Dead by Daylight best Killer perks in patch 8.1.0 – our top 7 choices ranked

✓ At a glance

The following are currently the best Killer perks in Dead by Daylight:

• Bamboozle
• Nowhere to Hide
• Barbecue and Chilli
• Corrupt Intervention
• Pop Goes the Weasel
• Lethal Pursuer
• Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance

Perks are vital to crafting truly formidable builds in Behaviour Interactive’s asymmetric horror game, and this is truest of all for Killers. Though it might seem like you’ve got the advantage against groups of defenceless individuals, a potent Survivor build can outwit even experienced Killer players. That’s why a good selection of perks can bend the boundary between decent Killers and exceptional Killers.

Top 7 best perks for Killers in Dead by Daylight

These are our picks for the 7 best rated perk choices for all Killers in Dead by Daylight:

• Bamboozle (The Clown)
• Nowhere to Hide (The Knight)
• Barbecue and Chilli (The Cannibal)
• Corrupt Intervention (The Plague)
• Pop Goes the Weasel (The Clown)
• Lethal Pursuer (The Nemesis)
• Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist)

Next, let’s go through each of these perks in order and explore what it is that makes them so good.

7. Bamboozle

Perk’s effect:

• Your vault speed is 5/10/15% faster.
• Performing a vault action calls upon The Entity to block that vault location to Survivors for 8/12/16 seconds.
• Only 1 vault location may be blocked in this way at any time.
• Does not affect pallets.

This perk is one of the great generalist anti-looping perks and is The Clown’s unique perk. Killers’ vaulting speeds are notoriously cumbersome, so being able to surprise Survivors with your speed by using this perk can be very nasty. Additionally, locking off vaulting windows will confuse even seasoned loopers, often leading to a free hit.

One of the drawbacks of this perk is that it doesn’t work on pallets, meaning that a smart looper will guide you to more advantageous positions. Consider breaking them once dropped to make the chase resume in your favour.

6. Nowhere to Hide

Perk’s effect:

• Whenever you damage a generator, reveal the aura of all Survivors standing within 24 meters of your position for 3/4/5 seconds.

This perk comes with the courtesy of The Knight. It favours aggressive plays, notably seeking out and damaging generators. What makes this perk viable is that it doesn’t have the prerequisite of capturing or hooking a Survivor to trigger its effect. You just need to find a generator that was repaired but can still be damaged.

This perk is extremely useful in the early game of DBD, when there are still enough generators around for you to use its effect. Similarly, during the early game, it’s more important to know if there are Survivors near you, rather than further away, especially if you’re playing a Killer looking to keep close to your victims.

5. Barbecue and Chilli

Perk’s effect:

• After hooking a Survivor, all other Survivor’s auras are revealed to you for 5 seconds when they are further than 60/50/40 meters from the hook.

Coming from The Cannibal, this perk is an important information-gathering tool in your arsenal. The main draw for this perk is that it gives you long-range scouting capability. It can let you know, for example, which distant generators are being worked on.

Having reliable information is crucial when playing any Killer, and this perk lets you learn a lot. All it takes is to hook a Survivor to trigger it. Then, if you don’t see any auras, you’ll know that the other Survivors are lurking nearby, possibly angling for a chance to unhook their teammate. This then lets you plan your next steps accordingly.

4. Corrupt Intervention

Perk’s effect:

• 3 Generators located furthest from you are blocked by The Entity for 80/100/120 seconds at the start of the trial.
• Survivors cannot repair these generators for the duration.
• Affected generators are highlighted by a white aura.
• Corrupt Intervention deactivates when any Survivor enters the dying state.

This perk, coming from The Plague, limits the options and effectively shrinks the map in your favour. With three fewer generators to work with, Survivors will have to scramble to fix the others which are inherently closer to your starting position. Meanwhile, you have precious time to begin hunting the victims.

A smart player will avoid tunnelling players while this perk is active. Instead, focus on spreading the damage across several Survivors, avoiding driving anyone into the dying state. After the perk’s effect wears out, they are all fair game and should already be damaged enough to begin dropping.

3. Pop Goes the Weasel

Perk’s effect:

• After hooking a Survivor, the next generator you damage instantly loses 20% of its current progress. Normal generator regression applies after the Damage Generator action. Pop Goes the Weasel is active for 35/40/45 seconds after the Survivor is hooked.

This perk, available to The Clown, will hamper the progress of Survivors throughout the match. It relies on your ability to capture and hook Survivors to get going. However, that shouldn’t be too difficult to do for most Killers.

Using this perk will delay the Survivors in two ways. One, the hooked Survivor will need to be pulled down by someone, and two, they will lose generator repair progress. Even a well-coordinated team will struggle when faced with such a difficult choice, while all you have to do is cycle hooked victims to delay them even further.

2. Lethal Pursuer

Perk’s effect:

• At the start of the trial, the auras of all Survivors are revealed to you for 7/8/9 seconds.
• Any time a Survivor’s aura is shown for a period of time, its duration is increased by 2 seconds.

A valuable information perk, you can pick this one up from The Nemesis. Lethal Pursuer is simple in nature: it highlights all Survivors for a few seconds at the beginning of the match. Additionally, it increases the Aura reveal from any source by 2 more seconds, making it an excellent scouting tool.

Obviously, this is a fantastic perk for gathering valuable intel, and great if you’re aiming to play strategically. Although many skilled Survivors might be able to evade you, their chances are greatly impeded if you’ve got this perk equipped.

✓ Honourable Mentions

There are plenty of perks that didn’t quite make our list. Some honourable mentions include Surge, Sloppy Butcher, Deadlock, and No Way Out.

1. Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance

Perk effect:

• At the start of the trial, 4 random hooks are changed into scourge hooks. You see their auras in white.
• You start the trial with 4 tokens, 1 for each Survivor. If a generator is available when that Survivor is hooked on a scourge hook, lose 1 token. The generator with the most progress explodes, instantly losing 10/15/20% progress, and will start to regress.
• Once you have no tokens, Pain Resonance deactivates for the rest of the trial.

Our top pick goes to Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance, a unique perk for The Artist. This devastating perk inflicts serious progress setbacks for Survivors and favours a potent and aggressive playstyle. Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance is a brutal perk, severely reducing progress Survivors may have made and costing them valuable time. When paired with experience and skill, you can gain a significant edge over your victims.

Even the drawback of losing this perk after four uses isn’t really influential to the outcome. By then, the game should be very much in your favour and nearing the endgame. You can then use the rest of your powers and perks to mop up the remaining victims, because their progress has been hampered so much with this devastating perk.

How to unlock unique Killer perks for everyone?

You may have noticed that most of our picks on this list are for unique perks, meaning they’re exclusive to one Killer. There is a way to change this, however. If you want to make a Killer’s unique perk available to equip on any other Killer, you’ll need to Prestige their Bloodweb. It’s important to know that you’ll want to prestige your chosen Killer’s Bloodweb three times, which will then unlock their unique perks as universal for others.