Dead by Daylight – Best Lara Croft (Tomb Raider) build in DBD

Become the ultimate survivor.

An image of Lara Croft standing strong in Dead by Daylight.
Image via Behaviour Interactive.

Lara Croft is a hardened survivor who explores dangerous tombs to find valuable artifacts. Now, she has ventured into Dead by Daylight, forced to survive and face off against dangerous Killers.

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If you have just purchased Lara Croft and are curious about how to build her in Dead by Daylight, here is everything you need to know.

Best early game Lara Croft build in DBD

An image of Lara Croft opening an exit gate in Dead by Daylight,
Never reveal your position. Image via Behaviour Interactive.

When you first start playing as Lara Croft, you’ll only have access to a small number of perks. Luckily, you can always use free perks that come with the base game:

PerkDescription
HardenedFrom Lara Croft. After unlocking a chest, and blessing or cleansing a totem, Hardened activates. Suppresses the urge to scream from any cause and reveals the Killer’s aura for five seconds instead.
Small GameReceive an auditory warning when looking in a 45-degree direction of a totem. For each totem cleansed, receive a token that reduces the cone of detection by five degrees.
Inner StrengthFrom Nancy Wheeler. Whenever you cleanse a totem, Inner Strength activates. Hide inside a locker for eight seconds to fully heal while injured. Once you are healed, Inner Strength deactivates.
Resilence
Whenever you are injured, gain a nine percent increase to healing, unhooking, repairing, sabotaging, vaulting, cleansing, blessing, opening, and unlocking.

This Lara Croft build revolves around the Hardened perk, which stops you from screaming and instead shows you the Killer’s aura for five seconds. Since Hardened only activates if you have opened a chest, cleansed, or blessed a Totem, perks like Small Game will synergize with the entire build.

Small Game plays a sound notification whenever you are facing the direction of a nearby Totem, helping you activate your other perks. You can then use both Inner Strength and Resilience, which allow you to heal in a locker if you have cleansed a Totem and receive a nine percent speed boost to all actions while injured.

To use this build, cleanse Totems with Small Game to activate both Inner Strength and Hardened, which will help you survive against Killers like Doctor or Clown.

Best mid-game Lara Croft build in DBD

An image of Lara Croft running from the Trapper in Dead by Daylight.
Stay on the lookout for chests. Image via Behaviour Interactive.

As you level up Lara via the Bloodweb, you’ll unlock more perks from other Survivors. These will become valuable tools for completing objectives:

PerkDescription
SpecialistFrom Lara Croft. After you unlock or rummage through a chest, receive one token, up to a maximum of six. Whenever you complete a great skill check on a generator, consume all tokens to decrease the maximum charges needed to complete the generator. A generator can only be reduced by a maximum of 24 charges.
Plunderer’s InstinctImproves your luck when finding items in chests, increasing the chance of finding rare items considerably. You also see the auras of all chests and items within 32 meters.
AppraisalFrom Élodie Rakoto. This perk starts the Trial with three tokens. Whenever a chest has already been open and looted, consume one token to rummage through the chest to find another item.
Déjà VuShows you the auras of the three generators closest together on the map. Your repair speed is six percent faster on these generators.

Lara Croft is no stranger to looting, so it’s no surprise her perk Specialist focuses on interacting with chests throughout the Trial. With this perk equipped, you will receive one stack (up to a maximum of six) whenever you rummage or unlock a chest.

Whenever you complete a great skill check on a generator, the stacks will be consumed by reducing the total amount of charges needed to complete the generator. This perk works great with Plunderer’s Instinct and Élodie’s perk Appraisal, as they allow you to easily find chests and generate extra stacks via rummaging.

Finally, the perk Déjà Vu will help you see the aura of generators throughout the map, making it easy to deposit your stacks after you have opened chests.

Best late-game Lara Croft build in DBD

Lara Croft perks in Dead by Daylight
Escape the Killer with a fast-vault. Image via Behaviour Interactive

Now that your Lara is fully leveled, you can begin to center your build around looping the Killer.

PerkDescription
FinesseFrom Lara Croft. Whenever you are healthy, increase your fast-vault speed by 20 percent. This perk goes on cooldown for 30 seconds after performing a fast vault.
LitheFrom Feng Min. After performing a fast-vault receive a 50 percent Haste speed boost for three seconds. This causes you to become exhausted for 40 seconds.
Windows of OpportunityFrom Kate Denson. Reveals the auras of all pallets, windows, and breakable walls within 32 meters.
HopeWhenever all generators are completed, gain a permanent seven percent speed buff for the remainder of the trial.

Lara’s best perk is Finesse because it allows you to vault 20 percent faster every 30 seconds, so long as you are healthy. This extra speed can help you dodge the Killer’s attacks in tense situations, saving you a health state.

By combining Finesse with Feng Min’s exhaustion perk Lithe, vaulting a window quickly will give you a small speed boost that helps you escape the Killer or travel to a new loop. Kate Denson’s Windows of Opportunity perk highlights the auras of all windows within 32 meters, making it easy to plan your escape once the Killer shows up.

The perk Hope will give you an added speed boost once all the generators are repaired, so you can continue to loop the Killer into the endgame.

How to play Lara Croft effectively in DBD

An image of Lara Croft shining a flashlight in DBD
Light the way. Image via Behaviour Interactive.

Lara Croft is a Survivor with two different, but very effective, playstyles. You can become a stealthy looter who uses chests to assist the team, or an explorer capable of escaping the Killer with ease.

If you equip the perk Finesse, then prepare to quickly launch yourself through windows or over pallets. This will help you escape lethal attacks from the Killer, thus extending the chase and giving your teammates more time to complete objectives.

Alternatively, Lara’s perks Hardened and Specialist buff her whenever she interacts with chests or totems throughout the trial. These two buffs make her a stealthy savior, or a master at completing generators swiftly.

Author
Image of John Wildermuth
John Wildermuth
John is a graduate from the University of California, Los Angeles and wields a degree in English. He is constantly staying up to date on the latest and greatest games, and has been writing about gaming for over a year now. When he is not playing games, he can be found reading sci-fi and fantasy books or working on ceramics.