Dead By Daylight: 12 Best Survivors To Prestige (Ranked)

Updated:

06 Nov 2024

There are currently 44 different Survivors in Dead by Daylight. With so many choices, how do you know which Survivors to prestige first? Who has the best perks? Who will benefit your playstyle the most? Dive into the world of Dead by Daylight and let’s discover the 12 best Survivors to prestige to enhance your game play.

1. Dwight Fairfield

Bond: Unlocks potential in one’s aura reading ability. Allies’ auras are revealed to you when they are within a 20/28/36-meter range.

Leader: You’re able to organize a team to cooperate more efficiently. Increases other Survivors’ healing, sabotage, unhooking, cleansing, opening Exit Gates, and chest unlocking speeds by 15/20/25% when they are within an 8-meter range from you. This effect persists on other Survivors for 15 seconds after leaving the Leader’s effective perk range.

Prove Thyself: For every other Survivor working on a generator within a 4-meter range, gain 6/8/10% repair speed bonus. This same bonus is also applied to all other Survivors within range. Survivors can only be affected by one Prove Thyself effect at a time.

Dwight Fairfield is a leader equipped with great skills. His perks provide good aura reading and bonuses to his teammates’ actions.

Dwight is a fantastic Survivor to prestige. His skills include excellent teamwork abilities. Your fellow Survivors are easy to locate with his aura reading perk Bond. His other two perks provide wonderful speed bonuses. You will be hard pressed to find different perks that can compete. Dwight is easy to use for any level of Survivor.

Reasons To Prestige Dwight Fairfield:

Bond is a great aura reading perk that doesn’t require extra steps to activate. You will always be able to see your fellow Survivors when they are within range.
Leader provides great speed bonuses to your team. You can boost healing, sabotaging, unhooking, cleansing, unlocking chests and opening Exit Gates. This perk will literally enhance almost every other Survivor perk in Dead by Daylight.
Your generator repair speed is one that cannot be contested with when you are using the perk Prove Thyself. Using this perk to its fullest potential will have your team flying through generator repair.
Prestiging Dwight will provide you with a base kit of perks that are a fantastic addition to any Survivor build.

2. Kate Denson

Windows Of Opportunity: Unlocks potential in one’s aura reading ability. Auras of pallets, breakable walls, and vault locations are revealed to you when within a 24/28/32-meter range.

Boil Over: You are a battler and do everything to escape a foe’s grasp. Your struggle effects on the Killer are increased by 60/70/80%. You obscure the Killer’s ability to see hook auras within 16-meters. You gain 33% of current wiggle progress when the Killer drops from great heights.

Dance With Me: When performing a rushed vault or leaving a locker in a sprint, you leave no scratch marks for 3 seconds. Dance With Me has a cooldown of 30/25/20 seconds.

Kate Denson is a lovely songbird that will make the most of her surroundings. Her perks grant her aura reading and the ability to escape the Killer’s grasp.

Kate is a great Survivor to prestige if you enjoy looping builds. Her perks are the perfect combination. She has the ability to see great looping spots. If you get in a tight pinch, she can burst out of a locker and disappear for a few seconds leaving no scratch marks. Should the Killer happen to down you, her perk Boil Over is fantastic for a chance to wiggle out of their grasp.

Reasons To Prestige Kate:

Windows Of Opportunity enhances your looping strategy by revealing the auras of pallets and vault locations. You can plan out your moves and stay one step ahead of the Killer.
Dance With Me is often utilized in looping builds. It provides a sneaky get away. It can also be great fun when paired with the perk Head On. This spicy combo lets you stun the Killer, then disappear into your surroundings.
If you find yourself in the Killer’s grasp, the perk Boil Over is a great way to get a second chance at escaping. With the Killer unable to see hook auras, and your wiggle effects drastically increased, you have extra time to wiggle out. This is especially helpful if the Killer drops from a great height, which adds a huge chunk of wiggle progression.
All of Kate’s perks provide the ability to be a nuisance to the Killer. This gives your teammates time to focus on repairing generators.

3. Nea Karlsson

Balanced Landing: After falling from a height, cat-like reflexes reduce your stagger duration from falling by 75% and reduce the volume of grunts from falling by 100%. You start sprinting at 150% your normal running speed for a maximum of 3 seconds. Causes the Exhausted statues effect for 60/50/40 seconds. Balanced Landing cannot be used while Exhausted.

Urban Evasion: Years of evading the cops have taught you a thing or two about stealth. Your movement speed while crouching is increased by 90/95/100%.

Streetwise: Long nights out taught you to do a lot with what you’ve got. Reduced consumption rate of item charge by 15/20/25% for you and allies within an 8-meter range. Once out of range, this effect persists for 15 seconds.

Nea Karlsson is an urban artist. Her perks make her well suited for rapid evasion and efficient item usage.

This Survivor can be played by all levels of gamers. Her perks are simple and easy to use. She can easily evade the Killer whether it's hiding or when she is in chase. Nea is also equipped with the perk Streetwise which can be used to extend the charges of items.

Reasons To Prestige New Karlsson:

While her perk set is decent, her skills really shine when they are used to enhance others in a build. For example, using Balanced Landing in a looping build.
Balanced Landing is a great perk that lets you rapidly recover from falling. You also sprint away at immense speeds. This comes in handy when your main goal is to loop the Killer.
Urban Evasion is well suited for players who prefer hiding. Your movement increases drastically when you are crouched. This can tactically be used for a sneaky unhook or evading the Killer.
Streetwise is fantastic for teams that have multiple items. This perk extends the use of items in range. You can pair this perk with Built To Last, which will recharge a used item. Talk about efficiency.

4. Detective Tapp

Everything is fine, the detective is on the case!

Tenacity: There is nothing stopping you. Your ferocious tenacity in dire situations allows you to crawl 30/40/50% faster and recover at the same time. Grunts of pain while in the dying state are reduced by 75%.

Detective’s Hunch: Unlocks potential in one’s aura reading ability. When a generator is completed, the auras of generators, chests and totems within 32/48/64-meters are revealed to you for 10 seconds. If you are holding a map that can track objectives, generators, chests, and totems revealed by Detective’s hunch are added to the map.

Stake Out: Getting close to the Killer fills you with determination. For each 15 seconds you are standing within the Killer’s terror radius and not in a chase, you gain a token up to a maximum of 2/3/4 tokens. When Stake Out has at least 1 token, good skill checks are considered great skill checks, consume 1 token, and grant an additional 1% bonus to generator repair progress.

Detective Tapp is a detective obsessed with locating and completing objectives quickly. His perks allow him to rapidly recover, plan out his next move, and effectively progress generators.

Tapp is a useful Survivor that has great informational aura reading. His perk Tenacity is unique and resourceful for recovering. All his perks can be paired with others to enhance their abilities. You have a wide choice of playstyles to choose from when you prestige this Survivor. Most will greatly provide progression with the main game objective generator repair.

Reasons To Prestige Tapp:

Detective’s Hunch is a great aura perk. It provides invaluable information. You can see the auras of chests, generators and totems. This perk can be added to a multitude of builds that revolve around generator repair and boons. There are so many ways to use the information you gather with Detective’s Hunch, be creative!
Stake Out is another perk that is often used in generator repair builds. A good combination is to pair Stake Out with Hyperfocus.
Preventing a 3 gen. at the end game can easily be accomplished. You will use Detective’s Hunch to plan which generators need to be repaired first. The goal is to spread the last 3 generators as far apart as possible. You will use the perk Stake Out to quickly repair generators grouped close together.
Tenacity is a unique perk that will allow you to recover and crawl at the same time. This can give you a chance at escaping the Killer. It can also be used in a recovery looping build.
Don’t miss out on all the benefits Detective Tapp has to offer. This perk set is great for generator repair, planning your next move and recovering.

5. Rebecca Chambers

Rebecca Chambers will take you to the stars and beyond.

Better Than New: You are an expert in combat medicine. Patients leave your care reinvigorated. Upon completing a healing action on another Survivor, the targeted Survivor gets a 12/14/16% speed boost to healing, opening chests, cleansing and blessing totems. Survivors keep this bonus until they lose a health state.

Reassurance: Your presence helps allies focus, assuaging the panic associated with extreme conditions. When within a 6-meter radius around a hooked Survivor, use the active ability button to pause their struggle progression for 20/25/30 seconds. If they are on the struggle phase, it also pauses the struggle skill checks. Reassurance can only be triggered once per survivor per hook instance.

Hyperfocus: You throw yourself entirely into your task and find ways to be more efficient than anyone else. After hitting a great skill check while repairing or healing, this perk gains 1 token, up to 6 tokens. Each token increases the chance of a skill check trigger by 4%, the skill check cursor speed by 4%, and the bonus progression for great skill checks by 10/20/30% of its base value. The perk loses all tokens in case of normal skill check successes, skill check fails, or if the action is stopped by any means.

Rebecca Chambers is a fantastic medic who can calm others around her. Her perks provide speed boosts, pause Survivor struggles, and enhance great skill checks.

Rebecca is a great Survivor to prestige. She has wonderful teamwork support, enhanced skill check progression and the best perk to pause a Survivor’s hook or struggle timer. When paired with specific skills, your team can be unstoppable.

Reasons To Prestige Rebecca:

Survivors will get a speed boost to healing, opening chests, cleansing and blessing totems when you use Better Than New.
Your team will greatly appreciate having their hook and struggle timer paused with the perk Reassurance. This also extends the time you have to complete main game objectives such as generator repair.
Hyperfocus is a more advanced perk, but it can be paired with Stake Out. This turns Hyperfocus into a user-friendly perk. Any skill check is automatically used as a great skill check, and provides massive progression bonuses. This perk is great for generator repair builds.
All of Rebecca’s perks provide efficient time management benefits for your team. Your speed boost for fellow Survivors and efficient use of skill checks is great for quickly powering the Exit Gates.

6. Feng Min

Technician: You are apt at handling machinery with the greatest care and precision. The noises caused by your repairs and their hearing distance are reduced by 8-meters. On a failed skill check, the following effects happen. The generator explosion will be prevented. The generator loses progress as usual. An additional 5/4/3% progress is lost.

Lithe: After performing a rushed vault, break into a sprint at 150% of your normal running speed for a maximum of 3 seconds. Causes the Exhausted status effect for 60/50/40 seconds. Lithe cannot be used while Exhausted.

Alert: Your acute senses are on high alert. When the Killer performs a break action, the Killer is revealed to you for 3/4/5 seconds.

Feng Min is an objective focused Survivor. Her perks can be used for locating the Killer, generator repairs and a quick escape.

Feng’s perks are great for beginners and more experienced players. Technician is good for learning generator repair or practicing great skill checks. Her other two perks can be used to either evade the Killer, or to loop the Killer. The flexibility of her skills is great for a range of playstyles.

Reasons To Prestige Feng Min:

Technician is a wonderful perk to help beginners get the hang of skill checks. Your mistakes won’t alert the Killer. More advanced players can also benefit. This perk can be used when you are learning to hit great skill checks, which are much trickier to achieve.
Lithe is used in a multitude of high tier builds. You can add it to help you loop. You can use it as an evasion tactic.
Alert can be used similarly to Lithe. While most players will use it to evade the Killer, it can be used in a looping build. Whenever the Killer performs the break action you will see their aura. You will always have eyes on them.
This perk set provides benefits for a multitude of playstyles, and all Feng’s perks can be used to enhance different builds.

7. Mikaela Ward

Clairvoyance: There is an intrinsic energy in you that sees beyond your vision. Clairvoyance activates whenever you cleanse or bless a totem. When empty-handed, hold the ability button to unlock your full aura-reading potential. For up to 8/9/10 seconds, you see the auras of Exit Gate switches, generators, hooks, chests, and the Hatch within a 64-meter range.

Boon Circle of Healing: A boon that offers comfort amidst the terror. Press and hold the ability button near a dull or hex totem to bless it and create a boon totem. Soft chimes ring out in a 24-meter range. Any Survivor within the Boon Totem’s range gain a 50/75/100% healing speed bonus to healing others. Med-kits give no bonus healing in the Boon Totem’s range. Injured Survivors have their auras revealed to all other Survivors when inside the Boon Totem’s range. You can only bless one totem at a time. All equipped boon perks are active on your Boon Totem.

Boon Shadow Step: A boon that conceals the truth. Press and hold the ability button near a dull or hex totem to bless it and create a Boon Totem. Soft chimes ringing out in a 24-meter range. Any Survivor within the Boon Totem’s range will have their scratch marks and auras hidden to the Killer. This effect lingers for 2/3/4 seconds after leaving the Boon Totem’s range. You can only bless one totem at a time. All equipped boon perks are active on your Boon Totem.

Mikaela Ward is a mystic who can bring boons into your game. Her perks provide a place of refuge, and allows her some aura reading abilities.

Mikaela has the best set of boon perks in the game. She can provide excellent healing and shielding for her team. The perk Clairvoyance has great aura reading abilities. If you have knowledge of totem spawns, or run a totem locating perk, Mikaela is the perfect pick. She can turn the tide of your game.

Reasons To Prestige Mikaela:

Clairvoyance has great aura reading. It allows you to see Exit Gate switches, generators, hooks, chests and the Hatch. You can use your ability button to start or stop your aura reading at any time.
Boon: Circle of Healing is one of the best healing perks in the game. It also does not require a med-kit. Anyone on the team will be able to use the boon’s benefit.
Boon: Shadow Step is great for hiding auras. It will also hide scratch marks. You can use this to enhance your looping build or hide from the Killer. This boon’s effects will persist for a short duration after leaving the totems zone.
Mikaela’s perks synergize well together. To set up your boons, you need a totem. To activate Clairvoyance, you need a totem. You kill two birds with one stone.
Your fourth perk slot can be used to fit your playstyle. Whether you want to add another boon perk such as Boon: Exponential, or customize your build towards looping or hook sabotage, you have a multitude of options.

8. Meg Thomas

Adrenaline: You are fueled by unexpected energy when on the verge of escape. This perk activates when the Exit Gates are powered. Instantly heal one health state if you are injured or in the dying state and sprint at 150% of your normal speed for 3 seconds. Adrenaline ignores the Exhausted status effect. Causes the Exhausted status effect for 60/50/40 seconds.

Quick and Quiet: You do not make as much noise as others when quickly vaulting over obstacles or hiding in lockers. The vault and hide actions’ noise detection and audio range is reduced by 100%. Quick and Quiet has a cool-down of 30/25/20 seconds.

Sprint Burst: When starting to run, break into a sprint at 150% of your normal running speed for a maximum of 3 seconds. Causes the Exhausted status effect for 60/50/40 seconds. Sprint Burst cannot be used while Exhausted. You do not recover from the Exhausted status effect while running.

Meg Thomas is an energetic athlete. Her perks provide an advantage to escaping chases and an end game instant heal. She is the perfect Survivor that is quick on her feet.

Don’t miss out on the spicy endgame perk Adrenaline. It is great for a last-minute instant heal. Combined with Meg’s other two perks, you can quickly get away and hide. If you don’t want to face the Killer head on, you can use Sprint Burst to dash away. Quick and Quiet will allow you to hide or vault away with no noise notification.

Reasons To Prestige Meg Thomas:

The perk Adrenaline is used in many top tier builds. Most players will utilize this perk in looping builds.
Quick and Quiet is great for eluding the Killer. You can use it to escape, hide or trick the Killer. Some players combine this perk with Head On for a spicy stun.
Sprint Burst can be used for a multitude of tactics. You can use it to dash to your next looping area, evade the Killer if they are headed your way, quickly reach a fellow Survivor in need, or sprint away into your surroundings. The possibilities are endless.
Meg’s perk set is often used for many looping, and evasion builds. Any of her perks will greatly enhance others of a similar type.

9. Yui Kimura

Lucky Break: You’ve had your share of scrapes and bruises, but luck is always on your side. Lucky Break activates any time you are injured. While Lucky Break is active, you won’t leave trails of blood or scratch marks for a total of 40/50/60 seconds. While healthy, for each 1 second spent healing another Survivor, increase Lucky Break’s duration by 1 second. Lucky Breaks duration cannot increase beyond its starting value.

Any Means Necessary: You stand up for yourself, using whatever’s on hand to gain an advantage. You see the auras of dropped pallets. Press and hold the active ability button for 6/5/4 seconds while standing beside a dropped pallet to reset it to its upright position.

Breakout: You kick into high gear when someone’s in trouble, inspiring them to overcome any obstacle. When within 5-meters of a carried Survivor, you gain the Haste status effect, moving at 5/6/7% increased speed. The carried Survivor’s wiggle speed is increased by 25%.

Yui Kimura is a street racer who can overcome challenging situations. Her perks enable her to cover her tracks, assist helpless teammates and reset pallets.

Yui is a great shield Survivor for her teammates. Her perks will assist with wiggle progression, extending the use of loops, and you will receive a reward for healing other Survivors. You can provide great protection for your team. Prestiging Yui will open the door for a multitude of possibilities.

Reasons To Prestige Yui Kimura:

Lucky Break is a fantastic perk to help you elude the Killer. It promotes teamwork by rewarding you for healing others. The more you help your fellow Survivors the more use you get out of Lucky Break.
Any Means Necessary is great for resetting a pallet. This extends the use of a looping area. Your team has the possibility to get another stun on the Killer. By giving your teammates more time to distract the Killer, you are also providing less interrupted time to repair generators.
Breakout is a wonderful perk that can enhance sabotage and escaping the Killer builds. For example, you can use Breakout, Background Player and Saboteur together to increase your teammates' wiggle progression while getting quickly to the hook to sabotage it.
Each of Yui’s perks can enhance many different playstyles. Be creative and use her skills to efficiently help your team. From looping to healing to escaping, Yui has a little of everything.

10. Zarina Kassir

Off The Record: You’ve learned that a quiet approach is sometimes best. Once you are unhooked or escape from the hook, Off The Record activates for 60/70/80 seconds. This perk and its effects are disabled once the Exit Gates are powered. While Off The Record is active, your aura will not be shown to the Killer, grunts of pain caused by injuries are reduced by 100% and you gain the Endurance status effect.

Red Herring: You’ve noticed that people pay attention to whatever makes the loudest noise. After repairing a generator for at least 3 seconds, it will be highlighted to you with a yellow aura. The generator stays highlighted until it is fully repaired, you repair a new generator, or enter a locker. Entering any locker will trigger a loud noise indicator for the Killer at the highlighted generator’s location. Red Herring can only trigger once every 60/50/40 seconds.

For The People: You risk life and injury for others. For The People is only active while at full health. Press the active ability button while healing another Survivor without a med-kit to instantly heal them from dying to injured or from, injured to healthy. You become injured and receive the Broken status effect for 80/70/60 seconds. You become the Obsession. Equipping this perk decreases your chances of being the Killer’s obsession at the start of the trial. The Killer can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time.

Zarina Kassir is a documentarian who is able to avoid detection and greatly assist other Survivors. Her perks provide a distraction, quick healing and the ability to keep you hidden from the Killer.

Zarina has two great perks Off The Record and For The People. The third perk Red Herring is sub-par but great for providing a distraction in specific situations. You can’t miss out on having For The People if you love to swoop in and save your fellow Survivors. Your valiant efforts are rewarded with her other perk Off The Record, which is centered around keeping you safe from the Killer. These perks provide a great give and take for teamwork.

Reasons to prestige Zarina Kassir:

For The People is a great teamwork perk that can keep your fellow Survivors safe from hook states. You sacrifice yourself to save others. There is no better teamwork than that.
The perk Off The Record is fantastic to counter Killers that tunnel and a very useful perk in general. It is like having Distortion and Iron Will with the bonus of the Endurance status effect.
Zarina is a great shield Survivor. She is there to protect her team and deny the Killer hooks. Most of her skills are phenomenal. They can enhance your gameplay and are commonly used in top tier builds.

11. Felix Ritcher

Visionary: You’re remarkably focused on your means of escape. You see generator auras within 32-meters. Anytime a generator is completed, Visionary is disabled for 20/18/16 seconds.

Desperate Measures: You refuse to fail even during your darkest hour. For each injured, hooked, or dying Survivor, increase the speed of your healing and unhook actions by 10/12/14%.

Built To Last: You know how to get the most out of your tools. After hiding inside a locker for 14/13/12 seconds with a depleted item in hand, 99% of its charges are refilled. Each use of Built To Last reduces the amount of charges refilled by 33%.

Felix Ritcher is an architect who is able to use his determination to form a plan and help other Survivors. His perks provide aura reading, speed boosts and tool benefits.

Felix has a basic perk set that is helpful for Survivors. He can see generators. When things look grim, his perk Desperate Measures comes in handy. The perk Built To Last provides a nice tool recharge. All together these skills offer a balanced all-around Survivor build for Dead by Daylight. You can easily enhance his perks with other similar ones to suit your personal playstyle.

Reasons To Prestige Felix Richter:

Having the perk Visionary provides you with aura reading for generator locations. Being able to quickly find generators to repair helps your team immensely. The faster the generators are done, the faster the Exit Gates can be powered.
If you find your team struggling, the perk Desperate Measures is great to have. The more Survivors who are injured, hooked or dying the greater the benefit this perk provides. It gives your team hope and a chance to escape at the end game.
Built to Last is a fantastic perk to have if you enjoy using tools. From flashlights to med-kits and more, this perk lets you get repeated value out of your items. You can also recharge your teammates’ items.
Felix has a great perk pack that covers multiple niches. You can protect your teammates, recharge items and will never lose track of generators with your aura reading.

12. Jake Park

Calm Spirit: Animals seem to trust you as they often stay calm in your presence. Reduces the chances of alerting woodland creatures by 100%. It allows you to overcome the urge to scream. Allows you to open chests and cleanse/bless totems silently, but at 40/35/30% reduced speed.

Iron Will: You’re able to concentrate and enter a meditative-like state to numb some pain. Grunts of pain caused by injuries are reduced by 80/90/100%. Does not function while Exhausted. Does not inflict Exhausted.

Saboteur: Unlocks potential in one’s aura reading ability. See hook auras in a 56-meter radius from the pickup spot if another Survivor is being carried. Scourge Hooks are shown in yellow. Unlocks the ability to sabotage hooks without a toolbox. Sabotaging a hook without a toolbox takes 2.3 seconds. The sabotage action has a 70/65/60 second cooldown.

Jake Park is a survivalist who can hold his own in most situations. His perks allow him to move more effectively in his environment, especially when injured.

Jake provides two useful must-have perks. While Calm Spirit is an alright perk, its usefulness is very situational. Iron Will and Saboteur are perks you can’t go without. You will be hard pressed to find a better sabotage or noise suppression perk.

Reasons To Prestige Jake Park:

Iron Will has one of the highest noise suppressions in Dead by Daylight. This perk activates every time you are injured. It does not have requirements like Off The Record where you have to be unhooked before your perk activates.
Calm Spirit can be used to counter Killers such as The Doctor or killer perks that cause you to scream. These perks are becoming increasingly popular.
Saboteur is the easiest way to sabotage a hook. You not only get to see the auras of the hooks, but you also do not need a toolbox.
Both the perks Iron Will and Saboteur are frequently used in high tier builds. Saboteur is the main perk of most sabotage builds. Iron Will is often used for looping builds.