Exhaustion perks are some of the best survivor perks in all of Dead by Daylight. Most of them are considered “overpowered” by killers and even some survivor mains. That being said, exhaustion perks can’t be used together because of how they work (you get exhausted) which leads most people to one simple question: what is the best exhaustion perk?
And if you want to check out my bloodpoint farming perks for survivors go to this guide and if you want to see some awesome survivor builds go here.
Today, I am going to be showing you what I think the best exhaustion perk is based on several factors. This doesn’t mean it is without a doubt the best, it just means that based on what I believe are the most important factors to a survivor. Anyway, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
6. Lithe
Lithe is the worst exhaustion perk in Dead by Daylight. I say this because the circumstances where Lithe is going to be better than the other perks in this list are incredibly rare.
For Lithe to activate, you need to perform a fast vault, afterward, you will receive a 150% speed boost. Essentially, it is a sprint burst with extra steps. This is both a good and bad thing at the same time.
It is a good thing because you can choose when to use it. Sprint Burst activates whenever you press the sprint button, making it harder to control. Lithe, however, will only activate after a fast vault, so you can somewhat control when the speed burst will occur.
The reason it is bad is that you have to find a window to fast-vault for the speed boost to activate. If you don’t have a good window nearby, you won’t be able to activate the speed boost, something that can occur in really open maps like Coldwind Farm.
TL;DR: Too situational and does the same thing as Sprint Burst.
5. Head-On
Head-On is a unique exhaustion perk. Where most of the other exhaustion perks revolve around going faster for three seconds Head-On allows you to stun the killer. The problem is, the conditions required are super situational.
First off, you need to have been in a locker for three seconds. Then, the killer has to get close enough before you can even stun them. Not the greatest, especially if the killer is expecting it (which they normally are).
Even with that, it still is a strong perk. You get to control when to use it which is a major plus and it does something other than the cookie-cutter “increase move speed by x percent”.
TL;DR: Can stun the killer but is situational.
4. Balanced Landing
Balanced Landing used to be the best perk in DBD, no question. It had the speed boost effect and it reduced the stagger from falls tremendously. Sadly, now the perk is only a shadow of what it used to be because the stagger effect will only work if you aren’t already exhausted. That being said, the perk is still amazing.
Again, this is an exhaustion perk that can be activated when you want so it is far more reliable than say, Sprint Burst. But, you can only activate it from somewhere you can fall from, which can be hard to find in certain maps.
TL;DR: Can choose when to use it and reduces fall stagger, but have to have a place to fall from.
3. Adrenaline
Adrenaline is responsible for 90% of all killer rage quits, and that’s a fact. Basically, whenever the last generator is completed a survivor gets a speed boost and heals one health state.
The speed boost is the same as every other speed boost (150% for 3 seconds) so it isn’t that great, but the fact you get a free heal is huge. Imagine a killer finally downs you after you looped them for several minutes, he goes to pick you up and boom! You have adrenaline so you get picked up and move at 150% speed, way out of their range.
Also, on top of that, the effects will occur no matter what. If you are hooked during the time you would have normally received the Adrenaline buff, you will receive the buff after being unhooked. So, you end up being full health after getting unhooked. And, although it is considered an exhaustion perk, it will activate even if you are exhausted at the time (but also causes you to be exhausted).
Adrenaline is a super meta perk, especially in a time where gens are going super fast. The one counter to this perk is NOED, which I consider to be the killers’ version of Adrenaline. But even NOED can’t really stop the effects of Adrenaline, it just makes Adrenaline less useful.
TL;DR: Free health and Sprint Burst but only when the gens are powered.
2. Sprint Burst
Although some perks are more reliable, none can be as consistent as Sprint Burst. Where Lithe and Balanced Landing require certain pre-reqs, Sprint Burst only requires you to press the sprint button. Not difficult to use.
Plus, the way most people use Sprint Burst is to wait until a killer gets close enough to take a swing then run away, hopefully baiting out the killer to swing and miss making the Sprint Burst even more effective. This strategy works really well with Fixated and these two perks are commonly ran together.
The downside to Sprint Burst is obvious if you try to sprint you will automatically use it and can, therefore, waste it if you aren’t careful. This makes it slightly less reliable than other perks but less so if you have Fixated.
TL;DR: Simple to use and always works regardless of the map but isn’t reliable.
1. Dead Hard (The Best Exhaustion Perk)
You read it here first, Dead Hard is the best exhaustion perk in Dead by Daylight. The reason being is how flexible it is compared to all the other exhaustion perks AND the fact that Dead Hard can ignore any type of damage (more on this below).
So first, the flexibility of Dead Hard. Dead Hard can be used anytime you are injured and not exhausted. Because of this, you can hold onto it when you need it, unlike other exhaustion perks like Sprint Burst which will activate anytime you sprint.
Also, as I said above, you can ignore ANY kind of damage with Dead Hard including certain killer powers. You probably already know that Dead Hard can avoid damage from basic attacks, but you probably didn’t know that you can also avoid damage from things like Trappers’ traps by Dead Harding over them. No other perk can do that.
And that is my list of the best exhaustion perks ranked. Do you agree? Let me know what you think!
