Looping is a fundamental skill for survivors in Dead by Daylight. Strategic use of pallets, vaults, and long walls allows survivors to create distance between themselves and the killer, helping them avoid getting hit. It’s important for survivors to carefully manage these resources, as they can run out quickly, leading to difficult situations. While being stealthy can be a useful tactic at times, it’s not always reliable. Using important survival tools like pallets can not only put one survivor at risk but also the entire team. This is where these 10 Looping Tips for Dead by Daylight come in to help you.
Because of its importance, looping may seem intimidating to many players. However, mastering the technique of looping the killer isn’t as difficult as it may initially appear, and even beginners can develop this skill with some guidance and practice. Nearly two years ago, the YouTuber SoyKuragari dropped a video packed with looping tips that remain incredibly relevant today in Dead by Daylight. I found these tips so useful that they can still be applied in every game.
Tip 1: Hug Your Loops
Hugging your loops is very important. The tighter you hug a loop, the less distance you need to travel. The wider you are on a loop, it will take more distance for you to travel to get back to the palette. Which is why you should hug it tight but not too tight on certain loops because you can get stuck on a tiny pebble which will force you to get hit. A prime example is the window side on Shack; you can get stuck on that little window, sadly but sure.
Tip 2: Greed Palettes
You want to greed palettes because it’ll give you more time at a loop before actually dropping the palette. The more times you can go around one single loop without dropping a palette, the more time you give your teammates to complete generators—just that one loop. Once you see the killer is getting faster, that’s your cue to go for one more loop or drop the pallet right there. Just because the killer now has bloodlust and he’s zooming.
Tip 3: Know When to Leave
Knowing when to leave your loop is very important. If it’s a high wall loop like those on Coldwind or MacMillan, and you’ve been looping that high wall a few times, hold W away from the loop. The killer will think you’re still there, which will eventually lead them to start mind-gaming themselves. This can be quite hilarious and also proves to be an effective strategy to throw them off.
Tip 4: Run a Looping Build
It’s not necessary at all to loop, but it does help a ton. Really good looping perks are Resilience, which gives a six percent boost to everything you do while injured, Dead Hard, which will make you exhausted on the ground or, if you’re lucky, it’ll give you an extra hit if you make a mistake. Object of Obsession allows you to see the aura of the killer for a short time over and over if you are the obsession—keep in mind that they can see you too. Windows of Opportunity lets you see all the pallets that are up and windows that are nearby. These are just some of the best ones in my opinion.
Tip 5: Pay Attention to Your Surroundings
If you are in a loop, make sure you take a second to look around for your next loop when you are finished with that one. So many survivors loop a killer at one loop and then, when they throw the pallet and run away, they end up running towards a dead zone in panic. You’re better than that.
Be careful when looping a killer too, so that they don’t force you towards a dead zone. If they break the pallet on a specific side, also, you’ll also be forced into a position where you are too far to reach another loop, which can result in a hit or a guaranteed down.
Tip 6: Be Patient
Be patient. I know you may be thinking about how you can be patient and not get hit. But playing patiently is what will make you not get hit. For example, when looping Shack, a killer may fake going inside of Shack to show his red glow as if he’s going in, only to moonwalk back towards the window, expecting you to panic. Don’t panic. Pay attention to the killer’s patterns during the chase. If they fall for fake vaults, fake the vault. After a few times, they’ll catch on, and that’s when you take the vault. Make sure to switch it up, though.
Tip 7: Be Unpredictable
Being unpredictable is such a big thing when it comes to many killers. Against Huntress, don’t dodge your hatches the same way every time; against Nurse, don’t always double back on her blinks, etc.
Being unpredictable is the maximum way to stress a killer out. If you’re going to pre-vault windows and pallets a lot, eventually start faking the vaults. If you’re going to pre-drop pallets, greed the next one and so on. Mix it up. Many killers are going to learn to read you and your playstyle and adapt to it, so the best counter to that is to mix it up and confuse their brains.
Tip 8: Hold W Against Anti-Loopers
Hold W against anti-loop killers. Killers like the Artist, the Dredge, and the Knight are anti-loopers, meaning the main point of their power is to take away from the only thing you have to counter against killers.
When the Artist places her crows to corner you, hold W. If the Dredge puts down his teleportation, hold W and/or try to mind game it. When the Knight drops his guards, hold W. It’s an easy counter against them. Some of them may know this, so prepare for a quick use of their power, which is hard to counter at that point, but try to last as long as you can.
Tip 9: Connect Your Loops
Sometimes in a match, you’ll have beautiful RNG. RNG of the tile placement, meaning you can have multiple loops next to each other. If you’re lucky and have this happen, instead of dropping the pallet, connect the loops and use that to your advantage.
Like on Cold Wind near Shack, most of the time there is always another tile right next to it. Instead of dropping the Shack pallet, run over to the other tile near it, loop that, run back to Shack and repeat until you have no other choice but to drop the pallet at the other tile. Again, don’t drop the Shack pallet when there are 5 generators to do still, please don’t.
Tip 10: Dead Zoned? No Problem
You may find yourself in a sticky position—what’s new? You’re in a complete dead zone: no pallet, no window vaults, no loops available, no problem. Play the edge of the map, use the unsafe pallets, and Z-walls, play around trees—anything is better than nothing. All that matters is you waste a few more seconds of the killer’s time. People rarely use Z-walls because they’re extremely unsafe, but if you’re caught in a dead zone, you’re already in a risky situation. So you might as well try to loop the killer around the unsafest loop ever.
Conclusion
Looping is one of the most essential skills in Dead by Daylight—a game where setting up an effective way to navigate the map and maintain distance from the killer is crucial. By mastering the Dead by Daylight looping tips, such as hugging loops tightly, reading pallets wisely, and being unpredictable, players can greatly increase their survival chances and contribute significantly to their team’s escapes.
