Between Survivors and Killers, there are some widely used and extremely useful perks. The perks listed below will be grouped between the Survivors and Killers and ranked accordingly. So, here are the most used perks that are very useful in Dead by Daylight, ones that will hopefully perk up your general experience.
Survivors:
5.) Spine Chill
Spine Chill is a universal Survivor perk, meaning that it’s easily available for all Survivors from the start. Spine Chill is a widely used perk because it has many different uses, such as for information or action speed increases, and can be worked into many different builds for a variety of results. There is one such combination that uses Spine Chill and Resilience, which is primarily used for builds involving chases, it will speed up your vaulting speed while you are injured and being chased.
What Does Spine Chill Do?
Spine Chill will alert you when the Killer is looking in your general direction in a 36-meter range.
Increases speed for performing actions such as repairing generators, healing, sabotaging hooks, unhooking survivors, vaulting windows or pallets, cleansing totems, opening the exit gates, and unlocking chests by 2/4/6 %.
Decreases Skill Check success zone by 10%
4.) Boon: Circle of Healing
Circle of Healing was introduced as one of the first 2 ever Boon perks in Dead by Daylight in the Hour of the Witch DLC, which added the Witchcraft enthusiast Mikaela Reid. This perk is extremely useful in more ways than you might think. For one, it allows for improved healing for yourself and the other Survivors, but it can also be used to help other Survivors determine your location and give them a potentially safe place to go to and recover.
What Does Boon: Circle of Healing Do?
Once you find a Dull Totem or Hex Totem, you can bless it by pressing and holding the action button. When the blessing process is complete, Survivors within the totem’s range of 24 meters will receive a 40/45/50% bonus to healing speeds.
Survivors inside the Boon Totem’s range can self-heal without a Med-Kit at 50% of the normal healing speed. However, the self-heal actions still receive the speed bonus provided by the Perk. Meaning at level 3 you’ll be able to self-heal at the normal healing speed, which is better than Self-Care.
3.) Dead Hard
Dead Hard is a perk that belongs to David King, one of the starter survivors. It is an Exhaustion perk. These types of perks apply the Exhausted status effect after being used, which in turn prevents Survivors from being able to use multiple of these perks in quick succession or during chases, it’s essentially a cool-down. Dead Hard is the most used Exhaustion perk and was revealed to be the third most popular Survivor perk in a press release for Dead by Daylight’s fifth anniversary. This is in large part due to how useful it is in chases, as it can either buy you more time to find a way to lose the killer or just escape the chase as soon as you use it. However, Dead Hard has a steep learning curve and as such it will take some time to get the hang of it.
What Does Dead Hard Do?
Dead Hard can only be used when injured, and cannot be used while Exhausted.
While running, pressing the active ability button will cause the player to quickly dash forward and avoid all forms of damage, including traps.
After using Dead Hard, the Exhaustion status effect will be applied for the next 60/50/40 seconds.
2.) Decisive Strike
Decisive Strike is one of many Second Chance perks that are available to Survivors. This perk is unlocked from Laurie Strode in the Halloween DLC, alongside the very iconic Michael Myers. Decisive Strike is a good countermeasure against Killers who tunnel, but it also serves as a perk to help Survivors who find themselves often being caught by the Killer. Decisive Strike is a very popular perk but is mostly only seen in high-ranking matches.
What Does Decisive Strike Do?
After unhooking yourself or being unhooked, Decisive Strike will be active for the next 40/50/60 seconds.
If the Killer picks you up while the perk is active, you will receive a difficult skill check which will immediately free you from the Killer’s grasp and stun them for 5 seconds if succeeded.
Succeeding Decisive Strike’s skill check will result in you becoming the Obsession, and additionally, it will be deactivated for the remainder of the trial. So it must be used sparingly.
While Decisive Strike is active, there are numerous actions that can deactivate it. Such as repairing generators, unhooking and healing survivors, interacting with totems, and sabotaging hooks. This can be both useful but also create room for fatal mistakes. Manually deactivating it with an action while you are safe will allow you to save your Decisive Strike for later use, but if you perform an action and the Killer finds you again it will not be able to save you.
1.) Borrowed Time
Borrowed Time is the second most popular Survivor perk and within good reason. This perk is unique to William Overbeck (From the original 2008 Left 4 Dead game) who was originally added to Dead by Daylight as a free PC Exclusive DLC but later became available to everyone. This perk allows you to protect Survivors who you unhook, and hopefully give them enough time to escape. This perk is frequently used in SWF (Survive With Friends) teams.
What Does Borrowed Time Do?
Whenever you unhook a Survivor, they are given the Endurance status effect for 8/10/12 seconds.
The Endurance status effect will protect the affected Survivor against a hit from the Killer that would put them into the dying state and instead apply the Deep Wound status effect.
If the Survivor is hit or does not perform the Mend action within the next 20 seconds while Deep Wound is active, they will automatically be put into the Dying State.
Killers:
5.) Hex: No One Escapes Death
One of the more controversial perks, Hex: No One Escapes Death is one of the second chance perks available to Killers. Additionally, it is also a universal Killer perk that is immediately unlockable in the Bloodweb, making it very easy to access and even easier to use. Revealed in the aforementioned Dead by Daylight fifth anniversary press release, No One Escapes Death was the third most popular Killer perk. A lot of Killer mains use this either when they are new to playing Killer or if they have a particular build in mind. No One Escapes Death offers an opportunity to turn things around, even if only a little, once all the generators are done. However, Survivors usually have a rather negative response to this perk, so if you choose it you might end up receiving some strong words from them in the post-game chat.
What Does Hex: No One Escapes Death Do?
Once all the generators are completed, Hex: No One Escapes Death will activate if at least 1 dull totem is left on the map.
Once active, all Survivors suffer from the Exposed status effect, meaning they will be put into the Dying state in a singular hit.
The Killer will also receive the Haste status effect and have their movement speed increased by 2/3/4%.
4.) A Nurse’s Calling
A Nurse’s Calling is a teachable perk obtained from The Nurse. This is one of the best and most useful information perks available to killers. It is a simple perk, but quite effective. It also gives Killers an opportunity to counter well-coordinated teams who heal frequently, hindering them further, and shutting them down. This perk works best on Stealth and/or high mobility Killers, but can certainly be used by others in the right situations.
What Does A Nurse’s Calling Do?
When Survivors are performing healing actions on other Survivors or self-healing, their auras are revealed to you within a range of 20/24/28 meters.
3.) Thrilling Tremors
Thrilling Tremors is a great perk with multiple functions, it is a teachable perk obtained from Ghost Face. On the surface, it may seem like it is a perk only for defending generators, but it’s an incredibly useful information perk as well, especially when paired with the perk Barbecue and Chilli. You’ll have a relatively short amount of time to look around and see where you need to go to intercept Survivors who are repairing generators, as well as having generators blocked if they are not being worked on.
What Does Thrilling Tremors Do?
When you pick up a Survivor, all generators that are not being worked on are blocked by the Entity for the next 16 seconds.
The generators that have been blocked are shown to you with a white aura. The remaining generators that are unaffected will be in their normal red aura, therefore indicating where Survivors are working on gens so you’ll know where you need to go next.
Thrilling Tremors incurs a cool-down of 100/80/60 seconds after activating.
2.) Hex: Ruin
Hex: Ruin is the second most popular Killer perk, and for all the right reasons. It is one of The Hag’s unique perks and greatly impedes the Survivors’ generator progress. People will often pair this with The Pig’s perk Surveillance and Hex: Undying from The Blight for good information and to protect the Ruin Hex Totem.
What Does Hex: Ruin Do?
When generators are not being repaired by Survivors, they will automatically regress at 100/150/200% of the normal regression speed.
This effect remains for as long as the respective Hex Totem stands.
1.) Barbecue and Chilli
A perk unique to The Cannibal/Leatherface, Barbecue and Chilli offers Killers information and bonus bloodpoints. Barbecue and Chilli is agreed upon as one of the best and most essential Killer perks and was the number one most popular Killer perk according to the press release from 2021. This perk is important to a lot of builds and works super well in conjunction with other perks that rely on picking up and hooking Survivors, such as Thrilling Tremors. Using this perk will allow you to identify the locations of Survivors for a brief time, giving you your next destination. In addition, it is a must-have if you are looking to farm Bloodpoints.
What Does Barbecue and Chilli Do?
When you hook a Survivor, the auras of Survivors are revealed to you for the next 4 seconds when they are more than 40 meters away from the hook.
When one of the Survivors is hooked for the first time, Barbecue and Chilli gains a token. For every token, you are awarded a stackable bonus 25% Bloodpoint gain up to a maximum of 50/75/100%. These bonus Bloodpoints are only awarded once the game is over.
