Today I am going to be showing you how to play the triangle-shaped killer in Dead by Daylight, Pyramid Head, in this quick but essential Pyramid Head Guide for Dead by Daylight. In this guide, I will be giving you the entire rundown on Pyramid Head’s abilities, perks, builds, and some tips to help you get started.
Be aware that because this is a licensed DLC for DBD, you will have to buy the Silent Hill chapter from Steam or the in-game Dead by Daylight store. No freebies here.
Anyways, let’s get into this guide.
Table of Contents
Pyramid Head’s Ability Guide: Rites of Judgement
Introduced in the Silent Hill chapter, Pyramid Head is one of the strongest killers in the game right now due to his killer power (which is why he ranks so high in our DBD Killer Tier List), Rites of Judgement. Rites of Judgement, much like other killer powers in Dead by Daylight, has several effects baked into it. First off, when holding the power button, you create a trail behind Pyramid Head that causes any survivor running over it to be afflicted by Killer Instinct and Torment.
What is Torment? Torment simply allows Pyramid Head to send a survivor into a Cage of Atonement which functions as a hook. If you have sent the survivor to a Cage of Atonement twice (or they are in the final stage of being hooked) and they are afflicted by Torment, you can kill them without having to hook them.
What is the Cage of Atonement in DBD
Cages of Atonement is exactly like a hook except for a few things. First, you don’t carry a survivor to a Cage, instead, you can only send survivors inflicted by Torment to one. Secondly, Cages spawn far away from the killer, meaning you could send a survivor to a Cage and they could be immediately saved.
The Cage of Atonement is a unique mechanic to Pyramid Head. When a survivor is inflicted by Torment and they are in the downed state, you can walk over them and send them to a Cage of Atonement. This happens instantly without the need to hook said survivor, which saves a tremendous amount of time you can spend pressuring the generators.
Most of the time, you will want to use Cage of Atonement to save time; however, because of how easy it is for survivors to save people in Cages and because you don’t get to choose where they end up going, using this Pyramid Head mechanic is really a strategic option.
Punishment of the Damned
The second part of Pyramid Head’s killer power in DBD is Punishment of the Damned. When using Rites of Judgement, pressing the attack button will activate Punishment of the Damned and send a wave of force in whatever direction Pyramid Head is facing, dealing damage to every survivor in its path. Notice that last part, dealing damage to EVERY survivor in its path. Aka, this ability can hit multiple survivors.
Because this ability can hit multiple survivors, there are several amazing ways to use it.
- Use it on unhooks (you can down both)
- Use it on pallet drops (Punishment of the Damned goes through pallets)
- Use it on body blockers
My favorite way to use Punishment of the Damned on Pyramid Head is to hit someone going for an unhook, wait for them to unhook, and then use Punishment of the Damned, which will hit and down both of them. Careful on the timing, though, as being unhooked grants i-frames for a short while.
As for pallets, my go-to way is always to assume a pallet drop, so when they go to drop it, I already have the attack lined up and ready to go. There is little they can do at that point other than go down.
Keep in mind that you can’t use this ability on stairs or inclined areas of the map. I’m not sure whether this is intended or not, but if you try and use this ability while going up or down an incline, the ability will not hit the survivor in the way you think. Avoid using it in situations like this.
Pyramid Head Perk Guide
In Dead by Daylight, Pyramid Head has three unique perks. All of these perks revolve around keeping survivors injured and being undetectable for quick hits.
His first Perk is Forced Penance. Those who stand in the way of duty will suffer harsh judgment. Survivors who take a Protection Hit are inflicted with the Broken Status Effect for 40/50/60 seconds.
Pyramid Head’s second perk is Trail of Torment. You guide your victims along a path of pain and punishment. After kicking a Generator, you become Undetectable for 16 seconds. During this time, the Generator’s Aura is revealed in yellow to all Survivors. Trail of Torment can only be triggered once every 80/70/60 seconds.
Pyramid Head’s third and final perk is Deathbound. Those whose lives are intertwined in darkness are destined to suffer together. When a Survivor heals another Survivor for one Health State at least 32 meters away from the Killer, the Survivor performing the Healing action will scream, revealing their location and activating Deathbound for the next 60 seconds. During that time, the Survivor will suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect when farther than 16/12/8 meters away from the healed Survivor.
Best DBD Pyramid Head Build
Finally, we get to the best part of the whole guide. The best Pyramid Head build in Dead by Daylight. This build is incredibly strong because it focuses on the strengths of Pyramid Head and closes a few of his weaknesses. Here is the perk set up for this build.
- Save the Best for Last
- Discordance
- Infectious Fright
- Pop Goes the Weasel
- (Optional) – I’m All Ears
- (Optional) – Nurse’s Calling
Alright, so let me explain why this DBD Pyramid Head build is so good right now, perk by perk.
Save the Best for Last is one of the better killer perks for Pyramid Head because he has a killer power that allows him to injure/down a survivor without hitting them. That means if the obsession run right at you, you won’t have to waste your tokens hitting them and can instead use your Punishment of the Damned.
Discordance is a meta killer perk right now as it gives killers lots of information regarding where the survivors are repairing gens. Using this with Pop Goes the Weasel allows you to down a survivor and use Pop on the generator that is most likely going to be fully repaired.
Infectious Fright gives you the location of nearby survivors after you down a survivor. This allows for heavy killer snowballing that can end a game within seconds. Because Pyramid Head can end chases quickly (depending on the map) this perk is really strong on him.
Pop Goes the Weasel for the reasons mentioned above and because it is the meta-gen slow-down perk at the moment. A must-have for most killers at this point in Dead by Daylight.
I’m All Ears is optional because it can make hitting survivors going through windows or pallets trivial, as their aura is revealed to you when they fast vault it.
Summing Up the Build
By building up stacks of STBFL in the early game and consistently popping generators that are near completion, you should be able to reach a point in the game where your pressure reaches its maximum potential as Pyramid Head. With all stacks of STBFL and Infectious Fright, you should be able to down survivors extremely fast, and, depending on the size of the map, you can easily defend a three-gen.
Because you don’t have to waste time hooking survivors as Pyramid Head (assuming you have Torment on them) and because sending them to a Cage of Atonement sends them as far away from you as possible, Pyramid Head is one of the best killers in the game at defending a three gen right now. Pyramid Head’s only weakness in DBD is that you must use his Rites of Judgement to put someone in Torment. If a survivor doesn’t walk over it, which is easy to avoid, Pyramid Head loses a lot of his power.
Hopefully, this Pyramid Head build will help you in your future DBD games.
Pyramid Head Tips in Dead by Daylight
Here are some tips for you when you are playing Pyramid Head in DBD:
- Use your Rites of Judgement often to create lots of trails survivors are forced to avoid
- Use your Punishment of the Damned to punish people who throw pallets down
- Control one area rather than spread out
- Make use of Torment and Cages of Atonement often
End
That’s it for this DBD Pyramid Head guide. Hopefully, these tips on how to use Pyramid Head’s abilities and the Pyramid Head build I made are helpful to you.
