With the best perks to help Survivors escape the determined Killers in Dead by Daylight, you can quickly advance from a beginner to an escape artist. If you're looking to improve your skills, check out our best Survivor builds in Dead by Daylight below.
Best DBD Survivor Perk Builds
Whether playing solo or with friends, these Survivor builds will help you stay alive longer, counter some of the Killer's best perks, and have some fun. Here's a list of the best Survivor builds in Dead by Daylight.
Beginner Survivor Build
You won't have a lot of bloodpoints to level Survivors and get all of their teachable perks when you first start playing DBD. While you get to work on leveling your first characters (Bill and Nea, for me), you'll mostly be using non-teachable perks. There aren't many, even less so with the reintroduction of the Stranger Things DLC back into the game, but here is a build of the most useful ones.
- Kindred
- We'll Make It
- Dark Sense
- Resilience
You shouldn't be going anywhere without Kindred in the beginning, especially if you are in a solo queue. If you're hooked, other Survivors will get information on the whereabouts of both each other and the Killer. If someone else is hooked, you'll be the one getting all of this information. It's extremely useful in both cases.
Dark Sense is another information perk that tracks the Killer, which will activate five times if you manage to fix all five generators. Combined with Kindred, you will have great, consistent information on where everyone else is.
We'll Make It increases your Altruistic healing speed for a duration of time while healing a teammate who's just been unhooked. Resilience increases the speed of all actions (repairing, healing, cleansing, sabotaging, etc.) by a percentage when injured. These two are good speed-increase perks that will help you learn to play on a team as well as help you get over the fear of staying injured.
Base Game Survivor Build
Lucky for all beginners, some of the best DBD Survivors are part of the base game. I would suggest leveling Meg first, as two of her three perks are very useful and part of this build.
- Adrenaline
- Sprint Burst
- Kindred
- Unbreakable
Adrenaline is one of the best perks in Dead by Daylight. Even after 600 hours of being a Survivor main, I still feel vulnerable if I play without it. Apart from healing you by one health state, I love it when the speed boost is perfectly timed to avoid getting hit by the Killer.
Sprint Burst is the second Meg perk in this build, providing you with a speed boost to escape the Killers. Be mindful that you will have to go around walking most of the time since using the Sprint Burst causes the Exhaustion Status effect. You want to make sure you have this perk for when you need it the most.
Kindred provides great information on the Survivor and Killer auras for both you and your teammates, depending on who is hooked. Unbreakable lets you recover from the Dying state once per trial and increases your recovery speed. This perk is especially useful if the Killer is slugging or the other Survivors distract them while you try to get up.
The All-Rounder Survivor Build
Specific builds that focus on stuff like healing, sabo, anti-tunneling, looping, and others are fun, but sometimes you just need a good kit that will be useful in every trial you join. You need to combine perks that will protect you while also protecting your teammates.
- For The People
- Off The Record
- Adrenaline
- Reassurance
For The People and Reassurance are the two perks that focus on protecting others. For the People heals a Survivor one health state instantly, at the cost of you becoming Broken, so you need to be mindful of that.
Reassurance, on the other hand, will pause the Struggling phase of the Survivor for a duration of time if you activate it within the range of the hook. This gives your team enough time to complete more gens or devise a plan to save the Survivor on the hook.
While you have your teammates covered, you need to protect yourself, too, and Off The Record and Adrenaline are the best perks for that. Off The Record activates when you are unhooked, hiding your Aura, reducing the volume of your grunts, and giving you the Endurance Status effect to take one extra hit.
Adrenaline is for the endgame, healing you one health state and giving you a speed boost. These both should help you survive long enough to reach a gate and escape the fog.
You Can't See Me, You Can't Hear Me Survivor Build
- Distortion
- Light-Footed
- Iron Will
- Adrenaline
The Killer meta in Dead by Daylight is focused on aura reading and information perks. Distortion is a must-have on a stealthy build. It will disrupt the Killer's attempts to read your aura three times. If you're familiar with Killer perks, you could find out which information perks they have and adjust your gameplay to it.
Light-Footed is a great perk that suppresses the sound of running, meaning you can stay hidden throughout the match while moving fast. Combined with the speed boost you get from Adrenaline, with some quick thinking, you should be able to lose the Killer in an endgame chase.
Finally, Iron Will reduces the volume of pained grunts when injured, adding to this build's noise suppression and overall stealth.
Altruism Survivor Build
As a Bill main, my strategy in a match consists of helping others as much as possible and getting left for dead. If you're like me and want to help your teammates escape, then this is the build for you.
- For The People
- Buckle Up
- We'll Make It
- Empathy
With For The People, you can instantly heal a Survivor one health state and then gain the Broken Status effect. Combined with Buckle Up, which gives both you and the healed Survivor the Endurance Status effect, it means that you won't be going down from the first hit.
In cases where you don't need to heal someone instantly, We'll Make It is the perfect perk. It increases your altruism healing speed by 100% when you unhook someone.
And lastly, if you're going to be healing people, you need to know where the injured Survivors are, especially if you're not on comms. Empathy comes in handy here by revealing the Auras of all injured Survivors to you within a very large range.
Caving in the Tunnels Survivor Build
Some Killers really love to tunnel only one Survivor until they kill them. This isn't a fun strategy, especially for the Survivor that is being targeted, so here are some perks that you can bring in to avoid this.
- Off The Record
- Dead Hard
- Adrenaline
- Decisive Strike
Once you are unhooked, Off the Record activates. It hides your aura from the Killer, suppresses your grunts of pain, and provides you with the Endurance status effect, which means you can take a hit and not go down. If the Killer is still going after you, the other perks in this build will come in handy.
Dead Hard, if you time it correctly, will also grant you the Endurance status effect, giving you another chance to stay alive. Adrenaline is the endgame second chance at life, healing you one health state and giving you more time to make it to the gates your teammates are hopefully opening.
If you do get downed, you will channel Laurie Strode with Decisive Strike to become the final girl. Just make sure you hit that skill check, and you'll stun the Killer, giving you some time to escape.
Locker Dweller Survivor Build
If the lockers are your natural habitat, just like Dwight's, then you can make very good use of them with the following build.
- Quick & Quiet
- Inner Strength
- Flashbang
- Head On
Quick & Quiet is essential to this build, as it suppresses the loud noise notification when you perform a rushed action, like entering a locker. You'll be doing a lot of that in this one. Inner Strength is a good healing perk to have on hand by cleansing a totem. It activates by simply entering a locker.
While the previous perks are very useful, the locker build can also become very fun with Flashbang and Head On. Flashbang allows you to create a flash grenade in the locker, which you can use to stun the Killer, while Head On lets you stun the Killer by hitting them with the door when rushing out. The timing is tricky, but the stuns can work perfectly in your favor. This build also works to annoy the Killer, so keep in mind that you might get tunneled and camped for it.
Explore the dark side and enjoy the perks of being a Killer, with the Dead by Daylight Killer Perk Tier List.
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Best Survivor Builds in Dead by Daylight
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