Dead by Daylight | Chase & Looping

What Is a Chase?Understanding Looping Pallets and Windows: Your Best Tools Mind Games and Killer Prediction Chase & Looping Tips for Beginners Next: Advanced Tips

Learn how to survive longer against the Killer by mastering chase mechanics, looping strong tiles, and making smart decisions under pressure.

What Is a Chase?

A chase begins the moment the Killer spots you and enters their terror radius pursuit, indicated by the red light on your screen and the heartbeat intensifying. Your goal as a Survivor is not to outrun the Killer in a straight line (they are faster than you), but to waste their time and force them to abandon the chase. Every second you keep the Killer busy is a second your teammates spend on generators.

Tip

Time Is Your Resource

A skilled Survivor who survives a 60-second chase without being hit is contributing just as much to the team as someone completing a generator. Don't feel pressured to escape, just delay.

Understanding Looping

Looping is the core skill of Survivor gameplay, it means running in circles around environmental structures (called 'tiles') to keep obstacles between you and the Killer. Common loop structures include pallets, windows, and open spaces with predictable geometry like the infamous Shack or jungle gym tiles. The Killer must physically reach you to land a hit, so putting walls, pallets, and windows between you extends the chase significantly.

Pallets and Windows: Your Best Tools

Pallets can be dropped to stun the Killer and create a temporary barrier, but each pallet can only be used once before it breaks, so dropping them too early wastes a valuable resource. Windows allow you to vault through them repeatedly (until the Killer breaks them or uses a perk like Bamboozle), and a well-timed vault can create crucial distance. As a beginner, prioritize reaching a pallet or window the moment you enter a chase rather than running in open space.

Watch out

Don't Drop Pallets Too Early

Dropping a pallet the moment you see the Killer wastes it, wait until they are close enough that the stun or barrier actually slows them down. Burned pallets are gone for the entire match.

Mind Games and Killer Prediction

Experienced Killers will try to 'mindgame' you at loops by cutting angles, faking direction, or applying pressure to force an early pallet drop. As a beginner, the safest approach is to always keep the Killer in your field of vision and react to their actual movement rather than panicking. With time, you will learn to recognize when a Killer is cutting the loop short and when to switch direction, vault early, or abandon a tile entirely.

Warning

Never Run in a Straight Line

Most Killers move at 115% of your base speed, meaning a straight sprint will result in a hit within seconds. Always angle toward the nearest loop structure the moment a chase begins.

Chase & Looping Tips for Beginners

Learn 2-3 strong tile types (Shack, jungle gym, long wall with pallet) and make it a habit to always know where the nearest one is when doing a generator.

Keep the Killer in your camera view as much as possible, knowing exactly where they are lets you react to mindgames instead of guessing.

Use the 'Dead Hard' or 'Lithe' perks once you unlock them, these give you extra distance or invincibility frames during a chase to extend your loops further.

If you are injured and in a chase, consider splitting the map, run toward an area with multiple pallets so you have multiple chances to survive even if one gets burned.

Practice counting how long your chases last. Even lasting 30 seconds against the Killer as a beginner is progress, aim to push that time higher each game.

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