Newbie killer tips?
Been playing about a month or so. Leaving my survivor comfort zone now I have somewhat of a grasp on most maps.
does anyone have any useful tips for starting out in the killer side? Who’s easiest to start on/ perks I should be looking out for etc…
thanks in advance
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Never vault a window as killer. Learn the tiles. Learn the killers powers and uses. Learn survivor perks.
Starting teachable perks I targeted when restarting on PC: Cannibal (Barbecue and Chili), Clown (Pop Goes the Weasel), Trapper (Brutal Strength), Shape (Save the Best for Last).
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you can lunge if you hold m1.
you can also not lunge if you tap m1.
it took me months to realize i could tap m1.
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Start with wraith, but as soon as youre comfortable landing hits, switch to bubba. You NEED bbq and chili to lessen the grind
Dont worry about winning or losing for now, just focus on practicing getting hits and learning loops.
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Wraith is the best beginning killer so start with him. As you get better you can switch onto harder killers. Learning loops are also very important.
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Don't expect kills every match. Don't play Hillibilly. Grab some good perks from event shrine, like corrupt intervention for example. Don't vault windows if you don't have to. Find killer that will suit you and main him. Find your favorite perks and perk combos. Watch some YT tutorials, but remember these ,,tutorials" won't teach you practically anything, only theoretically. Play with perks that shows or will help you find survivor's location (like Spies from the Shadows).
Never slug Bill (Unbreakable). Always expect Dead Hard from David and always camp the key user.
Tunneling and camping are sometimes necessary for winning and are not always bad.
When you are having a long chase, don't be afraid to drop the chase and go pressure survivors off gens.
You are welcome.
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One of the killers I find easy to start with is doc. He has good tracking easy game with static blast and madness. And when you learn him more you can consistently stop survivors from vaulting or dropping pallets for easy hits
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Doc has some very strong points in his favour as he finds it easy to find survivors and he has counterplay aganst excessive pallet-looping or windows so he makes a pretty good starter Killer.
Still the fact that you are so strong initially may make it hard to get used to other killers who lack those skills. Personally I think maybe Wraith is a better choice as he is a pretty basic M1 Killer abeit with very fast movement speed.
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One more hint to the above - don't kick gens if you are not sure that there is no survivors nearby. It isn't worth it if the gen doesn't stay untouched for a long time.
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To be honest is it ever really worth kicking a gen if you don't have Pop?
It take 2 seconds plus however long it takes to walk there, and back to your optimal route so even if near a generator that can be 5 seconds total out of your way. Then it only regens at a QUARTER the rate a survivor can fix it. And there are 4 survivors. So if it takes you 5 seconds out fo your way total that is 5 * 4 * 4 = 80 seconds that it has to regress before it is worth it, and a survivor can stop that regression with a fraction of a second of using the gen even in a chase.
So IMO it seems pretty much never worth it unless you are using perks I think.
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Watch how to loop videos in youtube and don't purchase any DLCs until you get all the teachables from the killers you have.
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Find the weakest link. They are easy downs as they are the worst loopers, making them only useful for gen jockeying. Of course not every team has them, but if they do (and believe me if they are solos they have at least one) finding them early usually leads to victory.
As others have mentioned don't over commit to chases you cannot end quickly, just leave them and look for weaker loopers
And lastly never ever chase someone who teabags or flashlight clicks to get your attention. They want to be chased so ignore them.
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Probably the hardest thing for a new killer to understand is that while it seems intuitive to just camp a hook or keep focusing the same player, it's not always the most tactically sound option available to you. At the most fundamental level, you as a killer should be focusing on buying yourself more time to catch survivors in mistakes - and you do that by keeping as many hands off generators as possible.
Every second a survivor is on a generator is time you are losing - and time is something you will never have enough of. So while it seems smart to camp a hook - if nobody is coming to the rescue - you're going to lose bad. Because here's the simple math
- It takes 120 seconds for a survivor to die on a hook on first hook (60 seconds per stage)
- It takes only 80 seconds for a survivor to solo a completely dead generator.
- There are 4 survivors.
So basically, if you camp and the survivors are wise to what you are up to, they may decide to leave their teammate to rot and pound out 3 generators.... that's more than half their objective lost and you've only got one kill. Generally, it's better to chase somebody else once you got one hooked as you are pretty much guarateed to have 3/4ths of the survivor team off generators that way (one on the hook, one going for the rescue, and the one you're chasing)
It's not to say you shouldn't stay at the hook at all. If people are being aggressively altruistic and you know most of the team is not on a generator when you are at the hook, you literally have no reason to leave at that point.
And lastly - some general advice
- Play how you want. There are no rules against camping or tunneling. If you wish to do these things, you can. If you don't want to do these things, then don't. But keep in mind what I said above as camping blindly will make you lose against the good survivors.
- Gameplay itself is not toxic - it's only toxic if you choose to put that meaning on it. So somebody clicking flashlights at you, body blocking you, constantly blinding, abusing the crouch key, or looping you.... that's just them trying to win as hard as you are. Accept the challenge and don't let it get to you.
- If despite what I just said previously you still feel yourself get frustrated and you ever feel like disconnecting, put the game down for the night. You aren't helping yourself or anybody else by continuing to play on tilt. This community has too many salty players who don't know when to turn the game off already.
Welcome to the fog
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If the gen is 99'd or somewhere around that - yes, it is worth it IMO
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You are right about how Doc can make you bad at tracking with other killers if you play him too much. As a Doc main I've personally experienced this anytime I try to play another killer. Because he's just so damn good at locating people, it makes a person who doesn't diversify his killer play time really lazy in the tracking department.
If I play the doc for a really long time, it's almost as if I forget to check corners or watch for crows sometimes.
Wraith is indeed a good choice for a new player.
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If you happen to be in the area and have a general idea where people are and what they are doing, its worth kicking gens. You need to patrol gens anyway, making sure gens on your patrol are regressing is quite nice. Let alone that it's potentially valuable information. If you kick a gen, you KNOW if a survivor touched it. If you return to a gen and it only increased 5% in progression, you wouldnt really know.
I am still of the opinion that actively kicking a generator should do a bit more than just put in into regression(like, 5% basekit perhaps), just as I am of the opinion that wiggling(yknow, having priority over a hook, you're taking a risk as a killer to go for the furthest hook possible, if a survivor reaches 100% on the wiggle bar, they should escape, you failed to hook them in time) and being slugged needs to do a bit more(perhaps increase crawling speed the more you're recovered, picking each other up if 2 survivors are downed side by side, just to punish slug camping a bit easier).
There is a lot in the vanilla game that needs to be polished up, things that cannot be fixed by adding perks. DS is one of the rare ones where it's existence alone is risky enough for the killer to simply not tunnel a survivor for shits and giggles. They need to start balancing the game towards 4 man swf on comms, starting by buffing solo survivor and then adjusting killer accordingly.
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Nothing wrong with a shameless plug. I’m UK time so if your streams are at a suitable time for me I’ll watch if you want to drop your twitch.
started on a wraith, killed 3 first game without camping or tunnelling (things I hate as survivor) so pretty proud of myself considering I can be an utter potato sometimes 😂
the field of view will take a bit of getting used to & remembering to check corners I myself would hide. Scratch marks are a bit of a weak point when I lose visual as well but I’m sure I’ll get more used to it.
is moonwalking possible on console? (I know, I’m a detriment to myself)
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want some big brain stratagys
when a survivor camps a pallet just tap m1 and they will drop it because muscle memory
as a killer like trapper when about to pick up if you feel like a sneaky claudette with a flashlight is about to ruin your day start placing a trap and they may run out thinking your picking up and then hit em. same with ghost face just crouch and it may cause them to run out thinking your picking up or atleast stand up.
if you think a survivor is in a locker first walk near it and then backup (incase of head on) and if nothing happens then stand infront of it and listen (because you can hear injured survivors inside lockers but it's quieter)
also as nurse you can teleport through the locker to whatever is behind them and when your passing the inside of the locker for a split second you can see somebody standing inside
never chase somebody for more then 1 minute max. if they are still looping you they have no plans of stoping any time soon so give up and go for somebody else.
This may sound crazy but as killer half the time respect the pallet and moonwalk and the other half pretend to respect it and then out of nowhere turn around and lunge through it. survivors will not expect it especially ones you tried to moonwalk before in the same chase (because you did what you were pretending to do)
If you see a loud noise notification in a area with no gens, DON'T GO THERE it's the person i mentioned 2 lines above who will loop you in an area with no gens while there friends gen rush across map
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So many pieces of advice here, so my apologies of I repeat some, but mine would be:
1. Watch your red stain and use it to trick survivors into thinking which way you're going.
2. Listening carefully for footsteps, especially when blinded. Most survivors run after blinding you, so use the footsteps to know which way they went.
3. If chasing survivors around a loop, ironically sometimes the best thing to do is do nothing and face the wall if out of the line of sight. You'll be surprised how some will run straight into you.
4. Learn what route survivors take to escape you. They may get into a habit that you can then use to trick them by taking a less obvious route to meet them at a certain point.
5. Try to create a 3-gen scenario. Whilst you are hunting survivors, you also have a way of shaping the map to your advantage. You'll lose 1-2 gens dairly early, but if you can keep gens that are clustered together then it becomes much harder.
6. Never give up, even after a bad start. One trial I had relatively recently saw all 5 gens done with only 1 hook. I had no NOED and things looked rather bad. I ended with a 3k. Until they have crossed that threshold, anything can happen.
7. Have fun! It's a game at the end of the day, and the more fun you have the better performance you'll have and the more you'll get out of it.
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I would start with either Clown, Bubba or Pinhead.
- Clown is fairly decent for a starting character with anti-slow, good starting perks with Pop and Bamboozle. You will learn how to use the environment to your advantage with your gases, aim bottles high at tree's or certain ceilings to disperse the gas more on strong loops. Bamboozle is your best friend on T L walls and in shack.
- Bubba - you will want BBQ and Chili, but i wouldn't advise learning an insta down character for your first before a true M1 character.
- Pinhead also has decent starting perks, His pressure is considerable with his box and chain hunts and in turn will teach you how to magnify that pressure and where to apply it. His main ability will help with learning other killer's such as Nurse, Oni , Blight and Billy with either the blink aspect or turning rate control while controlling the chain.
Some tips:
- Try to always face a wall or object while picking a survivor up, this is to avoid flashlight saves.
- Look for 3 or more generators close together and try your best to control that area majority of the game.
- Break pallets that you spend more than 2 loops around, especially if near a window.
- Survivors will tend to spawn in the area with the 3 furthest gen's away from you, Usually the opposite corner of the map to your spawn.
- You can force the end game collapse timer if survivor's 99% the gates. Useful for last minute plays if you already downed someone.
- Don't be afraid to utilize the basement hooks.
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Eat the pallets, don't be afraid by the stuns... Or play with Tenshin Tactics (Oni's Perk, vaults & pallets are revealed).
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A good pair of headphones will let you hear things that you otherwise wouldn’t with speakers. They’ll massively help with hiding survivors.
This can be things like survivors walking/running past you, injured survivors in lockers, or even survivors breathing.
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Ignore this guy’s first tip.
Sometimes vaulting a window lets you close the gap if you play it right.
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Simple tip since i feel like everybody else here has gone into better detail than i likely could:
Killer you tube is ABSOLUTELY your friend. There are so many obscure tips and tricks about this game that are hard to come by that you can learn simply by watching videos of experienced killers playing the game. It helps give you a deeper insight into what a highly skilled player does and how to get closer to being like them. Otzdarva is an amazing youtuber for newer players, he constantly dishes out very informative videos and posts to help expand your knowledge of the game and how to play it. I would highly reccomend consuming some of his content and internalizing some of what it teaches you, you'll be on your way to being an Iri 1 killer in no time.
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I started out this game playing Killer, so here are some tips :)
- Good headphones are a necessity. Play at a decently loud volume. Audio plays a huge part in this game, especially for Killers. Being able to hear footsteps, grunts of pain, lockers opening/closing, generators being worked on, totems being cleansed, etc. helps a lot.
- Watch some tutorials. I personally really like int3r4ct's Killer tutorials, though I'm sure there are tons of other tutorials you can find.
- Play as a Survivor sometimes. This may sound dumb, but I think it's an important part of the game that isn't mentioned enough. To win, you need to understand what your opponent is going to do. If you want to win as a Survivor, you need to understand what the Killer is thinking. If you want to win as a Killer, you need to understand what the Survivors are thinking.
- If you can, get the Leatherface DLC. The perk Barbecue & Chilli basically lets you double your bloodpoint gain. When you're grinding and levelling up characters, this is really helpful. It also shows the auras of Survivors after you hook one, which is a great bonus.
- Most importantly: play to have fun! There tends to be so much focus on what the "best" perks are, what the "meta" is, why you shouldn't "camp" or "tunnel", which Killers are "low-tier" and "S-tier"; none of it matters! I picked my first and favourite Killer based on looks and lore alone, and I had fun with it. Did I get a 4k every time? Of course not. But you don't need that to win. Winning or losing in this game is all subjective. Personally, I feel that I've "won" if I've had fun, and I've "lost" if I'm bored/annoyed after the game.
There is no objectively right way to play this game. Play however you want, as long as you're enjoying it!
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Very few places should a killer vault. I cringe when killers vault T L’s. It’s better to not and learn to play around them, which is the correct move the majority of the time.
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Watch Otz.
additionally, I recommend getting in character.
if you're going to get new characters, I recommend picking the killers you find scariest.
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Getting in character? Like, pretend I am an innocent victim trying to protect my family from home invasion against those darned meddling kids... But with the added benefit of being able to eat them fresh?
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exactly. it's not anger at a person when you get stunned, it's the prospect of possibly not getting a meal, or being found out. it's fear.
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Like I said, some windows will let you close the gap. It’s just a matter of knowing which ones.
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True. Just want to reiterate this is general advice for new players.
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1. Don't take the survivor bait
2. Watch videos of the killer you play to learn tricks and tips you might have missed
3. Don't be afraid to use the dark arts
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As someone who prefers killer, and has been gradually moving towards a point where I'd be happy to call myself 'intermediate', here's a few:
- Pick one killer you like thematically, and master them. Preferably something more of an 'M1' killer to get the hang of basic pursuit. Do not start with Nurse or Hag in particular (I'd also avoid ranged killers to start). You'll pick up bad habits.
- Nemesis, Bubba, Wraith, Legion and Oni are great characters to 'learn' on. Once you start getting the hang of them, you'll crush as more mobile killers. I'd recommend Bubba first, as BBQ is just fantastic, and gives you tons of bonus BP. He's also rock solid.
- Another reason to go Bubba first is Franklin's, which is one of the best tools to counter sweaty, multi-toolkit+medkit teams.
- Avoid the Ruin/Undying/NOED trap. Totems are laughably easy to find at this point in the game.
- Try not to break pallets mid chase, unless you are a killer that can do it really well (Bubba, Nemesis).
- As a rule, try not to chase for more than 20 seconds to start. Rather peel off and pressure someone else.
- Avoid camping or excessive slugging to start, you'll become dependent on this sort of tactic.
- Be prepared for some toxicity, no matter what you do. Unless you have a rhinoceros hide, turn off endgame chat.
- Redefine 'victory' to 'getting at least two Red emblems and having a maximum of two survivors escape. Not only does this generally earn you more BP than absolutely crushing your enemy, but it will save you endless frustrations when you run into cheesy SWFs and keys.
- Pick a few key perks and level towards them. After you nab BBQ, Discordance, Pop, Tinkerer, STBFL are all brilliant and seldom a bad pick.
- Do not neglect Survivor. This is my big mistake, and definitely one of the things holding me back (I really don't enjoy playing Survivor, as frustrating as Killer can be sometimes, and it definitely makes me worse at chasing).
- Even if you are crushing, try not to end games too fast. Start trying to hook everyone 2x, start longer chases, consider letting survivors get a few gens. It'll earn you both some extra BP, and you'll find that you have more fun too.
And most importantly:
- View Killer as a facilitator of fun games, rather than a zero sum 'win/lose' binary. If you learn to have fun messing around with survivors, dropping the occasional good scare/funny moment on them and focus more on earning BP and having fun than insisting on an all-kill every game, you'll probably stave off the inevitable 'sod this' killer moment for longer.
Whew! That ended up being longer than I expected. Hopefully it helps.
EDIT: One more thing: save your best addons for when you hit a losing streak, or you feel you'll be going into a rough game (you'll learn to sniff out nasty SWF groups quickly).
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I have a small list of tips that I sent my best friend on discord when she first started playing DBD and killer so I'll put them here too :)
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I went Doctor second, and he remains a favorite of mine.
He is rare, and a lot of survivors will tilt facing him. Madness is a wonderful tool, Static Blast is an incredible 'sonar ping' that also gets survivors off gens (and will often cause them to scatter). His 'disable' is also absolutely boss if you can get it right. However, I'd save him for later - as his perks really aren't very good.
I'd recommend staying away from Wraith to start. His speed and invis will likely cause you to pick up some bad habits, and miss some tricks. Plus, his perks are doo-doo.
I'd say Bubba is a natural first pick, and there are few killers that BBQ isn't good on (plus, it will help you farm up much faster).
Legion is awesome too - despite being a bit weaker. Discordance is my single favorite perk in the game, almost sleeper OP to an extent. It is such an incredible tool that I feel gimped whenever I don't run it.
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Best advice I can give you - be aware of time. Do not spend too much time chasing one survivor - you will lose multiple gens very quickly if you don't learn to abandon chases. Since you have played survivor some - you have some idea of loops that are good to use against a killer - so don't fall into those traps as a killer.
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1. Enjoy it while you can.
2. Get a therapist.
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