How do you have fun as killer?

Speaking for myself I play with builds I find personally enjoyable even if I lose. My favorite Freddy build (Infectious Fright, Distressing, Dark Devotion) is actively bad, but I always get a laugh out of it whenever I get Infectious to actually trigger.

I've also had fun on unusual stealth builds. (Stealth builds for killers like Wesker, Bubba, or even Huntress).

I just stop caring and play how I like with whatever dumb meme builds I feel like. I once saw someone say, "If you win, great. If not, you were just memeing".

I can understand your mindset, because when I play killer it feels the same for me. From a survivors perspective I must say that I never know which type of player I'm currently facing. Is it a relaxed person who just wants to have a little bit fun an maybe scare some peoole or is at a 4k dude who needs the win no matter what it costs? I face the last one more often and because of that often I try everything to be fast and efficient at the beginning. I slow down, if I see that the killer has problems.

But for example when I face a scratched mirror Meyers, oh, I love it. I know this person wants to have fun and scare people. I almost forget to repair generators and want to be chased and play with him. I had such a match a few weeks ago on Midwich. And you know what? Then he starts camping and the fun was over. Just another one who needs his kills so hard. The match turns from yihaaa to awful in 1 second.

But back to your topic. Hm, I'm really not sure which advise I should give. When I try some funny, strange build I try to ignore the result. I mean, players who want to play with me should play, the others should leave as fast as possible. Ignore it, end the match, queue up again. Don't waste energy in this.

I don't know how anyone's getting any fun out of this game right now. If I'm playing killer, it's a sweat-fest...if I'm playing survivor, it's "oh wow...I'm against Ghostface...again..."

I stopped having fun with killer a long time ago, so I just play survivor only.

”Sometimes it feels like the system is against you”

It is.

I've found the way I have the most fun is to not sweat and play for the game itself. I use perks I like and chase whoever's in front of me, and I only step on the gas when I'm losing. If I win, great. If I lose... as long as I had fun in the match itself, it's okay.

Now, survivors stomping you into the ground and being sore winners about it is a really ugly environment that doesn't lend itself to good feelings about the game, but you'll get fewer SWFs that'll completely destroy you and salt the earth for good measure if you don't rack up 4k streaks and you let people live every once in a while because they were good or funny. This is key - you have to be somewhat merciful or MMR will toss you to the sweats, either directly or with your playstyle (i.e. going for the 12-hook.) Be too merciful and the game will give you newbies, which are some of the most boring games imaginable, but giving hatch is a surprisingly strong tool for keeping your MMR level.

If you can stay in that environment where survivors are competent but not indomitable, the game can be fun, and you can dust off some low-tier killers meme builds. But if you play to win, you've gotta commit to sweating, because high MMR killer matches are just Stress: The Game and I'm not built for that.

We run thematic builds and just go for it. We don't really care what the survivors expect and always get a smile when we surprise them. Basically play in a way that makes you not hate yourself, NEVER take the opposing side seriously, and you'll have fun (barring the bullies and wana-be bullies, those you need to stomp for community service~).

As to how to take a loss, its a game mate. The ones that take it to seriously are the ones who need help. We don't know any other word that fits except help.

Play for fun. Untangle the idea that only getting a kill or less means you're bad from your self esteem or your fun. Sometimes you're just outmatched, and that's okay !

I play killer to have fun, some would say overly fairly. I don't let my mmr rise too quickly by always letting the 4rth survivor go (or the last 2 if they were cute), and that places me in a sweet spot where games are not too hard, but I definitely take Ls from time to time, and since I play very fair my survivors tend to be very nice in return. It's a win-win situation !

So yeah, just... don't go in there expecting to 3k each match, but don't anticipate sweat either. Let the sweaty teams come and go, and you'll soon be against teams that let you grow your skill at a rythm that suits you better.

More to the point of the question, personally, my fun is wired to everyone's fun. My favorite moments on DbD as killer are cute interactions betwen killer and survivors, friendly games, and nice postgame chats. They're what makes me feel good because I know my opponents enjoyed the game as much as I did.

I don't play friendly all the time of course, but l'm definitely a more relaxed killer than any killer main I guess.

I fixate on improving and optimizing everything, so I enjoy the process of trying, failing, reflecting and improving on what I've learned. When playing killer everything is in my control and I can affect real change and get results. Even if it means losing, I'm learning what not to do. I guess it can be a matter of perspective. Playing killer well is often times not anywhere near what a new killer is thinking will be fun as a killer, and at times can be what makes killer so boring: managing time and resources. When I first played killer I assumed I was just going to be chasing people and whacking them, but not so much. It can still be fun for years, but there comes a time when there isn't anything new to figure out which is when you start to see real problems with the game, which can then lead to frustration. Reminding you that the main goal should be to have fun, and that there are all different kinds of limitations, some are fun to learn to overcome, but others are meant to be appreciated or respected because they make the game what it is. If that makes sense.

" I slow down, if I see that the killer has problems."

Believe it or not: In 6 years, this is the first time i heard such a thing from a surv.

You mean like opening chests, doing totems and... stop working on gens or do them less effectivly?

Yes exactly, but most of the time this doesn't help a lot. In these matches where the killer player is struggeling even 2 survivors finish the gens pretty fast.

Don’t take the game all too seriously, simply laugh at survivors who BM you, after all it only actively disadvantages them if they do so.

I think of it the opposite way, I remind myself that these survivors I am playing against are real people, who are analysing what I do and how to counter me and what to do if I make mistakes, it makes me feel more “like a killer” I think it’s fun.

go for snipes with an aura build on huntress, or zoom around the map with double curve as billy and crossmap people. normal killer games arent fun, forced to run 2-3 slowdown, playing only strong killers, being forced to leave chase if i get nothing in 20ish seconds, needing to tunnel almost instantly if the survivors have brains, its just really boring

but just blasting music and sniping with hatchets or flying across the map as billy is fun

I guess you could argue I enjoy pain, since I don't play the high tier killers. The only strong killer I enjoyed is Billy, but few months after I joined the game he got nerfed lol.

Nurse, Blight, Oni all make me dizzy (motion sickness), so I just stick with the m1's I enjoy.

I recommend to find killers you enjoy and try to play with at least a decent build. I'm not a fan of stacking a bunch of gen defense but on dogshit killers like Clown is kinda needed. You could play the bottom killers without any gen defense but expect to lose a lot, even to mediocre teams if they decide to go hard on the m1 lol.

Meme builds are overrated on killer imo. It might be fun for a couple of games but if I'm losing because of a ######### build that takes the enjoyment out of the game for me. My favorite perks are STBFL and Devour Hope, those can at least feel satisfying when you get the value from them.

I 2 hook everyone, that's honestly what I enjoy the most, if I accidentally sacrifice someone, I'm so sad, lol

I like playing Deathslinger with sloppy, bloodhound, lethal pursuer & STBFL.

I actually enjoy just running around trying to land crazy shots and tracking players all over the map. I hardly ever bother with gen pressure because I'm not really fussed about winning those games.

I think because I go in with a different goal in mind I can actually just chill and have fun messing around with one of my favourite killers. I think he's probably going to be my first max prestige character.

Maybe I should have been clearer: when I mention that I imagine my in-game opponents as AI, I meant that I don't grow any sort of emotional link to things they do. So any attempts to fluster or anger me into a mistake doesn't often affect me, nor does it make me resent them as players.

It's not meant as a commentary on how they play and learn, but I do see why you came to that conclusion and admit I wasn't clear. Hopefully this makes it more understandible :).

We're just built different. You have to just accept that you're gonna lose many games which you couldn't have won.

I mean nothing wrong with playing to win. But if aiming for a 4k means a stressful game and extreme frustration when you don't get it then that isn't enjoyable.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a challenge, I just have much more fun when I don't give a damn, and I'll often release last survivor. Like I'll chase them, down them, then carry them to hatch or exit gate and allow them to leave instead of hooking. I still outplayed them and they know it, but i just make the game a little more pleasant for everyone involved by giving them 7k bp for escaping and not losing any item they might have. Maybe I'll get a thankyou message.

Tbh hooking last surv doesnt really gain you much anyway with the devout emblem being bugged.

When I first started playing Killer years ago I was wack and I was more open to playing care-free regardless of results.

Nowadays I definitely care way more about winning, especially because of how over-confident the community acts if you allow them to win by playing too-casual, but not enough to sweat EVERY single match using S-tier perks/addons/characters. I play a lot of M1 Killers too, not just high tiers because for me the highest form of skill expression in this game is the mid-chase interactions and I love out-mindgaming people or predicting what they're going to do and countering it in real-time

Mindlessly camping/tunneling/Holding M1 on gens are boring to me. Whether I escape or 3/4k my fun is entirely dependent on whether or not I got to display skill in chases or make good plays. If its handed to me too easily due to an overwhelming skill-gap, ridiculously one-sided RNG etc. then it really isn't entertaining

It's not that anything less than a 4k is a loss, although it sometimes feels that way. It's that you get shot down by the community for wanting the 4k, like you're supposed to be unquestioning and resigned to the fact that you're supposed to get a 2k average. Drawing in 80% of matches doesn't sound really threatening for killer, you know?

The win condition of this game is not as subjective as people say. 2k is a draw, so you find out the other win conditions from there. Although, getting frustrated, which is way more easily done for killer, kind of takes away the good feeling of winning. If I have to play every chase like my life depends on it just to get average results consistently, what kind of game state is that? It's like the entire killer side has just been ignored for 6 years. Taking away OP survivor stuff and tossing killers a bone every now and then isn't enough; we need fundamental changes.

I like to gain MMR because I want to face good players, not chumps, and so I do expect more and more challenging matches from that. But at the same time, it's like every other match is an unwinnable one sometimes. I consistently get prestige 40+ survivors, but because I'm humble enough to admit that I lose a lot and that killer needs help, people either don't believe I'm at the level that I am, or they're just indifferent.

What I've found from going up in MMR is that 90% of the killer cast becomes "I literally can't do anything to the survivors" level after a certain point. People love to complain about Nurse and Blight, and call them unfun and OP. But you know the killers they don't say that about? Trapper, Freddy, Pig, Ghost Face, etc. They clown themselves all the time when they try to say, "Wraith, Clown, Pinhead and Sadako aren't as bad as them, and are actually really strong. Skill issue if you lose with them." 🤡 Maybe I'm just different, but I hold killers to a very high standard before I even think about calling them strong. I'm hesitant to call Blight S tier, because he does in fact have to respect pallets and windows, and can be dead angled. That means counterplay which survivors can abuse. But that's the realization I've come to, that in contrast to other games where the top 3 tiers of characters are viable, only a killer of S tier strength is viable in this game, because everyone else is so bullyable. I can't even play Nurse and Blight really, because I'm on console.

I do occasionally just not care about winning, like when trying a perk I've known to historically be weak, or when I'm prioritizing an archive challenge or a daily.

But my main frustration is the difference in effort, strategy, and sweat between killer and survivor. Keep in mind I like to talk about game balance from a perspective of both sides playing well/efficient, as everyone should but doesn't. With killer it's as if you're expected to play perfect and then some just to break even with the survivors' pressure. With survivor, you can make constant mistakes but as long as the gens go quick, you are just so SAFE. So when everyone's playing good as survivor, it's like a candy shop of choices where you can do whatever and get away with it. But for killer it's like you make 1 sub-par play and everything comes crashing down. You can't get away with anything because no matter what you do, the survivors can punish. There's no 1 killer strategy, perk, or choice that the survivors can't trump.

I've been in this mindset a long time, but I don't see anyone being able to change my mind. What I've seen, by and large and from personal experience, is that the game is busted in the survivors favor, that everything that's required of the survivors to feel invincible is to simply know how to play. My above points support this. But I've made peace with the idea that I'll always be a "biased killer main," because I'm not longer afraid to be the bad guy as long as I'm speaking truth. At least there's a few people like you in this community who at least try to understand.

The fact that the most common answer for how to have fun as killer is “just meme around and don’t try to win” should be setting off massive alarms at BHVR. It won’t, but it should.