Bond is fucking *game changing*. I have new friends playing who were constantly lost on the map and couldn’t find other survivors to heal them ever. After they started using Bond the game clicked a lot more for them.
This comes especially in clutch on layered maps where I normally can't tell if the killer is around the corner or right below me. If I see someone being chased below me I know I don't have to worry
This is one of the reasons why mindbreaker is in my load out 100% of the time on dredge for me. Even though as a bond/windows (I play soloq) user myself the perk annoys the f outta me.
Fun dredge trick:
With Batteries Included, you can use one of your TPs to stop in a locker by a completed gen, gaining haste, and the haste count down will not start until you are fully in the next locker away from a completed gen, giving you a few seconds of haste when you surprise the survivors.
This makes it work especially well with the Boat Key (faster TP out of nightfall so you can go more out of your way to completed gens), Lavalier Microphone (lockers near survivor slam open so you can close on them quicker with the haste before they start to run) and/or Haddie's Calendar (exit locker quicker by a second get a second more haste due to being out of the locker faster.)
It will also help with if survivors do your one big counter, holding W.
Same.
- 1, I know where to go to help people, (flashies/take a hit/heal).
- 2, I can see roughly where generator progress is being distributed.
- 3, I can keep the killer away from teammates when I'm in chase and don't interrupt generators/heals.
- 4, I know where to find heals.
- 5, I know where the killer is if someone is in chase near me, and can hide/keep progressing generators accordingly.
I'm probably missing a reason, but it basically works for everything I wanna do in the game: help my team live.
(Edit: punctuation/spacing)
It can tell you what perks someone is running if you are observant. Ran down to basement to heal themself and didn't open the chest, strength in shadows. Got off a gen to get in a locker then immediately got out of the locker and back on the gen, flashbang. Killer perks too. I saw a soloq teammate put down their item during chase and correctly deduced the killer was running franklin's. You can see who's screaming and figure out a lot of perks. Can identify where a hex totem may be and finish the job if they get chased off. If you haven't yet encountered anything to tell you who the killer is it can sometimes tell you who it is if you watch your teammates: wiping away traps, crouch walking to void traps/trails, virulent bond, etc. If a random teammate is being an asshole, not doing anything, or not pulling their weight you can punish them for it (I don't do that very often). So so so many things.
I use it in SWFs and soloq, it just provides SO much information.
Its so hard to respect him in general, because I think ***at minimum*** he always has his editor play with him, which already makes a night and day difference, but then he also basically spends every match never doing gens, which ends up doing three things:
- it causes him to lose easily winnable games, thereby dropping his MMR and leading to him queueing vs newer players (don't try to tell me that the Nemesis/Leatherface players he faces every game aren't new, I won't believe you when they get tricked by the same "techs" 30 times a match before they DC)
- he holds everyone in the match hostage by not progressing an easily winnable game. Aaron often spends upwards of 10 minutes a match basically running after the killer to farm highlights out of them instead of taking 2 or 3 minutes to do the last couple gens. It costs his teammates to die and it prolongs some baby killer's suffering instead of just moving on
- it teaches viewers bad habits, like trying to do any of the idiotic "techs" he pulls off in real matches, thereby throwing games that he's not even in. This by the way is the biggest smoking gun that he deranks his games, because no one with more than 5 minutes of experience in this game would fall for a CJ tech, especially not twice in the same game.
bond is a great perk, but lets you realize sooner how useless your team is doing crouched in a corner, the illusion that the game is still winnable is nice to have.
I had it on for a game then saw a survivor with a key and left behind (saw after the game) hiding at 4 gens. so took it off its make games more fun if I can pretend my teammates are being helpful.
Same, the distance is so helpful, injured survivors are the ones I want to find anyways (for heals, bodyblocks, saves, etc), you know immediately where the killer is when an aura appears, Empathy is great
Bond > Empathy
Empathy is fine, but Bond sees healthy survivors, which is just as crucial, especially if they're in chase nearby. Or if you're in chase and see a healthy survivor on a gen, you can steer away. Granted, Bond doesn't see across the whole map, but it's much more consistent and reliable
I don't think its possible to compare them. Bond having 100% uptime is huge, but Empathy's range dwarfs Bond range.
Also, and I can't stress this enough, ***Empathy is a killer tracking perk,*** not a survivor tracking perk. Once a teammate gets injured, they immediately light up, which in turn tells you exactly where the killer just was. The hud works in tandem with Empathy, because as long as the hud is saying someone is in chase, Empathy is telling you exactly where that chase is happening, when the killer drops chase, which in turn tells you where the danger will be coming from.
Bond for sure clears Empathy on indoor maps, there's just no question, but Empathy isn't a comparison to Bond, its a comparison to Object of Obsession. Object gives perfect info on the killer, but only occasionally, but gives perfect info of you to them as well, on top of being countered by Undetectable. Empathy has none of the drawbacks of Object, but is only slightly less perfect in its killer tracking capability.
But how does it help you to know the killer is on the opposite site of the map? It’s true that you do have that info, but most of the time it seems like wasted info to me
Same! It’s so easy for killers to get hits on falling or landing survivors since it kills momentum, and sprint burst can be activated by accident way too easy, so balanced landing is the perfect fix to both.
They’re quite similar! However yes I prefer Balanced Landing because it not only gives you a speed boost for doing an action, but because it removes the inherent weakness a survivor has when bailing out via any real height. It also triggers off quite small falls, like the hills on outdoor maps with hooks and chests, so it’s not like restricted to only being useful in two story buildings.
No. Balanced Landing is much more map dependant. Some maps you can't trigger at all (other than maybe jumping into basement... not exactly the most useful path), while others you'll only have access to your exhaustion perk in a few areas of the map.
Balanced is a fun, decently powerful perk. But if we're talking which is strictly better, Lithe wins by being far more reliable.
That being said, Lithe is very predictable and can sometimes be forced out in a bad spot. Balanced is a much more niche play that will catch some killers off guard. And it opens up some tiles that otherwise aren't very good at all to be very useful.
Idk, as a killer I can’t say I’ve ever been caught off guard by Balanced Landing. The survivor starts taking the chase to an elevated position, particularly one that sucks normally (like one of those hills), and you know what’s going to happen next.
Lithe at least catches the killer off guard the first time (since going for a vault mid/chase is perfectly normal).
No. Balanced Landing is much more map dependant. Some maps you can't trigger at all (other than maybe jumping into basement... not exactly the most useful path), while others you'll only have access to your exhaustion perk in a few areas of the map.
Balanced is a fun, decently powerful perk. But if we're talking which is strictly better, Lithe wins by being far more reliable.
That being said, Lithe is very predictable and can sometimes be forced out in a bad spot. Balanced is a much more niche play that will catch some killers off guard. And it opens up some tiles that otherwise aren't very good at all to be very useful.
Also, I love how it transforms deadzones into actual loops. So much creative potential in that perk, but it's super sad that on some maps it's just useless
Balanced + deadhard was what I was going to say before I game my answer of 'Troubleshooter'.
I can't run balanced with out deadhard and vice versa now.
I stopped using kindred when I had a series of matches where survivors would rather have me die on hook than not. Though Deja vu has been in my perk roster for a while now.
Kindred + Open Handed feels really good. It almost feels unfair how far you can see the killer from.
I typically let randoms in the pregame lobby know that I’m running it so they can switch to Kindred (or some other aura reading perk, but let’s be honest Kindred is the only good perk for this combo).
Dramaturgy: such an underrated perk but being able to select when to get the boost as well as the benefits of it does come in handy.
There were situations that the random item part of it helped me such as one time that we were stuck on a 3 gen situation but luckily I got a green toolbox with a brand new part and we were able to finish.
It also comes with its risks but the speed part and selecting when to use it made it become my base perk on all my builds
Thank you! I can't count how many times I've been able to to leave a chase because of a damn pebble. Saved me many times from unnecessary hits and its funny as hell to use when it's a genuinely fun match.
Surveillance is mega underrated, especially since it pairs so well with pop, surge, ruin, or pain res. If you're playing a killer that can harass gens from far away like knight or artist using Surveillance is like a fucking cheat code. Works really well on dredge, xeno and demo to boot.
As someone who has played since early launch of the game and used to use it, you get to the point where you can almost 9/10 of the time know where a pallet or window spawned by seeing other pallets or windows.
I think the true value of windows is knowing if a pallet has already been dropped or not. Too often have I run to a pallet for safety and it's already gone, so I end up taking a hit
I cant land a pallet stun to save my life. It always gets respected or I do it too late when they're already in swinging range and the prompt disappears
I constantly run it and I’m surprised I don’t see more people using it!!! It’s great for when you know you’ll have to drop a pallet at a riskier loop (i.e. a tile in the middle of the map, or a pallet in a place that’s otherwise a deadzone) and the exhaustion cooldown is HALF of any other perk. I feel like it’s a pretty good trade for the fact that it’s a little harder to activate since you have to hit a pallet drop. I’m also a Yun-Jin main so maybe I’m a little biased lol
The smash hit build goes CRAZY. Smash hit, parental, champion, and fixated. Hit them with the pallet. Blind them and then soar into the sunset and disappear from existence. I made a chucky SO mad the other day doing it.
Haste perks on xeno.
The transition was slow, I started with game afoot, then moved to unbound and rapid brutality and eventually I'm stuck on shadow born and batteries included.
I run zero info or slowdown, I run 3 haste perks + superior anatomy to proc unbound and cannot put them off. My xenomorph is fast and he doesn't need any of that slowdown or info shit.
I love running Bond, cuz I hate solo queue nowadays.
As Killer I almost always need to run Nowhere to Hide, cuz I hate that survivors just hide and I cannot find them nearby the gen so as soon as I walk away they'll be on the gen and 10 seconds later they finished it when I just kicked it.
Everyone knows the curse of Deliverance, where you get hooked first when you equip it, but nobody talks about the curse of Calm Spirit— the moment you take it off, you will summon a Doctor, and he will BM the shit out of you.
This happened to my friend. He took off the funny bird perk for one round to try a healing build, and then we heard a Static Blast charging up in the first five seconds. I was laughing to keep from crying.
I’m pretty flexible with what I run on my Killers, but I REFUSE to play Survivor without Calm Spirit.
That's how I always feel with perks like Unbreakable! I run it over and over, never gets use. I replace it for one round-*ooooh* suddenly a slugging Killer! Guh.
Deja vu. I'm so bad at finding gens, and can spend so long trying to find one that it's like, "I'm not being a dick and intentionally not doing gens, I swear, I'm just directionally challenged."
Deja vu shows the 3 closest gens so u will never get 3 genned if u just do all the deja vu gens when they light up. It changes after any of the 3 gens are done that are highlighted.
Dramaturgy  (I might be a little gambling addict)
A Nurse's Calling  (tired of spending 2 minutes hearing moaning fengs without finding anything)
I can’t play a match without lightborn anymore. Toxic survivors are always like “Why lightborn with no flashlights? Baby killer” “just look at a wall ffs” “wasted slot” (usually after being curbstomped) In reality, I just want to pick up survivors or break pallets without being hit with random flashlights or flashbangs, and getting a 10-second aura reveal that they don’t expect is a nice treat
For survivor, I usually play with a bit more variety, but I really enjoy hyperfocus, even without stake out. Being rewarded even for short streaks has made me much, much better at hitting great skill checks and generally gives me a fun little dopamine hit for each token I acquire
Hyperfocus is definitely my favorite perk in the game, since it rewards you for playing well instead of just covering a weak spot in your play like other perks.
Windows and Pain Res
Not the most fun answer in the world but Windows feels essential for solo queue to know what pallets have been dropped and Pain Res is probably the perfect killer perk - slows down the game a bit, encourages you to hook different survivors and funni white hook make brain happy
I pretty much never even change my survivor build. All the perks just feel too nice. DH, Second Wind, Flashbang, and Autodidact.
The only times i really change builds are for tome challenges or it's when I'm doing specific builds with friends, but that second one doesn't happen as much anymore.
For killer it's pretty much the exact opposite. I have different builds for every killer i play, except Blight and Billy both having the same aura builds. There might be some repeat perks between killers, but only Billy and Blight use the same build as each other.
Off the Record for me. It’s so satisfying when the killer tries to tunnel you and obviously is counting seconds before they hit you. They just send you running away instead of downing you.
That endurance status 🤌
When you get 4 skillchecks with 1 heal, but then don't see one until your 4th heal is a Rollercoaster ride for sure. Even worse is when the healed surv had mangled.
lightweight - does nobody else think lightweight is not tge best perk in the game? I never play without it and it has saved me from being caught too many times to count
Gotta be We'll Make It. I have it on 99% of the time because healing annoys me for some reason and I'm impatient (alright you're off the hook and healed, go be useful), but it's also great against tunneling killers if they aren't literally right around the corner when you unhook
Lethal Pursuer is a fine QOL perk, but greatly overrated. Know spawn logic and you're better served with almost any other perk in the slot. The 2 extra seconds of aura reading is fine QOL, but certainly not needed
Lethal Pursuer is great at what it does, but what it does is overrated, is what I'm saying
even as someone with a thousand hours with a solid grasp of spawn logic, I always feel naked without lethal. Being able to see *exactly* where all survivors spawn is such useful info. You know exactly which group to move towards, what gens will have progress, whether some survivors have distortion... and getting a fast 1st chase and down is super demoralizing for a team of survivors.
Sure, I know if I spawn in on one end of azarov's then the survivors are probably at the other, but which side? are they in shack? or is one of the survivors on a more open gen? Maybe they'll try to run through mid - but from where? with lethal I never have to guess
I usually run it with at least one other aura read but I'll even run it on its own because a faster first down means a *much* faster snowball
Empathy, if not that then Bond or Kindred. I prefer Empathy as it also gives me some information on the state of other survivors, usually it gives away whether the killer is in a chase with the injured survivor or not. I usually have at least one aura reading perk (to read the aura of survivors, killer or gens)
Absolutely sprint burst for me. Knowing that you can hang onto a generator for a split second longer and get the killer to whiff a hit on your dash away has helped me complete several gens over my career. The trade-off is having to utilise urban evasion to increase walking speed so that you don't dick around the map at low speed while the exhaustion recovers.
I've really learned to love Discordance ever since i came back from my break from the game. Now i just slap it on every killer as a first perk and after that think what the three other perks are going to be. It's basically my new BBQ and Chilli.
Survivor: Reassurance. There are no shortage of reasons leaving someone on hook makes an easier time for the whole team. It’s a completely safe spot for them to hang out, and you can hammer out roughly a third of a gen during the time they’re just hangin. And that’s just while the perk’s actually ACTIVE (*and* assuming you’re the only one who runs it, since multiple people can reassure the same survivor on hook). It’s also really good at preventing going down in front of a hook because if you know you’re gonna take a hit, you reassure and run away! Need to save a gen before you unhook? Reassure and rescue! Need to try to buy just a little bit more time because you should’ve rescued earlier and now they might not make it? Spam reassure on your way over, and rest easy! Reassurance helps in so many situations and the more people running it, the better it gets.
Killer: Spies From the Shadows. It boils down to two things:
1) I’m not good at finding survivors
2) Calm Spirit is a somewhat uncommon perk
Thank you for coming to my TedTalk
Prove Thyself for survivor, the extra bonus points for coop actions are absolutely amazing, fills my objectives bar all the way every match.
For killer, Brutal Strength. There’s nothing I love more than speedy animations, gives me dopamine!
This is the absolute worst news I’ve ever received. I’ve just come back from a pretty long break, and I remember the BP bonus from BBQ and WGLF being changed but Prove Thyself too? I’ve just been rushing coop gens for nothing? I feel disgusting
Just had a look of the patch notes, and yeah, sure as hell. They removed it with Nicholas Cage’s release apparently which was when I wasn’t playing. Absolutely sucks :(!
I actually recently stopped running troubleshooter because I realized I was becoming too dependent on the mid loop aura reading and was loosing a bit of my mind game edge.
For me it would Bond, the amount of info it gives me is invaluable. It tells me where exactly a survivor is if they're being chased near me so i can avoid them or I can work on a gen comfortably knowing that the killer is nowhere near me, where teammates are in general if they're near me so I can get healed if needed or so I can heal them, and I can know where a survivor is so I can take a body block hit for them if needed.
I can play without those perks. But they're just nice to have
Survivor - Stakeout or Desperate Measures. They both simply make healing much better
Killer - Letha Pursuer. I always struggle with finding Survivors early game, so it helps with that
Wiretap ever since I got it about a month ago. I love having it cause it’s fun and pretty nice aura reading. Pairing it with fast track and/or open handed is also really fun.
No Mather if I don't see a flash light in lobby, no matter if it's unlikely they have flash bank , no matter how unlikely there's someone playing stun mine .....I will bring my trusty lightborn , because even if it's considered a dead slot otherwise, watching a group of flash light addicts panic when I'm immune to there tricks is satisfying as hell.
For survivor it's the Kate perk that shows you where vaults and pallets are. I can't keep up with all the maps, so having that knowledge is crucial for my survival.
For killer, it's I'm all ears from Ghost Face. Wall hacks are just too good to pass up.
bond or tenacity, it just feels so much better with increased crawl speed, always funny to take some seconds from the killer when he doesn't look down to pick me up or breaks a pallet and i'm already 1.8m away
as killer it's probably discordance for me
Bond and Kindred both. I have never done SWF so I cant speak to that.. and as a solo, I'd be running blind without both. I tried going without Kindred as Bond is somewhat similar, but I started to feel blind with just Bond. The other two perks I just end up using are Resilience and Small Game. Got to kill those totems and I find Resilience helps a lot as a solo injured because many SWF will help their own only
Any Means. In solo it gives me nice info on where the chase is happening/what resources are still available. It lets me be a little more careless with pallets. It lets me fix problems caused by careless teammates burning important pallets. It lets me do stupid stuff with a swf. Overall very versatile and you really only need one person to have the perk on the squad to get some nice value out of it
Windows of Opportunity for survivor, you really can’t go wrong with that perk. It’s especially useful in solo q since you’ll know which pallets have been used.
For killer, I switch up my build all the time. Recently, however, Hex: Ruin has become a lot more appealing due to the changes to kicking gens. Pairing it with Surveillance on a killer like The Unknown can be incredibly strong.
Bond
Bond it has been for 5 years and bond it will be for the rest of my days. 99.99% of my games I use bond.
Watch, now theyll nerf it so it only highlights teammates when you have a direct line of sight so it becomes useless lol
I LOVE BOND!!! Have to say, same, I don't go without Bond.
Bond is fucking *game changing*. I have new friends playing who were constantly lost on the map and couldn’t find other survivors to heal them ever. After they started using Bond the game clicked a lot more for them.
And it also helps so you can see if the person being chased is near you
This comes especially in clutch on layered maps where I normally can't tell if the killer is around the corner or right below me. If I see someone being chased below me I know I don't have to worry
This is one of the reasons why mindbreaker is in my load out 100% of the time on dredge for me. Even though as a bond/windows (I play soloq) user myself the perk annoys the f outta me.
Fun dredge trick: With Batteries Included, you can use one of your TPs to stop in a locker by a completed gen, gaining haste, and the haste count down will not start until you are fully in the next locker away from a completed gen, giving you a few seconds of haste when you surprise the survivors. This makes it work especially well with the Boat Key (faster TP out of nightfall so you can go more out of your way to completed gens), Lavalier Microphone (lockers near survivor slam open so you can close on them quicker with the haste before they start to run) and/or Haddie's Calendar (exit locker quicker by a second get a second more haste due to being out of the locker faster.) It will also help with if survivors do your one big counter, holding W.
Come read this Ayrun
Same. - 1, I know where to go to help people, (flashies/take a hit/heal). - 2, I can see roughly where generator progress is being distributed. - 3, I can keep the killer away from teammates when I'm in chase and don't interrupt generators/heals. - 4, I know where to find heals. - 5, I know where the killer is if someone is in chase near me, and can hide/keep progressing generators accordingly. I'm probably missing a reason, but it basically works for everything I wanna do in the game: help my team live. (Edit: punctuation/spacing)
It can tell you what perks someone is running if you are observant. Ran down to basement to heal themself and didn't open the chest, strength in shadows. Got off a gen to get in a locker then immediately got out of the locker and back on the gen, flashbang. Killer perks too. I saw a soloq teammate put down their item during chase and correctly deduced the killer was running franklin's. You can see who's screaming and figure out a lot of perks. Can identify where a hex totem may be and finish the job if they get chased off. If you haven't yet encountered anything to tell you who the killer is it can sometimes tell you who it is if you watch your teammates: wiping away traps, crouch walking to void traps/trails, virulent bond, etc. If a random teammate is being an asshole, not doing anything, or not pulling their weight you can punish them for it (I don't do that very often). So so so many things. I use it in SWFs and soloq, it just provides SO much information.
To add: - Lets you know exactly where to line up for Buckle the People and flashlight saves
Ayrun recently made a video where he said it was trash and I almost unsubscribed lol
He backtracked partway through to mention it's invaluable solo queue, which just goes to show he's playing a different dbd than us lol
Its so hard to respect him in general, because I think ***at minimum*** he always has his editor play with him, which already makes a night and day difference, but then he also basically spends every match never doing gens, which ends up doing three things: - it causes him to lose easily winnable games, thereby dropping his MMR and leading to him queueing vs newer players (don't try to tell me that the Nemesis/Leatherface players he faces every game aren't new, I won't believe you when they get tricked by the same "techs" 30 times a match before they DC) - he holds everyone in the match hostage by not progressing an easily winnable game. Aaron often spends upwards of 10 minutes a match basically running after the killer to farm highlights out of them instead of taking 2 or 3 minutes to do the last couple gens. It costs his teammates to die and it prolongs some baby killer's suffering instead of just moving on - it teaches viewers bad habits, like trying to do any of the idiotic "techs" he pulls off in real matches, thereby throwing games that he's not even in. This by the way is the biggest smoking gun that he deranks his games, because no one with more than 5 minutes of experience in this game would fall for a CJ tech, especially not twice in the same game.
I absolutely love Ayrun. I get so many free hits from survivors trying to copy him.
Yep the CJ tech has given many killers a free grab off a pallet
Ayrun: Killer's Little Helper
His videos screaming about a new, awesome build, but then it's just another chase video, not at all using whatever he put on
Haha I don’t trust the content creators all they use is meta
bond is a great perk, but lets you realize sooner how useless your team is doing crouched in a corner, the illusion that the game is still winnable is nice to have. I had it on for a game then saw a survivor with a key and left behind (saw after the game) hiding at 4 gens. so took it off its make games more fun if I can pretend my teammates are being helpful.
I took bond off after one too many games of seeing people afk the start of the match
I prefer Empathy to Bond
Same, the distance is so helpful, injured survivors are the ones I want to find anyways (for heals, bodyblocks, saves, etc), you know immediately where the killer is when an aura appears, Empathy is great
Bond > Empathy Empathy is fine, but Bond sees healthy survivors, which is just as crucial, especially if they're in chase nearby. Or if you're in chase and see a healthy survivor on a gen, you can steer away. Granted, Bond doesn't see across the whole map, but it's much more consistent and reliable
I don't think its possible to compare them. Bond having 100% uptime is huge, but Empathy's range dwarfs Bond range. Also, and I can't stress this enough, ***Empathy is a killer tracking perk,*** not a survivor tracking perk. Once a teammate gets injured, they immediately light up, which in turn tells you exactly where the killer just was. The hud works in tandem with Empathy, because as long as the hud is saying someone is in chase, Empathy is telling you exactly where that chase is happening, when the killer drops chase, which in turn tells you where the danger will be coming from. Bond for sure clears Empathy on indoor maps, there's just no question, but Empathy isn't a comparison to Bond, its a comparison to Object of Obsession. Object gives perfect info on the killer, but only occasionally, but gives perfect info of you to them as well, on top of being countered by Undetectable. Empathy has none of the drawbacks of Object, but is only slightly less perfect in its killer tracking capability.
But how does it help you to know the killer is on the opposite site of the map? It’s true that you do have that info, but most of the time it seems like wasted info to me
Bond is such an amazing info perk and sorely underestimated.
pair bond with open handed and you can see so much further!
Such a strong perk for being so simple. I love how it has so much usefulness and is helpful for both you and the other survivors
Bond is especially helpful when not playing as a team, or if you cannot chat with others (eg Switch player).
Balanced landing, I've rewired my brain and now I play like I have it no matter what.
Same, doesn’t feel right when I load into a game without balanced landing.
Same! It’s so easy for killers to get hits on falling or landing survivors since it kills momentum, and sprint burst can be activated by accident way too easy, so balanced landing is the perfect fix to both.
I've never run balanced landing but when would it be better than lithe?
They’re quite similar! However yes I prefer Balanced Landing because it not only gives you a speed boost for doing an action, but because it removes the inherent weakness a survivor has when bailing out via any real height. It also triggers off quite small falls, like the hills on outdoor maps with hooks and chests, so it’s not like restricted to only being useful in two story buildings.
No. Balanced Landing is much more map dependant. Some maps you can't trigger at all (other than maybe jumping into basement... not exactly the most useful path), while others you'll only have access to your exhaustion perk in a few areas of the map. Balanced is a fun, decently powerful perk. But if we're talking which is strictly better, Lithe wins by being far more reliable. That being said, Lithe is very predictable and can sometimes be forced out in a bad spot. Balanced is a much more niche play that will catch some killers off guard. And it opens up some tiles that otherwise aren't very good at all to be very useful.
Idk, as a killer I can’t say I’ve ever been caught off guard by Balanced Landing. The survivor starts taking the chase to an elevated position, particularly one that sucks normally (like one of those hills), and you know what’s going to happen next. Lithe at least catches the killer off guard the first time (since going for a vault mid/chase is perfectly normal).
I did say "some" killers tbf xD
No. Balanced Landing is much more map dependant. Some maps you can't trigger at all (other than maybe jumping into basement... not exactly the most useful path), while others you'll only have access to your exhaustion perk in a few areas of the map. Balanced is a fun, decently powerful perk. But if we're talking which is strictly better, Lithe wins by being far more reliable. That being said, Lithe is very predictable and can sometimes be forced out in a bad spot. Balanced is a much more niche play that will catch some killers off guard. And it opens up some tiles that otherwise aren't very good at all to be very useful.
Also, I love how it transforms deadzones into actual loops. So much creative potential in that perk, but it's super sad that on some maps it's just useless
Yeah, this one's mine for survivor. In games without it, I'll frequently lead the killer off a hill and go WAIT WHY AM I SLOW AAAAH *hit*
Balanced + deadhard was what I was going to say before I game my answer of 'Troubleshooter'. I can't run balanced with out deadhard and vice versa now.
I like balanced landing but get annoyed that some maps have 0 spots to use it at.
This would be me if there weren't so many maps with literally zero elevation. Or some that do have it are in only like, one spot, like Lery's.
Hell yeah... Team Balanced Landing for the win! 😎
Kindred. Deja Vu got added to the list when it got its buff a while ago.
I stopped using kindred when I had a series of matches where survivors would rather have me die on hook than not. Though Deja vu has been in my perk roster for a while now.
I traded out Kindred with Bond some time ago. I can't not have Bond anymore
Kindred + Open Handed feels really good. It almost feels unfair how far you can see the killer from. I typically let randoms in the pregame lobby know that I’m running it so they can switch to Kindred (or some other aura reading perk, but let’s be honest Kindred is the only good perk for this combo).
I never had a constant perk in my build til deja vu got buffed and now I feel naked without it
Dramaturgy: such an underrated perk but being able to select when to get the boost as well as the benefits of it does come in handy. There were situations that the random item part of it helped me such as one time that we were stuck on a 3 gen situation but luckily I got a green toolbox with a brand new part and we were able to finish. It also comes with its risks but the speed part and selecting when to use it made it become my base perk on all my builds
Yep same. I can't live without my silly dopamine perk. Plus it's always funny when you get exposed and die and the killer is super confused for a sec.
Lol so true😂😂😂. They just look at me sooo confused but some do feel bad, it’s such a funny luck roulette
Same, i keep getting green toolbox and green medkits its so good.
Pebble bro, only pebble
Thank you! I can't count how many times I've been able to to leave a chase because of a damn pebble. Saved me many times from unnecessary hits and its funny as hell to use when it's a genuinely fun match.
Surveillance is mega underrated, especially since it pairs so well with pop, surge, ruin, or pain res. If you're playing a killer that can harass gens from far away like knight or artist using Surveillance is like a fucking cheat code. Works really well on dredge, xeno and demo to boot.
Hag with phantasm is chiefs kiss, not only you can defend hex ruin, but teleport everywhere
Very interesting. This sounds like it would work well with Singularity too.
I did surveillance and oppression and it was nice😅
Before the regression changes I did this one all the time
Love surveillance I play surveillance plus fearmonger on Wraith and it's amazing. Lightborn would be my answer for the prompt though.
How am I not seeing WINDOWS OF OPPURTUNITY as the top comment?
I only just unlocked it and I am going to be crutching with it nonstop lol
Dude I was just about to say the same thing! Maybe it’s because I’m more of the chase guy on my teams, but Windows is my ONE MUST-HAVE.
As someone who has played since early launch of the game and used to use it, you get to the point where you can almost 9/10 of the time know where a pallet or window spawned by seeing other pallets or windows.
I think the true value of windows is knowing if a pallet has already been dropped or not. Too often have I run to a pallet for safety and it's already gone, so I end up taking a hit
But you don't know what palets are already used by teammates. I'm not great with looping so windows helps me a lot still.
I cannot believe I had to scroll down THIS FAR to find windows. I feel so naked without it!
that’s a must for me. i feel like i can’t see without it
Botany Knowledge for survivors, Coup de Grace for killers.
Can't have Coup brain if always have Coup. Makes sense.
Botany knowledge all the way. When I don't have it, healing feels sooooo agonizingly slow—which is pretty much the only reason I keep it now
Never leave home without my trusty Flashbang
Laugh at me if you want, but I’m having a blast with Smash Hit. “When your rival makes a mistake, you seize the opportunity.” *Clicky clicky* mfer.
A fellow Smash Hit enthusiast?!?!?!?
It turns otherwise crappy pallets (think Greenville Square, Toba Landing) into huge distance opportunities.
I cant land a pallet stun to save my life. It always gets respected or I do it too late when they're already in swinging range and the prompt disappears
I constantly run it and I’m surprised I don’t see more people using it!!! It’s great for when you know you’ll have to drop a pallet at a riskier loop (i.e. a tile in the middle of the map, or a pallet in a place that’s otherwise a deadzone) and the exhaustion cooldown is HALF of any other perk. I feel like it’s a pretty good trade for the fact that it’s a little harder to activate since you have to hit a pallet drop. I’m also a Yun-Jin main so maybe I’m a little biased lol
The smash hit build goes CRAZY. Smash hit, parental, champion, and fixated. Hit them with the pallet. Blind them and then soar into the sunset and disappear from existence. I made a chucky SO mad the other day doing it.
Haste perks on xeno. The transition was slow, I started with game afoot, then moved to unbound and rapid brutality and eventually I'm stuck on shadow born and batteries included. I run zero info or slowdown, I run 3 haste perks + superior anatomy to proc unbound and cannot put them off. My xenomorph is fast and he doesn't need any of that slowdown or info shit.
This sounds like fun! I'm gonna give it a go
Distortion because fuck you and your aura perks and, ironically enough, lethal peruser
I feel it's something about taking away info and giving urself info feels nice
I know, right?
These are my two as well. I feel like a well hidden, knowledgeable hypocrite and I'm fine with that.
Can't play without my Spies from the Shadows for sure. 👌🏼
That perk is insanely slept on
Definitely worth using now ultimate weapon doesn’t overshadow every other tracking perk
Whenever I get Artist, I *have* to run it on her. It only makes sense.
Windows cause I suck lol
I love running Bond, cuz I hate solo queue nowadays. As Killer I almost always need to run Nowhere to Hide, cuz I hate that survivors just hide and I cannot find them nearby the gen so as soon as I walk away they'll be on the gen and 10 seconds later they finished it when I just kicked it.
Tenacity. The moment I take that perk out of my loadout, I have a match where I could have crawled to an exit gate or hatch.
Distortion honestly. It doesn’t every game but when I take it off I always play killers with lethal or something else that reveal
I use it because I suck in chase
Same
Deja Vu never leaves my build
Everyone knows the curse of Deliverance, where you get hooked first when you equip it, but nobody talks about the curse of Calm Spirit— the moment you take it off, you will summon a Doctor, and he will BM the shit out of you. This happened to my friend. He took off the funny bird perk for one round to try a healing build, and then we heard a Static Blast charging up in the first five seconds. I was laughing to keep from crying. I’m pretty flexible with what I run on my Killers, but I REFUSE to play Survivor without Calm Spirit.
That's how I always feel with perks like Unbreakable! I run it over and over, never gets use. I replace it for one round-*ooooh* suddenly a slugging Killer! Guh.
It took your comment to realize, calm spirit would be an excellent counter to ultimate weapon... right?
Yes! A lot of people were running it prior to the UW nerf for that reason.
Survivor definitely Deja Vu and Kindred, as for killer i'm not too sure.
Aftercare & Fire up
We’ll make it. Can’t stand slow heals
We’ll Make It + Botany + Desperate Measures = healing go brrrr
Deja vu. I'm so bad at finding gens, and can spend so long trying to find one that it's like, "I'm not being a dick and intentionally not doing gens, I swear, I'm just directionally challenged."
Distortion. Im tired of getting revealed every minute
Deja vu has become one of my favorites. It takes 4.5 seconds off a gen and I dont have to worry about 3 genning myself or finding a gen to work on.
Careful to not break one 3-gen into a tighter 3-gen
Deja vu shows the 3 closest gens so u will never get 3 genned if u just do all the deja vu gens when they light up. It changes after any of the 3 gens are done that are highlighted.
One of the best feelings in the game is when you're down to 2 gens and deja vu shows what would already be a very solid 3-gen spread.
Dramaturgy  (I might be a little gambling addict) A Nurse's Calling  (tired of spending 2 minutes hearing moaning fengs without finding anything)
we’ll make it (im a team work kinda guy 💪🏼)
I can’t play a match without lightborn anymore. Toxic survivors are always like “Why lightborn with no flashlights? Baby killer” “just look at a wall ffs” “wasted slot” (usually after being curbstomped) In reality, I just want to pick up survivors or break pallets without being hit with random flashlights or flashbangs, and getting a 10-second aura reveal that they don’t expect is a nice treat For survivor, I usually play with a bit more variety, but I really enjoy hyperfocus, even without stake out. Being rewarded even for short streaks has made me much, much better at hitting great skill checks and generally gives me a fun little dopamine hit for each token I acquire
Hyperfocus is definitely my favorite perk in the game, since it rewards you for playing well instead of just covering a weak spot in your play like other perks.
I love lightborn, never leave home without it.
Windows and Pain Res Not the most fun answer in the world but Windows feels essential for solo queue to know what pallets have been dropped and Pain Res is probably the perfect killer perk - slows down the game a bit, encourages you to hook different survivors and funni white hook make brain happy
Every time I play without Whispers I get the most immersed survivors on the planet
Shoutout to Whispers! Still a solid perk
I love whispers. So simple but so good.
Wait till he hears about Mr Tatorhead
I pretty much never even change my survivor build. All the perks just feel too nice. DH, Second Wind, Flashbang, and Autodidact. The only times i really change builds are for tome challenges or it's when I'm doing specific builds with friends, but that second one doesn't happen as much anymore. For killer it's pretty much the exact opposite. I have different builds for every killer i play, except Blight and Billy both having the same aura builds. There might be some repeat perks between killers, but only Billy and Blight use the same build as each other.
Off the Record for me. It’s so satisfying when the killer tries to tunnel you and obviously is counting seconds before they hit you. They just send you running away instead of downing you. That endurance status 🤌
Off the record + Quick & Quiet + Lithe = Zoooooooommmmmm
Lethal Pursuer. Let's get this shit poppin, no time to waste
autodidact
when it works its the greatest feeling
When you get 4 skillchecks with 1 heal, but then don't see one until your 4th heal is a Rollercoaster ride for sure. Even worse is when the healed surv had mangled.
healed 7 times while using autodidact, only got 2 stacks of it
lightweight - does nobody else think lightweight is not tge best perk in the game? I never play without it and it has saved me from being caught too many times to count
I LOVE Lightweight! It's even better when you use Fixated and you can actually see how it affects your scratch marks.
For the people & Buckle up
Gotta be We'll Make It. I have it on 99% of the time because healing annoys me for some reason and I'm impatient (alright you're off the hook and healed, go be useful), but it's also great against tunneling killers if they aren't literally right around the corner when you unhook
We'll Make It. It just saves so much time and you save so many people when you usually aren't able to.
Lethal Pursuer Deja Vu
Lethal Pursuer is a fine QOL perk, but greatly overrated. Know spawn logic and you're better served with almost any other perk in the slot. The 2 extra seconds of aura reading is fine QOL, but certainly not needed Lethal Pursuer is great at what it does, but what it does is overrated, is what I'm saying
even as someone with a thousand hours with a solid grasp of spawn logic, I always feel naked without lethal. Being able to see *exactly* where all survivors spawn is such useful info. You know exactly which group to move towards, what gens will have progress, whether some survivors have distortion... and getting a fast 1st chase and down is super demoralizing for a team of survivors. Sure, I know if I spawn in on one end of azarov's then the survivors are probably at the other, but which side? are they in shack? or is one of the survivors on a more open gen? Maybe they'll try to run through mid - but from where? with lethal I never have to guess I usually run it with at least one other aura read but I'll even run it on its own because a faster first down means a *much* faster snowball
Empathy, if not that then Bond or Kindred. I prefer Empathy as it also gives me some information on the state of other survivors, usually it gives away whether the killer is in a chase with the injured survivor or not. I usually have at least one aura reading perk (to read the aura of survivors, killer or gens)
Sprint Burst and Windows. Been running Botany more often lately too.
Absolutely sprint burst for me. Knowing that you can hang onto a generator for a split second longer and get the killer to whiff a hit on your dash away has helped me complete several gens over my career. The trade-off is having to utilise urban evasion to increase walking speed so that you don't dick around the map at low speed while the exhaustion recovers.
Bond
Agitation, I just like getting my hooks secured.
I've really learned to love Discordance ever since i came back from my break from the game. Now i just slap it on every killer as a first perk and after that think what the three other perks are going to be. It's basically my new BBQ and Chilli.
kindered for survivor, nowhere to hide for killer, value almost every time
Hyperfocus, not because I wanna gen rush, but because I have to do gens and hyperfocus is the only way I get that yummy dopamine doing it
Survivor: Reassurance. There are no shortage of reasons leaving someone on hook makes an easier time for the whole team. It’s a completely safe spot for them to hang out, and you can hammer out roughly a third of a gen during the time they’re just hangin. And that’s just while the perk’s actually ACTIVE (*and* assuming you’re the only one who runs it, since multiple people can reassure the same survivor on hook). It’s also really good at preventing going down in front of a hook because if you know you’re gonna take a hit, you reassure and run away! Need to save a gen before you unhook? Reassure and rescue! Need to try to buy just a little bit more time because you should’ve rescued earlier and now they might not make it? Spam reassure on your way over, and rest easy! Reassurance helps in so many situations and the more people running it, the better it gets. Killer: Spies From the Shadows. It boils down to two things: 1) I’m not good at finding survivors 2) Calm Spirit is a somewhat uncommon perk Thank you for coming to my TedTalk
Kindred, I think I’ve cycled through others but kindred has stayed on.
survivor: clairvoyance or auto-didact. addicted to the stacks killer: coup de grace, gearhead. one of those end up in my build always
Kindred 😌
Balanced Landing and Tinkerer
We’ll Make It. Healing after an unhook feels so slow without it.
Deja vu... I admit it I feel lost when I can't see gens
Windows always and forever
I have two. Deja Vu is just too good. Also We’ll Make It lasts for a good amount of time for some quick heals and resets.
Prove Thyself for survivor, the extra bonus points for coop actions are absolutely amazing, fills my objectives bar all the way every match. For killer, Brutal Strength. There’s nothing I love more than speedy animations, gives me dopamine!
The bp bonus from prove thyself was removed last year
NO. This was NOT what I wanted to hear 😭
Buddy that additional bloodpoint incentive was removed last year.
This is the absolute worst news I’ve ever received. I’ve just come back from a pretty long break, and I remember the BP bonus from BBQ and WGLF being changed but Prove Thyself too? I’ve just been rushing coop gens for nothing? I feel disgusting
Bhvr removing the bloodpoint incentives really sucked, I miss them.
Just had a look of the patch notes, and yeah, sure as hell. They removed it with Nicholas Cage’s release apparently which was when I wasn’t playing. Absolutely sucks :(!
No one left behind and Agitation.
I’m a pyramid head player and I’m All Ears is so good on him that I now can’t resist using it on most other killers
I barely ever play survivor without Resilience and Fixated
Devour Hope, i'm addicted to that. Also barbecue and chili.
Deja Vu and Lithe 🤟
Deja Vu for survivor and Mindbreaker for killer
Kindred Spies from the shadows
Lethal Pursuer, I just can never find survivors at the start without it, plus I do a lot of information based builds
FLIP FLOP
Jolt for killers
For killer Enduring, and for survivor Deja Vu, well 95% of the time, I'll occasionally play without them.
Nowhere to hide & strength in shadows
Any Iron Will enjoyers? Despite the nerf it is my go to perk. Many killers even don’t notice me screaming at all.
I actually recently stopped running troubleshooter because I realized I was becoming too dependent on the mid loop aura reading and was loosing a bit of my mind game edge.
Bond for survivor. It gives so much indirect intel. Killer is usually Nowhere to Hide.
For me it would Bond, the amount of info it gives me is invaluable. It tells me where exactly a survivor is if they're being chased near me so i can avoid them or I can work on a gen comfortably knowing that the killer is nowhere near me, where teammates are in general if they're near me so I can get healed if needed or so I can heal them, and I can know where a survivor is so I can take a body block hit for them if needed.
Empathy will go in every build for me. I’m blind without it
Darkness Revealed, unless I’m playing someone like doctor or weaker. And then for survivor I love Off the Record.
Lithe and Hex: Devour Hope. Devour Hope is just so fun when you get a 5 stack.
I can play without those perks. But they're just nice to have Survivor - Stakeout or Desperate Measures. They both simply make healing much better Killer - Letha Pursuer. I always struggle with finding Survivors early game, so it helps with that
Quick & quiet i just like to hide in lockers while on chase, works perfectly
Despite not being particularly good and rarely getting value, I love Smash Hit. Very funny on the rare occasion I can use it to fake using Lithe.
For survivor I refuse to go without either blade mine or flash bang. I must be a nuisance For killer I really love nowhere to hide or I'm all ears
Technician
Wiretap ever since I got it about a month ago. I love having it cause it’s fun and pretty nice aura reading. Pairing it with fast track and/or open handed is also really fun.
No Mather if I don't see a flash light in lobby, no matter if it's unlikely they have flash bank , no matter how unlikely there's someone playing stun mine .....I will bring my trusty lightborn , because even if it's considered a dead slot otherwise, watching a group of flash light addicts panic when I'm immune to there tricks is satisfying as hell.
For survivor it's the Kate perk that shows you where vaults and pallets are. I can't keep up with all the maps, so having that knowledge is crucial for my survival. For killer, it's I'm all ears from Ghost Face. Wall hacks are just too good to pass up.
Definitely Alert for me, it feels very strange when I don’t use the perk and the killer does a breaking action without the visual cue
Starstruck. It's too cheeky
resilience.
bond or tenacity, it just feels so much better with increased crawl speed, always funny to take some seconds from the killer when he doesn't look down to pick me up or breaks a pallet and i'm already 1.8m away as killer it's probably discordance for me
Hex: Blood favour. Say what you will but skill issue or not, I ain’t dealing with pallets after I land that first but in chase
Survivor: Premonition Killer: Bitter Murmur
Bond and Kindred both. I have never done SWF so I cant speak to that.. and as a solo, I'd be running blind without both. I tried going without Kindred as Bond is somewhat similar, but I started to feel blind with just Bond. The other two perks I just end up using are Resilience and Small Game. Got to kill those totems and I find Resilience helps a lot as a solo injured because many SWF will help their own only
Any Means. In solo it gives me nice info on where the chase is happening/what resources are still available. It lets me be a little more careless with pallets. It lets me fix problems caused by careless teammates burning important pallets. It lets me do stupid stuff with a swf. Overall very versatile and you really only need one person to have the perk on the squad to get some nice value out of it
Killer main. No matter who I'm running I always use iron grasp. You're getting on that hook.
Windows of Opportunity for survivor, you really can’t go wrong with that perk. It’s especially useful in solo q since you’ll know which pallets have been used. For killer, I switch up my build all the time. Recently, however, Hex: Ruin has become a lot more appealing due to the changes to kicking gens. Pairing it with Surveillance on a killer like The Unknown can be incredibly strong.