Dead By Daylight Best Survivor Build (February 2023)

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With a slew of different Dead by Daylight Killers to face, it’s not always easy to create the best Survivor build. Plus, if you aren’t playing with friends, you don’t even know what Killer you will meet in the Trial. Because of that, it helps to come up with different builds to work with different situations. We’ll highlight some of these versatile builds to work with your Survivor and your play style.

Best Survivor Build in Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight offers more than 30 General Perks and dozens of Unique Perks for Survivors. So, it’s no question that if you have access to them all, you may hesitate in creating that perfect build. An easy way to get around that is to focus on how you want to play the game.

Are you more interested in helping out the team or focusing on your own survival? Eager to run and loop the Killer, or is stealth the way to go? Once you figure out the type of Dead by Daylight Survivor you want to be, you can work on crafting the best build.

We’ll break things down into the following categories:

General Meta Build
Solo Survivor Build
Team Player Build
Stealth Build
Locker Build
Runner Build
Totem Hunter Build

Best Survivor Build – General Meta

When we think about a General Meta Build, we consider something that is more well-rounded. This can help you adapt to different Killers, keep yourself alive, and assist teammates. It’s kind of like the “jack of all trades” build if you’re just learning the ropes.

To create the best General Survivor build in Dead by Daylight, try these perks:

Dead Hard (David King): Press the Active Ability button when injured and while running. You’ll gain Endurance for 0.5 seconds.
Off the Record (Zarina Kassir): Once you’re unhooked, this activates for 60/70/80 seconds, and you get the Endurance status effect. Grunts of Pain are suppressed and the Killer cannot detect your aura.
Boon: Circle of Healing (Mikaela Reid): Bless a Dull or Hex Totem to activate it. Soft chimes will ring out within a 24-meter radius, and Survivors within the range have an increased healing speed by 40/45/50%. Additionally, it unlocks the ability to self-heal without a Med-Kit at 50% of the normal healing rate.
Borrowed Time (Bill Overbeck): Survivors you unhook have extended Endurance for 6/8/10 seconds and Haste for 10 seconds.

Best Survivor Build – Solo Survivor

Sometimes, the most important person in the game is you. So, you’ll need the best Survivor build to get through Dead by Daylight all on your own. These perks come in handy for solo Survivors:

Unbreakable (Bill Overbeck): Once per Trial, you can recover from being downed by yourself. Recovery speed increases by 25/30/35%.
Iron Will (Jake Park): While injured, reduces the volume of Grunts of Pain by 25/50/75%.
Deliverance (Adam Francis): Activates once you unhook a Survivor. With it, you have a 100% chance of escaping your first hook state via a self-unhook. The Broken effect will then activate for 100/80/60 seconds.
Self-Care (Claudette Morel): Allows you to self-heal without a Med-Kit at 25/30/35% of the normal healing speed.

Best Survivor Build in Dead by Daylight – Team Player

Going into a Trial with your teammates in mind can help everyone escape. If you want a Team Player Survivor build, then bring these perks with you:

We’re Gonna Live Forever (David King): Healing speed increases 100% when healing a dying Survivor. This also gains 1 Token that you can give to another Survivor healed from the dying state to grant them Endurance for 6/8/10 seconds. Do one of these to get the Token:
- Take a hit for an injured Survivor
- Blind or Stun a Killer carrying a Survivor
- Rescue a Survivor off a hook
Kindred (General): When hooked, the auras of other Survivors are revealed to each other. The aura of the Killer is revealed to everyone if they are within 8/12/16 meters of your hook.
Prove Thyself (Dwight Fairfield): Repair speed increases +15% for each Survivor within 4 meters of you. This also grants 50/75/100% bonus Bloodpoints for cooperative actions.
Empathy (Claudette Morel): Reveals the auras of Survivors injured or downed within 64/96/128 meters of you.

Best Survivor Build – Stealth

You can’t always hide from Killers like you used to when the game first launched. However, you can still create the best Stealth Survivor build to keep yourself safe during the Dead by Daylight Trial:

Dance With Me (Kate Denson): You won’t leave Scratch Marks for 3 seconds when you rush to vault a Window, Pallet, or Locker.
Quick & Quiet (Meg Thomas): Suppresses the loud noise notification when you rush to vault a Pallet, Window, or Locker.
Urban Evasion (Nea Karlsson): Crouching movement speed increases by 90/95/100%.
Lucky Break (Yui Kimura): Activates when you’re injured. It suppresses blood and Scratch Marks for 40/50/60 seconds. For every second spent healing a Survivor, the ability recharges by 1 second.

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Best Survivor Build in Dead by Daylight – Locker

Now it’s time to play around with the Killer. Additionally, this build should keep you from going down if you play it right:

Head On (Jane Romero): Activates when in a Locker for 3 seconds. When you rush to leave, you can stun the Killer for 3 seconds if they’re in range. It will cause an Exhausted effect for 60/50/40 seconds.
Parental Guidance (Yoichi Asakawa): When you stun a Killer, your Scratch Marks, blood, and Grunts of Pain are suppressed for 5/6/7 seconds.
Inner Healing (General): Activates when you cleanse a Totem. You are healed 1 health state when hiding in a Locker for 10/9/8 seconds.
Deception (Élodie Rakoto): If you hold Sprint while interacting with a Locker, you won’t enter the Locker. However, the doors swing and close shut, triggering a loud noise notification. Also, this suppresses Scratch Marks and blood for 3 seconds.

Best Survivor Build in Dead by Daylight – Runner

If you are the type of Survivor that loves to run the Killer, then this build is for you. Not only does it keep you safe, but it distracts the Killer from the rest of your team by keeping them busy:

Windows of Opportunity (Kate Denson): Reveals auras of breakable walls, windows, and pallets within 24/28/32 meters.
Spine Chill (General): Activates once a Killer is within 36 meters of you. Also reveals the intensity of a Terror Radius if it is present. If a Killer is looking at you and within range, you receive a 2/4/6% increase in repairing, healing, sabotaging, unhooking, unlocking, opening, cleansing, and blessing.
Dead Hard (David King): Can use it when you are injured. Hit your Active Ability button while running to receive Endurance for 0.5 seconds.
Decisive Strike (Laurie Strode): When you are unhooked, this activates for 40/50/60 seconds. Succeed a skill check if you’re grabbed or picked up by the Killer to escape and stun them for 3 seconds. This is disabled for the rest of the Trial after successful use, and you become the Obsession.

Best Survivor Build – Totem Hunter

So, you’re the Dead by Daylight Survivor that needs a Totem-based build? Maybe you want to hunt them down to help as well as annoy the Killer? If so, try out this build:

Counterforce (Jill Valentine): Cleanse Totems 20% faster. Per cleansed Totem, you can gain a stackable cleansing speed of 20%. Once you cleanse a Totem, a Totem furthest from you reveals its aura for 2/3/4 seconds.
Detective’s Hunch (David Tapp): When a Generator is completed, the auras of other Generators, Totems, and Chests within 32/48/64 meters highlight for 10 seconds. If you have a Map, objects revealed are automatically tracked.
Small Game (General): Receive a noise warning when you look in the direction of a Totem in a 45-degree cone within 8/10/12 meters. When you cleanse a Totem, this ability receives 1 Token. Each Token decreases the size of the cone’s angle by 5 degrees, reaching as low as 20 degrees.
Lithe (Feng Min): When you perform a rushed vault, you will sprint 150% your normal running movement speed for 3 seconds. It will then cause Exhausted for 60/50/40 seconds.

And those are some of the fun Survivor builds you can run in Dead by Daylight. Feel free to tweak your play style to adapt to different Killers, teams, and maps to see what you enjoy running the most.

Dead by Daylight is available on PS5 and PS4 systems, Xbox One and Series systems, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS, and Android.