There are currently 37 killers available to play in Dead by Daylight, I feel it can be pretty overwhelming for someone new to the game to know who or what they want to get with their money or shards.
Now, for the most part, there have already been a lot of posts and videos on this subject. However, everything has changed quite a bit by now. Therefore, I feel it is nice to know which killers should be your priorities if you are thinking about upgrading your collection of perks.
I’ll also explain why they’re on the list. I’ve split everyone up into three categories: the ones that cost real money, the ones available with shards, and then those that you will only have to upgrade since you already own them for free.
Best Killers to Unlock for Free
If you just don’t want to spend any currency at all, there are two killers everyone has from the start that have some very useful perks: Trapper and Hillbilly.
Hillbilly
Billy’s Tinkerer shows you when a generator is completed for 70%, removing your Terror Radius and letting you sneak up to defend the Gen before it gets done.
Enduring can also be very useful and pretty much anyone, cutting the time of pallet stuns in half and letting you continue chasing that much faster. It’s especially useful with other perks that benefit from getting stunned.
Lightborn is honestly not that great; it makes you immune to blinds from flashlights, firecrackers, and flashbangs. But you know what also makes you immune to getting blinded? Looking at the floor. There, I saved you a perk slot. That’s sad, though. For the moments where you down someone in the open, while background players are lurking in the distance or during four flashlight lobbies, it can be pretty funny to use.
Trapper
Brutal Strength and Agitation can both be pretty useful, but they are somewhat underwhelming when used individually.
Unnerving Presence is not very effective. It makes skill checks more difficult, but unless someone is new to the game or unless you use it in an impossible skill check build, it will rarely cause people to miss skill checks.
Brutal Strength allows you to break things faster, which can be quite useful when combined with generator-kicking perks or pallet perks, helping you save time.
Similarly, Agitation increases your Terror Radius when you pick a survivor up, and also lets you walk faster while carrying them. When paired with Terror Radius perks, carrying perks, or Scourge Hook perks, Agitation can be very effective.
Best Killers to Unlock by Playing the Game
If you’re looking to maximize your resources and secure valuable perks, these killers offer some of the best abilities in the game. Best of all, you can earn them by farming Iridescent Shards.
Artist
The Artist is a highly sought-after killer in the game, focusing on preventing generator completion. Pain Resonance, a Scourge Hook perk, is a significant part of the meta, causing generators to regress by 25% when hooked. This perk requires survivors to make a significant amount of extra progress, providing additional time.
Grim Embrace, a recent update, blocks generators for 12 seconds when hooking a Survivor and moving away from the hook. If hooking each Survivor at least once, all generators are blocked for 40 seconds, and the location of the obsession is revealed for 6 seconds. This blocks generators for 76 seconds, providing additional time.
The third perk is a complex system where relighting a totem curses survivors with specific effects, including reduced repair speed, healing speed, recovery speed, exit gate speed, and preventing them from destroying totems. However, relighting these totems manually is required, and survivors have cleansed them before.
While it may be useful against solo players with a hex build, its usefulness is limited.
Clown
Moving on to the next killer you can earn by just playing the game, we’ve got Clown. Now, the reason why I recommend getting Clown after Artist is because he also has two incredibly useful perks.
Similar to Artist, he also has a very good gen regression perk named Pop Goes the Weasel. Every time you hook someone, it activates for 45 seconds. If you kick a generator during that time, instead of the usual 5%, you’ll now damage a generator for 30% of its current progress.
Besides just Pop Goes the Weasel, Clown has another useful perk, Bamboozle. This is more of a chase-oriented perk that lets you vault faster, blocking windows for 16 seconds afterward. You can only use this on one window at a time, but usually, this is enough as it renders some loops completely useless, either giving you a hit or forcing the Survivor to move away from the tile. It can also come in very handy for some inside-down killers who hate windows, like Bubba and Billy.
Clown’s third perk is pretty bad, though. Chirophobia slows down healing in your Terror Radius and makes healing skill checks faster. But unless you’re running some sort of crazy skill check build, which can be pretty fun, there are way better options.
Deathslinger
Next up, we’ve got Deathslinger. Slinger has three perks that, while not necessarily top-tier, are very useful in a variety of builds.
Dead Man Switch starts a 30-second timer every time you hook someone. If anyone lets go of a generator during that timer, the generator blocks for the remainder of those 30 seconds. This can be very good paired with perks that force players to let go of their gens or even powers like Nemesis zombies. It also shows you the aura of those generators, giving you some extra info on which ones are being worked on.
Hex Retribution is a perk that is honestly pretty bad on its own. When used in a hex build, though, it can become incredibly useful, especially for Killers who excel at seeing auras, like Nurse, Huntress, or even Slinger himself. Every time someone begins cleansing a totem, they become oblivious. But that’s not its strongest part. Whenever someone cleanses a hex totem, you will see everyone’s aura for 16 seconds.
Slinger’s last perk is called Gearhead. Every time you injure someone, for 30 seconds after, it’ll show you the aura of survivors who hit good skill checks. It helps you show where people are and what generators are being completed.
Plague
Plague’s meta perk is called Corrupt Intervention. At the start of the trial, the three furthest gens get blocked for 2 minutes or until you down someone. Not only does this waste everyone’s time looking for generators, but it also forces them towards you and gives you a smaller area to defend.
Her next perk is called Infectious Fright. It is most effective for Killers who prefer to keep people on the ground, as their power relies on a timer. Think of Oni, Myers, or Plague herself, for example.
Dark Devotion, while not great, can honestly be a pretty fun perk. After hitting the obsession, they take your Terror Radius from you for 30 seconds while you lose yours. This can be pretty confusing for survivors sometimes, letting you sneak up on someone who doesn’t know what’s going on.
Trickster
Trickster’s best perk is by far No Way Out. This is yet another perk that buys you time. The moment someone touches a gate, it will block the gate for a certain amount of time along with showing you which gate was touched. At base, it will just block the gate for 12 seconds. This increases by 12 seconds each time you hook someone for the first time. This leads up to a full minute during which survivors can’t begin opening the gates. This perk is good on its own for buying you more time. It can also benefit from pairing it with other endgame perks.
Starstruck is also kind of a niche perk. Do you just hate when people try to sabotage or body block you? This is the perk for you because whenever you pick someone up, anyone in your Terror Radius immediately becomes exposed, meaning you can down them in one single hit.
Then his last perk, Hex Crowd Control, blocks any vault location survivors use for a full 60 seconds. This gives you a free Bamboozle, but it only works until the totem is cleansed, making it incredibly risky and, in my opinion, usually not worth picking over Bamboozle.
Best Killers to Unlock with Real Money
If you’re looking to invest in killers with standout perks, Cenobite, Demogorgon, and Chucky are worth the money.
Cenobite
If we’re looking solely at their perks, Pinhead is absolutely the Killer to get if you ask me. When it comes to killer perks, Pinhead is the one I’d recommend without a doubt.
Deadlock, one of his perks, blocks the generator with the most progress for 30 seconds every time a generator is completed. This buys you about 2 minutes of extra time unless survivors efficiently find another generator to work on. Although survivors don’t always do that, it still provides valuable time.
The next perk, Hex Plaything. It allows the killer to light a totem when hooking a survivor for the first time, which removes the killer’s Terror Radius for that survivor as long as the totem remains standing. Other survivors are unable to cleanse this totem for 90 seconds, making the killer stealthier. The downside is that the hooked survivor can see the totem from 60 meters away.
The second perk, Gift of Pain, is similar to Sloppy Butcher with an added effect. When a survivor is hooked: They get the Mangled and Hemorrhage effects. Healing takes longer for them. The regress effect is initiated if not completed. It also gives a 6% repair speed debuff until the survivor becomes injured again. While not as effective as Sloppy Butcher in general, Gift of Pain can be impactful when running a Scourge Hook build.
Demogorgon
Aside from Pinhead, there’s also Demogorgon. I wouldn’t call their perks amazing, but they’re useful.
Demogorgon has Surge, which is great if you hate kicking generators. Whenever you down someone, nearby generators explode instantly, losing 8% after which they start regressing.
Mind Breaker is also solid; exhaust perks are by far the best Survivor perks in the game. This perk blinds and exhausts anyone touching a generator and keeps them exhausted for 5 seconds afterward.
His third perk, Cruel Limits, is incredibly situational and not worth running for the most part. Whenever a generator is completed, all vault locations get blocked for 30 seconds. Don’t get me wrong, this can be very useful in certain situations, but the issue is that you have no control over this. You could be carrying a Survivor looking for someone, and someone could be camping a pallet when this goes off, wasting your perk.
Chucky
Chucky also has some useful perks. Batteries Included can be very good the more generators get completed. Whenever you’re within 12 meters of a completed generator, you gain 5% movement speed. Any ability that increases your speed is incredibly powerful, as you’ll catch up to Survivors way quicker.
Friends ’til the End is also pretty good. Exposing the Obsession for 20 seconds every time you hook someone, along with showing you where they are. Of course, this won’t always come in handy, like when they’re far away, for example. But when you can get to them in time or when you’re playing a Killer with super high mobility, this perk can be incredibly scary for the Obsession. It will turn someone else into the Obsession if you hook the Obsession themselves. Revealing their aura but not putting the Exposed status effect.
Hex Two Can Play is pretty bad, admittedly, but it can be incredibly funny to use when it works. After you get stunned or blinded two times, a totem lights up, blinding any Survivor who stuns or blinds you from that point on until the totem gets cleansed, after which the counter starts again. You’ll rarely get a lot of use out of this one, but it can be very funny when it does.
