can immediately teleport on gens.
His perks are not that good, but they can be used for endgame builds. Fire up makes actions quicker by each completed generator. Remember Me extends the time the survivors need to open the exit gates but the killer needs to hit the obsession to get the stacks.
The last perk is Blood Warden which makes exit gates blocked for 60 seconds after exit gates are opened and one survivor is hooked when doors were already opened. It can be paired with NOED which allows a killer to one-shot survivors after all generators are done but it can be destroyed by finding the totem and destroying it.
Nightmare excels at :
- at stopping gens by teleporting onto them
- stopping loops by setting traps
Nightmare full details:https://deadbydaylight.fandom.com/wiki/Frederick_%22Freddy%22_Krueger
