As with many asymetrical multiplayer games, DBD unwillingly creates an enviroment that generates / feeds toxicity and that might actually be damaging to your physical and mental health if not monitored / dealth with correctly. This guide is for people who can no longer find the fun in the game (after playing for thousands of hours perhaps), feel completely hopeless while playing matches or just struggle with toxic behaviour from other players.

Introduction

I have created this guide to help all DBD players who struggle with the game and *want* to keep playing or give the game another chance.

This is *not* a guide for people who want to min/max, bully either side or feed into inherent toxicity of multiplayer gaming. If you want to bully other players, you *are* part of the problem.

I have over 3000 hours in this game and have been playing it since the release. Over the years I have sometimes struggled with feelings of hopelesness, anger and resentment towards other players. I am here to tell you these feelings are not completely unfounded and are inherent to any kind of competetive multiplayer game, regardless of genre. We are all human, we often feel competetive and are driven by a desire to win.

I am however also here to tell you that all these feelings are the primary driving force behind all the negative / toxic behaviour you might have experienced / seen from other players (or even yourself). If you keep playing *any* game like this, it can damange your physical and mental health.

If this guide does not help you in any way, you *need* to stop playing the game. There is absolutely no reason to do *anything* that makes you absolutely miserable.

Question One – “Why am *I* playing this game?”.

This is the first step. Ask yourself why *do* you play this game?

Are you a horror fan? Do you enjoy seeing all the various licences and original characters mashed together in one game?

Do you enjoy playing with friends or solo? You like having chill, fun matches with your team? Are you throwing games to go for crazy plays?

Do you like the horror theme of the game? You like hunting survivors, avoiding or running killers around the map?

OR are you selfish, enjoy making other people miserable and only think about yourself? Do you enjoy boosting your ego in a game that has not been primarily designed for such play?

There are *MANY* reasons one might want to play DBD for, but only one of them can be seen as unhealthy both for you and the people you play with. This guide is not here to tell you which one it is, nor is it here to chastise you for anything.

You make your own fun, yes. But have you ever considered how your actions affect other people you play with? There are living human beings in the match with you, who are also trying to have fun.

So, ultimately, the first step is to consider WHY do you play DBD. The second step is to set you expectations accordingly.

Question Two – “What is *my* idea of fun?”.

Okay, now that we know what you like about playing DBD, we can focus on the FUN of it all.

Continuing from the previous chapter, you might have already figured out what your idea of FUN in DBD is.

Whatever it is, anyone with a smidge of empathy can easily deduce that playing selfishly and not considering anyone else but yourself is an extremely unhealthy approach to anything in life.

Playing with strangers over internet gives everyone a mask of anonymity. It is very easy to pidgenhole other players or forget entirely you are sharing an experience with other people. It is also very easy, especialy if you are young, not to care about anyone but yourself and being hidden behind a computer screen allows you to behave in ways and do things you would never do in real life.

So, if you are not willing to change anything about the way you play the game, again this is not a guide for you. You might be a part of the problem. In fact, you most probably are.

Win Conditions

Okay so we now know WHY and HOW you play DBD.

Now I want to ask you, if you play to WIN.

If you do play to win, what is your idea of a WIN? What are your winning conditions?

Do you play to 4K or escape every match? Do you play to have fun chases? Do you play to make other suffer as much as possible?

All these are *viable* options, but only one of them might actualy be easily *achievable*.

Yes, the easiest way to play this game is to be selfish, possibly toxic and just make the game miserable for everyone else, mainly the opposing player. Which is also the reason so many people play like that.

That’s why so many killer players tunnel, camp and use certain perks.

That’s why so many survivor players only run the strongest perks, endlessly taunt the killer, exploit problematic spots on various maps.

That’s why a lot of players use map offerings and perk combos to have the the easiest games possible to achieve their win conditions.

It is the easiest way to play the game and it usualy works.

The higher you climb in MMR, the more players like this you will play against and the more you might *feel* pressured to play the same way, which only feeds into the overall unpleasantness of the entire DBD experience.

So, the first step is to actualy change your entire viewpoint and adjust your expectations accordingly.

So if your WIN condition is to4K / escape every match, and you are failing and feeling hopeless or feel forced to use unhealthy tactics, stop immediately caring about kills or escapes. They mean absolutely nothing, this is just a game and nothing will be lost or gained by loosing a match and not meeting your expectations. You play to have fun, not to ruin someone elses day just to feel a bit better about youself.

You can either stop caring about WINning by any means necessary alltogether, or just adjust your WIN conditions to *achievable* levels. If you do adjust your WIN conditions, it is obviously preferable to adjust them to levels that are achievable without resorting to unhealthy tactics or behaviour.

Perks & Gameplay

To help you with adjusting your WIN conditions and expectations of the game, you might just want to stop using certain perks altogether. As a side effect, avoiding certain perks might actually help you to get better at the game.

BOTH SIDES

Try to avoid any perks that need a certain conditions to be used / activated. You are either forcing youself to play in needlesly complicated ways or to even throw the game for everyone else just by trying to make a play. By using “second chance” or “endgame” perks and relying on them too much, you are also limitting your ability to get better at the game in general.

By avoiding perks like this, you actually also put less pressure on yourself as player.

Try not to worry about map layout or tile spawns too much if you want to relax. Focus on the tiles you are currently at and if you are failing to loop them / catch survivors on them, it is OK to spend some time just trying to see what works and what does not.

SURVIVORS

Try not to use exhaustion perks too much, or if you must, do not rely on them too much. Not using Dead Hard migh make you better at looping / avoiding killers. Using Sprint Burst for map coverage instead of walking everywhere slowly helps your team mates.

Not using exhaustion perks also helps you to relax, as you do not have to worry about getting your perk back or be bothered by killer perks / abilites that might cause you to be exhausted.

Try going for interesting builds, use perks that are active or can be used for majority of the matches you play. Play for points or chases etc.

For example one of the builds I use is > Any means necessary / Counterforce / Kindred / Quick & Quiet or Windows of Opportunity. No stress build for general map coverage and some objective points.

If you outplayed the killer or the killer got overwhelmed and gave up and you can see that they just want to move on, finish the genrs, LEAVE through the GATES and do not wait at the exit and prolog the match needlessly.

If you are being ♥♥♥♥ on by the killer, suck it up and try to run the killer as long as possible to give your teammates time. If you are camped on a hook, do not suicide and stay on it as long as possible to give your teammates time to do gens. If no one is doing gens and everyone is just crouching around the hook while the killer camps you, just let go in the phase two to end the match for you as soon as possible. If you keep getting slugged, just leave the game running and go for a walk / drink some water of coffee. No game is worth being frustrated over.

Never rage quit. You are screwing your teammates over.

KILLERS

Whenever possible, stop caring about gen slowdown perks or even gen progression in general. If the gens will fly either way, adjust your win conditions and just try to have fun with what you have. In case you are failing to achieve your WIN conditions, perks like these can prolong the unwanted matches and make the whole experience extremely frustrating. By any means, if you need your matches to be longer, go for it, but remember that these can also hurt your chances as much as they help. By accepting the general gen speed and adjusting your expectations, you get rid of majority of the pressure put onto you by the game design.

If possible, try to avoid HEX perks and if you must, do not relay on them at all. Worrying about your HEX only puts even more pressure at you as a killer.

Again, go for builds and perks that can be used for majory of the match.

For example build like > Unrelenting / Brutal Strenght / Shadowborn / Lighborn just allows you to focus on chases and make the game flow better. All the perks are active all the time and you do not have to worry about anything.

If you have outplayed the survivors or can see that they are struggling and gave up, you can do two things. If you can see they are trying, hook everyone twice and then play for points, do not kill anyone and let them escape without being obvious. If you see they gave up, end the match as quickly as possible by killing them, do not try to go for farming if they don’t get it or do not cooperate. Giving hatch is always welcome if you know where it is.

If you get bullied/piled on by toxic survivors, suck it up. Play for points and end the match as quickly as possible. Open the gates if necessary if the survivors refuse to leave. If things get too frustrating for you, face the nearest wall and go take a walk. No game is worth being frustrated over.

Never rage quit. You are only feeding the survivors who decided to ruin your game. By quitting you just do what they want you to do in the first place.

Dealing with other people

So, you have adjusted your expectations and win conditions and started playing in a more relaxed way, not worrying too much and using various perks.

And then you are camped/tunneled/gen rushed/looped for days and possibly trashed in the post game chat.

This is the hardest thing you have to do. You need to stop caring about your performance or what people say to you. You have to suck it up and move on. If things get frustrating during the match no matter what you do or what you set to do, the the high road and just move on.

Play the match to the end, make the best of what is happening, play for points or to end the match. Do NOT quit or suicide, because you are either hurting your entire team (remember, you are playing with other people who also want to have fun!) or actually feeding the opposing players who decided to be selfish and ruin your game.

Do not let any EZs and trash talk in chat bother you (if you cannot stand it, just turn off the chat window). This behaviour is inherent to multiplayer gaming and will never go away. Quite the opposite a simple “GG WP” and “Have a wonderful day!” might turn the whole convo around. No reason to wallow in misery.

Also remember that teabagging and flashlight clicking is not inherently toxic. Everyone acts differently, everyone sees these actions differently. They might be just a tactic to make you angry and make you focus on one survivor while others do gens etc. They might just be a hello. Not everything and everyone is toxic.

Not every match will be like this and you cannot possibly know what the other side did or did not do intentionaly. It is important to take each match as an individual experience and not to take your frustrations with you to the next matches. Just move on. DBD is just a game and playing games is meant to be fun.

This is all we can share for Healthy & Fun time while playing DBD – Dead by Daylight for today. I hope you enjoy the guide! If you have anything to add to this guide or we forget something please let us know via comment! We check each comment! Don’t forget to check XIXGO.COM for MORE!