How to Use Perks in Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight offers an extensive perk system with hundreds of options to customize your survivor or killer gameplay. With 41 killers and 31 survivors in the game, each bringing three unique perks, understanding how to choose and use perks effectively is essential for new players. This guide will walk you through the basics of perk selection and help you find the perks that match your playstyle.

Understanding the Perk System

Dead by Daylight features an impressive array of perks—there are hundreds available across all characters. As a player, you can equip any combination of up to four perks at a time, giving you tremendous flexibility in how you build your character. With 41 killers and 31 survivors each contributing three new perks to the game’s library, the options can feel overwhelming at first.

The most important advice when starting out is simple: read your perks as you unlock them. This is your best approach to learning the system without feeling pressured to memorize everything at once.

How Perks Work in Gameplay

Example Survivor Perks

To give you a concrete understanding, here are some real perks and what they do:

Quick Gambit – When you perform a fast vault, you gain a speed boost.

Resilience – When you’re injured, you gain multiple beneficial buffs to aid your survival.

Auto-Didact – You start off with zero charges, and healing is initially slowed down. However, as you successfully complete skill checks during healing, your healing speed increases progressively until you can complete nearly the entire heal within seconds.

The Advantage of Slow Unlocks

While it might feel frustrating that perks take a long time to unlock, this pacing is actually beneficial. You don’t have to memorize the entire perk library all at once. Instead, you gradually unlock perks over time, giving you the opportunity to play with each one and understand how it works before moving on to the next. This organic learning process helps you become familiar with perks without feeling overwhelmed.

Additionally, the developers have done a good job of simplifying the text on many perks, making them easier to understand at a glance.

Finding Perks That Match Your Playstyle

Rather than trying to learn every perk, identify what kind of player you want to be. Ask yourself:

Do you prefer healing teammates (altruistic playstyle)?

Do you enjoy being bold and directly engaging with the killer?

What role do you want to fill in your team?

Once you’ve identified your preferred playstyle, use online resources (like wikis or tier lists) to research which characters have perks that support that style. Then, follow these steps:

Read the perk descriptions carefully

Test them in custom matches to see how they feel

Experiment with different combinations

Refine your build based on what works best for you

The Same Approach Works for Killers

This advice applies equally to killer perks. Identify your killer playstyle, target the characters that provide relevant perks, and test them out in practice matches before committing to them in ranked play.

Conclusion

Mastering Dead by Daylight’s perk system doesn’t require memorizing hundreds of abilities. Instead, take your time learning perks as you unlock them, identify your playstyle, and use online resources to guide your perk selection. With patience and practice, you’ll build loadouts that complement your preferred way of playing and significantly enhance your performance in the game.

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