The Houndmaster may bring her own unique perks to Dead By Daylight, but she can become very powerful given the right build. No matter what sort of game you have, here are three build recommendations to get the most out of the Houndmaster and her power.
Best Houndmaster builds
The Houndmaster’s main power comes from her relationship with her dog. With one quick whistle, the hound can be sent out to scout for Survivors, revealing their position, or chase and grab them. It’s a tricky power to master, but once you know how to use the dog effectively, the real fun comes from building decent perks around it.
Scourge Hook build
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Scourge Hook: Gift Of Pain | When a Survivor is hooked on a Scourge Hook they suffer from Mangled and Haemorrhage effects 90 seconds. Haemorrhage causes larger pools of blood and causes the Survivor to lose healing progress quickly if not fully healed. Mangled increases healing time for Survivors. |
| Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass | When a Survivor is rescued from any non-Scourge Hook it becomes a Scourge Hook. When a Survivor is hooked on a Scourge Hook, the aura of the generator with the most progress is highlighted. |
| Scourge Hook: Floods Of Rage | When a Survivor is unhooked from a Scourge Hook, the auras of all other Survivors are revealed for 5/6/7 seconds. |
| Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance | When a Survivor is hooked on a Scourge Hook, the generator with the most progress will explode, causing the Survivors working on it to scream and the generator to lose 10/15/20% of its progress. |
This build makes the most of the Houndmaster’s Scourge Hook perk, Jagged Compass. Jagged Compass doesn’t add any extra Scourge Hooks to the map, but it does mean you have more control over where these hooks can be. If the randomly placed hooks are all on one side of the map, you can change their position by hooking a Survivor on a regular hook, changing it to a Scourge Hook.
Add Gift Of Pain to debuff the Survivors’ healing time and Pain Resonance to debuff their generator progression, and this gives you more time to track them down. Floods Of Rage gives you that little bit of extra info for finding every last one of the Survivors by revealing their auras.
Of course, this build depends on actually catching and hooking Survivors, but with the right add-ons, you could increase your chance. Ship Figurehead, a rare add-on, would give you the upper hand by reducing your terror radius when the dog is sent away on search or chase.
Aura reading build
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Nurse’s Calling | Reveals auras of any healing Survivors within 20/24/28 meters. |
| Barbecue & Chilli | Reveals auras of Survivors 60/50/40 meters away for 5 seconds after hooking a Survivor. |
| Bitter Murmur | Reveals auras of Survivors within 16 meters of a generator when it is just completed. |
| No Quarter | When a Survivor is self-healing (with a med kit or Self-Care) and reaches 75% progression, they are faced with continuous skill checks. If a skill check is missed, or the healing is interrupted, they are left broken for 30 seconds. |
This perk combination gives you a lot of different ways to get information about the whereabouts of the Survivors, whether they are healing, repairing generators, or just wandering around as their teammate is being hooked. This means less wasted time tracking them down and more time chasing with the dog leading the way.
Barbecue & Chilli shows the auras from quite a distance so you can make a beeline to their location. In Search mode, your dog’s Houndsense will be useful in pinpointing a Survivor’s exact location thanks to Killer Instinct effect. If they’re healing nearby, their auras will also be revealed, and they risk being broken if they miss the continuous skill checks from No Quarter.
If you include the Torn Novel ultra rare add-on, you can reveal auras while using Chase Redirect, and when regaining control of the Houndmaster. There will be nowhere to hide with this build!
Skill Check torture build
| Perk | Description |
|---|---|
| Coulrophobia | Reduces healing speed by 30/40/50%. Increases rotation speed of healing skill checks by 50%. |
| Hex: Huntress Lullaby | Instantly reduces repair progression by 2/4/6% when a skill check is missed in addition to regular progression reduction. A token is gained every time a Survivor is hooked. Each token gained increases the time between the skill check sound cue and the skill check appearence until, at max, the cue is silent. |
| Merciless Storm | When a generator is at 75% completion, a continuous skill check appears. If missed, the generator is blocked temporarily. |
| No Quarter | When a Survivor is self-healing (with a med kit or Self-Care) and reaches 75% progression, they are faced with continuous skill checks. If a skill check is missed, or the healing is interrupted, they are left broken for 30 seconds. |
This is a nasty build meant to disrupt any skill checks and slow progression for Survivors. Whether they’re trying to heal or repairing generators, your perks will frustrate and hinder them. The combination of Coulrophobia and No Quarter is particularly harsh, especially for solo queue players who may be relying on Self Care or a med kit to stay fully healed. When Coulrophobia speeds up the rotation of the continuous skill check it can spell disaster for Survivors—even those with the fastest reflexes.
Hex: Huntress Lullaby can be oppressive for the Survivors if they don’t find the hex totem. Getting those five tokens is imperative to make their skill check an absolute nightmare. That, along with Merciless Storm, means completing generators will take longer and be more perilous than ever. You’re almost guaranteed to have generators blowing up around the map, revealing the locations of Survivors.
With this build, you might want to also use the Spiked Collar rare add-on. This add-on gives Survivors mangled and haemorrhaging effects for 45 seconds after your dog grabs them. These effects increase healing time plus regress any healing when interrupted, or if they miss a skill check because of Coulrophobia.
