The Best Nurse Builds In Dead By Daylight (April 2024)

8 April 2024 - We've updated the page to reflect any recent changes to perks and abilities that might impact the best Nurse builds in Dead By Daylight.

Ever since her release in 2016, Sally Smithson, also known as The Nurse, has been the almost-unchallenged queen of the horror game Dead By Daylight. Widely considered the most powerful killer in the game, The Nurse takes precise input and intuition to perform her very best. Fortunately, despite being one of the most intense killers in the game, Nurse comes free with every copy of Dead by Daylight, so even players who haven't spent a dollar can become the best of the best.

If you're interested in learning what the strongest killer in Dead by Daylight has to offer, continue reading about the Nurse's best builds and learn how to take survivors' breath away.

The Nurse Power And Perks

Before we talk about what builds help The Nurse shine the brightest, we should take a moment to discuss what she brings to the table herself. If you use the following three perks with no others, it will earn you the "Adept Nurse" achievement. The following are Nurse's teachable perks:

Perk: Stridor

• You are acutely sensitive to the breathing of your prey.
• Increases the volume of Survivors' Grunts of Pain by 25/50/50%.
• Increases the volume of Survivors' regular breathing by 0/0/25%.

Perk: Thanatophobia

• Their courage fades in the face of their undeniable mortality.
• Each injured, dying, or hooked Survivor afflicts Survivors with a stack-able 1/1.5/2% Action Speed penalty to Repairing, Sabotaging, and Cleansing, up to a maximum of 4/6/8%.
• Increases the Action Speed penalty by a further 12 %, if there are 4 Survivors, who are either injured, dying, or hooked at the same time.

Perk: A Nurses Calling

• Unlocks potential in your Aura-reading ability.
• The Auras of Survivors, who are healing or being healed, are revealed to you when they are within a range of 20/24/28metres.

Power: Spencer's Last Breath

The Nurse's Power is called Spencer's Last Breath, and it enables her to teleport around the map at will, through walls or other obstacles, 2 blinks at a time (without add-ons). The in-game description is as follows:

• Press and hold the Power button to charge a Blink:
• Blink for up to 20 meters upon activation.
  • During the ensuing Chain Blink Window, charge again to initiate a Chain Blink of up to 12 meters upon activation.
  • After either the Chain Blink Window closed or the final Chain Blink elapsed, enter a state of Fatigue (2-3 seconds*).
• Grants 1 Chain Blink.

The Best Nurse Builds In Dead By Daylight

Beginner Nurse Build

As a beginner, it can be hard to know what perks work the best in-game while also being limited by which ones are available. To help you get started, check out this build that only makes use of universal perks or perks that The Nurse begins with.

• A Nurses Calling (The Nurse)
• Whispers
• Thanatophobia (The Nurse)
• Bitter Murmur

A Nurse's Calling, Whispers, and Bitter Murmur all help you keep track of survivors at key times. Thanatophobia ensures that as you land injuries on survivors, it will become increasingly challenging for them to complete objectives, forcing them to heal. Once they heal you'll be able to find them easily with A Nurse's Calling! With this build, the goal is to get a feel for The Nurse's power by hitting survivors, leaving them, and then coming back for the kill while they're vulnerable healing.

Full Tracking Nurse Build

This build revolves around tracking survivors' every move, ensuring that you are able to land your Blinks with little effort throughout the match. Not only will you be able to get a better idea of what generators survivors are working on, but you'll also even be able to see their auras using some of the perks in this build!

• A Nurse's Calling (The Nurse)
• I'm All Ears (The Ghost Face)
• Discordance (The Legion)
• Whispers

This build provides you with two perks to initially find survivors, and two perks to help you find them again and land your second hit to down them. Seek out survivors working on generators together with Discordance, and attempt to earn a hit with your Blink. If you don't identify any survivors using Discordance, you can search around the map for survivors using Whispers. Once you end up in chase, you can use I'm All Ears to see the survivors' auras - and if you end up losing them, you can always rely on A Nurse's Calling to catch them out in their hiding spot!

Totem Destroyer Nurse Build

This Totem Destroyer Nurse build takes advantage of perks that destroy survivors' boons while pressuring them with your own hex perks.

• Shattered Hope
• Hex: Plaything (The Cenobite)
• Hex: Thrill Of The Hunt
• Hex: Pentimento (The Artist)

With Hex: Plaything and Thrill of the Hunt in play, survivors will be in a mad scramble to cleanse or boon totems as quickly as possible. Hex: Pentimento ensures that when they do cleanse those totems, you'll be granted with a variety of boosts - and they'll be left with slow generator progress and other penalties. Shattered Hope makes sure that if survivors try to counter your build with boons, they'll be out of luck.

What Are The Best Perks For The Nurse?

While we've provided you with some of the best builds for The Nurse, most of the fun of Dead By Daylight is trying out your own builds and seeing what playstyle suits you best. Try mixing and matching the perks below and see what makes your Nurse shine.

• Lethal Pursuer (The Nemesis)
• Barbecue and Chili (The Cannibal)
• No Way Out (The Trickster)
• I'm All Ears (The Ghost Face)
• Scourge Hook: Floods Of Rage (The Onryo)

We recommend mixing and matching the perks in the builds we've provided to create your favorite loadout. As you familiarize yourself with this killer, you'll determine which perks are your favorites and be able to mix and match these perks effectively.

For more Dead by Daylight news be sure to check out our dedicated section, or some of our Guides & Tutorials, just below: