The Most Killer Perks in Dead By Daylight

What we like about Dead by Daylight is its asymmetrical nature. Many other games strive for perfect balance, but this one embraces the imbalance that’s innate to it. One versus four – is that fair? Sure, especially when that one is a killer armed with a weapon, a power, and a perk. And that last part is what we’d like to talk about today: what are the best DbD killer perks?

Picking the right one makes all the difference – it’s what turns a clumsy game of hide-and-seek into a sinister, merciless manhunt. What’s great about perks is that they can actually be used by all killers, not just the one that they come with. But that takes some time and grinding, since making a killer’s bonuses usable by others requires prestiging the killer. If you want to be free to choose any killer-perk combination, either take a week off and just play the game or consider using professional DbD boosting. Either way, you should be comfortable with the choice of bonuses you have for your characters.

So before we give you our take on the five best killer perks in DbD, let’s define what “good” really means in this context.

What are killer perks in DBD?

Just to make sure we’re on the same page, let’s clarify exactly what we’re comparing. Killers in DBD have two types of bonuses: perks and powers. The former is what we’re focusing on here: these bonuses are usually passive, although they can sometimes be active. Each killer has three unique ones.

Powers, on the other hand, are what killers have instead of survivors’ items. Each killer has one unique power, and it defines their core gameplay mechanics. Powers are NOT what we’re discussing in this article.

So with that out of the way, let’s talk about the principles we’ll use to compare the best perks for killer characters in DbD.

What makes a good killer perk?

First things first, each killer has one ultimate goal: prevent survivors from escaping. If a perk helps them do that more effectively, it surely is great. Measuring which of them does that best takes lots of statistics, so here’s what we’ve taken into consideration:

• How often it’s picked
• How successful the related killer is on average
• How often it’s is mentioned in community discussions

Let’s break down each of these.

How often is the perk picked?

If players keep picking it over and over, there seems to be a pattern. They wouldn’t do it that often if it were plain bad, right? It makes sense that players choose what they like: that means it’s fun to use and there’s hardly anything confusing or annoying about it.

On top of that, they likely believe this bonus helps them perform better. After all, DbD is a competitive game, so if you keep losing with a particular loadout, you just stop sticking to it.

How successful is the related killer?

We compare two things here: how often the killer is picked and how often it lands multiple kills. Popularity is important because if a largely forgotten character has an overpowered perk, it won’t see much play anyway. No one picks it for a reason which means that even this imbalanced bonus can’t be its saving grace. Imagine giving a nuke to a snail. A nuke is surely effective, but does it really matter if it’s given to a snail?

So, the killer’s pick rate must be at least somewhat decent – above 2%. And if it is, what matters next is how successful it is in general. What are its kill stats? How often does it secure at least one kill? How often does it land all 4? The more kills a character does, the more successful it is.

Granted, you can actually use unique bonuses (despite their name) for other killers – but on average most players will use it with the one they originally came from.

How often is the perk mentioned in the community?

The community is the collective mind of the Dead by Daylight playerbase, and it reflects all kinds of attitudes and preferences. Opinions vary widely: while casual players keep picking Animatronic simply because it looks familiar, the hardcore crowd debates whether Artist or Nemesis has the stronger traits.

This kaleidoscope of ideas can’t be fully taken into account. But we don’t claim to have done that – but we did study several major threads on Reddit, read popular guides, and analyze ranking lists on some major videogame media outlets. That gave us a solid understanding of what’s generally viewed as the best killer perks in DbD in 2025 – so let’s move on to our findings.

DbD Killer Perks Ranked – Highest 5

Here’s our brief DbD killer perks tier list – based on three things: the killer’s popularity, the perk’s pick rate, and the community’s praise. We’ll start with number 5 and count down to one. So let’s begin with…

#5. Dead Man’s Switch

Killer: Deathslinger

What makes it good:

Hooking survivors becomes much more rewarding with this perk, as it can block a generator from being repaired for nearly a minute. This is how it works:

1. You hook a survivor
2. Other survivors keep repairing generators
3. One of them stops repairing for whatever reason
4. The generator they were working on becomes blocked
5. Survivors can’t resume repairing it for 40-50 seconds (depends on the tier)

So the first paused generator becomes an unpleasant obstacle for the survivor team and gives you lots of extra time to use it as a pressure point. Even better, it activates after every hooking, so it’s possible to make use of it multiple times during one match.

#4. Lethal Pursuer

Killer: Nemesis

Those cunning, nimble survivors keep scattering like cockroaches, and locating them isn’t always easy. Lethal Pursier helps you with intel: right at the beginning of a trial (i.e. a match), you get to see all survivors’ auras for up to 9 seconds. That can help you position better right from the start.

What’s more, all the events revealing survivors’ auras are extended by 2 seconds. That helps you track your victims with much less guesswork.

#3. Corrupt Intervention

Killer: Plague

Alright, so the previous two perks taught us two things:

1. Blocking generators is cool
2. If the effect kicks in right at the start is also great

Well, guess what? The Plague decided not to choose one – it took both. When a trial starts, three generators get blocked right away. Not random ones though – the ones furthest from you. And what’s particularly cruel towards survivors is that the effect lasts for more than a minute: 80, 100, and 120 seconds respectively for each tier.

That gives you a serious positioning advantage. You can just focus on the two closest generators, because they are the only ones survivors can work on during that time. What can cancel the effect is putting one survivor into the dying state – i.e. hitting them twice. But that’s only fair: if the blocking effect helped you catch at least one player, we’d say it played its part well.

#2. Barbecue & Chilli

Killer: Cannibal

Bubba Sawyer (the Cannibal’s real name, if you can call it that) is a man of many talents – one of them is bringing people together. Whenever you hook a survivor, you have a great chance to learn the others’ whereabouts. Their auras are revealed for as long as 5 seconds. That means that it’s easier to bring them to where the party is!

The only catch is that they must be at least 60, 50, or 40 meters away from the hook (depending on the tier). If the poor things are reckless enough to flock around the hook, they won’t be highlighted – but they’ll be right within your reach. Either way, you’ll get valuable tactical intel on the remaining targets.

#1. Pop Goes the Wheezle

Killer: Clown

Adding insult to injury – this is how you can sum up this perk. First, you hook a survivor – this is obviously an injury. Then the effect activates, giving you a 35-45 second window to reach any generator and damage it, regressing its progress by 20% – this is an insult.

Of course, it works for every hooking, so if you use this generator regression strategically, you can make it nearly impossible for your victims to ever get any energy source running. 

So that wraps up our ranking. Mind you that the idea is not to show that all other perks are useless or are objectively inferior. Not at all. The meta changes all the time, so what’s hot and strong today, might be much less so tomorrow. Also, a lot depends on how confident you are with your favorite killer – and how sharp your killer instincts are.

So even though the bonuses listed above are definitely a handful of the best options and you shouldn’t overlook them, they are not the only ones worth using. Learn what works best for you personally – and there’ll be no entity capable of stopping your killing spree in Dead by Daylight.