Dead By Daylight Characters: Survivors And Killers

Dead by Daylight characters are a big part of the game's appeal. Dead by Daylight is an asymmetrical multiplayer game where a monstrous killer must hunt down four unwitting folks who must escape in order to survive. Behaviour Interactive has put a lot of character into both the killers and the survivors, giving players reasons to get invested in them. Here is everything you need to know about the Dead by Daylight characters.

• If you want to play this game with friends on different systems, don't worry, you can use the Dead by Daylight crossplay system.

Dead By Daylight Characters: The Survivors

Dead by Daylight has a large cast of characters, with plenty of regular old human survivors for you to choose from. Choosing your survivor is not simply a cosmetic choice, although that can be an important factor. Survivors have perks, individual abilities that make them better or worse than each other. There are many of these perks, and some are unique to certain characters.

There are a couple of ways to determine which characters are better than others. Perks are one such factor. Some perks are powerful, some are more situational, and some are less useful or more general in their application. Then you have individual character traits. For example, smaller characters are more appropriate for stealthier playstyles; characters with outfits that blend into the environment will also aid those that wish to avoid combat at all costs.

Physically large characters or characters with very noticeable attire stand out more and are easier for a killer to find and track. You even have to contend with how loud a character is, knowing how much noise they make while in pain. An excellent example of that is Jake Park, a character who has a perk that makes him silent while injured. These perks make Jake much more difficult for a killer to track down after attacking him.

Many factors are involved in choosing a survivor in Dead by Daylight, but thankfully there aren't too many bad options. Someone like Dwight Fairfield, one of the characters unlocked from the beginning, is a good option as an all-around character. Not especially powerful, but not much wrong with him either. That said, if you want some significantly more useful characters, you should go with someone like Claudette Morel or Mikaela Reid.

These two characters have something in common, they both focus on healing. Keeping yourself and your teammates healthy is crucial in Dead by Daylight, so characters with healing perks are always good to have. Claudette is interesting because she can heal others faster, see the auras of injured teammates, and heal herself without a medkit at half the typical speed. If you are new to the game and want to pick a survivor who will be helpful to your team, Claudette is excellent.

Mikaela Reid is a great character for keeping your team alive. She uses boon perks, which are abilities that take effect around a blessed totem. Her boon Circle of Healing doubles the speed of all healing within a radius around the totem. She has Self-Care like Claudette, but with her Circle of Healing, Mikaela can negate the half-speed penalty of healing herself. These perks, alongside Clairvoyance which grants info on objectives when a totem is destroyed, and her small size for better stealth, make Mikaela one of, if not the, best survivor in the game.

• Fans of Dead by Daylight should know that the Dead by Daylight board game lets you slice and 'dice' your enemies.

Dead By Daylight Characters: The Killers

On the other side of the fight, we have the killers. Choosing a killer is arguably a bigger decision than choosing a survivor. Killers play much more different from each other than the survivors do. Which killer is in play has a massive effect on the game itself, and finding the right one for your playstyle is no small job.

Killers range from lumbering, heavy-hitting monsters to nimble and tricky ghosts and ghouls. There are killers with ranged attacks, killers with traps, killers who can teleport, and even a killer that is two killers you can swap between on the fly. Thankfully, the amount of killers on offer means there should be a suitable one for any player.

New players could start with the Trapper. He is the original killer, who has been there since day one. He stalks survivors, swinging his massive cleaver and catching his prey in bear traps. He isn't particularly complicated to use, and although over the years he has largely been outpaced by new killers, he is still a good option when getting started as a fledgling murderer. Just don't expect to win often against experienced survivors.

An excellent option for a balanced and consistent killer is the Demogorgon, one of the many crossovers characters we will get into shortly. The Demogorgon has a handy portal ability that lets it cross the map incredibly quickly. It attacks with its claws, and its Shred attack lunges quickly to catch unsuspecting survivors. The Demogorgon is a fantastic choice for newer players who are sinking their teeth further into the killer side of the game and want to start racking up a body count.

There are killers for basically any playstyle; this game even comes with two flavours of chainsaw murderer. For a killer that utterly changes the game and can decimate survivors, check out the Nurse. The Nurse has one primary ability, and that is her Blink. She can effectively travel through any wall, around any obstacle, and attack shortly after appearing. The Nurse is terrifying, as she can seemingly appear from anywhere. If you like the sound of instilling that kind of terror in your opponents, then say hello to the Nurse.

Dead By Daylight: Crossovers

No, there isn't a hidden third team of characters in Dead by Daylight, but special attention must be given to the fantastic cast of crossover characters in the game. Dead by Daylight is a celebration of horror, in film, on TV, and in videogames. Some of the classics appear here, like Freddy Krueger, Michael Myers, and Pinhead from Hellraiser. You also have great additions like Ghost Face from Scream, Sadako from The Ring and the Demogorgon from Stranger Things. Dead by Daylight pulls influence from all sides of horror, and it would be remiss to go without mentioning the classic videogame horror characters that appear here, Nemesis from Resident Evil 3 and Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2.

Dead by Daylight goes one step further and includes prominent human characters from horror as playable survivors. These characters rarely get a look in, so it is awesome to see them included in the game. This includes Leon and Jill from Resident Evil, Cheryll from Silent Hill 3, and even Laurie Strode from the original Halloween. Dead by Daylight is a love letter to the genre and has something in it for every fan of horror.

That is what you need to know to start getting to grips with the many choices of Dead by Daylight characters. For more on the game, why not check out our Dead by Daylight codes guide for any currently available Bloodpoint codes.