I have been playing Pyramid Head for hours on end and have been getting pretty good at him,and decided to make this guide for those that haven’t been so lucky as to understand his potential. Take this guide with a grain of salt however,as it’s mainly built on personal experience. I just wish for this community to realize Executioner is pretty balanced,and in no way either overpowered or underpowered.
Guide Contents
Pyramid Head Guide
Note: Credit goes to Garfill-A
The Basics
Pyramid Head,known as the Executioner,is a 115 % | 4.6 m/s Killer,aka he moves at default killer speed. He is pretty damm tall, especially the tip of his Head, and has default killer terror radious.
Of course he also has the same lunge, every killer does, but if it feels short for you it’s just because he is very big and it makes you feel like he can reach farther than he actually does.
His first power, Rites of judgment, or just Rites for short, allows him to stick his knife in the ground,splitting the earth and creating a trail of torment where he goes. Doing so drains his power bar as he moves,and he will be kicked out of this stance once it drains. The power bar recovers pretty fast however. There is seemingly no limit to how many trails you can place,and they stay in the map for a pretty decent amount of time.
Survivors who run or walk into the trails will be slow down a little bit upon collision and will receive the Torment status effect,as well as have their location revealed with Killer instinct for a couple seconds.
If a survivor you downed has Torment, you can send them to the gulag- i mean,the Cage of Atonement. The cage acts as a hook, survivor killing wise, and once the survivor is on “death hook”, be it via normally hooking or caging doesn’t matter, as long as the survivor is on it and Tormented, you can execute Final Judgement and kill them on the spot. A good time saver and way to keep track on how many times that specific survivor was hookeed.
By the way,when a survivor rescues another from the Cage,they both get rid of the Torment status effect, so be careful about your decision making.
A thing to note,survivors afflicted with Torment have a barbed wire trail following them, wich makes tracking potentially easier.
His second power is Punishment of the Damned,or just Punishment for short.
You execute Punishment by left clicking (default keys) when using Rites, wich makes Pyramid Head pull his sword from the ground upwards with ferocity,erupting the ground in a telegraphed area,wich damages any survivors who stay in it when it triggers. This attack has a warning before it activates via Pyramid Head obviously changing stance along with a sound cue, and it also reveals it’s area of effect before triggering, so using it is NOT easy. Smart survivors will dodge it if all you do is spam it with no tought. ( More on this later )
Punishment can and WILL damage multiple survivors if all of them are in it’s radious. It has no other effects other than damaging survivors,and you will be stunned for the same time as hitting someone with Melee after performing it,regardless if you hit or not,so use it with care.
The Executioner’s Perks
As with every killer, Pyramid Head comes with his own perks. Here i will list them,their effects,and what use you can get out of them.
Forced Penance: Those who stand in the way of duty will suffer harsh judgement
- Survivors who take a Protection Hit are inflicted with the Broken Status Effect for 20/25/30 seconds.
- This perk has potential, but in it’s current state , it’s hard to get much value out of it.
Even if you successfully get someone broken with it, by the time you come back to them after being done with the original survivor they took protection hits for, the broken status effect will most likely be over already. The only killer who can really get use out of this is Legion, due to his stabbing sprees and the fact that protection hits can trigger in pretty ridiculous distances, and the fact that this perk affects ALL types of injuries that count as protection hits, not just basic attacks, meaning his Frenzy will trigger the perk’s effects.
Trail of Torment: You guide your victims along a path of pain and punishment
- After kicking a Generator, you become Undetectable for 15 seconds.
- During this time, the Generator’s Aura is revealed in yellow to all Survivors.
- Trail of Torment can only be triggered once every 120/100/80 seconds.”
This perk has its uses, as you can sneak up on someone that’s distracted or make use of the fact that you have no Stain ( red light ) during a chase, however it’s duration is pretty strict, and it has a long cooldown that is not justified, as it’s effect isin’t even that powerful considering Pyramid Head is tall, big, rather loud and easily noticeable, regardless of being undetectable during it.
I only recommend this on specialized perk builds, or maybe on certain killers who are small and hard to notice. (However, most small killers already have a stealth power to begin with, wich makes this perk still kind of redundant.)
Deathbound: Those whose lives are intertwined in darkness are destined to suffer together
- When a Survivor heals another Survivor for one Health State at least 32 metres away from the Killer, the Survivor performing the Healing action will scream, revealing their location and activating Deathbound for the next 45 seconds.
- During that time, the Survivor will suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect when farther than 16/12/8 metres away from the healed Survivor.
Probably Pyramid Head’s best perk out of the three. It’s a useful tool for gathering information, as once it triggers, you will hear a scream wich will inform you someone healed if you are too distracted with something else to notice the HUD change, and also reveals to you the last known location of TWO survivors. To boot, it makes the healer oblivious unless he sticks to his patient, wich can be potentially disastrous for both of them. Overall a decent perk, and can work well with other killers too, specifically ones like Billy or Demogorgon who can travel across the map quickly to check the location of the scream.
That’s all for The Executioner’s personal perks. Time to talk power application and strats, baby!
Tips and Tricks
The section everyone came here for, probably. In here i will discuss how to properly and effectively use The Executioner’s powers, and some neat stuff involved with them.
Rites of Judgement: First and foremost, there’s a big keyword with this power: Spam. Lots and lots of spam.
When you’re playing Pyramid Head, you want to place trails/trenches down everywhere you go. You suffer no real slowdown when placing these, so there is no reason for you to NOT spam them everywhere as you move around the map.
Roaming around? Place trails. Patrolling Gens? Place trails.
Hooked a survivor? Place trails around the hook. (But not too close because they despawn, and they do so too when too close to generators). Chasing a survivor? MAYBE place trails, depends on situation and positioning. This decision making comes with experience and i can’t really put into words.
Spamming trails all over the map can be a pretty significant annoyance to survivors.
They will have to crouch alot to get past them, wich is a timewaster, and if they don’t want to crouch, they’l have to run into them and suffer a small slowdown from the impact, as well as being Tormented and having their location revealed, wich can be VERY bad for them depending on situation. Injured survivors will most likely choose to crouch over the trails since they are vulnerable and being revealed while injured can be a death sentence.
Trail spam works especially well on indoor maps due to the confined spaces and narrow corridors,where crouching over a hallway full of trails can be pretty time consuming.
Oh,also when a survivor is looping you, place trails around the loop so you can make sure they’l touch them and get Tormented. Hell, extend the chase a bit to make sure they get the effect if you want to.
Punishment of the Damned: Haha big knife go clang clang
Now we’re talking the real deal. The ranged attack that every says is either too weak or too strong. Personally i think it’s balanced, as it takes skill to use AND to avoid, wich is fun and interactive for both sides. It’s also a pretty efficient pubstomper, as dumb survivors will likely not even try to dodge it properly, granting you free hits, salt, and cries for nerfs.
You should use Punishment when survivors are running towards a vault or a pallet to hit them when they’re stuck in a animation, but beware, as smart survivors will likely attempt to either dodge it or fake the interaction, so you should wait before using it to be sure that it’l hit. Please remember that you can let go of the Rites stance and swing a second later, so don’t be afraid to let go if you think you have time to M1 them. A melee hit is always preferable over trying to land a Punishment and potentially missing, so if you can M1 someone, DO IT. Don’t risk missing and having them escape.
But what if a survivor is looping a pallet that is already pulled? Well, there are 3 strategies to deal with this:
Number one, Punishment Spam: It is what it is. Just spam Punishment until it hits. But what if the survivor keeps doubling back and dodging it? Simple, predict that they will dodge it and fake a Punishment. For example: Meg keeps noticing where you’re looking and doubling back when you attack with Punishment. What to do? Enter the stance,look to where you want to make her THINK you’re gonna attack,then turn to the other direction as quick as you can and use Punishment. if done corrently, she will double back again thinking she’l dodge it, but in reality she’s running INTO it, all according your plan. If she catches on and and dodges that too, then just keep spamming it while changing between faking and going for it.
She’s gonna get hit eventually.
Numeber Two, NeckBreather: Enter the Rites stance and go around the loop, following the survivor. In this situation, four things can happen:
- 1) He’ll vault the pallet and you’l hit him with punishment.
- 2) He will hesitate to vault it and keep running around the loop, giving you the opportunity to let go of the stance and M1 him.
- 3) He will try to leave the loop, wich will potentially let you hit him anyway depending on location and positioning.
- 4) He will do any of the things mentioned before but you’l screw up somehow and miss.
3 out of 4 of these things are beneficial for you, so i don’t see why not try this every once in a while. This works better if you have addons that increase how long you can be in rites for of course, or you can just alternate between being in the stance or walking normally. ( This is called neckbreather because you follow the survivor while in the stance, breathing down his neck. )
Number Three, Loopy Mc Loop: This is a no brainer. Just go around the pallet over and over again while trying to mindgame him and hit a melee. Basically the same thing you do with every M1 killer. Pyramid Head has default movement speed so he can do this fine,alto i’d only do this if i’m either tired of doing the things i mentioned before, can’t do them for some reason or i’m just sure i can end the chase faster if i just hit him.
Cage of Atonement: Yep,i’m also adressing this part of his power, and i’m doing it last because it’s the least complex one. Using your cages properly is all about decision making,game sense,and awareness.
If you don’t know the whereabouts of other survivors or want them to come to you for whatever reason, hook the survivor instead of caging. If you know of other survivors and are confident in being able to get to them, send them to the cage and go after them. Doing these decisions properly can apply massive pressure to survivors, as they will have to be moving all the time, be it to rescue or to not get killed by you and your snowball effect.
Now, next is teachable perks.
Perks ‘n Stuff
Here i will be listing perks that you should either be drawn to or avoid.
Infectious Fright: Remember that Cage decision making thing? This perk helps that part alot. If you down someone and find survivors via screaming, cage the downed one and go after the screamers. If you hear absolutely nothing, hook the survivor and either patrol gens or stick around in the general area to find would be rescuers on route to the hook.
i’m All Ears: Great for chases. It reveals the survivor’s aura when doing a fast vault, wich makes landing Punishments much easier since you’re no longer guessing. Just awesome overall on Pyramid Head.
Bamboozle/Spirit Fury/Enduring: Both of these chase perks, while awesome on most killers, are not really worth using on Executioner. His power is more than enough to end loops if used skillfully, so using these is really just a waste of a perk slot, or i guess a crutch if you suck at using Punishment.
Brutal Strenght: This kinda falls on the same spectrum as the previous text, BUT maybe a bit useful since survivors tend to just leave the loop altogueter instead of commiting to it when playing versus a Executioner. So this would help break the pallet quickly and move on after them, but might still be a bit of a waste of a slot regardless. Alto faster gen breaking is still a nice time saver.
Zanshin Tactics: This might be useful for you if you’re learning Pyramid Head, or just not confident in your map knowledge. Since it shows you nearby pallets and windows, it would make predicting when a survivor will use them easier, wich would help landing Punishments. Still, this perk is mostly redundant if you’re experienced and know how maps and tiles work.
Surveillance: Might be worth using if you have range addons, stealth perks, or both, since you can sneak/approach a gen with multiple survivors and hit both of them from afar with your Punishment. Plus it’s just a useful perk overall to gather information and stop survivors from doing gens too fast.
Barbecue & Chilli: Personally, even tho i advise to sometimes hook as Executioner, i would not use this perk that would be otherwise great on nearly every killer. The aura reveal is usually not necessary for me since the trail spam + general gamesense & awareness do more than enough to tell me where survivors are. If anything, the most enticing thing about this perk is the BP bonus.
Monitor & Abuse: A good pick on Pyramid Head. It combos well with detection perks such as Surveillance as noted before, and can be used to sneak up on people and hit multiple survivors with Punishment, plus it’s just a useful perk to have overall due to the terror radious reduction and field of view increase.
Ruin: This may be a decent perk to run if you’re confident on your ability to apply pressure. By constantly hooking and caging people, you will be forcing survivors off gens alot, wich will let ruin do it’s work quite nicely, as long as you can protect the totem from dirty bone gropers.
Devour Hope: Despite what you’d think, this hex works pretty awesome on Executioner actually. Probably because it’s unexpected, and therefore it comes out of nowhere and surprises the survivors. A good way to run this perk is ONLY hooking survivors and getting them tormented, and then when you get 3 tokens AKA instadown melees, you just go into a snowball fest by one shotting everyone and sending them to cages. It’s a pretty cool trump card if you can manage your totem.
Save the Best for Last: Similar to Demogorgon, you can never lose your stacks if you always hit your obsession with your Punishment instead of an M1. However this way be too much effort and not enough of a reward, since you’l likely be hitting people mostly with your Punishment anyway, plus your obsession can run into your gut and run around you in circles and you won’t be able to hit them with the Punishment due to the terrible turning the stance has.
Extra Stuff
- If you don’t care about salt or being called tunneler, you can try a playstyle i call the “Tunnelcutioner”. It is done by getting a survivor tormented, hooking them , waiting for them to get rescued, down them , send them to the cage , wait for them to get rescued again, get them tormented a final time and then kill them with Final Judgement. You CAN do this but it’l likely result in ALOT of salt and hate comments, plus it’s probably kinda boring to do, but hey, it’s still an option.
- You can randomly enter the Rites stance during a chase and survivors will probably freak out and bob and weave thinking you’re trying hit them with Punishment, but in reality they’re just losing distance on you. If the survivor isin’t falling for it,you might wanna actually go for a Punishment hit.
- You can place trails around certain interactables and they WON’T despawn quickly, unlike hooks and generators. Things such as lockers,exit gate switches and pallets can be surrounded by trails with no despawning of said trails. Survivors interacting with them WILL trigger the trails if they touch them, too.
- The addons i reccomend the most are Punishment Range increases and Trail duration, and maybe Killer Insinct Duration.
- Sometimes the Punishment attack for some reason goes on top of obstacles and it might actually result in it missing in a situation it would have hit the survivor otherwise. Will probably be fixed on release.
- Pyramid Head is very bad at Geometry.
- Pyramid Head likes to donate to Charity.
- Pyramid Head’s favorite color is pink.
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