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How do you win games as killer at high ranks ?

Haven't been winning much games lately, running hex ruin and hex undying but they're more or less useless most games. What happens usually is : i find a survivor, chase him for a normal amount of time, catch him and put him on a hook. Great, while I was doing that 3 gens have been done and my game is lost. I'm not the best killer but I feel like unless I catch a survivor in 10 seconds, I literally don't have time to prevent gens from being done. Any advice ?

Comments

  • DaKnight
    DaKnight Member Posts: 720

    Ruin undying by itself really isn't much of a gen control build. You need tinkerer / discordance / surveillance on top of it to actually be able to drive people off the gens and get value from it. But with no chasing perks you will suffer through the loops on weaker killers.

    So it's a bit of a trade-off. Either you go for chase perks and get pressure through fast downs, camping, tunneling, and slugging. Or you attempt gen control, breaking pallets near gens you want to protect and then returning to the dead zones for downs.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgUZafnV7GM

    This guy is definitely my favorite streamer. He wins over 99% of killer games and explains how he does it pretty well most of the time.

  • JHondo
    JHondo Member Posts: 1,174

    Depends on what killer you're playing but in general, learn when to slug and when to tunnel. The more pressure you can spread or the faster you can get one person out of the game the less you have to worry about gens flying. If you can't get the first down in a shortish period of time don't be afraid to break chase and go pressure gens, especially if you're running Ruin/Undying to try to get them regressing so they can't just power through your perks.

  • gatsby
    gatsby Member Posts: 2,533

    Know where and when to take chases. Never let Survivors take you too far away from the gens. Think about the macro game and stuff like the positioning of gens and which ones are more important. Also, you gotta soft tunnel people. Ideally, you should get your first kill before you hook all four Survivors.

  • RaSavage42
    RaSavage42 Member Posts: 5,566

    Barely....

    through sweat...

    And luck...

  • Ok thank you guys for the answers.

    So what I got is basically tunnel, slug and camp when necessary, i don't usually do it but I guess sometimes I need to. I have to focus more on macroplay which I don't do much and put more pressure on the gens. I will try stuff out. Also i already run tinkerer and BBQ for points.

  • Axe
    Axe Member Posts: 1,060

    Slugging in high rank is lowkey the best meta strat right now, you down one survivor on the ground as slug bait while you chase another. Survivors who are slugged on the ground takes much more time to recover back to the game and can waste a lot of time for survivors. You will have on survivor on the ground, 1 survivor healing him and 1 survivor being chased by you. thats 3 survivors not working on a gen.

  • Aven_Fallen
    Aven_Fallen Member Posts: 16,347

    "i find a survivor, chase him for a normal amount of time, catch him and put him on a hook. Great, while I was doing that 3 gens have been done and my game is lost"

    If 3 Gens are being done in your first Chase and this is your normal time, then it takes too long. The thing about Ruin is that it benefits from applying Map Pressure. But if you overcommit to a Chase, your Map Pressure is pretty low since only 1 Survivor is not on Gens.

    If you cannot catch the Survivor, you should leave them. Either they are too good or at a really strong Structure, for both reasons, you will find a weaker Survivor or someone who is outpositioned.

    Besides, Tinkerer on Pyramid Head does not make that much sense. It is good on Killers with high mobilitiy to force people away from Generators so that they can regress with Ruin, but that does not apply to Pyramid Head.

  • Exerlin
    Exerlin Member Posts: 1,352

    Make sure you don't commit to chases for too long

    Make sure you are putting pressure on the right survivors in the right areas

    Try to get the survivors' DSs out of the way. Don't ever respect the DS; you will waste your own time more often than not.

    Try to create deadzones around the generators you want to protect

    Try to get someone out of the match as quickly as possible. 3 survivors is much easier to deal with than 4, but be careful about commiting to one survivor for too long. Trying to tunnel someone to death (if the team is good) is going to result in multiple escapes unless the survivor messes up terribly.

    Make sure that you are adapting your tactics on the fly. Learn what to do in what situations and *be as time efficient as possible*, and you will find yourself performing quite well.

    Finally, don't be disheartened. You are the only person on your team, so your performance in each match is all up to you. Sometimes you will lose simply because of rotten luck with map generation, but that is okay. Treat each game as a learning opportunity, do you best, and try to have fun while doing it, and you will eventually become very good at the game.

  • DaKnight
    DaKnight Member Posts: 720

    It's almost requirement for high ranks. People will complain about it but whatever. If you play killer long enough you realize they will complain about pretty much anything you do if you win. DBD is the only game where you have to justify playing to win to people, it's crazy. If you find a terrible player, why not tunnel them? It's an easy kill. It's such a simple thing it almost should not need explaining.

    Though pyramid head can get away with not doing it too much if you play him extremely well. Ideally you have the range + a duration add-on and you play the loops by wrapping the sword around it into an M2, tormenting them and hitting them at the same time. I always send people to cages if I am ahead. But I will hook people if I am behind and have a reason to camp.

  • kaeru
    kaeru Member Posts: 1,568

    I rely on bbq very much. I played adept PH yesterday for the first time. 5th rank. They did separate gens almost every match. To complete adept I was need to hook instead of caging. I missed bbq, because I never knew where to go next.

    I got lucky when I get bully squad with flashlights. After one successful flashlight save at the match start they were confident that i'm a noob. So they did a bunch of stupid misplays such as instant farming from hook and commiting to gens while being injured. Thankfully they didn't suicide and let me have 9+ hooks.

  • xBEATDOWNSx
    xBEATDOWNSx Member Posts: 636

    Knowing when to chase vs going for someone else.

    Know when to hook survivors. Sometimes it is better to slug and keep hunting.

    Finding which gens to defend if the match comes down to it but remember a 3 gen is NOT sustainable. It'll only buy you a few more minutes max.

    Bring perks/ offerings that boost your chosen killers performance. Don't be scared to use a map offering!

    And if all else fails try out different killers/ builds, rank be damned. Sooner or later you'll do something that just clicks and you'll be hooking em in no time.

    I'm a P3 Ghostface main who is normally rank 1-4. For perks I run PGTW, Surge, Franklin's Demise, and either Infectious Fright or A Nurses Calling. It may not be his "10/10 No Clickbait 100% 4k build" but I feel it really complements his playstyle and I normally walk away with at least a 3k.

  • So I read all the new answers, basically I'm not concerned about what people think of tunneling or camping but i just feel like it's a waste of time but i'll try it out. It's true that I have been going with one strategy for some time and I probably need to change it. I find tinkerer to be actually useful on PH because you can get some cheesy M2 hits thanks to the undetectable status. I use add-ons but I don't use map offerings much. I don't struggle on old maps but the new ones are awful I don't know them and because there are 50 maps in the game now I can't practice. TBH I go with hooking too often because of BBQ. BBQ is propably a mistake on PH because of his power but I'm really used to play like this so this is why.

  • sulaiman
    sulaiman Member Posts: 3,219

    You can win these games with tunneling and mori them after the first hook. Since devs want to "look into" moris and keys anyway, there is no need to keep them.

  • GhostMaceNotCrusty
    GhostMaceNotCrusty Member Posts: 716

    Pyramid head is really good at chases, I play him with the ruin, undying, tinkerer build and I'm unstoppable. Just practice with pyramid head and learn when to leave a chase

  • edgarpoop
    edgarpoop Member Posts: 8,444

    If 3 gens are going on your first chase, you're most definitely doing something wrong. Watch some videos on how to run basic tiles and work on your fundamentals. That will get you 80% of the way there.

    I win nearly every game at rank 1 with Corrupt as my only slowdown. Playing killer at high rank is running tiles correctly and making good decisions about where to pressure and who to pressure. Slowdowns will only carry you against bad teams and they won't do much against a good team. Elite teams will blow through Ruin/Undying. You have to have good basic killer skills.

    It's tough to give really specific advice without seeing gameplay or knowing which killers you're using.

  • IMhereRUN
    IMhereRUN Member Posts: 606

    Map awareness. Only two words, but very complex.

    Do your best to be mindful of where survivors are. Know what gens to protect, what gens to give away, don’t chase in dead zones, etc.

    Obviously some killers are better at this than others. I routinely win about 85% with all killers. Tough keeping your mind focused elsewhere while you’re chasing someone...but you HAVE to.

    If you struggle with map awareness, use perks that will help, but be careful not to become reliant on them. Some killers have add-ons that help with this such as Wraith, Legion, etc..

    More importantly, the first 30 seconds are vital. You don’t necessarily need a hit by then, but you need to have located key strong areas of the map...get rid of these ASAP. Good luck.

  • stvnhthr
    stvnhthr Member Posts: 777

    The definition of winning is the most points, not 4 kills. So are you saying you consistently have less points than all the survivors at high rank? From what I've seen killers still at high ranks earn more points or at least come in second. Remember killers are immortal so if living or dying is your idea of winning that is skewed, killers always survive so if living/dying/killing is your definition of winning they win every time. Number of generators done compared to number of survivors hooked is the objective comparison.

  • danielmaster87
    danielmaster87 Member Posts: 9,683

    You have to down people quick and/or keep a tight leash on the gens. If that means forcing 2nd stage, tunneling or slugging, then do it.

  • Walmart
    Walmart Member Posts: 19

    Don't tunnel unless necessary because you need to apply split pressure and pressure all survivors. Don't overcommit to chases and if you are near multiple people at once, slug and apply pressure to all of them.

  • BestGame
    BestGame Member Posts: 69
    edited November 2020

    Red Mori Exist for you to win the game EZ bro !!

  • dugman
    dugman Member Posts: 9,713

    Otz has a video from a bit ago with advice for killers just starting to face red rank survivors. (The title says “new killers” but it’s really for average killers who are hitting the ceiling of facing tougher survivors.)


  • Moundshroud
    Moundshroud Member Posts: 4,458

    I play them at Red Rank pretty much the same as I did before. I often throw in Thrill of the Hunt to buy me a little more time to get to the Totems they start working. I wish I had better advice for you, but the best I can offer is just don't sweat the small stuff. Make your chases work for you by herding them along the same route you want to patrol. Bring your nastiest stuff as Add-on(s) and put in maps if you have some that you think favor you. In the Red Ranks you are facing mostly SWF; this is sad but true. You have to assume they have eyes on everything, so do your best to manipulate that or mitigate it.

  • DCash
    DCash Member Posts: 170

    You're on the right track. If you don't down that survivor in 10 seconds move on. You said it yourself you chased someone and let the other survivors do gens. You didn't pressure the gens. You can't get gens back, but that guy you let go can be chased again. Instead of commiting to the first chase, get a hit and move one to gens or force a pallet drop and move on to gens. They will go heal wasting resources and time. You want to get rid of pallets so they have less and less resources. Think of it as trading. In your example you traded a ton of time for 1 hook state. Basically a couple gens for 1 hook. That's not worth it so why commit to that. But trading a pallet or a hit for a small amount of time, doing this over and over to all the survivors, compounding the pressure, builds into a "snowball" and everyone dies or the team breaks.

  • Blueberry
    Blueberry Member Posts: 13,671
    edited November 2020

    Split pressure, slug, and hope they make a lot of mistakes.

    For how much people hate slugging it is essentially required against even semi decent survivors if you want to win. You quite literally do not have the mathematical time to hit, down, hook each survivor one at a time and taking turns between them. You will not win that way unless the survivors are terrible or just screwing around.

    When people tell you not to slug, that's essentially saying "just lose the game".

    This is why most top tier SWF or just good survivors in general always run Unbreakable. it's because they know that's the only chance the killer has to beat them. Well..that or camp/tunnel people off the hook, which is why you also see BT/DS stacked with that.

  • prodigy1337
    prodigy1337 Member Posts: 32

    As you have seen already, slugging gives you the upper hand. I know that you are most likely seeking excitement games when you are coming out the victor (3ks+), and it can be discouraging when they take 3 gens in the time it takes you to get someone hooked, but don't give up. I had a few close games in the red ranks today, with gens being done and it turned into a 4k since SWF refuse to let anyone die- use that to your advantage. They will always come and do their best to make sure someone's off the hook asap. Use slugging to your advantage to slow them down, to make them challenge their ambition of escaping. It's alot of fun and before you know it, you will turn games like this completely around:


  • Sonzaishinai
    Sonzaishinai Member Posts: 7,976

    Honestly a good first step would be to realise that losing the first 3 gens does not mean you lost. It's the last ones who count not the first ones.

    Also slug slug slug. apart from the very beginning you should never go and hook a survivor if the other 3 are not occupied and on gens

  • Vampirox
    Vampirox Member Posts: 411

    thats the issue OP your trying to win by getting carried by Ruin+Undying, Im doing better than ever 3k-4k games without combining those perks.

  • landromat
    landromat Member Posts: 2,193

    secret ingridient is tunnel

  • TripleSteal
    TripleSteal Member Posts: 1,298
    edited November 2020

    Dedicate at least 10-15 hrs to guides for all the killers you play, approach to looping, macro strategy, techs and general game mechanics. Most of the information you need is never mentioned inside the game itself.

  • Tbh I've given up on using hexes- higher ranking survivors don't leave your totems active for long enough for them to make a difference unless you're able to put SERIOUS pressure on all 4 of them consistently. otherwise it's down to milking any OP add-ons and offerings to really do damage

  • Wand
    Wand Member Posts: 18

    Slug, slug, slug, some slug and a little bit of slug

  • TheClownIsKing
    TheClownIsKing Member Posts: 6,278

    There’s some good advice here.

    I’ll tell you what works for me, and hope it helps you as well.

    Firstly, being able to quickly find survivors is key number 1. Practice getting better at picking up on environmental cues. I’ve learned to become extra sensitive to crow activity.

    Secondly, gens are bound to pop early, don’t stress it. It’s what you do with/after your first chase that counts.

    Thirdly, you can’t just be thinking about getting into chases and pressuring gens. You have to be thinking of how you can use your killer and their loadout to create DISTRACTIONS for survivors outside of a chase that gets them off of gens while you are in a chase with someone else. Some of these naturally go hand in hand, for example, a hooked survivor eats into the time of another because of a rescue.

    • Slug regularly. I.e. use some of the time you would usually use to pick up, carry, and hook, to IMMEDIATELY try and find someone else to chase. You’ll be surprised just how much more pressure you can create if you find someone else quickly, whilst a third is needing to assist the slug.
    • Injure as many survivors grouped up together as possible.
    • How else can your power or loadout cause wasted time for the survivors?
  • SweetTerror
    SweetTerror Member Posts: 2,695

    I play Pyramid Head too, and I run M&A, Corrupt, Pop, and BBQ. Corrupt can make a world of difference, especially with M&A which allows me to get closer.

  • MadLordJack
    MadLordJack Member Posts: 8,814

    Snowballs and being good at m1.

    Seriously, that is the only reason I get wins is because people don't expect 110 killers to pull m1 mindgames, or they just don't expect m1 killers to pull m1 mindgames. Still fuzzy on that one, but it's a thing. It's almost embarrassing how many wins I get as Legion or Pig (my go-to warmup killers).

  • darthpuddin
    darthpuddin Member Posts: 1
    edited November 2020

    Make a point to cover 1 half of the map more than the other. Yes they may get an early gen or 2, but they will all have to group up and come to in the mid game, may even 3 gen themselves.

  • shyguyy
    shyguyy Member Posts: 298

    "Chasing a survivor for a normal amount of time" and "3 gens have been done."

    What.

    If 3 gens are being done before you down someone you are making massive, game-losing mistakes. Do people not understand that just because you start a chase does not mean that it needs to end with that survivor going down? Get a hit, get a few pallets, and leave it and protect gens if it is taking this long.

  • Rhymewriter
    Rhymewriter Member Posts: 37

    I've been using knock out, franklin, bbq, infectious fright on pig and doing well. Drop a guy, rbt them leave em slugged while I go for the person who screamed. I often get them so disorganized that I even have time to play around with people who have activated traps on. Cause they expect me to chase them but I just crouch and let them burn their timer lol. Plus adding pressure to heal or retrieve items or deal with traps really screws with their planning. Do I 4k reliably? No. Is it fun? Very.

  • cynichism
    cynichism Member Posts: 52

    Unless you're really good, you don't win many games against redranks. Even with the right build, undying and ruin will be popped fairly quickly. I know a lot of people say to use Dying Light too, but you'll notice you don't get many hooks.

    As someone mentioned, best bet is to injure them as often as possible, and use nurse's, sloppy butcher, ruin to stall, and user's choice for the last perk. I usually try to use one that compliments my killer.

    Also you want the best add-ons, even if they're red. You can try a mori to thin them out, but I'm my experience if the survivors think you have a mori, they get even nastier.


    All in all you want to just maximize your points and not worth about sacrifices too much.

  • Avilgus
    Avilgus Member Posts: 1,261
    • 30s of chase without hitting a survivor or a dropped palett = Wast of time.
    • You can always catch a survivor later, but losing a generator is definitive.
    • If survivors prioritise finhsing finishing a generator instead of unhooking a survivor = Force the next hook state.
    • DS/Unbreakable/Styptic are less valuable if wasted in early or mid game.
    • Try to remember the hook state of every survivor.
    • Rough game ? Try to localize your best 3 generators to protect.
  • TattooJake
    TattooJake Member Posts: 158

    Try and implement the 15 second rule.... If you don’t get a hit or a pallet in 15 seconds you need to drop chase and rotate to another survivor or to gens. Try and spot out a 3 gen strat for yourself and patrol those gens only.

    You are going to lose a few gens it’s inevitable but pick which ones you don’t really care about and let them get done. This game is like chess, you need to think ahead and plan your next move accordingly.

    The 15 second rule is key to success! I cannot stress that enough. Good luck my dude, see you in the fog.

  • WindyCityBum
    WindyCityBum Member Posts: 18

    Hello, Rank 1/2 killer here; 525 hours in the game mostly killer like 75/25 killer over survivor. I like to play all killers but my best is Cone Daddy. I don't run undying/ruin combo (nor ruin much at all). Lastly I've been lurking the forums for a while but don't post often 0_0

    Ok what I've learned at red ranks is to pressure as many survivors as you can at the same time to waste their time from doing gens. Even against SWF, you have to try and force the survivor you're chasing towards other survivors. That way you can threaten multiple hits and downs.

    Someone said earlier not to over commit on a chase and I agree. Otzdarva once said if you don't think you'll get a pallet, hit, or a down out of a chase in 15 seconds or less then move on to a different one. Survivors can be amazing loopers so neutralize that ability by having them sit on a gen or try and taunt you. Loopers waste so much time following you, tbagging, or kliky kliky you for attention.

    I hope the generic advice helps :)

  • jellylichen
    jellylichen Member Posts: 1

    You want to get one on hook early as possible, if a chase is taking a while or you're at a strong loop try to injure and move on. Once you have one on hook having a perk like bbq helps you find another target. Ideally you want one in chase and one on hook at all times. This means that one person has to go unhook/heal and as long as this is the case there can only be one survivor on gens at any time. If they leave the guy on hook to do gens it's one less to worry about.