Dead by Daylight: Best Stealth Builds For Survivors

While some Dead by Daylight survivor players prefer to spend most of their time looping the killer around the map, other players tend to enjoy the hide-and-seek aspect of the game, adopting a more stealthy play style. Players who use stealth optimally can hide from the killer at critical times, avoiding getting injured or downed thanks to their sneaky skills and the boosts their perks provide.

Survivors wanting to play stealthily should consider their survivor's outfit - neon clothes will make any character stand out against a rock or when peeking out from behind a tree - but more importantly, they should pick a build that works well with their play style. In Dead by Daylight, the perks players choose can save their lives or significantly prolong their time in each trial. Survivors who plan on hiding often should ensure that they pick the best builds to keep them safe.

5 Fast And Sneaky

Spine Chill
Iron Will (Jake Park)
Urban Evasion (Nea Karlsson)
Quick and Quiet (Meg Thomas)

This build prioritizes staying hidden without sacrificing free movement throughout the map. Quick and Quiet allows players to vault a pallet or window without creating a loud noise notification, allowing them to make more distance silently and quickly, whether it's toward a generator or away from a killer in chase.

Urban Evasion also contributes to this build's focus on mobility, since it allows players to strategically move around rocks and other environmental objects in chase, keeping their character's model out of the killer's view. Spine Chill gives the player an alert as to when the killer is coming in their direction; this gives survivors the time they need to find a safe hiding spot. This perk is arguably one of the best in the game and is used in most stealth builds. Iron Will silences survivors' grunts of pain, allowing players one last chance to evade the killer after being hit.

4 Give 'Em The Slip

Spine Chill
Iron Will (Jake Park)
Parental Guidance (Yoichi Asakawa)
Lucky Break (Yui Kimura)

For players who want to engage in chase but want the added security of finding a great hiding spot afterward, this build is a great choice. Spine Chill allows the survivor to prepare for chase; knowing when the killer is coming gives the player an advantage since it gives them time to run to a loop. Alternatively, they can use it to find a hiding spot after being hit. Iron Will complements Spine Chill nicely, since it silences a survivor's grunts of pain, making them inaudible after an injury and helping them maintain a hiding spot. Even the best of killers can have trouble finding a survivor who doesn't make noise.

Parental Guidance and Lucky Break help the survivor engage in more fun chases; Parental Guidance hides scratch marks after stunning the killer, while Lucky Break hides scratch marks and pools of blood after an injury. With this build, players don't have to be afraid of chase; they can take advantage of their perks to fool the killer in satisfying ways, heal, and take chase again.

3 Map Awareness

Empathy (Claudette Morel)
Bond (Dwight Fairfield)
Urban Evasion (Nea Karlsson)
Quick and Quiet (Meg Thomas)

The Map Awareness build equips survivors with the information they need to evade the killer throughout the match. With Empathy and Bond, players should be able to know where most, if not all, of their teammates are at all times. With this information, they can see who is being chased by the killer, allowing them to avoid that area of the map. These perks can also give the player information about who is working on a generator, so they can go assist.

Sometimes, even when a survivor uses all the information they have from Empathy and Bond to their advantage, the killer will still come their way. Strong killer perks like Barbeque and Chili that allow the killer to see the survivors' aura can thwart stealthy survivors' plans. Urban Evasion and Quick and Quiet ensure that survivors have a backup plan if they do run into the killer; they can avoid chase with Urban Evasion or escape it with Quick and Quiet.

2 Eyes On The Prize

Situational Awareness
Boon: Shadow Step (Mikaela Reid)
Boon: Circle of Healing (Mikaela Reid)
Stake Out (Detective Tapp)

This build focuses on keeping players hidden while still focusing on completing the game's main and side objectives: completing generators and cleansing Hex totems. Situational Awareness lets other survivors see the aura of the generator the player is working on, giving other survivors the information they need to keep the killer away from a generator in progress. Boon: Shadow Step and Circle of Healing benefit the whole team by making their scratch marks invisible and allowing them to heal more quickly within a certain radius, giving more time to complete generators. Boon totems are more powerful on smaller maps, but they're a huge help to the team anywhere.

Detective Tapp's Stake Out rewards players for maintaining stealth, converting Good Skill Checks to Great Skill Checks through tokens earned by staying in the killer's terror radius without engaging in chase. Since this build is team-based, it's a great choice for those who value teamwork and want to help their whole team escape the trial.

1 Stealth Mix-And-Match

No two Dead by Daylight players are the same, so premade builds might not catch every survivors' fancy. Players can create their own builds by mixing-and-matching from certain stealth perks to fit their optimal playstyle; while some players prefer to hide throughout the whole match and avoid chase altogether, others may want to occasionally engage in chase but give the killer the slip. The following perks have excellent synergy with other stealth perks, and would work well in a custom stealth survivor build:

Spine Chill: Since this perk gives the player information about when the killer is coming and counters stealth killers like The Ghost Face, The Pig, and The Shape, it's a must-have in almost any stealth build.
Distortion (Jeff Johansen): This perk hides the players' aura from the killer the first four times it's revealed to them and hides their scratch marks for ten seconds. This perk has strong synergy with other information perks like Bond and Empathy.
Bite The Bullet (Leon Kennedy): This perk silences the users' grunts of pain when they're healing themselves or another player. This perk would synergize well with perks that hide scratch marks, like Poised, allowing players to locate a safe hiding spot quickly.
Lightweight: This perk makes scratch marks disappear more quickly; while it's not incredibly popular in the meta, it can mix nicely with other stealth perks.
Bond (Dwight Fairfield)
Empathy (Claudette Morel)