Adriana Imai, aka “The Skull Merchant,” is one of the 36 Killers featured in Dead by Daylight. The Skull Merchant, first introduced in CHAPTER 27: Tools of Torment on March 7, 2023, and retired on May 14, 2024, is a tactical Killer with the unique ability to deploy Drones that detect and impair her targets. In this guide, we’ll look at the best builds for The Skull Merchant, allowing you to maximize her abilities and dominate every game.
Understanding the Skull Merchant’s Power
The Skull Merchant’s power, Eyes in the Sky, allows her to place drones around the map. The drones can be used to detect survivors and reveal their locations. The Skull Merchant can also use her drone power to slow down generators and hinder survivors’ progress.
The Exposed status effect is a crucial part of the Skull Merchant’s power. When a survivor is exposed, they are more vulnerable to the Skull Merchant’s basic attack. The Exposed status effect can be applied to survivors through the use of the Skull Merchant’s drones.
Best Skull Merchant Build 2024
- Bamboozle (The Clown): Increases your vaulting speed by 15% and blocks the window for 16 seconds after vaulting, making it harder for survivors to loop you around windows.
- Save The Best For Last (The Shape): Earn tokens for each basic attack that hits a non-Obsession survivor, up to a maximum of 8 tokens. Each token reduces the cooldown of your successful basic attacks by 4%, up to 32%. You lose 2 tokens whenever you hit your Obsession with a basic attack.
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist): Upon hooking a survivor on a Scourge Hook, the generator with the most progress explodes and regresses by 20%, causing survivors repairing it to scream.
- Surge (The Demogorgon): Putting a survivor into the dying state with a basic attack causes all generators within a radius of 32 meters to explode and regress, applying an immediate 8% progress penalty.
This build turns Skull Merchant into a total powerhouse. Bamboozled blocks windows, making it easier to catch survivors, while Save The Best For Last gives quicker hit recovery.
Pain Resonance and Surge slow down the game by damaging generators when survivors are hooked or downed. This build creates a strong balance of aggressive chases and generator control, making it tough for survivors to win.
Toxic Skull Merchant Build
- Hex: Devour Hope (The Hag): Gains tokens for rescues and hooks, eventually allowing insta-downs and moris when fully stacked.
- Corrupt Intervention (The Plague): Blocks the three generators furthest from the killer’s starting point for 120 seconds at the start of the match.
- Hex: Undying (The Blight): Protects other hex totems like Devour Hope by transferring their effects if they are cleansed or blessed.
- Hex: Pentimento (The Artist): Relights cleansed totems, creating zones that slow down survivor actions significantly.
This build is nasty, and Devour Hope works great with the new anti-camping feature, rewarding you for moving away from the hook quickly. At the start, Corrupt Intervention lets you set up drones effectively.
With Devour Hope, you’ll get instant downs and moris once it’s fully stacked, creating immense pressure. Pairing this with Pentimento’s slowdown on generators makes it incredibly hard for survivors to complete objectives. This combination of perks and add-ons creates a toxic and powerful Skull Merchant build that dominates the game.
Stealth Skull Merchant Build
- Dark Devotion (The Plague): Transfers your Terror Radius to the Obsession for 30 seconds, making you undetectable. This extended stealth period allows you to surprise and ambush survivors effectively.
- Rapid Brutality (The Xenomorph): Grants increased movement speed after hitting a survivor with an M1 attack. This helps in catching up to survivors quickly, forcing them to use resources like pallets or suffer additional hits.
- Sloppy Butcher (General Perk): Causes survivors to take longer to heal and applies the Mangled status effect, reducing their healing efficiency. Although not all injuries come from M1 attacks, it adds pressure when you do hit them.
- Brutal Strength (The Trapper): Increases the speed of breaking pallets and generators. While Skull Merchant can place drones at loops, faster breaking speeds ensure quicker transitions and maintain pressure.
This build is great for the Skull Merchant as the synergy between stealth and chase is so strong. The perks and add-ons make her able to surprise and outmaneuver survivors.
Dark Devotion and Iridescent Unpublished Manuscript (add-on) make her undetectable for a good chunk of time and allow her to get to survivors without them knowing. Rapid Brutality lets her catch up to injured survivors fast and Sloppy Butcher makes survivor healing slower.
