Pyramid Head's Power
So I have been playing pyramid head a lot and I am having a fun time with him even if my games aren't successful. I made this thread because I want to know how much in terms of calculation can he do, such as how long does his trails last for by default. Also what are the durations for his add ons, such as how many extra seconds does it give or whatnot. For those people who want to help me or give tips on how to play him in certain maps or in general, please feel free to leave some feedback, I would definitely appreciate it.
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The DBD wiki has a lot of useful info for your calculations. For Tips I dont really know I dont play him that often but I would say try blocking areas that survivors might try to run to before getting into chases.
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Ah forgot about that method I appreciate it. Ima check out that site then.
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This,
Should have the answer to everything you need calculation wise.
In terms of tips to play him, here are some:
- Don't overdo the torment. Forcing a survivor to become tormented can actually take longer than you'd save by caging them later, and it just isn't worth it. Go around a side of the loop once and through the pallet; they either drop it and give you a free hit with Punishment of the Damned (POTD) or they don't, keep looping, and get tormented.
- Only use cages if you can generate lots of pressure. By this I mean in one of two scenarios. Either you can A) Instantly start another chase or B) can split pressure across the map. For example, caging two survivors often sends them to opposite ends of the map, which practically wins you the game. Alternatively, hook one survivor and cage another.
- Don't overcage. To link into the previous point, caging removes your torment, best saved for a Final Judgement. If you're not sure you'll get a ######### ton of value from the cages, don't use them and save the torment for when you can kill the survivor.
- Don't be afraid to use hooking perks. Perks like BBQ and Pop Goes The Weasel are still as good on him as on any other killer, and I'd still wholeheartedly reccommend them. As with the other two points, you'll be hooking quite a bit still.
- Don't break most pallets. Leave them dropped, as you actually get a lot of value from POTD when a survivor is locked into an animation. obviously god pallets, like Shack pallet, have to be broken, however even on The Game you can get around one of the two God pallets using POTD and breaking it isn't needed.
- Use your power before they reach a window or pallet. Provided your sword is in the ground there isn't much the survivor can do. Take the vault/drop? Get hit with POTD. Don't do that? Get hit with M1.
- Fancy through the wall shots? Don't do them. If you hit or miss you get a 4 second cooldown so, as fun as they are (and as much as I do them because holy ######### landing them is satisfying) it can throw you the entire game if you do too many. Only go for shots with POTD you're SURE you can hit until you become good enough to be able to come back from almost throwing the entire game.
I'd reccomend this build on him:
- Infectious Fright
- PGTW
- BBQ
- I'm All Ears
Although IF can be swapped out for Nurse's I feel like IF is much better. I'm All Ears is practically the best perk in the game on him due to wallhacks, enabling so many fancy POTD shots. PGTW is still the best killer perk in the game IMO and BBQ gives information and double bloodpoints :D
In terms of add-ons, I'd suggest Spearhead and Forgotten Videotape (or the upgraded versions, Tablet of the Oppressor and Valteil Sect Photograph). These increase the duration of Rites of Judgement (Spearhead and Tablet) and the reacharge rate (Videotape and Photograph). Alternatively you could always use double range (Wax Doll, Burning Man Photo) but I prefer the others.
Best of luck man; if I think of some more tips I'll send them here.
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Thanks man - this is some good info. Been my main since release but even I got some info out out it.
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Thanks man I appreciate it so much. You gave me a lot of powerful information to work with. I usually run brutal on him because I am bad with his POTD. I will definitely try out those things you mentioned.
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No worries to both of you- I've been playing him a bunch recently and he's so much fun to use :D
Though @Psychobeastz it's kinda funny how you shouldnt break pallets due to the animation lock and you've been running BS lmfao
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I like to dot his trail on singular tiles, like in between pallets, window vaults, doorways on indoor maps. Most of the time, someone will run into it. Trail the shack if they intend to loop it, they'll either leave or be forced to be tormented. Other than that, as above don't use your ranged attack unless they're in an animation or you're certain you can hit it.
I run Surveillance, Ruin, Discordance and Infectious Fright. - Mostly for the best possible start and mid game, just pray ruin lasts a while, Though you can always switch it out for pop or surge. Either way, try and force a 3-gen on one side of the map, if you lose ruin you can still pressure somewhat.
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You still play him? Nice.
From the cage nerf i haven't see any PH.
The cage tunnel was strong.
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One thing a lot of people don't quite know how to use well are the trails. A lot of Killers just carve long, unbroken trails wherever it so well pleases them. This is an extremely inefficient use of your power. Here's some tips to maximize the effectiveness of your trails.
- Hide your trails. Leaving trails in tall grass makes them significantly harder to see, even if Survivors can still hear them.
- Only leave a little at a time. You can only have up to 100 trails in a trial, and they only last for 75 seconds without addons. By spending a large amount of time carving one big long snaking trail, you are both approaching that limit very fast and wasting their lifespan on making more trails. Instead, leave little patches all around the map. This saves time, trails, and you don't spend as long in Judgment mode where you move at 110 speed.
- Don't just use them for Torment. People vastly underestimate the value you get from the Killer Instinct indicator that triggers when a Survivor steps into your trail. This lasts for as long as they're in the trail and for 3 seconds afterwards, even if they were already tormented. If you hide and disperse your trails well, you'll have entire sections of the map where you can basically see Survivors through walls thanks to Killer Instinct. PH has one of the best informational abilities in this game, only really behind Doctor and Legion.
- If you use your trails at a loop, don't overdo it. Put a small little trail in a choke point, and then go right back to chasing. You move at 110 speed while leaving trails and can't turn as effectively, so spending too much time in Judgment mode will hinder you greatly.
When it comes to Torment, there's some things people underestimate about it, and some things people overestimate about it. They certainly save time, but not always, and depending on the location of other Survivors, caging someone might take away your pressure as opposed to giving you more of it. Here's some ideas on when best to cage someone.
- If you down a tormented Survivor near someone who is already hooked, cage them. They will spawn as far away from the hook as possible, meaning the remaining two Survivors need to split the entire team in half to rescue both people. It also saves you much time that could be used to stop a third Survivor from bum-rushing the hooked one.
- Isolating Survivors is good, so if you know everyone is near you and your downed Survivor, cage them. It will take them a lot of time to rescue them. However, in some situations it may be best to send a Survivor to a cage near everyone else. For example, if you down a tormented Survivor in the late game near the remaining 3 or 4 gens, and everyone else has scattered to evade you, cage him. That way, everyone will be concentrated on the side of the map where there aren't any gens, and they can't finish the objective without walking into you.
- If you can cast Final Judgment on a downed Survivor, do it. Very rarely will slugging them to try and bait out teammates be a better strat than just taking an entire Survivor out of the match quickly and painlessly.
- Caging isn't necessarily a good alternative for slugging. If you bring IF and it procs, the Survivors will still be able to get a good chunk of distance on you in the time it takes to cage someone. Don't be afraid to slug as PH. If many Survivors are near, it's better to cage simply so that the Survivor will be far away from all the action.
- Ultimately, you will for sure be hooking more than you will be caging. If you really like Pop or BBQ or Devour Hope, they're still equally viable on PH.
Last but not least, Punishment of the Damned. For brevity's sake, we'll just be calling it a shockwave. The shockwave on paper is extremely good, but in practice, the devs have implemented an egregious number of limitations and telegraphs on its use, making it constantly and incredibly obvious what Pyramid Head is doing. It has an audiovisual telegraph at the start of the animation, an audiovisual telegraph at the end of the animation, the Survivors can hear your sword in the ground when you're moving with it ready, and when you finally attack, PH still takes a bit to pull the sword back and then thrust it forward to then send the shockwave out, making a lot of noise in the process.
Oh yeah and it also tells Survivors exactly where they need to avoid if they don't want to take damage.
All these limitations, combined with the insanely long cooldown if you miss, make the shockwave a very risky attack. Because of this, people prefer to "zone" as PH: Because he still moves considerably faster than a Survivor while channeling a shockwave, and has the ability to lunge straight out of it if you time your M1 right (sometimes referred to as the "Pyramid Head tech"), it's very effective to plant your sword in the ground and make the Survivor think you're going to use your shockwave, but instead go into an M1. However, you have no choice but to balance the two out to play optimally: A good Survivor will see you're never using your shockwave, and they'll stop taking the bait. You need to use your shockwave as well to make yourself less predictable. Zoning is piss easy, but learning to consistently hit shockwaves is, in my opinion, one of the hardest things you can master as a Killer.
And at the end of it all, you have this to look forward to: If you master your shockwave... I mean, it goes through walls. I don't need to say much else, really. You're basically a short-range Nurse with 115 speed. But this will take a lot of time—I myself am still far, far away from hitting this point. Don't get discouraged if you can't hit them well at all. You'll need to devote a lot of time and effort, even if stops you from winning that match. Hell, sometimes if I'm winning, I will throw the game away by never using my M1 and practicing hitting shockwaves on the last 2 Survivors. I gotta practice whenever and wherever I can.
That's his power. What Perks would I recommend on PH, though? Well, I'm still trying to figure out what best works with his power, what best compliments his strengths and covers up his weaknesses, but so far here are my suggestions.
- Save the Best for Last—PH is a very M1-dependent Killer despite the shockwave. However, you can also use this shockwave to save tokens when chasing your obsession.
- Pop Goes the Weasel—This is kind of a given. PH is a low-mobility Killer with poor map control a majority of the time. He needs any stall he can get.
- Corrupt Intervention—On its own this Perk is kind of meh on PH, but combined with Surge, it will help slow the early game down to a significant degree—enough so that, if you chase well, by the time the late game starts to roll around, you are able to cast Final Judgment on most everyone and really start snowballing. This does mean, however, that there will be situations in which you must choose between using a shockwave to end the chase faster, or using an M1 to activate Surge.
- Infectious Fright—This Perk is great mostly on slug Killers, but no matter who you play, its information is very useful. And unlike every other Killer, Pyramid Head can do more than just slug or hook; he can slug, hook, or cage.
- Monitor and Abuse—Combos great with Infectious, but even if you aren't running Infectious, I would strongly advise Monitor. Pyramid Head is a standard 115 32-meter Terror Radius Killer, and the music he comes with makes it very clear how close he is to you. In addition, the noise of his sword dragging along the ground and the space it takes up makes him much easier to see and hear than many other Killers (the giant helmet doesn't help either). Much like his shockwave, PH's presence is very clearly and constantly shown to the Survivors. Monitor puts a nice little dampener on that, making him less easy to hide from.
- Nurse's Calling—You see people healing through walls. You have an attack that goes through walls. Need I say more? Also works well with Monitor.
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Wow that is very impressive. Personally I usually chase survivors with my knife in the ground just to make them think twice or hope they are a potato. You sir have given me new possibilities and scenarios to efficiently play a killer like him. As you say he is a map manipulation killer, so perks that give info or slow down the progress of the survivors are highly beneficial to him. I am still trying to get every perks on him, so it's going to take a while, but eventually I will get there. I noticed an issue not sure its intentional or part of the game, but in one of wraith's map with the broken bus I used my power outside of the bus when the survivor ran inside. The power only reached up to the front of the bus and just stopped. The distance war around 4-6 meters so I guess certain objects with a level cancels your shockwave I guess.
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If the shockwave runs into uneven ground or off a drop, it stops. This also means you can't use it on stairs.
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