Dead By Daylight lets you take up the mantle of the horrifying killing machine as you slaughter four survivors stuck in your wicked domain. The third and final killer – the Hillbilly – is quintessential horror flick fodder based around Leatherface.
A disfigured shut-in who takes on the role of the chainsaw murderer from horror lore, the Hillbilly is more straightforward than the Wraith, who is designed around stealth cloaking, or the Trapper, who is built around catching survivors unawares in his insidious bear traps.
While playing the big, dumb, and dangerous Hillbilly, the point is to knock survivors senseless with the hammer, send them running for dear life at the sound of your chainsaw revving, and then get them all on sacrificial hooks before they figure out how to turn on all the generators.
Looking for tips on playing other types of characters? Be sure to check out our other Dead By Daylight guides:
- Dead By Daylight Pig Perks Guide
- Wraith players guide
- Trapper strategy guide
- Survivors tips and tricks
Killer Basics
As with any Dead By Daylight killer, listen for the auditory cues to discover where the survivors are when they either run or start working on a generator, and always keep an eye out for the red scratch marks on the ground indicating a survivor is sprinting.
While giving chase, make sure to move diagonally (while the chainsaw isn’t engaged – see below) to take advantage of your better speed and avoid getting caught in obstacles the survivors knock over.
When a survivor throws an obstacle, go around instead of over
It’s always better to go where the survivor is going to be, rather than chase where the survivor is now and get slowed down by a window or wood pallet. In general, it takes less time to find a way around an obstacle than to slowly blunder over it towards a survivor who is now sprinting at full speed away from you.
Hillbilly Primary Weapon: Hammer
Much like the Trapper’s machete, this is just a basic melee weapon used to get in a first strike to wound a poor survivor, and then (hopefully) a second strike to knock them down fully. There’s no special tactics or technique here, just hit, wait for the cooldown animation, and go in for the second hit.
As with the other two killer types, while using the Hammer be sure to patrol around the areas of the map where the survivors are likely to be found: near generators, chests, the hatch, and the switch to open the gate.
Using the hammer
Hillbilly Secondary Weapon: Chainsaw
The quintessential horror movie weapon of choice, the Hillbilly gets to bring out that oh-so-satisfying revving sound with a chainsaw. The chainsaw instantly downs a survivor in a single hit – if you can hit them.
That’s the Hillbilly’s one Achille’s Heel, so to speak. While the chainsaw is fully engaged and you are sprinting madly at higher speed, your movement is greatly restricted and its very difficult to turn left or right.
Yes, this is very satisfying to use.
Getting this right takes some practice, so try it out a few times against map objects before actually using it against a more mobile survivor until you get the hang of how the movement works.
Although a powerful single-hit weapon, the chainsaw is actually better used as a psychological tool. Rather than fully engaging it and reducing your mobility, just rev it every now and again, which will usually cause the foolish survivors to panic and run into the open – just where you want them.
Countering The Hillbilly
The Hillbilly has to essentially run in a straight or only mildly curving line, so practice juking left or right to utterly negate his killer chainsaw.
He can certainly still hit you with the hammer if he realizes you know how to evade the chainsaw, but for players just learning the Hillbilly and loving the chainsaw mechanic, you are pretty well guaranteed to avoid death for a good portion of the match.
This is what we want to avoid
Learning the layout is your number one means of survival. For instance, luring the Hillbilly into the two story building, jumping out the top story hole, and then immediately turning around and jumping over the window is a very effective way of staying out of the chainsaw’s reach.
If you have a circular area like that where you can keep going through a window, the killer will eventually get tired of the fruitless chase and move on to easier prey. All the while, your companions should have (hopefully) been turning on generators.
Can you beat this score in your first try?
That’s all you need to know to play as (or against) the Dead By Daylight Hillbilly! Let us know what sort of killer score you’ve managed to rack up so far in this 4 vs. 1 horror extravabanza, and be sure to fill us in on any Hillbilly tips and tricks you’ve learned while playing.
