The 10 best survivor perks in Dead By Daylight (2023)

When playing as the survivor in Dead By Deadlight, you have precious few ways to act to avoid the Killer hunting you down. As a result, you want to be careful with your actions, and the perks you’re using can be the difference between saving your life or dying. This guide will cover the 10 best survivor perks in Dead by Daylight.

The best Survivor perks in Dead by Daylight

Boon: Circle of Healing

This perk first comes from Mikaela before you can unlock it for others. With it, you’ll be able to create a Boon Totem when standing next to the Dull or Hex Totem, blessing it. The Boon Totem has a radius of 24 meters, and any survivor within that radius receives a 40/45/50 bonus to all of their healing speeds, unlocking the Self-Care ability. The Self-Care ability allows you to heal your character for half the standard Personal Healing speed. If you’re playing by yourself, we highly recommend grabbing this perk as you can take care of yourself and complete objectives, but it can be strategically used with a team so long as they can find your location.

Borrowed Time

You first use the Borrowed Time perk while playing as Bill and later for everyone else. With it, whenever pulling a teammate off the hook, they gain the Endurance effect. Depending on the perk level, if the Killer strikes them for a short time, they will have 20 seconds to get away from the Killer to mend themselves. If they are hit a second time or cannot heal themselves, following the 20 seconds, they will go down again. It’s an excellent way to help someone cornered and get back on their feet, but it won’t always be practical.

Dead Hard

The Dead Hard perk comes from David King. When injured, you can activate this ability while running to begin dashing. You’ll receive the Exhausted status effect for the next 60/50/40 seconds, meaning you will not be able to start the skill until it goes away. Although there is a cooldown period, you can use this to escape being downed by a Killer, becoming a distraction for the rest of your team. You can run straight into danger, giving yourself an alternative escape.

Fogwise

The Fogwise perk is one you can obtain from Vittorio Toscano. The perk has it so whenever you perform a Great Skill Check while repairing a Generator, you see the Killer’s aura for 4/5/6 seconds, potentially giving you a little wiggle room to know when you need to leave a Generator or not. We find that this perk is extremely useful on teams where you’re actively communicating with the other Survivors, notifying each of the Killer’s positions to make it easier to avoid them during a match—the requirement to hit the Great Skill Checks while on a Generator can be challenging, though.

Related: All Dead by Daylight Survivors and teachable perks

Kindred

Kindred is a perk available to all survivors in Dead by Daylight. With it, if you’re on a hook, all survivors will be able to see each other. Whenever a Killer is within 8/12/16 meters of the hook, all survivors can see the aura depending on your level with the perk. The perk also takes effect if another survivor is on the hook but is only available to you. You can use this to your advantage as the Killer slowly attempts to pick you off one by one.

Lightweight

You can use Lightweight with any Survivor. Using this perk, all scratch marks fade 1/2/3 seconds sooner than they usually would, making it more difficult for the Hunter to track you down. It’s not a huge benefit, but it’s an effect that can happen throughout the game and will continue to be effective at nearly any opportunity. Everyone on your team can use this skill, and you don’t have to communicate directly to make the most out of it.

Potential Energy

The Potential Energy skill comes from Vittorio before you unlock it for other characters. This skill can be risky, but with the correct timing, it fits extremely well with any group. After repairing a generator uninterrupted for 12/10/8 seconds, you can activate this perk to begin earning stacks for Potential Energy. Those stacks become tokens, and you can hold up to 20 tokens. If you miss a skill check, you can lose some tokens. You can then take those tokens to another generator and increase its repair status, with a single token resulting in a 1% value. If you lose a Health State, you lose all Tokens.

Prove Thyself

You can use the perk Prove Thyself first with Dwight and later with everyone else. While you have it, you increase the repair speed of other survivors by 15%, but they must be within four meters of your character. You can do this up to a maximum of 45%. You also receive 50/75/100 bonus Bloodpoints whenever performing cooperative actions. You’ll want to utilize this skill when you’re directly working with teammates, and you have a way to coordinate with them so they can make the most out of this skill.

Spine Chill

You can give the Spine Chill to any of the available survivors. The ability activates whenever the Killer is looking in your direction within 36 meters. While active, the Trigger odds of a Skill Check increase by 10%, the Skill Check Success zone is reduced by 10%, and your Action speeds in Cleansing, Healing, Sabotaging, Repairing, Unlocking, Unhooking, and Vaulting increase by 2/4/6%. You’ll need to be close to the Killer to take full advantage of this perk, but a little risk gives you several rewards to make it faster to complete tasks and survive. So be prepared to remain aggressive in using this perk.

Related: How to rank up characters quickly in Dead By Daylight

Unbreakable

This is a perk that comes from Bill. With it, once per trial, you will have the chance to recover from the Dying State. Your recovery speed is increased by 25/30/30%. We cannot recommend this one enough if you want to give yourself a second chance to return to the fight and assist your allies. You’ll be able to provide more risky gameplay throughout the game, perhaps taking more options than your allies would complete objectives. Once it’s gone, though, you’ll have to be cautious.