Last Tuesday, 8 September 2020, Behaviour Interactive released the newest Dead by Daylight DLC: Chapter XVII: Descend Beyond. The new DLC adds in a new killer, The Blight, and a new survivor, Felix. My review of the DLC went up yesterday, but I wanted to separate out the strategy elements of the new perks this time around.

The Blight’s Perks:

The Blight’s gameplay is all about mobility and map control. Chaining his Rush with Lethal Rush by bouncing into walls and objects can easily let him clear the length of most maps in the game. His perks all deal with controlling the map and objectives.

Dragon’s Grip is a generator and tracking perk. Once you kick a generator, the first survivor to start repairing that gen within 30 seconds will scream. This reveals their location on the map for four seconds. They also become Exposed for 60 seconds, meaning they can be put in the dying state with one hit. The change in tiers is the cool-down, which is 120/100/80 seconds.

I haven’t had much luck with Dragon’s Grip for the Exposed effect, but I rarely have luck with that effect status. I use Dragon’s Grip for information. Survivors either stay on the gen to keep working or start sneaking away, revealing exactly where they hid the first time they left that generator. This pairs well with Pop Goes the Weasel (25% generator regression when you kick it) or Thrilling Tremors (once you pick up a survivor, all generators not being repaired are blocked by the Entity for 16 seconds). Dragon’s Grip still doesn’t work great with my playstyle, though I know plenty of killers are excited by this perk.

Hex: Blood Favour is a map control and pallet perk. When you hit a survivor with a basic attack, all pallets within 16m of the survivor are blocked by The Entity for 15 seconds. That means they cannot be thrown by the survivor or their teammates in the chase or after downing the survivor. The change in tiers is the cool-down, which is 60/50/40 seconds.

I love Hex: Blood Favour, especially on Blight. While he’s fast, he can get tripped up quickly in tighter pallet loops. This perk makes it harder for survivors who try to use those pallets and loops. They’re either going to loop and go down within the 15 seconds or run to a more open area where you can use your ability better. This would pair nicely with Bamboozle (close off vaults for 8/12/16 seconds if you vault them).

Hex: Undying is a perk I’ve seen suggested a lot over the years. We finally have a perk that moves a cleansed Hex Perk to a Dull Totem. As long as Hex: Undying is up, you get an aura notification whenever anyone goes within 2m of any totem, Hex or Dull. If they cleanse a separate Hex Totem, that Hex perk moves to another Dull totem if there is one available. The change in tiers is how long the aura lasts, which is 4/5/6 seconds.

This one’s easy. If you run Hex: Ruin, add on Hex: Undying. Worst case scenario: the survivors cleanse Hex: Undying and still need to find and cleanse a second Hex Totem to get rid of Ruin. Best case scenario: they have to cleanse Ruin four times to not have their generators regress at 100/150/200% when not being repaired. Most games play out somewhere in between, but this is a big buff to Ruin.

My Blight Build:

I run Blight with a “delete everything” build, so I pair Hex: Blood Favour with Deadman’s Switch (when the obsession is hooked, any survivor who lets go of a generator causes it to be blocked by The Entity until 35/40/45 seconds after the obsession was hooked) and Cruel Limits (all window and vaults within 24m of a completed generator get blocked by The Entity for 20/25/30 seconds). If teammates are trying to help each other get off the hook, they block the generator; if teammates try to finish the gens while someone’s being chased, they block all windows and vaults; if I get a hit, all pallets are gone. Easy. As always, I round out my builds with Barbecue &Chili (after hooking a survivor, all other survivor’s auras are revealed to you if they are 40m or more away from the hook; earn 25% bonus bloodpoints for each survivor hooked up to 50/75/100% bonus). I do go back and forth between Deadman’s Switch and Thrilling Tremors, but I’m using Deadman’s Switch as of publishing.

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Felix’s Perks:

Felix’s perks play well with his architect backstory. They all add on efficiency to your gameplay through clever design.

Visionary is an aura and generator perk. You see the aura of all generators within 32m. This ability only disappears when a generator is completed. Then you have a tiered cool-down of 20/18/16 seconds.

While I personally don’t love the similar aura perk Windows of Opportunity (see auras of all pallets, breakable walls, and vaults within 20m), I find Visionary quite useful. I struggle to find generators on maps sometimes, especially when my teammates are popping gens with seemingly no strategy in mind. This perk would be very useful for new players to start learning the layout of maps and where generators can spawn.

Desperate Measures is an altruism perk. You increase your healing and unhooking speed for every injured, hooked, or dying survivor. The change in tiers is the percentage of speed increase, which is 10/12/14%.

• Y’all, this is the MVP perk of Descend Beyond. Think about how often someone is injured, left in the dying state, or on a hook in your average match. If you run Desperate Measures, you are rewarded for the natural progression of gameplay. Pair this with any of your other favorite perks where you benefit from injured survivors, like We’ll Make It (gain 100% healing speed for 30/60/90 seconds for each survivor you unhook) or Resilience (gain 3/6/9% increased repairing, healing, sabotage, unhooking, vaulting, cleansing, gate opening, and chest unlocking speeds when you’re injured). Run it when you bring in a medkit. Combine it with Botany Knowledge (healing speed/item efficiency increased 11/22/33%) and Empathy (see all dying or injured survivors auras within 64/96/128m) and you’re a one-gamer healing machine.

Built to Last is an item perk. One time each match, you will refill a depleted item 30/40/50% of its total charge value after 10 seconds. Simple. A nice passive perk to give you more bang for your buck on items and add-ons.

I would pair Built to Last with Streetwise (reduce item consumption rate by 15/20/25% for you and allies within 8m) to get the most out of your items. It’s probably best saved for medkits, though using it on a toolbox to speed up your first gen wouldn’t be a bad choice, either. I suppose it’s useful for flashlights, as well, but…I’m not good at those.

My Felix Build:

My Felix build right now is wild. Yes, I know all survivors technically play the same, but I like to have different builds for different characters. I play an aggressively altruistic build on Felix, using Desperate Measures, Babysitter (after you unhook a survivor, they leave no scratch marks or blood trail for 4/6/8 seconds and you and the killer see each other’s auras), Second Wind (after healing a teammate for the equivalent of one health state, you activate Second Wind; the next time you are unhooked or unhook someone else, you become Broken, but are healed instantly after 34/32/30 seconds), and Lucky Break (whenever you are injured, you don’t leave blood trails for 120/150/180 seconds; the perk is only deactivated when you hit the total duration of use, meaning the perk works for up to three minutes of cumulative, not sequential, time in a match). Basically, I go in for the save/heal as soon as possible to set myself up for the next save/heal. My teammates and I become harder to track for a few seconds (or a lot of seconds), I get healed instantly after about half a minute, and I repeat. It’s a lot of fun. Borrowed Time could be a good alternative for Babysitter, but I like using the less-expected perks when possible.

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Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVII: Descend Beyond is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. You can pick up the core game on Humble Bundle using my affiliate link for 10% off. Descend Beyond is also 10% off.