How much skill does survivor take, compared to killer?

Acesthetiic

Just curious to know! Explain if you’d like.

NuclearBurrito

A lot

depends on the Killer used for comparison of course. But in general there is a harder initial learning curve for Survivors, while the Skill requirement for most Killers is more backended.

In otherwords:

While Killers are easy to learn but hard to master, Survivor is just hard in general.

This results in low ranks being much easier for Killer than Survivor, while if Survivor was easier to play it would be the other way around.

And the same deal at high ranks. Getting into red ranks has a sudden difficulty spike since you start facing the Survivors that actually have mastered the role, so the simple brute force tactics that would work up until green, maybe purple ranks suddenly stop working and now you need to figure out red glow mindgames, juggling, advanced power usages ect ect ect.

This also shows with the exceptions such as Nurse, Spirit, Hag and Huntress who are for various reasons harder to play as than the average Killer (Nurse and Huntress are more precise while Spirit and Hag take more planning to use properly) but preform disproportionately well at high ranks compared to other Killers.

Compare Killers like Leatherface or Clown who can easily stomp on noobs but struggle when dealing with optimal Survivors.

Raptorrotas

Somewhat more

Might sound somewhat weird coming from me, but being a good survivor is probably a bit harder than being an average killer.

For killers, theres a limit on how much your skill can influence the killers kit, adding a limit depending on your killer choice. For maximum "killer role potential" youd need to be good at the game and choose a high tier killer.

For survivors theres no such hard limit. Your skill is the most influence on your performance. Both potatoes and depip god squads have the same tools at their disposal.

But remember, this is a 4v1, even if it's easier to get into liller, doesnt mean thats favoring them.

Edit: before anyone calls me out on it, yes bad teammates will obviously influence your performance.

Raven014

Very little

It's skill of a different type, but still way less and much easier skill to acquire than killer skill.

Luigifan64

The same

https://forum.deadbydaylight.com/en/discussion/98405/how-much-skill-does-survivor-take-compared-to-killer

About the same, the only difference being (now more than ever with Dedicated Servers) that Survivor is more likely to be ######### over by bullshit. Hitboxes, laggy skillchecks, sounds bugging out, ect; I’ve had way more f-you moments as survivor than I have with killer. So I guess in a sense killer is easier, but if the game worked how it was supposed to I’d say it’s similar. Although saying that though, killer is far too easy if you run stuff like Ruin, Pop Goes the Braincell, or Sloppy together; you don’t even have to try winning at that point.

Slayer192845

A lot

As somebody who plays both sides I'm answering from my experience, the only reason I find killer to be a lot easier is because I am controlling how my match goes, as a survivor I'm relying on three other players to be at least decent provided I am playing solo and if I am playing survive with friends, I'm playing with my friends... and my friends (sorry if you're reading this lmao) aren't the greatest players compared to me (not being an ass about it, just making a simple observation) and with the new matchmaking system my rank 8-12 friends get pulled into matches with rank 1-4 killers

Awakey

Somewhat less

Not by a lot, there's just less to learn as a Survivor.

MrPenguin

Somewhat less

It doesn't take no skill, but all you really have to learn as survivor is hold m1, learn gen locations, when to save, and how to waste the killers time. Learn that and you'll be fine. As survivor I feel pretty relaxed unless its a Spirit or certain really strong add-ons.

Killers have to deal with 4 people instead of 1, cut chases short, learn their specific killers power, mind game, know where survivors will most likely be, when to drop chase, and know when to slug or patrol a certain area to keep up pressure like the hook or a gen.

If you mess up as a survivor, you might get punished and have a myriad of second chance perks to make your life easier as well as teammates to help. Killers mess up and the games over and you might have noed if they didn't cleanse, and then they break the hex and get the save anyway if you did.

This is just at a basic level, there's more to each role of course but these are some of the main skills that you can get by on. This is my experience in the game at least.

Rezblaze

The same

Here's my hot take.

The issue with killer side isn't skill. There isn't much skill a Killer can do because usually mechanics are so limited.

It's a matter of efficiency. Low rank survivors are lacking skill and knowledge and are easy for the killer. But as the Killer approaches red ranks, efficiency spikes for survivors and the Killer has no way to make up for it.

Mind games are about tricking people, which doesn't take my skill, just know how and trying to get the survivor to make a slip up. Unless you're Huntress, Billy, Nurse, Demogorgon, or Freddy, there's a lot more skill and strategy involved. But for most killers, you simply don't have the ability to be skilled, and yet they're expected to keep up with survivors at peak efficiency.

andyollolloll

Somewhat less

I'll play survior when I need a rest, the intense juggling of a killer can only be done for a few games and not first thing in a morning over a hot coffee

LordRegal

Somewhat less

Survivor has a higher skill floor but a much lower skill ceiling. I’m absolutely ######### at looping but I’ve been to rank 1 multiple times and excel at losing the killer. Killer meanwhile gets more and more stressful the higher up you go in ranks, and knowing how to play each map optimally as a killer to keep up with optimal survivors is harder than becoming an optimal survivor.

Yung_Slug

Somewhat less

Still a pretty potato Survivor but I can make it to rank 1 Survivor much easier than rank 1 Killer.

gaydavidking

Very little

The only things survivors have to do compared to killers is 1) work on gens so just hold m1, 2) hide when terror radius gets near, and 3) run around a rock a few times and maybe throw down a pallet or two. None of which requires any mechanical skill like Billy's chainsaw, nurse blinks or Huntress hatchets.

ABannedCat

The same

Depends on whether you are solo or with SWF.

As solo, it can be quite skillful. Lots of prediction regarding your teammates' action is required to be successful as solo. You as a single person needs to be good at evading the killer, be at chases or stealth, while at the same time make sure generators get done at a reasonable pace.

In a 4-man SWF group on the other hand, even a chimpanzee could win 90% of the games. Purely because of communication and coordination. Having infuence on your fellow mates' action, knowing what they are doing, and coordinating your efforts towards a single goal, like a risky unhook, or breaking a 3generator strategy means you as a single entity don't need to be good at the game.