Ever wondered what the best survivor perks are? Or maybe what the best builds for survivors are in Dead by Daylight? Well, wonder no longer! In this Dead by Daylight best survivor perks and builds guide, I will be showing you the best perks and builds in the game.
Let’s start with the best survivor builds in Dead by Daylight, and then I can break down why certain perks are so good when used correctly.
Table of Contents
Bloodpoint Farming Build
- We’re Gonna Live Forever
- Dead Hard (or Borrowed Time)
- Self-Care
- Spine Chill (or Mettle of Man)
I’ve already highlighted how to farm bloodpoints as a survivor in Dead by Daylight but this is a small taste of that entire guide.
We’re Gonna Live Forever just gives you a bonus to bloodpoints if you unhook someone or take a hit for another survivor.
Self-Care is so you can heal yourself, which gives points.
Spine Chill is for stealth killers and determining if a killer has Nurse’s Calling or BBQ and Chilli.
You can run Borrowed Time instead of Dead Hard if you want to be a team player, in which case I recommend running Mettle of Man which allows you to ignore a hit that would cause you to go down if you take three protection hits (synergizes with We’re Gonna Live Forever).
Altruistic/Healer Survivor Build
- Aftercare
- Borrowed Time
- Empathy
- We’ll Make It
This build is incredibly synergistic and focuses on healing your team and making sure they are always uninjured. Aftercare allows you to see the auras of all survivors you have unhooked/healed, Borrowed Time makes it harder for killers to tunnel because the person getting unhooked receives a buff that prevents getting down in one hit, Empathy allows you to see injured survivors at an insane range, and finally, We’ll Make It increases your healing speed by 100% when you unhook someone.
Noticeably missing from this build is We’re Gonna Live Forever. The reason for this is simple, We’re Gonna Live Forever only gives you bloodpoints and serves no other purpose, not exactly “altruistic”.
Gen Rushing Survivor Build
- Prove Thyself
- Bond (Can be swapped out for Better Together)
- Dark Sense
- Spine Chill
When it comes to generator rushing in Dead by Daylight you need to have one thing: information.
You need to know where the killer is and where your teammates are. Prove Thyself negates the efficiency reduction of multiple survivors on one generator so being able to see where your teammates are is critical, which is why we have Bond.
Dark Sense can show you whether or not a killer is coming towards you and whether or not an area is safe to go to.
Spine Chill is mainly for stealth killers that can make doing generators in certain areas extremely dangerous. With Spine Chill, you can tell if a killer is looking in your direction or not.
And that is the gen rushing build for survivors.
It is certainly annoying to be gen rushed if you are playing killer, but hey, if you are gonna do it, at least do it right.
Meta Survivor Build
- Adrenaline
- Decisive Strike
- Balanced Landing
- Dead Hard
These are THE meta perks in Dead by Daylight right now.
Balanced Landing is about to receive a massive nerf so it won’t be meta for much longer but every other perk is here to stay, especially Decisive Strike.
Decisive Strike is by far the strongest survivor perk in the game. Even rank-one killers find it to be intimidating and considering there is little you can do to counter it (a survivor can just run in a locker or get picked up if you slug) anyone not running DS is playing at a disadvantage.
Unbreakable and Dead Hard are two honorable mentions. Just watch the gif and you’ll see why.
Stealth Survivor Build
- Iron Will
- Urban Evasion
- Quick and Quiet
- Dance With Me
For those survivors that want to only stealth around the map, this stealth survivor build is for you.
Iron Will makes your grunts of pains completely silent, making it extremely hard for killers to track you by sound.
Urban Evasion makes you move quicker while crouching, meaning no scratch marks.
Quick and Quiet makes vaulting while sprinting or entering a locker make no noise and not alert the killer.
Dance With Me causes you to create no scratch marks after vaulting or exiting a locker. This synergizes so well with QaQ and Iron Will.
Basically, the killer can’t track you by sound or sight with this build. Making you a legit ninja survivor.
Solo Survivor Build
- Spine Chill
- Kindred
- Lithe (Sprint Burst/ Dead Hard / Any Exhaustion Perk)
- Decisive Strike
For those of you who need a solo survivor build, this is it.
Spine Chill for stealth, Kindred for information, Lithe for escape, DS for tunneling killers.
This build has everything you need.
You might want to swap in leadership or bond, depending on whether you have map awareness (if not choose bond) or if you want to gen-rush (if so choose leadership). Otherwise, this is a rather solid build for solo survivors.
Anti-Stealth Survivor Build
- Spine Chill
- Kindred
- Deja Vu (Object of Obsession if you are in an SWF or are crazy)
- Premonition
Having trouble with stealth killers as a survivor? This survivor anti-stealth build will make sure no killer can sneak up on you.
Spine Chill will tell you if you are being looked at, while Premonition will tell you from which direction.
Kindred reveals the aura of the killer and survivors if anyone is hooked. Not kidding either, anyone who is hooked gets this now because of the new buff, it is super good.
Deja Vu will reveal the aura of the killer once a generator is completed. Seriously, the killer cannot hide with this.
Never Get Hooked Build (Kinda a Meme)
- No Mither
- Boil Over
- Flip-flop
- Tenacity
This is a meme survivor build that revolves around never getting hooked. Your goal is to make the killer absolutely hate picking you up and teach him that you are the one they should be afraid of, not the other way around.
No Mither makes you injured the entire match but allows you to pick yourself up as many times as you want AND reduces the noise you make on the ground.
Boil Over increases your wiggle effect on the killer and hides the auras of nearby hooks.
Flip-Flop converts some of your recovery time into wiggle percentage.
Tenacity allows you to crawl while recovering and you crawl 50% faster.
You can probably see why this is so good. Tenacity and Flip-Flop make the killer want to pick you up as quickly as they can, but Boil Over makes it harder for them to grasp you and increases your chance to wiggle free.
The reason No Mither is here and Unbreakable isn’t is because of what would happen if the killer realizes they can’t hook you. With Unbreakable you can only pull this trick once and the killer will just slug you, leaving you to bleed out. With No Mither, you can do it an unlimited amount of times.
So even if the killer wanted to just leave you on the ground, he can’t. You will eventually get up.
Confuse the Killer Build
- Lithe
- Dance With Me
- Urban Evasion
- Quick and Quiet
This is much like the stealth build but focuses more on confusing the killer.
Lithe gives you a speed boost when you vault and because Dance With Me makes you leave no scratch marks and Quick and Quiet prevents the auditory noise from vaulting, you can juke the crap out of killers.
Honestly, this is a god-tier juke survivor build.
Why are Certain Perks Meta in Dead by Daylight?
Certain perks are meta because they are strong and have few counters. Decisive Strike being a great example.
DS allows you to stun the killer if they pick you up within the sixty seconds after being unhooked. Almost every high ranked survivor has this perk and it makes even the best killers anxious. For good reason.
Survivors with DS can waste a lot of time and be bolder than normal because they know they have a “get out of jail free card”. Sixty seconds is a lot of time in DBD so having nigh invulnerability for that long is super strong.
Another great example is Adrenaline. Adrenaline heals a survivor one health state once the exit gates are powered and give them a free Sprint Burst while also ignoring the exhausted effect (so you can Dead Hard or Sprint Burst and still get the bonus speed from Adrenaline).
Because this can heal survivors from the dying state it makes slugging with only one generator left super risky. Pair this with DS (where the killer has to slug) and you get a combo that leaves the killer with little to do.
In essence, a meta perk changes the game flow and forces the opponent to play in a specific way that isn’t optimal. Aka DS forces slugs, Adrenaline forces hooks, etc.
Why Not Use Dead Hard, Sprint Burst, Lithe, and Balanced Landing?
Simple, Exhaustion perks suck when stacked together. The only exception being Balanced Landing and Dead Hard because you can choose when to use them.
If you are exhausted in Dead by Daylight it means you can no longer perform certain perk actions like Sprint Burst. So if you Sprint Burst while injured you cannot use your Dead Hard until the exhausted effect is over, which is usually sixty seconds (sprinting pauses cooldown).
Best Survivor Perks Ranked
Now let us rank the best survivor perks in the game.
1. Decisive Strike
2. Adrenaline
3. Balanced Landing (Not for Long)
4. Spine Chill
5. Dead Hard
6. Sprint Burst
7. Lithe
8. Deliverance
9. Borrowed Time
10. Unbreakable
