Dead by Daylight – Gameplay Tips for New Players

Useful Tips and Tricks for DBD Noobs

General Tips

Do not double gens before you pop 3 gens. This rule does not apply vs Nurse, Blight, Twins and Spirit or if Prove Thyself is allowed. Prove + Deli should be doubling or Deli + non-toolbox if Prove is not allowed.

• Always take chases away from active gens unless absolutely necessary.
• Always communicate where the chase is and where it is going.
• Always die as far edge map as possible.
• Never die near the basement.
• Learn common addons for each killer and common perks to play around them.
• Practice 1v1s. If you struggle more against one kind of killer, practice 1v1s against them more.
• Learn the limitations of each killer’s power (Nurse cannot blink through edge map walls, etc).

Don’t crouch to hide, most of the time part of your body is more exposed than if you didn’t and it gives you less time to react if the killer does see you than if you are standing because you will be moving slower.

Open exit gates – don’t 99 except for specific times (if someone is being carried just wait until they get hooked or if you get pushed off gate – but communicate when you get pushed off, the gate’s progress).

Don’t be afraid to run. 99% of the game you know where the killer is and what they’re doing, if you are walking you are wasting time that is pivotal and should be getting spent working on gens or healing

Don’t heal next to generators or under hook as often – the killer is more likely to go towards them than behind a wall somewhere a little bit away from them or somewhere else safe.

If you’re healthy, bodyblock for your injured teammates.

Try and pay attention to how maps spawn, tiles are always in the same place. This also goes for which tiles are fillers and which tiles are mazes. Some fillers can only spawn certain kinds of tiles and some mazes can only spawn some kinds of mazes. 

Gens can be easily spotted by the lights above them being easily seen over walls and on indoor maps by lights flickering. You will also notice that gens have certain spawn locations, try to accustom yourself with them. There’s no reason to not be able to find a generator. 

Gens and totems can only spawn in specific spots in tiles, try to pay attention to these things and you’ll start finding gens and totems faster

If you’re having trouble playing against a killer, try to learn a little bit more about their power – you’ll be able to find quite a lot of information about how that killer wants to play so you can try to make that as difficult for them as possible. Learning what the killer wants to do makes playing against that easier. 

It’s up to the survivors to make sure that killer can’t tunnel or camp for free – try to run more anti-tunnel, anti-camping perks or try to bodyblock for an unhooked survivor or just slam gens when someone is getting camped. If a survivor is being camped just work gens or go for 2 or 3 person saves if you need to but don’t unhook too early otherwise you are wasting time. 

Spend more time progressing the game. If someone who isn’t on hook, in chase or healing and is not doing a generator for 30 seconds or more, assume that player is throwing the game.

While in chase, you may notice there are certain spots you can see the killer through (holes in walls, being able to see over certain objects, etc), try to use those to your advantage and they can be found on every map but are in different spots on every map. Macmillan has no holes in the maze tiles nor can you see over them but you can spot these easily on Autohaven and Coldwind maze tiles.

Learn which angles you should hold with your camera and which is the best spot to stand as a survivor to have those angles. Using both the proper camera angles and the checkspots will ensure that your chases are longer.

Chase isn’t the only thing that matters when it comes to playing survivor correctly, you also should be pre-leaving areas and respecting the terror radius. Using this tactic to deny chase is the single most effective thing you can do against almost every single killer regardless of their perks or addons.

Don’t greed for generators or heals, instead leave earlier to prevent yourself from getting hit and if you are healing, instead heal in a safe spot and at a good time so you cannot be interrupted.

Don’t be afraid to walk in chase, not only can this give you time to react to the killer and prevent yourself from being mindgamed but it can also be used to break chase or to make tracking you ever so harder. 

Remember the order of importance for what survivors should be focused on. Once the first is no longer preventable, your goal is to prevent the second, and so forth. Prevent Chase > Prevent Injure > Prevent Down > Prevent Hook > Prevent Death.

Hiding behind trees might seem like a silly idea but many survivors are small enough that if they stand sideways they can position themselves with a tree between them and the killer and not be seen. If you are worried the killer is checking your area, perform a Tap Tech where you very quickly spam and release your Left or Right movement keys so as to not have your character’s legs move forwards or backwards when moving.

If you just started playing Dead by Daylight, look at the guide for new DBD codes. These codes give you items like Charms, Bloodpoints, and Rift Fragments. These are helpful when you start the game. You can use them to level up faster.

Totem Tips

Step #1: Identify the ruleset. Which hex perks could there be? 

List of Hex totems and their revealed time:

• Blood Favor (Early Game)
• Crowd Control (Early Game)
• Devour Hope (Mid/Late Game)
• Haunted Ground (Variant)
• Huntress Lullaby (Early/Mid Game)
• No One Escapes Death (End Game)
• Pentimento (Variant)
• Plaything (Early/Mid Game)
• Retribution (Early Game)
• Ruin (Early Game)
• The Third Seal (Early Game)
• Thrill of the Hunt (Early Game)
• Undying (Early Game)

Step #2: Rule out possible perks.

List of earliest triggers:

• Blood Favor: First hit
• Crowd Control: Fast vault
• Devour Hope: variant
• Haunted Ground: on cleanse
• Huntress Lullaby: First skill check after hook
• No One Escapes Death: Killer speed boost end game
• Pentimento: gen progress slow down
• Plaything First hook
• Retribution: Touching a totem
• Ruin: Let go of gen for one second
• The Third Seal: First hit
• Thrill of the Hunt: Touching a totem
• Undying: Standing next to a dull totem

If haunted ground is allowed only – identify how many lit totems there are:

• 5 Totems Hex

Cleanse 2-3 totems simultaneously as soon as the third person to be hooked enters their chase. If Haunted Grounds is not cleansed, do not continue to cleanse. If it is cleansed, continue to cleanse totems.

• 4 Totems Hex

Cleanse 2-3 totems simultaneously as soon as the third person to be hooked enters their chase. If Haunted Grounds is not cleansed and you do not know additional perks do not continue to cleanse. Otherwise, continue to cleanse.

• 3 Totems Hex

If you are unable to identify any possible perks or hexes:

Do not cleanse until the third person to be hooked enters their chase. If Haunted Grounds is not cleansed and you do not know additional perks do not continue to cleanse. If Haunted Grounds is cleansed, and an additional Hex totem remains, cleanse the last totem.

If you are able to identify at least 1 possible hex or 2 non-hex perks:

Cleanse if there is no Undying + 1/2 more lit hex totems.

• 2 Totems Hex

If you are unable to identify any possible perks or hexes:

• Do not cleanse.

If you are able to identify at least 1 possible hex or 2 non-hex perks:

• Cleanse.

Step #3: (Almost) never cleanse all 5 totems at the same time. So long as there is a possibility that the killer has Pentimento, do not cleanse all 5 totems. 

How to identify there is no Pentimento:

Does the killer have 3 non-hex perks that have been communicated already? 

• If so, no Pentimento.

Does the killer even have a hex perk? 

• If not, no Pentimento.

Does the killer have 5 lit hex totems? 

• If so, no Pentimento.

Does the killer have 4 lit hex totems and 1 additional perk? 

• If so, no Pentimento.

Does the killer have Thrill of the Hunt and a second hex totem? 

• If so, likely Pentimento.

Does the killer have Plaything (pubs)? 

• If so, likely Pentimento.

Is the killer trying to get a down near a cleansed totem? 

• If so, likely Pentimento.

Step #4: Identify if NOED is a possibility. If 3 or fewer perks are known throughout the entire game and you have not been able to precleanse NOED – assume that the killer will have the perk and play around it. 

Step #5: Depending on the ruleset cleanse totems in close succession to each other. Perks like Haunted Ground, Devour Hope, Retribution and Undying will get little to no value if you cleanse multiple totems within a few seconds of each other. Do this to avoid giving the killer much value out of these perks. 

Step #6: Learn the common spawn locations of totems on each Realm, Map, and Tile. Certain realms will always have totems spawn in the same tiles regardless of which of the maps it is on (such as in L/Ts or rocks) and maps will always have only a few spawn locations for each totem. Learn these for each map. 

Step #7: Usually totems will spawn in a V shape to each other. If you are struggling to find 1 or 2 totems, try to use this method to find what tiles the last few could be in.

Cosmetics Tips

Not all cosmetics are created equal and not all characters are created equal. When evaluating the value of a cosmetic or character use these criteria:

• Quality of stealth
• Cost of cosmetic
• Quantity of options
• Visibility (height/width/length)
• Audibility

Each map has a different hue to them use this guide to identify the hue of maps:

• The color of the sky and ground will generally clue you into the corresponding hue.
• If the sky and the ground are different colors, put on a color isolation filter to see which is more dominant.

Different hues to common maps are as follows:

Gray / Blue Maps:

• Macmillan
• RPD
• Springwood
• The Game
• Ormond
• Haddonfield
• Disturbed Ward
• Lerys
• Nostromo Wreckage

Green Maps:

• Autohaven
• Greenville Square
• Red Forest (can wear blue if character has no green as the hue is a blueish green)
• Toba’s Landing

Light Brown / Khaki Maps:

• Coldwind
• Eyrie of Crows
• Garden of Joy
• Shattered Square

Dark Brown Maps:

• Dead Dawg
• Father Campbells Chapel
• Garden of Joy
• Silent Hill
• Yamaoka
• Swamp

Attached is a link with what I would generally consider the best cosmetics for each character:

• Survivor Grading (Google Sheets).

Additional rules of thumb for incremental cosmetic advantages:

• Never run charms. Sometimes charms will appear above your head after your first unhook for the rest of the game.
• Try to avoid red in green, gray, and black cosmetics as they contrast with the map too much.
• Figure out if you’re playing against a Spirit or not to determine if you need to focus more on audibility than blending.

That’s all! I really appreciate it if you’ve made it this far. See you in the game!