![[Top 5] DbD Best Nurse Builds That Are Excellent](/sites/default/files/styles/responsive_image_2x_1240xauto/public/2024-10/MI%281%29_2.webp?itok=g7zn3OIm)
Have you ever had a heart attack? Well, a nurse can help with that. Rest assured that the Nurse in Dead by Daylight, with her overpowered ability and rusty bonesaw, is a certified killer who specializes in giving heart attacks.
The Nurse is a killer of refined taste. She doesn’t dabble in superfluous little tricks like anti-loop features, but that’s only because The Nurse has never even heard of the idea of loops. And truly, loops mean nothing in the face of her ability – Spencer’s Last Breath or, as most players would call it, Blink. A base-kit Nurse has two blinks and each allows you to teleport a certain distance. However, blinks have to be charged. The longer a blink is charged, the further The Nurse can go. She can also modify her teleportation distance by looking up and down. Do keep in mind that the second blink can only be charged for no more than a few seconds and can only help her cover at most 12 meters, unlike the first one, which can be charged for a longer period of time, enabling her to teleport up to 20 meters. After blinking, The Nurse suffers from Fatigue, which causes her vision to dim as she lowers her head. And did I mention that The Nurse can phase through any physical barriers with her blinks? That includes walls, windows, pallets and even the floor, rendering all loops before her useless.
The Nurse has three unique perks:
A Nurse’s Calling
A Nurse’s Calling activates when you’re close to survivors performing healing actions. It’s one of those niche perks that, if used in the right build, would give you all the information you need throughout the game.
Stridor
A perk that amplifies the volume of survivor grunts and breathing. There are only two situations in which you would use Stridor: when you’re playing as The Spirit or when you’re facing a full team of Dwights who are obsessed with hiding in lockers.
Thanatophobia
Great for killers who have high mobility and for players who love giving deadly love taps to everyone like Don Juan. This perk isn’t exactly strong in early-game, but as more and more survivors become injured, enter the dying state or get hooked, the action speed penalty it provides can quickly rack up and turn into a real threat.
Just like in an actual hospital, every second counts in the Entity’s realm. If you’d like to be a qualified Nurse in the Entity’s realm, you’d want to check out these builds that’ll help you get those hooks efficiently and effectively.
Build 1 - Omniscient and Omnipresent
For those of you who claim that teleportation is the greatest superpower to have ever existed, I’d like to invite you to a game of Dead by Daylight where you play as The Nurse. You can then experience what it’s like to zap into a septic tank by accident because you didn’t know there’s one in front of you. One of The Nurse’s major weaknesses is her inability to accurately predict the location of survivors once she loses line of sight with her target. That’s why you should try out this aura-reading build.
This build consists of four information perks, with three of them being straight up wallhacks. This might seem like a bit of an overkill, but the truth is, when your power is one that teleports you directly to whoever you’re after, you don’t really need any perks for chases. When you’re running this build, you can expect to see at least one survivor’s aura for most of the match. Seriously, who can resist an easy prey?
All you have to do is…
- Blink to begin the hunt. Go to the furthest generator from you and don’t be afraid to use your blinks to quickly traverse the map. You should find your first victim there.
- Get your first hit. If the generator is just sitting in the open, you should have little to no problem getting your first hit with just one blink. It shouldn’t cause you too much trouble either even if it’s close to a loop since you can just use your second blink to secure the hit.
- Force survivors to vault. Survivors are most likely going to seek refuge in a loop after being injured. You might walk slower than the survivors, but you can trick them into fast-vaulting windows or pallets, upon which their aura will be revealed.
- Down the survivor. Having your aura revealed to The Nurse usually ends in being knocked out in a matter of seconds. As you hack your bonesaw into them, survivors near you will scream and you can choose to either swat those anthropomorphic flies buzzing nearby or you can pick up the one that’s already lying on the ground.
- Pick your next target. If you choose to hook the survivor, you’ll see the aura of those who are some distance away from the hook. But don’t worry, as The Nurse, you can reach them in just two to three blinks.
- Kick generators if needed. This will reveal the aura of all the survivors that are close to you.
This build is good for…
Cracked Chases
- I’m All Ears shows you the aura of survivors performing rushed actions. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have a choice to slow vault a window or a pallet when the killer is right behind them.
- The addon Ataxic Respiration decreases your Fatigue duration, which, in turn, gives survivors less time to pull away from you.
- Catatonic Boy's Treasure also reduces your Fatigue duration, but only for your second blink.
Constant Information
- Infectious Fright doesn’t show you auras, but those that scream are usually close enough for you to tell where they are anyway. It also has the added benefit of being immune to Distortion.
- Nowhere to Hide reveals the aura of all the survivors hiding nearby, which makes it the ultimate weapon against gen-rushers.
- Barbecue & Chili gives you information on survivors who you can get to with a few longer blinks. That being said, while it’s not as convenient as Nowhere to Hide or Infectious Fright, it gives you a clear target to go after when no one’s in range.
Build Requirement
Addons:
Ataxic Respiration
- Decreases base Blink fatigue duration by 7%.
Catatonic Boy's Treasure
- Decreases extra fatigue from chain Blinks by 65%.
Perks:
I’m All Ears
- Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. Any Survivor performing a rushed action within 48 meters from your location will have their aura revealed for 8 seconds.
- I'm All Ears can only be triggered once every 60/45/30 seconds.
Barbecue & Chili
- After hooking a Survivor, all other Survivors' auras are revealed to you for 5 seconds when they are further than 60/50/40 meters from the hook.
Nowhere to Hide
- Whenever you damage a generator, reveal the aura of all Survivors standing within 24 meters of your position for 3/4/5 seconds.
Infectious Fright
- Any Survivors that are within your Terror Radius while another Survivor is put into the dying state will scream and reveal their location to you for 4/5/6 seconds.
Build 2 - Wipeout
Camping is bad, I think we all know that. And while that description also applies to camping in the wild, where you turn into a giant Capri Sun for mosquitoes, I’m more specifically referring to camping in Dead by Daylight. If you, my fellow killer main, have got a strong moral compass, then you should run this hex build in your next match and you’ll see how not camping can sometimes result in a nastier endgame chat than if you do.
Despite having a slower movement speed than the average survivor, The Nurse has got extraordinary map mobility due to her ability, which lets her phase through walls and floors. For that reason, it shouldn’t be too hard for The Nurse to guard her totems. This build does have its fair share of risks, considering that it ultimately revolves around just one hex perk, but with high risk, of course, comes high reward.
All you have to do is…
- Send a survivor on the hook. There aren’t any aura-reading perks in this build to help you with finding your first survivor, but most of the time, survivors spawn right across the map, near the generator that’s furthest to you.
- Look around. Once you’ve hooked your first survivor, you should be able to see a few silhouettes in red on the other side of the map.
- Leave the hook. Don’t hesitate to blink straight to those unlucky folk in the distance. And do not, I repeat, do not come back to the hook until the survivor is rescued.
- Pay constant attention to your totems. Totems being interacted with for the first time in a game get blocked and get highlighted in white. And since this build relies on hexes, I think you know what to do.
- Rinse and repeat. Being able to see the aura of survivors far away from you should give you sufficient intel to eviscerate them. But don’t forget to be nice and give the survivors some personal space so that they can lift their teammates off of the hook. You’re going to want them to rescue their teammate five times.
- Mori them all. At this point, any survivors who enter the dying state can be immediately mori-ed. It’s time for you to teach them a lesson that nurses, both in-game and in real life, know too well about – the transience of life.
This build is good for…
Quick Games
- Hex: Devour Hope gives you the ability to mori all survivors regardless of hook stages.
- Barbecue & Chili gives you all the information you need to accurately pinpoint the location of your next target.
- If you think camping is atrocious, but are totally fine with picking on a selected few who are already injured, you can theoretically start killing all survivors by hand after just eight hits.
Securing Hexes
- Dominance highlights totems that survivors are attempting to cleanse for the first time. When you see the white aura, you should know that a survivor has found your totem and you need to be particularly careful about that totem for the rest of the game.
- Dominance also blocks the totem upon being interacted with for the first time. This should buy you some time before you arrive at the crime scene (in case you didn’t know, property damage is a serious offense even in the Entity’s Realm).
- Hex: Undying offers an extra layer of protection for your Hex: Devour Hope in case those delinquents have decided to scurry back to your totem when you aren’t looking.
Build Requirement
Perks:
Hex: Devour Hope
- When a Survivor is rescued from a hook at least 24 meters away, Devour Hope receives a token.
- 2 Tokens: Gain a 3/4/5% Haste status effect, 10 seconds after hooking a Survivor, for a duration of 10 seconds.
- 3 Tokens: Survivors suffer from the Exposed status effect.
- 5 Tokens: Grants the ability to kill Survivors by your own hand.
- The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex Totem is standing.
Hex: Undying
- While Hex: Undying is active, Survivors within 2/3/4 meters of any Dull Totem have their aura revealed.
- When another Hex Totem would be cleansed, that Totem's Hex transfers to the Hex: Undying Totem, deactivating Hex: Undying. Any tokens the transferred Hex had are transferred as well.
Dominance
- The first time each totem and each chest is interacted with by a Survivor, that totem or chest is blocked by the Entity for 4/6/8 seconds.
- The auras of blocked totems and chests are revealed to you in white.
Barbecue & Chili
- After hooking a Survivor, all other Survivors' auras are revealed to you for 5 seconds when they are further than 60/50/40 meters from the hook.
Build 3 - No Items Allowed
Playing as The Nurse makes you feel invincible. For 99% of the time, it’s nothing more than a cycle of blinking and swinging. But that delicate process can crumble in the blink of an eye; item-based stunts like self-heals performed through med-kit and blinds done through flashlights are all painful tricks Nurse mains have to deal with on a daily basis. With this item-banning build, however, you can knock these contrabands out of your survivors’ irresponsible hands and use the items to your own advantage.
This build concerns itself with the various items that survivors either bring into the match or obtain by searching through chests. Having a flashlight pointed directly to your face is uncomfortable, yes, but it also compels you to take detours with your blinks since you now can’t look in the survivor’s direction. You can solve that problem with this build, which forces survivors to drop their items and subsequently utilize the items in question for information. Survivors who want to obtain replacement items from chests will also find themselves revealed to your aura-reading eyes.
All you have to do is…
- Find survivors with items in their hands. One simple M1 hit and the survivor’s item is on the ground. And before you ask, The Nurse is mainly an M2 killer, but most Nurses use their M1 rather frequently as well, especially when they’re playing mindgames.
- Hit them in a strategic location. Preferably you’d want to land your M1 hit when the survivor is out in the open and not at the corner of the map.
- Make sure what’s on the ground stays on the ground. Items left lying on the floor are going to slowly lose their charges. Chase off survivors who are perhaps a bit too eager to pick their items back up and before long, their purple flashlight would be all out of power..
- Scan for auras. Those who are standing too close to depleted items while contemplating the meaning of life in the Realm will have their aura revealed to you. You will also be able to see the aura of survivors rummaging through chests.
- Close nearby chests. Sometimes survivors whose entire purpose in life is to blind killers would rather rummage through chests than complete generators. As the killer, it’s your responsibility to keep them preoccupied and to distract them from completing the actual objectives in the game.
This build is good for…
Aura-reading
- Weave Attunement can reliably reveal survivor auras if items are dropped in areas with high traffic.
- Survivors may want to obtain another item from chests after they lose the one they brought with them into the match. Putting that thought into action, however, activates Human Greed, which allows you to see their aura.
- Lethal Pursuer not only shows you the aura of all survivors at the beginning of the match, it also nearly doubles the duration of the aura-reading effect that Human Greed gives.
Banning Items
- Franklin’s Demise can make survivors drop their items with just one hit. The dropped items also gradually lose their charges, which makes them essentially unusable.
- The Nurse has high mobility, which allows her to defend dropped items with relative ease.
- Had enough of the survivors’ little tricks and stunts? You can close chests with Human Greed, which prevent survivors from equipping themselves with another item.
Build Requirement
Perks:
Franklin’s Demise
- Your basic attacks make Survivors drop their item on impact. While on the ground, it takes up to 150/120/90 seconds for the item to lose all of its charges if it is not picked up.
- Reveal items on the ground within 32 meters with a white aura. The Aura will slowly fade to red until the Item is empty of charges.
Weave Attunement
- When an item becomes depleted for the first time, it is dropped. You see the auras of dropped items.
- Survivors within 12 meters of dropped items have their auras revealed to you.
- When a Survivor picks up a Survivor item, they suffer the Oblivious status effect for 20/25/30 seconds.
Human Greed
- You see the auras of unopened chests and Survivor auras are revealed for 3 seconds when they enter a 8-meter range.
- You gain the ability to kick chests to close them. This ability has a 60/45/30-second cooldown. Survivors unlock these chests 50% faster.
Lethal Pursuer
- At the start of the trial, the auras of all Survivors are revealed to you for 7/8/9 seconds.
- Any time a Survivor's aura is shown for a period of time, its duration is increased by 2 seconds.
Build 4 - Recovery Takes Time, They Say
It’s nothing to be ashamed of: all Nurse mains have once lost their survivor because they either blinked to an entirely different floor or to an isolated room that completely obstructed their line of sight with the survivor (I, for one, have once blinked through the map and got stuck underground). You’ve landed your first hit, but now all you can do is listen to that audacious little rascal’s fading footsteps as they live to see another day. But keep your pillowcase-covered chin up; this anti-heal build is here to help you track them down.
Survivors seem to have a love-hate relationship with healing. Some will tell you to never heal while others will say that the reluctance to heal is to a survivor as curiosity is to a cat. The general consensus, however, is that healing is necessary when you’re facing off against killers who give you minimal time to react. So what should Nurse mains do in the face of med-kits and perks like Botany Knowledge? Well, look no further for the answer because when you’re equipped with this build, you’ll be able to slow down survivors’ healing speed and turn the survivors’ insistence on staying in tip-top health against them through aura-reading.
All you have to do is…
Put your eggs in different baskets. Fixate on hunting down one survivor and you’ll be accused of tunneling. Try to hook everyone at least once early on in the game.
Decide on the fate of your totems. Depending on your playstyle and the progression of the match, you may or may not want to be so merciful as to let the survivors cleanse their Hex: Plaything. Just remember that in your armory, you’ve got Hex: Pentimento, a perk that becomes increasingly powerful as late-game approaches.
Be stealthy. Survivors cannot hear their heartbeat nor see your red stain as long as their Hex: Plaything remains standing. If you want to give them the scare of their lives, you can capitalize on their lack of situational awareness and strike from behind a tall structure.
Prioritize M1 hits. Since you essentially haven’t got a terror radius, you should consider using your M1 over your M2. When using this build, your M2 is used primarily for downs.
Look out for auras. You’ll be able to see the auras of survivors being healed. And oh yes, you’d be right in thinking that The Nurse is going to drop in and give them a hand (with a bonesaw in said hand, of course).
This build is good for…
Impeding Heals
- Sloppy Butcher applies the Mangled status effect to survivors who are hit with an M1 attack.
- Survivors intent on healing are going to flip when they find out that 2 stacks of Hex: Pentimento can further set back their healing speed.
- All that emotional acrobatics are going to draw The Nurse’s attention. A Nurse’s Calling gives The Nurse the ability to pinpoint the location of healing survivors and reset their healing progress.
Surprise Hits
- Hex: Plaything conceals your terror radius, which makes M1 hits more viable.
- A Nurse’s Calling doesn’t do much on its own since the healing action can normally be completed in just a few seconds. But when healing takes a decade and a half, the perk can offer tremendous value by providing you with both constant and reliable information.
- With the power of the two aforementioned perks combined, you have a selfish Nurse who has all the survivor information but gives away no information in return.
Build Requirement
Perks:
A Nurse’s Calling
- Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. The auras of Survivors who are healing or being healed are revealed to you when they are within a 20/24/28 meter range.
Sloppy Butcher
- Wounds inflicted by basic attacks cause Survivors to suffer from the Hemorrhage and Mangled status effects for 70/80/90 seconds.
- Increases the rate at which healing progression is lost from Hemorrhage by 25%.
Hex: Plaything
- The first time you hook a Survivor, they become Cursed and Hex: Plaything activates on a Dull Totem. The Cursed Survivor suffers from the Oblivious status effect until Hex: Plaything is cleansed.
- Hex: Plaything's totem aura is revealed to the Cursed Survivor when within 24/20/16 meters of it. For the first 90 seconds, only the Cursed Survivor can cleanse the totem
Hex: Pentimento
- You see the aura of destroyed Totems. You can perform a ritual on a destroyed Totem to rekindle it as a Hex Totem for Hex: Pentimento. For each Hex Totem active at the same time, Hex: Pentimento gains an additional effect.
- 1 Hex Totem: Decreases Survivors' repair speed by 20/25/30%.
- 2 Hex Totems: Decreases Survivors' healing speed by 20/25/30%.
- 3 Hex Totems: Decreases Survivors' recovery speed from being downed by 20/25/30%.
- 4 Hex Totems: Decreases Survivors' exit gate opening speed by 20/25/30%.
- 5 Hex Totems: All Totems are blocked by the Entity.
- When a previously rekindled Hex Totem is removed by any means, its remains are consumed by The Entity and it cannot be rekindled again.
Build 5 - An Alternate Timeline Where a Hit Landed
Rumors have it that there’s an addon that only those who are immaculately attuned to The Nurse can wield. Many have had a glimpse of this relic in their addon inventory, but few dare to incorporate it into their build due to the drastic changes it makes to The Nurse’s playstyle. But if you’re curious about it, I might just be able to brew a build up for you, one that’ll allow you to take in Jenner’s Last Breath.
Most killer mains are not Nurse mains and most Nurse mains do not run Jenner’s Last Breath. And it is for that exact reason that survivors often don’t know how to fare with the addon when The Nurse does decide to bring it into the match. In all honesty, Jenner’s Last Breath is fun, but it’s not at all easy to use. This build aims to make that experience a little bit smoother by offering aura-reading and gen-slowdown, buying you both time and accuracy.
All you have to do is…
- Search for half-repaired generators. The survivors who have fled just before your arrival shouldn’t have gotten too far. You can easily find them with your aura-reading abilities, which you’ll get once you kick that generator.
- Blink for the kill. You’re more than welcome to use your blinks just like a regular Nurse, but if you’d like to give your prey a bloody surprise, you can over-blink and bait them into double-backing.
- Retract your blink. With Jenner’s Last Breath, you can retract your second blink and send yourself back to where you’ve started your first blink. You can then briefly assess the situation and blink again for the hit.
- Push survivors into loops. Loops are, for most of the time, a bad idea since they block your line of sight, but this build has got you covered. Survivors performing a rushed action are going to have their aura revealed.
- Hook those pests on scourge hooks. Working on generators is a chore with The Nurse’s presence. It would be truly unfortunate if these volatile machinery were to blow up every time a fresh survivor is thrown on a scourge hook.
- Whack those generators. And really put your back into it. Generators that are damaged right after a survivor is hooked are going to lose more progress than if you were to kick them normally.
This build is good for…
Accurate Hits
- I’m All Ears allows you to read the aura of survivors performing rushed actions, which should help you a great deal with timing your blink retractions.
- The “Bad Man’s” Last Breath addon makes you Undetectable after you land an M2 attack. Survivors, unable to spot your red stain nor hear their heartbeat despite being in your terror radius, will have a much harder time avoiding your next hit.
- Nowhere to Hide grants you aura-reading abilities to start off your chases. Absolutely no rushed actions required on the survivors’ end. All you need is a generator that’s ready to be kicked.
Generator Slowdown
- Pop Goes the Weasel works like a miracle for The Nurse due to her high mobility. Her blinks can take her to any generators she’d like to damage in two to three seconds.
- Pop Goes the Weasel also has good synergy with Nowhere to Hide since both perks can be simultaneously activated with just one kick.
- Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance, in spite of its nerf, is still deemed one of the best scourge hook perks for delaying generator repairs.
Build Requirement
Offering:
Putrid Oak
- Calls upon The Entity to Considerably decrease the distance between sacrificial hooks appearing in the world.
Addons:
Jenner’s Last Breath
- Once The Nurse has exhausted all of her Blinks, allows The Nurse to immediately Blink back to her original position by pressing the Active Ability Button.
- Must be triggered before The Nurse succumbs to fatigue
- After returning to her original position, The Nurse will have one Blink charge ready.
“Bad Man’s” Last Breath
- Hitting a survivor with a successful Blink Attack grants the Nurse Undetectable for 25 seconds. This effect may be only triggered once every 45 seconds.
Perks:
Pop Goes the Weasel
- After hooking a Survivor, the next generator you damage instantly loses 20% of its current progress. Normal generator regression applies after the Damage Generator action.
- Pop Goes the Weasel is active for 35/40/45 seconds after the Survivor is hooked.
Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance
- At the start of the trial, 4 random hooks are changed into scourge hooks. You see their auras in white.
- You start the Trial with 4 tokens, 1 for each Survivor. If a generator is available when that Survivor is hooked on a scourge hook, lose 1 token. The generator with the most progress explodes, instantly losing 10/15/20% progress, and will start to regress.
- Once you have no tokens, Pain Resonance deactivates for the rest of the Trial.
Nowhere to Hide
- This perk activates when you hook a Survivor.
- You see the aura of the farthest injured Survivor for 5 seconds and that Survivor is Oblivious for 16/18/20 seconds.
I’m All Ears
- Unlocks potential in one's aura reading ability. Any Survivor performing a rushed action within 48 meters from your location will have their aura revealed for 8 seconds.
- I'm All Ears can only be triggered once every 60/45/30 seconds.
