Your Favorite Strategies as Killer?
Intro
New to the forums--hello everyone! Sort of new to the game as well, approaching 1k hour mark as a 90:10 killer:survivor player. I play on PC. English isn't the best so apologies from here on out.
I've played all the killers except spirit, and ultimately landed on Hillbilly as my go-to killer. I haven't indulged in much content posted online. However, after looking at the game's website and sifting through some content (old & new) I feel this is the best place to discuss the game as it seems there are quite a few highly educated members--including the game's developers, that contribute information regarding this awesome & puzzling game. I feel this is the best place to go to for questions and answers as a result. I also have most perks unlocked for killers.
Question
I'm just getting 0k-1k more often lately. I'm used to being shocked at a 2k as it wasn't good enough, but I'll gladly take that now . To be truthful, I love playing against good survivors. It's very engaging and difficult which I prefer. It makes for very busy game play. I can tell the difference between good and bad survivors so I don't really count the games anymore if they're easy.
I'm curious what strategies some of you use as killers against competitive teams that play at a high level. I understand how maps affect strategies depending on the killer's power as well. I'm also aware that the survivor's plans can change my approach, like if they're aggressive, safe, & efficient. How do you all handle yourselves? What is your favorite killer, build, and strategy?
For me:
Hillbilly: Chainsaw hits are very satisfying,. Indoor maps are pretty tough for me if the survivors are decent in their understanding of the layout. I'm also now getting survivors who bring map offerings frequently. Maps are usually: "The Game", "Mount Ormond Resort", "Bedlam Pre-Schools", & "Raccoon City Police Department" which increases the difficulty I feel. "Lery's Mental Institute" can be tough but no one really brings offerings for it so that's nice.
Perks: I currently use: Infectious Fright, Barbecue and Chille/Enduring, Tinkerer, & Shadowborn. I'm debating Tinkerer recently because the survivors will already be moving away from generators. It does work sometimes in the middle of a chase however as I am undetectable so they make small mistakes. Barbecue is for bloodpoints mainly.
Addons: I like Tuned Carburetor and Mother's Helpers because the reduced charge time is nice. The other addons I use are the overheating ones. I haven't messed with the others too much.
Strategy: I enjoy roaming the map and finding survivors caught out. I like to start and finish chases. Especially with my power (chainsaw in my case) if possible to help shorten the chase & ignore "Dead Hard". However if I notice they run to areas that I sense are very safe like buildings, I'll break it off for another chase because it might take too much time. Sometimes if a chase has gone on for too longer I will stop as well since the generators do not take long to finish.
Side Note
I typically get a lot of hooks regardless of 0k-1k. It's just that I'm not able to maintain pressure on generator completion or the hooks don't mean much. I don't typically camp, although I will proxy camp if I sense survivors around. I don't focus a survivor in particular either--unless I just keep running into them. I've seen on here that a killer like Hillbilly is lower tier. Maybe this has something to do with it.
The potential of the perk "Dead Hard" has become very pronounced too. I'm starting to understand the frustration of it. As your long chase comes to a close it gets longer. Another perk that's apparent, "Circle of Healing", is noticeable in its application & may have something to do with the trouble I'm experiencing. Both of these perks appear to be a big deal for others from what I've noticed here recently.
Maybe my favorite killer is simply not viable for the game at this point idk but any input will be interesting to hear.
Thank you for reading
Comments
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"I'm just getting 0k-1k more often lately. I'm used to being shocked at a 2k as it wasn't good enough, but I'll gladly take that now . To be truthful, I love playing against good survivors. It's very engaging and difficult which I prefer. It makes for very busy game play. I can tell the difference between good and bad survivors so I don't really count the games anymore if they're easy."
This yesterday and pretty much all days before that (have had the game since 2017) have been almost ONLY 4ks but today i have struggled REALLY hard to get even a 2k... and i just dont know whats going on
i mean if they have CoH there isnt much you can do besides basically chasing one down and maybe snag a hit on someone else...
no point in injuring all 4 since they are all full healed after 30 seconds
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Thats crazy it sounds both of our problems are similar. I think I saw a post of yours about Twins and gen pressure.
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A few general tips that work on most/all killers:
- Use perks that enhance the strengths of your killer, don't try to shore up weaknesses. Use aura reading+instadown on Nurse, for example, or Discordance on Nemesis.
- At the start of the game, immediately head for gen closest to the gate furthest away from you while keeping your eyes open. 9/10 times, someone spawned there and you'll get an early chase, often on multiple people.
- Against CoH, you may need to engage in a bit of proxy camping to focus the game into a different area of the map. On M1/attrition killers, run instadown perks, Plaything etc. It's a dumb, overpowered perk.
- However, booners are creatures of habit. They'll almost always try to relight the same totem. Use this against them.
- Some maps have stupid, broken boon spots (RPD library, Eyrie second floor etc.) where they can cover half the map and be a huge time-sink to snuff. Anticipate boons in these places and snuff them whenever you pass by...that's about the best you can do.
- Attrition based killers struggle against COH - you'll probably have to slug a bit.
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My most played killers are Nurse, Spirit, Hag, Plague, and Trickster.
My builds are fairly common across all of them. I view Corrupt Intervention as mandatory for high level play and I generally only play half the map or a 5 gen. My Hag build is Corrupt/Agitation/PGTW/Forced Penance. Everyone else is Corrupt/PGTW/BBQ/and a flex perk.
My playstyle involves keeping half the map under control and never crossing the halfway point until it's a 3v1 or 2v1. Corrupt Intervention makes this possible regardless of how my early game goes. If you try to play the whole map on maps of this size, survivors win if they actually work on generators. Most survivors are afraid of gens though.
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On your average day I prefer killers like Legion, Spirit and Nemesis and just play mindlessly. I take a build like Lethal Pursuer, BBQ, Agitation Starstruck or Lethal Pursuer, BBQ, No Way Out, NOED. With the new Onryo Scourge Hook, I am looking at seeing if I can incorporate that into this strategy.
When I'm having a tough night is when I bring out Demogorgon. I normally prefer to zone out and chase, but when I bust out Demo I focus more on the "big picture" and become way more territorial. I lean heavily into his portals for objective and map control. I will 100% always run leprose lichen on Demo, but my average build for him is Corrupt, Ruin, Agitation and STBFL. I feel like this gives me maximum flexibility to either play "fair" or be a jerk. Everybody hates Basement Bubba and Basement Hag, but Basement Demo is a different kind of nasty. He is the only killer in the game who can "camp" basement while simultaneously protecting Ruin and being able to harass generators. When I go to a map like Haddonfield, my immediate priority is portaling Ruin and portaling Basement. I will abuse that basement to its fullest.
What can I say, I love watching what the survivors are doing in real time and updating my strategies in real time. Leprose Lichen is like a personal Discord chat with the Entity lol.
Before Circle of Healing, one of my favorite play styles actually was Hit and Run. I had a spicy Wraith build for this, which was his The Beast-Soot which gives him Terror Radius even while cloaked, combined with his Purple movespeed with the perks Coulrophobia, Nurses, Sloppy and Distressing. 90% of the time I took a Midwich offering too lol. This build was nasty because for the most part every action the survivors took was acceptable for me. Typically survivors would run FAR away from my Terror Radius to heal. Normally that'd be annoying, but it's very predictable and when you have an optimal gen setup, it becomes way more annoying for the survivors, especially in 3 gen scenarios. If they choose not to run away and heal, then Nurses would punish them. Worst case scenario, the survivors would never heal. Great survivors actually would do just this, which kinda made me like Legion? But my original idea behind this build was to encourage survivors to give up healing in the first place, because pre-nerf Wraith was actually not a killer to joke around with if you're injured. Sadly Circle of Healing has ruined this :/
If I can give you any advice OP, you might want to look at Fearmonger as a potential way to help deal with Dead Hard. I started using Fearmonger+Tinkerer on Plague and Nurse and I was very happy with how it works out. With Circle of Healing being so common, and Plague receiving some add on changes(Hello, Prayer Tablet!) I mained her for a while and I feel like she thrived in this current environment. Prayer Tablet forces survivors to break themselves on generators, and when they reach 70% I walk sideways and give them a nice little scare.
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Ok heres my two cents. I personally like to play going for lots of chases and try to avoid tunneling and camping, but not every game you can get away with playing that nice. So here comes so general tips as killer and then some advice for billy.
Getting a good start: Survivors often spawn in gens a bit further from you, when you go in direction of a gen try looking aroud all the area so you don't miss a survivor trying to move/hide, pay attention to scratch marks and don't need to get too close to the gen as long as you listen to its progress. If you're using corrupt intervention, don't stick too long near the gens that are protected, you will probably find survivors by just coming back to the gens that were near you.
- When to tunnel(optional, can make you win the game tho):
- 1 - If you get a down at 5 gens, and some1 farms the guy, you can tunnel if you want to get a early DS out or get amazing pressure right off the bat, its up to you tho.
- 2 - If you made some mistakes and lost lots of gens, you might have to try a risky tunnel to get some1 out of the game fast, but if you get DS'ed or take too long to get the down, you might lose the game, its a gamble you have to keep in mind.
- 3 - If you have a mori and some1 is in death hook, since you don't need to pick up, you can just tunnel and mori.
When to camp(optional, can make you win the game tho):
- 1 - When you get 2 or more people in hooks close to each other or basement, or any scenario that can give you massive pressure.
- 2 - When you're not getting any chase/survivors are late for rescue > and the guy on hook is almost hitting second/third stage, you can try to stay around and secure it, that gives you pressure.
- 3 - If you get some1 in the basement as trapper, you can trap all entrances/window.
- 4 - If you get a hook in endgame and you want to try to secure a kill at least.
When to slug:
- When someone has DS or survivors are being extremely altruistic and sticking grouped for too long, especially if you are an instadown killer and/or have infectious fright. Slug can give you massive pressure if you can get away with it, be careful with 3-4 men slugs tho cause someone will probably have unbreakable and can turn the game. Gotta use your game sense to know when its worth trying to slug or not.
Billy:
- 1 - Billy is mostly fun when you're attempting curves, the first thing to do is to go to settings and set your "controller sensitivity" to 100%(even on PC, yes), because for some reason that changes how much you can do the initial curve turn with billy.
- 2 - If you wanna go for curves, you might need at least 1 engraving, otherwise its too easy for the survivor to react and dodge. A good place to start is a green engraving + the overheat addon.
- 3 - I don't recommend tuned carburattor because will make billy 110% mov speed instead of 115%.
- 4 - Watch GTVEL on twitch, hes a billy main and can give you rly good advices and you can learn a lot of billys potential by watching him or good billy mains. And you can learn which playstyle billy can get away with.
Your build:
Billy can usually get away with one or no gen slowdowns perks at all, because of his mobility + instadown he can get loads of pressure. But since you're having trouble, I would recommend trade Tinkerer for Pop Goes the Weasel, or shadowborn if you want. Pop synergizes well with barbecue and billy mobility, and rewards you for the downs you get. Other rly good perk for billy/bubba/myers is bamboozle, you can force pallets to be dropped or get a down rly quick if you use bamboozle well, don't be too predictable tho because the survivors will adapt once they know you have bamboozle.
Well, hope this helps a bit :D Keep practicing and most important, have fun in the process 😋
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Sorry i didn't read any of the essays here.
My personal take?
Try to play for hooks and forget kills as main goal.
I personally try to hook all 4 survivor and then try to go for a second full round of hooks. Then i decide depending on the progress of the trial.
Still multiple gens needed to be done?
- Start hitting downing and hooking on after the other slowly.
All gens done independent of the amount of hooks?
- Take the gate opening points for myself and then either softly try to get more hooks or search for remaining breakable walls and/or dropped pallets for points.
Killer?
- Whatever i feel like/have a daily/tome challenge.
Perks?
- Bbq for points, the rest depending on what i have (no ruin/noed). My personal build on my main oni, bbq, brutal strength (i normally brake all pallets directly), iron maiden and bamboozle. Useless but convenient with faster animations.
I intentionally avoid all camping/tunneling (going to the other side of the map, keeping my distance from a hooked surbivor and ignoring freshly unhooked survivor running into my face) and slug only survivor that are on death hook and run stupidly right into my face and then try to keep it at only one at a time.
This overall playstyle is aimed at a relaxed gameplay to not stress oneself and focusing on BP.
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I like these tips.
- If I understand correctly, basically you are saying to not equip perks with the goal of trying and cover up weaknesses of the killer, but rather to equip perks that enhance your killers kit. If thats the case, I agree with you. I read on here some like to use Spirit Fury/Enduring on Hillbilly but unless it's "The Game" realm I find it largely not as effective for my play style at least. I might try Discordance though, that seems to fit my method.
- I have noticed this myself, with the exception of the exit gate as a marker. It sounds like it is good advice. Sometimes survivors spawn very close and the action starts immediately, but this is rare unfortunately.
- I like this tip. It is smart to bring the pressure away from the totem to put pressure via the hooked survivor by forcing them to my area, away from the totem if I am understanding you.
- Haha I have noticed this! Ill try to remember to try and take advantage of popular totem lit or snuffed.
- It can be very strong and difficult to deal with boons on those maps for sure. Sometimes when I hear the faint sound on RPD I sigh slightly knowing I have to navigate around the corridors, to the stairs, and back to the area above/below to find it.
- This advise I believe I am having trouble understanding, but maybe not. By attrition, do you mean slowly hurting like basic attack instead of instantly downing them? This would make sense to me but I might be wrong so please correct me if I'm wrong. Finally, I defenitely do not take advantage of slugging enough I feel. It would make sense though because I could slug, go chase with info from infectious fright, and that would force another survivor to go get the downed survivor. Hopefully I could down the other person I started chasing before the other get's healed up. I like this actually.. it seems like a good delay for the game by having 3 survivors busy. A slight delay most likely, but still better than the alternative of just hooking and looking for another survivor.
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I like your strategy. I can't speak well of Spirit or Nurse, as I don't have enough experience but I can sense their potential. Plaguge, Hag, and Trickster are very fun. I think I understand the value of Corrupt Intervention. That sounds conveinent to limit the map in the beginning and could really help with early game threat. I used to think it was to help you just find survivors so thank you for this tip. I could see PGTW getting better value in the confined space as well assometimes it does not work so well when the area is bigger and becomes an incontinence when you're in an area with no generators left/started. Ill have to try corrupt on Hillbilly again and test this out. Thank you
Edit: Forced Penance seems like a good response to altruism. WIll have to unlock it and test it out.
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ping pong strat. I mean it feels like you ping pong or you lose.
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I like that perk combination for a relaxing game. I feel like you wouldn't be spending so much energy looking for the survivors which sounds nice. + You can punish with agitation/starstruck without having to apply much effort for your earned down.
Legion is very fast paced like Hillbilly, I like his style. Spirit I havent played yet. Nemesis does pretty good with the tentacle and does better than Hillbilly when dealing with pallets the zombies can be very effective sometimes--my favorite addons for him are the zombie ones.
I actually really enjoyed Demogorgon. I must admit I have not tried that addon. For awhile I played without addons in mind to get a good feel of the killer before modifying their kit. After looking at it, that addon seems very unique and powerful in terms of gathering intel. He is very fun. Those shreds you can land as your chasing someone around shack, and at the very moment they almost make it through the window you get them is very satisfying. I'm gonna have to give him another go with your tips, it sounds like a lot of fun. I do have STBFL but I did not think to run it ever. What do you suggest for portal placement/timings btw? I usually find myself 50/50 using them or not using them.
That Wraith build and play style sounds like youre the reason they introduced CoH! Joking aside, that sounds very effective. I don't know what wraith was like pre-nerf. That sounds agonizing to deal with.,
I will keep Fearmonger in mind, it sounds interesting. Plague is also a very good staller with them always being sick while trying to avoid you. Ill have to look into that addon as well.
Thanks!
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I main Mikey. Often I find the three gen strat works, particularly on big maps. If you're not playing a mobile killer and you get the big maps like Cowhsed, Red Forest, Ormond etc its just not feasible to patrol the entire map and try and pressure all the gens.
So I pick a section of the map to defend. Its wins me most of my games.
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Don't get too humiliated by the 16-4 perk advantage.
As Oni, I use to try and keep them all injured to help with my power, but boon totems have put a slight squeeze on that. Slugging is probably his best outboard but the red rank swfs have a way around that too 😅
Genuinely just play it as it comes and expect to be beaten.
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I definitely need to practice slugging technique more. It sounds like it could change the game sometimes.
I appreciate the Hillbilly tips and had no idea about the controller sensitivity affecting curving regardless if not using a controller! Haven't messed with engravings because of the increased charge time but that makes sense to reduce the reaction time of the survivor--Ill have to try it out.
I agree with the build ideas. I didnt realize the PGTW/BBQ synergy actually, that sounds good. I just recently unlocked Bamboozle so Ill give it a try with that in mind. Ill check GTVEL sometime too.
Sometimes the frustration makes you forget what its all about, fun! Always good to be reminded that's the goal so ty
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thats honestly great advice. I can see Myers being a big threat protecting 3 generators while reserving 3rd stage of your stalk power. That makes sense to do on those big maps as well. Tyvm
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Sometimes its nice to just relax and play for the hooks & bp. Sometimes I find myself switching to this mode as well. Thank you for sharing
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😂 Sometimes I forget I am 1 against many.
Oni is another killer I am inexperienced but can sense good potential. I feel like he could be very hard to deal with.
Genuinely just play it as it comes and expect to be beaten.
I like this. Let the game tell you what to do, and expect the worst so you're prepared if I understand you correctly. Thanks for sharing
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Yeah. Attrition killers are ones with a lot of mobility, but a lack of sustained pressure on one person (they instead focus on damaging a lot of people) - generally getting one hit easily and struggling for the second. Wraith, Legion and Hag are the easiest examples. They struggle the most against CoH. On them, I find that I have to slug a bit in order to try for a snowball, because CoH allows them all to heal up so easily. Infectious is a great slugging tool on killers like Oni, Myers and Plague - slug one, chase the second and you've taken 2-3 people off gens. If you down person two, head back, pick up the first - and sometimes you'll find a third to chase healing them.
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I understand what you mean by "attrition based killres" now., thanks.
I've been trying out slugging since I normally run Infectious Fright on Hillbilly anyways (initially for flashlight/sabbo squads & quickly realized its +value vs lightborn), and it does take some sense of whether or not its the right time to do so. & wow, im glad I have been implementing slugging as a technique. It can make a significant difference. I like how it basically requires 3 survivors time, reducing their spread & effectively slowing down their game. I've gotten some huge momentum swings when the game wasn't going my way at all, especially on unfavorable maps. I notice its a high risk but high rewards. Seldom I've lost more pressure than I would have had I just hooked them, since I feel confident on being efficient as a killer, knowing what trades (if that makes sense) to take, ignore, or back out of--with the goal of winning obviously but at worst breaking even.
Also, I have been critisized for the technique however, but I do not see it as a reason to get upset.
P.s. Thank you for your time, tips, and kindess. It is really appreciated 😎. I got back to others but I am not sure if it is normal to just drop a message and then abandon the conversation regardless of being replied to on this forum.
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PLAY DOC... idk why you would, but he's fun imo, lol
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One of my favorite strategies is to use my crouch/dash attack mid-chase as Pig. It's a lesser known part of her gameplay that some people know the counterplay to, and some don't. It's basically impossible to play her in that way if the survivors drop the pallet early.
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My preferred strategy is to switch to survivor or play other games
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Really nice post. Well done. Unfortunately Billy is my least played killer so I cant offer much in his regard. You did come to the right place though as there are SOME highly intelligent members on here.
As for me IMO against efficient teams I rely on keeping pressure on the team by getting fast downs. For instance you have one on hook and have another downed before/as they are rescuing the first down. This is keeping one on hook, one rescuing, and one in chase minimum. The killer chosen should be the ones you best get downs with quickly.
Clown, Nemesis, Freddy, Huntress are some of my main killers for this. This would be different for everyone I would imagine.
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I don't think I see Pigs doing that often, I'll have to try that out next time im playing Pig. Did this used to be stronger, I hear Pig has been nerfed quite a bit & wonder if that part of her was better?
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I hear hes pretty good with the new Dead Mans Switch + Scourge Hook: Pain Ressonance + something to increase terror radius I believe? On smaller maps that could be very fun for the Doctor, and tough for his "patients" 😁
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Her dash and crouch have never been nerfed, but they've never been buffed despite it being a simple change that everyone wants. So instead of buffing her that way, the devs just expect us to run 2 add-ons together to make her dash playable. And one of those add-ons actually increases her charge time, which is the same bad design you see with the chainsaw killers.
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