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Dead by Daylight is a game that strongly prides on its cast of characters, which includes both those that are original and those that are guests from popular horror franchises, such as The Evil Dead, SAW, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Silent Hill, and more.
While it’s fun to play as all of the different killers in the game and it’s possible to win casual matches when playing as them too – not every killer is created equal.
Since the game offers a diverse cast of 25 playable killers, it’s a lot of unique characters to play to figure out whether they’re the best or not.
So, we’ve taken the time to test the game out as all of these different characters and formed a thorough tier list that will help you choose who you want to play in a matter of minutes.
So, let’s get started!
Dead by Daylight Killers Ranked
Here’s a list of Dead by Daylight killers ranked from S-Tier to D-Tier.
| Killer Tier Level | Killers |
|---|---|
| Dead by Daylight S-Tier Killers | 1. The Nurse 2. Freddy Kreuger 3. The Blight 4. The Spirit |
| Dead by Daylight A Tier Killers | 1. The Oni 2. The Hag 3. Pyramid Head (The Executioner) 4. The Deathslinger 5. The Twins 6. Leatherface (The Cannibal) |
| Dead by Daylight B-Tier Killers | 1. The Hillbilly 2. The Huntress 3. Nemesis 4. Michael Myers (The Shape) 5. The Demogorgon 6. The Ghost Face |
| Dead by Daylight C-Tier Killers | 1. The Doctor 2. The Trickster 3. The Pig (Amanda Young) 4. The Legion |
| Dead by Daylight D-Tier Killers | 1. The Plague 2. The Trapper 3. The Clown 4. The Wraith |
Dead by Daylight S-Tier Killers
1. The Nurse
One of the killers that you run into very commonly in Dead by Daylight is The Nurse – and it’s no surprise as to why that happens once you play as her. She’s a bit difficult to get used to, but her Blink ability gives her the power to teleport through solid objects.
This is a major advantage in a game about survivors hiding from killing you – so the fact that the Nurse can bypass one of the most important restrictions in the game puts her above many other killers no matter how useful they might be.
2. Freddy Kreuger
Normally, gameplay and personality aren’t exactly correlated and guest characters like Freddy Kreuger are not as useful as some of the original characters that everyone knows and loves – because such characters are added as an afterthought rather than relevance.
Freddy, however, is a pleasant surprise because he has great mobility and can teleport to unfinished generators anytime that he wants.
This is a major advantage if you ever notice that a survivor might be near a generator and then you can teleport right to them. Furthermore, his Dream Snares ability allows him to throw a puddle of blood on the map and if anyone walks over the puddle, then they prove themselves
3. The Blight
The Blight is a fast-paced killer, which is not very common in Dead by Daylight as most killers are quite slow. The Blight can sprint quite fast and even if you ram yourself into any object, you can immediately sprint a second time to get back into form.
It’s not the easiest killer to play as, but once you get used to him – he can be very confusing to play against for the survivors and that’s a great advantage.
4. The Spirit
The Spirit has the ability to disappear and traverse the map quickly for a limited time. And whenever she’s in the state of phasing, she has no limitations aside from the fact that the survivors can hear a small sound that would let them know you’re around.
But that still doesn’t stop her from being one of the most useful killers since she can surprise and scare players off at every turn and is one of the fastest killers to play as.
Dead by Daylight A-Tier Killers
1. The Oni
The Oni is one of the most popular killers in the game and that is because of the fact that he’s extremely intimidating to play against. He is great at finding survivors and has the ability to dash around the map if he is able to collect the blood of the survivors.
The only thing that you need to be careful about is that his abilities require being charged before they can be used – so make sure to strategize your approach right.
2. The Hag
The Hag is a unique killer that does not just conventionally slash her victims. She can set up traps that can be triggered every time a survivor touches them – and then she can directly teleport to the trap that has been triggered. Even her small height is an advantage since she can be camouflaged into the view and sometimes only appear when it’s too late.
Her traps can be burned but she has an unlimited number of them, so a good strategy should keep you on the right track.
3. Pyramid Head (The Executioner)
The Pyramid Head is a creature that every gamer is familiar with regardless of whether they played the Silent Hill games or not.
He’s very slow, but his abilities still allow him to have good control of the map since he can see survivors for a short time when they pass through his trenches and can use loops, vaulting, pallets, and other things with his special ability to stop survivors dead in their tracks.
Lastly, he can even hook survivors without having to pick them up, unlike other killers.
4. The Deathslinger
The Deathslinger is a killer that stands out because he’s not using hatchets or blades to fight. Instead, he’s a ranged killer with a rifle and he is great at hunting survivors down from a distance. And the fact that his height makes him a bit difficult to spot greatly adds to his advantage.
The only reason he’s not on the S tier is that his range is not as good as The Huntress.
5. The Twins
The Twins have always had a very unique concept, and it’s been executed in the best way since the game allows you to play as both of them.
Charlotte is a slow-paced killer who can deal a lot of damage with her attack, while Victor can plunge at survivors and stay on their back to slow them down. And if he’s idle, he marks the survivors’ locations for Charlotte to use too.
6. Leatherface (The Cannibal)
Leatherface wasn’t the most effective killer in the beginning, but he’s since received buffs in the game’s recent updates that made him pretty good. He has three charges in his chainsaw and he walks faster when it’s activated just like in the movies. His abilities are nothing fancy, but sometimes all you need is a good tank character.
Dead by Daylight B-Tier Killers
1. The Hillbilly
The Hillbilly is a very straightforward killer to use and is great with map control too since he can traverse quite easily. His chainsaw attack is an instant knockdown for the survivors, so using it properly can make you very powerful as a killer.
However, the chainsaw can overheat so it’s quite frustrating sometimes to know how long you have to rev it for, making sure it’s not over the limit.
Couple all of that with perks that can make survivors visible for him, and you’ve got yourself a pretty good killer that is friendly to use as long as you can watch the rev timing.
2. The Huntress
The Huntress is one of the most iconic killers in the game, but the reason she’s not in the A tier is that she’s very difficult to master. Dead by Daylight is a bit of a clunky game and it’s not as easy as it sounds to just have five throwing axes and actually hitting them on the right spots.
Fortunately, you can find more hatchets in lockers and she has a pretty decent range – but of course that gives survivors a chance to run away.
3. Nemesis
The Nemesis is one of the most recent additions to the game and unfortunately, he had to be balanced in order to make the game fair for survivors – because if you take a look at the source material he would be impossible to beat.
He’s still pretty useful though, as he can deal a lot of damage with his ranged tentacle attack and even inflicts a debuff which causes the survivors to require a vaccine.
As if that wasn’t enough, he can even deploy two AI-controlled zombies to trouble the survivors further. However, most of his abilities are quite inaccurate to use and don’t provide enough control to the player – and that’s why he’s in the B tier.
4. Michael Myers (The Shape)
Michael Myers is an icon of the horror industry and fortunately, he’s a relatively useful killer to play as.
He has three tiers that he can achieve, which all have a few differences. Tier 1 is of course the least effective state, while Tier 3 allows him to move quicker and down survivors with a single hit.
He’d definitely be higher on the tier list if he did not require such a slow start-up phase, but he’s still very useful if you have the patience and the addition of some add-ons can add to his versatility as a killer.
5. The Demogorgon
This killer from Stranger Things has portals that can help him traverse the map quicker than many other killers, and he can stop generators from being finished more effectively than some of the other killers too.
He has good tracking abilities and can see the aura of survivors if they are close to his portals.
What does hold this killer back is that his portals can be sealed off by the survivors, so he loses half of his versatility as a killer in that situation.
6. The Ghost Face
The Ghost Face is someone that everyone is familiar with. Whether it’s people who watch movies, people who love Halloween, or even people who enjoy memes – this character from the Scream franchise is nearly unparalleled in popularity.
His playstyle requires the players to expose the survivors and one-hit-kill them once he gets his hand on them. He’s not that slow compared to some of the other killers, but he is a bit reliant on perks to being anything outside of the ordinary.
Dead by Daylight C-Tier Killers
1. The Doctor
The Doctor is one of those killers that do what they do best, and not much besides. He can send electric shocks that can make survivors scream and that obviously reveals their location.
He isn’t that good at knocking the survivors down compared to some of the other killers, but the fact that he can give the Madness effect to survivors still makes him very useful and if strategized properly, he can be very deadly.
2. The Trickster
The Trickster looks like a K-Pop singer but he’s just as much of a killer as everyone else. He has throwing knives that can take survivors down from a distance – and you need to hit them six times for them to be downed.
That sounds like a lot of knives to hit, but it’s not his ability so that’s not the worst thing.
His main ability allows him to unleash a chain of attacks and it lasts for 30 seconds, which is enough to get many lethal hits in if you got the position and angle right. He’s not that useful of a killer, but he’s better than how he was in the beginning if nothing else.
3. The Pig (Amanda Young)
The Pig comes from the SAW franchise, so unsurprisingly her ability is to set reverse bear traps that can force survivors to go into Jigsaw boxes if they want to remove them from their heads.
It’s a very specific ability to use and requires a lot of strategizing – which makes her a difficult character to play as. However, difficult does not mean useless, so while she’s not as useful as some of the other killers, she’s still better than the D tier.
4. The Legion
The Legion has several skills, such as the ability to run fast and nearby survivors becoming visible once a single survivor is hit.
It can be a pretty useful killer in the right hands, but very frustrating to play as if you’re not willing to put in the learning effort because the downsides here are very bad. Things like stretch marks vanishing or exhaustion periods after using abilities can give survivors too massive an advantage.
Dead by Daylight D-Tier Killers
1. The Plague
The Plague is a strange killer that requires a lot of strategizing to be played. Her ability is to vomit on survivors which cause them to be infected and they cannot heal anymore unless they use her fountains.
The problem comes in the fact that it’s not enough to rely on and you will need a lot of add-ons to make her worth your time. Which eventually just points out the fact that you should use a different killer.
2. The Trapper
The Trapper is another killer that relies overly on the usage of perks, which is way too specific a play style to be adopted. There is little to no reason to play as such a character – but his ability is essentially setting up traps and trying his best to make survivors get trapped in them.
Arguably the least interesting killer in the game.
3. The Clown
The Clown is a very mediocre killer that can throw gas bottles that slow survivors down, and he lacks a lot of things that other killers have – such as speed or map control.
Eventually, he relies a lot on add-ons than even some of the other add-on-reliant killers, and that makes him a very poor choice to play as.
4. The Wraith
The Wraith is a stealth-based killer that can stalk survivors and attack them when they are vulnerable. However, he has no particularly useful ability to support this play-style since he cannot down survivors in one hit and he can’t block off vaults or loops either.
The only thing he can do well is moving quickly in stealth, but it’s not a justified trade-off at the end of the day when other killers have so many other abilities to offer.
That’s the entire tier list for all of the Dead by Daylight killers in 2021! The game will be receiving a new killer in the face of the iconic Pinhead soon, but until he’s released and tested for days – he cannot be included in this tier list.
We hope you found this guide useful and while you’re here, make sure to check out some of our other helpful articles too.
