Dead by Daylight: 5 Looping Tips

No skill is more crucial than looping for survivors in Dead by Daylight. Using the environment to one's advantage is key to winning each trial; pallets, vaults, and long walls all help survivors gain distance from the killer and prevent them from getting hit. Survivors need to use these resources wisely, though, or they will quickly run out, creating significant obstacles; stealth works sometimes but is not always a reliable strategy. Running out of survival tools like pallets not only puts one survivor in a bad position but the whole survivor team.

Because looping is so critical, some survivors find it intimidating. Looping the killer in Dead by Daylight isn't as hard as it seems, though, and even a brand new player can pick up this skill with a bit of practice. Survivors can learn how to loop the killer more effectively with these tips.

5 Use Pallets Wisely

There are a finite number of pallets around the map, so survivors should use them wisely if they want to survive. Dropping every pallet on the map is an easy recipe for disaster; pallets can only be used once, and running out of them means players have no reliable ways to counter the killer. Beginners often make the mistake of dropping pallets as soon as the killer comes near them, but this doesn't work for long.

If one survivor drops multiple valuable pallets in a chase that isn't particularly important, those pallets will not be available to use in later chases. This could put the player or other survivors on their team at risk. Survivors should run as many times as they can around a loop before they drop the pallet, making good use of the tools at their disposal.

4 Understand Vaults

In Dead by Daylight, there are three different speeds at which a survivor can vault a window: slow, rushed, and fast. Survivors must understand these vault speeds in order to be effective in a chase. Slow vaults are completed when walking, not running, and are not extremely useful in chase. They can be used for survivors who may want to try to sneak away and deceive the killer about their location, but this is a risky move. In general, slow vaults should be avoided in chase.

Rushed or medium vaults occur when a survivor approaches a window while running but doesn't vault it at the correct angle; this is still faster than the killer vaults but could result in the survivor getting hit if the killer is close enough. Finally, fast vaults occur when a running survivor vaults a window at the right angle, giving them the quickest speed boost and most distance from the killer.

3 Use Strong Tiles

Some pallets are stronger than others. There are two types of pallets: safe and unsafe. When dropped, safe pallets create a safe loop, forcing the killer to break them to earn the hit if the survivor loops the pallet correctly. Unsafe pallets have short walls on both sides, allowing the killer to easily swerve around and hit the survivor, regardless of which direction they go.

Survivors should focus on looping safe pallets to start out, taking as long as they can to loop the killer before dropping the pallet. Using weaker tiles at critical times — like if a player already has two hooks — could result in death.

2 Anticipate The Killer's Moves

Experienced killers will use a variety of tricks to attempt to fool survivors around each loop, so survivors should keep an eye out for these strategies and understand how to counter them. For example, a killer can turn to hide their red stain; if a killer's red stain suddenly disappears, the survivor should infer they may have changed direction and turn accordingly. Additionally, killers can moon-walk to confuse survivors about which direction they are going.

Some killers even have powers that assist them in chase, allowing them to better mind-game survivors. Ghost Face and The Pig can both crouch, and the latter can Ambush around tight loops. To prevent being caught in a bad position around a loop, survivors should make sure they keep an eye on the killer as often as they can, looking behind themselves frequently.

1 Use Perks Wisely

A variety of survivor perks help with chase, so survivors should equip the ones that they find align best with their playstyle. Those who enjoy giving the killer the slip might enjoy Meg Thomas' Quick and Quiet, which allows the survivor to fast vault without triggering a loud noise notification.

Exhaustion perks are some of the most helpful perks in chase. Each one has a cooldown of about 60 seconds, but all are game changing in their own ways. David King's Dead Hard allows the survivor to dash forward once when injured, preventing the killer from landing a potentially critical hit and giving the survivor time to get to another pallet. Feng Min's Lithe gives the player a burst of speed upon vaulting a window, while Meg Thomas' Sprint Burst gives them a burst when they start sprinting. Because these perks do inflict exhaustion, they cannot be effectively used together; survivors should choose the best chase perks for them, making sure to equip only one exhaustion perk that fits their style of play.

Dead By Daylight is available now for Android, PC, PS4, Switch, Xbox One, iOS, and Android devices.

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