Dead By Daylight pits a team of survivors against a brutal Killer, but not all of the bad guys are bad guys. While some embrace their new role with gusto, others do so reluctantly, or after a lifetime of misery. Here are the top ten Dead by Daylight Killers with the most tragic backstories.
Honorable Mention: The Trapper (Evan MacMillan)
Evan MacMillan was a sensitive young man. Unfortunately, his father was the opposite. Archie MacMillan believed that strong men should lord over the weak. He ruled his mining empire with an iron hand, abused his son, and may have murdered his brother and wife.
Over time, Evan grew to hate and love his father with equal measure. In turn, Archie admired the rare moments where Evan displayed a violent instinct, and actively worked to foster it. Eventually, Evan chose his father. Archie gradually began to lose his mind, with Evan acting as his enforcer. Eventually, this loyalty led to Evan sealing over a hundred miners underground with explosives on his father’s command. Evan disappeared, but investigators eventually found his father abandoned and starved to death in the basement of his own warehouse.
In short, a lifetime of abuse twisted Evan into a monster. While he eventually went too far, he regained enough of himself to take his father out of the equation. Unfortunately, he found himself a new master in The Entity, and it isn’t above brutal means to keep him in line. The Entity tortured Evan into compliance, piercing his body with hooks.
10. The Spirit (Rin Yamaoka)
Rin Yamaoka was the youngest member of an ancient Samurai house with a dark past. In fact, her grandfather, Kazran, is a Killer in his own right.
Rin couldn’t have been more different, being a meek and talented student, and a victim of bullying. Unfortunately, The Entity worked to corrupt her father. The Entity’s machinations caused Rin’s father to murder his family, but in her final moments, Rin snapped. She was filled with rage that reminded The Entity of her ancestor, and it decided she’d be a more fitting Killer. On the brink of death, it took her into the fog.
The Spirit stands out as the only Killer in the realms who never killed anyone in life, intentionally or otherwise. That doesn’t make her any less deadly – in fact, her ability to phase around the map makes her one of the deadliest foes of them all.
9. The Hag (Lisa Sherwood)
Lisa Sherwood grew up in an isolated village with a history of witchcraft – specifically using symbols for good luck. In life, she was a shy and nervous young woman who respected magic. One fateful night, Lisa lost her bearings in the woods during a storm, hit her head, and lost consciousness. A group of cannibals found her and took her to their larder. The cannibals who captured her would cut away her flesh, and the flesh of her fellow captives, keeping their meals fresh.
After weeks of torture, Lisa managed to escape her shackles but found herself too weak to escape. In her dying breath, she cast a spell, calling upon a dark power for revenge.
Unfortunately, the dark power she called upon was the Entity itself. It gave her the strength to take revenge, then took her into its realm, where she hunts for eternity. Ironically, she devours her victims and uses her spells to teleport around the map.
8. The Wraith (Phillip Ojomo)
Phillip Ojomo is no stranger to violence. As a child, warlords attacked his village in Nigeria. Phillip was the sole survivor with nothing but his father’s bell as a keepsake. Phillip wandered through the country, eventually finding relative safety with Funanya, a woman traveling with three children. Unfortunately, Phillip fell asleep while on guard duty one night. He awoke to find his new friends dead – all except the tortured Funanya. Phillip had no choice but to euthanize her, leaving him alone.
Phillip took his revenge by stealing a weapon and killing some enemy soldiers. Eventually, he made his way to America, hoping to leave the violence behind. Unfortunately, violence found him again. Phillip found work at Autohaven Wreckers, where he handled the crusher. Unfortunately, he learned that his boss offered a service to select clients. His employer would seal their enemies in cars and crush them, with Phillip their unwitting executioner. Horrified, Phillip threw his boss into the crusher, removing his skull and spine.
In the trials, Phillip uses his father’s bell as a potent tool, allowing him to become invisible at will. Luckily for him, he has found love with his fellow killer, The Nurse.
7. The Huntress (Anna)
Known only as Anna, The Huntress’s mother raised her in an isolated region of Russia. Anna’s mother taught her to survive, but her death on a hunt left Anna alone. Luckily, Anna knew enough even at her young age to survive in the wild, eventually hunting more and more ambitious game. Driven mad by isolation, she eventually started killing any humans that wandered into her territory, except for little girls.
If she found any girls, she’d take them back to her home to keep them safe. Unfortunately, Anna failed to care for her wards, and one by one they withered away. Anna was heartbroken each time and kept searching for a child of her own. Eventually, she started raiding nearby villages, slaughtering entire families and whisking away their daughters. In the trials, she wields an axe and can attack from afar with her throwing hatchets.
6. The Artist (Carmina Mora)
Carmina Mora was a talented young woman from Chile. She grew up with an abusive father and absent mother and lived with the guilt of her brother Matias’ death by drowning. She pulled Matias from the river where he died, surrounded by a murder of crows.
Carmina attempted suicide, but the sudden appearance of yet more crows made her pause. The birds inspired her to give life another chance and inspired her art. Eventually, her work attracted attention from The Vack Label – another name for The Black Vale, a cult that worships the entity.
After discovering the group’s corruption, Carmina began raising awareness through her art, putting a target on her back. They dragged Carmina and her friends out to the desert, and cut off her hands and tongue, silencing her forever. A murder of crows descended, killing her attackers – as well as Carmina’s subdued friends, before the fog descended.
While Carmina’s story is tragic enough already, the appearance of crows pushes it to the next level. There are no crows in South America, which means that the Entity stalked her throughout her life. Perhaps it even killed her brother to better mold her into a killer. In the trials, The Artist attacks with an inky blade which replaces her missing right hand, and controls spectral crows to attack or track survivors.
5. The Plague (Adiris)
The oldest killer of them all, Adiris was left at a temple in ancient Babylon when she was five. Overcome with sorrow, she grasped onto the idea that the Gods had a plan for her. Adiris threw herself into her duties, tending to the temple and assisting the priests in their ceremonial rites. Eventually, as a plague spread through the city, she found herself as the only person capable of performing the temple’s cleansing rites. Eventually, Adiris mutilated herself in an attempt to heal one of the sick, ascending to the role of High Priestess.
Unfortunately, as her influence grew, Adiris contracted the same disease she fought against. She traveled north of the city with her followers, inadvertently infecting them with the plague. Desperate and hopeless, she prayed for an answer – and found one in the Entity. As a servant of the Entity, Adiris now wields her disease as a weapon, intentionally afflicting Survivors before sacrificing them to her new god.
4. The Legion (Frank, Julie, Joey, and Susie)
Frank Morrisson was a troubled youth who spent his time bouncing around the foster system of Canada due to his violent nature. His latest temporary home was in Ormond, a small town in Alberta. Sadly, his new accommodations proved to be as bad as those that came before. His foster father was a drunk, who spent the money meant for Frank’s care on alcohol, with Frank receiving only a mattress.
Frank found friends when he met Julie, a young woman who dreamed of a life outside of Ormond, and her friends Susie and Joey. Together, they became known as the Legion, hanging out at a nearby ski lodge – a ski lodge Susie often hid in to hide from her physically abusive father. Joey, meanwhile, lived with his single mother.
The four engaged in petty crime, but things escalated until eventually, they decided to vandalize a store. When the cleaner attempted to apprehend Julie, Frank stabbed him. This wasn’t enough, as Frank forced the others to each stab him in turn, each taking their part of the responsibility – and the possible blame. Joey and Susie were particularly reluctant, with Frank even literally forcing Julie’s hand when it was her turn.
In the trials, The Legion utilizes their speed and agility to ruthlessly chase down Survivors for a quick injury. The Entity has destroyed their individuality, with each one emerging based on the cosmetics chosen.
3. The Hillbilly (Max “Boy” Thompson Jr.)
The Hillbilly’s parents hated their new child due to his deformity. They refused to give him a name, referring to him only as “Boy”, but he dreamed of taking his father’s name.
In his childhood, Max survived numerous attempts at outright murder at the hands of his family. They locked him up, far away from prying eyes, only brought out to work the fields or kill livestock for the entertainment of his father and the corrupt police force. His parents were particularly proud of their pigs, to the point that Max was jealous of the treatment they received.
Eventually, Max killed his parents, the corrupt police, and the livestock he so envied, retreating to a hidden room on the farm. People bought the surrounding land – but the sound of chainsaws in the night scared everyone away from the house itself.
In the trials, the Hillbilly wields two weapons – a cattle hammer and a chainsaw, with which he can race across the map to instantly down Survivors.
2. The Nurse (Sally Smithson)
Sally Smithson was a young woman who lived with her husband, Andrew. Unfortunately, Andrew died in a workplace accident, leaving Sally alone. With no choice, she took a job at the Crotus Penn Mental Asylum.
Unfortunately, her work took its toll on her. Despite telling herself that the patients she cared for deserved empathy and dignity, Sally eventually began to lose her mind. She started to see the patients as diseased, and a scourge on society – and her coworkers were little better. This led to the once kind woman murdering fifty patients and four of her coworkers, being found catatonic among the carnage. She was loaded into an ambulance, but en route the ambulance crashed. All the staff inside were dead, but Sally was nowhere to be found.
To an extent, Sally considered her actions to be merciful – in fact, until later lore delved into her character, there was no hint of anything but kindness and altruism in her backstory. Even during the trials, it’s easy to consider that she thinks she’s acting kindly, since her unique mori has her tenderly stroking her victim’s face after killing them. In the trials, The Nurse utilizes a short-range teleport to close the distance on her victims.
1. The Twins (Charlotte and Victor Deshayes)
Charlotte and Victor Deshayes are conjoined twins, who were unfortunately born during the superstitious era of 17th-century France. As such, they lived their lives on the run with their mother, Madeleine, until they were eventually captured.
Unfortunately, when they were five, the three were captured, with Madeleine burned at the stake for witchcraft, as the twins were forced to watch. Charlotte and Victor were captured and eventually sold to The Black Vale.
The cult exposed them to inhumane experiments, but the twins eventually managed to start a fire and escape, but at a cost. Victor died during the escape, leaving Charlotte alone.
As she grew into a teen, Charlotte’s only concern was survival at any cost. She stole food, evaded the Black Vale, and killed where necessary, with only her brother’s corpse for company – until one night, when she finally accepted death, when the Entity brought her into the fog, reviving her brother in the process.
In the trials, Charlotte can release Victor from her chest, letting him attack and latch onto Survivors while she closes in for the kill.
Want more out of Dead by Daylight? Here’s our handy guide to all the level one challenges in Tome 19: Splendor.
