Dead By Daylight is a multiplayer horror game with a steady playerbase, still going strong years after its launch with tournaments, daily challenges, and special events. The concept of the game is simple. Four survivors and one killers are loaded into a match (either randomly or with friends!) and the goal of the survivors is to escape. The goal of the killer is to sacrifice them all to a creepy spider god (the Entity) that comes down from the sky and grabs the survivors from the hooks the killer has to mount them on. Pretty gruesome, right?
But even though the concept of the game itself is pretty simple, there are a lot of mechanics to the game that take some practice, such as the skill checks required to repair generators. And if we dig even deeper, there's a lot that can be done in the game that players actually have no idea about.
We'll start simple and give you the tips that new players may not know about. If you're knew to the game, this will be especially worth your time.
10 You Can Kill
As the killer, your goal is to hook the survivors. Once they've been hung on hooks so many times (two or three, depending on how much they struggle), the spider god will come down and take them to some unknown realm. Yikes.
But if you level up your killer and gain perks through the bloodwebs, there will come a point where you can choose to kill the survivor rather than hook them. This will come with a gory animation depending on what killer you picked, and usually they're pretty creative.
9 You Can Heal Yourself
If you get slashed by the killer in-game, you need to find someone else to heal you. They can lean over you and perform the same skill checks that the generators require in order to heal you up. But! There is actually a way to heal yourself.
If you find a medical kit in one of the treasure boxes littered around the map, you can perform the skill checks on yourself. That way, if you get injured, there's no need to rely on someone else healing you up — find a quiet corner on your own, and get working!
8 You Can Break Hooks
Another thing that can be found in those treasure chests is a tool kit. Tool kits are most used for speeding up repairs on the generators, but what they can also do is break hooks. If a survivor breaks a hook, the killer can no longer use it which means if they catch you, they'll have to wander much further to find a hook — giving you more time to wiggle out of their grasp. A few seconds can mean everything in this game so if you're repairing a generator next to a hook, consider breaking it first.
7 You Can Stun The Killer
Pallets can be dropped while you run from the killer that will take them a second to break while coming after you, meaning they'll be slowed down. However, if you're feeling especially brave, you can wait at the pallet for the killer to catch up and if you drop it at the right second, they'll be stunned and have to wait even longer. They'll also look down, so they might miss which direction you ran off in.
This takes some timing and if you miss, they'll get you. Beware.
6 Or Blind Them
Another item you can get through the treasure chests (or through the bloodweb, as with the medical and tool kits) is a flashlight. If you point it directly in the killer's eyes, it will stun them and if they're trying to carry someone to a hook, they will be forced to drop them. It's a risky move, since you have to go straight into the killer's line of vision, but it's a brilliant teammate rescue if you can pull it off. And it'll definitely annoy the killer.
5 You Can Escape Through A Hatch
The aim of the game is to escape. This is done by repairing all of the generators, which will unlock two exits on the map for the survivors to pull open and dash out of.
However, when the game is down to one last survivor, a hatch will open up on the map that can be jumped through too. The location will be random but you will hear wind whistling when you come close to it. It helps massively to wear earphones while playing, as then you can also hear which direction the wind is coming from.
4 You Can See Where Generators Are As A Survivor
As you level up and move through your bloodweb, you'll gain perks. One of the best perks you can get as a survivor is to see where the generators are. While generators can be hard to find, this perk will illuminate them in red so it's easy to dash between them and perform repairs, rather than wasting precious time wandering all over the map in an attempt to find the next one.
3 You Can Break Out Of Sleep By Blowing Up A Generator
When playing against Freddy Krueger, he can only harm you by putting you to sleep. When you're put to sleep and in the dream world, you need to find a teammate to snap you out of it.
But that's not the only way! If you find a generator and deliberately fail a skill check, the noise will wake you up. It will also alert the killer of your location, so this may only be useful if he's already hot on your trail, but it could save you in a pinch.
2 You Can Be Alerted As To When The Killer Is Coming
One of the other extremely handy perks is to alert you when the killer is coming. You can hear their heartbeat when they get extremely close, but some of the perks give you a wider radius, or just inform you when the killer is in your line of vision even if you can't see them yet. That few seconds warning can be everything in a game like this.
1 You Can Become The Killer's Obsession
And a more negative note to end on...
Certain perks and add-ons can trigger an aspect of gameplay called the Obsession, which means one player will be randomly selected to be the killer's main target. The Entity will appear at the bottom of the screen around their icon to let you know who it is, and a bunch of other things will be introduced. To summarise, it makes this person much easier for the killer to see and find, so if the Entity appears around your icon at the start of any match... run.