So, you just bought The Shape (Michael Myers) and are wondering how to play him and what kind of build you should use. I’m here to help. Here are the best beginner, mid, and late-game builds for The Shape in Dead by Daylight.
Best early game The Shape build in DBD
Just like all Killers in DBD, you won’t have a lot of options when you start, so you have to take what you can get. Here are the perks I recommend if you’re just starting out:
Perk | Description |
Save the best for last | One of the Survivors becomes your Obsession, and each time you attack someone who ISN’T your Obsession, you attack faster |
Sloppy Butcher | Really useful if you find Survivors healing all the time. This perk makes it harder for them to heal |
Dying Light | Works really well with Save the best for last. While your Obsession has a buff with healing, repairing, and sabotaging, all other Survivors get a penalty for the same skills. |
Bitter Murmur | Each time Survivors complete a Generator, their Auras get revealed to you for a few seconds |
Since you don’t have many optionsat the start, you should utilize The Shape’s Obsession perks and a few common ones, too. I’d try to figure out which Survivor is your Obsession as early as possible and purposely ignore them while you focus on killing other Survivors. This gives you plenty of buffs, which can make your game easier.
Best mid-game The Shape build in DBD
After you’ve leveled up The Shape a bit, you should have access to a few more perks, which will allow you some, but not all, customization. For this build, I’m going to assume you haven’t bought any extra Killers other than The Shape.
Perk | Description |
Jolt | An ex-Demogorgon perk became available to all Killers. When you down a Survivor, all generators in the vicinity explode and regress a little. This is super useful. |
Nurse’s Calling | From the Nurse. This perk allows you to see the aura of two healing Survivors. I can’t tell you how many hidden Survivors I’ve found because of this perk. |
Insidious | If you get this perk to rank three, you can Stalk like a champion. Your presence becomes undetectable after standing still for two seconds, letting you Stalk in peace. |
Tinkerer | From the Hillbilly. Whenever a generator is 70 percent complete, you get a noise notification and the Undetectable status effect. Another great perk for Stalking in peace. |
For the mid-game build, I picked perks that prioritize stealth, since Michal Myers needs to stay hidden to gain the most from his Stalk ability. With the perks above, you can muffle your presence, sabotage generators, and figure out where Survivors are healing themselves.
Best late game The Shape build in DBD
For my preferred build, you’ll need the following Killers: the Clown, the Cannibal, the Hag, and Sadako. This build focuses on winning chases with Survivors and quickly finding more after you finish hooking one. Hex: Devour Hope is insurance if the Survivors manage to unhook themselves too often.
Perk | Description |
Bamboozle | From the Clown. During late game, one of the biggest obstacles when chasing Survivors are vaultable windows. Bamboozle makes the Entity block a window when you vault through it and makes you vault faster. |
Barbecue and Chilli | Requires Leatherface / Cannibal. In my experience, whenever you hook a Survivor, there is at least one hiding nearby, waiting to save him. This perk reveals the location of nearby Survivors after you hook someone. |
Hex: Devour Hope | From the Hag. Really fun if you hook different Survivors. Every time a hooked Survivor is saved, you get a token. With enough tokens, you can down Survivors in one hit and even get a free Mori ability. |
Call of Brine | From Sadako: When you kick a Generator, it starts regressing for 60 seconds. If a Survivor makes a good skill check on that same generator during that time, you get a notification. |
How to play The Shape effectively in DBD
To play the Shape effectively in DBD, you need to learn how to observe Survivors. The Shape starts off as one of the slowest Killers, but the more you watch Survivors run around or do whatever, the more powerful he gets. The Shape’s main ability is called The Evil Within, and it has three levels you can reach by Stalking Survivors.
The best way to Stalk Survivors is to quietly sneak up to them (maybe while they are fixing a Generator) and use the Stalk ability to watch them. The more you do this, the more your Evil Within level builds up.
Michael Myers starts at Evil Within level one, which is his biggest weakness. During Evil Within one, he is one of the slowest Killers in the game. Because of this, you need to get to Evil Within level two as fast as possible, where he gets standard movement speed.
If you continue to Stalk Survivors during Evil Within level two, you can reach level three, where you get the ability to down Survivors in just one hit. While this state is temporary, if you’re good, you can down multiple Survivors.
To sum up, sneak up on Survivors, Stalk them, build up your Evil Within meter, then go to town with the killing.