Dead by Daylight: How to Drop Survivors

Knowing how to drop survivors in Dead by Daylight may seem counterintuitive since one of the killer’s primary objectives is to prevent survivors from escaping the match by hooking and sacrificing them to The Entity. However, dropping a survivor can be a valid choice based on the survivors’ strategies during a match. Luckily, performing this action is as easy as pressing one button, but there are a few things killers should know before dropping them in a game.

How To Drop Survivors In Dead by Daylight

Here’s how to drop a survivor in Dead by Daylight based on your platform:

Nintendo Switch: A Button
PC: R Key
PlayStation: Circle Button
Xbox: B Button

However, remember that dropping a survivor causes their Wiggle Meter to fill by +25% each time you drop them. In addition, if a survivor’s Wiggle Meter is already 75% or more filled, dropping them even a single time will release them from your grasp. This punishment prevents killers from ‘dribbling’ the survivor indefinitely, which can prevent the use of survivor perks like Decisive Strike from being triggered.

Split feature timage: Skull Merchant, Trickster and Singularity from their official art.

Dead By Daylight: The Best Killer Perks, Ranked

Dead by Daylight is a 4v1 multiplayer horror experience where killers kill and survivors survive. Here are the best killer perks in the game.

When Should A Killer Drop Survivors In Dead by Daylight?

A Series Of Killers From Dead By Daylight

Since Dead by Daylight is an interactive game, killers must always react to survivors’ actions to succeed. The above example of not triggering a Decisive Strike is just one reason a killer would want to drop a survivor. However, there are many other reasons to do so.

For example, suppose a killer is carrying a survivor and using perks like Boil Over, which causes the killer to get stuck on the terrain. Or consider a killer is being body-blocked by a survivor, and the hook they are carrying the survivor to is sabotaged by another. In either case, it may be better for the killer to drop their current survivor and go after another or stop objectives from being completed since the currently grasped survivor would probably escape anyway.

Sometimes, dropping a survivor is the best play instead of waiting for them to fill their Wiggle Meter. The killer may lose the hook but can continue to pressure the other survivors instead of letting them complete objectives or troll without consequences. Instead, a killer should consider essential facts, like how close to a hook a survivor is after being downed or which perks they have equipped when deciding to drop them.

Knowing the proper time to drop a survivor in Dead by Daylight can amp up the pressure on survivors and allow killers to take advantage of their miscues for easy sacrifices.