Fun Buffs to Make Trash Perks Viable - Survivor Edition

So, just for fun, I went through the perk list and tried to come up with some buffs to make the more marginal (occasionally outright useless) perks not just more useful, but in some cases more fun as well, to promote a wider variety of gameplay. There is also a separate post for Killers (linked here).

My key philosophy is that ideally every perk should fall into at least one category

A) provide a strong benefit on its own

B) be part of a very strong build with other perks

C) be situationally incredibly useful, providing a great moment when it does work.

D) help counter a specific commonly used perk on the other side.

Any perk that doesn't fall into one of those categories needed to be reworked until it does. Some that did fall into one of these categories still needed a buff.

Secondly, I tried to work with the perk name and description as much as possible. It's easy to just add secondary effects or buff numbers, the tricky thing is adding effects that open up some fun gameplay avenues and yet also make total sense with the perk name. 

I also tried to come up with things that couldn't be easily used by SWF teams collectively using them to bully killers.  Obviously, that's probably not going to work in every case, but I did look at every change with that in mind.

So, let's get to it! Comments welcome!

Autodidact

You start the Trial with a -25 % progression penalty for Skill Checks to heal Survivors.

For every successful Skill Check completed while healing a Survivor, you receive a Token for a maximum of 5 Tokens.

Each Token grants you a +15 % bonus progression for a successful Skill Check while healing Survivors. If you have less than 3 tokens, skill checks are slightly more likely.  

You receive 50/75/100% bonus to Bloodpoints from healing other survivors.

Great Skill Checks cannot be performed while using Autodidact.

Autodidact is not active when using a Med-Kit to heal.

"There's no limit to what you can achieve, as long as you back it up with hard work." — Adam Francis

Reasoning: Tier 1 autodidact is a complete waste, so let's follow the mold of other perks and make the main effect of the perk (a huge lump of healing after you stack it up) standard across all levels, and give a bloodpoint bonus to healing. Also, slightly more chance to skillchecks (you're still learning!), but only up until three stacks should make it less impossible to stack up.

Boil Over

You are a battler and do everything to escape a foe's grasp.

Your struggling effects on the Killer are increased by 25/50/75 %, and progression happens automatically when you are picked up.

You obscure the Killer's ability to see Hook Auras within 10/12/14 metres.

"Buck and Wild, Swing to be free,Your hands just can't keep ahold of me."

— Kate Denson's "Boil Over"

Reasoning: This one's a perk that can be part of builds but isn't especially useful on its own except in rare cases. So, why not give it a little QoL buff, by making it so you don't have to actively struggle (at a cost of not being able to go limp and hope a killer gives you the hatch, you're too wild and free for that). If you wanted to buff it a little more, you could make it help counter Mad Grit - Not a huge amount, just maybe a little bit of extra wiggle bonus if the killer hits someone while carrying you.

Botany Knowledge

You transform plants found around The Campfire into tinctures that slow down bleeding.

Healing Speed and Healing Item Efficiency is increased by 11/22/33 %.

Healing a survivor (including yourself) for more than 10% at one time cures the Hemorrhage status effect and stops them from leaving blood pools.

"Basic botany knowledge could save your life someday." — Claudette Morel

Reasoning: Another marginal perk which provides solid benefit but is a little too boring. So why not lean in and give it a secondary benefit that helps against killers using Bloodhound or on maps where blood tracking is easy.

Buckle Up

Unlocks potential in one's Aura-reading ability.

The recovery progress of dying Survivors can be determined by the intensity of their Auras.

When you heal a Survivor from the Dying State to Injured, both the healed Survivor and yourself see the Killer's Aura for a duration of 4/5/6 seconds, and the other survivor gets the Hasted status effect for 3 seconds.

"Ghost beaters never leave a man behind." — Ash Williams

Reasoning: It's not all that powerful a perk, so making it map-wide instead of requiring you to get close isn't that much of a buff, except perhaps to SWF helping a solo player, one watching and the other communicating, but let's face it, if they're SWF they'd be using better perks than this anyway. Giving the survivor a hasted effect (buckle up in the sense of 'you're going to move faster' and in the sense of 'it'll be okay, just get moving') makes it a perk that helps the survivor get away if the killer is too close and might be clutch in a slug-camping situation but isn't that much of a help because the Buckle Up user doesn't get the benefit and will take the hit instead).

Deja Vu

Unlocks potential in one's Aura-reading ability. Paranoia paired with your horror of failure helps prepare you from repeating the same mistakes.

The Auras of 3 Generators in closest proximity to each other are revealed to you for 30/45/60 seconds, at the start of the Trial and each time a Generator is completed.

When the Exit Gates are opened, you can see their auras for 30/45/60 seconds. If the Hatch is closed by the killer, you see its aura for 30/45/60 seconds.  

If you are holding a Map that can track Objectives, Generators, Exit gates, and Hatches revealed by Déjà Vu are added to the Map.

Reasoning: Honestly, there's not much you can do to Deja Vu to buff it that doesn't turn it into a completely different perk. But, giving you the power to see when an exit gate is open, not just powered, is a little bit of a buff and potentially saves you from the 'mistake' of running for the wrong gate while being chased, and the ability to reveal the aura of the Hatch... but only if it's closed, leaves it the potential to work really well with a perk like (my revision for) Left Behind.

Detective's Hunch

Unlocks potential in one's Aura-reading ability.

When completing a Generator, the Auras of Generators, Chests and Totems within 32/48/64 metres are revealed to you for 5 seconds.

If you are holding a Map that can track Objectives, Generators revealed by Detective's Hunch are added to the Map.

The Killer's aura is revealed to you for 5 seconds if you are within their terror radius.

"Are you able to tell us where you were last night?" — Detective David Tapp

Reasoning: Seeing the killer's aura is reasonably powerful, but it fits with the perk's name, and, since this only happens when you are within the killer's terror radius and when YOU complete a generator, it gives this perk a little more viability, and lets it work well with Poised, since after your 'hunch' of where the killer is, you can run away without leaving scratch marks.  

Flip-Flop:

You have an uncanny ability to escape the inevitable.

While in the Dying State, 50 % of your recovery progression is converted into wiggle progression when you are picked up by the Killer. If you are grabbed by the killer during a vault while in the Injured State, 50% of your progression towards being fully healed at the moment of the grab is converted. If the killer drops you while carrying you, 50% of any wiggle progression you've accumulated is converted into recovery or healing progress.

In all cases, this is up to a maximum of 40/45/50 % total wiggle progression or healing/recovery.

"Catch ya on the flip-flop." — Ash Williams

Reasoning: Honestly, while Flip-Flop is an interesting perk, it's rare that killers don't pick you up immediately, and thus it's a wasted perk in about 90% of the matches you take it in, except maybe if you've got a team working to keep the killer away from you. But this allows solo players more use out of it, and plays like allowing yourself to be grabbed while mostly healed so you can maximize sudden wiggle. However, locker grabs and gen grabs are explicitly left out, so you have to time it well (and killer can sense you're going for vaults that are easy to grab from and hit you instead of grabbing).

Left Behind:

You'll get the job done... No matter the cost.

If all Survivors except for you have died:

• For each Generator that needs to be completed, gain a 55/65/75 % bonus to Repair speed
• Once the Hatch has been closed, if both gates are also still closed, looting a chest that has been left behind by the other survivors has a 100% chance of generating a Dull Key.  

"I'm not horseshittin' around. I'm doing this alone!" — Bill Overbeck

Reasoning: We all know that being able to repair generators faster when all the other survivors are dead is almost never useful... you're better off either looking for the hatch, or waiting by an exit gate. This revision, while keeping the old benefit just in case a one-in-a-million situation requires it, also grants a way to escape through the hatch once it's otherwise impossible, which could make it viable, but only if the chest has been Left Behind.

Mettle of Man

Evil has a way of always finding you.

After you earn 3 tokens from any combination of Protection Hit Score Events, or Safe Unhooks, Mettle of Man activates.

While activated, your Aura will be revealed to the Killer when you are farther than 12/14/16 metres from the Killer.

Once activated, if you have tokens, the next occasion that would put you into the Dying State is ignored and you lose all tokens. From this point on, you may only gain tokens from Safe Unhooks.

Mettle of Man will permanently deactivate the next time you are put into the Dying State.

Increases your chances of being the Obsession.

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

"Evil has a bullseye on my back the size of Tiger Stadium." — Ash Williams

Reasoning: MoM before was too powerful. MoM after was way too weak. It's possible it could be fixed just by making protection score events more reliably counted. But that's no fun, so, I thought a more interesting way to do it might be to make it so instead of MoM revealing the aura after the hit is used up (a situation in which you're often already being chased, and probably downed), have MoM reveal the aura when you've got a hit ready to go. One of the most frustrating parts of the perk as it started out was survivors could save up their free hits for when the killer couldn't do anything about it (like protecting a friend at an exit gate) and not see it coming. If you make the aura reading come first, it fits a little better with the description (Evil has a way of always finding you... except if you saved your free hit for the end of the match in which case it didn't find you any better than anyone else), and also changes that whole dynamic: the killer thus knows they can go after this person who's aura they can see, but also knows "I will need an extra hit to get this dude." This version (because it needs a bit more to it) also removes the requirement that they already be injured, so it still protects from One-Shots. It might seem more like a drawback, but it makes it a bit more of a challenge perk and skilled players could make use out of it (and the perk might even benefit from being able to be activated multiple times... the current version allows this, but only if you're skilled enough to, while your aura is visible but you've already used your one hit, to make another safe unhook).

With this change in philosophy, it might even be possible to go back to the original 'any three hits' rule of the perk, though in that case both the protection and the aura being visible should be active on healing to the Healthy state after the three hits are taken.

No Mither

You are affected by the Broken Status Effect for the duration of the Trial. You have a remarkable ability to pick yourself and keep going despite overwhelming pain. 

• You don't leave pools of Blood.
• Grunts of pain caused by injuries are reduced by 0/25/50 % at any time.
• Grants the ability to fully recover from the Dying State.
• If you are Exposed, or the killer has an ability that can down healthy survivors in one hit, instead of going down, you get knocked into the Deep Wounds state instead. If you are already in the Deep Wounds state, you are then put into the Dying State.

"I lost it. Just lamped him one.. They went and banned me didn't they.. Went t'pub afterwards, had a few pints and moved on to the next chapter. I couldn't be mithered with it all anyway, you know what I mean? Can't be arsed." — David King

Reasoning: This has long been the single worst perk in existence for survivors with the nonsense reasoning that it's meant as a 'challenge perk' (yet still it pollutes bloodwebs and increases the grind even if you're not interested in the challenge). This gives it an actually interesting use, in countering One-Hit-Downs... it inverts the usual dynamic, where killers can down you with a single basic hit for the entire trial, but need two hits if they can one-shot-down. It always soft-countered Exposed before (because you only ever get one hit anyway so it's no worse) but now it actively helps against it.  

No One Left Behind

Once the Exit Gates are powered, gain 50/75/100 % more Bloodpoints for actions in the Altruism Category and perform them 4/8/12 % quicker.

The first time you save a survivor from the hook while the End Game Collapse Timer is active, the timer pauses for 30 seconds.  

"... yeah, no #########. But I believe we can outsmart and overthrow him if we work together. Don't be predictable and selfish!" — Clyde, The Lost Tapes

Reasoning: This has long been a trash perk, even for bloodpoint farming. This gives it a situational use - you can pull off a save that would otherwise be impossible because the end game timer would expire before you can get out. It's still not a very strong perk, but it could, occasionally, make for an epic memorable moment, and if you can't make a perk strong, it should at least make for a good moment.

Open-Handed: 

Strengthens the potential of you and your team's Aura-reading abilities.

Increases Aura reading ranges by 4/6/8 metres. When you are working on a generator, totem, sabotaging a hook, or healing, the auras of both you and the object you're interacting with light up for anyone within 24 metres (plus the additional distance granted by any Open-Handed perks).

"Paying attention is what kept me alive through the years. That, and my good looks of course." — Ace Visconti

Reasoning: I almost left this out just because Open-Handed is a perk that can be good with multiple people using it in combination with Kindred, but in the end, it's just not that common. However, making it into a reverse 'bond' can be useful, you're "showing your hand" to the other survivors by revealing where you are and what you're working on.  

Pharmacy

You have a knack for finding medicine... and everyone knows you're the one to go to.

Searches through Chests are 40/60/80 % faster and the noises they cause along with their hearing distances are reduced by 8 metres.

Pharmacy guarantees an Emergency Med-Kit on your first completed Chest search. Subsequent searches of chests will provide a Med-kit of random quality if you search them while not already holding a Med-Kit... if you search them while holding a Med-Kit, you get a normal item. Any open chest with a Med-Kit already in it has their aura visible to you for 32 meters.

When healing a survivor with a Med-Kit, your aura is visible to all other survivors.  

"Adrenaline, it's going to keep us awake. I stole it from one of the Nurse's carts." — Quentin Smith

Reasoning: This has always been a weird perk conceptually speaking, where the description and main benefit is a one time gain of an item, but it also has a persistent secondary benefit (and arguably main benefit if you watch HybridPanda's magpie builds) which... has nothing at all to do with medicine, it just improves chest searches. So let's make the perk what it says... you're the pharmacy! Other survivors know that they can come to you for quick healing, and, if you want, you can drop off medkits and go raid chests for more.

Slippery Meat

You don't like getting pinned, and have developed a knack for slipping out of dangerous situations without help.  

Grants up to 3 extra escape attempts on the Hook.

The odds of freeing yourself from Bear Traps are increased by 15/20/25 %.

After one second being within 1m of the killer, you ignore the killer's collision. This puts the perk on cooldown for 30/25/20 seconds.  

Reason: Just a tiny buff, but it can be cool for either getting out of situations where the killer has you pinned while charging a chainsaw or puking or something... but you're slippery! And also gives the potential for intense jukes. The one second requirement is intended to prevent it from being too frustrating for the killer while still allowing the potential for crazy jukes (because the killer baited out a dead hard too long or something and you ran right into them, or because you hid around a corner just long enough to get the timer off). It, and the cooldown, may not be required. This is one of the few ideas I'd really need to see good players try out in game to fully be sure of.

Small Game

You have the undeniable capability to sense danger.

Get an auditory warning when looking in the direction of Killer Traps and Totems in a 45° cone within a range of 8/10/12 metres. If the trap is above the survivor's head, the top half of the perk icon lights up. If the trap is below the survivor's feet, the bottom half of the perk icon lights up. If the trap is between those two ranges, the entire perk icon lights up.  

Small Game has a cool-down of 15/12/10 seconds each time it activates.

Only works on Traps that are currently set.

"Nope." — Andy, The Lost Tapes

Reasoning: The perk was designed before there were many multi-level maps, and it can be frustrating on maps like that now. Here, you also get a slightly bigger clue to where you should be looking. Also, a minor change so it says 'traps that are currently set', because Trapper has an add-on where the KILLER might not set the trap but it still gets set, and the perk text said "traps set by the killer" are the only ones it activates on. 

Sole Survivor

As more of your friends fall to the Killer, you become shrouded in isolation and the Killer's Aura-reading abilities towards you are disrupted.

Your Aura cannot be read by the Killer within a maximum range of 20/22/24 metres for each killed or sacrificed Survivor. If every survivor but you is dead, you no longer leave scratch marks.  

Increases your chances of being the Obsession.

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

"It was the boogeyman." — Laurie Strode

Reasoning: This perk couldn't be too powerful before the End Game collapse because the killer had no way of preventing them from using the hatch if they found it. Now that they can not only close the hatch, but also in many cases monitor both exit gates, we can significantly buff this perk by removing scratch marks, only if every other survivor is dead. Now, the survivor has a much better chance of losing the killer and making it to the exit, protected both from auras and from being directly tracked. Might still be too powerful, but the killer still knows two locations where the survivor's headed.  

Solidarity

Sharing painful experiences has the power to heal.

While injured, healing a Survivor without using a Med-Kit also heals you at a 40/45/50 % conversion rate. If you collaboratively heal along with a third injured survivor, they get this benefit too. Only one Solidary effect can be used at a time on any given healing action.  

"Showing up when things get rough, listening to people's problems, and supporting those in need; that's how you become stronger, that's how you grow." — Jane Romero

Reasoning: It's an okay perk and this doesn't really buff it much except in somewhat rare circumstances, but... when those rare circumstances hit, you feel pretty good. And hey, sharing your painful experiences in a group is a thing, it's called group therapy. Jane probably gets people on her show who have similar experiences doing the same thing.  

Stake Out

Getting close to the Killer fills you with determination.

For each 15 seconds you are standing within the Killer's Terror Radius and are not in a Chase, you gain a Token up to a maximum of 4 Tokens.

When Stake Out has at least 1 Token, Good Skill Checks are considered Great Skill Checks and consume 1 Token. If you have 4 Tokens, and your location would be revealed to the killer, you instead consume a token and make no sounds such as screaming, breathing, or grunts of pain, for 20/25/30 seconds. This does not apply to auras or rushed actions sound alerts, and you cannot gain new tokens while keeping silent.

"I had you, I had you on your knees. You're runnin' scared because we had you. We're gonna close this case!" — Detective David Tapp

Reasoning: First, let's make the main effect of the perk standard across all perk tiers. Secondly, Stake Out implies hiding, to a certain extent. So, why not give the perk a secondary benefit that improves your ability to hide? So it protects you from screaming from a Doctor's shock and clown bottles and Rancor-gen-pop and such, and even from making other noises that could reveal you, because you're hiding... you're on stake out.  

Streetwise

Long nights out taught you to do a lot with what you've got, and keep your eyes out for anything useful.

Shows auras of any Items on the ground or in an open Chest within 8/16/24 meters.

Reduce the consumption rate of Item charges by 15/20/25 % for you and Allies within 8 metres of range.

Once out of range, this effect persists for 15 seconds.

"You're doing it wrong! Let me show you how it's done." — Nea Karlsson

Reasoning: Not a very useful perk on its own, this addition doesn't improve it a whole lot, but if you're playing around items, then perks like Franklin's Demise can ruin your whole game... Streetwise helps you find items lost in those cases, as well as anything useful a survivor might have left that your perk can be useful on. 

This is Not Happening

You perform at your best when you are under extreme stress.

Great Skill Check success zones when repairing, healing and sabotaging get 10/20/30 % bigger when you are Injured or Exposed. Hitting a Great Skill Check when this perk is active and the killer is within 8m of you grants an additional 10% progression, 20% if you are on your last hook.

Reasoning: I could be wrong, but I think 'exposed' as a status effect wasn't even a thing when this perk was thought up, and hasn't been changed since then. There were one-shot downs and things like NOED probably, but they were too limited to add into things. So, let's include that into the base effect. But that's not enough, it's still too weak. So let's give it a "commit to the generator" effect... what's more extreme than being downed in one hit and the killer being super close to you? So why not give it a nice boost in those situations.

Technician

You are apt at handling machinery with the greatest care and precision.

The noises caused by your Repairs and their hearing distance are reduced by 8 metres. When starting a Generator, you will not trigger yellow Generator Alerts for killers.

On a failed Repair Skill Check, there is a 30/40/50 % chance that the Generator explosion will be prevented.

"I'm gonna stealth this one." — Feng Min

Reasoning: Preventing generators from turning yellow in Discordance/Surveillance is a potentially really useful secondary perk (particularly since Surveillance already counters the generator-silence part of this perk). It doesn't completely counter either of those perks, because while touching a Surveillanced generator doesn't turn yellow, it still fades from the white aura, and, because of the "when starting a Generator" qualification, if a killer has Discordance, the alert will not trigger if you join someone else at the generator, but will trigger if someone joins you.

Tenacity

There is nothing stopping you.

Your ferocious tenacity in dire situations allows you to crawl 30/40/50 % faster and recover at the same time, and allows you to climb over vaults while downed (at 2x normal slow vault time).

"What the hell is this? I'm taking this bastard down!" — Detective David Tapp

Reasoning: I just think it'd be cool to be able to make the killer lose you because while they weren't looking you got over a vault, say in the big dropdown vault in the Game. This would probably require a new animation, which might make it unfeasible to the devs.  

Up the Ante

All will be well in the end; you just know it. Your confidence strengthens the feeling of hope for those around you.

For each other Survivor still alive, grant a 1/2/3 % bonus to Luck to all remaining Survivors.

If, while running this perk, you start the trial with an item, you lose the item and it is instead placed in a chest somewhere on the map. This chest is in addition to the naturally spawning chests. If you escape the trial alive and with the same item you started with, you get a 100% bonus to all your blood points.  

The bonus Bloodpoints are only awarded post-Trial.

"What can I say? I'm just a very lucky guy... I'm sure some of it will rub off on you." — Ace Visconti

Reasoning: Luck is kind of a trash effect, unless you've got a team running it... and even then, basically it helps people on their first hook to not need a rescue which is only of limited effect. Maybe if it was reworked to affect things like chest searches, but as I understand it doesn't.  

But you know 'up the ante' as a perk title gives the impression of raising the stakes, putting up something that you hope pays off in the end. And, you know, Ace is a Gambler, but none of his perks actually involve taking a risk and it maybe paying off big (aside from the risk of taking his trash perks in the first place). So let's give him a bloodpoint bonus effect, based on bringing in items and having to not only survive, but find the same item again in the match. Particularly since one of Ace's other perks involves getting stuff from chests, you can assume he expects to be searching them anyway. If you wanted to be extra fun with it you could make the item grant WHOEVER escapes with it bonus BP (though that might be too much work to put into it).

Vigil

You look over your friends even in dire situations.

You and your Allies within 8 metres of range recover from Exhaustion, Hemorrhage, Mangled, Hindered and Blindness Status Effects 10/15/20 % faster.

If you are Healthy or Injured and within 8/12/16 metres of a downed survivor, the Killer cannot kill the survivor by their own hand without sacrificing. This benefit does not extend to yourself.

Once out of range, these effects persist for 15 seconds.

Additionally, your allies within 8 metres recover from timed Exposed and Broken status effects 20/25/30% faster. This effect does not persist once you are out of range, and does not extend to yourself.

"I'm gonna be here when you wake up. You're gonna make it." — Quentin Smith

Reason: Always been a weak perk but... it occured to me we don't have any survivor perks that do anything against Moris, while we do have killer perks that provide them. So why not make "standing vigil" actually benefit a survivor by preventing a Mori until you're driven off. It'll probably still be a weak perk, but it could come in handy when a killer brings an Ebony Mori. This perk has been edited some after discussion in comments.

Wake Up

The trials are a nightmare... luckily you've got practice escaping from nightmares.  

Progress bars related to escape or recovery from the Killer's unique power are done 5/10/15% faster.  

Once all Generators are powered, Exit Gates are revealed to you when within 128 metres of range.

While opening the Exit Gates, reveal your Aura to other Survivors within 128 metres of range.

While Wake Up! is active, you open the Exit Gates 5/10/15 % faster.

"Ok, look. If we survive the next 24 hours, then I'll take you out on a real date." — Quentin Smith

Reasoning: This perk has always been weak, except when it was bugged, because it requires making it to the end of the match to get any benefit out of it, and the benefit it gives you is tiny (and can be entirely removed if another survivor gets to an exit gate before you). So, giving it a small constant buff that effects Madness recovery, Cleansing at Fountains, Waking Up yourself with a clock, Escaping from Bear Traps, Pig Traps. I do see a potential problem in that this turns it into a perk that needs to be modified with each killer, however, you could easily revise it so it only speeds up interactions with white-auraed killer items (which could be grouped together as a single class and all you'd have to do is make sure each new killer that has one, the item is added to the class), leaving out Madness and Bear Traps.  

Also, frankly, having a perk called Wake Up that has nothing to do with actually waking up when waking up is a mechanic in the game that takes a while, has never sat well with me.  

Anyway, that's all I've got on the survivor side, there were a few perks that you might think were too weak but I decided had just enough utility that they didn't need improvement.