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The Entity is hungry, and persevering for even a single Trial can be daunting. You never know which killer you’re going to face, and with a roster containing everyone from Freddy Krueger to Resident Evil‘s Nemesis, that makes strategizing difficult. Balancing generator repairs and other tasks can be rough even with a SWF. With the right advice, however, you might survive. So pick your perks and throw on your darkest cosmetic, because we’re going back into the Fog. Here are 10 Dead by Daylight survivor tips and tricks I wish I had known sooner.
10. Use Lockers
(Updated on November 14, 2024 – updated entries, links, and formatting)
No, I don’t mean hide all game and hope for hatch. I mean if you’re going to be downed by the killer anyway, jump in a locker. Forcing them to grab you from a locker wastes their time, preventing them from slugging you as easily. Jumping in a locker will also prevent Myers from using his Tombstone add-ons, prevent Surge from triggering, delay Pain Resonance, and force Oni out of his power, as well as other situational effects. If you time it well, you can even escape a tantruming Bubba by jumping out at the last second.
9. Prioritize Generators Over Chests and Totems
I know it’s tempting to go fishing for free medkits in the basement, but it’s a terrible idea, and not just because the killer might catch you. Even if you don’t get caught, opening chests wastes time you could spent repairing generators. Invocations often do the same.
There’s a time and a place for opening chests and cleansing totems, but in most situations, you should prioritize generator repairs. If you open every chest and cleanse every totem but fail to repair the final generator, you’re still going to die, unless you get lucky with hatch.
8. Break 3-Gens
Even with the anti-3-gen mechanic, it’s far easier for the killer to defend the last three generators if they’re close together. That means breaking obvious 3-gens is a top priority for survivors. Even for Blight, holding three generators on opposite corners of the map can be difficult. Deja Vu is an excellent perk for this reason, since it automatically highlights the closest three generators for you, allowing you to focus on breaking the 3-gen right away. It also helps to learn the maps, since some sections (such as the gallows area of Dead Dawg) often spawn 3-gens.
7. Don’t Heal Unless You’re in Immediate Danger
Unless you’re dead on hook or it’s extremely convenient, don’t heal when you’re not in danger. Most of the time, you’re better off making generator progress than you are healing. That’s especially true if you don’t have a medkit or you’re facing a killer such as Legion who is likely to injure you again anyway. If you just cleansed a totem and you want to heal in 6 seconds with Inner Healing, go for it, but there’s a reason that using Self-Care in a corner is a meme. Saving time in Dead by Daylight always ranks amongst the best survivor tips.
6. Learn the Maps
You don’t have to know the comp clock system to use maps to your advantage. The better you learn each map, the better you can evade the killer, extend chases, and avoid game-ending 3-gens. Most maps also have gimmicks that perceptive survivors can use to their advantage. Knowing that the gallows’s trapdoor on Dead Dawg Saloon opens when you finish the generator can save your life. So can knowing that the flickering lights in Lery’s Memorial Institute mark rooms containing unfinished gens. Know your surroundings.
5. Take Aggro
Hit tank, body block, and draw aggro for survivors on death hook. Even if you’re bad in chase, it’s better to distract the killer and get hooked, giving your teammates time to escape and reset, than it is for a survivor to die.
If you haven’t been hooked, and the killer is chasing a survivor on death hook, do whatever it takes to keep them alive (without throwing the game). Unless you’re about to pop the final gen, it’s a 2v1, or it’s an insta-down killer, this is always helpful.
4. Bring Kindred for Solo Queue
Kindred is an invaluable perk if you’re playing solo queue. Although the HUD gives you valuable information regarding chases and the state of generator repairs, it doesn’t tell you everything. Kindred will give you valuable intel on the killer’s whereabouts that will make unhook scenarios much easier, especially against killers like Huntress. Better yet, it shows survivors the auras of their teammates when you get hooked, ensuring that all three randoms in your lobby don’t blitz the hook at the same time.
3. Diversify Your Build
Everyone wants to last longer in chase, but at a certain point, bringing chase perks does more harm than good. Perks like Sprint Burst, Dead Hard, Resilience, and Decisive Strike are great, but if they’re the only thing you have in your loadout, you have a problem. Without perks to give you and your team info, speed up heals, and otherwise help, you’re a one-trick pony. Kindred, Deja Vu, and other info perks can be great in solo queue as well as SWF, so take a second look at your loadout before committing.
2. Draw the Killer Away
When possible, draw the killer away from the team’s objective. If two of your teammates are working on the last gen together at the top of the map, attract the killer’s attention and run them toward the bottom. Whether it’s an exit gate that needs to be opened or a survivor on death hook who needs to heal, there’s always something you need to keep the killer away from. Identify your team’s most valuable objective, and do everything you can to keep the killer far from it. If that means you run into a literal corner to die and buy time, so be it.
1. Split Up On Gens
You’ll finish generators faster if you team up with other survivors, but doing so is a bad idea. Not only can the killer spot you with Discordance, but each participating survivor only works at a fraction of their normal speed due to penalties. Here’s how those penalties look:
- Two Survivors– -15% repair speed
- Three Survivors – -30% repair speed
- Four Survivors -45% repair speed
Splitting up is almost always the right call, as doing so will also prevent the killer from chasing multiple survivors at once. That’s why splitting up on gens is always one of the best survivor tips in Dead by Daylight. Unless you’re trying to break a tough 3-gen or finish the final generator, do generators by yourself.
