Let's set the mood, eh?
https://youtu.be/9B7nZ6giTAI

If you've grown up with FPS titles like I did, love playing Dead by Daylight but don't wanna play with huntress, Deathslinger is the perfect choice for you.

Base Stats

- 110% Movement Speed [4.4m/s]

- 24m Terror Radius

- Average lunge range (FYI Some killers have longer or shorter lunge ranges)

- Quite Tall (So tall, in fact, he couldn't get into the basement during the PTB!)

- Hold your power button [M2 on PC] to aim down sights

- Press the attack button while aiming to fire a projectile-based spear

- The spear connecst a chain between you and the object you hit

- If the spear is lodged into a survivor, the survivor can be reeled in towards you

- If the survivor stresses the chain enough, it will break, causing them to become injured and suffer from a deep wound and stun you.

- If you cancel reeling without hitting a survivor or the chain breaking, the survivor will be released without any damage done to them

- If you hit a survivor after reeling them in, they will become injured and suffer from a deep wound or get downed if they already are injured, and you won't suffer from a stun

- After each shot, you have to reload the gun, which slows you down

Those are the basics of the Deathslinger's power, however, I think we can go a bit more into detail, and mention some little quirks of it.

- The spear has an extremely precise hitbox, I've had shots where I'd shoot at a survivor and the spear would go through their legs or barely above their head. And because the spear's hitbox is this precise, it means you can land some insane shots through things like fence posts

- You can hit speared survivors through windows, although not over pallets, however if a survivor is healthy, I would reccomend you shoot them from across the pallet and let the chain break, as it will injure them

- Survivors can use dead hard to avoid your spear, keep this in mind, it might sometimes be worth firing at them to see if they are running dead hard or not, this might turn into vital information later on in the trial

- In order to down a survivor that's injured, you need to be able to get within stabbing distance, so outpositioning a survivor is going to be important. If you shoot at a survivor and realize the chain is gonna break before you get close enough, you're gonna have to let them go. This can cost you a lot of time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLrILyYkU3c

The Deathslinger doesn't have that much strategy involved, he's a pretty straight-forward killer to use, you see 'em, you aim at 'em, and poom poom you have 'em on a chain. The part of deathslinger which varies from person-to-person is aim.

Aim is everything for a deathslinger player, if you can't hit them with your spear, your chasing capabilities are drastically reduced, essentially turning you into a huntress without hatchets.

However, if you manage to make each shot count, you'll turn into a monstrous killing machine. Being able to quickly lock onto a target and chain them will cut chases incredibly short, and given that your speargun has a decent range, it might lead to some ridicilous long-range snipes, making open areas your best ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ friends.

However, The Deathslinger lacks something a lot of killers do, which is map pressure. Large maps such as the temple of purgation are a death sentence against a Four-Man crew of survivors, and being slower than most killers is another downside, meaning you're gonna have a tougher time traversing the map itself.

An advantage The Deathslinger has over most other killers, is his chasing abilities and dealing with common loops. It's very easy to shut down a loop, simply by moonwalking and predicting where a survivor would be and getting close enough to shoot them can make any pallet unsafe. It's possible to deal with overpowered loops aswell, such as the torment creek window and the asylum, although it might be more difficult to do so.

Overall, Deathslinger can thrive on smaller maps, but will have a tough time on larger ones, given he lacks map pressure, however he's extremely good at cutting chases short using his power.

These are jukes that can be/are useful on The Deathslinger. There are bound to be more.

Not Firing

- This mindgame is rather simple to perform. When you aim at a survivor in an open area, they're going to try strafing in order to dodge your shot. By aiming at them and not firing, you can either time your shot accordingly to hit them or close the distance between you and the survivor in order to hit them with your basic attack.

Moonwalking

- Moonwalking is a mindgame most killers use, you hold S without looking behind you in order to hide your red stain and catch the survivor off guard. However on Deathslinger it can be really good, mainly because you have a ranged attack that most killers dont. Shutting down a T - L loop is really simple, by moonwalking on either the T or the L, you can get the survivor to go near the window and hit them through it. It can also work really well on most jungle gyms. Single pallet gyms, or the short wall - long wall loop is also really unsafe against the deathslinger, as it just takes a moonwalk to catch the survivor off-guard. And if you have direct sight of them, they're done for.

Detecting Dead Hard

- This is something you can perform, I guess it can count as a mindgame. If you're unsure if the survivor has DH or not, firing at them if they're injured, even if it will miss, will make them use their DH in most cases. By remembering if they have it or not, you can catch them easier later down the line.

Hitting survivors through tight gaps

- For some reason, a lot of survivors don't know that the speargun has a ridicilously accurate hitbox. You can hit through practically any visible gap. If you can see the survivor through a small hole in the wall, you can most likely hit them through it. This means that you can snipe someone through the f*cking shack wall! In some cases, the survivor might stand completely still at the other end of the loop (most commonly behind a wall). If the wall has small openings in it, you can hit 'em, giving you a free hit.

Faking pallet breaking

- While playing as The Deathslinger, you'll find that survivors pre-throw pallets a lot. On a lot of loops you can lure the survivor to leave the loop by pretending to break a pallet, this can be done by going to a pallet to break it, but not breaking it. Standing in place for 1 second or so might be enough to lure the survivor away, after that, chaining them shouldn't be an issue.

After 2 successful basic attacks, Gearhead activates for 20/25/30 seconds.

Each time a survivor completes a good skill check while repairing, the generator will be revealed by a yellow aura for as long as it's being repaired.


After hooking the Obsession, Dead Man's Switch activates for the next 35/40/45 seconds.

While activated, if a survivor stops repairing a generator before it's fully repaired, The Entity blocks that generator until Dead Man's Switch's effect ends.


Any survivor who cleanses a Dull Totem will suffer from the Oblivious Status Effect for 35/40/45 seconds.

If any Hex Totem is cleansed, including this one, the auras of all survivors are revealed for 10 seconds.

Overall, I'd say his perks are alright, nothing ridicilous. Retribution is a good perk for hex builds, however Gearhead and Dead Man's Switch are difficult to use properly.

Spit Polish Rag and Tin Oil Can

Slightly/Moderately decreases Speargun cool-down after missed shots.

These addons are more-or-less a safeguard for newer Deathslinger players, they'll help you get back on track with the chase if you mess up a shot, I wouldn't reccomend them for more experienced deathslinger players.


Snake Oil and Bayshore's Gold Tooth

Slightly/Moderately increases Speargun Reeling speed.

These addons can help you close the gap between you and your prey quicker, they can work well paired with the Iredescent coin which I'll get to later, these addons are decent, but not great.


Modified Ammo Belt and Warden's Keys

Slightly/Moderately reduces Speargun Reload time.

These addons are always great to have, a faster reload time means a shorter interval between each shot, If you're struggling with landing shots, or reloading is simply too long for you, these are a great choice.


Chewing Tobacco and Bayshore's Cigar

Moderately/Considerably decreases Stun duration when Survivors break free from the Speargun.

These addons are slightly weaker/more situational versions of the faster reload addons, they can decrease the stun duration from the chain breaking by quite a bit, making the chain breaking less impactful. There aren't going to be that many cases where the chain breaks if you know how to use your weapon properly, however. So I'd reccomend newer players to run them.


Rickety Chain and Prison Chain

Rickety Chain - Grants 50% bonus Bloodpoints for Speared Score Events, survivors break from the chain more easily.

Prison Chain - Considerably increases chain durability.

These addons change the durability of the chain, the Rickety Chain gives you more bloodpoints for spearing a survivor, but not for anything else. It also decreases the overall durability of your chain, meaning survivors can break the chain more easily, which is surprisingly beneficial in some cases. The Prison Chain, however, greatly increases the chain durability, making it way more reliable while also giving you more time to close the gap between you and your prey.


Rusted Spike, Poison Oak Leaves, Honey Locust Thorn and Barbed Wire

Rusted Spike - Hitting a speared Survivor inflicts the Mangled Status Effect for 60 seconds

Honey Locust Thorn - Survivors breaking from the chain are inflicted by the Mangled Status Effect for 60 seconds

Poison Oak Leaves - Slightly incrases Survivors' Mending time.

Barbed Wire - Moderately increases Survivors' Mending time.

These addons can slightly help you with managing time, as they make survivors waste more time while healing, they aren't great as they don't affect your main power, but they're alright.


Marshal's Badge, Jaw Smasher, Wanted Poster, Gold Creek Whiskey

Jaw Smasher, Wanted Poster - Slightly/Moderately incrases The Deathslinger's Movement speed while aiming down sights.

Marshal's Badge, Gold Creek Whiskey - Slightly/Moderately decreases The Deathslinger's Terror Radius while aiming down sights, Slightly/Moderately decreases The Deathslinger's Movement speed while aiming down sights.

These addons can are... Almost useless, I'd say. Marshal's Badge and Gold Creek Whiskey can be used to sneak up on survivors easier if you're running Monitor and Abuse, but I can't think of any other scenarios where they're actually useful. I discourage running these as their effect is almost unnoticable, and if you're able to quickscope, They're literally useless.

Now, we all have one question, are his Ultra-Rares good?

Well, yes... But actually no.


Survivors speared from at least 15 metres away are inflicted with the Exposed Status Effect for as long as they remain speared.

Given that this addon requires you to shoot a survivor from a long range in order to gain the exposed status effect, It's really difficult to use. In a lot of cases, you're going to shoot at the survivor but hit them from a distance of about 13-14m, which won't trigger the effect, and survivors have a lot of time to stress the chain to break if they're 15m away from you.


For as long as a Survivor is speared, the auras of all other Survivors within The Deathslinger's Terror Radius are revealed for up to 6 seconds.

This addon can help you detect survivors around you, but it only works if survivors are within your terror radius, it would take about 5 seconds to spear a survivor, reel them in towards you and hit them, by that time, the effect would end. Making it almost useless.


Out of all the addons, I'd reccomend running a faster reload speed addon and a prison chain or a faster reeling speed addon, as they can make the chain more powerful. But if you're new, try using a missed shot cooldown reducer with a faster reload speed addon. The Deathslinger can perform really well without any addons aswell.

These are just my opinions, suggest perks that I've looked over in the comments


This has to be one of the best perks for The Deathslinger, It lets you spear the survivor right after stabbing them with your basic attack.

I would recommend picking this perk up, as it can be a game-changer in some scenarios, It's overall a great perk, but synergizes really well with how Deathslinger works.

By letting the chain break after hitting the obsession, you can injure them without losing tokens. However, a good survivor might know that you're trying to let the chain break not to consume tokens, so they won't struggle against the chain to consume your time, keep this in mind!


This perk is good, espically when paired with an addon to reduce your Terror Radius while aiming, It will let you sneak up on survivors that are doing generators without them hearing a heartbreat if you manage to get close enough.

It's a good perk on Deathslinger, It's not the best, but it can perform really well if used properly.


You know the drill, Corrupt Intervention, Ruin, Pop Goes The Weasel... etc...

The Deathslinger, as mentioned before, struggles with map pressure and generator speeds. These perks can greatly help you slow the game down so you can get those sweet, sweet 4 kills.


Surprisingly enough, shooting doesn't count as an "offensive action", meaning you won't lose a token by shooting someone. Chases instantly end once you spear the survivor, which means that spearing the obsession and letting the chain break will earn you a free token. This combined with save the best for last will make catching up to survivors easier. Of couse, you're going to lose tokens by hitting someone right after spearing them.


A Nurse's calling can work well on Deathslinger, given you can attack people from a range, if paired with monitor and abuse you can get close enough to the survivor in order to hit them without alerting them.



The Deathslinger's playstyle can work really well with perks such as NOED, Haunted ground, Devour hope etc...

The Deathslinger is really good at keeping people injured, so why not turn those injuries into downs, eh?

I'll continue adding builds as time goes on, suggest them in the comments.


- Save The Best For Last
- Barbecue And Chili
- Corrupt Intervention
- Pop Goes The Weasel

This Perk Build helps you maintain map pressure and slow down generator progress, Corrupt Intervention will let you find a survivor early in the game, hooking them will trigger Barbecue and Chili which will reveal which generator survivors are working on, simply walk over there and use pop to regress the generator. Barbecue is also nice because it lets you get extra bloodpoints which never hurts.


- Barbecue And Chili
- Devour Hope
- Blood Warden
- Save The Best For Last

This Perk Build functions quite well with The Deathslinger's playstyle and chasing abilities. It's quite easy to pick a chase from a distance using your speargun, the main strategy here is: Hook someone, and start chasing others while defending your Devour Hope totem. It's easy to pick survivors off totems using your speargun aswell, Blood Warden can be replaced with any other endgame perk, just as a safeguard.


- Surge
- Brutal Strenght
- Hex: Ruin
- Surveillance

This Perk Build focuses on generator regression and dealing with pallets. Ruin is going to help you a lot early game, if it fails, Surge can be a decent alternative. Surveillance will let you know which generator survivors are on after it begins to regress, same goes with surge. Brutal Strenght can help you knock down pallets faster and kick generators faster, which never hurts to have, given that survivors will preflip pallets a lot.

The Deathslinger is more-or-less a ranged Legion, but way better, and harder to use. His power can let you get a free hit on a survivor from across a pallet or through a window, you can still use your power to down them through a window or from a distance as opposed to Legion. The Deathslinger is really difficult to master, his skill cap is really high. If you can learn how the spear behaves, how fast it travels, and read your opponent, you're going to be a really damn good killer.

The Deathslinger is also, in my opinion, the most fun killer to use in all of Dead By Daylight, his design is fantastic and everything about him feels responsive and fun to use. If you're thinking about picking up a killer and have past experience with first person shooters, you're going to perform really well with this guy. I highly reccomend anyone to try him out, as he's great fun.