The newest killer in Dead by Daylight, the Nemesis, has come out with the Resident Evil DLC. Nemesis is an extremely strong killer with a power that grows over time and the first power that actually spawns AI in DBD. That being said, you still need a good build to get the most out of Nemesis.
Best Nemesis Build
What is the best build for the Nemesis? Lethal Pursuer, Corrupt Intervention, Hysteria, and finally Infectious Fright. These are some of the strongest perks to put on the Nemesis because of how he plays (gains power over time) and is an incredibly strong build to run.
If you’d like to get the full run-down on why these perks are the best (at least in my opinion) and a little bit of an explanation of his power (T-Virus), then you can keep reading. Otherwise, I wish you luck in your Dead by Daylight matches!
Also, make sure to check out our dbd killer tier list to see where we put the Nemesis!
Nemesis Power: T-Virus
For starters, let’s go over Nemesis’s killer power, the T-Virus. There is both a passive component, i.e. the mutation, and an active component, the Tentacle. The tentacle, his main form of contaminating survivors (more on that in a second), is a short to moderate ranged attack that allows you to strike a survivor and contaminate them, increasing your mutation rate. Hitting them again after they have been contaminated will injure the survivor and increase your mutation rate further.
Now, what is this mutation rate/contamination stuff I’m talking about? Well, as the Nemesis, you have a killer power somewhere in-between Michael Meyers and the Plague. The Nemesis has three stages (like Michael) that you can progress through by contaminating survivors (like Plague). Mutation stage 2 allows you to break pallets, while stage 3 increases the tentacles range by 1 meter. Not much, but meaningful nonetheless.
Finally, you have random zombies that spawn on the map with you. Only two can be alive at a time and you can kill them yourself for mutation points or the survivors can kill them with pallets. If killed by survivors the zombies will respawn in 45 seconds, but if killed by you they respawn within 12 seconds.
The zombies themselves can contaminate/down survivors much like yourself. If you have already contaminated a survivor the zombies can down them, otherwise, they will just contaminate them. They aren’t the most deadly force by any means but they can make a large difference if used correctly.
Best Nemesis Perks & Addons Build
Okay so here is the meat of the guide. The best perks and addons for the Nemesis in Dead by Daylight.
Perk number one, Lethal Pursuer. Lethal Pursuer is a Nemesis perk so you won’t have to learn it from another killer. This perk allows you to see the auras of all survivors at the very beginning of the game for several seconds. This is incredibly potent for killers that require at least some setup (Trapper, Plague, Michael, etc) because it decreases the amount of time the survivors have to freely work on generators. With Lethal Pursuer, you can immediately work your way toward the survivors and start contaminating them ASAP.
For perk number two we have Corrupt Intervention. This is a Plague teachable so you will need to get it from her or the shrine if it is ever available there. Much like Lethal Pursuer, Corrupt is meant for killers that exert low pressure early on. It blocks several generators that are farthest away from you, meaning that survivors have the option of waiting out Corrupt (which takes a long time) or trying to get to generators closer to you, which should help you find them quickly.
Perk number three is Hysteria, another Nemesis perk. Hysteria activates when you injure a survivor and inflicts all other injured survivors with oblivious, masking your terror radius and allowing you to sneak up on them without much issue. Due to the low range of your tentacle, Hysteria helps close the gap without alerting survivors to your location. And since it only works on injured survivors, this means you will likely be downing them with this.
Finally, we have Infectious Fright, a Plague teachable. Infectious Fright causes all survivors in an AOE to scream whenever you down a survivor. This is super useful for snowball/slug killers to get information on nearby survivors and hopefully down them as well. Because you are going to be injuring the survivors with your contamination anyway, this is a super useful perk to get back to back downs and win the game incredibly quick.
Rank 1 Nemesis Build
Here is a build by a rank 1 Nemesis player.
- Tinkerer
- Discordance
- Ruin
- Pop Goes the Weasel
This Nemesis build focuses on making sure survivors can never finish a generator. Tinkerer and discordance lets you know where the survivors are doing gens at and Pop + Ruin makes sure they can never complete a generator.
With how fast survivors can do generators nowadays, this is probably the best Nemesis build out there.
Good Addons for Nemesis
There are lots of great addons for the Nemesis in dead by daylight. We will be going over some of the better ones, including some of the INCREDIBLY strong addons.
One of the stronger addons for the Nemesis is the Serotonin Injector, which makes you undetectable for 15 seconds after a zombie is destroyed. Because of the fact, you can destroy your own zombies and they have a short respawn time when you do so, the Serotonin Injector is super strong. It’s 12 seconds on a respawn when you kill them so you have almost infinite undetectable like a Perma t1 Meyers with no downside.
You could also pair the above addon with Zombie Heart for increased mutation from killing zombies. You’ll be able to get max mutation much quicker and also be undetectable at the same time.
There are some super cheese add-ons to run that have to do with zombies. Depleted Ink Ribbon and Tyrant Gore make the respawn time almost nothing. Or the Ribbon with Mikhail’s Eye which will make zombies fast.
End
That’s about it for the Nemesis. He is super strong in certain circumstances.
