Summary
Reaching level 50 with a character inDead By Daylightallows you to prestige them, reducing their level to 1 and unlocking their level 1 perks for all other characters of their type. Perks unlocked this way can be leveled up to max rank through leveling or through prestiging the character again (up to level three).
With the ability to play one character and level another it becomes important to make sure that your bloodpoints are being used to unlock the perks you need to succeed. There are many Killer perks that are surprisingly niche and not always beneficial for all the Killers you want to play. On the flip side, some incredible perks are always useful for most (if not every) Killer.
Updated on July 13, 2025, by Sanyam Jain:With time, Dead By Daylight consistently sees the release of new killers with their three unique perks. The list has been updated with a few more priority choices for prestige when it comes to killers!
9The Trapper
The Trapper is many things, but above allThe Trapper is a simple Killerthat is perfect for beginners and experts alike. This is perfectly reflected in his perks, which are amazing tools for any Killer who uses them.
What Trapper lacks in fanfare, he more than makes up for in the ease of use of his perks.Brutal Strengthmakes kicking generators, breaking breakable walls, and dropped pallets significantly faster, meaning you can spend more time chasing those pesky Survivors.
Agitationallows the Killer using it to move faster when they have picked up a Survivor, allowing you to bring them from the edges of the map or inconvenient locations to hooks that are easier to defend or to Scourge Hooks if you run any of the powerful Scourge Hook perks.
Agitation can also becombined with various perkslike Starstruck to get a lot more value.
EvenOverwhelming Presenceoffers a great baseline benefit helpful to any Killer. Making Survivors in your Terror Radius have more frequent and difficult skill checks for healing and repairing generators slows down their momentum, but it might not work that well once you start getting experienced survivors.
8The Shape
The firstlicensed Killeron the list, thisunlockable characteris straight from the horror movie hall of fame. The Shape (also known as Michael Myers from the Halloween franchise) boasts a pair of extremely useful perks regardless of the Killer they are used on.
Save The Best For Lastis an incredible perk for all Killers who make use of their basic attack mechanic. Instead of suffering the tedious swipe and then weapon cleaning visual effect that can take a few seconds out of the chase, you instead get that animation’s speed quickened as you earn tokens from hitting Survivors that are not the obsession.
Save The Best For Last is stackable and can ultimately net you (at five percent per stack) up to 30 percent increased recovery from your attack, letting you get those Survivors down much faster.
Play With Your Foodis another obsession-related perk that has incredible synergy with most Killers. Leaving a chase with your obsession target grants you a five percent movement speed boost. Though your tokens for this perk are capped at three, and you lose one each time you attack with a basic or special attack, the extra speed can end chases a lot quicker when Survivors aren’t expecting it.
7The Clown
The Clown might not be the most fun killer to play or go against in the game, but he can end chases fairly quickly. One of his special perks also include Bamboozle, which lets you block the last window you vaulted for the next 16 seconds. This willlet you end chases quicklyeven if you’re playing a different killer.
Pop Goes The Weasel is another meta perk that, even after various nerfs, serves as one of the best choices for generator regression. Whenever you kick a generator after hooking a survivor, you deal a massive blast to it, reducing the progress by 20 percent of its current progress.
Finally, the third perk for The Clown might not be as useful as the others, but it can still be phenomenal on certain killers with a big terror radius. The perk reduces the speed of survivor healing by a whopping 50 percent inside your terror radius, bringing it down to a crawl.
6The Plague
Aunique Killer with an array of useful perks, The Plague lays claim to one of the most essential perks for all Killers that Dead By Daylight has to offer.
Corrupt Interventionis by far one of the widest-used perks in Dead By Daylight, synergizing with every Killer as it opens the match with map-wide generator control.
Corrupt Interventionblocks access to the generators furthest away from where you spawn at the beginning of the match. Survivors will have to either wait out the incredible 90-second timer, allowing you to scout the map and find a chase, or be forced to your location at the beginning of the match.
Though not as well-used as Corrupt Intervention,Infectious Frightcan also be a valuable tool in any Killer’s arsenal as it forces all Survivors in your immediate vicinity to scream, revealing their location, when you put one of their allies into the dying state.
5The Trickster
The Trickster is an incredibly good Killer in general.With his ability to throw knives to injure Survivors at range, he is a horrendously dangerous enemy to face in a trial. This is accented by his wonderful array of perks.
Starstruckmakes it so that when you pick up a Survivor from the ground, for the duration of your carrying them to the hook, all Survivors that are in your Terror Radius become Exposed allowing them to be downed in a single basic attack hit making this perk amazing on any basic attack using Killer.
No Way Outis the true pride and joy of The Trickster though. When the exit gates are powered and the Survivors are able to open the exit gates you are normally almost powerless to stop them. With this perk, you instead delay their ability to open the gates by 12 seconds.
A timer of 12 seconds doesn’t seem like much but for each unique Survivor you have hooked in the trial that timer increases by another 12 seconds.
Forcing the Survivors to run around panicked for up to a full minute at the end of the game can get you those extra hooks to turn your game into a slaughter.
4The Hillbilly
Another Behaviour original. The Hillbilly encapsulates the “hillbilly horror” theme whilst also housing some incredibly diverse perks.
Enduringis a great perk that works on any Killer, lowering the time that you are stunned allowing you to continue chasing those pesky Survivors. Coupled with access to the perkTinkerer,which shrouds your Terror Radius and gives you an alert when a generator hits 70 percent completion progress, Hillbilly has some incredible tools that are useful on most Killers.
3The Hag
The Hag’s perks have fluctuated greatly in the meta-game of Dead By Daylight, often being part ofthe most effective Killer buildsavailable.
Hex: Ruingrants passive slowdown to generators as it forces any generator that is not being worked on to regress automatically, lowering its progress. This can be an incredible tool when you are first learning a Killer or the game in general as it allows you to focus on the more active part of the game, chasing Survivors.
Hex: Devour Hopeis the big perk that makes Hag worth prestiging though. Granting stacks when a Survivor is unhooked when you are away from the hook, the perk grants you increasingly deadly power. First, it grants you a haste effect making you faster after you hook a Survivor, getting you away from the hook and back in the action faster.
Second, it makes all Survivors suffer from the Exposed status meaning you may down them in a single basic attack hit. Finally, with full stacks, you gain the ability to kill Survivors outright without needing to take them to a hook.
Hex: Devour Hope is a dangerous perk that necessitates removal when it is discovered, and by that point, it is often too late.
2The Cenobite
Thedemon of the Hellraiser franchise,The Cenobite holds one of thestrongest slowdown perksin the game.
Deadlockactivates when a generator is finished, blocking the generator with the most progress on the map for a full 30-second window. This also makes the generator’s aura visible to you for its duration, meaning you know where the Survivors have been pooling their efforts.
Whether you kick the generator when it’s unblocked or chase the Survivors in the area for momentum, this perk scuppers the snowballing effect of split Survivors, extending the time they have to face you in the trial.
1The Artist
This crow-slinging, ink-spewing murderer has arguably the strongest perk of any Killer in Dead By Daylight.
Scourge Hook: Pain Resonancemarks three hooks on the map with a white aura. When you hook a Survivor on any of the marked hooks for the first time, the perk loses a charge and the generator with the most progress instantly loses 25 percent progress. With 25 percent progress being equivalent to 22.5 seconds of work by a single Survivor, this perk can be absolutely devastating for the Survivors' momentum.
WithHex: Pentimentoalso in her toolkit, granting the ability to resurrect broken totems for more and more effects for each resurrected and protected (including slowing down generator progress), Artist’s perks are a thorn in the side (or heart) of any Survivor foolish enough to face a Killer that uses them.
