Dead by Daylight is the most horrific game of cat and mouse someone can experience without physically being hunted down by a person pretending to be a murderer. Survivors usually don’t stand a chance once a player gets to grips with a Killer and sets up a build using perks that makes them unstoppable.
However, Survivors can do this too, creating what is known as a looping build to confuse Killers into running away from their prey instead of catching it. Below, we’ll list the best looping builds in Dead by Daylight to help anyone make a fool of the next Killer they play against.
Related: Dead by Daylight: All Hatches Location
What Are Looping Builds Used For in Dead by Daylight?
A looping build is a selection of perks players can use with Survivors to make it incredibly easy to run rings around a Killer and have them believe a Survivor has run off behind them. This is called looping because it starts with a Killer approaching a Survivor, then they run toward and away or around from them. The Killer usually runs off in a different direction than the Survivor did because they’ve successfully looped them, or the Survivor can kite them around a loop until they get frustrated or bored.
The Best Looping Builds for Survivors
In this section, we’ve listed what we believe are the best looping builds players can create for Survivors. Pay attention to the perks required and look for them in the Bloodweb. For all of these builds, players ideally want the rarest version of every perk listed because the rarer the version of a perk, the better the advantages and percentages.
Related: The 10 best maps for Survivors in Dead By Daylight
Seek Out The Loops Survivor Build
The perks required for this build are as follows.
- Spine Chill: Get notified when the Killer is looking in the player’s direction within a certain range. While Spine Chill is active, skill check trigger odds are increased with success zones reduced. While the perk is active, the player’s speed while sabotaging, repairing, healing, vaulting, unhooking, unlocking, opening the gates, and cleansing is increased.
- Resilience: Grants bonus to speed while sabotaging, repairing, healing, vaulting, unhooking, cleansing, opening the gates, and unhooking if injured.
- Windows of Opportunity: The auras of pallets, vault locations, and breakable walls are revealed within a certain range.
- Dead Hard: Activatable perk. Press the active ability button while running to dash forward, avoiding damage while dashing. This then inflicts the Exhausted status for a period of time, which players can’t recover from while running.
The beauty of this build is that Survivors can see everywhere they’re able to loop the Killer effectively from the start of the Trial. They know when the Killer is looking at them because of Spine Chill, allowing them to get into a run and make their way to a window or pallet. Once there, the Survivor can loop the Killer by running toward and past them, or doing a quick circle. Should a Killer get too close, players can use the dash to get away and avoid damage, or even dash around them for a decent loop. All players need to do is keep their eyes open for those auras. It’s worth taking a med-kit into a Trial with this build since part of it relies on an injury and Survivors don’t want to have that effect for too long.
Escapee Looping Survivor Build
The perks needed for this build are listed below.
- Dead Hard: Activatable perk. Press the active ability button while running to dash forward, avoiding damage while dashing. This then inflicts the Exhausted status for a period of time, which players can’t recover from while running.
- Adrenaline: Instantly heal a health state and sprint faster than normal for a few seconds once the exit gates are powered up. This perk ignores the Exhausted status effect but also inflicts it after use for a short period of time. The Survivor can’t recover while running.
- Resilience: Grants bonus to speed while sabotaging, repairing, healing, vaulting, unhooking, cleansing, opening the gates, and unhooking if injured.
- Windows of Opportunity: The auras of pallets, vault locations, and breakable walls are revealed within a certain range.
While half of this build is the same as the one above, it differs because here we’re focused on escaping the Killer or exhausting them. The speed at which the player will move with this build is unbeatable, and they can use that to get to windows and pallets and trick the Killer or stun them repeatedly. Survivors don’t need to run at the Killer with this build to loop them, they’re going to be quick enough that they can literally run rings around them until they realize they’ll never get to the Survivor and move on to another one. It’s the perfect build to help protect other Survivors while they work on generators.
The Undying Loop Survivor Build
For this build, players need the following set of perks.
- Windows of Opportunity: The auras of pallets, vault locations, and breakable walls are revealed within a certain range.
- Overcome: Retain a longer movement bonus after being injured.
- Vigil: the player and allies within a certain range recover from the Exhaustion, Exposed, Hemorrhage, Broken, Blindness, Oblivious, and Hindered status effects much faster.
- Lithe: After performing a rushed vault, the player will sprint at a faster than normal speed for a short time. This causes the Exhausted status which the Survivor can’t recover from while running.
This build is as powerful on paper as it is in practice. Players can see every vault and pallet available to use, and they can take a hit to get away from the Killer faster than said Killer can catch them. Once the Survivor is hidden, because no Killer will get close to them, it’s possible to heal and recover from Exhaustion to go back out and get hit again. With a decent med-kit, any Survivor should be able to repeat this multiple times in a Trial so that the Killer feels like they’re seeing an entire team of Survivors made up of one character.
Vault Looping Survivor Build
For this build, players need the list of perks below on their Survivor.
- Dead Hard: Activatable perk. Press the active ability button while running to dash forward, avoiding damage while dashing. This then inflicts the Exhausted status for a period of time, which players can’t recover from while running.
- Spine Chill: Get notified when the Killer is looking in the player’s direction within a certain range. While Spine Chill is active, skill check trigger odds are increased with success zones reduced. While the perk is active, a player’s speed while sabotaging, repairing, healing, vaulting, unhooking, unlocking, opening the gates, and cleansing is increased.
- Iron Will: Reduces the volume of your grunts of pain when in the Injured state. Cannot activate while Exhaustion is active.
- Resilience: Grants bonus to speed while sabotaging, repairing, healing, vaulting, unhooking, cleansing, opening the gates, and unhooking if injured.
Players may recognize this build because many Dead by Daylight content creators and streamers popularized it in late 2022. The idea is that it speeds up the Survivor’s vault and gives them the power to sprint away from the Killer so fast that they don’t stand a chance of catching the Survivor. The only downside is that other Survivors can cripple the build by using up all the pallets first, meaning a player is screwed unless there’s an abundance of windows at their disposal. Still, this build has its place and gives Survivors the power to loop Killers endlessly, particularly if they refuse to break pallets.
With one of these builds in your back pocket, any player should be able to make quick work of any Killer trying to attack them and work their way toward victory in Dead by Daylight.
