Dead By Daylight - Top 5 Killer Perks for Beginners

Several months ago, I wrote a piece about five perks I think are ideal for Survivor beginners in Dead By Daylight. These perks may not be the best perks overall, but in terms of being ‘noob-friendly’, they were solid choices for those still learning the game. With that article in mind, I decided to tackle the same idea but with Killers instead, so without further ado, here are five Killer perks I feel are well-suited for newcomers. Following some feedback from my last list, none of the perks listed here will require any DLC and are universal perks for all killers.

Bitter Murmur

An issue with new killers is often that successfully finding survivors can be the tricky part, as opposed to actually killing them. Bitter Murmur makes this step a bit easier by revealing any Survivors to you who are within 16 meters of a completed generator for five seconds after its completion. On top of this, all survivor aura’s are revealed for 5-10 seconds upon the last generator being completed This helps give Killers a rough idea of which direction the Survivor went in, as well as if they are trying to hide nearby the generator itself to throw you off. A solid choice to aid in tracking when you’re new to the game.

Iron Grasp

A perk that is used at high-levels, but also offers great aid to those still getting used to the game, Iron Grasp reduces the effectiveness of struggling when carrying a Survivor by 25%-75%, as well as increasing the overall time to wiggle out by 4%-12%. The effectiveness of struggling refers to the jerky, side-to-side movement impairment you receive when carrying Survivors, and this coupled with the extra time it takes to wiggle out will give new Killers a much less stressful time when trying to find hooks.

Deerstalker

Deerstalker is a very simple yet effective perk that allows Killers to be a lot more aggressive when attacked Survivors grouped up. With this perk, you are shown the outlines of downed survivors when you are 12-36 meters away from them. This can allow Killers to leave a Survivor on the ground and effectively find them again later, even when they crawl away from where you left them. Killers can be more aggressive, and new Killers won’t have to worry about wasting time looking for downed survivors and instead can just find them again without hassle.

Spies From The Shadows

Considered very hit or miss with Killers, but holds potential when tracking survivors isn’t your strong suit. Around each map are crows that caw and fly off if a Survivor gets too close. With Spies From The Shadows you have a 50%-75% chance to get a visual cue if a crow is disturbed within 12-36 meters of you. While higher-level killers find no purpose in this due to being able to pick out the crows anyway, new players would find this invaluable as a method of not only figuring out where Survivors are, but also figuring out where crows are and learning to spot their disturbances without the perk.

Unrelenting

When learning to play Killer a big part of it is understanding your reach; how far your weapon swings and how far forward you can lunge before you’re forced to swing. Chances are that for a lot of your first games you’re going to misjudge your reach when trying to attack running Survivors, resulting in hitting a wall or straight up missing completely. With Unrelenting the punishment for this is reduced, decreasing the cooldown on missed attacks by 20%-30%. This allows new Killers to not be penalised so harshly while learning the capabilities of what each Killer can do.

Honourable Mention: No One Escapes Death

All Survivors hate it when it works, and laugh with glee when it fails. The hex perk No One Escapes Death (shortened down to NOED in the community) is a high-risk/high-reward hex perk that only activates when all the generators are completed. Once activated, you gain a 2%-4% movement speed and any attacks done with your weapon (not your power) will put Survivors straight into the dying state. Until recently, it was only the third tier of the perk that enabled the one-hit downs, but a recent patch buffed the perk to give all levels the bonus, earning it an honourable mention in this list. The risk part (and the reason I can’t officially recommend it) comes because the perk is only active when all generators are activated, leaving you potentially under-powered until then. On top of this, it requires a dull totem to turn into a hex totem, meaning not only can it be removed not long after coming into play, but if the Survivors have already cleansed all dull totems before finishing the generators, NOED remains inactive for the game as there are no totems to bind itself to.

With that, my top five recommended Killer perks for newcomers is complete. If DLC and other non-universal Killer perks were on the table, what would your recommendations be? Let me know in the comments below.