Dead By Daylight has a comprehensive host of Killers and Survivors alike, each with their own unique teachable perks. From exhaustion perks that give you a burst of speed in exchange for a touch of slow-down to altruistic healing advantages helping you patch your teammates up, there is a science to survival in the Trials.
Country girl-turned final girl Kate Denson is no exception. Her teachable perks lend themselves incredibly well to chase evasion and escaping the Killer’s grasp, but she also makes a pretty sweet all-rounder if you know how to create a strong build to cover your bases.
Kate Denson: Backstory
Kate has always loved music, especially its effect on the people around her. With a voice that charmed her audience within moments, Kate was able to take her passion on the road with her as she performed for fans and friends across the country.
Her kind heart and soothing lyrics soon proved to be her downfall, however, when she caught the attention of The Entity. It swept her up one day when she found herself drawn to play music in a remote, desolate clearing, carrying her into the fog and locking her in with her fellow Survivors in a never-ending game of cat and mouse.
Here, she would receive three powerful perks used to counter and escape from the Killers that stalk her in the dark:
- Dance With Me
- Windows Of Opportunity
- Boil Over
Kate’s cosmetics reflect her cheery disposition, but she’s more than just a pretty face. An inner fire and aggressive streak have made her a strong favourite for many DBDers who value agility and map mobility above all else.
Best Kate Builds: Chase Evader
| Perks | Dance With Me
Windows Of Opportunity Boil Over Distortion |
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All three of Kate’s teachable perks can be combined to form the core components of a particularly sneaky evasion build.
Years on the road have given Kate some rather fast feet, meaning she can lose the Killer just as quickly as she can zip beneath its nose. Pair this with an aura-hiding ability, and you’ll be opening that exit door in no time.
- Dance With Me allows you to hide your scratch marks when you fast-vault a pallet mid-chase. This is a great way to lose the Killer in the open, meaning that you don’t need to perfect your 360-degree spins quite so minutely because you can just scurry behind a boulder instead. If you’re handy with a flashlight, try dropping a pallet, zipping over it, and blinding the Killer as they break the pallet. By the time they’re able to see you again, you’ll have run off to freedom, and they won’t have a clue where you’ve gone.
- Windows Of Opportunity goes hand in hand with Dance With Me by showing you all the vault walls and pallets in a given area. This makes chases that much easier by taking the guesswork out of your map knowledge; say goodbye to the dread of wondering whether the shack pallet has been thrown already!
- Boil Over gives the Killer a hard time when they pick you up. After being picked up, your struggling will be 80 percent stronger, making it difficult for the Killer to get you to a hook and increasing your likelihood of wriggling off their shoulder. It also hides the aura of nearby hooks from the Killer, and it will give you a 30 percent struggle progress boost after the Killer jumps down from a great height whilst holding you.
- Jeff Johansen’s aura-concealing powerhouse Distortion completes the set. It hides your aura from the Killer when they try to find you using one of their own perks, again upping the stealth factor. This is especially useful for Kate if the Killer has I’m All Ears equipped; this Killer perk reveals the aura of Survivors performing a fast action – such as a running vault – within a certain radius. This would allow the Killer to still spot you, even with Dance With Me, but Distortion will mask your aura after you perform that swift fast-vault. Phew.
Best Kate Builds: Balanced Belle
| Perks | Spine Chill
Boon: Circle Of Healing Kindred Balanced Landing |
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There are four elements to a typically well-rounded Survivor build: one exhaustion perk, one healing perk, one aura reading or information perk, and one last spot for your personal favourite.
This balanced Kate build will allow you to keep track of the Killer, complete objectives, and stay alive in any trial if used properly:
- Spine Chill was once a vital meta perk, allowing you to receive a visual and auditory warning when the Killer has a direct line of sight of you. This will let you know when it’s time to start running away from that generator, and when it’s okay to keep your head down and get to work.
- Boon: Circle Of Healing comes with witchy Mikaela Reid, but it can be unlocked in the Shrine Of Secrets if you can’t purchase her right now. This powerful perk allows you to bless a dull totem and turn it into a powerful Boon totem, forming a large protective blue bubble where Survivors can heal themselves without a medkit and where other Survivors can help them heal up even faster. It’s a much smarter choice than Claudette Morel’s Self-Care or using a medkit; the first takes 45 painful seconds to heal up fully, and the latter will eventually run out. Plus, altruism points!
- Kindred is a base kit perk, but it’s one that absolutely shouldn’t be sniffed at – especially for those in solo queue. When hooked, this perk will reveal all the Survivor’s auras to each other, as well as the Killer’s aura when they come within a certain range of the hooked Survivor. It can really mean the difference between dying on your first hook because none of the other Survivors came for the unhook, or making it out alive.
- Balanced Landing can be used by all Survivors after unlocking a Prestige level on Nea Karlssen, one of the base kit Survivors. After falling from a great height, you will land silently and receive a burst of speed instead of being temporarily slowed down when you start running. Jumping from buildings is an unfortunate necessity in The Entity’s domain, and you can turn that into an advantage by giving Kate some catlike reflexes that will give her a lot of distance between herself and the Killer
General Tips
Kate’s chapter, Curtain Call, features The Clown as the Killer. Since all Killer and Survivor pairings tend to have an intrinsic link between them, Kate and The Clown both share the same profession: entertainment. Suffice to say that The Clown’s grisly performance isn’t going to win him many standing ovations, however.
There are many cosmetics and skins you can unlock for Kate, either in The Rift (the Dead By Daylight season pass of sorts) or in the store. You can choose variants of her original outfit and hairstyles, or opt for something completely different such as her biker or pop star cosmetics. These can be purchased either with shards that you earn from simply playing the game and honing your player level, or with auric cells that are purchased from the in-game store.
