The Oni is one of the most challenging Killers to play as in Dead by Daylight. It’s got a fantastic ability that’s efficient but feels impossible to master. With the right build, this Killer can become the ultimate threat in a Trial.
The Oni was added to Dead by Daylight in Chapter 14: Cursed Legacy. He’s an ancient samurai who took his thirst for legacy and tradition way too far. Using his ability to absorb the blood and pain of his victims, he becomes more powerful and summons unbeatable strength while hunting Survivors. The only downside is that directing his rage is difficult, leading to many players avoiding him at all costs when playing as a Killer. A perfect build can change all of that, though.
Related: Dead by Daylight: All Hatches Location
Oni Abilities in Dead by Daylight Explained
The Oni has three unique abilities in Dead by Daylight that players must first master if they want to make the most of their build with him. These are all available by default, so players can practice using them anytime they hop into a Trial as the Killer.
- Yamaoka’s Wrath: Players can absorb blood orbs left behind by injured Survivors by holding the secondary action button. We’ve noticed that The Oni needs to be quite close to the blood orbs and looking at them to actually absorb them. Each blood orb helps charge up another ability, Blood Fury.
- Blood Fury: The Oni enters a stage of power and anger. In this state, players can charge up Demon Dash to see The Oni rush across the map towards a Survivor. When they arrive, they can use the new heavy attack, Demon Strike, to hit Survivors and put them into the Dying State instantly. It’s a massive attack that we love landing.
Best Oni Build Using All Oni Perks in Dead by Daylight
This build makes the most of The Oni’s Perks in Dead by Daylight. It has three main Perks, like every Killer, and we believe that players should use them while playing as The Oni to make the most of the experience. Overall, the build shows how much this Killer is about controlling the map, so players should use that to their advantage.
- Blood Echo (The Oni Perk): When The Oni hooks a Survivor, all other Injured Survivors suffer from the Exhaustion and Hemmhorrage Status Effect for a moderate period of time.
- The goal with this Perk is to make every hit count while chasing anything that moves. It’s perfect for getting a single hit in and damaging a generator instead of chasing that Survivor to finish them off.
- Zanshin Tactics (The Oni Perk): Players can see the auras of pallets, breakable walls, and vault locations within a certain range.
- Again, this Perk gives The Oni control in the form of information. Players can hit Survivors and make judgments about where they’re going based on the objects they can see nearby.
- Nemesis (The Oni Perk): Survivors who blind or stun The Oni in Dead by Daylight Trials using a pallet or locker become the Obsession. Any time a new survivor becomes the Obsession, they’re afflicted with the Oblivious Status Effect for a moderate time and have their aura revealed to the Killer for a brief moment.
- The idea with this Perk is to make every chase count, even those where Survivors stun the Killer. Survivors will be punished for pretty much every action, giving The Oni much more control.
- Overcharge (The Doctor Perk): After damaging a generator, the next Survivor to start repairing it faces a difficult skill check. If they fail, the generator suffers an additional percentage of regression. If they succeed, they get nothing.
- This Perk shares that common theme of granting the Killer control. It also makes hitting Survivors once and letting them run so they generate blood orbs far more effective because now there’s another reason to damage generators.
As with every Killer, there’s a meta Perk Build for The Oni. We don’t think it’s terrible, but it’s not exactly in the spirit of Dead by Daylight to use it. We like having to work with The Oni’s Perks, but this build will basically give players the best chance of winning on a min/max level. Provided they know how to play as this Killer.
- Call of the Brine (The Onryo Perk): Damaged generators regress faster than normal and have their auras revealed to the Killer. Every time a good skill check is achieved on the generator, the Killer gets an audio cue.
- As with Overcharge in the above build, this Perk is about gaining some control in a Trial with generators. It makes damaging them so much more viable and efficient and forces Survivors to give information to the Killer.
- Nowhere to Hide (The Knight Perk): This Perk triggers when damaging a generator, revealing the auras of all Survivors in a 24 meter radius for a few seconds.
- With this Perk, it’s clear this build is more about damaging generators than getting into Blood Fury. However, we do like that it provides more information for the Killer, giving them the correct direction to run off to.
- Play With Your Food (The Shape Perk): Every time players chase the Obsession in Dead by Daylight, they gain a Token up to a maximum of three. Each one provides a stackable Haste Status Effect. Tokens are used when players attack Survivors.
- This Perk seems to ignore the fact that The Oni has Blood Fury but would also improve it without the use of an Add-On. It gives players a great reason to run around the map, damaging generators and making Survivors run away from them. Once those Tokens are fully stacked, it’ll be easier to down a Survivor with Blood Fury active.
- Blood Echo (The Oni Perk): We’ve used this Perk in our build above. There’s no new motive to using it here. It’s all about impacting every Survivor possible with the hook action.
Best Oni Build Add-Ons in Dead by Daylight
The Oni has some fantastic Add-Ons that improve its abilities, as well as access to those generic Add-Ons in Dead by Daylight that all Killers can make use of. However, as with our preferred build above, we’re looking specifically at Add-Ons that only The Oni can use here. Mainly because nothing is better for this Killer.
We’d recommend using Chipped Saihai and Kanai-Anzen Talisman in every Oni build. Chipped Saihai increases Blood Fury by several seconds, improving with each rarity, and Kanai-Anzen Talisman increases movement speed during Blood Fury by a small percentage with each rarity. Both of these focus on helping The Oni get into Blood Fury and down Survivors faster while it’s active in Dead by Daylight. There are other Add-Ons that help Blood Fury charge faster, but we’d argue being able to use it for slightly longer is better because it could be the difference between a sacrifice or a Survivor escaping.
As for the Offering, we believe players should use something that sways more control to The Oni. This could be forcing Survivors to start in certain locations, increasing or decreasing the map’s fog, or trying to pull the Trial into a specific map. We prefer using Cut Coin because it prevents chests from appearing, giving Survivors less to work with and making them panic about depleting the items they do have.
How to Use The Oni in Dead by Daylight
Whether using one of our builds or a player-created one in Dead by Daylight, The Oni plays largely the same. This Killer is all about controlling the map, and players have to lean into that if they want to make the most of it and make some sacrifices.
Players should move between generators to track Survivors. If they see them, they need to attack them and chase them if they feel like it. However, we’d argue it’s just as efficient to let a Survivor escape and damage the generator. The Oni needs to make Survivors feel like they’re constantly on the back foot, and this will help.
Injured Survivors leave blood orbs, so players can follow them to their prey. Every blood orb needs to be absorbed to help charge up Blood Fury. Once that ability is charged, we suggest players use it. With our builds, it triggers quite a lot, so can be used freely.
The main thing players want to achieve is getting Survivors into a chase with long sight lines. If this requires some early chases and pallet destroying, it’s a necessary evil for the final payoff. While Blood Fury is active, Survivors are sitting ducks even if they’re running away.
Players can use Demon Rush to pretty much instantly catch up to a Survivor in Dead by Daylight, but it’s combining that with Demon Strike that’s the key. This attack downs a Survivor and allows The Oni to hook them. Thanks to the changes Behaviour Interactive made in September/October 2023, The Oni can’t stay near a hooked Survivor, so needs to move on.
That requirement to get away from hooked Survivors, allowing others to help them, actually plays into how this Killer operates. With Blood Fury active, it’s easy to back off, bait Survivors together, and rush in for another hit that will down at least one Survivor. Repeating this until Blood Fury ends will keep the pressure on and scare Survivor players.
Then, it’s back to gaining map control in Dead by Daylight Trials. Hunt Survivors, hit them, absorb blood orbs, and damage generators. Exerting control and making Survivors feel out of control will prolong the Trial and ensure more sacrifices.
