Dracula, known as “The Dark Lord,” is one of the 37 Killers currently featured in Dead by Daylight, making his chilling debut in CHAPTER 33: Castlevania, which was released on August 27, 2024. Originating from the iconic Castlevania video game franchise by Konami, specifically the 1997 classic Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, Dracula embodies darkness and tragedy, bringing a unique and terrifying presence to the Fog. In this post, we’ll explore three great Dead by Daylight builds for Dracula: a beginner-friendly build to get you started, a sweaty build for those high-stakes matches, and his overall best build to maximize your potential as The Dark Lord.
Dracula Perks Overview:
- Dominance: It blocks chests and totems for 8 seconds when you reach tier 3. This is particularly useful if you have a hex totem that you want to keep alive. Like NOED at the endgame or Devour Hope to get some value out of it. It can also work well with perks like Plaything to reveal where survivors are next, as it’ll rat them out and show you that the totem is being blocked.
- Hex: Wretched Fate: Targets the obsession, applying a 33% repair speed penalty after a generator is completed. If you pair this with perks that change the obsession, like Nemesis or Friends ’til the End, you can spread this effect to different survivors, causing multiple gens to be worked on at a much slower pace.
- Human Greed: This perk enables you to kick open and close chests. When a survivor interacts with a chest within 8 meters of you, their aura is revealed for 3 seconds. It’s important to note that this perk may not be the most effective in high-level play, but it can add fun and strategy depending on your preferred style of play.
Dracula Beginner-Friendly Build
This build is straightforward and effective if you’re new to the game or just starting out as a killer.
Recommended Add-ons: Clock Tower Gear & Traveler’s Hat. These will allow you to turn into your different forms quicker and abilities faster.
- Brutal Strength (The Trapper): Kick walls and gens 20% faster to maintain pressure.
- Whispers (General Perk): Helps locate survivors within 32 meters.
- Bitter Murmur (General Perk): Reveals survivors’ locations when a generator is completed.
- Hex: Wretched Fate (The Dark Lord): Applies a 33% repair speed penalty on the obsession after the first gen is completed.
Use Putrid Oak to keep your hooks closer together, enabling quicker downs, hooks, and a faster return to chases.
Best Dracula Build 2024
This build takes full advantage of Dracula’s dual forms—wolf and vampire.
Recommended Add-ons: Traveler’s Hat & Magical Ticket. These reduce the post-Shapeshift penalty and increase the maximum speed of teleporting.
- Surge (The Demogorgon): Focus on basic attacks to down survivors and regress nearby gens.
- Spies from the Shadows (General Perk): Pinpoints survivors’ locations by their scratch marks, even when in bat form.
- Friends ’til the End (The Good Guy): When you hook a Survivor who is not the Obsession, the Obsession becomes Exposed for 20 seconds and reveals their aura for 10 seconds. When you hook the Obsession, another random Survivor becomes the new Obsession.
- Hex: Plaything: Forces survivors to cleanse totems, creating a secondary objective. It creates a hex totem when you hook a survivor for the first time. Making the survivor suffer from the oblivious status effect until cleansed.
Use Surge to get value out of your basic attacks, and Spies from the Shadows to track survivors through their scratch marks. Hex: Plaything adds a secondary objective for survivors, forcing them to cleanse totems and giving you more time to secure a 4K. The Traveler’s Hat allows you to use your abilities faster and get into chases quicker.
Dracula Sweaty Build
This build is designed for those days when you want to stomp on survivors and secure a high success rate.
Recommended Add-ons: Warg’s Fang & Killer Doll. These allow you to see all survivors’ auras when you collect their scent orbs and increase the cooldown reduction of pounce attacks from scent orbs.
- Surge (The Demogorgon): Causes nearby gens to explode when downing a survivor, adding 8% regression.
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist): At the start of the trial, 4 random hooks will transform into Scourge Hooks. When hooking a survivor on a Scourge Hook, the most progressed generator will lose 20% of progress instantly.
- Grim Embrace (The Artist): Blocks gens for 10 seconds after hooking a survivor, with a full 40-second block after four hooks.
- Barbecue & Chili (The Cannibal): Reveals survivors’ auras when hooking someone, helping you plan your next move.
Use Surge to damage multiple generators when you down a survivor. While Barbecue & Chili reveals your next target, allowing you to keep up the pressure. Combine these with Grim Embrace to block generators and Warg’s Fang to track survivors’ auras after using your pounce ability.
