Let's Discuss Camping Killers...

Hi Community,

I've been playing Dead by Daylight for awhile but haven't really interacted with the community until this post. I really enjoy this game and wanted to engage with other members as well! Apologies in advance if this belongs in another category but I wanted to bring up this topic and GD seemed like a solid place to start.

As a player I wanted to share my opinion on 'camping' Killer - What they are and what they are not. This comes from playing several games where my fellow survivors accuse the Killer of camping in matches as well as when I've played as a Killer.

A solid definition of camping is when a player finds a strategic position in a match and proceeds to wait for players to appear - pretty straightforward there. In DBD, Killers are often accused of this after hooking a player. While there are Killers that do this, what I commonly see is survivors performing immature rescues that result in the Killer never leaving the immediate area.

Here are a few scenarios I've experienced that can identify when a killer is camping (these are only from my experiences):

  • After hooking a player, the Killer won't leave the area for an extended period of time. Think like 20-30 seconds of staying in the hooked area with minimal, or no, movement (and that's being generous).
  • The Killer will frequently return to the hooked survivor location.
  • The Killer will move a short distance and 'hide' in an area where they can easily see, swing in and attack survivors attempting to save the hooked player.

Without a doubt this is frustrating to experience and I'm sure there are players out there who do this. When this happens, it definitely creates a poor experience for the survivor(s) and I understand the frustration. As a survivor, you feel like the game is immediately turned against you. Again, those are just from my experiences.

So, now let me get into what camping IS NOT because a lot of survivors make this accusation incorrectly:

  • If a survivor immediately goes for the save after a player is hooked and the killer defends, that is not camping. That's poor strategy on the survivor.
  • If a survivor is in the immediate hooked area and the killer sees them while hooking another player, that is not camping. That's bad luck and, again, a bad way to save a player.
  • If the Killer infrequently passes through the area of a hooked player, that is not camping. Now this can be debated a bit and I think there's a discussion that can happen about how often is too often. But just because a player is hooked does not mean the Killer has to immediately leave. They can (and should) search the hooked area and then move on.

Just because a player is hooked does not mean the Killer needs to immediately leave the area and pretend that there may not be survivors lurking close by. Instead, survivors should coordinate an effort, make a distraction for the Killer or lean on a perk to help them rescue that player.

The point is to acknowledge that, yes, some Killers camp and it's clearly noticeable. However my experiences tell me that it's actually the survivors who create this false camping accusation due to poor cooperation in unhooking a player.


tl;dr - survivors need to think about how they rescue as it can lead to incorrect camping accusations towards the killer


Thanks for reading and I'd like to hear what opinions and experiences other players have related to this!

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