How to have fun playing Killer (It's Possible!)
Ok, I'm coming at you with some hard love.
If you're struggling with Killer and finding yourself leaning towards the road of becoming a Survivor-main or perhaps you've thrown in the towel and given up altogether, this is for YOU!
First, let's start off with one major important and observable fact: playing Survivor is easier than playing Killer from a purely gameplay standpoint.
Why is this significant?
If we're honest, I think most people would agree that we want to 'win' every game, but more importantly, we want the opportunity to win every game. In DbD, there are no official win conditions. Instead, we have to base our performance off of the ranking system if we want some way to measure our performance. We could get into endless debates about ranking. Let's avoid that for the sake of discussion, but let me just say, I do believe the ranking system needs work.
To my point, most people play Survivor because they are experiencing favorable outcomes more often than when they play killer, because playing Killer is way more difficult than playing Survivor, because they want to play with friends, but ultimately because it's just more fun to play. There's more reward with way less work. There's greater potential for favorable outcomes with less pressure. By nature, we want easy, we want victory, we don't like losing (who does?), and we certainly don't like to be made fun of when we have a bad result.
Ok, so here's what I believe separates Survivor-mains from Killer-mains: Mindset.
I'm just going to say it: if you've given up on Killer, you're probably weak-minded. Chances are you're dwelling on all of the negative aspects of playing Killer. You're most likely setting unrealistic expectations for yourself. You're definitely letting the toxic teabagging get to you. As a customer, you're upset about the perceived unbalances of the game. Just negativity all in your head.
Sure, I think a lot of the complaints are valid. I mean personally, I think the game should live up to its namesake. I personally believe escaping a match should be rare; after all, is called DEAD by Daylight.
I also believe that we can all complain until the cows come home, but the reality is as long we continue to play the game and buy the DLC, the devs will see no real justifications for changing the game. You have to complain with your time and money.
If you want to play killer and have fun, here are a few tips to help strengthen your competitive mindset.
1) Pat yourself on the back for wanting to play the hardest aspect of this game. It takes guts to play killer.
2) Stop being unrealistic. Don't insist on getting a 4k every match.
3) Stop dwelling on all of the disadvantages that you have, whatever you perceive them to be. If you get a giant map, just do your best and know that even at your best, some maps are just ridiculous.
4) Accept that maybe you just suck or got out played. Try to pinpoint failures and ways to avoid them. Get better at the game.
5) Practice. See point #4.
6) Don't play by made-up Survivor rules. The survivors that made up those rules are all carrying D-Strike and any other perk that helps them survive. They will body-block, flashlight, borrowed all day without a shred of pity. Show mercy on YOUR terms.
7) Foster the ability to maintain a positive mental attitude during and after the game regardless of the outcome. This is key. You have to strengthen your mental attitude or else you're going to end up a sore loser who always caves under pressure and quits when things get tough. In other words, you'll be a Survivor-main.
8) Ignore Toxic Behavior even when you see it. Toxic people are weak-minded. Imagine the evil of enjoying someone else's misfortune. Don't reciprocate evil for evil.
9) Don't shy a way from a challenge. In fact, embrace difficulty and develop pleasure in the hardship. Say to yourself: "this is going to be ridiculously hard, but that's how I roll".
10) It's just a video game. You know you love it even with all it's bugs and endless controversies.
11) Bonus: create mini victories for yourself in-game. Like little silly goals while you're playing. For example, see how many Survivors you can injure in the first 60 seconds or try to slug one while another is on hook. Just little achievable victories to boost your confidence and help you find the positives. Avoid running Hex perks; there's just something about hearing that explosion and seeing your perk destroyed (except Haunted) that will crush your spirits.
12) Play a variety of Killers. Don't listen to the noise of who's viable. It's better to have experience with multiple kinds of Killers and rotate between them to avoid various map disadvantages. Plus, it definitely makes it interesting and less boring overtime.
Go play killer. It's probably why you bought the game in the first place.
~ Sincerely
A former Survivor-main
Comments
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This is probably the best post I've seen here in a while. Good on you.
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Nice post. I agree with having a positive attitude and remembering it's just a game. Don't let toxic survivor mains ruin your enjoyment of DBD.
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Thank you for this. I usually just go into killer just hoping to at least get some decent BP so I can level up characters, and lately, I've been rushed to defeat pretty easily, but I don't mind overall. I got points, they got points, so we all win. As for the toxic ones, I let em get on with it. Heck, when I'm playing GF I t-bag with them at the oppisite side of a pallet just for the giggles. If I'm going to lose, at least I'm going to have fun doing it!
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This post sucks. The real solution is to quit playing the game until they make things more fair for killer. There are plenty of competitive games that are much more fair.
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This is all so SO true.
Thing is a bunch of people are going to pop in here and aggressively ree about how wrong some of these points are, even though that is not the case.
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Personally, I found 2 ways to enjoy killer now.
- I go full tryhard. Bring the most broken #########, and wreck those little survivor's asses. Enjoy it for as long as it last. Sooner or later its getting nerfed anyway, so why not abuse it?
- I go full meme-y. Bring perks like lightborn, and purposely face towards flashlighters when picking someone up, and laugh at their failing. No one nowadays knows the correct timing for Lightborn, because its a dead perk. I dont care about the outcome in those matches.
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It's kinda stunning that some players consider that in order to have fun playing killer some players seem to need to resort to some sort of group therapy. It would be even more stunning if the players felt they actually need to prepare mentally and emotionally in order to enjoy the game. This game really is quite something else if that's the case.
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Yep it’s game and I play to have fun
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If you're struggling to have fun I suggest you ask yourself what killer you're playing, what map you're playing, the skill of the survivors you're playing, and if you made any mistakes yourself. All of these things can result in you doing worse than you may have. Map is too big and you're not mobile. Map is Lery's as Huntress. Survivors are coordinated and likely SWF. You pushed a survivor the wrong way at a loop, you missed an attack you should've gotten. They used Unbreakable when you would've had them all down.
There's a lot of things that can make you feel better about the pressure you're under. The best way you can enjoy killer is to simply not care about anything. Play to have fun, try and enjoy the chases, don't care if you kill 0 people or 4.
Of course, the reality is if you have to go through that much effort, chances are there's still a bit of a problem, as when you play survivor I bet you don't think about any of that stuff. Maybe you realized you're playing against a good killer or a top tier kill and you disconnect because you aren't having fun.
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I have fun by picking a killer I like, such as Legion, throwing on some fun perks, then not trying hard. It's subjective how to have fun, but that's how I do it.
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Totally agree! I think it's just human nature to take things personally, game or no game. For instance, Toxic Behavior would never be a 'thing' if people didn't react emotionally about it. So sometimes we need a reminder that we're supposed to be having fun no matter the outcome and simply ignore the things that stand against that.
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I love it! 😂🤣
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Really good points!
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Yep, completely agree!
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I'm totally with you. I'm really enjoying anti-healing builds right now. If I can't slow gen pressure down, I'll at least punish healing. You gotta juggle though, but to me, it's more fun to spread the pain around.
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Great advice!
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It's basically all you can do if you're a killer main at this point. I've decided to just play Monster Hunter and hope the game gets to a state I can enjoy it without disregarding match outcomes. Been uninstalled since the Plague chapter so it isn't looking good.
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