With countless perks for you to use in Dead by Daylight, you’re bound to wonder which ones are the best perks in DbD. Your selections will determine whether your team makes it through the trial, or if everyone becomes food for the Entity. Here’s our Dead by Daylight guide to help you with the best survivor perks and abilities in the game.
DbD survivors have three personal perks available by default. To unlock others, you’ll need to level up the characters that have their own perks until you reach levels 30, 35, and 40. By obtaining these teachable perks, they’ll have a chance to appear in the Bloodwebs of other survivors.
What are the Survivor perks in Dead by Daylight?
Dead by Daylight survivors have three personal perks available by default. To unlock others, you’ll need to level up the characters that have their own perks until you reach levels 30, 35, and 40. By obtaining these teachable perks, they’ll have a chance to appear in the Bloodwebs of other survivors.
Decisive Strike
- Character: Laurie
- Effects (very rare): After being unhooked or unhooking yourself, Decisive Strike activates for 60 seconds. If you complete a skill check when grabbed by the killer, you’ll stab and stun them for five seconds. You do become the obsession of the killer afterward.
There are other actions that deactivate Decisive Strike (i.e., repairing a generator, healing yourself, cleansing a totem, and the like). Still, you’ll have plenty of time while it’s active and, within its duration, you’ve got a reliable means of escaping from the killer’s clutches. This is definitely one of the best survivor perks in Dead by Daylight.
Unbreakable
- Character: Bill
- Effects (very rare): Grants the ability to recover from the dying state instantly (once per trial). Increases dying recovery speed by 35%.
I consider this one of the best survivor perks in Dead by Daylight. This is useful if you’re trying to be a lone wolf and you get downed by a killer. Expecting you to stay down, you could recover immediately and thus not risk any of your allies when they attempt to rescue you.
Borrowed Time
- Character: Bill
- Effects (very rare): Survivors you unhook gain the endurance status effect for 12 seconds.
This is another perk that Bill has by default. It’s helpful since, no matter how good someone is, there’s a chance that the killer will still be able to grab and place them on a hook. The endurance status ensures that they won’t be affected by the next attack that occurs for a short while after they’ve just been unhooked. Considering how often attentive killers would pounce just as you’ve unhooked a teammate, this increases their chances of survival significantly.
Adrenaline
- Character: Meg
- Effects (very rare): Instantly heal one health state and sprint at 150% of your normal running speed for five seconds when the exit gates are powered. Adrenaline is on hold if you are disabled, taking effect once you’re freed. Adrenaline wakes you up if you’re asleep, and it ignores the exhausted status effect. The exhausted status effect will occur for 40 seconds after Adrenaline is triggered. You cannot recover from exhaustion while running.
This is also one of the best survivor perks in Dead by Daylight. Even though it’s of no use for almost the entirety of the match, the Adrenaline burst kicks in once an exit gate is powered. It lets you rush to the exit when possible, and you’ll even recover some health while you’re at it. This is actually why we suggest leveling up Meg Thomas so this survivor perk can be obtained by other characters in the game.
Sprint Burst
- Character: Meg
- Effects (very rare): When running, break into a sprint at 150% of your normal running speed for three seconds. After this, you’ll incur the exhausted status effect for 40 seconds. You cannot recover from exhaustion while running.
This is another survivor perk that Meg has by default (which makes her a great character to use). Speed is definitely of the essence in matches, and this helps you get away when necessary. Just don’t trigger it accidentally because being exhausted means that you’ll be put in a dying state immediately just from one hit.
Iron Will
- Character: Jake
- Effects (very rare): Grunts of pain caused by injuries are reduced by 100%.
Let’s face it, you are going to get injured eventually. This makes it so that your grunts are barely audible to the killer. Anything that helps you stealthily roam around is always a plus.
Dead Hard
- Character: Jake
- Effects (very rare): When injured, you can dash forward to avoid damage. Causes the exhausted state for 40 seconds. You cannot recover from exhaustion while running.
Similar to Sprint Burst, this gets you out of a pinch when you need it most. The more ways for you to avoid killers, the better your chances of making it out alive.
Prove Thyself and/or Leader
- Character: Dwight
- Prove Thyself effects (very rare): +15% repair speed bonus for every survivor that’s working on a generator within a 4-meter range. Gain 100% more Bloodpoints from co-op actions.
- Leader effects (very rare): +25% speed when healing, sabotaging, unhooking, cleansing, opening exit gates, and unlocking chests. Survivors can only be affected by one Leader perk at a time.
Dwight has a couple of helpful survivor perks, making him a good choice for newcomers to Dead by Daylight. Both of these increase the speed of player actions within a radius and, in the case of Prove Thyself, you gain bonus Bloodpoints, too.
Kindred
- Character: General perk (can appear in the Bloodwebs of any character)
- Effects (very rare): If you or another player gets hooked, the killer’s aura is revealed if it’s within a 16-meter range.
This is a decent survivor perk to have primarily because it warns your teammates if the killer is lurking right next to a hooked teammate. It prevents inexperienced people from rushing to the rescue, only to get taken down when they least expect it.
Worst Survivor perks in Dead by Daylight
You should try to avoid Self Care (from Claudette), No Mither (from David), and Mettle of Man (from Ash), as they are the worst in Dead by Daylight currently. Self Care is more of a crutch and a terrible one at that. Although you can heal without a healing item, this is an agonizingly slow process (taking roughly 30 seconds). You’re out of the action for prolonged periods. Meanwhile, No Mither might have bonuses, but you’re suffering from the broken status throughout the match. This prevents you from being fully healthy. Lastly, Mettle of Man does have benefits, but you’re also evealed to the killer when you reach full health. In a game where stealth is important, you don’t want something that will proactively make your location known to someone who’s hunting you down.
For more information about Dead by Daylight, you can take a look at our guides on how to use perks and the best killer perks.
