If your Survivor tier list still has Windows of Opportunity at the top, it was written for a game that no longer exists. Patch 10.2.0 changed 30 Survivor perks, reworked nine of them, and took away the one perk almost every list called the best in the game.
This list applies to Patch 10.2.1, the bugfix build Behaviour Interactive published on October 14, 2026, on top of the 10.2.0 Mid-Chapter update that went live on October 6, 2026. Every changed number below comes from BHVR's own 10.2.0 patch notes and 10.2.1 patch notes. Perks that 10.2.0 did not touch keep the values we read from their in-game descriptions on the Official Dead by Daylight Wiki. Tier placements are timesaver.gg editorial opinion, not BHVR rankings, and assume solo queue at Tier III.
Quick answer: The five strongest Survivor perks on Patch 10.2.1 are Will to Live (Decisive Strike), Off the Record, Sprint Burst, Adrenaline and Kindred. Windows of Opportunity drops from S to B tier: it now shows Windows only, within 24 metres, and goes on a 40/35/30 second cooldown every time you vault one. Its old job moved to Dark Sense, which jumps to A tier. If you run one loadout, run Sprint Burst, Off the Record, Will to Live and Kindred.
What changed for Survivor perks in Patch 10.2.0 and 10.2.1?
Patch 10.2.0 was a huge perk pass: 58 perk changes on the PTB, 27 Killer and 31 Survivor. One Survivor change, the Borrowed Time rework, was reverted before launch. That leaves 30 Survivor perks changed in the live notes, nine of them tagged (Rework).
The reworked nine are Down to the Last, Premonition, Road Life, Slippery Meat, Small Game, Spine Chill, Stake Out, This is Not Happening and Windows of Opportunity.
Patch 10.2.1 changed no Survivor perk values. It fixed two things that matter for this list: Decisive Strike (Will to Live) now triggers correctly when the Killer is in the falling state, and Shoulder the Burden now displays Hook States correctly.
The changes that actually move tiers:
| Perk | Patch 10.2.0 change | Effect on tier |
|---|---|---|
| Windows of Opportunity | Windows only, 24m, vault Windows 10% faster, 40/35/30s cooldown per Window vault | S to B |
| Dark Sense | After a Generator completes, Killer within 20m triggers 13/14/15s of Pallet and Window auras within 32m, plus all Survivor and Killer auras | Unranked to A |
| Kindred | Killer aura range 14/15/16m (was 8/12/16m) | A to S |
| We'll Make It | 100% faster healing for 70/80/90s (was 30/60/90s) | Stays A |
| Resilience | 7/8/9% on every listed action (was 3/6/9%) | Stays A |
| Stake Out | Special Skill Checks that no longer feed other Skill Check perks | Stays C |
| Self-Preservation | Elusive 13/14/15s (was 20/25/30s) | Nerfed |
| Shoulder the Burden | Now Injured plus Broken for 160/140/120s (was Exposed) | Nerfed |
Why did Windows of Opportunity fall out of S tier?
Because BHVR meant it to. Before 10.2.0, Windows of Opportunity showed Pallets, Windows and Breakable Walls within 24/28/32 metres, with no cooldown and no condition. Now it reads, in full: within 24 metres you see the auras of Windows, you vault Windows 10% faster, and every Window vault puts it on a 40/35/30 second cooldown. BHVR's notes do not say whether the aura stays visible during that cooldown, so test it yourself before you rely on it.
BHVR's PTB-to-live developer update said plainly why it would not walk the change back: "we do believe that Windows was doing too much and overshadowing other perks."
The perk is still useful for one specific thing: learning where the Windows are, and gaining a little speed on them. It is no longer the free perk that does everything, and that is why it sits in B tier now. We broke the rework down line by line in our Windows of Opportunity rework guide.
What should you replace Windows of Opportunity with?
This is the most-asked Survivor question on the subreddit this week. One player summed up the trade better than most guides: Dark Sense "has the old WoO effect tacked onto it but it relies on a more niche activation clause."
That is exactly right. You have three options:
- Dark Sense (General Perk, free to everyone): after any Generator completes, once the Killer comes within 20 metres you see Pallet and Window auras within 32 metres, every other Survivor and the Killer for 13/14/15 seconds. BHVR's dev note says it was rebuilt "to provide auras that help learn map layouts and pallet spawn points."
- Five Moves Ahead: in the Terror Radius or in a chase, you see the 5 closest Pallets, and after a Pallet drop you start moving 50% earlier, on a 40/35/30 second cooldown. It has specialised in Pallets.
- A Map: the item does what the perk slot used to do, if you are willing to give up a Med-Kit or Toolbox.
One trap: the perk-lookup bot replying in the DBD subreddits was still quoting the pre-10.2.0 text for both Five Moves Ahead and Dark Sense this week (24-metre Dark Sense, Pallets and Windows on Five Moves Ahead). Neither is current. Trust the patch notes, not the bot.
Best Survivor perks in DBD: full tier list for Patch 10.2.1
| Tier | Perks |
|---|---|
| S | Will to Live (Decisive Strike), Off the Record, Sprint Burst, Adrenaline, Kindred |
| A | Dark Sense, Deja Vu, Prove Thyself, Resilience, Lithe, Unbreakable, Background Player, Reassurance, Made for This, We'll Make It |
| B | Windows of Opportunity, Bond, Botany Knowledge, Resurgence, Boon: Circle of Healing, Distortion, Overcome, Five Moves Ahead, Flow State, Spine Chill, Vigil, Repressed Alliance, Wicked |
| C | Hyperfocus, Stake Out, Bound by Obsession, Down to the Last, Self-Preservation, Shoulder the Burden, Dead Hard |
Why Will to Live and Off the Record are now the top of the list
With Windows gone from the top, the best thing a solo Survivor can do is stop being tunnelled. These two perks are the full answer.
Will to Live is the perk most players still call Decisive Strike. It activates for 40/50/60 seconds after you are unhooked; if the Killer grabs or picks you up in that window, a successful Skill Check stabs them and stuns them for 4 seconds. You become the Obsession, and the perk is disabled for the rest of the Trial after use and deactivates once the Exit Gates are powered. The 10.2.1 fix for the falling-state bug makes it more reliable than it was a week ago.
Off the Record activates for 30/35/40 seconds after you are unhooked. It blocks your aura, removes your Grunts of Pain while injured, and grants Endurance, which a Conspicuous Action cancels. BHVR removed its old Exit Gates shut-off in Patch 9.2.0 and has not brought it back.
One warning about Off the Record. Some wiki pages list it at 60/70/80 seconds with no Endurance. That is a misreading of Patch 9.3.0: the 9.3.0 PTB proposed exactly that change, and BHVR's live 9.3.0 notes say, under Changes from PTB, "Reverted the following perks" with Off the Record in the list. The live perk is still the 9.2.2 version.
Why Kindred moves into S tier
Kindred was always the best solo-queue perk in the game. 10.2.0 made its weakest tiers far better: the Killer-aura radius around the hook is now 14/15/16 metres (was 8/12/16m). While you are hooked, every Survivor sees each other's auras; while anyone else is hooked, you see the other Survivors, plus the Killer whenever they are within range of the hook. It ends the two-people-walk-to-the-same-hook problem, and a Tier I copy is now almost as good as Tier III.
Best Exhaustion perk in DBD after 10.2.0
No Exhaustion perk changed in 10.2.0. The two numbers most guides get wrong both changed in Patch 10.1.0: Sprint Burst went from 3 seconds to 2 seconds, and Adrenaline went from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.
| Perk | Effect | Exhaustion |
|---|---|---|
| Sprint Burst | +50% Haste for 2 seconds when you start running | 60/50/40s |
| Lithe | +50% Haste for 3 seconds after a Rushed Vault | 60/50/40s |
| Background Player | +50% Haste for 5 seconds after the Killer picks up another Survivor | 30/25/20s |
| Overcome | Extends the on-hit sprint by +2 seconds | 60/50/40s |
| Adrenaline | Heals one Health State, +50% Haste for 4 seconds, when the Exit Gates are powered | 60/50/40s after use |
Sprint Burst still wins because it is the only one that works before the chase starts. Adrenaline can be used while Exhausted and ignores an existing Exhausted effect, so it never competes with the others. Run it next to Sprint Burst, not instead of it.
Lithe got an indirect boost from 10.2.0. Window vaulting now has several stackable speed sources: Windows of Opportunity (10% on Windows), Resilience (7/8/9% while injured) and the reworked Spine Chill (10% for 12 seconds after the Killer looks at you within 40 metres). Diminishing Returns only scales down negative action-speed modifiers and positive Skill Check chance modifiers, so these vault bonuses are not reduced when you stack them.
Which Generator perks are worth a slot now?
- Prove Thyself: +6/8/10% Repair speed per other Survivor within 4 metres, capped at 18/24/30%. Only one instance applies at a time, so two copies on one team waste a slot.
- Deja Vu: reveals the 3 Generators closest to each other and adds 4/5/6% Repair speed on them. A three-gen prevention perk first.
- Resilience: now 7/8/9% faster while injured on Repairing, Healing, Vaulting, Unhooking, Totems, Chests, Exit Gates and sabotaging Hooks (was 3/6/9%). Tier III did not change, but Tier I more than doubled.
- Friendly Competition: after you finish a Generator with at least one other Survivor, everyone who finished it repairs 10% faster for 80/85/90 seconds (was 5% for 100/110/120s).
- Repressed Alliance: after 40/35/30 seconds of solo repair, block that Generator for 15 seconds with the Active Ability button.
Is Hyperfocus still good after 10.2.0?
No, and this is the change nobody is talking about. Hyperfocus itself did not change: each Great Skill Check grants a Token, up to 6, and a Good Skill Check, a miss or any interruption wipes them all. What changed is that BHVR removed both of its enablers.
Stake Out was reworked. It now replaces basic Skill Checks with special Skill Checks worth +4% progress, and BHVR's dev note is blunt: "The Special Skill Check is more difficult and no longer activates other Skill Check perks." This is Not Happening lost its Great Skill Check zone increase before launch, and BHVR named the reason: "Due to it's synergy with Hyperfocus." (The typo is BHVR's.) Without either one, Hyperfocus is a coin flip again, so it drops to C tier.
Best healing perks in Dead by Daylight on Patch 10.2.1
| Perk | Effect on 10.2.1 |
|---|---|
| We'll Make It | Heal other Survivors 100% faster for 70/80/90s after you unhook someone (was 30/60/90s) |
| Better Than New | After you heal someone, until they take damage they heal, bless, cleanse and unlock Chests 40/45/50% faster (was 12/14/16%) |
| Botany Knowledge | Permanent +30/40/50% Healing speed |
| Empathic Connection | Heal other Survivors 30/35/40% faster (was 25/30/35%) |
| Boon: Circle of Healing | +50/75/100% Altruistic Healing within 24m without a Med-Kit, reveals injured Survivors |
| Resurgence | 50/60/70% Healing progression after you are unhooked |
We'll Make It is still the best healing perk, because the moments after an unhook are when healing actually decides a match. Better Than New is the biggest jump in this table, but it only pays out if the person you healed takes no damage. Reassurance belongs next to them: within 6 metres of a hooked Survivor it pauses their Sacrifice Process for 20/25/30 seconds, once per Survivor per hook.
Four Survivor builds worth running in October 2026
The default solo-queue build. Sprint Burst, Off the Record, Will to Live, Kindred. Kindred takes Windows' old slot: the information it gives you every hook is worth more than Window auras now.
The map-learning build. Dark Sense, Five Moves Ahead, Windows of Opportunity, Lithe. This rebuilds most of the old Windows effect from three slots: Dark Sense for the long-range overview after a Generator pops, Five Moves Ahead for Pallets mid-chase, Windows for Windows. Use it while you are still learning maps.
The gen-rush build. Prove Thyself, Deja Vu, Resilience, Adrenaline. Friendly Competition is a fair swap for Resilience if your group repairs together.
The altruism build. We'll Make It, Reassurance, Kindred, Unbreakable. Unbreakable gives +25/30/35% recovery speed plus one self-recovery per Trial when the save goes wrong.
For the whole perk-by-perk diff, see our 10.2.0 PTB-to-live changes breakdown. If you want to see what you are up against, the DBD Killer tier list for Patch 10.2.0 and the best Killer perks tier list cover the other side.
Which Survivor perks are overrated right now?
Dead Hard. It only activates after you have been unhooked, then gives 0.5 seconds of Endurance on the Active Ability button. High skill, tiny payoff.
Self-Preservation. 10.2.0 cut its Elusive window to 13/14/15 seconds (was 20/25/30s). BHVR flagged it during the PTB as a perk it would keep a close eye on, and the cut shipped.
Shoulder the Burden. You take a Hook State off a teammate, but you now become Injured and Broken for 160/140/120 seconds (was Exposed for 60/50/40s). BHVR did remove the PTB rule that switched it off for the whole lobby after one use, so it is now merely expensive.
Down to the Last. The rework gives a Token each time you are hooked or finish a Generator, up to 6; each Token makes other Survivors open Exit Gates 10% faster, and with 3 or more Tokens as last Survivor you can unlock the Hatch and hide your aura for 6/8/10 seconds per Token. Better than before, but still a perk that pays out once your team is losing.
Want more Dead by Daylight coverage? These are the guides we keep updated every patch.
- DBD Builds 2026: Best Killer and Survivor Builds
- DBD Perk Changes: All 58 Perks in the 10.2.0 PTB
- DBD Totems Explained After the 10.2.0 Rework
- DBD Codes October 2026
FAQ
What are the best Survivor perks in DBD right now? On Patch 10.2.1 the five strongest are Will to Live (Decisive Strike), Off the Record, Sprint Burst, Adrenaline and Kindred. Windows of Opportunity, the old number one, dropped to B tier after its 10.2.0 rework.
What happened to Windows of Opportunity? Patch 10.2.0 reworked it. It now shows only Windows within 24 metres, makes you vault Windows 10% faster, and goes on a 40/35/30 second cooldown every time you vault one. Pallets and Breakable Walls are gone from it, and BHVR kept the change for launch despite PTB feedback.
What replaces Windows of Opportunity? Dark Sense is the closest free replacement: after a Generator is completed, when the Killer comes within 20 metres you see Pallets and Windows within 32 metres plus every Survivor and the Killer for 13/14/15 seconds. Five Moves Ahead covers Pallets during chases, and a Map item covers the rest.
Where did Decisive Strike go? It is still in the game as Will to Live. After the HALLOWEEN Chapter was retracted, Patch 9.4.0 kept Decisive Strike for Chapter owners and turned it into a General Perk called Will to Live for everyone else. Patch 10.2.1 also fixed it failing when the Killer was in the falling state.
Does Off the Record still give Endurance? Yes. It lasts 30/35/40 seconds after you are unhooked and grants Endurance, which a Conspicuous Action cancels. Pages showing 60/70/80 seconds with no Endurance are describing a 9.3.0 PTB change that BHVR reverted before it went live.
Is Hyperfocus still worth running? Not for most players. Patch 10.2.0 reworked Stake Out so its special Skill Checks no longer trigger other Skill Check perks, and removed the Great Skill Check zone bonus from This is Not Happening because of its synergy with Hyperfocus. Without those, keeping a 6-Token stack is too unreliable.
