Dead by Daylight: Generators - repair and regress Dead by Daylight guide, tips

On this page of the DBD guide you will find a description of the most important element of the game - generators. From our guide you will learn how the process of repair and damage and regression of their progress.

Last update: 04 October 2022

Generators are what DBD's gameplay revolves around. This page of the guide contains tips on how to repair generators as a survivor or regress them as a killer.

Generators are the survivors' main targets. They must repair five of them to power the exit gate and escape the trial. The killer's job is to prevent them from doing this.

• Generator locations
• Repairing generators (Survivors)
• Regressing generators (Killer)

Generator locations

There are always seven generators on every map. The killer can see their auras from the very beginning. This lets them watch over them. They're highlighted in red by default, but some perks can change their color to telegraph different situations. For example, using Discordance will highlight generators in yellow if they're worked on by two or more survivors at the same time.

The survivors have a bit of a tougher time locating them. The generators' locations are not fixed, so you'll need to find them on your own. Each realm, however, has a single generator which never changes its location between matches. It's usually located in the main building in the center of the map.

The exceptions to this are maps featuring several buildings, or maps which have completely inaccessible buildings. Even they, however, still feature a single fixed generator. The locations are:

1. Lampkin Lane - Myers' House (the one with a pumpkin on the porch);
2. Léry's Memorial Institute - the huge round hall in the centre of the map;
3. Gideon Meat Plant - the bathroom on the lower floor, where the first Saw movie took place;
4. Raccoon City Police Station - no matter which wing, the generator is always in the main hall;
5. Midwich Elementary School - the courtyard in the center of the map.

You'll need to find other generators on your own. On open maps we recommend looking around the killer's shack, hills or small mazes. Look out for lantern poles. Not only are they easily spottable generator parts, they also signal the generator's status - if they glow steadily, this means the machine has been repaired.

On closed maps, where the generators are more difficult to spot, there are still some contextual clues that can help you locate them.

1. Léry's Memorial Institute - when moving through corridors, the toilet plaques you're passing by are illuminated if there's a generator in the room next to them;

1. Raccoon City Police Station - above each room's entrance there's a light bulb. If it's lit up, it means there's a generator inside.

1. Gideon Meat Plant - by the massive steel doors;

There are ways you can make your generator search easier. Some perks let you see their auras. These are:

1. Déjà Vu - the auras of the three generators in the closest proximity to one another are revealed to you for 30/45/60 seconds at the start of the Trial, and each time someone completes a generator. Increases repair speed on marked generators by 5% when active.
2. Clairvoyance - hold down the Ability button after cleansing a Totem. This reveals the auras of exit gates, generators, hooks, chests and the hatch within 64 metres for 8/9/10 seconds.
3. Detective's Hunch - completing a generator reveals auras of generators, chests and totems within 32/48/64 metres for 10 seconds.
4. Rookie Spirit - complete 5/4/3 skill checks when repairing generators to activate this perk for the duration of the Trial. It reveals the auras of every regressing generator.
5. Visionary - shows the auras of generators within 32 metres. Completing a generator disables the perk for 20/18/16 seconds.

If you don't want to waste perk slots, you can take a map with you instead. Even the most common green map reveals the auras of generators within a specific radius.

Repairing generators (Survivors)

As mentioned at the start of the page, your main goal as a survivor is to repair five of the seven generators. The process itself is simple - approach the machine and hold down the repair button.

Be careful, as skill checks may appear at any time while you're repairing it.

You need 90 charges to fully complete a generator. Completing a generator alone, without any perks or toolboxes, takes 90 seconds.

Repairing a generator with others imposes a stackable penalty on each one of you. For each additional person repairing the generator, your repair speed will drop by 15%. Despite this penalty, repairing in a group still goes faster than repairing alone. Here's the efficiency chart:

1. 1 survivor: 100%;
2. 2 survivors: 85%;
3. 3 survivors: 70%;
4. 4 survivors: 55%.

Though it may seem complicated and give the impression there's no point in repairing generators as a group, that's not the case. As an example, let's assume two survivors are repairing a generator. Each one is repairing it with 85% efficiency. Adding both of these means 170% efficiency, so instead of 90 seconds, completing that generator takes only 53.

The repair process can be sped up as well. There are various perks which let you complete generators faster. These are:

1. Fast Track - if another survivor is hooked, you will receive 1,2, or 3 Tokens depending on the perk's level. In addition, they accumulate with each victim. When you hit a Great Skill Check, each of the Tokens collected will translate into 1% of generator repair progress.
2. Overzealous - if you cleanse a Totem, you get a 6/7/8% increase in repair speed of the generators. The effect dubles for Hex Totems. This effect lasts until you take damage.
3. Hyperfocus - a Great Skill Check grants a Token (you can have a maximum of 6). For each Token, Skill Check Rotation speed and the chance of triggering a Skill Check increase by 4%. At the same time, hitting another Great Skill Check gives you a 10/20/30% increase to the base Skill Check Bonus value.
4. Resilience - when you're injured, the speed of actions such as repairing, healing, cleansing Totems, or opening gates increases by 3/6/9%.
5. Sole Survivor - gives you a Token for each successfully sacrificed Survivor, up to 3 Tokens max. Each Token grants you a 20/22/24 meter radius within which the killer can't see your aura, stackable up to 60/66/72 meters. If you're the last survivor standing, your generator repair speed increases by 75% and your hatch/gate opening speed increases by 50%.

Sole Survivor, obviously, isn't very useful for most of the game. It's an endgame perk which requires you to outlive all your allies.

For more information on how to complete generators quicker, check the survivor builds chapter. There you'll find a page dedicated to quick generator repair.

Regressing generators (Killer)

The killer's objective is to eliminate all survivors. They have to do so before they manage to fix the generators. You can, of course, slow them down.

Your most basic option is kicking the generator - this immediately drops its repair progress by 2.5% and induces regression. Said regression is, unfortunately, very slow. It can also be stopped by a survivor interacting with the generator for even a moment.

Let's illustrate this with an example. Fully regressing a 99% repaired generator, assuming no one stops the regression, takes about 6 minutes. Matches usually last 10-15 minutes. This means fully regressing a generator would take about half the match.

Still, you can make use of kicking to gain information. Regressing generators emit sparks. If you return to a regressing generator and don't see any sparks, this means a survivor was repairing it and they might still be nearby.

There are a number of perks you can use to slow down generator repair. These are:

1. Dead Man's Switch - activate by hooking a survivor, lasts 20/25/30 seconds. If another survivor stops repairing a generator while the perk is active, the generator will be inaccessible until the perk expires.
2. Corrupt Intervention - At the start of the game, the three generators furthest from the killer are blocked for 80/100/120 seconds. The perk deactivates prematurely the moment you put a survivor in the dying state.
3. Pop Goes the Weasel - activate by hooking a survivor, lasts 35/40/45 seconds. The first generator you kick during this time will regress by 20% of its current progress.
4. Eruption - kicked generators get a yellow aura. The moment you put a survivor in a dying state, each yellow generator explodes and starts regressing, immediately losing 10% of its progress. Any survivor repairing a generator while it explodes becomes Incapacitated for 15/20/25 seconds.
5. Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance - At the start of the game, four random hooks become Scourge Hooks. If you hook a Survivor on one of them, the generator with the highest progression will explode and lose 9/12/15% of repair progression. The survivors working on the generator will scream, but their position will not be revealed.
6. Hex: Ruin - at the start of the game one of the totems gets cursed. While the perk is active, each generator not currently being worked on by a survivor slowly regresses at 50/75/100% normal regression speed. The effect lasts until you sacrifice your first survivor or the cursed totem is destroyed.
7. Oppression - kicking a generator causes three different generators to start regressing as well. Additionally, survivors working on this generator will have to face difficult skill checks. This perk has a cooldown of 120/100/80 seconds.
8. Grim Embrace - Each time a survivor is hooked for the first time, you get a Token. Getting four Tokens activates this perk and causes the Entity to block all generators for 30/35/40 seconds. The aura of Obsession is also revealed for 5 seconds.
9. Overcharge - kicking a generator triggers a difficult skill check for the first survivor who starts repairing it. Missing this skill check causes the generator to regress by additional 4%. Overcharged generators' regression speed increases from 75% to 200% for 30 seconds.
10. Dragon's Grip - activate by kicking a generator, lasts 30 seconds. The first survivor to touch this generator will scream and their aura will be visible for 4 seconds. This also inflicts an Exposed status effect on them for 60 seconds. This perk has a cooldown of 120/100/80 seconds.
11. Jolt - when you put a Survivor in dying state, every generator within 32 meters will explode and lose 6/7/8% repair progress.
12. Deadlock - completing a generator causes the Entity to block the generator with most progression for 20/25/30 seconds.