Skull Merchant and Knight are my favourite Killers to play, AMA
![A_Can_Of_Air](https://us.v-cdn.net/6030815/uploads/avatarstock/nHOJSPPDAIJEI.png)
Go for it. I unironically love them gameplay wise and I actually like most aspects of Skull Merchant.
Comments
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How many disconnects do you average per match?
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What is your favored playstyle for both killers?
Do you personally enjoy going against them? (Understandable if you don't, some of the killers I enjoy playing as are either boring or miserable to go against)
And finally, what are your favorite add-ons and perks for Knight and Merchant?
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I dislike knight but enjoy going against and playing SM.
When I play SM 1 out of 3 games the survivors will play it. The other two at least 2 DCs.
The knight “feels” like there is less counter play that can be done.
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What do you like most about them, old friend?
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Favourite Knight guard?
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What was your favorite slowdown perk and why was it old Eruption.
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There’s usually at least 1 hook suicide per match for SM. Sometimes everyone stays, but not often. I’ve had people just not even try at the start of the match. It’s usually the matches against decent loopers where everyone stays that actually end up being a challenge. You’d be surprised how often people do well when they actually try.
For Knight, slightly less common but I do see some people giving up here and there. Honestly, people give up regardless of what Killer I play anyway.
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For Skull Merchant, I’m very aggressive in the chase. I don’t overly defend generators but I’ll kick if I’m passing by and it’s worth it. I’m always juggling drones to try and maintain undetectable but less likely to withdraw drones if they’re active, unless I need to. It’s fun seeing beams whirring around everywhere on the map. I really just juggle survivors between hooks, not tunnelling ideally.
For Knight, my favourite thing to do is have a guard chase one survivor while I chase the other. If chases go well, it’s a lot of time wasted for the survivor being chased. Carnifex is good at wasting a lot of time. Assassin is good for securing downs and Jailer is kind of an all rounder, but best at just catching someone in a wide area due to his massive detection range.
I enjoy facing Skull merchant because I know how she works. The amount of survivors I face that don’t try to dodge her beams is massive. They can disarm them, but when it comes to dodging and evading beams, they don’t seem to realise you can just crouch/briefly pause movement in chase.
Knight, not as much, because I’m a bad looper/pather and his guards make chases twice as hard for me. Most knight will pile on guards and themselves during a chase rather than splitting pressure, which makes individual chases more frustrating.
For both of them, I use the backpack build. Awakened Awareness, Agitation, Mad Grit and Lightborn. Totally prevents most saves and counters boil over, body blocks and flash saves. It’s just a fun meme build but really punishes protective survivors. Their chase powers are strong enough that I don’t feel I need slow downs.
For add-ons, I use combinations of all of SM’s. Lots of them are useful and flexible. Always fun to mix it up.
Knight is the complete opposite. Dried Horse Meat and Map of the Realm are must haves. The extra range is needed and the extra 4 seconds is the difference between a hit or not. I’ve seen my assassin secure downs in those last few seconds. He really needs some basekit adjustments because I like the look of some of his other stuff but it’s a massive downgrade not to use range and duration.
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For Skull Merchant, her drone power is functionally really simple but effective. Powers like Nurse’s Blink and Blights Rush just don’t do it for me. Skill shots are nice but raw M1 gameplay feels the best to me and she really beefs it up. I enjoy her different weapon types and animations. Her chase music is thrilling. Her lore has lots of good bits but it’s just not been put together very well. I do wish they expanded on it more. If they had covered an element of her lore that showed she was good at covering up her murders, she would be more intimidating and interesting. Her not being caught in any way throughout her lore forces you to suspend your belief or just assume that she was smart enough to cover up her killings. I won’t delve too deep into that but you get the idea.
For Knight, his guards are just extremely helpful to me in the chase. It feels like having a Swiss Army knife. Regression? Send a guard to kick a gen for you. Buy time? Send a guard after a survivor while you chase another. Need to guard an area? Send out Jailer. Need to smash a pallet really fast? Carnifex. His lore is nice, although I wish his guards lore was expanded upon. The tome was a big missed opportunity for that. The tome was just more of what we already knew. Also, he just feels powerful to use.
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I’d say Carnifex, only slightly ahead of Assassin. It being able to chase survivors for so long is great for wasting their time, and fast pallet smashes are fun when they work out during a chase. Or a breakable wall.
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I actually only briefly used it during its buffed state, and that was the PTB along with Call of Brine and Overcharge. It felt like too much, I don’t often use slowdowns. Limits fun builds.
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What would be your preferred buff or QoL change on Knight?
Do you use SM's ability to change the direction of her drone rotation often, or not much at all?
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I also enjoy both those killers, as and against.
Do you also find it fun that survivors mindgame the drones, when you do come across survivors willing to go against them? And how do you usually position your drones/does it change depending on the map?
And to double dip, who is your favorite Knight homie?
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How does it feel knowing pretty much everyone hates to play against you?
Also your place in hell: Is that next to the Starstruck Nurse mains or the teabagging Ace mains?
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what would you do if the knight gets disable again ?
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For Knight, definitely adjustments to the Guard AI, I see them get caught often. I would add 3 meters of extra range to the base kit for guard detection and keep 1 meter on the brown add on to reduce dependancy. I would also half the dried horse meat add-on and add 2 extra seconds on to the chase and keep the add on with the other two.
I hardly use her rotation ability. Sometimes, but it’s usually not needed. Because you can force survivors to run a certain way, I often forget I can do it.
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It’s always good to see survivors that actually counter the drones well, I applaud the fact that they know what they’re doing and make my job much harder. When you go against survivors that know what they’re doing, you can sense it, and it’s a good change of pace.
For drone placements, as open as possible to cover ground and visibility, or around sharp corners to catch survivors off guard. Try to keep them away from areas that are too tight and enclosed so that there aren’t too much LoS blockers for survivors to use. Low wall loops are obviously very good, as an example. High traffic areas that survivors run through.
My favourite guard is Carnifex, I’d love Jailer a lot more if its chase time was somewhere in between Carnifex and Assassin. It having the same duration as Assassin doesn’t help it much, besides only having a larger detection range and duration for patrol. It’s just fun to smash things and waste survivors time with Carnifex.
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I used to care a lot about the Killer I played and how enjoyable it was for the survivors to go against, because I do consider myself considerate of other people’s enjoyment.
Then I realised that many people don’t consider my enjoyment, and only prioritise their own, so I changed my mindset. Now I’m using Killers I really enjoy playing rather than trying to people please, so I’m enjoying the game a lot more. Blame the game, not the player. I consider myself a fair player and avoid tunnelling and camping where I can. If Survivors hate the Killers, BHVR will just need to nerf/rework them, that’s not my issue. As selfish as it sounds.
My place in hell is probably just above the Starstruck Nurses, but not that much further up.
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Play SM primarily and Unknown when he comes out. I’ll be playing him a ton, enjoyed him a lot on the PTB and he’s up there with SM and Knight for me in terms of enjoyability. Let’s hope that doesn’t mean he becomes horrible to face, but according to PTB feedback, I doubt it. I go based on my enjoyability, not Survivors. Not anymore anyway.
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What do you think of both Killer's chase music and which version of SM's chase music do you prefer?
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That makes sense. I did not mean to sound aggressive. It's just that I personally don't like to play either of them and I also hate playing against them. I don't blame you for enjoying them, though I'd hope I don't have to play against you and you deserve no hate for enjoying these 2 killers. It's BHVR's fault that these killers are in this state.
My place in hell is probably just above the Starstruck Nurses, but not that much further up.
Then I'll probably join you there as a Basement Bubba enthusiast. I just have a sweet spot for him.
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Then I'll probably join you there as a Basement Bubba enthusiast. I just have a sweet spot for him.
For my Forever Freddy builds, I'll probably join ya.
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SM’s music is great, I like each layer of it and I think I prefer the live version to her first version. The emphasis on the percussion makes the music a bit more thrilling to me. I like the alarm sound when she’s close and the passive beats in the distant music are a little threatening. I’d give it a 9/10.
Knights is solid, not my favourite but it’s fitting for him and can’t really imagine it being any different. Don’t have much to say about it as I wouldn’t say it’s his biggest highlight aesthetically. It’s a solid 7/10 for me.
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No worries, I didn’t take it badly at all. I know a large portion of the community had a negative perception of these Killers specifically and I’m open to any criticism for why I would have the gal to touch them haha.
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Bless me with this advice, I beg dearly.
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How quick was the fastest suicide against Skull Merchant?
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I enjoy playing as Skull Merchant and Knight. Going against them is fun too. I don’t mind. :)
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Probably first 30 seconds.
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