How does Shattered Hope work in Dead by Daylight?

Dead by Daylight's newest chapter, Roots of Dread, brought a new killer and survivor to the game, along with a lot of new perks. One of these new perks is Shattered Hope, a killer perk that can be obtained by any killer regardless of unlocks. This places it in the same generic perk class as the likes of Sloppy Butcher, Jolt, and Hex: No One Escapes Death.

With the arrival of Boon Totems in the game, which survivors can utilize, the community of killer players has requested Behaviour Interactive for a perk to counter them. Shattered Hope has been introduced as the newest in-game chapter to fulfill this request by the players.

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Dead By Daylight: Breaking Down Shattered Hope

Shattered Hope's perk icon (Image via DStrike/Youtube)

Ordinarily, in Dead by Daylight, survivors can affix a boon to any Dull Totem on the map. Doing so converts it into a Boon Totem, providing benefits such as healing or a speed boost to survivors within its radius. Killers can snuff out Boon Totems by stomping on them during a trial, but this doesn't destroy the totem. Because of this, survivors can return to the snuffed totem and re-apply the boon if they want to.

With Shattered Hope, Dead by Daylight killers gain the ability to break the Boon Totem that they snuff out. Additionally, destroying the totem will also reveal any survivors within the totem's range for a minimum of six seconds and a maximum of eight seconds, depending on the perk's rank. For killers who are having a tough time with meta support builds running one or more Boon Totem perks, Shattered Hope may be worth considering for counter play.

One of the most intriguing synergies that this perk has so far in Dead by Daylight involves The Artist's Hex: Pentimento. This Hex perk allows the killer to repair a cleansed/broken totem and form it into a Rekindled Totem. The more Rekindled Totems on the map, the more inhibited survivors are. Rekindled Totems slow survivors' repair and healing speeds, recovery speed from being downed, and even the opening speed of the exit gates. If six Rekindled Totems are active on the map, the Entity will block every totem on the map.

This works well with Shattered Hope for one reason: Killers can destroy a Boon Totem and immediately convert it into a Rekindled Totem. This creates a power dynamic on the trial map between the killer's Rekindled and Hex Totems and the survivors' Boon Totems. For killers with exceptional map awareness or those that can travel across it quickly (The Blight, The Nightmare, The Hag, or The Cenobite), Shattered Hope can prove to be an effective perk for map control.

Shattered Hope may prove to be a very beneficial counter perk for the Dead by Daylight's killer mains who are encountering Survive With Friends teams that are well-coordinated with perk synergies. Savvy survivor teams at higher rankings use their boons well, but a tactical killer main utilizing Shattered Hope may be able to turn the tide in the trial.