22 Tips for Getting Started in Dead by Daylight

By | January 25, 2021

Last Edited:

IGN has the tips and tricks, How-To Guides, and more to help you succeed in Dead by Daylight. Here you’ll find tips on how to save your fellow survivors with a pallet or a flashlight, why it’s important to pay attention to you environment as a killer, and just how useful all those crows you’ll see around the maps can be.

For more helpful tips, be sure to check out these specific player guides:

  • Check the loading screen. The loading screen has lots of helpful hints, particularly if you’re a beginner.
  • Play the tutorials for killer and survivor. The Help and Tutorials section should be your first stop if you’re just getting started with the game. Though it will of course differ from actual gameplay, it will introduce you to the basic concepts and objectives for both survivor and killer.
  • Offerings are consumed when the trial begins. Unless offerings are burned that conflict with each other.

Tips and Tricks for Survivors

  • Play games as The Killer. Be familiar with their objectives and how they play. This is particularly helpful to learn each Killer’s power and add-ons so you know what to expect when you come up against them.
  • Always be doing something useful. This sounds like the most basic of advice, but you’d be surprised how often you see survivors doing nothing but crouching or hiding in a locker. Make every second count.
  • On that note, find a generator. When you start a trial, head for a generator and get repairing.
  • Cleanse a totem. If a generator is blocked because of a killer’s perk, or you run into a totem first, cleanse a totem.

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  • Yes, even the lit ones. Hex Totems are the ones that are lit up with a candle at the bottom of them. These are associated with various killer perks. Hex: Ruin is the most common one you’ll notice is used by killers because it hinders generator repairs.

If you see a lit totem at the start of a trial, it may also be Hex: Haunted Ground. The likelihood of this increases if you’re playing against The Spirit. If this is cleansed, this means survivors suffer from the Exposed status effect and can be put into the dying state with one hit.

  • You can use pallets to save a Survivor. If a Killer is carrying a Survivor, and walks through a pallet, you can drop the pallet to stun them and free the Survivor from the Killer’s grasp.
  • You can also use flashlights to save a Survivor. If you can aim the beam of light in the Killer’s face, you might Blind the Killer causing them to drop the Survivor and be temporarily stunned.

Tips and Tricks for Killers

  • Play games as a Survivor. It’s the best way to anticipate their moves.
  • Hold down the attack button to lunge. This will give you a small speed burst as a killer, but also means you take a while to recover from a missed attack.
  • Listen closely. Generators undergoing repairs make a lot of noise so you’ll usually be able to find some survivors hanging around nearby.
  • Interrupt survivors. When survivors are repairing generators or cleansing totems, you can ‘interrupt’ them. If you’re quick, you can pick them up straight away. This gives you a free grab and means you can carry them straight over to a hook.
  • Killer add-ons can modify their powers in many ways. They are consumed once the trial is over.
  • Pallets can stun you. If a survivor drops a pallet on you during a chase, it temporarily stuns you.
  • Avoid them particularly if you’re carrying a survivor. If a pallet is dropped on you while you’re carrying a survivor, they will escape.
  • Time your attacks. Hitting a healthy survivor grants them a short burst of speed. But if you hit them at the right time, it can sometimes launch them into objects and allow you to catch up with them quicker.
  • If a survivor wiggles out it stuns the killer for a few seconds.
  • Pay attention to your environment. You’ll want to try and guess a survivor’s next move during a chase, so watch your surroundings.
  • Crows can be found in every level. These servants of the entity will take off and caw when disturbed killers can use the crows to pinpoint location of survivors.
  • Hooks are destroyed when The Entity has consumed a survivor on a sacrificial hook.

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