The Artist is the Killer most guides get wrong. She has had exactly one live balance pass aimed at her add-ons since 2023, and the last time Behaviour Interactive touched her numbers it put six changes on the Public Test Build, then threw every one away. Most Artist guides online copied those PTB numbers anyway, and have been wrong ever since.
This is the version that matches what you load into, on the live build, as of Patch 10.1.2a, released 17 September 2026.
Quick answer
- The Artist is a ranged-reconnaissance Killer who places up to 3 Dire Crows, which Swarm Survivors, injure anyone on the flight path, and feed her information.
- Her Power has not been rebalanced since Patch 6.7.0 removed the light-based counter to her crows. Her add-ons have had exactly one live rebalance pass, in Patch 7.0.0 on 13 June 2023, plus the game-wide Mangled Update that caught Thorny Nest in 7.6.0.
- Patch 9.0.0's PTB proposed six Artist add-on changes. The live notes for 9.0.0 reverted all of them. If a guide tells you Untitled Agony is 10% Hindered, or Matias' Baby Shoes reads 4 metres, it is quoting a build that never shipped.
- Best add-on pairing for pressure is Ink Egg plus Severed Hands. The strongest information pairing is Vibrant Obituary plus Matias' Baby Shoes.
- As a Survivor, the counter is positional, not mechanical. Break line of sight on the flight corridor, Repel somewhere safe, and remember that the Repel takes 8 seconds and she sees the Swarm for 2.5 seconds after you start.
- She is currently topical again because the Diablo Collection, revealed in the October of Horror Broadcast on 1 October 2026, includes a cosmetic set for her. Behaviour has not published a release date for it.
Why is The Artist relevant in October 2026?
Two reasons, and neither of them is a balance change.
The first is the October of Horror Broadcast, which Behaviour streamed on 1 October 2026. Among the announcements was a Diablo Collection for The Artist, The Dredge, The Nurse, David, Taurie Cain and Zarina Kassir. The presentation gave no release date, so treat any date attached to it as speculation.
The second is that a lot of players are reading tier lists labelled "as of patch 10.2.0". That label is wrong, and it matters here. Patch 10.2.0 is still a Public Test Build. The live retail build is 10.1.2a, from 17 September 2026, so any Artist advice resting on 10.2.0 is advice about a build you cannot queue into yet. Our Dead by Daylight 10.2.0 patch notes breakdown covers what is in that PTB.
How does Birds of Torment work?
Her Power is two actions with separate timings, and understanding the split is most of the skill.
Summoning. Holding the Power button summons a Dire Crow. The charge time is 1 second, the crow spawns 2.5 metres in front of her at a height of 1.3 metres, and there is a 0.5 second cool-down between consecutive summons. She can hold 3 Dire Crows at base. Using her Power drops her to 3.68 m/s, down from the standard 4.6 m/s.
Firing. Launching is a separate input with a 1 second fire cool-down, so a crow cannot be launched for one second after it is summoned, plus a 1.5 second cool-down after firing. On the flight path the projectile travels at 20 m/s for the first 0.3 seconds, then accelerates to 35 m/s. Off the path it moves at 35 m/s immediately.
The flight path. The pale guide line you see while aiming is 8 metres long and 1 metre wide, and the lethal path itself is 7.5 metres. A Survivor inside that corridor is injured outright; outside it, they are Swarmed.
Swarming and Repelling. The Repel is an 8 second interaction, and The Artist keeps seeing the Swarm aura for 2.5 seconds after the Survivor starts, the most under-used information in her kit. Repelling lowers the cawing volume, so the audio cue fades before the aura.
Killer Instinct. A detecting crow triggers Killer Instinct with a 0.26 second delay buffer and a 3 second linger, plus a 4 second grace period in which hitting that Survivor cancels the reveal.
Idle crows. A placed crow disintegrates after 10 seconds idle, and the timer resets whenever she places another. Crows emit audio within 12 metres, and a distinct cue plays just before one expires, which is a free warning for Survivors who know it.
Ammunition recharge. Full recharge is 2 seconds after idle disintegration, 5 seconds after firing one crow, 9 seconds after two, 12 seconds after three, and 14 seconds after four.
One mercy rule. A Survivor is immune to a second Dire Crow hit for 0.75 seconds, so stacking crows in one corridor cannot double-dip a health state.
Where can she not place crows?
The spawn restrictions are the part most Artist players learn by accident. On the live build, Dire Crows must be placed:
| Restriction | Minimum distance |
|---|---|
| From another Dire Crow | more than 1 metre |
| From a hooked Survivor | more than 10 metres |
| From the Exit Gate switch | more than 2 metres |
| From the Hatch | more than 1 metre |
| From generators and hooks | no restriction at all |
The generator line is the important one. Nothing stops her parking a crow directly on a three-gen, which is why she pairs so naturally with regression. The hooked-Survivor rule is a deliberate anti-camp measure, and the Exit Gate rule stops her shutting down an endgame switch outright.
The add-on trap that breaks most Artist guides
On 27 May 2025, the 9.0.0 PTB notes proposed six changes to her add-ons. They were specific and they were widely reported:
| Add-on | What the 9.0.0 PTB proposed | What is live today |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic Drawing | cool-down reduction of 1.75 seconds | 1.5 seconds |
| Untitled Agony | 10% Hindered for 1.5 seconds | 15% Hindered for 1.5 seconds |
| Matias' Baby Shoes | reveal within 4 metres | within 5 metres |
| Ink Egg | idle timer reduced by 1 second | reduced by 2 seconds |
| Severed Hands | spread within 2 metres | within 3 metres |
| Iridescent Feather | no longer reduces summonable crows | still reduces summonable crows by 1 |
Then the live 9.0.0 notes landed on 17 June 2025 and said, in full, under the heading for her add-ons: "Reverted all add-on changes from the 9.0.0 PTB."
That is the entire entry. Six proposed changes, zero shipped. Behaviour flagged the intent in its May 2025 Developer Update: "Overall, The Artist is in a solid place balance-wise and boasts useful add-ons that meaningfully change how her kit works. To encourage even more pick variety among these, we've adjusted her top and bottom-performing add-ons to bring their usefulness more in line with her other options." The experiment was abandoned before it reached the live game, and nothing has replaced it since.
So the live values are the 7.0.0 values, which brings us to the only live add-on buff she has ever had.
What did Patch 7.0.0 actually change?
Patch 7.0.0, End Transmission, shipped on 13 June 2023 with two Artist add-on buffs, quoted here from the first-party notes:
- Ink Egg — "Increase the maximum capacity of Dire Crows by 1. Decreases the time Dire Crows stay idle before disintegrating by 2 seconds (was 4 seconds)."
- Vibrant Obituary — "Increases the length of time a Dire Crow's Killer Instinct reveals Survivors by 3 seconds (was 1.5 seconds)."
Two buffs, zero nerfs. That is the complete live balance ledger for her add-ons across more than three years of patches.
Her patch history is otherwise remarkably thin, which is exactly why she feels frozen in time:
- Patch 6.7.0 removed the Destructive Action, the old mechanic that let Survivors destroy a Dire Crow outright with a Flashlight, Firecracker or Flash Grenade. This is the one genuine Power change in her history, and it was a buff by removal. It predates Steam's visible archive, which starts in May 2023, so it is wiki-sourced rather than first-party.
- Patch 7.0.0, 13 June 2023 buffed Ink Egg and Vibrant Obituary.
- Patch 7.6.0, 12 March 2024 folded Thorny Nest into the game-wide Mangled Update, which added a timer to every source of Mangled so Survivors could wait it out instead of healing through it. She was not singled out.
- Patch 9.0.0, 17 June 2025 reverted the entire PTB add-on pass.
- Everything else from 2023 through the 10.1.0 Chorus of Sin update on 25 August 2026 is bug fixes and cosmetics, such as crows refusing to place at one window vault on the Trickster's Delusion map, or the Garden of Rot add-on's missing Exposed sound cue, fixed twice.
Buffs since 2023, counting live changes only: two. Direct nerfs: zero, though the 7.6.0 Mangled Update did make Thorny Nest weaker without naming her.
Best Artist add-ons on the live build
With the real values in hand, the picks sort cleanly.
Ink Egg is her strongest single add-on, and it is not close. A fourth Dire Crow is a whole extra corridor, and the shortened idle timer barely costs you anything because you are firing crows, not parking them.
Severed Hands turns one Swarm into a group problem. Survivors within 3 metres of a Swarmed teammate get Swarmed too, punishing the altruistic clustering that happens around hooks and heals.
Vibrant Obituary is the information pick. A 3 second Killer Instinct reveal instead of 1.5 seconds is enough to commit to a direction instead of guessing.
Matias' Baby Shoes reveals Survivors within 5 metres of idle crows for 3 seconds, turning parked crows into scouting towers on the half of the map you are not watching.
Untitled Agony at its live 15% Hindered for 1.5 seconds is a real chase tool, and the clearest example of why the revert matters: at the PTB's proposed 10% it would have been marginal.
Festering Carrion and Severed Tongue each cut 0.5 seconds, but off different timers: the cool-down and the post-fire slow-down respectively. Behaviour has never published either value in a patch note, so these come from the community wiki.
Iridescent Feather remains a trap. The Undetectable status it grants sounds strong until you remember it still costs you a summonable crow, exactly as it did before the reverted PTB.
What build should you run on The Artist?
She wants two things that rarely come together, information and slow-down: her crows pressure the far side of the map, and she needs a reason for Survivors to be standing still when one arrives.
Her own three perks are Grim Embrace, Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance and Hex: Pentimento. Pain Resonance is the natural fit, because her crows reward knowing which generator to hit next.
The builds players recommend for her right now lean on aura-reading rather than mobility. Gearhead, which arms after a Survivor loses a Health State and then reveals their aura on a Good Skill Check while repairing, pairs well with crows parked on generators. Its tier values have never appeared in a patch note, so read them in-game. Celestial Witness covers the half of the map her crows cannot. Lethal Pursuer plus any regression core is the chassis. Our best generator-regression perks guide and Killer aura-reading perks guide cover both halves.
Players consistently describe her as a slower, more deliberate version of the newest ranged Killer, and builds designed for The Judgment transfer almost directly.
How do you counter The Artist as a Survivor?
You do not out-mechanic her. You out-position her.
Respect the corridor, not the Killer. Her lethal flight path is 7.5 metres long and 1 metre wide. Outside it, the worst case is a Swarm, so running perpendicular to her aim beats running away from it.
Repel somewhere safe, and count. The Repel is an 8 second commitment and she keeps seeing your aura for 2.5 seconds after you start. Repel behind cover, not in the open, and never immediately next to a generator you want to keep.
Use the expiry cue. An idle crow dies after 10 seconds and plays an audio cue first. If you can hear a crow at all you are within 12 metres of it, so the cue signals a corridor about to open.
Do not crowd a Swarmed teammate if she might run Severed Hands. Three metres is closer than it feels mid-heal.
Watch for the hook rule. She cannot place a crow within 10 metres of a hooked Survivor, so the hook area is structurally safe from her Power even when she is nearby.
Break her three-gen early. Nothing restricts placement near generators, which is where her kit is strongest. A loose three-gen against an Artist is not a slow loss, it is a fast one.
Where does she sit in the meta?
She is a high-skill-floor Killer whose numbers stood still as the roster was reworked around her. She is still one of the best map-pressure Killers for a player who can read Survivor pathing, and one of the most frustrating for a player who cannot. For placement, see our Dead by Daylight Killer tier list.
FAQ
Is The Artist still good in 2026? Yes, with a caveat. She has never been nerfed on the live build and her kit scales with map knowledge, but she has not been buffed since 2023.
Was The Artist buffed in Patch 9.0.0? No. Six add-on changes appeared on the 9.0.0 PTB and the live 9.0.0 notes state that all of them were reverted. Her live values today are the 7.0.0 values.
What patch is The Artist's current version from? Her add-ons are on their Patch 7.0.0 values from 13 June 2023, except Thorny Nest, which was folded into the 7.6.0 Mangled Update on 12 March 2024. The live build at the time of writing is 10.1.2a from 17 September 2026.
How many Dire Crows can The Artist have? Three at base, four with Ink Egg, two with Iridescent Feather.
How long does it take to repel The Artist's crows? Eight seconds, and she can still see the Swarm aura for the first 2.5 seconds of it.
How do you get The Artist? She was the Killer of Portrait of a Murder, released on 30 November 2021. That Chapter DLC was retired on 14 May 2024. She is still available in the in-game store and as part of the Endless Hunt Pack.
Is The Artist getting a Diablo skin? A Diablo Collection including The Artist was revealed in the October of Horror Broadcast on 1 October 2026, with no release date announced.
More Dead by Daylight guides
Keep reading on timesaver.gg:
- Dead by Daylight Killer tier list
- All Dead by Daylight Killers
- Patch 10.2.0 notes breakdown
- Best generator-regression perks
- Killer aura-reading perks guide
Sources: official Dead by Daylight patch notes on Steam for Patches 7.0.0, 7.6.0, 9.0.0 PTB, 9.0.0 and 10.1.2a; the community wiki for the pre-2023 Patch 6.7.0 change and for add-on values Behaviour has never published; the Behaviour Interactive Developer Update of May 2025; the October of Horror Broadcast of 1 October 2026. Add-on values cross-checked line by line against those first-party notes. Accurate as of 2 October 2026.
