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There are a lot of perks to choose from and some are better than others. Which perk fans choose should be based on who they like to play as and cater to their strengths, but here are some strong suggestions for making them the ultimate big bad.

Updated July 29, 2022 by Patrick Armstrong:Dead by Daylight’s most recent patch has changed the meta considerably, forcing new players and veterans alike to reconsider their strategies and adapt to the new landscape. With fewer perks being universally good on every Killer, many players have turned to Killer-specific builds tailored to make the most of a given character. Even so, some perks rise above the rest in terms of overall utility and strength. Here are some of the best in the current meta.

15 Jolt

Putting a Survivor into the Dying State with a basic attack causes all generators within 32 meters to instantly explode (losing 8% of their progression) and start regressing. Jolt was long dismissed as one of the weaker regression perks, but with massive nerfs to Hex: Ruin and other favorites of the former meta, many have begun to reconsider Jolt’s usefulness.

Jolt gives Killers the ability to regress generators without having to travel between them or gamble their regression on Ruin, giving Killers a reliable means of slowing Survivors without needing to frequently break chase and lose pressure. To make the most of the perk, the Killer must have good situational awareness and be able to corral Survivors in desirable areas, however. Mastering such techniques is part of what gives the game such good replay value.

14 Save The Best For Last

Each time the Killer hits a Survivor other than the Obsession with a basic attack, Save the Best for Last gains 1 token, up to a maximum of 8 tokens. For each token the Killer gains a stackable 5% cooldown reduction on successful basic attacks. Hitting the Obsession with a basic attack causes Save the Best for Last to lose 2 tokens.

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A 5% reduction to attack cooldowns may not seem like much, but the 40% reduction provided by max tokens gives Killers extraordinary lethality, allowing them to deal blow after blow to Survivors, resume chase almost instantly, and punish unhooks. Characters like Trapper and Demogorgon get tremendous value out of Save the Best for Last, but almost every Killer can find a place for this perk in their builds.

13 Hex: No One Escapes Death

This perk can function as either a major delay or a last-ditch effort for a few kills. Throughout the map are five Dull Totems. If there is at least one Dull Totem active by the time the Exit Gates start opening this perk will activate, giving the Killer a 4% speed boost and causing all survivors to suffer the Exposed status effect, resulting in them going down in a single hit without needing the Cannibal’s chainsaw.

Hex: No One Escapes Death (NOED) is one of the most notorious perks in the game and for good reason. Survivors who don’t do bones early in the game may find themselves getting snowballed by the Killer thanks to the extreme lethality of this perk. A recent nerf has made NOED’s totem easier to find, but the perk remains powerful.

12 Hex: Devour Hope

Whenever a Survivor is rescued from a hook while the Killer is at least 24 meters away, Hex: Devour Hope receives 1 token. The first 2 tokens grant the Killer a 5% speed boost for 10 seconds. The 3rd token causes all Survivors to suffer from the Exposed status effect. The 5th token grants the Killer the ability to mori every Survivor.

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Few perks are more terrifying than Hex: Devour Hope. As soon as Survivors realize they are Exposed, all work on generators is likely to stop, and the game becomes a mad scramble to find and cleanse Devour. There will be many games in which Devour is cleansed before it can do anything, but if Devour remains standing it can single-handled win the game for the Killer.

11 Hex: Undying

Hex: Undying reveals the auras of all Survivors within 4 meters of a dull totem. Whenever another Hex is cleansed or blessed, its Hex is transferred to Undying’s Totem, disabling Hex: Undying instead. In this way, Hex: Undying acts as a second life for other Hexes.

The cornerstone of any Hex build, Undying gives fragile Hexes a chance to do their work. When paired with perks like Retribution, Thrill of the Hunt, Haunted Ground, or another Hex, Undying can create lose-lose scenarios for Survivors in which cleansing totems is almost as dangerous as leaving them alone.

10 Hex: Pentimento

Unique amongst the Hex perks, Hex: Pentimento allows the Killer to rekindle a cleansed totem, stacking additional detrimental effects for every rekindled totem. The first four rekindled totems impose a 30% speed penalty for repairs, healing, recovery from the Dying State, and Exit Gate opening, respectively. If the fifth and final totem is rekindled, these effects become permanent.

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With some of the most popular regression perks falling out of favor, slowdown perks like Pentimento and Thanatophobia have received new attention. All of Pentimento’s effects are useful, but the 30% repair speed penalty imposed by a single rekindled totem is the most devastating. Pentimento has tremendous synergy with Hex builds, letting the Killer rekindle a totem whenever a Hex falls.

9 Tinkerer

Whenever a generator is repaired to 70% the Killer gets a loud noise notification and gains the Undetectable status effect for 16 seconds, removing their Red Stain and Terror Radius. Tinkerer is one of the best information perks in the game, ensuring that the Killer always knows where to focus their efforts.

Though Tinkerer now only activates once per generator per Trial, it remains powerful, especially in the hands of a high mobility Killer such as Nurse or Blight. Anyone who has ever seen the Blight streaking across the map in pursuit of a Tinkerer notification, descending upon Survivors without warning, understands exactly how deadly this perk is in the right hands.

8 Lethal Pursuer

At the start of the Trial, Lethal Pursuer reveals the auras of all Survivors to the Killer for 9 seconds. This removes any guesswork: the Killer knows immediately which generators are being worked on, which Survivors are working together, and which Survivor to target first.

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Once a niche perk due to its power ending within the first minute of the game, a recent buff now causes Lethal Pursuer to extend the duration of Survivor aura reveals by +2 seconds, giving it added information utility throughout the Trial. Lethal Pursuer helps everyone from the deadliest Nurse to the slowest stealth Killer.

7 Discordance

It’s common practice for Killers to roam between dormant Generators waiting for survivors to come along and fix them. Survivors will often group up on a single Generator to avoid getting seen and repair it before the Killer makes their rounds.

Discordance gives the Killer the ability to see any Generators that are being repaired by two or more survivors up to 128 meters away. Discordance allows the Killer to punish Survivors for grouping up and force misplays as multiple Survivors scramble to escape the same tile. Killers such as the Legion and Cannibal, who benefit from the presence of multiple Survivors, can make Discordance shine.

6 Pop Goes The Weasel

A tricky tactic for Killers is to whittle down Survivors over time and drag out how long the match takes. When the Survivors are in a weakened and vulnerable state, the Killer will go on a killing spree before the exit is unlocked.

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Pop Goes The Weasel is a Killer perk that makes this process much easier. Once the Killer hooks someone they gain the ability to knock back a Generator’s repair progress by 20% of its current progress. Once fighting for first place as one of the best regression perks in the game, Pop was recently nerfed but remains strong and reliable.

5 Overcharge

Damaging a generator causes the next Survivor who interacts with it to face a difficult Skill Check. Failing it results in an additional 5% regression, while succeeding grants no progress. Overcharge increases the generator’s regression speed from 75% to 200% over the course of 30 seconds.

Thanks to its recent buff coupled with the buff to the speed at which Killers damage generators, Overcharge is now one of the strongest and most reliable regression perks in the game. Once a staple of Impossible Skill Check Doctor builds and not much else, Overcharge has finally found its place in the meta without needing the best add-ons to make it work.

4 Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance

Hooking a Survivor on a Scourge Hook causes the generator with the most progress to instantly lose 15% of its progression and start to regress. Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance is no longer quite as strong as it once was since the removal of the loud noise notification and explosion no longer grant the Killer free intel or force Survivors off generators.

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Despite its nerf, Pain Resonance is still incredibly powerful and efficient. Not only does the Killer rob the generator with the most progress of 15% progression, but the Killer can also do so from across the map, continuing to exert pressure elsewhere.

3 No Way Out

For each unique Survivor the Killer hooks, No Way Out gains 1 token. When a Survivor interacts with an Exit Gate Switch, the Killer receives a Loud Noise Notification, and The Entity blocks both Exit Gate Switches for 12 seconds and an additional 12 seconds per Token.

It’s hard to overstate the value of having one minute in which Survivors cannot open the Exit Gates. This effect, combined with the loud noise notification, effectively guarantees the final kill if the Killer closes the hatch, and the time this perk provides to make a last-ditch effort can easily turn defeat into victory. Paired with end game perks such as NOED, Bitter Murmur, Remember Me, and Blood Warden, No Way Out can be a death sentence, especially for solo queue.

2 Deadlock

Whenever a Generator is completed, the Entity blocks the Generator with the most progression for 30 seconds, and the aura of the blocked generator is revealed to the Killer in white. Deadlock acts as a miniature Corrupt Intervention throughout the game, preventing Survivors from finishing their work and giving the Killer time to chase them away.

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Deadlock is one of the single most effective slowdown perks in the current meta, and when paired with Thanatophobia, Hex: Pentimento, and other means of slowing down generators, the Killer can force the Trial to drag on and on, giving them all the time they need to find and dispatch their prey.

1 Corrupt Intervention

Corrupt Intervention blocks the three generators farthest from the Killer at the start of the Trial, preventing Survivors from working on them for 120 seconds and forcing them to move closer to the Killer if they want to work on gens right away. Arguably the best slowdown perk in the previous meta, Corrupt Intervention remains one of the strongest tools in a Killer’s arsenal even after its reworking.

Corrupt now deactivates prematurely when the first Survivor is put into the Dying State, but since the main point of Corrupt is to give Killers (especially set-up Killers like Trapper and Hag) a way to stop Survivors from blowing through the early gens before the Killer can get a foothold, this perk is almost as strong as before, and in light of the nerfs to Ruin, Pop, and Pain Resonance, Corrupt is more important than ever.

Dead by Daylight is currently available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Switch, Stadia, and Mobile.

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