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How to counter a gen rush

Lately I’ve been playing matches where it seems like all the generators are completed within minutes of the game starting to the point where I can barley get somebody on a hook by the time they’re done. Any killer perk recommendations or builds (other than Hex Ruin) that I can use to slow them down? I’m a rank 14 killer

Answers

  • Fibijean
    Fibijean Member Posts: 8,342
    edited January 2020

    It depends generally on which killer you're using, but basically it's all about putting pressure on the survivors. "Pressure", in the context of DBD, is just another word for forcing them to stop working on generators.

    It sounds like what you're doing wrong is mainly committing to a chase with one survivor for too long, allowing the other three to do generators undisturbed. Playing killer in DBD is all about knowing your own limits and managing your time wisely. If a survivor is running you around for that long, or if they're running a strong loop that you know it's going to take you a long time to catch them on, it's time to abandon the chase and find an easier target. Never be afraid to drop a chase if there's something more worthwhile you could be doing instead.

    One simple way to not only find survivors but also put pressure on them is obviously to patrol the generators. Most survivors won't keep working on a generator if they hear the killer coming, allowing you to at the very least stall progress on the generator momentarily. You can use perks like Overcharge and Surveillance to make patrolling easier, more effective and more time-efficient. Corrupt Intervention is also a good perk as it effectively shrinks the map in the early game.

    Another strategy for applying pressure is the "hit-and-run" technique, which focuses on forcing the survivors to waste time healing or be penalised for staying injured. It typically involves combining the perks Thanatophobia and Sloppy Butcher, which are usually paired with other healing-related perks like Nurse's Calling and sometimes Coulrophobia. This sort of strategy is particularly effective on stealth killers, who are typically not strong around loops but excel at catching survivors off-guard and getting an early first hit.

    The best way to exert pressure on survivors is, of course, getting hooks. If someone is on a hook, at least one other person ought to be trying to save them, which means that half of the team are not doing generators. But getting hooks is mostly a matter of just playing well and ending chases quickly, which is a lot more complicated than just your build and depends a lot on which killer you're playing.

  • The_Meh_Teh
    The_Meh_Teh Member Posts: 136

    Great answer. Sometimes I face the same issue. But the main problem is not being able to find them then when I patrol they get two gens done at once. Craziness.

  • honestlybaffled
    honestlybaffled Member Posts: 175

    At the start of the game, you can easily find someone by walking to the opposite side of the map that you are (usually they'll already be on a gen), then as our friend said, grab something that helps you find them.

    Do not commit on chases for too long, if they drop 1 pallet early, just try to get a hit on them and leave it because everyone will be on a chase as soon as they see that someone just got hit, if you don't end the chase under 20 seconds top, you'll be slapped with 3 gens before you hook your first survivor.

    Don't commit on chases for too long on early game, sometimes mid too (2-3 gens, all 4 alive), if you manage to hurt a few and down one, they'll start healing each other to go for the save, allow them to save, then go for the saver and then the wheels of fate will start turning.

    Don't be afraid to ""tunnel"" if there are 3 gens left and all 4 alive, tunnel the person on death hook, you'd need to take someone out of the game asap if there are only 3 gens left, so that the pressure on YOU will be lifted a little.

    TL;DR: don't overcommit to chases and punish savers lol

  • Nikotiini
    Nikotiini Member Posts: 77

    I recommend using Discordance (A teachable perk for Legion). It highlights a generator's aura if it's being repaired by two survivors.

  • Nikotiini
    Nikotiini Member Posts: 77

    It's also purchasable in the shrine currently, so now's the perfect time to go get it!

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    @CamaroThunder24

    how to counter gen-rushing

    pressure

    You need to exude "pressure" as a Killer, to do this, Killers like Billy, Spirit, etc, can usually down someone in a matter of seconds if they're skilled enough. Why is that? Because of their powers, Billy has an chainsaw that allows him to sprint forward and down any Survivors that're in the healthy or injured state, once hit, they of course go into the dying state.

    For Spirit, she has the ability to phase walk at an incredible rate (a lot faster than her normal movement speed), this allows her to gain a hit on a Survivor and phase walk to them right after for a quick down.

    Killers like these will naturally down Survivors quickly which exudes "pressure" onto the other Survivors to rescue them. More pressure means less Survivors are working on generators to save their teammates, less generators being worked on means a quicker win and less stress on YOU the Killer.

    For other Killers, you'll want to utilize what their powers offer and focus on those aspects, master this and you'll eventually get it down to a T, but some Killers will still struggle with this more than others, so keep that in mind. Not every Killer is equal, some require more effort than others and are less effective the higher you get in the ranks.

    perks

    Since Ruin is being changed soon, you'll either have to use other perks as an alternative or mix up your builds to counter-act gen rushing. Since you're new, it's best to use these builds to help you better understand how every Killer (or a set of Killers) work in the future. Once you're familiar with how a Killer works, than you can start experimenting with other builds OUTSIDE of gen regression... just to mix things up.

    For now though, i'll give a list of a few perks that'll help you fight against "gen rushing". Before I do this though, I just want to say this.

    Perks like NOED that instill dependence within new players is not something I recommend YOU use. If you want to use it than by all means, but I personally think you should avoid NOED all together. Why? Mainly because of that one word I said, "dependence", the perk can cause newer players to grow dependent on it overtime which causes them to eventually have a tougher time without it.

    But besides that, here's a list of some perks you'll want to work on getting for the future:

    • Corrupt Intervention [A Plague perk] (This is one of the few perks that a lot of players will argue is better than pre/post rework Ruin and for good reasons of course! In short, Corrupt Intervention blocks 3 of the farthest generators from your spawn for 80/100/120 seconds depending on the tier it's in. Very useful for monitoring less generators at the start and finding Survivors that spawn at the blocked generators that're far away.)
    • Hex: Huntress Lullaby [A Huntress perk] (When this perk is near max or max tokens it's by far a lot better than Pre-Ruin in some regards, especially when paired with the right perks. Huntresses Lullaby gives a 2%/4%/6% regression penalty for any missed Skill checks when it's active, but what really makes this perk shine is the token build up it can produce. 1 to 4 tokens will cause the skill-check warning notification, which is the audio noise you get before a skill-check appears, to become slightly shorter in its warning for every token that's piled onto the perk. Eventually when you hit 5 tokens the audio warning for any skill-check will not appear anymore, making it harder to focus on skill-checks if a Killer is nearby in a chase or just to focus on it for example.)
    • Hex: Ruin [A Hag perk] (For this explanation, i'll only be talking about the 3.5.0 version that's coming from the PTB soon. The new Ruin now applies a 200% regression bonus to the already normal regression penalty when a generator is kicked, and it does so by damaging the generator immediately after a Survivor gets off it. What this means is, if a Survivor is working on a generator and you walk up to it while they're in a bush or something, than you don't have to waste time kicking the generator, instead you just walk up to it and search for the hiding Survivor while the generator regresses. This opens up a good combo with Discordance and Surveillance, as Surveillance will apply white auras to any damaged Survivors and Discordance gives you a notification for any generators that have 2 or more Survivors on it. Its up to you to decide if this is a good change or not, but if not, than Corrupt Intervention and PGTW is a good alternative.)
    • Pop Goes the Weasel [A Clown perk] (This one is simple, after you hook a Survivor Pop Goes the Weasel will activate. Once active you have 40/50/60 seconds to kick a generator and apply a 25% flat regression penalty to it. Unlike other perks that work off of progressive generator damage, Pop Goes the Weasel or PGTW applies a straight forward 25% debuff to the generator. Meaning if the generator was on 50% and you kick it with PGTW, it'll go down to 25% and than continue with the normal regression rate afterwards. With Pre-Rework Ruin this perk was a deady combo with old Ruin, but now you can't use it with the new Ruin since new Ruin automatically damages any generators once a Survivor or Survivors get off it. So, this perk is now better suited with Corrupt Intervention, as the generators that're not blocked can be kicked with PGTW when it's active. The perk itself is very good without Ruin too, but if you want even more potential with halting generator speed, than it's best to combine it with another gen-stopping perk.)
    • Nurse's Calling [A Nurse perk] (This isn't a gen-stopping perk, but it ties into applying pressure. Simply put, Nurse's Calling will reveal the aura of any Survivors that're healing within 20/22/24 meters of the Killer. So in a sense, you can easily down any injured Survivors that're healing nearby and apply even more pressure by hooking them afterwards to get some Survivors off the generators. Since most teams are not a SWFs, one or more Survivors will come to rescue them.)
    • Discordance [A Legion perk] (Any generators that has 2 or more Survivors working on it will apply a yellow aura to the generator for 8/10/12 seconds. A hidden feature to Discordance is that it'll also give you a visual and auditory notification when this happens, as well as the yellow aura. This will let you know for sure that 2 or more Survivors are rushing 1 generator, in or out of a chase! This is pretty good when combined with the new Ruin and Surveillance, so if you want to try that new combo in 3.5.0, than you'll want to get this with Surveillance.)
    • Surveillance [A Pig perk] (This is an important perk to get when using the new Ruin, as any generators that're damaged by Post-Rework Ruin will automatically apply this perks effects on it. Surveillance's shtick is that any damaged generators that're damaged by Ruin or the Killer will be given a white aura afterwards. If a Survivor eventually works on this generator again, than the white aura will turn to yellow for 8/12/16 seconds, which means a Survivor is on that generator again or they tapped it. Also, the white aura will stay on that generator until either a Survivor gets back on it OR if the progress on it is back to 0%. If it goes back to 0% by itself, than the aura will automatically turn red instead of yellow to indicate this.)
    • BBQ & Chili [A LeatherFace perk] (This perk is amazing for tracking Survivors. Once you hook a downed Survivor, any Survivors outside of a 40 meter radius from that hook will reveal their auras to you for 4 seconds. This allows you to decide where to go to next and apply even more pressure afterwards if you down that Survivor you went to! Also, BBQ & Chili gives 50%/75%/100% bonus BPs during the post-game, if your BBQ & Chili is Tier lll than you can gain a 25% bonus for every Survivor that hasn't been hooked yet, hooking the same Survivor doesn't give another token, it's only 1 token per Survivor.)
    • Thanatophobia [A Nurse perk] (The last perk I wanted to add here is more of a Killer specific perk. While it works on every Killer, it's best used on Killers that can easily damage other Survivors. Why is that? Well, Thanatophobia gives a 3%/3.5%/4% stack-able penalty to Repair, Healing, and Sabotage Speeds, each percentage that's given is based on how many Survivors are in the injured state. This perk stacks with other perks AND goes up to a 12%/14%/16% penalty to these action speeds by itself. Now, it works with all Killers of course since enough injured Survivors will apply a bigger penalty, but it works best with Killers like Legion and Plague. These Killers can keep the Survivors constantly injured or mostly injured, Plague keeps them constantly injured to avoid her Super Vomit if they heal, and Legion can put them in that injured state a an easier and faster pace. In some cases, people stop healing against Legion as well because of this, so this perk works best with Legion and Plague. Other Killers like Billy, Nurse, and Spirit can also work with this perk, but it's usually best on Legion and Plague.

    I might have missed some perks, but this is basically what you'll want to get for gen-stopping and Pressure applying perks. There are some other perks that could help with applying pressure or add more penalties to generator speed, but some of those require specific Killers, just like the perk I listed above (Thanatophobia).

    your spawn

    One of the last bits I want to add is where you spawn when the game begins. If you spawn in a far off area from a lot of generators, than you'll want to go to those generators that're the farthest away from where you spawned.

    Why? Because Survivors usually spawn far away from the Killer, and it's mostly at generators or close-by to said generators. Of course though, one or two Survivors can spawn closer to your spawn at a decent distance or fairly close distance, but for the most part they'll all spawn at the farthest generators or semi-farthest generators.

    If you go to the farthest generators and don't hear any Survivors working on a generator/see any Survivors in-general nearby it, than they're usually sneaking around that area or not there. It's best to give the area a once over and than move on, since if you spend too much time there for a Survivor that may or may not be there than a Survivor that's on another generator can gain more progress on it, since you're wasting time at another area.

    So do keep this in mind when you first spawn in, if you're on a Killer that doesn't need an immediate set-up time to lay traps like Trapper, Hag, or Demogorgons portals, than you should go there immediately as your first target to monitor.

    conclusion

    I hope this adds some new information to these perks that were suggest above, and any new perks that were added by me.

    Hopefully I added in some new perks above or at least gave insight to their combos and information you might've not known. Hope this helps at least!

    Stay safe out there,

    see you in the fog.

  • Zeidoktor
    Zeidoktor Member Posts: 2,065

    Small thing, Ruin is automatic, no kicking required (unless something changed since I was last in PTB). It's for exactly that reason it doesn't pair with perks like Pop Goes the Weasel.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    Didn't I add that?

    Unless this wasn't for what I wrote, than yeah it doesn't work with PGTW anymore because of the automatic regression penalty that applies now.

    But that only happens when they get off the generators, not when they're on it.

  • Zeidoktor
    Zeidoktor Member Posts: 2,065
    edited January 2020

    Looking again, I misread. I saw "The new Ruin now applies a 200% regression bonus to the already normal regression penalty when a generator is kicked," and missed" and it does so by damaging the generator immediately after a Survivor gets off it"

    The "when a generator is kicked" had me thinking you were saying agen had to be kicked for the perk to kick in

    Post edited by Zeidoktor on
  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314
    edited January 2020

    Simple mistake, I also misread some things from time to time.

    I try to simplify what I write to not make it any longer than it has to be, so sometimes it doesn't make much sense from first glance. That, and it sometimes gets strung along a lot due to how much I type out in one comment.

  • Zeidoktor
    Zeidoktor Member Posts: 2,065
    edited January 2020

    Doesn't help I was looking at the post while walking into work and was mostly skimming.

    For what it's worth, FireHazard, I honestly appreciate how much work you put into the posts to help people out.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    Thank you! I do appreciate that, I try my best to help everyone out on this sub-forum and other sub-forums as well.

    Also, I can see why that would make you not see that part. There is so much to read in that perk description alone, and walking and skimming through it can of course have that happen ha ha.

    But thank you for the kind words, it really does let me know that my work is helping people out.

  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 16,347

    You forgot the best Tracking Perk - Whispers.

    Helps to find people early and apply pressure ASAP. So if they hide, use Whispers. It might get some time to get used to it, but when understanding how it works, it is a really powerful Perk.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    That's why I said below the perk list "I might have missed some perks, but this is basically what you'll want to get for gen-stopping and Pressure applying perks."

    Whispers is a good tracking perk, but for a noob it can be complicated and not that useful for some Killers. That's kind of why I left it out, plus the perk is a universal perk... so he can get it on any Killer while he levels up his Blood-Webs.

    But yes, its pretty good in the right hands

  • Acromio
    Acromio Member Posts: 1,737

    Pro tip: you can't.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314
    edited January 2020

    You for sure can, plenty of perks and strategies can avoid gen rushing all together in some cases.

    If a team is good enough, they'll circumvent this yes, but it's up to the Killer to match skill over skill. Saying you can't will just deter him from even trying, he by all means should try.

  • CamaroThunder24
    CamaroThunder24 Member Posts: 10

    @FireHazard

    Thanks so much! That was really useful and helped out alot. My favorite killers to play are Michael Myers, The Spirit and The Pig so I’m gonna try a number of different builds and perks on them that you listed. I don’t have nurses calling or thanatophobia right now cause I don’t have the nurse upgraded that far yet. And the spawning tip really helped too

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314
    edited January 2020

    Glad I could help out!

    Hope it works out for you in-game!

  • Zeidoktor
    Zeidoktor Member Posts: 2,065

    Since it hasn't been mentioned one way or the other, and in light of us Shape being the OP's preferred Killer, would Dying Light be worth considering?

    If nothing else, on paper it synergizes well with Hex: Huntress' Lullaby, since they both have basically the same activation requirement of hooking Survivors, with DL having the limitation of not killing the Obsession. As long as Lullaby is in play it can also help mitigate the action speed buff the Obsession gets for unhooks and healing.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    No, personally I don't think they work that well together for many different reasons.

    For one, Dying Light and Huntresses Lullaby are two polarizing perks, one works off of regressing generator progression with tokens and the other works off of just hindering the players perception of how fast a notification plays for a skill-check.

    It could work, since they DO require a build up, but alone... it's not that useful. If Corrupt Intervention was involved as well or Thanatophobia at least, than it would be more worth it to add it into the perk slot.

    If it's a stand-alone perk with Huntresses Lullaby, than I personally don't think it's worth a slot. As those slots could've used better tracking or pressure perks, or other such perks like Corrupt could've taken the slot with Huntresses.

  • Zeidoktor
    Zeidoktor Member Posts: 2,065

    At the same time, both perks hinder generator completion and, while they both require a build up, they both require essentially the same buildup: Hooking survivors. Actions granting up a Dying Light token also grant a Lullaby token and vice versa, unless you hook the Obsession.

    Maybe it's not worth using two perk slots on, depending on what you're going for, but I'm not so sure they're as polarizing as you say. Then again, that's why I said on paper, there could well be something I'm missing or failing to consider.

  • FireHazard
    FireHazard Member Posts: 7,314

    I don't know, that's up to you to find out I suppose (what you're missing or failing to consider that is).

    In my opinion, if you can utilize the most niche of builds than go for it! But that's why people also suggest perks and builds to others, if they can also make use of it than more power to them.

    That polarizing part was also from a erased sentence, but I guess I left it in there. My point was that the build up for them and the combination is there, but Dying Light alone is not enough in my opinion, especially when paired with a perk like Huntresses Lullaby, since that perk mostly focuses on a different aspect of halting generator progress, it isn't like Thanatophobia or Dying Light which goes off of a percentage based penalty.