There are two things that a killer cannot go without. The first is the Entity’s power (David would’ve beaten the living crap out of The Legion if it weren’t for the Entity). The second is, you guessed it, information. Truly, how can a killer do their job when they don’t even know where the survivors are? There are loads of information perks out there floating in the Auric Cell market with some of them being absolute menaces to survivors while others are just flaming garbage. You can almost always rely on one particular type of information perk though: aura perks. They show you, and hear me out, the actual silhouette of the survivor they target. Oh, they’re running towards the main building? Noted. They’re crouching in a bush to hide from you? Clapped. Survivors, or at least those without Distortion, generally haven’t got a chance against aura perks.
That being said, not all aura perks are worth your while. Some aura perks are excruciating situational and offer zero value for 99% of the time. Let’s take Territorial Imperative as an example. It allows you to see the aura of survivors who are heading down to the basement. That sounds great on paper since the basement has only one exit and you can almost be certain that you’ll get a free hit if you get there in time. There’s just one small problem. Save for the rare instance where a survivor is running Invocation: Weaving Spiders, no survivor would just waltz into the basement as though it weren’t the most dangerous place on the map. The worst part? Territorial Imperative is a teachable perk from The Huntress, but not even she herself has got any use for it.
If you’re just starting out and are worried about picking the wrong aura perks, you should grab yourself a seat because in this article, we’ll be revealing the 10 best aura perks ranked from good to best.
10. Darkness Revealed (Good)
Lockers are a blessing for Dwights, but with this perk, they can become a nightmare that gives you, the killer, map-wide information.
Darkness Revealed is an interesting perk. It benefits some killers more than the others, but it’s sure to provide value for all. It has one of the lowest activation thresholds as an aura perk and can reliably provide information across the map. The only downside to the perk is that its aura-reading range is on the shorter end as compared to other aura perks.
Darkness Revealed is great for…
- Getting map-wide information. In case you aren’t aware, there are lockers scattered all across the map. Sometimes unsuspecting survivors brush past lockers right as you open one. And boom, little did they know, they’ve just got their aura revealed.
- Knowing which generator is being worked on. There are usually lockers near generators, which means, for most of the time, you can see the aura of survivors working on generators.
- Taking quick glances. The locker animation is relatively short. It might take a bit longer if you’re playing as The Huntress or The Trickster, but that few extra seconds would give you a full inventory of hatchets or knives, plus a side of survivor aura.
Darkness Revealed
- When you search a locker, the auras of all Survivors within 8 meters of any lockers are revealed to you for 6/7/8 seconds.
Darkness Revealed is a teachable perk from The Dredge.
9. Awakened Awareness (Good)
Dead by Daylight is a simple game. You hook one survivor after the other seamlessly and you win the game. That statement, unfortunately, is often easier said than done. That’s where Awakened Awareness comes in to save the day.
Awakened Awareness is kind of like the Starstruck of aura perks. Whenever you have a survivor on your shoulder, the auras of surrounding survivors are revealed. These pieces of information, when processed with a bit of logical deduction, give the killer the ability to quickly predict what structure the survivor is making a sprint for or which generator would soon be tended to.
Awakened Awareness is great for…
- Obtaining information for quick hunts. Having the location of your next victim shown to you when you’re about to be done with a survivor allows you to hunt down survivors a lot faster.
- Getting back at saboteurs. They break your hook and run off like a child who thinks they can’t be sued for property damage. Take your revenge against them by dishing out two consecutive hits once their aura is revealed.
- Getting consistent value. Hooking survivors is an integral part of any match, so you have a good chance of getting value from Awakened Awareness regardless of maps or survivor builds.
Awakened Awareness
- When carrying a Survivor, you can see the aura of other Survivors within 16/18/20 meters of your position.
Awakened Awareness is a teachable perk from The Mastermind.
8. A Nurse’s Calling (Good)
You can make healing more difficult for survivors, but you can’t completely stop them from attempting to heal. That is, unless you knock them down and put them on a hook.
A Nurse’s Calling reveals the aura of survivors performing the healing action when they are within a certain range of your presence. The fact that healing is a basic game mechanic means that the perk can be activated fairly easily. And yes, survivors can decide to straight up not heal in order to not give away any information, but by doing so, they are also running the risk of being sent on the hook upon the next hit.
A Nurse’s Calling is great for…
- Enhancing the hit-and-run experience. Don’t you hate it when survivors heal when you’re playing as a hit-and-run killer like The Wraith? Then you should try out The Nurse’s Calling, which gives you just enough information for you to join their little healing party uninvited.
- Snowballing. Keeping everyone injured sweeps the idea of a second chance off the table. In scenarios like these, one survivor being caught out of position would often result in the entire team being wiped out.
- Tackling healing in indoor maps. Indoor maps like Léry's feature way too many confined spaces where survivors can use as healing spots, but none of them would offer them any safety if you can just see them through the walls.
A Nurse’s Calling
- Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. The auras of Survivors who are healing or being healed are revealed to you when they are within a 20/24/28 meter range.
A Nurse’s Calling is a teachable perk from The Nurse.
7. I’m All Ears (Great)
Aura perks usually don’t stay active for that long. When you actually get to the survivors, the effects of the perk have long since worn off. Well, that’s why you should consider engaging in aura-reading in the middle of chases.
Why would you even need aura-reading when you’re in a chase with someone, you might ask. Are they not just one wall away from you? And you’d be right in most cases. However, if you’ve ever tried playing as a ranged killer, like The Artist, The Huntress, or even The Nurse, you’d know how difficult it is to predict survivor positions without a clear line of sight. And what is more frustrating is that you know you can take them down with no problem if you could just land that ranged attack. Well, I’m All Ears, with its aura-reading capabilities, is the perfect remedy for that particular quandary.
I’m All Ears is great for…
- Winning mindgames. Just because survivors can’t see you over the wall doesn’t mean you should be equally clueless. All killers can use a bit of help materializing their inner strategic slasher when being led into a jungle gym.
- Landing ranged hits. Just like you wouldn’t purposefully step in someone’s spit, survivors are not going to just walk into the path of your projectiles. But you can certainly trick them into doing so by learning of their position and subsequently forcing them into the trajectory of your crows, hatchets or whatever you’d like to toss at those wretched survivors.
- Bypassing bodyblocks. Every now and then survivors would come out of nowhere to take protection hits. If our martyr chooses to fast vault through windows and pallets as their way of entry, you’d be able to tell where they’re coming from and strip them of their altruistic ego by taking an alternative route for the hit.
I’m All Ears
- Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. Any Survivor performing a rushed action within 48 meters from your location will have their aura revealed for 8 seconds.
I’m All Ears is a teachable perk from The Ghost Face.
6. Lethal Pursuer (Great)
Every second counts in Dead by Daylight. But to hook survivors quickly, you first need to chase them down and to chase them down quickly, you first need to find them. If only there’s a perk that can help with that.
Lethal Pursuer shows you the aura of all survivors without Distortion at the beginning of the match. This saves you a lot of guesswork and guarantees a chase only a few seconds into the game. You should also consider running Lethal Pursuer with other aura-reading perks since it has a secondary effect of extending the duration of all aura perks by 2 seconds. And I’ll say it again – every second counts in Dead by Daylight.
Lethal Pursuer is great for…
- Starting chases immediately. Rarely do all four survivors in a match bring Distortion, so for most of the time, you’ll be able to see at least one survivor’s aura upon entering the match.
- Applying early-game pressure. With Lethal Pursuer, you can see which generators are being repaired by two or even three survivors simultaneously. You can use that information to your advantage and apply tremendous pressure early on by forcing multiple survivors off one generator.
- Synergizing with other aura perks. Lethal Pursuer extends the duration of other aura-reading perks and those two extra seconds can sometimes determine whether a hit connects or misses.
Lethal Pursuer
- At the start of the trial, the auras of all Survivors are revealed to you for 7/8/9 seconds.
- Any time a Survivor's aura is shown for a period of time, its duration is increased by 2 seconds.
Lethal Pursuer is a teachable perk from The Nemesis.
5. Weave Attunement (Great)
Items on the bloodweb are like properties on the housing market. You can pay as much as you want for them, but buyers get steamrolled all the same under unstoppable forces.
Let’s get this out of the way: to make the most out of Weave Attunement, you have to incorporate another perk called Franklin’s Demise into your build. One quick M1 on all four survivors with items and that perk combination will give you four separate aura-reading booby traps. Theoretically, survivors can still counter this perk by picking the depleted items back up and putting them all at a designated corner of the map, but by the time they’ve finished tucking everything away, half of them would’ve already been dead.
Weave Attunement is great for…
- Punishing greedy survivors. Killers have standards too. You can remind survivors that greed is one of the seven deadly sins by reading the aura of survivors trying to circle back to their items and tapping their skull with whatever you have in your right hand.
- Preventing looting. One flashlight-holding maniac is difficult enough to deal with. Imagine having to combat two at once. Fortunately, that isn’t something you’d have to worry about once survivors realize you’ve got Weave Attunement.
- Sneaking up on survivors. Weave Attunement casts on survivors the Oblivious status effect if they decide to pick the dropped items up. Now that their aura’s been revealed to you from being around an item, it’s time for you to sneak up on them and make them drop it again.
Weave Attunement
- When an item becomes depleted for the first time, it is dropped. You see the auras of dropped items.
- Survivors within 12 meters of dropped items have their auras revealed to you.
- When a Survivor picks up a Survivor item, they suffer the Oblivious status effect for 20/25/30 seconds.
Weave Attunement is a teachable perk from The Lich.
4. Hex: Face the Darkness (Great)
Hex: Face the Darkness is a perk that’s rooted in reality. Like, to be honest, if I found out that someone was peeking at me, not over, but through walls, I too would scream my head off.
And before you say anything, I understand Hex: Face the Darkness is technically a hex perk rather than an aura perk. But hey, it shows you auras as well, doesn’t it? And better yet, it’s not just wallhacks that you’re getting. As the cherry on top, Hex: Face the Darkness also compels survivors to scream, which interrupts any action they’re performing. This perk is practically a death sentence for survivors if they couldn’t find a way to keep the killer close, yet sufficiently distracted for them to cleanse the totem.
Hex: Face the Darkness is great for…
- Getting consistent value. The totem imbued with Hex: Face the Darkness is horribly difficult to cleanse. Not only do survivors have to stay within the killer’s terror radius while cleansing the totem, the injured survivor also has to remain injured during the whole process. These harsh requirements make for a sturdy killer perk that provides consistent value.
- Switching targets. Hex: Face the Darkness reveals three auras at a time. This gives the killer the liberty and the information needed to switch targets whenever they want.
- Maximizing pressure. It’s nearly impossible for survivors to resume their normal gameplay without cleansing Hex: Face the Darkness. This adds an extra objective onto the survivors’ agenda that they have no choice but to complete.
Hex: Face the Darkness
- Injuring a Survivor by any means lights a Dull Totem, activating the Hex.
- While the Hex is active, all other Survivors outside of your Terror Radius will scream every 35/30/25 seconds, revealing their positions and auras for 2 seconds.
- When the Survivor enters the dying state or becomes healthy, the Hex totem becomes dull again and this perk deactivates.
- If the Hex totem is cleansed, this perk is permanently disabled.
Hex: Face the Darkness is a teachable perk from The Knight.
3. Nowhere to Hide (Best)
Going after survivors or kicking the generator – that is the question. But that question’s got an easy answer. With this perk, you can do both.
Nowhere to Hide is an aura perk that’s known to give killers free hits. Its activation requirement is sweet and simple. All you have to do is kick a generator and everyone around you has their aura revealed. To save themselves from Nowhere to Hide, survivors can either pre-leave the generators they’re working on or hide in lockers. Killers, however, can counter the survivors’ counter measures by shrinking their terror radius, which effectively turns this aura perk into one that provides solid, long-lasting information with every activation.
Nowhere to Hide is great for…
- Stamping out opportunists. Sneaky survivors, seeing that you’ve launched an attack on one of their fellow teammates, might hop right back on their generators after you engage in chase. These survivors are soon going to learn that impudent tricks mean nothing before the almighty power of aura-reading, as granted by Nowhere to Hide.
- Slowing down generator repairs. In order to not have their auras shown by Nowhere to Hide, survivors must stay a decent distance away from generators. The repeated laps survivors have to run just to get on and off generators may not take as much time as a round-trip between Canada and Japan would, but it sure takes long enough to slow down generator repairs.
- Injuring multiple survivors. A ranged killer can usually injure one survivor with their M2 and land a M1 hit on another one if there are two survivors working on the same generator.
Nowhere to Hide
- Whenever you damage a generator, reveal the aura of all Survivors standing within 24 meters of your position for 3/4/5 seconds.
Nowhere to Hide is a teachable perk from The Knight.
2. Barbecue & Chili (Best)
This is one of the classics. Perhaps an overpowered one, for that matter. And you should know which perk I’m referring to if you’ve also been through the trials and tribulations of facing off against a Billy that seems to know where everyone is at all times.
Where do I even begin? Barbecue & Chili has been in the game for ages and never once has it failed the killer community. True, the auras shown may be a bit far from where you are on the map, but since when is distance a concern for Billy mains or Unknown mains? And if you’d think about it, who in their right mind would intentionally make a sprint towards the killer unless they’re trying to go for a flashlight save? All these factors make Barbecue & Chili one of the best aura perks for obtaining cross-map survivor information.
Barbecue & Chili is great for…
- Locating the obsession. Some perks require you to either ignore them or pick on them. In either case, instead of having to manually search through every nook and cranny on the map, Barbecue & Chili can help you locate the obsession early on in the game through aura-reading.
- Controlling map presence. Some survivors trying to counter the perk would avoid getting too close to the killer altogether. This invisible pressure ushers survivors to one side of the map.
- Manipulating generator completion. By the same logic of what was just mentioned about map presence, survivors confronted by Barbecue & Chili would often find themselves being trapped in three-gen situations for only repairing generators on one side of the map.
Barbecue & Chili
- After hooking a Survivor, all other Survivors' auras are revealed to you for 5 seconds when they are further than 60/50/40 meters from the hook.
Barbecue & Chili is a teachable perk from The Cannibal.
1. Friends ‘Til the End (Best)
It’s hard to find something more oppressive than Barbecue & Chili, but that task isn’t impossible. There’s this one relatively new perk that has what it takes to fight the old king for its throne.
Friends ‘Til the End is an aura perk that can also expose the obsession. You’d only get information for one survivor at a time, but that survivor is as good as dead, with them either being exposed or being made the new obsession. With this idea in mind, killers with high mobility might as well go directly for Friends ‘Til the End rather than Barbecue & Chili. With skill and luck (and maybe a few obsession-based perks) combined, you’ll be burning through games the same way survivors burn through their items and offerings.
Friends ‘Til the End is great for…
- Getting one-hit downs. Friends ‘Til the End exposes your obsession and reveals their aura at the same time. This gives you everything that you need, in terms of information, to get that coveted one-hit down.
- Switching obsessions. If your obsession is a prestige 100 Kate, some of your obsession perks might suffer a bit. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Friends ‘Til the End allows you to switch obsessions once you’ve hooked your obsession.
- Redistributing pressure. Friends ‘Til the End puts the obsession in grave danger. If you’ve realized that there’s a certain player who’s playing a tad too well, don’t hesitate to make them the new obsession.
Friends ‘Til the End
You become obsessed with one Survivor.
- When you hook a Survivor that is not the Obsession, the Obsession becomes Exposed for 20 seconds and reveals their aura for 6/8/10 seconds.
- When you hook the Obsession, another random Survivor screams and reveals their position and becomes the Obsession.
Friends ‘Til the End is a teachable perk from The Good Guy.
