In this guide, we’ll share some of the simplest and most effective tips and tricks to improve your gameplay as a Survivor in Dead by Daylight. Whether you’re a beginner or have hours under your belt, you’ll find valuable insights to strengthen your skills in chases, repair generators efficiently, and overall teamwork in the trial.
Pathing
Pathing is one of the most important things to keep in mind when looping a killer. Since it determines the amount of distance between you and the killer. In most cases, the easiest tip for pathing—surprisingly not a lot of people know—is that when you stutter step to the left and right, you lose distance while being chased. It can feel fun to add a little bit of movement side to side while you loop, but, it just helps the killer catch up faster. The best way to keep distance on the killer is running in a straight line. Or whatever the equivalent to that is at whatever you’re looping.
The next important thing to keep in mind while pathing is being capable of hugging an object tightly. I’m sure you’ve heard that a million times, but it’s true. If you hug an object while looping tighter than the killer does, it’ll take a lot longer for the killer to catch up. Which will result in more time wasted for the killer.
An important thing to remember while doing this is to keep the killer in view as best you can. So as soon as the killer catches up, you can use the speed you get from getting hit to make the most possible distance.
Unique Pathing
The last important thing to try and keep in mind while pathing is unique pathing. People talking about having unique pathing has become somewhat of a meme in the community at this point. But still, if you hug the outside of a wall, that breaks the line of sight from the killer. The killer expects you to stay close to whatever resource you’re near, it has the potential to throw them off. Just make sure you’re not losing distance trying to uniquely path around a tile.
Not Wasting Distance
When the killer hits you, the most important thing is to use the full 2 seconds of speed you get. Creating as much distance from the killer as possible. If you know you’re going to take a hit, it’s better to accept it and use the distance rather than trying to dodge or risk getting hit through a pallet. If you have the health to spare, just hold forward and look for your next loop.
One key mistake to avoid is getting hit before falling from a height. If you don’t have the Balanced Landing perk, the fall’s stagger will cancel out the speed boost. Leaving you vulnerable and likely to go down. Another common mistake is running into objects when you get hit. Survivors often focus too much on looking behind them and end up colliding with obstacles.
Wasting the Killer’s Time
All of the previous tips lead to the biggest thing: wasting the Killer’s time. The biggest identifier of a good Survivor is someone who can waste the Killer’s time the longest while ideally using minimal resources. Prevent that first hit as long as you can. If you’re caught in a dead zone, try and die in the corner of the map to waste even more time. Every second wasted from a Killer is more time to progress on gens and get out of the trial.
However, still keep in mind that if you’re doing a good job wasting the Killer’s time, the Killer may leave the chase with you. If you want to capitalize on the time you’ve wasted, get on a generator or do something else productive as fast as you can. Forcing the Killer to interrupt you if they don’t want to lose pressure.
Playing Around Teammates
The next biggest tip is learning to play around with your random team. The hardest part about Survivor is queuing with other random Survivors because you never know what you’re going to get. Learning to play around with a variety of random teammates can improve your odds of escaping.
If one of your teammates seems newer and maybe not as confident in a chase with the Killer, try and take the aggro for them and hope they get on a gen. It’s okay if you’re not the best in chase either, but you’ll probably have better odds than that Prestige 2 console player. On the flip side, if someone seems confident in a chase, make sure you’re on a gen.
If your teammate decides a bush in the corner of the map is more interesting than escaping the trial, the best thing to do is split pressure as best you can with the remaining survivors. Make sure survivors are on separate gens unless you’re trying to break a three-gen, and hope to God that you can last with the Killer long enough to get some value out of it.
Not Playing Afraid
Now for arguably one of the most important tips in Dead by Daylight: don’t play afraid. The biggest thing I see people do that loses them the game is playing the entire match scared of the Killer. When you’re less confident in a chase, the idea of being seen by the Killer is awful. You want to do anything you can to avoid it. The trick is to play confidently in your ability, even if you’re not. Naturally, over time you’ll get better.
Here are some really good examples of ways you can play a bit more confidently to help win more matches. For one, if everyone on your team has more hook states than you, try and get the Killer’s attention. Even if you go down fast, you’ve still bought a bit of time for your teammates to reset or do gens. You also save someone from either going on death hook or just dying on hook.
Breaking the 3-Gen
Another good example is getting dangerous gens done first on maps that have gens close to the middle. It can be really strong to get these gens done first since it’s harder for the Killer to patrol gens on the edge of the map if that’s all that’s left. This also helps prevent three gens. If you know someone is getting chased, you can confidently go for a dangerous gen or get an unhook save.
Making Quick Decisions
The last example is making decisions; they don’t always have to be the right call. But you’ll be so much better off making a decision instantly rather than wasting time trying to figure out what to do. Hesitation will probably end up messing you up more than whatever you were going to do instinctively.
This also applies to looping. Always take control of the situation and learn from it. If it was the wrong call, that’s okay. In every area in this game, and every area period, you’ve got to be bad before you can be good. Don’t let it discourage you; you’ll get there.
Don’t Tilt
And lastly, by far the most important tip that extends past Dead by Daylight is: don’t tilt. Don’t let the game get to you to the point where it makes you mad. This is something everyone struggles with in some way or another. Getting left to die by teammates, losing to a player who you think is worse than you, or uncontrollable game bugs that cause you to lose.
When you don’t let the stupid things that happen get to you, it’s much easier to do better next time or avoid whatever initially got you mad. If you keep yourself calm, you’ll play better, naturally being more confident in your ability and in your decision-making. As well as reacting without your judgment being clouded.
Play the game expecting some BS to happen, and you’ll handle it so much better. Which in turn will help you improve in literally every other area of the game.
