Dead by Daylight is a popular online survival-horror game where players can play as either a survivor or the horror itself.  In this guide, players will become familiar with one of the original horrors in the game, The Trapper, who's basic and effective playstyle can translate to other killers in the game.

Related: Dead by Daylight Killer Guide: Leatherface (Tips & Tricks)

Released back in June of 2016 by Behaviour Interactive, Dead by Daylight remains popular among horror fans likely due to its many updates and additions. Each match in Dead by Daylight pits four human survivors against a powerful killer in a realm where the only options are to escape or be killed. In order to escape, survivors will need to work together or sacrifice each other to repair generators and open a gate out of the realm's bloody arena. All the while, a player-controlled killer, backed by a supernatural entity, tries to violently prevent their escape. Each killer is unique in their abilities and backstory, but their skill sets can be kind of convoluted compared to the killer's simple objective. Fortunately, The Trapper and his Bear Traps boast a basic, but effective set of skills that players can utilize to ensure no survivors escape.

Perks and Add-ons for Trapper in Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight Trapper Perks

Before players jump in a game as the Trapper, it is important to first have the proper loadout of Perks and Add-ons. The Trapper comes with three Perks: Unnerving Presence, Brutal Strength, and Agitation. Unnerving Presence increases the likelihood of survivors having to do difficult skill-shot mini-games when repairing, healing, or sabotaging. this Perk can be used to buy the Trapper more time to place down traps while the survivor is attempting to complete objectives. Brutal Strength is considered a great Perk among the entire killer roster as it allows players to destroy dropped pallets quicker and also damage generators faster. Agitation increases the Trapper's movement speed while transporting survivors and also increases the killer's terror radius while carrying a body. Using this perk in conjunction with Unnerving Presence can slow down survivors' escape progress even further while allowing the Trapper to bring survivors to hooks quicker.

Since the Trapper's main asset is his Bear Traps, players are advised to pick Perks and Add-ons that allow him more time to place them. The Corrupt Intervention Perk blocks the three generators farthest from the Trapper from being repaired for two minutes at the start of the game. This gives the Trapper more time to collect and place his Bear Traps at the start of the game. Hex: Ruin makes generator repair progress regress faster when not being repaired. The Trapper can use this perk to both slow down the game and bait survivors to either the Hex Totem or the regressing generator.

The Trapper's biggest weaknesses are his lack of chase and survivor tracking. To remedy his lack of chase, it is recommended to run Brutal Strength in order to close the gap between the Trapper and fleeing survivors that drop pallets in front of him. Players could also consider running the Bamboozle Perk which increases vault speed and blocks vault locations for a brief duration after the Trapper climbs them. This Perk can be beneficial to the loop preventing play-style that will be covered later on in this guide. The Barbecue & Chilli Perk solves the Trappers tracking needs by revealing the auras of survivors that are more than forty meters away from a survivor they've just hooked, but only for four seconds. Barbecue & Chilli can also be paired with Agitation to speed up the whole hooking and tracking process so it is recommended that players try out different sets of perks in order to find what works for them.

Lastly, the killers in Dead by Daylight can also bring optional Power Add-ons that have one-time uses. Although these Add-ons aren't required to play and enjoy the Trapper, they can really boost the strength of his Bear Traps. If available, players should run the Trapper Bag and/or Trapper Gloves which increase carrying capacity and Bear Trap setting speed respectively. These Add-ons are on the more common end so using them won't come at a big loss. Two rarer, but more devastating Add-ons include the Honing stone and the Irridescent Stone. The very rare Honing Stone Add-on inflicts the Dying State upon survivors who have freed themselves, meaning the survivor's movement is limited to a slow crawl. This Add-on is especially useful when a survivor is caught in a far-away trap as it gives the Trapper more time to catch them. Iridescent Stone is extremely beneficial to the basic Trapper play-style because it allows one random closed Bear Trap to reset every thirty seconds. This saves the Trapper a ton of time that would otherwise be spent re-engaging the Bear Traps and it also further prevents survivors from creating loops.

Basic Trapper Play-style in Dead by Daylight

Dead by Daylight Trapper

The basic Trapper play-style is oriented towards preventing survivors from looping to evade the killer or complete objectives. When players first spawn in as the Trapper, they will only have one Bear Trap in hand but can find many more closed ones around the map. If the player has Corrupt Intervention equipped, you are granted an extra two minutes to find and place Bear Traps around the map. Survivors that step in the traps are immobilized for a few seconds and are hurt upon leaving the trap, meaning they move slower for a short duration. When placing down Bear Traps, it is important to consider how heavy the survivor traffic in that area will be. Narrow paths between hooks and generators will receive the most foot traffic because survivors will have to loop between repairing the generator and rescuing their hooked friends. Placing traps in these areas will force survivors to either play more cautiously or avoid them entirely, making objectives even harder to reach. When placing these traps in commonly traversed areas, make sure to place them in bushes or darker areas as survivors can disarm the trap without detriment if they can see it first. A common strategy for placing Bear Traps near generators is to have a distraction Trap in the open nearby. When survivors disarm this Bear Trap, they will let their guard down as they suspect the Trapper will not dedicate more than one trap to this area. However, as they step into a nearby bush, they will realize they were dead wrong.

As discussed earlier, one of the Trapper's weaker aspects is his ability to chase, so if a survivor can evade an attack by the Trapper and loop back the same way they came, they will most likely lose the Trapper. A good Trapper accounts for this with basic trap placement, Perks, and Add-ons. By placing traps under ledges and windows or in front of pallets, Trapper's can disrupt a survivor's standard evasion plan, causing them to panic and make mistakes. If the Trapper is chasing a survivor that vaults over a ledge and intends to double-back through the same ledge, the Bamboozle Perk comes in handy to prevent that survivor from creating an escape loop. Finally, Iridescent Stone will be the most helpful Add-on to prevent looping because survivors may disarm a trap only to find it has been automatically reset when they try to come back the same way. It will also save the Trapper a ton of time so they can spend more energy chasing, hooking, killing, and sabotaging survivors.

Overall, the Trapper's play-style relies on outsmarting the survivors by placing Bear Traps in areas where the survivors need to travel back and forth to complete objectives. By placing Bear Traps in narrow paths or hidden areas between objectives, the Trapper forces the survivors to rethink their evasive maneuvers and make mistakes that the Trapper can exploit. Perks and Add-ons can also greatly increase the strength of the Bear Traps to further prevent survivors from creating easy loops between objectives. Iridescent Stone and distraction Bear Traps are also effective ways to get survivors to lower their guards only to fall for less obvious Traps.

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Dead By Daylight is available on the Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Android, and Windows.