Dr. Acula's Laboratory

Dead by Daylight Build Review: The Head On Aftercare Build

Build by kingshaming

Survival rate: 35.9%
Average hooks: 8.13
Average kills: 2.56
Full Build Data

Because I don't want to abandon this website, I am trying out a new angle for blog posting in the form of Dead by Daylight build reviews. I love Dead by Daylight, and I love trying out different builds, so my friend kingshaming gave me this idea for a new direction. As this is the first build review, I want to make a few things clear before I begin.

  • Hatch/exit gate after hatch closes counts as a kill (basically, as long as the killer can slug for the 4k, it's a 4k)
  • Survival rate is across ALL survivors in ALL games
  • For this build review, I did 16 games. Future build reviews will feature 16 games.

Now that we have the logistics out of the way, I will now talk about the build. As an avid Head On user, I had never really thought of using Aftercare to go alongside it, but it came in handy more times than I expected. Granted, some of these games included some solo queue games, and among all of those games, only one person understood I was setting up Head On. Simultaneously, it was unexpectedly difficult for people, including the people I played with, to see which locker I went into. One could chalk this up as a skill issue, and they're probably right, but it, among other things, also raises a few problems I had with the build.

First, I wish Aftercare were just a tiny bit more reliable. As I am writing this, Aftercare resets after going on the hook, which I really don't think is necessary, given you have to work for the perk to activate to begin with. It reminds me of Mettle of Man, which you also have to work all game for at the risk of getting tunneled. I also thought, many times, that Vigil could easily have been replaced by a different perk, especially a healing perk like Botany Knowledge or We'll Make It. While I do see what kingshaming was going for, the faster exhaustion was rarely useful, when faster healing would have made Aftercare shine a bit more. That leads me to the classic Head On + Quick & Quiet combo. Nothing really to say here, other than it's funny when it works.

In terms of how easy or hard this build is to use, I would say it's a bit of both. On one hand, you have three perks that have great synergy with each other, and, with the right communication or seeing the Aftercare aura at the right time, you can set up Head On stuns to slow down the Killer. On the other hand, you have a perk that requires setup to work—which gets deleted after you get hooked—along with a perk that doesn't really go well with the rest of the build. Still, a good build nonetheless, and one I am happy to have tried out.

Do you have a Dead by Daylight build for me to try out? Have any comments or questions? Let me know by emailing me.

Hasta luego!

Dr. Acula ♄