Bad Perk University: Flip Flop and Power Struggle

Hello class, welcome to Bad Perk University! I'll be your professor for today, and we'll be going over the worst perks The Entity has to offer and see how to make the most out of them. Welcome to another double lesson! This time it’s Flip Flop and Power Struggle. I’ve been wanting to cover these two perks for a long time now, but school work took priority, and even then, out of a refusal to buy Ash just to unlock his character model and perks, it took me a long time to even acquire Flip Flop. Remember, if I don’t own a perk, I can’t test it in the field. Spoilers though, my findings basically resulted in the conclusion that while you CAN run either perk without the other, it’s probably in your best interest to run them together anyway.

Let’s talk about the perk that’s technically more useful. Flip Flop is an interesting idea for a perk. What it does is that as you recover after being downed by the killer, 50% of your recovery progress is converted to wiggle progress when you get picked up. This means that if you recover 99% percent, you’ll gain about 50% wiggle progress when the killer picks you up. Wiggling out takes about 16 seconds, meaning you can potentially reduce the time needed to about 8 seconds. Which is good and all, but...

So why is this perk bad? Being able to wiggle out faster is certainly powerful, but the problem with this is that if it becomes too easy to do, the game completely breaks down. Much like Breakout, Breakdown, and Boil Over, Flip Flop has to be kept weak in order to be remotely balanced, because if it’s too difficult to hook anyone, killers are forced to slug, and last time I checked, nobody liked that. The obvious problem with Flip Flop is that it basically does nothing if the killer picks you up right away, which they often will if they have no reason to slug. And in the best case scenario where you’re slugged long enough to recover all the way, if a hook happens to be nearby, you’re still getting hooked. The ideal situation to be in when you’re slugged is to crawl to a corner of the map, far from any hooks, and also hope that the killer isn’t using Agitation or Iron Grasp. Oh yeah, that’s right, those perks can make Flip Flop much harder to get use out of, and they’re not super uncommon perks either. Granted, Iron Grasp is just a slower version of Agitation for the most part, but they’re the bread and butter of any camping Bubba. Don’t get me wrong though, I have absolutely clutched my way to escaping because the killer wasn’t expecting me to wiggle out that fast, but it was mostly incidental due to my teammates distracting the killer, and not out of any real coordination (Make a note of that for later, students). There are certainly ways to make Flip Flop happen more regularly though, and I’ll talk about them in a little bit.

Now let’s talk about Power Struggle. This is another interesting perk. When you get picked up by the killer, reaching 15% wiggle progress will activate Power Struggle, allowing you to drop a pallet if the killer walks through it, stunning them and freeing yourself. It also highlights nearby pallets in yellow auras when you’re downed, similar to Windows of Opportunity, letting you see potential pallets you can use. Sounds pretty powerful right? And yet...

So why is this perk bad? With the recent buff to Power Struggle, it’s certainly a bit easier to get use out of Power Struggle, but only if the killer isn’t expecting it. See, the thing about Power Struggle is that on its own, it relies on the killer walking through a pallet in order to make it work. Even if you didn’t have Power Struggle, killers who have more than a few hours in the game know better than to even approach a pallet while carrying a survivor, for risk of another survivor dropping it on their head. Worse yet, if you’re unlucky or if the killer see it coming, they can just barely avoid the pallet as you drop it, completely foiling your Power Struggle attempt. This doesn’t happen that often if you’re careful though, but the point is, getting Power Struggle plays is difficult, and for the same reason mentioned before. If Power Struggle were too easy to do consistently, it would break the game. I’ve heard that this perk is actually banned in some DBD tournaments, since it can cause the killer to be unable to hook survivors properly. So spoilers, me making a Bad Perk University post isn’t me advocating for a buff to Power Struggle. At this point in the lesson, you already know what comes next.

So how do we make the most out of these perks? Flip Flop and Power Struggle have a strong synergy when paired together. Since Flip Flop converts your recovery progress to wiggle progress, once you get picked up by the killer, you can potentially start with some wiggle progress already, enough to surpass the 15% needed to use Power Struggle. This means that if you position yourself under a pallet and the killer delays picking you up for just a little bit, you can immediately drop the pallet on their head without giving them any way to avoid it. Remember how I mentioned coordination before? This is where playing in a SWF with comms is extremely helpful to the strategy. Your friends can act as a distraction to the killer, preferably with flashlights, making it so the killer can’t possibly pick you up right away. In the best case scenario, they can lead the killer away and allow someone else to pick you up. In the worst case scenario, they might go down as well. The important part here is that they bought you enough time to recover. Now it’s entirely possible that you might not get to use Power Struggle if the killer decides to leave you slugged, and that’s OK. It’s boring, but it’s preferable to getting a hook state. But what if you’re solo? There are still things you can do to improve your chances. These next perks also apply if you’re coordinating with a friend, but I’ve found mild success even on my own.

Since Flip Flop converts recovery progress to wiggle progress, you’ll want perks that increase your recovery speed so you can reach that 15% threshold as fast as possible. Oh yeah, you know what that means. Unbreakable, on top of being a strong perk on its own, allows you to recover a whopping 35% faster, giving the killer even less time to think about picking you up. Windows of Opportunity might seem redundant since Power Struggle already shows you pallet auras when you’re downed, but the trick with the build is to go down at a pallet, so having a perk that shows you pallets at a distance can be useful. Tenacity is technically not necessary for this build, but it’s extremely helpful in making sure you make it to a pallet, or failing that, crawling as far away from a hook as possible. Keep in mind, if Power Struggle as a last resort isn’t an option, Flip Flop serves as a last last resort. For that reason, Boil Over may also help. The increased struggle can be rather annoying for the killer, to the point where they might have to walk through a pallet to get to the closest hook. This doesn’t help much, but the hiding of hook auras might be more helpful. Whatever gives you the best chances, right? And if you really want to go crazy with recovery speeds, you can throw Exponential into the mix. Light a totem in a convenient spot with pallets, run the killer to that area, go down under a pallet, and your Power Struggle play is all but guaranteed.

With all this talk of making Power Struggle unavoidable, there is one killer in particular where a build like this makes their life miserable. Let’s talk about how this build interacts with The Twins. *sigh* You want to make the Twins even more unplayable in the current meta than they already were? Do you take sick pleasure in kicking Victor after Dead Hard validation? Do you wish nothing but ire for anyone who even remotely likes playing Twins? Well, this build is for you. Sorry, let me run it back a little…

OK look, it’s no real surprise that anti-slugging builds like this hurt the Twins hard. The most effective method of playing the Twins, which is downing survivors with Victor, becomes all but useless if you play your cards right and make sure to put the Twins in situations where it is physically impossible to hook you. This isn’t really a problem with anti-slugging builds though, as with any other killer, it’s more of a meme than anything, it’s a problem with how the Twins are designed. The only reason Twins rely on slugging so much is because their clunkiness and the current meta almost demand it. That 5 second cooldown after Victor downs a survivor is the absolute worst thing to happen to the Twins, and all it does is encourage slugging even more, because the Twins don’t have time to go and hook survivors in some situations. But I’m getting off topic, the point to be made here is that the Flip Flop/Power Struggle build counters Twins hard, so if you wanted a reason to run these perks, you have one.

Closing thoughts, how do we make these perks better? Both Flip Flop and Power Struggle are in an interesting position, because even though in most situations, they’re not particularly useful, in the situation they’re meant for, they’re extremely strong. So as weak as these perks can be, once again, they have to be for the sake of balance. So what, does that mean they don’t need changes? Well, for the most part, no, but there is one change I’d like to make for the future. Boil Over notifies the killer when it’s in play, warning them to be careful when falling from a high place, since that gives the survivor wiggle progress. However, Flip Flop doesn’t do this, which I personally think is strange. I believe the only reason Flip Flop doesn’t notify the killer is because the perk on its own is already pretty weak, and if the perk were consistently good, it would need to warn the killer (I say that, yet Boil Over isn’t even good and it gives a notification). I’m of the opinion that Flip Flop should warn the killer when it’s in play, allowing the killer to make an informed decision on whether to go for the hook anyway, or drop the survivor because they don’t have time to get to a hook. Yeah...I’m asking for a nerf to Flip Flop, that’s probably not going to sit well with a lot of people. If it makes you feel better, if the issues with Twins were addressed and they were changed to make them less clunky and more fun to go against, I think Flip Flop giving a notification would be fine. Power Struggle is fine as it is now. Short of a complete rework, there isn’t any way to make these perks any stronger without making hooking survivors impossible. I get it, it’s fun to escape the killer’s grasp, just look how long Decisive Strike was broken and overpowered. But please keep in mind that the killer is a player too, and their fun is important as well. Until then, go meme to your heart’s content. Thank you for coming to my lesson, see you next class!

TL;DR: Flip Flop and Power Struggle suck for balance reasons. To make the most out of them, run perks like Unbreakable and Exponential to increase recovery speed, Tenacity and Windows of Opportunity to make sure you’re under a pallet when you go down, and Boil Over to make hooking you more difficult if Power Struggle isn’t an option. If you go up against Twins, make them cry with this build.