New to dbd? Confused by an annoying comp killer/survivor mad at you in end game chat for playing the wrong way? Heard your favourite youtuber talk about "tunneling"? Whatever your reason, I can help you with some of the confusion you might have towards dbd's general lingo. I have over 1000+ hours on dead by daylight, mostly on killer. I will not get into specific terms like "whip dragging" "urobends" or things like "lo pro flicks" but I will try my hardest to define as many general common or slightly less common dbd terms as possible.

I will be using some killers full in-lore names next to their killer names for any of you lore junkies who are just getting into the gameplay or if you aren’t quite familiar with the name’s characters have been given. Sorry if this frustrates you, but I aim to help new players in any way I can.

*There will be typos, this is a VERY large guide, I will not be fixing all that*

Slugging - Leaving a survivor in the dying state (crawling) without any current intent to pick them up.

Slug - A survivor being slugged.

Tunneling - Ignoring all other survivors to go after a survivor constantly through out the match to get them out of the game.

Eight staging - hooking each survivor 2 times without hooking any survivors a 3rd time or killing them.

Pallet save - Stunning a killer with a pallet while they carry a survivor to force the killer into dropping them.

Flashlight save - Blinding a killer with a flashlight while they carry a survivor to force the killer into dropping them, leading to a stun.

Bodyblocking (Positive) - The act of blocking the killer's path from getting to another survivor, usually as a way to stop tunneling or help a survivor escape.

Bodyblocking (Negative) - Intentionally blocking a survivor in to get them stuck or to help a killer in catching them. Killers cannot be bodyblocked this way as they can simply hit survivors who block them.

Hovering - The act of hanging within the vicinity of an area but not quite next to it, to get a save or to keep a generator regressing.

God Pallet - A pallet with only one way past, that being through. Meaning a killer can only get past by breaking the pallet once it is down.

Filler Pallet - A typically weak pallet found throughout the map in insignificant places, usually not too helpful, just a way to stall a killer.

Double Pallets - On some maps, tiles will spawn with 2 adjacent pallets almost directly next to eachother.

Tile - A generated area on a map where pallets, walls and such spawn.

Main Building - The big and notable building that is the centerpiece of almost all maps. It is usually the biggest building or directly in the center.

Shack window - The guaranteed window found at the shack.

Shack Pallet - The guaranteed god pallet found at the shack.

Camping - Self explanatory, staying in one small area for a long amount of time, in this game however, usually on the killer side of things.

Hook Camping - A killer camping a hook with a hooked survivor on it, usually to create pressure or to get a survivor to another hook stage.

Face-Camping - A killer RIGHT up next to a hooked survivor, usually only useful if it's the endgame and hook anti-camp is removed, or if you play as Bubba / The Cannibal / LeatherFace.

Decisive / DS - Refers to the survivor perk "Desicive Strike" a notorious anti-tunneling perk famous for it's strength and sometimes blatant unfairness.

DH - Refers to the survivor perk "Dead Hard" a notorious perk that can give a clever survivor an extra health state if timed right.

Health state - The states a survivor goes through when being hit by a killer.

Healthy / Healthy State - Survivor healed or has not been hit yet.

Injured / Injured State - Survivor Damaged by killer basic attack or killer power.

Dying / Dying State - Crawling on the ground, bleeding out, after taking a hit while injured.

Endurance - The status effect given by being unhooked or certain addons or perks, allowing an injured survivor hit to remain up and keep running, applying deep wound.

Deep wound - The status effect given by being hit with endurance or being hit with certain killer abilities such as The Deathslinger's "The Redeemer" or The Legion's "Feral Frenzy".

Exposed - A status effect given by certain perks or by certain killer powers or addons. Allows a basic attack to put even a healthy survivor straight into the dying state.

Blindness - A status effect given by certain perks or by certain addons. Makes the affected killer / survivor unable to see any auras that are not attached to a killer power. Not to be confused with Blinded.

Blinded - A status effect given by certain survivor items or perks, and one killer perk, that being hex: two can play from The Good Guy / Chucky / Charles Lee Ray. This effect does not allow the affected killer or survivor too see anything and is indicated by a rather obvious blinding visual on one's screen. Not to be confused with Blindness.

Haste - A status effect given by certain perks, items, being unhooked and some powers. Increases the overall movement speed of a killer or survivor by a specified amount.

Hindered - A status effect given by certain perks and some powers. Decreases the overall movement speed of a killer or survivor by a specified amount.

Exhausted - A status effect given to survivors after activating “exhausting perks” or by certain killer addons or perks, preventing survivors from using them.

Exhausting perks - Any perk that causes exhausted when its effect is met, preventing any exhausting perks from being using for a specified time. Perks most likely to be exhausting perks are ones that give speed boosts or extra health states, like off the record, dead hard, sprint burst, balanced landing etc.

Dull totem - A small structure found on maps made of skulls and sticks. Useless to a killer. Can be made into boon totems by survivors or just destroyed for bloodpoints or as a preventative measure to stop some specific hex perks from spawning hex totems.

Hex / Hex Totem - Perk specific items spawned by certain killer perks. They are indicated by a dull totem having a red flame beneath it. Gives negative effects to survivors when triggered, some can be ongoing until removed. Consider a high priority. Killers love them.

Boon / Boon totem - Perk specific items spawned by certain survivor perks. They are indicated by a dull totem having a blue flame beneath it and making a distinct sound, as well as making a blue glow around survivor’s screens when they are nearby them. Gives positive effects to survivors when set up and within range. Will always be active until snuffed out by a killer by them walking up to it and pressing the action button. Killers can hear the distinct sound. Consider a relatively high priority as a killer. They kinda suck for both sides.

Booning - A rather unserious term used to describe the act of a survivor setting up a boon totem by interacting with a dull totem with boon perks equipped. All boon perks equipped will be set on the same totem, allowing for multiple ongoing effects at once.

Greeding - A survivor or killer doing something risky for the chance of a greater reward, 99% of the time refers to going an extra time around a pallet or window as a survivor to get an extra loop while possibly tricking the killer.

Looping - The act of going around the same loop in the map to waste as much time as possible for the killer. Is much more effective than just running around it once.

Loop - A small area on a map indicated by a pallet or strong / multiple windows that can be gone around in a circular fashion or multiple times.

T&L Wall - A relatively common tile found on most maps that gets its name from its shape. Said walls have two windows that tie into eachother very well, making it a rather difficult loop for a killer to play around.

T-Bagging - A rather unserious term referring to rapidly tapping the crouch button as a survivor or as The Ghost Face / Danny Johnson, or (less effectively so) as The Pig / Amanda Young. Is named this way as it represents a tea bag being repeatedly plunged into mug of boiling water. I mean duh, it’s how you make tea innit. Considered toxic behaviour by most but can be a friendly gesture within context. Evil ghost face and pig players can use to manipulate gullible survivors.

Friendly - Refers to a killer who does not attack or kill any survivors and prefers to have fun or farm bloodpoints. Misses the point of killing but is always a welcome sight by most. Some people hate fun and will hate you for robbing them of a sweaty match.

DC / Disconnect - A sadly very common occurrence where a killer or survivor has simply had enough and leaves the game most commonly out of frustration. Be careful which killers you play if you want to avoid this as much as possible. Survivors who disconnect will be replaced by bots, killers will not unless it is 2v8.

M1 - Refers to a killers “Basic Attack”. Is called this due to players pressing the mouse1 button on a mouse to lunge while playing on PC.

M2 - Refers to a killers power. Typically used when referring to a power that can damage a survivor. Is called this due to players pressing the mouse2 button on a mouse to use while playing on PC.

Lunge - Holding down the basic attack button to make it go further. The most common method for a killer to basic attack. Almost no reason not to.

4.4, 4.6 etc. - Refers to killer / survivor speeds. Followed by an m/s indicating how many meters a second a character can move without the use of their power or any kind of speed boosts. Survivors move at 4.2 m/s, killers typically move at 4.6 m/s, but some can move at 4.4 m/s. All killers are faster than survivors by a small amount, the single exception being The Nurse / Sally Smithson ,who moves at a speed of 3.8 m/s, made up for by her incredibly strong power.

S Tier Killer - Most games with any variety will use S tier as the very highest tier something can be. However in dbd S tier is a slightly different category, and I see way to many people overreacting saying that every new killer is an S tier. S tier refers to not only the best killers, but killers that fundamentally break the basic laws on the game. The 2 killers that sit currently within S tier are The Nurse and The Blight. The community is often divided on who is stronger. Some say The Hillbilly also sits in S tier, but I would say he is very close to it, but not quite there. The Nurse is who most consider the best character, able to go through walls and objects, turning a game of chess that is a dbd match into a game of chequers. The Blight is considered the fastest killer in dead by daylight and can fully wrap around a loop or any obstacle without much effort and cover the map like no other killer can quite do. Both these killer fundamentally break the laws of dbd. So no, the Ghoul is not an S tier. Stop overreacting.

Iridescent addon - An incorrect term used to refer to the highest rarity an addon can be. They are ACTUALLY called Visceral addons and were once called Ultra Rare addons, but the community has adopted this name themselves. Not to be confused with addons that specifically include the word iridescent in the name, quite common in dbd killer addons.

Crouch tech - Where a survivor crouches to avoid being hit by certain killer powers with dodgy hitboxes like The Hillbilly / Max Thompson Jr’s chainsaw.

Hug tech - Patched on most killers who have had them like Blight / Talbot Grimes and The Dark Lord / Vlad Tepes Dracula.This is a bug where certain killer powers can that go in straight lines are able to slide off of objects sideways without triggering a collision by manipulating timing and hitboxes. Still not patched on The Mastermind / Albert Wesker.

99ing the gates - The act of leaving an exit gate at 99% completion so that it can be triggered to open the exit gates immediately at the right time while not immediately opened and triggering the end game collapse. Will not work if the perk Haywire for The Animatronic / Springtrap / William Afton is active, but don’t worry, no one uses that.

NOED - Perhaps the most controversial killer perk in current dbd, Hex: No One Escapes Death is a hex perk that only activates once all generators are completed and inflicts all survivors with the exposed status effect until it is cleansed, making it a great tool for endgames, however is frowned upon for it’s seeming unfairness. Be aware survivors within range can see an aura of said totem, as a way to balance it.

3 Gen - An event that happens when the last remaining generator needed to be completed and the two extras thrown on to prevent camping throughout the match are all next to eachother, making it very easy for the killer to defend them all at once. Often caused by lack of survivor strategy and communication or a killer’s desire to create one being fulfilled. Avoid this at all costs as a survivor, it will significantly lower your chances of winning.

The Cenobite - The Cenobite / Pinhead / The Hell Priest / Elliot Spencer is a playable killer currently in dead by daylight, however, was removed from the shop and virtual stores due to licensing issues. The killer is still playable to those who bought him before a certain deadline, but cannot be bought, viewed or played by anyone who did not. You may still see them rarely in game though.

Lightborn - The perk Lightborn from the Hillbilly / Max Thompson Jr. Makes the killer immune to any sort of blinds (not blindness). Included for it’s infamy to survivor players.

Locker Grab - The act of interacting with a locker while a survivor is inside, triggering a short animation and automatic pickup.

Bully Squad - A group of survivors with coordination who often ignore objectives to harass the killer with whatever items they might have, often abusing the least fun perks and making the experience for the killer as horrible as possible not for fun, but because they are jerks.

SWF - Standing for Survive With Friends, simply refers to a group of survivors who queued into a lobby together. Usually have coordination over a voice call or talking in some sort of text chat before or during the match.

KYF - The old name for a custom match, standing for Kill Your Friends, refers to matches in which friends play together without any other players, for fun or as a way to play competitive matches or practice.

Meghead - A name for an inexperienced or unintelligent player playing the survivor Meg Thomas. This is a stereotype, but you can catch a few in the wild sometimes. Often seen missing skillchecks constantly.

Rat survivor - A survivor who hides constantly without doing any objective to waste killer time or as a way to stall for the hatch as a possible method of escape.

Crawl out - A survivor escaping a trial by any means while in the dying state.

Heal tech - Healing a survivor who is in the dying state to make the killer unable to pick them up and forced to hit the healer, giving the dying survivor time to crawl during the killer’s weapon cooldown animation. Useless unless within either of the two exit zones.

2k, 3k, 4k etc. - Standing for ? kills, simply means how many survivors the killer was able to kill.

4 out - All 4 survivors escaping a trial.

Adept - A survivor or killer using only the equipped character’s 3 perks as their perks to get adept achievements or as a challenge.

Eyrie of Crows - For a killer player, the worst map ever designed.

Survivor sided / Killer sided map - A map that’s layout is better for killers or survivors. Survivor sided maps can include multiple floors, large space, lots of good resources or an abundance of good hiding spots, while killer sided maps are essentially the exact opposite (not you though trapper or hag you need them hiding spots to hide your traps).

Legendary Skin - Skins that change characters into different characters from other franchises with very drastic changes. Examples being William Birkin for Blight / Talbot Grimes, Alucard for Trevor Belmont or Eddie’s Tribute for The Dredge / The Draunee.

Visceral Skin - Very similar to legendary skins, but not always different characters, just INCREDIBLY drastic changes to characters like custom moris or custom animations. Examples being Naughty Bear for The Trapper / Evan Macmillan, Were - Elk for The Huntress / Anna and True Form for The Dark Lord / Vlad Tepes Dracula

Brown addons - The lowest rarity of addons, characterised but their brown background colour. I bring this up since they are often brought up more than most addon rarities, except visceral of course.

Basement Chest - The guaranteed chest found in the basement.

Basement Hook - The 4 hooks assembled together guaranteed to spawn in the basement. Cannot be broken by any means and in a very dangerous position for a survivor to be in, the basement, as there is only one way in or out.

Basement - A dark underground location on most maps found in the main building or in the shack, if the map has one. Guaranteed lockers, a chest and 4 unbreakable hooks spawn here. There is only one way in or out, through the staircase, making it easy to camp and dangerous for a survivor to be caught in.

Proxy Camping - Camping the proximity around an area, essentially hook camping without a hooked survivor involved in the mix. Can be done to defend a generator and keep it regressing or to keep a survivor away with your terror radius.

Sabo - Shoot for hook sabotaging, the act of using a toolbox or the perk Saboteur for Jake Park to break a hook and stop a killer from being able to hook a survivor there for some time. Great when a survivor is being carried towards said hook, making the killer waste time and giving them time to escape. Sabo is often just used a short way to say saboteur though, referring to the perk.

Sabo Toolbox - The toolbox used to carry out a toolbox hook sabotage.

Indoor Map - Cmon you know this one.

Window Block - A window being blocked by certain perks or by repeated vaulting of said window, indicated by interference by black spikes or mist.

Pallet Vault - Vaulting over a pallet that has been dropped.

Endfury - The community name for a perk combo between the perks Enduring for The Hillbilly / Max Thompson Jr. and Spirit Fury for The Spirit / Rin Yamaoka. Notorious for it’s strong effect against unaware survivors.

Short swing - Doing a basic m1 attack (not lunging) then moving forward during the animation in order to move the attack hitbox into a survivor. Useful against survivors camping pallets.

Undetectable - Perhaps the most common status effect in dbd. Given to killers through certain perks, addons or powers. Removes the terror radius and red stain the killer emits.

Terror radius - The universal sound building up to the chase that can be heard when nearby a killer.

Red stain - The red glow present in front of a killer showing where they are looking.

Death hook - The 3rd and final hook that kills a survivor. Some people will say "I'm on death hook" when their next hook will kill them.

Kobe - Refers to a survivor attempting a self unhook and getting it successfully. More than likely gets it’s name from the basketball player.

Sandbagging - Negative bodyblocking specifically towards a survivor teammate. However some people use the term sandbagging for unintentional negative bodyblocking on a survivor teammate as well.

Pre-Drop - The act of a survivor dropping a pallet early not in an attempt to stun a killer but instead to waste time. Can sometimes be a very dumb play to make, but on some pallets and against some killers can help a lot.

Holding W - Refers to a survivor simply choosing to leave a loop or run past a loop and run somewhere else in order to fool a killer trying to play a loop or to find a more favourable one. Works to waste time against unaware killers or simply as a desperate attempt at escape.

Bled out - A survivor dying while in the dying state due to their red bar depleting. This rarely happens but can be done if a survivor is left on the ground for a very long time across the course of the match.

Hatch - The small hatch that appears in the ground when 1 survivor remains in the trial (does not apply to 2v8). Can be closed by a killer to trigger endgame collapse or used by a survivor to escape the trial without the use of the exit gates.

Styptic - The addon “Styptic Agent” for survivor medkits. When used, removes the medkit from the survivor’s hands and thus the trial, but grants the survivor endurance for a few seconds. Can also be used on fellow survivors.

Insta-heal - The addon “Anti-Haemorrhagic Syringe” for survivor medkits. When used, removed the medkit from the survivor’s hands and thus the trial, but after some time will heal a survivor instantly. Can also be used on fellow survivors. Will de-activate if a survivor changes health states during this time, i.e. from injured to dying.

The entity - The wonderful creature keeping us all trapped here.

Thanks for taking the time to read or quickly skim through this guide of mine. This has made my thumbs ache a little bit but I hope this guide can reach some dbd players out there in need of guidance. I may update this guide more but I don’t know, I said SOME terms not all of them. Anyway give me awards and likes so this can reach more people and so I can have me some meaningless steam points. Seriously though thanks for reading.