The Best Nemesis Builds in Dead by Daylight

Resident Evil fans understand the terror when Nemesis arrives on the scene. Ever since The Nemesis fell into the Fog, Dead by Daylight players have felt a similar sense of dread. Figuring out the best build to run on this unique killer can be tricky, however. Between his tentacle attack, Contamination, and zombies, Nemesis has a lot going on, and only certain loadouts work well with his unique strengths and weaknesses. With the right perks equipped, however, you’ll make Leon wish he were back in Raccoon City. Here are the best Nemesis builds in Dead by Daylight.

Best Builds for The Nemesis in Dead by Daylight

(Updated on November 4, 2024 – updated builds and format)

Nemesis brings several abilities to Dead by Daylight, thanks to the T-Virus. His first power is a Tentacle Strike that spreads Contamination to survivors. When you’ve raised your Mutation Rate enough by striking survivors or zombies, your Tentacle can break walls and pallets. Striking a Contaminated Survivor with your tentacle a second time injures them. Two zombies also spawn with The Nemesis at the start of the Trial. They can injure Survivors, and The Nemesis can destroy them to gain a Contamination point. They’ll respawn elsewhere after 12 seconds.

Best Basic Perk Build for The Nemesis

Unlike most of the best Nemesis builds in Dead by Daylight, this one works without the other Chapter DLCs. Instead, you can use the unique perks from The Nemesis alongside General perks. Rather than specialize in one area, this build offers a mix of information, gen regression, and lethality. It’s a good starting point while you learn a new killer, but even once you have more experience it will serve you well.

• Lethal Pursuer (The Nemesis): Reveals the Auras of Survivors at the start of the Trial for 9 seconds. It also extends the duration of timed Aura reveals by +2 seconds.
• Eruption (The Nemesis): Damaging a generator highlights its Aura in yellow. Affected Generators explode and regress when a survivor enters the dying state, instantly losing 10% of their max progression. Any Survivors repairing those Generators will scream and reveal their Aura for 12 seconds. Eruption has a cooldown of 30 seconds.
• Bitter Murmur (General): Each time a generator is completed, the auras of all survivors within 16 meters of that generator are revealed to you for 5 seconds. When the last generator is completed, the auras of all survivors are revealed to you for 10 seconds.
• Hex: No One Escapes Death (General): Activates if there’s a Dull Totem and the Exit Gates are powered. Survivors are exposed, and your movement speed increases by 4%.

Lethal Pursuer ensures you find Survivors fast at the start, and it also extends the duration of Bitter Murmur auras. That combo means you’ll have good info on survivors’ whereabouts throughout the Trial. Eruption allows you to regress generators and provides some additional information on the side. Last, NOED gives you a speed boost and insta-downs at the end of the Trial, which pairs wonderfully with the end-game info you’ll get. If you want some speedy zombies to help you out, consider using the Shattered S.T.A.R.S. Badge and Depleted Ink Ribbon add-ons.

Best All Perk Builds for The Nemesis

Once you have multiple Chapter DLCs, you can play around with different perks. The more perks you have, the more Nemesis playstyles you can experiment with. The more experience you have with the killer, the more you’ll appreciate his unique strengths, weaknesses, and counterplay as well. If you want to use one of the strongest meta builds available to crush your opponents, the following is a great option:

• Corrupt Intervention (The Plague): Blocks the three generators farthest from you at the start of the Trial for 120 seconds. Generators become unblocked when a survivor enters the Dying state.
• Deadlock (The Cenobite): Whenever a generator is completed, The Entity blocks the generator with the most progress for 25 seconds. It also reveals its aura to you.
• Grim Embrace (The Artist): Each time a survivor is hooked for the first time, Grim Embrace gains a token and activates once you are at least 16m from the Hook. At 1-3 tokens it blocks all generators for 10 seconds. At 4 tokens it blocks all generators for 40 seconds and reveals the Aura of the Obsession to you for 6 seconds.
• No Way Out (The Trickster): For each survivor you hook for the first time, No Way Out gains 1 token. When a survivor interacts with an Exit Gate Switch, you receive a Loud Noise Notification and the Entity blocks both Exit Gate Switches for 12 seconds and an additional 12 seconds per token up to a combined maximum of 60 seconds.

Corrupt Intervention is arguably the best killer perk in the game, preventing survivors from slamming generators before you can get to them. Deadlock helps you carry that delay through the entire Trial by preventing multiple generators from popping at once. Grim Embrace doubles down on that delay, locking things down with every unique hook. Last, No Way Out traps the survivors inside at the end of the game, letting you finish them off or make a last-minute comeback. If you want to power up your mutation rate quicker, try using the Marvin’s Blood and T-Virus Sample add-ons.

Best Gen Control Build for The Nemesis

Generators are at the heart of every Trial. That’s why the best Nemesis builds have something in common with the best Chucky builds in Dead by Daylight. This powerful build features a mixture of regression, slowdown, and tracking to make sure that the survivors make as little progress as possible. Even great survivors will struggle to accomplish their objectives when you bring a build like this one to the Fog.

• Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist): Hooking each survivor on a Scourge Hook for the first time causes the generator with the most progression to explode and instantly regress by 20% of its maximum possible progression.
• Hex: Ruin (The Hag): Any generator not being repaired automatically begins to regress its repair process at 100% of the normal regression speed. Once any survivor is killed, Ruin deactivates.
• Hex: Pentimento (The Artist): Allows you to rekindle broken totems, granting buffs for each one rekindled, reducing the speed of the following activities: repairing generators, healing, recovering from being downed, and opening the exit gates. If you light all five, these effects become permanent.
• Discordance (The Legion): Any generator within 128 meters that is being repaired by 2 or more survivors is marked by a yellow aura and triggers a Loud Noise Notification.

Pain Resonance offers fantastic regression with minimal effort since you won’t have to cross the map to kick gens. Discordance ensures you always know which generator to focus on next, and Ruin does the work of regressing it for you as soon as you chase survivors away. Pentimento allows you to substitute the regression of Ruin for a nasty slowdown effect, and it only gets stronger if survivors do more bones. Pair these perks with Marvin’s Blood and the Broken Recovery Coin to see Nemesis at his best.