Bad Perk University: Blood Pact

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. Today’s perk is one I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time now, but held off on it because I wasn’t sure what to make of it. It was a perk that sounded fine on paper, but in practice, I found it to be underwhelming and found myself not getting value out of it most of the time. I’m talking about Blood Pact.

Blood Pact is one of the more unique Obsession perks in the game. When either you or the Obsession are injured, you see each other’s auras. Once you heal the Obsession, or the Obsession heals you, you both move 7% faster as long as you stay within 16m of each other. If you somehow become the Obsession however, this perk will deactivate until you are no longer the Obsession. To help with this, the perk basically prevents you from becoming the Obsession at the start, similar to For the People.

So why is this perk bad? I kind of have problems with the way this perk works in general that are best to elaborate on when I talk about how to make the perk better. For now, I’ll just say that 7% increased speed is not really a huge deal. I’m not saying this perk should let you run faster than the killer, that would be silly. That’s kind of what Exhaustion perks are, and those perks have a special cooldown for a reason. But if you really think 7% is going to make a huge difference, you are sorely mistaken. You might be able to make it to a vault or pallet just barely faster, but that’s about it, and you’d probably be better off with the aforementioned Exhaustion perks. There’s also that obvious restriction of staying within 16m of the Obsession. The many times I’ve attempted to use this perk, I’ve been able to stick close to the Obsession for maybe 20 seconds on average. If nothing was achieved within those 20 seconds you stay together, the 7% speed boost may as well have been 2% for all it was worth (Hi, Dark Theory).

As for the aura reading, I’m actually of the opinion that the information you get from Blood Pact is far more useful than the actual effect it has. Being able to see a teammate and have them see you as well is nice info to have, and any map wide aura reading can be a big deal (see Empathy and Aftercare). The problem, however, is that either you or the Obsession needs to be injured for that to happen, and neither of you are necessarily going to be available to heal the other. It would probably be cooler and more helpful if the aura reading always applied, regardless of health state, because the way it works now, it just feels like a less efficient Empathy or Aftercare.

Do you kind of see my problems here? The effects this perk have are beneficial, that much is certain. But the limitations and conditions just feel cumbersome for the underwhelming end result of 7% faster speed. Once again, I find myself not taking Blood Pact for the speed boost, but rather the aura reading, but even that has a weird limitation. Oh and I haven’t forgotten how the perk disables if you become the Obsession. I suspect that it’s more just a way to prevent weird bugs from happening, but it’s yet another restriction you have to contend with, the biggest downside being that you cannot run perks like Decisive Strike or For the People. But maybe we can play around Blood Pact, rationalize the use of it.

So how do we make the most out of this perk? Blood Pact’s theme seems to revolve around keeping close tabs on the Obsession, and sticking close to them as often as necessary. Therefore, we want a build that incentivizes us to do that. There’s plenty of perks that can help with healing in general, so pick your preferred one. My personal recommendations are We’ll Make It and We’re Gonna Live Forever. Both these perks allow you to heal faster, and we preferably want to be healing the Obsession in either case. Picking someone up off the ground counts as a healing action, and so it will trigger Blood Pact. This situation is where the 7% speed boost can actually come in handy for once, as it’s common to pick up a slug as the killer is approaching. Being able to move faster can help both you and your teammate make a run for it and slow the killer’s approach. So now you’ve healed the Obsession and want to stay together as much as you can. Prove Thyself and Leader can incentivize your teammate to stay with you for a bit longer, assuming they care. Prove Thyself especially can help out the team immensely, as pairing up on generators can speed up repairs by a ridiculous amount. It’s worth noting that stacking on a generator, even with Prove Thyself, has diminishing returns when it comes to efficiency. While you will complete the generator even faster, it’s a better idea to have just two survivors on a particular generator and have the other two work on the other ones. But am I teaching you about Prove Thyself, or Blood Pact?

As far as the aura reading goes, it might not be a bad idea to bring supplementary perks to offset the restriction of being injured. When neither you or the Obsession are injured, you’ll want a way to still keep an eye on them. Empathy is a bit redundant, but it will still show you the auras of the other teammates, so it’s not a terrible idea to run it. Aftercare is a better idea, as it can potentially let you see every teammate, and every teammate can see you, so it has the potential of becoming an even better Blood Pact, but without the speed boost. Bond is...good. It’s a consistent, reliable aura reading perk that has the simple condition of being within range. I could go on, but you get the idea. If you really want to lean into Blood Pact’s theme, you could even bring a key with the Unique Wedding Ring addon. This addon lets you see the aura of the Obsession at all times, and you don’t even need to use the key to do so. They don’t get to see you, but it’s not important, because the only time they need to see you is when you’re injured.

Closing thoughts, how do we make this perk better? My main issues with the perk mainly stem from the restrictions, rather than the effects. 7% haste is fine, since it can stack with other speed boosts, and the aura reading is appreciated. But I’d like these effects to be more accessible and easier to maintain, so here’s my pitch. I’d make it so you and the Obsession see each other’s auras, no matter what. Then, I’d make it so the 7% speed boost is maintained for 4 seconds after leaving the 16m range, similar to Shadow Step or Dark Theory. If you really want to buff Blood Pact, you could even boost the range to 24m. Not 32m though, that might be a bit much. So in the end, the perk could look like this:

Both you and the Obsession see each other's Auras.

After healing the Obsession or being healed by the Obsession, you both gain the Haste Status Effect, moving at an increased speed of 5/6/7 % until you are no longer within 24m of each other.

This effect lingers for 4 seconds after leaving the Obsession’s range.

If you are the Obsession, Blood Pact deactivates.

Lowers the odds of becoming the Killer's initial Obsession by -100 %.

The Killer can only be obsessed with one Survivor at a time.

Blood Pact has good ideas going for it, and with changes like these, it could turn the perk into a fun niche perk that lets you chill with the Obsession. For now though, buffs will have to wait, assuming people even remember this perk exists. Thank you for coming to my lesson, see you next class!

TL;DR: Blood Pact has somewhat underwhelming effects with restrictive conditions. To make this perk work, bring perks that help you heal the Obsession faster, like Botany Knowledge or Desperate Measures, and perks that encourage the Obsession to stay close to you for a while, like Prove Thyself or Leader. Bring aura reading perks or a key with the Wedding Ring addon to let you see the Obsession more often. To make Blood Pact better, you could let the aura reading apply all the time instead of only upon injury, increase the range to 24m, and have the speed boost linger after leaving its range, like Shadow Step or Dark Theory.