These are the best Survivor perks you want to include in your build to maximize your chances of Survival in DBD!
There are many Survivor perks available in Dead By Daylight. Most of them can be unlocked by leveling up or the Shrine of Secrets. Few require DLC-only characters that must be paid for with cold, hard cash. The sheer number of perks makes it difficult to determine which ones are the best that you currently possess. Some perks require a lot of learning to use efficiently. Others are more useful when combined with other perks and items. Some are passives that don’t require any skill input.
The meta is also very volatile, with occasional buffs/nerfs being given to certain perks and new perks added with every new Survivor after a new chapter of the game hits the live server. This can seem overwhelming to those who are not familiar with the many perks offered by Dead By Daylight. We’ve done the research and ranked them. This is a list of the 10 most useful Survivor perks for any situation you will find yourself in during a match.
1. Off the Record – Zarina Kassir
Off the Record quickly became one of the best Survivor perks in the whole DBD after the huge perk rebalances patch, a must-have for any build. After being unhooked (or unhooking yourself), Off the Record activates for 80 seconds. It prevents the Killer from reading your aura, your grunts of pain become completely silent, and the next hit that would down you is prevented. This effect only ends when exit gates become powered, or you perform a conspicuous action like repairing gen, cleansing totems, or healing someone.
2. Deliverance – Adam Francis
Another great if underused perk! After performing a safe hook rescue, your own escape from the hook is 100% guaranteed. This leaves you broken for 60 seconds after your escape. Always remember! Wait to use Deliverance good 20-30 seconds after the Killer leaves the hook, otherwise, he might come back and “tunnel” you. And if he is camping, then wait full 50-60 seconds, and unhook just before hitting stage 2 to waste his time and maximize your chances of a win.
3. Adrenaline – Meg Thomas
Adrenaline activates automatically when exit gates become powered, granting you 5 seconds of 150% movement speed, while also healing you for one health state. This can pick you up from a dying state, give you a chance to escape when the Killer is closing in on you, and in general, is very powerful.
4. Prove Thyself – Dwight Fairfield
It is generally a good idea to stay with at least one other Survivor to accomplish objectives. Unlike you are playing against someone like the Plague or Legion, who can easily punish grouping. Prove Thyself, a passive perk that activates when you are repairing a generator with at least one other Survivor is a great option for cases just like this one. It does not have a cool-down so you can use it many times during a match to gen-rush (quickly fix as many generators as possible in as little time as possible). Best of all: It stacks with your toolboxes and other Prove Thyselves!
5. Boon: Circle of Healing – Mikaela Reid
You can’t go wrong with being able to heal yourself and your fellow Survivors faster. This is where Circle of Healing comes in handy. This perk allows you to set up a “healing zone” with a remarkable range. Just bless some dull totem around the map and poof. Healing speeds are now 75% better! Moreover, it easily surpasses Self-Care in usefullness. Because if you don’t have any buddies around to heal you, you can heal yourself in your “zones”! It has no cool down at all. Just find a dull totem and bless it. Then when Killer stomps it out, you can rekindle it in a flash!
6. Sprint Burst – Meg Thomas
Sprint Burst, similarly to Dead Hard is a useful tool in your Survivor arsenal to use when being chased down by the Killer. Sprint Burst grants you a 150% of your normal sprinting speed as soon as you start running. This can be very useful for gaining distance when the Killer surprises you with a sneak attack via his power or perks. It allows you to quickly reach a palette or a window unharmed in situations where without you would just get hit for sure. And unlike Dead Hard, you don’t have to time it! Just save it up by walking instead of running at the beginning of a match.
7. Unbreakable – William “Bill” Overbeck
Unbreakable is a unique and effective way to counter a Killer who is constantly putting Survivors into dying state and not picking them up. A tactic known as “slugging”. It allows you to completely pick yourself up from the ground once per match. You also recover 35% faster on the ground. It deactivates when you use it in the current match. But its power lies in game knowledge.
For example, you don’t have to pick yourself up. You can quite literally 99% your recovery bar 35% faster thanks to the perk, and then wait for someone to finish your recovery. Which is huge in its own right. If no other option remains, you should pick up yourself though.
But best of all, the perk works even when you are not using it at all! Many Killers are afraid to leave anyone down on the ground and chase other Survivors just because Unbreakable exists. And in the back of any Killers mind is the though that they can lose an easy hook if they commit to something else.
8. Kindred – General Survivor Perk
Kindred is one of those perks that is not too powerful, but as soon as you take it off you will miss having this basic information. This perk allows you to instantly tell if a Killer intends to camp someone he just hooked. As it shows the Killer aura whenever he is 16 meters away from the hook or closer. It also shows you the auras of all your teammates, which lets you know if anyone is going for the rescue and you can keep repairing the gen.
Best of all, if you are the one who ends up being hooked, you reveal that exact information to everyone else. So they can then decide who should go for the rescue. And it also lets them know if you are currently being camped or not.
9. Dead Hard – David King
What was once one of the best Survivor perks in DBD, seen in every single build… is still pretty strong tbh. Dead Hard allows you to “dodge” in the direction you are going at the time of pressing the active ability button. You gain invulnerability from Killer’s attacks for an extremely short time, so you can dash right through their attack. You must wait for the cooldown to activate it. However, it can be extremely useful in leaving the Killer eating your dust if it is timed correctly.
10. Decisive Strike – Laurie Strode
Similarly to Dead Hard, DS was one of the best Survivor perks in DBD, seen in every single build, now? Not so much. Decisive Strike is one of the more difficult perks to use, but it has a huge payoff. It can be very unpredictable. If you escape the hook, and the Killer picks you up again. A very difficult skill-check activates which upon success stuns him and allows you to run away. Although it can only be used once per match this is the best ways to prevent the Killer “tunneling” a Survivor into death early. If you are the unfortunate soul that is constantly targeted by the Killer, decisive strike might just buy you enough time to survive until the exit gates open up!
This is all you need to know regarding the best Survivor perks available in Dead by Daylight. Keep checking back to see when your build can be improved. As the DBD meta is a constantly changing one.
That’s it for our DBD Best Survivor Perks tier list and build. Check out some of our other content about Dead By Daylight right here.
