At some point in time, Killers had the most unfair advantage in Dead by Daylight. They have the speed, strength, and capacity to kill every Survivor they come across. But now, Survivors seem to have understood their full potential. And if they work as a team… it might be an authentic nightmare trying to catch them. Fear no longer, dear murderer. This guide will give you the best tips for Killers to please the Entity by sacrificing all four Survivors and improving your match performance in Dead by Daylight. Also, make sure to read my guide of the best Killers for beginners in case you’re having trouble trying to find an appropriate character for you.
The Best Tips for Killers in Dead by Daylight
There are several tips you can follow to improve your Killer matches in Dead by Daylight. Below you can find a list of the most important ones to keep in mind to sacrifice all Survivors and please the Entity in its trials.
A Good Load-Out
Just like Survivors, Killers need a good load-out to improve their success ratio. You should use perks you feel comfortable with, but you probably shouldn’t use information perks. Information perks are the ones that allow you to reveal the auras of Survivors on certain occasions. These perks are mostly for new players, and veterans won’t need any additional information. Good players already have information based on what they see and hear. If you want to use a good load-out, you should use perks that slow down Survivors’ generator progress.
You should also see my Dead by Daylight best perks guide and head to the Killers section for more tips on which perks you should use. It should come in handy if you don’t know which perks to unlock. Also, if you need help to get the required amount of points to unlock more perks and characters, check my guide on how to level up fast in the game.
Make sure to use perks you feel comfortable with and are compatible with your Killer.
Patrolling Generators
This is probably the most basic of all tips: what’s the first thing experienced Killers will do upon starting a match in Dead by Daylight? They will patrol generators.
Survivors need only one thing to be able to power up the exit gates and escape the match alive, and that is to repair generators. You will always find Survivors quickly optimally patrol generators and avoid wasting time at the beginning of the trial.
Make sure to down the first Survivor as fast as you can, and don’t let anyone repair a generator without giving them a physical warning. The more Survivors you can injure and make them run away from a generator, the better. If you find a group of Survivors repairing a generator, don’t hesitate to injure one and start pursuing another one. They will all escape from you like little rats and stop any activity they were doing.
Patrolling generators is the best way to find Survivors.
Chasing Survivors
Now, pursuing Survivors to down them is one of the most basic aspects of the game. But it is common to see a few Killers (especially if they’re new players) doing it all wrong.
If you spot a Survivor, focus on getting to them as fast as you can by walking in a straight line. Don’t try to fool the Survivor if they’re running on an open field. Mind games only work in close areas.
If you’re chasing a Survivor in a tight space, mind games will be a good decision. Make sure to fool them and make them think you’re coming out from one door, and go back to enter the room from another door. Surprising them will be crucial to avoid getting looped. Remember Survivors can jump pallets and windows way faster than you, so try to catch them before they get to that!
Always follow the Survivors’ scratch marks if you want to find them easily.
Avoiding Loops
Smart Survivors run with a plan. If you see them running toward a pallet. a window, or even a building… they’re probably trying to loop you.
If you’re new to the game, you might be wondering what “getting looped” is. It’s simple: since Survivors jump pallets and windows faster than Killers, they will be able to run in circles indefinitely and inexperienced Killers won’t have a clue on how to catch them without losing too much time.
As a Killer, you can’t be hoping to eventually catch them and magically break the loop without effort. You have to be smarter than them. Are they always jumping over the same pallet before you get to them? Break the pallet. Are they vaulting over the same window once you’re close to catching them? Don’t vault the window, go around it and force them to go somewhere else.
Once a Survivor feels comfortable in a loop, they will have a clear advantage over you. Don’t let them. Break the pallets, ignore the windows, and remember you can always catch them at another time. You’re the Killer. Force Survivors to play on your conditions. If you start playing on their conditions, you’ll get fooled and all Survivors will escape alive no matter what.
Don’t be afraid to get stunned by a pallet if it’s necessary to break the loop.
When to Stop Chasing
In my advanced tips guide for Survivors, I mentioned that one of the most important factors to win several matches in Dead by Daylight is to have good timing, and this also applies to Killers.
Killers have to know when to stop chasing a Survivor and focus on patrolling generators again. If a healthy Survivor seems too far away from you, but that last generator that is right next to you seems to be almost fully repaired… you have to prioritize the generator. They’re going to try to distract you by crouching and clicking their annoying little flashlights… but don’t fall for that. If you see a Survivor trying to distract you from your actual objective, you have to resist the temptation. Be smarter and focus on your sole objective: don’t let the generators get repaired.
You must also know when to stop chasing a Survivor if you have been pursuing them for a long time. Don’t let yourself get frustrated over the fact that they might seem impossible to catch. If you stop them from repairing too many generators, you will eventually have the chance to catch them and watch them suffer for as long as you can. You just have to be patient.
Prioritize patrolling the generators whenever it’s necessary.
Avoiding Critical Rescues
Survivors can often try to perform critical rescues. These rescues are performed once you have injured or downed a Survivor but you haven’t hooked them yet. They will try to body block you, blind you, stun you with a pallet or locker, and many more strategies that will allow the Survivor you were chasing to run away and live to tell the story.
In order to avoid critical rescues, you must always:
- Make sure there aren’t other Survivors around when you’re picking up a downed Survivor.
- Avoid downing Survivors in front of pallets or lockers. Down them before they get to them.
- Face a wall, tree, or whatever is close to you when you’re picking up a Survivor. By doing this, other Survivors won’t be able to blind you with a flashlight.
- Hit Survivors if they are body-blocking you. Don’t try to go around them in order to keep pursuing another Survivor or hook the one you’re carrying. By hitting them, you will break the body block and force them to run away.
Look away as fast as you can if Survivors try to blind you with their flashlights.
Do Not Camp the Hooks
This is one of the most common mistakes new players commit in the game. Once you have captured and hooked any Survivor, you will feel tempted to camp the hook where you left them hanging. That sounds like a good strategy, right? Well, it actually isn’t.
The time you waste in one Survivor is crucial. If you stay still for 90 seconds waiting for the Survivor to be consumed by the Entity on his first hook, you will be letting the other three Survivors do anything they want in that time. And if they work as a team and support each other correctly, they will be able to repair several generators in the meantime and maybe even unhook the Survivor you’re camping no matter how hard you try to avoid it.
Besides, the objective of the game is to torture Survivors as much as you can. If you just sacrifice them without playing a little with them first, the Entity will be very displeased and you will lose the chance to win several points after the match. Focus on hooking every Survivor a total of two or three times. You will get many points at the end of the match.
Not to mention you won’t get good emblems at the end of the trial. If the game detects you camped hooks for too long, then a considerable amount of emblem points will be deducted from you. It should be clear by now: Do. Not. Camp. The Hooks.
There are more important things to do than simply camping the hooks.
Looking for the Hatch
As I explained in my advanced tips for Survivors guide, the objective of the last Survivor will be to find the hatch to escape alive. The Killer, however, can find it first to close it. Survivors won’t be able to use it after it’s closed unless they have a key, which is a very rare item. And finding a closed hatch is much more difficult since it doesn’t make the loud noise it does when it’s open.
Similar to what I mentioned in the Survivors guide, as soon as the hatch spawns you have to run around the map to find it. You will know you’re close to the hatch once you hear a deep noise that can be heard in a 32 meters radius approximately. Just like when you’re playing Survivor, avoid running around the borders of the map, since the hatch rarely spawns there. Make sure to use both of your ears to be aware of the sound of the hatch. Run around in circles in the central part of the map and you should eventually find it.
Killers have a good advantage when having to find the hatch because they’re slightly faster than Survivors. You will almost always find it before them unless the Survivor was lucky enough or simply did a better job at looking for the hatch. If you find the healthy Survivor before the hatch, just ignore them. Find the hatch and close it at all costs. Don’t let them escape.
Find and close the hatch as fast as you can.
Patrolling the Exit Gates
Once you close the hatch (or all generators become powered), the exit gates will be activated. Survivors must open the gates by interacting with them for 20 seconds or so. There are only two exit gates on every single map you play in. No more, no less.
Survivors will often try to open the exit gate that is far away from the Killer. They will also try to hide near one of the gates to open it once you stop patrolling that gate, so… how to patrol the gates correctly?
Don’t try to look for the Survivor/s around the gates, or start wasting your time opening lockers or whatever. The best strategy to patrol both exit gates correctly is to not lose time. Just keep an eye on the gates’ levers. Survivors will have to stand there for a while in order to open them. So, if you want to find the Survivor/s, you need to have a good sight of both levers.
It is best to patrol both levers until the match ends or until you find the Survivor. Don’t get too close to any gate unless it’s necessary in order to see the lever. The lever will almost always be visible from a far distance, which will be enough to tell if a Survivor is opening it. If the Survivor isn’t on the lever, and the gate lights aren’t lit up, quickly move to the other gate and repeat the process.
You can see the exit gates’ auras through the walls in case you’re not sure where they are.
The Next Chapter: Tools of Torment
That was my guide of advanced tips for Killers in Dead by Daylight. which is available for PC on Steam and the Epic Games store, PS4 & PS5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. The new chapter: Tools of Torment has been recently revealed and it will be available on March 7th! Stay tuned for more updates and see you all in the fog.
