The Wraith was the first “stealth” killer added to Dead by Daylight back in 2016. The Wraith’s power, Wailing Bell, allows him to sneak up on survivors and secure good first hits. His power, while straightforward, allowed him to possess a unique playstyle among the first base killers. Although he is a popular pick among newcomers, the Wraith continues to shine throughout experienced players. These are some effective builds to add to your arsenal as a Wraith Player.
5. Beginner Wraith Build
This beginner build will feature only universal perks and The Wraith’s unique perks. This is because this build is targeted toward newcomer players who have yet to unlock teachable perks.
The Wraith’s Unique Perks include:
Shadowborn: Increases your field of view by 9/12/15 degrees.
Predator: The Scratch Marks left by Survivors spawn slightly/moderately/considerably closer together.
Bloodhound: Pools of Blood are shown in bright red and can be tracked for 2/3/4 seconds longer than normal.
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For the Wraith’s beginner build we are going to use:
- Shadowborn
- Whispers
- Surge (Jolt)
- Fearmonger
Shadowborn increases our FOV. This will aid the newer player in noticing things that they might have missed and help to grow their “game sense”. Whispers is a perk that activates whenever at least one Survivor is within 48/40/32 meters of your location. When this perk activates, you hear the sporadic whispers of the Entity. This perk will help you locate survivors quicker and easier.
Surge is a perk that instantly regresses affected Generators within 32 meters of your location by 6/7/8 % when you put a survivor in the dying state with a basic attack. This will help you manage gen progression. Finally, Fearmonger affects all survivors currently repairing a generator. The affected survivors suffer from blindness and exhausted status effects. This should help you creep up on them as the wraith and slow their escape.
This build is a great starting point for Wraith beginners, providing a balance of stealth, disruption, and map control that allows them to develop their playstyle and effectively utilize the Wraith's strengths.
This build excels at:
- Enhancing stealth and sneaking up on Survivors. Shadowborn increases your field of view, allowing you to spot Survivors from a greater distance and approach them more discreetly. Whispers further enhances your tracking ability by alerting you to nearby Survivors, making it easier to initiate surprise attacks.
- Disrupting Survivors' actions and slowing their progress. Fearmonger inflicts the Blindness and Exhausted status effects on Survivors repairing Generators, hindering their ability to work on objectives and escape from chases. Surge regresses Generators when you injure Survivors, forcing them to spend time repairing them again.
- Maintaining map control and pressuring Survivors from multiple angles. By disrupting Survivors' actions and forcing them to move around the map, you can maintain control of the area and apply pressure from different angles, making it harder for them to focus on objectives or escape.
4. Quick Downs Build
This build includes:
- Starstruck
- Ultimate Weapon.
- Agitation
- Shadowborn
Starstruck is a teachable perk from the Trickster. Starstruck activates when you are carrying a survivor. All survivors in your terror radius suffer from the exposed status effect. This effect lingers for 26/28/30 seconds. Ultimate Weapon is a teachable perk from the Xenomorph. Whenever you open a Locker, Ultimate Weapon activates for 30 seconds: Survivors entering your Terror Radius scream and reveal their location to you. Those Survivors suffer from the Blindness Status Effect for 30 seconds.
Agitation is a perk from the Trapper. When carrying a Survivor, you benefit from the following effects:
Increases your Movement speed by 6/12/18 %. Increases your Terror Radius by +12 meters.
The goal with this build is to down a survivor. Then, before picking them up, open a locker. Since your terror radius increases when carrying a survivor with Agitation, Ultimate Weapon should trigger. This should let you get some easy, cheeky downs with starstruck. This build is geared towards Wraith players who want to play aggressively and capitalize on their ability to sneak up on Survivors. The combination of quick downs, disruptive effects, and strategic locker usage makes this build a formidable force in the Trial.
This build excels at:
- Downing multiple Survivors quickly and efficiently. The combination of Starstruck and Ultimate Weapon allows you to chain downs by downing one Survivor, opening a Locker to activate Ultimate Weapon, and then immediately downing another Survivor who is revealed and exposed.
- Pressuring Survivors and preventing them from escaping. Starstruck's Exposed status effect makes Survivors easier to eliminate, while Ultimate Weapon's Blindness effect disorients them and makes them more vulnerable. Agitation's increased Movement Speed and Terror Radius further enhance your ability to apply pressure and chase down Survivors.
- Utilizing lockers strategically and catching Survivors off guard. Ultimate Weapon is triggered when you open a Locker, allowing you to bait Survivors into revealing themselves and then punish them with Starstruck's Exposed status effect. Agitation's increased Terror Radius can also help you catch Survivors by surprise when they approach a Locker you've opened.
3. Hunter Build
This build includes:
- Alien Instinct
- Hex: Blood Favor
- Hex: Undying
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance
Alien Instinct is a perk from The Xenomorph. After you hook a survivor, you see the aura of the farthest injured survivor for 5 seconds. Additionally, that survivor suffers from the oblivious status effect for 20 seconds. Hex: Blood Favor is a teachable perk from The Blight. Whenever you injure a survivor, all pallets within 32 meters are blocked for 15 seconds.
Hex: Undying is a teachable perk from The Blight. Survivors within 4 meters of a totem will have their aura exposed. When another hex totem is cleansed, that totem’s hex transfers to the Hex: Undying totem; deactivating Hex: Undying. We are also bringing back Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance.
The goal with this build is to use alien instinct to choose targets after a hook. Hex: Blood favor should make chases faster and easier, since it blocks pallets. Scourge Hook Helps slow the game down. This build is particularly effective for Wraith players who want to maintain map control, capitalize on their tracking abilities, and secure kills consistently. The synergy between its perks allows you to apply pressure effectively, protect your Hex Totems, and punish Survivors' actions, making it a formidable force in the Trial.
This build excels at:
- Tracking and downing Survivors efficiently. Alien Instinct reveals the aura of the farthest injured Survivor after you hook a Survivor, allowing you to prioritize targets and quickly down additional Survivors. Hex: Blood Favor blocks pallets within 32 meters of injured Survivors, hindering their escape attempts and making chases more manageable.
- Protecting your Hex Totems and maintaining map pressure. Hex: Undying ensures that at least one Hex Totem remains active, making it more difficult for Survivors to disable your Hex perks and preserving their effects on the game. Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance punishes Survivors who interact with Scourge Hooks, injuring them and further disrupting their progress.
- Pressuring Survivors and securing kills. The combination of Alien Instinct, Hex: Blood Favor, and Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance makes it easier to track down, injure, and eliminate Survivors, effectively pressuring them throughout the Trial and securing kills efficiently.
2. Max Points Build
This build includes:
- Lethal Pursuer
- Barbeque and Chili
- Dissolution
- Surge
Lethal Pursuer is a perk from The Nemesis. At the start of the match, the auras of all survivors are revealed to you for 7/8/9 seconds. Additionally, this perk extends the duration of a Survivor's Aura being revealed to you by +2 seconds. Barbeque and Chili is a perk from The Cannibal. After hooking a Survivor, all Survivors who are at least 60/50/40 meters away from that Hook have their Aura revealed to you for 5 seconds.
Dissolution is a perk from The Dredge. 3 seconds after injuring a Survivor by any means, Dissolution activates for 12/16/20 seconds: While Dissolution is active, if a Survivor fast vaults over a Pallet while they are inside your Terror Radius, The Entity will break the Pallet at the end of the vault, deactivating Dissolution.
We are also bringing back Surge for this build. As a refresher, Surge instantly regresses affected Generators within 32 meters of your location by 6/7/8 % when you put a survivor in the dying state with a basic attack.
The goal with this build is to quickly gain rank up “pips” after rank reset. Lethal pursuer lets us get an efficient start to the game and not waste any time. Barbeque and Chili helps us keep up our pressure after we hook a survivor. Dissolution will aid us in chase. This perk is especially useful after landing a surprise attack coming out of your power. Finally, jolt will help us slow the game down while keeping up pressure.
This build excels at:
- Quickly finding Survivors at the start of the match and applying early pressure. Lethal Pursuer reveals the auras of all Survivors for a significant duration at the start of the match, allowing you to locate them quickly and initiate chases early on. This can give you a significant advantage in the early game, as it can prevent Survivors from making much progress on objectives and force them to focus on avoiding you.
- Maintaining pressure on Survivors throughout the match. Barbeque and Chili helps you keep track of Survivors after hooking one, revealing the auras of all Survivors who are not in close proximity to the hooked Survivor. This information can be invaluable in tracking down injured Survivors and preventing them from healing or working on objectives.
- Countering Survivor counterplay and securing kills. Dissolution can break Pallets if Survivors fast vault over them within your Terror Radius, preventing them from using Pallets to extend chases or escape from danger. Surge can regress Generators when you injure Survivors, making it more difficult for Survivors to repair Generators and slowing down game progression.
1. Overall Best Build
For this build we will use:
- Nowhere to hide
- Overcharge
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance
- Eruption
Nowhere to hide is a teachable perk from The Knight. After damaging a generator, the auras of all survivors within 24 meters of our location are revealed for 3/4/5 seconds. Overcharge is a teachable perk from The Doctor. After Damaging a generator, the next survivor who begins to repair that generator is faced with a difficult skillcheck. Failing this skillcheck will regress the generator by 2/3/4 %.
Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance is a perk from The Artist. After hooking a survivor for the first time on a scourge hook: the generator with the most progress immediately explodes, losing 15/20/25 % of its maximum progress. Eruption is a teachable perk from The Nemesis. Kicking a generator activates an eruption. Multiple generators can be affected by Eruption. When a survivor is put into the dying state by any means, all affected generators explode and begin regressing by 10% of their maximum progression. Additionally, all Survivors repair the afflicted Generators to scream and reveal their Aura to you for 8/10/12 seconds.
This build excels at:
- Generator regression and pressuring Survivors off of generators. Nowhere to Hide, Overcharge, and Eruption all contribute to slowing down generator repair progress and pressuring Survivors off of generators. Nowhere to Hide reveals the auras of Survivors near damaged generators, making it easier to find and chase them away. Overcharge forces Survivors to deal with difficult skill checks or risk further regressing the generator, and Eruption causes all affected generators to explode and regress when a Survivor is put into the dying state.
- Map control and tracking Survivors. Nowhere to Hide and Eruption both provide information about Survivor locations. Nowhere to Hide reveals the auras of Survivors near damaged generators, while Eruption causes Survivors repairing affected generators to scream and reveal their auras. This information can be used to track Survivors and make informed decisions about where to patrol and chase.
- Synergy and snowballing. The perks in this build work well together to create a snowball effect. Damaging a generator with Nowhere to Hide can reveal the auras of Survivors, who can then be chased and put into the dying state with Eruption. This will cause all affected generators to explode and regress, and the auras of Survivors repairing them will be revealed. This can create a chain reaction of generator regression and Survivor pressure.
Of course, these builds are here for you to reference and offer suggestions to help your matches. You shouldn’t feel forced to use any of these perks. Feel free to mix and match perks of your own into these builds to find what works best for you. Every player is different. Feel free to return to these builds as great references for different playstyles. Good luck!
