Best Killer Build for The Clown in Dead By Daylight 7.1.1

With Dead By Daylight being dominated by hypermobile killers like Wesker, The Blight, and The Nurse, it is not uncommon for others to slip under the radar. The Clown is easily one of the most overlooked killers in the most recent version of the game due to his lack of movement abilities. However, with some strategy and knowledge, he can quickly become one of the best anti-chasers in the title.

All it takes is the optimal use of his bottles and the right perks to really take off on the ranked ladder. Though The Clown has been deemed one of the worst killers in Dead By Daylight in the past, the current survivor meta has played that entire side of the game right into his gloved hands.

So, why is The Clown such a potent killer, and what is there to know about playing him?

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Is The Clown still a bad killer in Dead By Daylight?

Though popular YouTuber and prominent Dead By Daylight figure Otzdarva has placed The Clown towards the lower ranks of his tier lists, this by no means nullifies the potency of the killer's kit. This is all thanks to The Clown's powers: The Afterpiece Tonic and The Afterpiece Antidote.

The Clown's tonic releases a purple cloud of smoke that slows down every survivor that passes through it. The antidote does the exact opposite by speeding up survivors that pass through it in addition to himself.

The key to playing The Clown and utilizing his powers effectively comes down to skill. Either you hit the tonic bottle and gas on a survivor, or you don't.

This is typically why many players are quick to write off The Clown, as he takes some practice to get the hang of, though not as much as ranged killers like Huntress, Deathslinger, and Artist, who can down survivors with their ranged power.

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Best perks to use on The Clown in Dead By Daylight

Official key art for The Clown in Dead By Daylight (Image via Behaviour Interactive)

One of the strengths of The Clown is that once players know how to use his power effectively in and out of chase, they do not need chase-oriented perks like Enduring, Spirit Fury, or Bamboozle.

Since effective use of the Afterpiece Tonic can end chases very quickly, the player can take objective slowdown perks to help keep their tempo against good squads or large maps.

Such is the case with many M1 Killers like The Clown, Wraith, and Pig; keeping one's tempo is incredibly important. As such, taking gen-regression perks is the key to preventing the game from ending too quickly.

Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance and Jolt are a great one-two combo for accomplishing this. Since The Clown needs to hit a survivor with his weapon to down them, Jolt activates whenever he downs a survivor.

Lethal Pursuer and Hex: Blood Favor can help The Clown quickly pinpoint and secure a down on a target as soon as the game starts. Lethal Pursuer reveals the location of all survivors at the beginning of a match, while Hex: Blood Favor blocks pallets within a certain range when hitting a survivor.

Jolt is a base perk available for all killers in Dead By Daylight. Hex: Blood Favor, Lethal Pursuer, and Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance can all be unlocked after reaching Prestige 1 with The Blight, The Nemesis, and The Artist, respectively.