Dead By Daylight is a terrifying game with assassins (killers) inspired by iconic horror movie characters. Each assassin has different characteristics that make it unique, such as primary and secondary weapons and special abilities.
We've chosen the most effective assassins, relating the amount of game time and the effort it takes to master each one. Each assassin has its own mechanics to be able to eliminate the survivors.
Nanny
A former nurse who specialized in traversing surfaces using her malevolent powers and chasing survivors. Nothing and no one can hide from her. Nurse is a difficult assassin to master for a beginning player, but very effective.
Weapon: Bone Saw. A good weapon for quick attacks.
Special Weapon: Spencer's Last Breath. Despite being her secondary "weapon", this evil power is more of an ability that allows Nurse to jump into the spirit world (like Wraith), but in successive jumps, called "Blink". It can chain these Blinks in succession until it runs out. They are great for crossing obstacles or attacking survivors by surprise.
Special Skills
- stridor: Nurse can better hear the survivors breathing.
- Thanatophobia: Survivors are slowed in their actions whenever one is dying or captured.
- Nurse's Calling: Whenever a Survivor heals or heals another, Nurse is more likely to detect your Aura.
Tips for playing with Nurse
- After making a Blink, you can immediately attack a Survivor without needing to recover.
- You can use Blink to move up or down from a floor or through walls. Nurse is slow to move, so this skill is essential.
- The best tactic to use with Nurse is to guess where the survivors are going and use Blink to surprise and corner them.
Hillbilly
A well-armed, highly mobile assassin capable of covering great distances in a short time. His chainsaw helps him in his quest, despite being very noisy, which can alert the survivors.
Arma: Hammer
Special Weapon: A Chainsaw. Hillbilly goes into an insane sprint as soon as he activates the chainsaw. He can use this power to attack very quickly.
Special Abilities
- Enduring: Hillbilly is pain resistant, recovering quickly from knockout.
- Lightborn: Less chance of being dazzled by light.
- tinkerer: Whenever a generator is repaired above 85%, the player receives this information, reducing their Terror Radius for a few seconds, which allows them to approach survivors without being noticed.
Tips for playing with Hillbilly
- The chainsaw takes a long time to activate without extras. Use it at the right time.
- The chainsaw sprint, when it hits, puts the survivor in a near-death state.
- Whenever you activate your chainsaw, check to see if it is causing noise that can disguise the survivors' movements and draw action on yourself. Don't do this unnecessarily.
- Despite being a great weapon, the chainsaw is great for running at high speed across maps.
Huntress
She is an expert assassin at detecting and tracking down survivors, attacking them with hurled axes at incredible speed. She can apply pressure to the entire map.
Weapon: Ax
Special Weapon: Throwing Axes. Huntress starts each match with five axes that run out after launch. Can be recharged in Lockers. Keep the launch button pressed for a super strong launch.
Special Skills
- Beast of Prey: Gain more bloodpoints per victim.
- Imperative Territory: Can see the Auras of survivors for a short time.
- Hex: Huntress Lullaby: Huntress emits an evil song that distracts the survivors.
Tips for playing with Huntress
- Throw your axes at the right moment. For example, when survivors drop an obstacle or are jumping out of a window.
- You can use your axes to trick survivors with noise coming from another direction.
Doctor
A dangerous assassin who manages to create an electrical field incapacitating the survivors and causing them to hallucinate and scream in terror. This allows you to hunt them down without mercy.
Arma: Stick with metal spikes
Special Weapon: Carter's Spark. Doctor manages to create an electrical field that makes the survivors lose touch with reality and go mad. You can use this electric field in two ways: Treatment or Punishment. The treatment mode sends a shock around the Doctor. Punishment mode allows you to attack faster. Excessive shock on survivors will cause them to go into dementia, being unable to take any action for a few seconds, which can be taken advantage of by the killer.
Special Skills
- Overwhelming Presence: The Doctor's very presence causes fear in the survivors, rendering them ineffective in their actions.
- Monitor & Abuse: Whenever he is chasing someone, Doctor increases his terror radius.
- over charge: Sabotage a generator, forcing the survivor who tries to repair it to make a very difficult skill check. If it fails, the generator will revert to a later state, causing the survivors to waste a lot of time.
Tips for playing with Doctor
- The electric field in Treatment mode depends on skills and extras that need to be unlocked. This greatly increases the Doctor's power.
- Punishment mode allows the Doctor to move faster, using only the electric shock to momentarily knock out survivors.
- Try to get the survivors to accumulate dementia by getting as close to them as possible. Remember they can hide in closets.
- Wait for the right moment to use your shock in Punishment mode or the survivors will manage to escape.
Shape
The more you chase the survivors, the stronger and faster Shape gets. He is an assassin based on this style of pursuit, being able to choose one of the survivors as an obsession. This makes him earn extra points. His mask is very shiny, which makes him easy to spot, but Shape's playstyle is unique to the game. He is a good assassin for beginning players.
Arma: a huge, sharp kitchen knife. Shape is the only assassin who can kill in one hit.
Special Weapon: Evil Within. Not a weapon, but a state of alert that rises the more he pursues the survivors. He gets faster, stronger and with better detection instincts. Pure Evil has three stages.
Special Skills
- Save The Best For Last: Choose a survivor as your obsession. Each hit dealt to the other survivors increases your attack recovery.
- Play with your food: Choose a survivor as your obsession. Whenever you chase your obsession and let it slip away, Shape picks up speed.
- Dying Light: Choose a survivor as your obsession. Each selfless movement of your obsession increases its speed. However, if you manage to eliminate and sacrifice it, all other survivors lose speed and skill in healing, sabotage, and repair action.
Tips for playing with Shape
- Try to move quickly, using obstacles like trees, rocks and other objects to camouflage and attack at the right moment.
- Try increasing your Evil Within skill to stage 3. This turns Shape into an even more lethal assassin. Remember that Evilt Within increases when Shape pursues its victims.
- Shape is good at chasing victims and jumping over obstacles. Make good use of these advantages.
Pig
An assassin who specializes in tormenting and torturing survivors, Pig is also great at laying ambushes thanks to her short stature and ability to crouch, which turns off her terror ray, leading survivors to mistake her for one of them. Her inverted traps are good area control tools.
Arma: Hidden blade, perfect for a quick kill.
Special weapon: Jigsaw's Baptism. Moving quickly in the darkness, Pig manages to place inverted traps on the map that trap the heads of survivors, who are forced to try to open the trap. If they fail, they are immediately eliminated.
Special Skills
- Hangman's Trick: Destroyed or sabotaged hooks regenerate on their own.
- surveillance: The player can momentarily see the auras of survivors.
- Make your choice: Whenever a Survivor saves another from a hook, this skill will expose them for 40 to 60 seconds. During this time, the survivor can be eliminated in one hit.
Tips for playing with Pig
- Inverted traps are nice, but they're not your main goal. Use them to control the map â survivors trying to open traps aren't ruining totems or sabotaging generators.
- Your ability to crouch and hide is the most effective way to get victims. Crouching, Pig runs out of Terror Ray.
- Try to camouflage yourself in the darkness and catch isolated survivors by surprise.
- Keep moving and create good situations to surprise your enemies.
Also check out our tips for becoming the deadliest assassin in Dead by Daylight!
Switch sides in the game and check out our guide with tips for survivors in Dead by Daylight!
