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There’s no reason not to run Spine Chill
Spine Chill pretty much prevents free hits from being out of position and makes sure the Killer has to work to down you. Also, its 6% boost is always nice for nail-biting vaults, gens, totem cleansing and heals.
It’s not quite as flashy as Unbreakable or Adrenaline, but a good Killer will definitely have moments where they notice they’re at a disadvantage because a Survivor is using Spine Chill. It really doesn’t have a downside and gets used consistently every game.
Comments
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Sure there is. It's where your fourth second-chance perk goes.
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Trust me, that 6% isn't exactly doing much. I love Spine Chill but the action speed bonus isn't as good as you're making it out to be.
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Eh, it's still not very appealing to me. There are perks I prefer running instead of Spine Chill.
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I agree Spine Chill is one of the best perks in the game, and it's also a perk that you get good use out of every single game. It completely counters and denies stealth killers of any surprise hits whatsoever, and is also good against Spirit who we all know is a problematic killer. Even if you don't go against a stealth killer, Spine Chill gives you a huge warning of when the killer is coming and plenty of time to get somewhere safe. The 6% action speed bonus is just the cherry on top of an already busted perk. I also see literally no reason to not run Spine Chill (if you're just trying to win with the best perks possible).
I've said the same about Iron Will. I can't think of a scenario in-game where you wouldn't want it. Having the Iron Will + Spine Chill combo makes it literal hell for killers, as both of them effectively counter the strengths of so many killers. It's obviously different in a SWF, but I honestly think the best build for solo survivor is Iron Will, Spine Chill, Kindred, and one flex slot to suit your preference.
I'm honestly surprised we don't see more complaints about Spine Chill because I really do think it's lowkey one of the most OP perks in the game.
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yea there is, there are better perks than spine chill, spine chill does not fit every build and spine chill increase skill checks which can be frustrating against a killer like doctor.
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Every killer moonwalks to a gen according to the answers you get here. I'll never understand how some players defend spine chill against stealth killers. Especially Ghostface get hard countered by this perk.
It's always good choice but too good against stealth imo.
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The action speed buff is only meaningful if you do the Spine Chill + Resilience vault speed combo, otherwise it's useless.
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Remember a time when Selfcare was top tier and Spine Chill was junk?
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1.) Speed bonus not that much. And if the Killer is looking at you long enough to make that boost meaningful, you better be running.
2.) It has downsides - you don't know which direction the Killer is facing you from. On maps where you have 2 paths to choose from, that's literally a 50/50. (See: almost every area in an indoor map.) On outdoor maps, unless you're relatively in the open (which can have its own problems), you still have the same thing: you don't know from what angle the Killer is approaching unless they're in LOS. Which, lbr, if the Killer is in clear LOS, it's not SC keeping them from getting a down. SC 'flickers' and for nervy SC users, those flickers are pretty much free pressure for the Killer. It takes a lot of game sense to get real use out of the SC. As with the 2 points before 'nervy' SC users are as likely to run into the Killer as not and that is .... more free pressure. On maps with two floors, SC is even more uncertain as the Killer can be on a different floor and SC will 'flicker' or stay lit up even tho the surv is in no immediate peril.
Combined with a perk like Bond and Resilience, SC can have more utility to the average surv. But hey that means they only have one slot for something else which should be a blessing.
Unless they're really good at looping and have excellent game sense, then the Killer might be in trouble. But no one says you have to chase that surv.
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Back in the day both of them where meta, with SB
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Nah, there was a time you were made fun of for running Spine Chill. It was viewed as a beginner's perk. Maybe during beta days it was consider OP along with Wraith.
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Reason to not run Spine Chill:
#1. I don’t have room for it in my Up the Ante Kobe build
#2. I don’t have room for it in my anti-slugging WGLF support build
#3. Spine Chill? I’m too busy doing appraisals on left behind antiques I’ve plundered
#4. I have eyeballs and ears.. I don’t need some scaredy cat alert lighting up ruining a potentially fun stealth encounter from dark devotion or bursting the bubble of all the little Piggies or Ghostys out there (leaving you out intentionally Wraith… I hear you gurgling that listerine for your date with the nurse from a mile away)
* For the record I’m not actually trashing Spine Chill. Decent perk and to all the people out there that love it… power to ya and rock on my dudes.
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I still remember running Premonition and thinking it was god-tier😆
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I'm the Red Rank Survivor that can infer a ton of information from the perk. And that's the use of Spine Chill that I'm talking about.
I keep track of where I last knew the Killer to be and the likely direction they would come from based on my location in the map/the gens that have been completed, so usually when its lighting up I'm not surprised about where they come from.
Also, I use Spine Chill to be greedy so flickers of the perk don't scare me at all. I use the perk to tell the difference between the Killer chasing someone else in the area and actually knowing where I am and coming to chase me.
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I keep it in my loadout if I decide that ghosting a gen before the Killer gets there is the play. Sometimes I want to draw attention and run them, sometimes I want to be a ninja. SC helps with the ninja bit.
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To add to the conversation
l think it’s a very handy perk for those who arnt comfortable playing injured.
but on the flip side it also encourages to much caution sometimes
how many times have you been on a gen with someone at about 90% and the killer is coming and you are yelling at the other survivor “commit” and they just glide of because of SP and the gen doesn’t get done.
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You should get use of perks in a game. Except for 'high risk, high reward' perks. Unbreak-A-Bill is high risk, high reward. Killer wants to slug? Suddenly you pop up and are gone. Pressure lose Spine Chill is small-to-medium risk, small-to-medium rewards. The amount of of both determined by the survivor's skill.
It does not deny and counter stealth killers entirely. And no, it's mediocre against Spirit.
The warning it give is not huge. Not by any shot.
The reason you don't see more complaints against SC is because the perk itself doesn't have a huge utility. If a surv has to slot 1-2 more perks to make 1 perk good. Then that 1 perk isn't that great.
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Those are two different types of Survivors. The ones who are comfortable playing injured usually hard commit to gens if they think they can finish them.
And the ones that get scared probably didn't even pay attention to the gen progress very closely anyway.
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I agree with your first sentence. Hence why I think Spine Chill is so good, you always get use out of it in every game. Unbreakable is a high reward, but you don't use it every game. Or even every second game. It isn't very consistent.
I'm also not saying it completely counters Spirit. Nothing does. But it does help a decent amount against a killer that is largely unplayable against. Against stealth killers, yeah, it does counter them. The whole point of their stealth is to sneak up and surprise survivors, which you can't do with Spine Chill active. Sure, Wraith can moonwalk and stuff, but what about Ghostface who actually is forced to look at the survivors? Completely countered. Tier 1 Myers who also has to stalk? Spine Chill completely counters that.
If you don't think 36 metres of warning is huge, then I don't know what to say, it's literally a bigger warning than a terror radius. Every extra second you get in this game is crucial, and if you don't think that extra time to get somewhere safe is good, then I can't take what you say seriously.
And no, I didn't say you must use Iron Will with it. I am saying I think both perks are comparable and completely counter so many killers when used together. Spirit is a great example, having both Iron Will + Spine Chill against her will help tremendously. Both are still extremely good when used without the other.
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It's a good perk but not necessary. I used to run it all the time -- it's great against stealth killers -- but, now, I just look around.
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Okay, what if you have no idea where the Killer's last position is?
And to your last point, sure. I've greed'ed a lot of gens that way. But it's not the fault of SC that a Killer, in a chase, doesn't realize that a gen is being done right next to them.
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I used to run spine chill but I am very happy to not use it anymore because it was a bad habit to me. Since I don't use it I learned to be aware and alert of all what happen all around me and not to only be watching if the little cat get on or off.
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Because Spine Chill wasn't necessary since nobody could be undetectable. Wraith was a glimmering mess and most maps were wide open so you could see a killer coming in from miles away. Even back in the day, when Spine Chill wasn't necessary, it was still seen as way better of a perk than Premonition. You legit got made fun of if you ran Premonition and that still remains true to this day.
Nowadays there's like 5000 indoor maps, a bunch of killers and various ways to become undetectable; there's no reason not to run Spine Chill. Why even think about it when there's a perk that does it all for you. It went from a luxury perk to basically a requirement if you want to be optimal.
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"Flashy" perks just mean perks that have very obvious value. They tend to be the more "in your face" perks that Killers are constantly reminded of because they have extremely high value when the opportunity arises. Think Soul Guard, Power Struggle, Unbreakable, Decisive Strike, Head On, Dead Hard, Borrowed Time, Deliverance or even Iron Will etc. They're not subtle at all when they get used.
Spine Chill, Bond, Kindred, Detective's Hunch, Resilience, Windows of Opportunity, Inner Strength, Distortion, Desperate Measures or Alert etc. are all examples of powerful perks that might go completely unnoticed by the Killer because they're subtle and don't give the Killer any real visual cues to confirm what you're running. It's not a matter of strength its a matter of discretion.
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Spine chill has become part of my permanent build in the past year.
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I don't think it counters myers for the following reason: he needs LOS. If Myers has LOS on me, I can see Myers. All SC might do in that situation is give a bit more advanced warning. But it does NOT tell me what direction he's stalking me from. The more directions he has, the more I have to check. Sometimes, I might get it in the first direction I look. Other times? I won't. It's only in the first scenerio that he gets slightly less Stalk from me than he might otherwise from a surv who know Myers enough to know that you break LOS immediately with the big white mask staring at you from over a wall/across the way. All of this is something a surv who's checking their surroundings can achieve without the perk. (And doesn't not account for Tombstone Myers at all.)
GF is harder to spot than Myers. I have had way more luck breaking a GF out of stealth when they're camping me, than with SC. SC can inhibit GF some but not as much as Myers.
Wraith - his uncloak lunge is so big that SC is barely a warning. If you know you're facing a Wraith and you're running SC, well, you better start running.
Pig - Stealth is only one weapon in Pig's arsenal. (Please note, I'm not saying that Pig's arsenal is overall excellent). That said, I've seen Pig's trying to camp/stealth get run for 5 gens without anyone running SC.
A 36 meter warning is more hinderance than to help to a inexperienced to medium surv. They will jump off gens at any 'flick' of SC. I know. I've seen it. Which is absolutely free pressure for the Killer. SC takes a lot of game sense and build to use well. I'd think that a welcome change from a slew of surv 'second chance' perks.
Also, SC and Iron Will won't help tremendously against spirit since she can literally stand still and win a chase. (But tbf, Spirit, tho I love to play her, is an entirely different beast.)
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Flashy has multiple definitions. Other definitions from merriam-webster are "momentarily dazzling" and "superficially attractive or impressive," which capture more what I was going for.
I don't use like Decisive Strike, Unbreakable and Adrenaline because I find them unreliable. I prefer consistency every game over the occasional montage worthy play like 25% of the time.
So you'll find me using healing with Inner Strength, getting a head start with Spine Chill, Dead Harding for distance or using Kindred to pull off an uninterrupted save. Not using a Head On into Decisive Strike into Flashbang into Lucky Break meme play.
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On mindful Survivors spine chill is an early start to every possible chase. If nothing else it's a strong indicator when a killer is chasing nearby or coming right at you. Can't even count the number of chases started at maximum distance or times I've used it to do the exact same to the killer.
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Vault speed build would like to have a word with you.
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Yeah, the 6% bonus is only somewhat useful when used with another perk, I never said that Resilience + Spine Chill was bad, but 6% on its own certainly is.
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That's something I will probably never understand about this game, why they continue to leave old, outdated perks in that makes you have to use 2 perks instead of it just being one. Must be the spaghetti code. There are too many perks that need to be combined in this game, it would help the grind a lot as well as the overall gameplay.
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I use the IRL perk 'Awareness' instead.
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I really need to make a habbit to approach gens at a 45 degree angle every time.
So many free hits of people who thought they were safe
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I only run Spine chill when I'm watching something on my other screen. Otherwise, my own situational awareness is perfectly fine and I can just use a better perk.
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Yeah, the 6% isn't all that - especially since it deactivates once the Killer isn't looking in your direction. The nice thing about Spine Chill is that first activation as a visual warning the Killer is somewhere in your vicinity. At that point, you can make a decision on whether to keep pushing the objective or not.
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It's a boring perk that only gives benefit against few killers, I'd rather have fun perks to run then staring at the corner of my screen all game
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