Dead By Daylight is an incredibly popular asymmetric multiplayer horror-survival game where a group of four unarmed survivors must work together to activate generators in order to escape a murderous killer. Through skill, stealth, and teamwork, these survivors just might be able to power up and open the gate to escape the encounter.
Unfortunately for them, they are trapped within a hellish dimension where an evil Entity rewards the killers with an eternity of hunting. Some players might instead find themselves drawn to play as the killers, but may not know where to begin. A good place would be these ten killers, who, if used properly, are easily the best in the game.
The Ghostface
Dead By Daylight quickly established itself as the new home for some of cinema's greatest killers, even early on with additions like Michael Myers from the Halloween movies. The Ghostface is another such big-screen killer, hailing from the Scream franchise. His perks, especially Thrilling Tremors (which blocks generators for 16 seconds after picking up a victim), are great for tormenting survivors.
Players seeking to use The Ghostface should keep in mind that he is built for stealth, not pursuit, and utilize his perks accordingly. With I'm All Ears and Furtive Chase, which highlight survivors who use a rushed vault and reduce The Ghostface's terror radius by 4 meters per obsessed survivor hooked, The Ghostface can lock onto targets and sneak up on them before they even realize he's there.
The Legion
A whole family of killers, The Legion is best used to disrupt the survivors and prevent them from working together. Discordance, one of Legion's main perks, will mark any generator that is being repaired by two or more survivors, allowing players to home in on groups of survivors and force them to split up and work slower to avoid detection.
The Iron Maiden perk increases The Legion's locker search speed, as well as giving any survivor who exits a locker a debuff that reveals their location. Once the survivors are downed, the Mad Grit perk allows Legion to attack more often while carrying a survivor, as well as pausing the wiggle progression of any carried survivor for several seconds for each other survivor attacked.
The Mastermind
Yet another example of the incredibly high quality of Dead By Daylight's DLC, The Mastermind, AKA Resident Evil's Albert Wesker, is best utilized by playing the waiting game. His perks are all about chasing down and finding survivors, but the cherry on top is his Terminus perk. Activated when the exit gates are powered, this perk gives any injured, hooked, or dying survivor the broken status effect until the gates open.
Therefore, players should use The Mastermind's Superior Anatomy perk to chase down fleeing survivors with his enhanced vault speed and try to injure as many of them as possible. Then, as the gates get powered up, The Mastermind can use his Awakened Awareness perk to reveal nearby survivors, who will already be broken and trying to escape, and finish them off.
The Plague
The Plague is a powerful killer that makes heavy use of the obsession mechanic. Their perk Corrupt Intervention forces players towards them by disabling the three generators furthest from them for up to two minutes at the game's start. The true strength of The Plague, however, lies in their Dark Devotion perk, which activates whenever the obsessed survivor is injured in any way. Once this occurs, The Plague becomes undetectable for up to 30 seconds, along with amplifying their terror radius and transferring it to the obsessed survivor. When combined with the Infectious Fright perk, which reveals any player within the terror radius for up to six seconds after downing a survivor, The Plague is the perfect hunter.
The Oni
The Oni is all about forcing the survivors to play a game they can't win by tactful use of his Zanshin Tactics and Nemesis perks, both of which revolve around the use of pallets and other obstacles. Zanshin Tactics highlights and reveals windows, pallets, and breakable walls nearby, and Nemesis makes any survivor who manages to stun The Oni with a pallet or locker into his obsession.
Crucially, the obsessed survivor becomes afflicted with the oblivious stat for up to one minute, preventing them from hearing the heartbeat signifying a nearby killer. This also reveals their aura for several seconds, allowing the Oni to keep track of them despite being stunned. Combine this with the Blood Echo perk, which causes any injured survivors to suffer from hemorrhaging and exhaustion for 45 seconds after the Oni hooks a survivor, and a good Oni player can quite literally bleed his prey dry.
The Cenobite
The Cenobite, AKA Pinhead from the famous film Hellraiser, is a cruel and calculating killer who excels at slowing survivors. Whenever a generator is completed, his Deadlock perk will lock down the generator with the most progress for 30 seconds.
The Cenobite's other perks utilize totems and scourge hooks, as long as there is one dull totem remaining. His Hex: Plaything perk will activate after hooking a survivor, which curses them as well as making the hooked victim the only one able to cleanse the totem for the first 90 seconds of the hex. But the Scourge Hook: Gift Of Pain perk is even more useful, as using scourged hooks will not only debuff survivors in regards to health, it will slow down their healing and repairing until they're injured again. With excellent killers like this, it's no surprise that Dead By Daylight continues to dominate the multiplayer horror genre.
The Artist
The Artist, much like The Cenobite, utilizes hexes and scourge hooks, with the Pain Resonance perk granting her four tokens. Hooking a survivor on a scourge hook will spend one token, which then causes the generator closest to being fully repaired to explode and lose up to 25% progress, as well as causing survivors working on it to scream.
The Pentimento perk allows the Artist to hex totems, with each hex adding a debuff to survivors that slows their healing, repairing, recovery, and the speed the exit gate opens by up to 30% each. If The Artist can hex all five totems, they become protected from cleansing. Furthermore, hooking survivors also activates the Grim Embrace perk. After hooking four survivors and gaining four tokens, all generators are blocked for up to 40 seconds and the obsession is revealed.
The Spirit
The Spirit has a great set of perks, with Haunted Ground exposing all survivors for up to 60 seconds when a totem is hexed or cleansed, which can be great for getting an early-game advantage or chasing down a successful group of survivors. Her Spirit Fury perk is activated by breaking pallets, and after breaking 2–4 pallets, the next survivor who tries to stun her will fail as the Entity breaks the pallet instead.
But the Spirit's true strength lies in the Rancor perk, which although revealing The Spirit to the obsessed survivor, reveals all survivors for three seconds every time a generator is completed, as well as exposing the obsession when the exit gates are opened. That such a comparatively old killer is still able to function as an excellent competitive choice is a perfect example of why Dead By Daylight endures in the sometimes unstable market of horror games.
The Blight
The Blight relies heavily on hexes, with the Blood Favour perk to block an injured survivor from using any pallets in a large radius from being used for up to 15 seconds. This allows a talented killer to chase down a survivor and quickly finish them off.
If the survivors try to cleanse the totems to remove this hex, the Blight's other hex, Undying, will activate instead and will be disabled instead of Blood Favour. Finally, his Dragon's Grip perk will trap a damaged generator for 30 seconds, causing any survivor who interacts with it to reveal their location and become afflicted with exposure.
The Nurse
Even after multiple patches and nerfs, The Nurse remains an amazing choice for the killer. Her Nurse's Calling perk will reveal any survivor attempting to heal within a 30-meter radius, an extremely powerful boost.
In addition, her Thanatophobia perk can reduce survivor action speed by up to 12% if all four survivors are injured, hooked, or dying. Running away isn't a smart choice either, as her Stridor perk increases the sound of survivor's panting by 50%, and the sound of their regular breathing by 25%, making them even easier to track and hunt down. There is no better choice for a killer in Dead By Daylight than The Nurse.