All 31 Killer Power Designs Ranked Worst to Best (Dead by Daylight Tier List) 

The day I upload this lightburn gets removed from the game 😭

7 minutes is all you can spare to like the video.

With the changes to how survivors can now remove the Hags traps without a flashlight but with a slow animation, I see Hag being a bit better to verse.

They really should rework the earlier killers powers, especially trapper. Not only is trapper just not a powerful killer, his power is incredibly boring. Maybe different kinds of traps, like a tripwire trap or proximity trap.

The very first Skull Merchant I faced 3 gen'd us. Worst of all I kept getting one gen 95% before either being caught or forced to run. One of our teammates didn't even go for any gens and just waited for the rest of us to die.

I actually really like the Knight’s power. I like that I can be a regular killer while still pressuring survivors from a distance. That said I do agree that facing him in a 3 gen sucks a lot.

I really like the way you present your opinions. It’s very clearly your tier list, and you open up discussion in the comments with every video. I also think that it’s great how you pointed out the difference between “well designed” and “fun.” Pinhead is objectively one of the best designed killers in the game, but lots of people find him very unfun to face. Kinda makes you wonder how the balance between fun and good design can be struck. Blight and Wesker hit that I think, but Blight’s addons are ridiculously overpowered, nullifying the fairness. As a Sadako main, I agree with her placement. A good Sadako can apply a lot of pressure through condemned, but unless you’re going full into it, it’s a very weak mechanic. And when you *do* commit to it, it can mean unfun gameplay for survivors (if you slug instead of hooking for survivors, for example)

timestamps: Bad power designs 0:23 the Clown 0:45 the Cannibal Poor power designs 1:12 the Skull Merchant 1:33 the Knight 1:50 the Spirit 2:11 the Hag 2:22 the Legion Average power designs 3:03 the Trickster 3:27 the Nightmare 3.56 the Nurse 4.14 the Trapper Good power designs 4:39 the Dredge 5:22 the Artist 5:43 the Nemesis 6:09 the Pig 6:36 the Wraith 7:01 the Onryo 7:21 the Shape 7:45 the Hillbilly Great power designs 8:11 the Twins 8:37 the Cenobite 9:04 the huntress 9:23 the Ghost Face 9:44 the Deathslinger 10:05 the Doctor Amazing power designs 10:33 the Demogorgon 10:51 the Executioner 11:15 the Blight 11:33 the Plague 12:06 the Oni 12:25 the Mastermind

As a Twins player, I'm grateful you put them so high up!!!

Based on this video: 7 killer designs are negatively viewed, 4 are average, and 20 are positively viewed This means that about 77% of killers have fair powers Now take into account the killers that are also fun to play, this lowers the percentage, fun to play against lowers this more I'd estimate only about 50% of killers are actually good enough to pass all three of these points, it's kind of sad

One thing that always bugged me about bubba’s power is that, while you’re using the chainsaw, you have to focus on the environment for things to hit, but also watch your power meter to time your sweeps right, so your eyes are constantly darting back and forth between them

I’ve been waiting for this idea for so long. Glad it finally happened Edit: wraith and nurse are no longer going to be affected by flashlights in the developer update

I think my only problem with Pyramid Head's power is how strong he is at tunneling, it can be a lot of fun to face him and play him though. To be fair, I feel like I rarely get tunneled by Pyramid Heads though, so it isn't a huge issue for me now althought it was when I first started playing.

I really like the Clown tho, one of my fav killers tbh. Even though the power is kinda plain, it still kinda has some depth in the ways how you can shut loops and interact with his add-ons (mostly the one that gives you wallhacks with yellow bottle) And I really enjoy Trapper and Hag abilities. They require the completely opposite playstyle to other killers, that requires some smart setup (bearing in mind some common spots that survivors come across etc, that requires a good knowledge of the game, therefore making their plain abilities way deeper) with a future potential to snowball

Trapper could be made ALOT better if only they tweaked him a little bit. Make the traps just spawn in good places and have them start open. Those two changes would improve him drastically.

I wouldnt rate designs that perfectly fit the character as bad, since it wasnt really their place to make up anything about them, bubba is known for his chainsaw and his braindead swinging around of his weapon, so a chainsaw sweep makes perfect sense as well as the tantrum he throws, we need to differentiate between power balance and design, i know you said fairness at the beginning but its mostly about the designs so im going on about that, still a great video, this isnt hate just my opinion on YOUR list :D

Knight deserves more love

I love playing dredge on midwives cause there are lockers everywhere it’s just so easy to just teleport on a survivor and jumpscare

Old Freddy > New Freddy

I like Skull Merchant's power because to me it feels like Plague(who I think has the best design of any killer in the game). I like killers that give survivors a choice where both choices are win-wins for the killer in some way. If you don't cleanse against plague you are permanently injured, and if you do cleanse she gets one of the strongest powers in the game. With Skull Merchant it is similar. You can choose to avoid the drone entirely which gives her area denial, you can choose to risk exposed which gives her lethality and speed, or you can hack the drone and give her tracking and speed. They all help her in different ways and it is on the survivors to decide in the moment which one is better for them.

the legion gameplay is so mesmerizing that I forgot I was watching a list video

I agree that weskers power is amazing, but I do have a problem with how when you're unhooked you'll have to spray which shows him where you are. This kinda encourages tunneling, but other than that it's fine.

I think we can all agree, nobody really hated Demogorgon. Everything about him is fair and fun.

I see what you did there, sadakos power is "well" designed

I like spirit’s power as she can be extremely fun and effective to use when you use her power to make survivors panic and vault something or use it to cut off a survivor that’s the fun part for me is predicting what they’re gonna do and using the sound to make a massive play the only thing that makes her power not fun to use is the audio in dbd is kinda bad it’s hard to pinpoint a survivors position and plays usually sound closer than they are and she’s a 110% speed killer which in fairness is to off set her insane chase potential. Also from some of the comments I’ve seen this tier list probably could’ve been split up into more categories as most of these seem to be from the survivors perspective so maybe have a killers perspective too as a lot of powers feel different for both sides or rate them on aspects of a powers design that makes it good e.g. fun, effectiveness, and if it fits the character

6:41 you really chose the worst day to upload this lol

I'm glad that you have Spirit ranked low. There has always been heated debate surrounding her design, from non-existent counterplay on one hand to difficult mastery on the other. Which is probably why she got away with having such basic lore too since everyone focused on her power. She always felt like a blatant rip-off of Sadako to me. Yes, you could argue the same for earlier killer examples such as Billy/Bubba, but I think we can all agree that they feel like two entirely different individuals. There really isn't much to Rin Yamaoka, which especially sucks when compared to Oni's lore.

Them changing the light burn on wraith for the next patch is gonna make him feel so much better. They also did stuff to his overheat so it’s really good again.

Sup As a legion main Idrc if his power is good or bad I just feel like annoying some people lmao

love the content bro keep it up it has helped me a bunch

I think dredge and bubba have great power designs, there is so much counter play with dredge like locking lockers and shit like that

So the placement for Myers is basically just "He resembles the Myers from Halloween a lot but his power is lacking in many ways, so it's a good power design", yeahhhhh that kinda misses the mark entirely

i would put nurse into "bad" because she bottlenecks any potential decisions. for example, if they decided to buff an aura reading perk like hex retribution by about 5 seconds, this would be fine for any other killer. but it would be extremely strong for nurse. so whenever bhvr is looking at buffing any perks, they *have* to consider whether or not nurse will be able to use it to break the game, which overall damages the killer role in my opinion.

"Not too punishing " a speed up grab that has three chances to hit and is hard to avoid with nonsense hit boxes and leads to slow down that can result in an insta down mixed with the slow down of clowns bottles . Ffs

Great video! I don’t exactly agree with everything, but I don’t think that takes away from the validity of your points, and I think you did a great job explaining your reasoning.

I personally feel that the map designs of the early times of DBD severely limited the options for fun or engaging designs for unique abilities, and I don’t even play the game. I enjoy studying the gameplay like a big sort of social experiment (whether or not that itself is a sign of killer-level mental instability notwithstanding). When I look at the early designs of both maps and abilities, it’s clear foresight was nonexistent. Abilities were extremely simple and the maps designed around a very specific form of gameplay that, at the time, had a very specific rhythm to it. It had a decent, if unsteady and sometimes very exploitable, push-and-pull system. However, as maps and abilities grew in scope, they tried to do way too much and branched out into so many types of gameplay so quickly that a lot of killers have felt either unrefined or outright bad. Concepts that were interesting and made thematic sense like Clown, Spirit, and Nightmare do definitely seem genius and sound interesting, but encompass what I feel to be the three icons of consequences of poor design : Clown being too simple to adjust but remaining cumbersome for one side, Spirit who falls into such a strange gray area of balance that major changes would end up overhauling the entire way they play and requiring reworks for virtually everything revolving around the character, and Nightmare who outright had an actual overhaul because of how poorly designed his ability was. These three issues have remained very consistent flaws throughout the game’s cycle of additions and are so far ingrained into the respective killers that nothing can really be done without a total overhaul of a lot of systems, which I think the game could actually really use. Early characters like Clown, Trapper, and Cannibal remain too simplistic to really change, Spirit, Hag, and Nurse are all in a strange place where they have such specific play styles that changing anything would completely change them, and killers like Nightmare and Pig lose out on unique designs with a lot of potential because they get implemented poorly and end up with bland and soulless play styles. I honestly think a lot of issues come from the original scope of the game being so small compared to now, and all of these being growing pains of spurts that didn’t grow in quite right. The body wasn’t taken care of or given the right nutrients and we end up with the game equivalent of osteoarthritis - moving at all hurts in some places, and continued growth feels unbearable at times and only worsens with age. I think that a lot of killers could just use a total reflection on their design and the gameplay updated to help gameplay flow easier without current restrictions. I never liked the system of how pallets and windows are virtually the only way to actually consistently combat a killer’s chase, and the sheer juxtapose of some maps being simply claustrophobic with tons of drops and openings to others being massive and open to the point it’s more like a marathon than an intense chase makes things far more difficult to balance than they need to be. Things like breakable walls that could really assist older maps were a later addition that never feels quite like it was utilized correctly, and the increasingly complex powers we keep getting being countered by equally complicated perk setups makes the thousand cuts into total hemorrhaging. I think that a solid development scripture needs to be written before the game continues implementing more things. Certain objects and strategies need to be off-limits, and others more focused on countering or playing around. When you have a single foe that can range from teleportation to traps and hexes to ambushes and stalking to status effects, things are just too cluttered to handle in these wildly scatterbrained maps. It just makes the random chance of entering a map you aren’t good on or aren’t suited to a crippling problem rather than a challenge. The numbers need a lot of reworks, and that comes down to the engine. In the end, the only way to avoid a total engine swap is to can everything else and remake the game from a better foundation, and I doubt that’ll ever happen. Still, I think that looking at how expanding from simple maps and tools into something so massive in scope can really hurt a game’s flow is important for designers to learn, so seeing how this game has progressed is fascinating to me. I want anyone else with more insight to expand on this and say their piece, so feel free. This is just the best outside perspective I can give from learning about the gameplay without experiencing it thoroughly firsthand.

Absolutely agree with Bubba. Idk if it’s a skill issue or not, but playing as and against him is absolutely miserable. Playing as him is very simple yet extremely punishing, and using the chilli add ons feels really clunky to me. Playing against him is frustrating because, if there isn’t a window nearby, you’re just dead with nothing you can do other than hoping he hits something.

Lore wise, yes, but gameplay wise, no, Myers is absolutely the worst designed killer in the game

Idea: Ranking every killer based on their cosmetics

Trickster is my main and I enjoy using his knives a lot even though it can be a bit frustrating. However I do admit that when i’ve went against him it did feel kinda annoying being constantly hit with barely and way to do anything. But it didn’t really bother me because I was just really excited to see a trickster since I don’t go against him often.

istg i predicted Wesker just from he thumbnail lol

As annoying as Spirit is (I understand your opinion, Azhymovs), I actually have liked her all these years due to how unique her power was and still is. I love the invisibility of it.

I’m gonna say it, I like the knight’s power, a lot. And I’m tired of pretending like I don’t lmao.

Damnit i thought you gonna give Trickster last place

I like Dredge’s design! I think thematically the lockers make sense, like a monster in a closet. And having some kind of map traversal is so nice to have. Agree with its placement though…and as a Huntress, I feel for the locker placement pain (new Gas Heaven is uhhhhhh)

As a clown enthusiast,, yellow bottles are not useless. One yellow bottle in a tile can litterly change the outcome of a survivor making the pallet stun/drop. Yes his power is basic and plain, it is very strong when used properly.

"Executioner's ranged attack is fair" closing video

The techs is the thing that makes blight so much fun

All I ever wanted of legion ever since I saw their design and the fact it was 4 people as one killer was something involving multiple killers or faking being a survivor instead of more micro transactions. Being able to swap into different stats or areas of the map or just the paranoia you could inflict by being a fake survivor that can suddenly turn on others for a surprise ambush. The idea of the legion is so cool and then their power was just angy sprint.

I love dredge BECAUSE of the locker teleport mechanic ... It may not be the strongest of Killers but It's so fun when I teleport in front of a survivor and I imagine them getting scared shitless 😈

I will never understand the clown hate. Is anyone else with me? I think he is so freaking cool. I know he sucks but I absolutely love him

That hatch spawn was rough

I wish Doctor's Add-on that gives +4 meters to his m2 was basekit

They went great with Wesker and down with the knight after

Can't see how the simple trapper made it that high

I'm going to agree mostly, except I'd give Knight a spot on the highest tier (post buff)

i completely disagree. Cloak,find survivor,uncloak and hit.(Good power design) pick up trap and set it so a survivor can step on it(average power design) Completely sound-based skill where you cant see survivor,requires skill(poor power design) Press m2 and throw a hatchet to Survivor (great power design,yet i have no idea what makes it great design)

The main problem with shape's power is not the power itself, it is just add ons like scratched mirror, or tombstone feeling unfair and unfun to play against.

Trickster should have ricochet blades by default, this would make him much more fun and trickier to play as and against. His movement speed should be increased but he shouldn't be able to down survivors with blades, only injure them and then slow them down

Me and my friends usually prevent a 3 gen so it's not too bad but what sucks is when they proxy with a guard there as well it's so annoying I don't understand how the killer can find that fun, and that's with me being a killer main

AZHYMOVS's try to not tentcle when in m1 range on nemesis challenge (impossible)

i would only like that behavior could more play with Nemesis's power more like with mayers

any killer above blight is a crime i believe

I agree on clown it worst design

Idk if I’m insane for this but I think skull merchant is pretty fun to play, obviously she isn’t the most fun but I don’t think she’s that bad, playing against her especially solo Q can seem a bit difficult though

I'd rank Plague lower just because of the annoyingly loud whispers during corrupted purge. I love her power but damn that whispering is so loud.

The placement of clown feels unfair, clown is incredibly fun at least for the killer, maybe the slowdown effect of clown could be mended, but buff the speed tonics and make it so survivors can’t use it

12:00 perfect day to say this

I would put Bubba higher up personally

What skin is that you're using

I don't like weskher's power, the dash is indeed fun and fine what is not is the fact that he gives the hindered status effect and that it incentivizes tunneling. They should change the ourobors infection a bit imo.

How is it bad design to have a power that slows down survivors with "no recourse"? I've seen survivors make themselves fast all the time and I didn't have any recourse. Not to mention they can impair my vision as well.

2:10 she’s a get this ghost!

The only issue with michael power is his stalking. He stalks from a distance so why tf his stalk progression has proximity scaling

What kind of Legion skin is this? I don't think I've ever seen this before

Funny they just announced there removing lightburn

2:48 what a fool

Is it Just me or knife he is using as legion look like the knife from subnautica

me and my friends that i play with all hate wesker but it seems we are very much the only ones lol

no way he just kicked a 10% gen and got blast mined💀

2:46 NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Generally agree with this, with the exception of Bubba and Clown being at the bottom. Bubba may be a less interesting Billy to some, but Billy is really fun so I don't think it would count as a bad design. With Clown there's an immense satisfaction to both combining the bottle types well at a loop, and to mastering the throwing arc of bottles. I get them being lower, but I think putting them below Freddy, Spirit, Knight or Skull Merchant is just wrong.

8:20 THANK YOU TWINS IS ACTUALLY GOOD

wesker to me is very clunky and his power works when it shouldn't

Bruh how isn't trickster in the bottom on the list? Freddy too he's a pure m1 killer

The fact that you put clown at the bottom hurts my heart going to kms now because of your different opinion

Why place Trapper in the tier above Hag? It feels like most, if not all, reasons given for Hag also apply to Trapper.

Ghostface has an abhorrent power design and I'll die on that hill, to play against at least. For me, when I'm on a gen, that's usually when I'm talking to my friends, and having that as my "downtime" of a match. With Ghostface, you're forced to constantly check angles and that's boring as fuck, the stalk meter fills up so fast that there's still even a huge chance you won't even see him even if you're scanning your surroundings. And the downside for not paying inordinate amounts of attention? You go down instantly and you lose an entire hook state. I'd take a boring "hold forward" antiloop killer over ghostfaces snoozefest matches any day.

Without watching the whole video٫ i just knew demo would be top-tier and clip my toenails and me stephanie i was correct

What? A killer's powers tier list based on mostly survivor perspective? Kinda surprising you didnt split it on 3 tier lists (ranked by creativity, fairness and fun to use) and least.

Easily the best designed killer is wesker strong power good slowdown unique add ons top tier killer is fun to go against and play as the people that hate wesker are the ones that tunnel with his infection which shouldn’t be a thing.

Can you do play styles ranked

11:23 unless there using the speed addons then kiss that statement goooood by

So throwing slowdown bottles is bad but placing traps is fine My point is both are bad (rework freddy)

For once deathslinger is appreciated over huntress. Now I can rest easy

gahd damn these are some hot takes. Cant say i disagree with much of it tho.

I love the video, but that legion gameplay… you missed a lethal stab, didn’t fault a window in favor of using the doorway despite vaulting pauses your timer and you would’ve saved time, and you let an unhook happen despite you just feral frenzy stabbed the guy going for the unhook. Otherwise, love the video and your content!

2:34 as your playing legion this is just a joke so calm down and keep up the good content. :)

camouflage traps

Can you make a video about legendary skins? Please respond.