Quick answer: every Survivor in Dead by Daylight runs at the same 4.0 m/s, has the same hitbox and takes the same number of hits, so a Survivor tier list is really a ranking of the three teachable perks each one unlocks for your whole account. On Patch 10.1.2a the five best Survivors to prestige first are Kate Denson (Windows of Opportunity), Meg Thomas (Sprint Burst and Adrenaline), Zarina Kassir (Off the Record), Jeff Johansen (Distortion) and Mikaela Reid (the Boon perks). Laurie Strode cannot be bought at all any more, and you no longer need her. And there are 54 playable Survivors right now, not the 48 the biggest community wiki still lists.
This list applies to Patch 10.1.2a, published 17 September 2026, during Chapter 41: Chorus of Sin (live 25 August 2026). The tiers are editorial, but every fact underneath them comes from Behaviour Interactive's own patch notes.
Why a Dead by Daylight Survivor tier list is really a perk tier list
There is no Survivor stat sheet in Dead by Daylight. Nea does not vault faster than Dwight, Lara Croft is not quieter than Bill, and the character you hover in the lobby changes nothing about your movement speed, your health states or your interaction speeds. Cosmetic silhouette is the only real gameplay difference, and it matters far less than players think.
What does differ is the three unique perks each Survivor owns. Those unlock for every other Survivor on your account through prestige: reaching Prestige 1, 2 and 3 grants that character's unique perks at Tier I, II and III respectively to all your other Survivors. General Perks need no prestige at all.
So the honest question behind "who is the best Survivor" is: whose three teachables do you want in the Bloodweb for everybody else? That is what this list ranks. If you want the perks ranked on their own terms rather than by owner, our best Survivor perks tier list does that job, and the DBD Killer tier list covers the other side of the hook.
What players actually pick, according to Behaviour
Two first-party data sets are worth putting next to any tier list, because they show how far popularity drifts from power.
Behaviour's ten-year statistics post, covering 14 June 2016 to 30 April 2026, names Meg Thomas the most picked Survivor in the game's history with 1,108,148,399 picks. The same post records 5,077,386,489 Survivors sacrificed against 3,642,287,469 escaped. That works out to an all-time escape rate of roughly 41.8%, which is a useful reality check next to any build guide promising consistent escapes.
The regional breakdown, covering 1 January to 30 June 2026, is sharper:
| Region | Most picked Survivor | Most picked Survivor perk |
|---|---|---|
| North America | Sable Ward | Windows of Opportunity |
| Europe | Sable Ward | Windows of Opportunity |
| Asia and Oceania | Feng Min | Windows of Opportunity |
| Latin America | Meg Thomas | Déjà Vu |
Three of four regions run the same information perk, and Behaviour notes Latin America "leaned ever slightly more towards Déjà Vu than Windows of Opportunity" rather than abandoning it. Sable Ward tops two regions on aesthetics, not on her teachables. Meg tops the tenth year and the all-time count because she is the tutorial Survivor and because Sprint Burst and Adrenaline are genuinely excellent.
One caveat Behaviour states itself, and which every aggregator reposting these numbers drops: "these stats only take into account the first two weeks of The Slasher being available, while players were still figuring out counterplay, and the first 5 days of Shane being available". Treat the escape-rate leader in that data set as a sample too small to rank anybody on.
The tier list
Tiers rank teachable value on Patch 10.1.2a, weighted for how often the perks appear in strong loadouts and how well they survive the Diminishing Returns system added in Patch 9.6.0 on 28 April 2026. Diminishing Returns sorts identical modifiers highest-first and pays them at 100%, 50%, 25%, 12.5% and then 5% for the fifth and beyond. It applies to identical modifiers "granted by Powers, Items, Perks and Offerings" and excludes add-on modifiers entirely, which means stacking four copies of the same perk effect across a squad is close to worthless, and perks that do something structurally different are worth more than they look.
S tier
Kate Denson owns Windows of Opportunity, which shows the auras of breakable walls, pallets and windows within 24, 28 or 32 metres with no cooldown at all. It is the most picked Survivor perk in three of Behaviour's four regions. Dance With Me and Boil Over are both real perks in the right build. Nothing else in the game teaches map awareness this quickly. Unlock her before the rework lands, because the PTB version is a different and much narrower perk.
Meg Thomas owns Sprint Burst (+50% Haste, Exhausted 60, 50 or 40 seconds), Adrenaline and Quick & Quiet. Adrenaline is the single strongest endgame perk in the game: once the exit gates power it instantly heals a full health state and grants +50% Haste, and it is the only Exhaustion perk that both ignores an existing Exhausted status and applies its own afterwards.
Zarina Kassir owns Off the Record, which after any unhook blocks the Killer from reading your aura, suppresses your grunts of pain and grants Endurance until you take a conspicuous action. It is the anti-tunnel perk, and it also brings For the People and Red Herring.
Jeff Johansen owns Distortion, the only real answer to aura-reading Killers. It starts with 1 token, spends one to block an aura read for 8, 10 or 12 seconds while suppressing your scratch marks, and recharges tokens while you are in a chase up to a maximum of two. Aftercare and Breakdown round out a genuinely complete information package.
Mikaela Reid is the gatekeeper to the entire Boon system. Boon: Circle of Healing grants +50%, 75% or 100% altruistic healing speed inside 24 metres with no Med-Kit required, Boon: Shadow Step deletes scratch marks in its radius, and Clairvoyance is the tracking utility.
A tier
Strong, build-defining teachables that are narrower than S tier or that have a confirmed change waiting in the 10.2.0 PTB.
| Survivor | Unique perks | Why A tier |
|---|---|---|
| Bill Overbeck | Unbreakable, Borrowed Time, Left Behind | Unbreakable's +25 to 35% recovery and one free self-pickup per trial is still elite. Borrowed Time is being replaced entirely in the PTB. |
| Feng Min | Lithe, Alert, Technician | Lithe gives +50% Haste for 3 seconds off a rushed vault, the cleanest Exhaustion perk for loop play. She is also the most picked Survivor in Asia and Oceania. |
| Jake Park | Iron Will, Calm Spirit, Saboteur | Iron Will remains the best audio-denial perk in the game. |
| David King | Dead Hard, No Mither, We're Gonna Live Forever | Dead Hard now only activates after being unhooked and gives 0.5 seconds of Endurance, so it is an anti-tunnel tool, not a chase extender. |
| Rebecca Chambers | Reassurance, Hyperfocus, Better than New | Reassurance pauses the sacrifice process for 20 to 30 seconds inside 6 metres, once per Survivor per hook. |
| Renato Lyra | Background Player, Blood Rush, Teamwork: Collective Stealth | Background Player is the sharpest save perk in the game at +50% Haste for 5 seconds. |
| Dwight Fairfield | Prove Thyself, Bond, Leader | Prove Thyself gives +6 to 10% repair speed per nearby Survivor to everyone in range, capped at +18 to 30%. |
| Adam Francis | Deliverance, Autodidact, Diversion | Deliverance is the strongest self-unhook in the game once you have made a save. |
| Gabriel Soma | Made for This, Scavenger, Troubleshooter | Made for This grants 6 to 10 seconds of Endurance after healing an injured teammate while injured yourself. |
| Sable Ward | Invocation: Weaving Spiders, Strength in Shadows, Wicked | Wicked reveals the Killer for 16 to 20 seconds after an unhook and guarantees a basement self-unhook on your first hook stage. |
| Taurie Cain | Shoulder the Burden, Clean Break, Invocation: Treacherous Crows | Shoulder the Burden trades a hook state to save a teammate. The PTB downside is much heavier, so unlock her now if you want the current version. |
| Kwon Tae-young | Flow State, A Place For Us, Five Moves Ahead | Five Moves Ahead currently reveals the 5 closest pallets and windows in the terror radius and makes you move 50% earlier after a pallet drop. |
B tier
Situational, or carried by one good perk. Worth unlocking once your S and A shortlist is done: Nea Karlsson, Nancy Wheeler, Élodie Rakoto, Jonah Vasquez, Yui Kimura, Jane Romero, Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, Vittorio Toscano, Ellen Ripley, Alan Wake, Lara Croft, Nicolas Cage, Steve Harrington, Cheryl Mason, Orela Rose, Aurora, Shane Wiigwaas, Yoichi Asakawa, Rick Grimes and Michonne Grimes.
Two of these move up if the PTB ships as written. Yoichi's Empathic Connection goes from 25 to 35% altruistic healing to 40 to 50%, and Orela Rose's Do No Harm picks up an extra +5% skill-check trigger chance on top of its existing per-hook-state healing bonus.
C tier
Fine characters, last in the queue: Claudette Morel, Ace Visconti, Felix Richter, Ada Wong, Haddie Kaur, Yun-Jin Lee, Quentin Smith, Thalita Lyra, Ash Williams, David Tapp, Trevor Belmont, Aestri and Baermar Uraz, Vee Boonyasak, Dustin Henderson and Eleven.
David Tapp is the one to watch here, in the wrong direction. Stake Out is being reworked into special skill checks that, in Behaviour's words, "no longer activates other Skill Check perks", which kills the Hyperfocus and Stake Out pairing that was the fastest repair build in the game.
Not rankable: Laurie Strode
Laurie is the exception every other tier list still gets wrong, so she gets her own section below.
Laurie Strode, and the perk rename nobody explains
Patch 9.4.0, live 27 January 2026, retracted the HALLOWEEN Chapter. Behaviour's own notes read: "The Shape, Laurie Strode and their respective outfits are no longer available in the store. These characters will remain playable for players who already had them unlocked."
Her perks were not deleted. They were split. Players who owned the Chapter keep them under the original names as Laurie perks. Everybody else received them as General Perks available to all Survivors, under new names:
| Old name | New name for everyone else |
|---|---|
| Decisive Strike | Will to Live |
| Object of Obsession | Bound by Obsession |
| Sole Survivor | Down to the Last |
The same patch did the identical thing to three of The Shape's Killer perks: Save the Best for Last became Keep Them Waiting, Play With Your Food became See How They Run, and Dying Light became Cull the Weak. It also removed Lampkin Lane from map rotation and retired the Strode Realty Key offering entirely.
Two consequences for this list. First, if you do not already own Laurie, she is not a tier at all, because you cannot buy her. Second, you do not need to: Will to Live is a General Perk, so every Survivor on your account already has the perk formerly called Decisive Strike without spending a single Iridescent Shard. Any tier list still placing Laurie in S tier "for Decisive Strike" is describing a store page that closed eight months ago. Never write that Decisive Strike was removed, and never call Will to Live a new perk. Both names are live simultaneously and which one you see depends on Chapter ownership.
The six Survivors most rosters are missing
The largest community wiki's Survivor page still opens with "There are currently 48 playable Survivors". Behaviour's patch notes account for six more, each named in a first-party release note:
| Survivor | Patch | Released | Unique perks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orela Rose | 8.7.0 Steady Pulse | 6 May 2025 | Do No Harm, Duty of Care, Rapid Response |
| Dustin Henderson | 9.4.0 Stranger Things Chapter 2 | 27 January 2026 | Bada Bada Boom, Change of Plan, Teamwork: Full Circuit |
| Eleven | 9.4.0 Stranger Things Chapter 2 | 27 January 2026 | Extrasensory Perception, We See You, Teamwork: Soft-Spoken |
| Kwon Tae-young | 9.5.0 All-Kill: Comeback | 17 March 2026 | Flow State, A Place For Us, Five Moves Ahead |
| Shane Wiigwaas | 10.0.1 | 25 June 2026 | Wide Open Throttle, Lend a Hand, Cross-Examination |
| Aurora | 10.1.0 Chorus of Sin | 25 August 2026 | Fruits of your Labor, Salvation's Cry, Boon: Steadfast |
That is 54 playable Survivors, not 48. Shane is the easiest one to miss because the Friday the 13th chapter shipped with the Survivor's identity hidden. The 10.0.0 PTB notes list only a "NEW ORIGINAL SURVIVOR" with the disclaimer that "Perks will be generic as this Survivor is not available on PTB", and the reveal came in the 10.0.1 notes: "NEW SURVIVOR: SHANE WIIGWAAS (RELEASED ON JUNE 25TH)". Worth knowing if you search for him: Behaviour's patch notes spell the surname Wiigwaas while Behaviour's own July statistics card spells it Wiggwaas.
The same wiki's Survivor-perk index is missing the teachables for nine Survivors, the six above plus Rick Grimes, Michonne Grimes and Vee Boonyasak. That is 27 teachable perks absent from the page most players use to plan their prestige order.
What the 10.2.0 PTB does to these tiers
The 10.2.0 Public Test Build opened on 15 September 2026 and changes 58 perks: counting the entries in Behaviour's notes gives 27 Killer and 31 Survivor changes. Twelve carry an explicit rework tag, nine of them Survivor perks: Borrowed Time, Down to the Last, Premonition, Road Life, Slippery Meat, Small Game, Spine Chill, Stake Out and Windows of Opportunity.
Behaviour has published no live release date for 10.2.0. Anything you read claiming one is a guess, so treat the list below as a warning about where the tiers move, not as today's game.
The changes that matter for unlock order:
- Windows of Opportunity becomes windows-only inside a flat 24 metres, losing pallets and breakable walls entirely. It gains +10% window vault speed and, for the first time, a cooldown: 40, 35 or 30 seconds every time you vault a window. Full breakdown in our Windows of Opportunity rework guide.
- Dark Sense, a General Perk, picks up pallet and window auras within 24 metres plus other Survivors' auras. Behaviour's stated intent is "to give new players a tool to learn maps and teach them to position themselves near resources as the Killer approaches". Read together, those two changes move a chunk of Kate's teachable value into a perk nobody has to unlock.
- Borrowed Time stops extending unhook protections entirely. Its new effect passively mends Deep Wound over 40, 35 or 30 seconds if you gain it while already holding Endurance. Bill's package gets meaningfully weaker.
- Shoulder the Burden's downside changes class: Injured plus Broken for 160, 140 or 120 seconds, and the perk deactivates for every Survivor in the lobby after one use, replacing the current Exposed penalty.
- Better than New goes to 40, 45 or 50% from 12, 14 or 16%, and Empathic Connection to 40, 45 or 50% from 25, 30 or 35%. Those are the two largest Survivor buffs on the list, and they push Rebecca up and Yoichi out of B tier.
- Five Moves Ahead loses windows and reveals the 5 closest pallets only. Kwon is close to a wash overall, because the same patch takes his Flow State from 8, 9 or 10% per token to 13, 14 or 15% on all three of its speed bonuses.
- Self-Preservation drops to 13, 14 or 15 seconds of Elusive from 20, 25 or 30, and Premonition's cooldown gets longer at 70, 65 or 60 seconds from 60, 45 or 30 in exchange for a 3-second Killer aura. Both are small nerfs dressed as reworks.
Behaviour splits the 58 changes a different way in its developer update: 26 perks adjusted because Diminishing Returns affected them, 23 general perks buffed, and 9 perks that "either promote unhealthy playstyles or are oppressive while avoiding the impacts of Diminishing Returns". A lot of it is a deliberate floor-raise for newer accounts rather than a meta shift, in Behaviour's words "bringing Tier I and Tier II values closer to what players can expect from a fully upgraded perk". The framing to keep in mind: "While the primary intent behind the general perk changes is to make them more valuable to newer players, we also want to create opportunities for them to be valid options in the wider meta." Our full 58-perk breakdown has the rest, and the PTB access guide covers how to test it yourself.
Full Survivor list and tiers on Patch 10.1.2a
| Survivor | Unique perks | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Kate Denson | Windows of Opportunity, Dance With Me, Boil Over | S |
| Meg Thomas | Sprint Burst, Adrenaline, Quick & Quiet | S |
| Zarina Kassir | Off the Record, For the People, Red Herring | S |
| Jeff Johansen | Distortion, Aftercare, Breakdown | S |
| Mikaela Reid | Boon: Circle of Healing, Boon: Shadow Step, Clairvoyance | S |
| Bill Overbeck | Unbreakable, Borrowed Time, Left Behind | A |
| Feng Min | Lithe, Alert, Technician | A |
| Jake Park | Iron Will, Calm Spirit, Saboteur | A |
| David King | Dead Hard, No Mither, We're Gonna Live Forever | A |
| Rebecca Chambers | Reassurance, Hyperfocus, Better than New | A |
| Renato Lyra | Background Player, Blood Rush, Teamwork: Collective Stealth | A |
| Dwight Fairfield | Prove Thyself, Bond, Leader | A |
| Adam Francis | Deliverance, Autodidact, Diversion | A |
| Gabriel Soma | Made for This, Scavenger, Troubleshooter | A |
| Sable Ward | Invocation: Weaving Spiders, Strength in Shadows, Wicked | A |
| Taurie Cain | Shoulder the Burden, Clean Break, Invocation: Treacherous Crows | A |
| Kwon Tae-young | Flow State, A Place For Us, Five Moves Ahead | A |
| Nea Karlsson | Balanced Landing, Urban Evasion, Streetwise | B |
| Nancy Wheeler | Inner Strength, Fixated, Better Together | B |
| Élodie Rakoto | Power Struggle, Deception, Appraisal | B |
| Jonah Vasquez | Overcome, Corrective Action, Boon: Exponential | B |
| Yui Kimura | Any Means Necessary, Breakout, Lucky Break | B |
| Jane Romero | Head On, Solidarity, Poised | B |
| Jill Valentine | Blast Mine, Counterforce, Resurgence | B |
| Leon S. Kennedy | Flashbang, Bite the Bullet, Rookie Spirit | B |
| Vittorio Toscano | Potential Energy, Fogwise, Quick Gambit | B |
| Ellen Ripley | Chemical Trap, Light-Footed, Lucky Star | B |
| Alan Wake | Champion of Light, Deadline, Boon: Illumination | B |
| Lara Croft | Finesse, Hardened, Specialist | B |
| Nicolas Cage | Dramaturgy, Plot Twist, Scene Partner | B |
| Steve Harrington | Babysitter, Camaraderie, Second Wind | B |
| Cheryl Mason | Soul Guard, Repressed Alliance, Blood Pact | B |
| Orela Rose | Do No Harm, Duty of Care, Rapid Response | B |
| Aurora | Fruits of your Labor, Salvation's Cry, Boon: Steadfast | B |
| Shane Wiigwaas | Wide Open Throttle, Lend a Hand, Cross-Examination | B |
| Yoichi Asakawa | Empathic Connection, Boon: Dark Theory, Parental Guidance | B |
| Rick Grimes | Apocalyptic Ingenuity, Come and Get Me!, Teamwork: Toughen Up | B |
| Michonne Grimes | Conviction, Last Stand, Teamwork: Throw Down | B |
| Claudette Morel | Self-Care, Botany Knowledge, Empathy | C |
| Ace Visconti | Open-Handed, Ace in the Hole, Up the Ante | C |
| Felix Richter | Visionary, Built to Last, Desperate Measures | C |
| Ada Wong | Low Profile, Reactive Healing, Wiretap | C |
| Haddie Kaur | Inner Focus, Overzealous, Residual Manifest | C |
| Yun-Jin Lee | Smash Hit, Fast Track, Self-Preservation | C |
| Quentin Smith | Wake Up!, Vigil, Pharmacy | C |
| Thalita Lyra | Cut Loose, Friendly Competition, Teamwork: Power of Two | C |
| Ash Williams | Mettle of Man, Flip-Flop, Buckle Up | C |
| David Tapp | Detective's Hunch, Stake Out, Tenacity | C |
| Trevor Belmont | Exultation, Eyes of Belmont, Moment of Glory | C |
| Aestri and Baermar Uraz | Bardic Inspiration, Mirrored Illusion, Still Sight | C |
| Vee Boonyasak | Road Life, One-Two-Three-Four!, Ghost Notes | C |
| Dustin Henderson | Bada Bada Boom, Change of Plan, Teamwork: Full Circuit | C |
| Eleven | Extrasensory Perception, We See You, Teamwork: Soft-Spoken | C |
| Laurie Strode | Decisive Strike, Object of Obsession, Sole Survivor | Unavailable in the store since 27 January 2026 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the Survivor you pick actually change anything in Dead by Daylight? Only cosmetically. Every Survivor shares identical movement speed, hitbox, health states and interaction speeds. The differences are the three unique perks each one teaches and how easy their silhouette is to spot in the fog.
Who is the best Survivor to unlock first in 2026? Kate Denson, for Windows of Opportunity. It is the most picked Survivor perk in three of Behaviour's four reported regions and it teaches map knowledge faster than anything else in the game. Meg Thomas is second, for Sprint Burst and Adrenaline.
How do I get another Survivor's perks? Prestige them. Prestige 1, 2 and 3 grant that character's unique perks at Tier I, Tier II and Tier III to every other Survivor on your account. General Perks require no prestige.
How many Survivors are in Dead by Daylight right now? 54 on Patch 10.1.2a. The biggest community wiki still says 48 because it has not added Orela Rose, Dustin Henderson, Eleven, Kwon Tae-young, Shane Wiigwaas or Aurora.
Can I still buy Laurie Strode? No. Patch 9.4.0 on 27 January 2026 removed The Shape, Laurie Strode and their outfits from the store, and both remain playable only for accounts that already owned them. You do not need her, because her three perks are now General Perks for everyone under the names Will to Live, Bound by Obsession and Down to the Last.
When does the 10.2.0 perk update go live? Behaviour has not announced a date. The Public Test Build opened on 15 September 2026 and the patch notes list 58 perk changes, but no live release date has been published for 10.2.0, and PTB numbers have changed before release in past cycles.
Is Sable Ward the best Survivor because everyone plays her? No. She is the most picked Survivor in both North America and Europe in Behaviour's January to June 2026 data, but that is a cosmetic and community-driven preference. Her teachables, Wicked especially, are good rather than meta-defining.
Where to go next
Prestiging your way through the roster? These are the other Dead by Daylight guides worth reading before you spend the Bloodpoints.
- Best Survivor perks in DBD 2026: full tier list
- DBD Killer tier list: all 44 Killers ranked
- All 58 perk changes in the 10.2.0 PTB
- Windows of Opportunity rework explained
- How to download and play the 10.2.0 PTB
- All timesaver.gg services
Sources: Behaviour Interactive patch notes for 8.7.0, 9.1.0, 9.2.0, 9.4.0, 9.5.0, 9.6.0, 10.0.0, 10.0.1, 10.1.0, 10.1.1, 10.1.2a and the 10.2.0 PTB, plus Behaviour's official statistics posts of 15 June 2026 and 29 July 2026, all published on the Dead by Daylight Steam news hub. Verified 27 September 2026.
