Dead by Daylight (DBD) - What Is Tunneling and My Tips How To Deal With It

Tunneling is a fairly common occurrence in Dead by Daylight. This tactic raises conflicting opinions among the community. Below you will find information on what tunneling actually is and how to deal with it.

What is tunneling?

Tunneling is one of the strategies for playing as the killer. Its assumptions are simple - one should constantly chase one particular survivor until they are eliminated from the game. During this time, you ignore the other players. This is a practice fairly common in the game, but not necessarily warmly welcomed by the community. From a survivor's perspective, it is not a very pleasant situation.

While on paper tunneling may seem like a reasonable approach it is an inefficient strategy. When all the attention is focused on one particular person, the rest can fix the generators in peace. Thus, this technique, when used from the beginning of the game can provide one victim for the Being in almost 100% of cases. However, if the tunneled survivor deftly avoids the killer's attacks, there may be a situation where all generators are repaired by the time the first person gets hooked in the game.

Actually, the only situation in which tunneling is justified is late in the endgame, when all the generators have been fixed and the killer needs to secure at least one victim.

How to fight tunneling?

There is no denying that tunneling is an unpleasant and unavoidable experience. In most cases, you just have to deal with it. However, you can, with a specific build, reduce your chances of becoming a victim of this tactic. It is based entirely on hiding your tracks and presents itself as follows:

1. Boon: Shadow Step - Mikaela Reid's perk. After blessing a totem, an area is created within 24 meters of it, where survivors do not leave red scratches. In addition, the killer's skills based on detecting people do not work on those within the totem's range.
2. Lucky Break - Yui Kimura's perk. After receiving damage, the survivor's blood marks and red scratches are hidden for 40/50/60 seconds. The perk deactivates when the survivor enters agony or is healed. It is worth bearing in mind that you can get the effect a couple of times if you heal fast enough. In addition, for every second you heal others, you will receive an additional second to the effect of this ability.
3. Parental Guidance - A heavily underrated but extremely powerful perk possessed by Yoichi Asakawa. After stunning the killer, the perk hides red scratches, blood marks and suppresses moans for 5/6/7 seconds. In short, this means that you are virtually undetectable during this time.
4. Overcome - Jonah Vasquez's perk. After receiving damage, the speed bonus is extended by 2 seconds. It also imposes an exhaustion effect for 60/50/40 seconds.

Using this build, after receiving damage you are able to hide your tracks and at the same time gain a large speed bonus. If, in addition, you use elements of the environment to disappear from the killer's field of view, then you have a good chance that the pursuit has already given up. The only problem here is the moaning, if the killer goes in the same direction then he can track you following them. Unfortunately, after the recent changes, Iron Will is not so good a counter, because it deactivates when exhausted. However, you can take a first aid kit and replace Shadow Step with Bite the Bullet.. This perk completely hides the sounds that are made during healing.

Personally, however, if I am tunneled I prefer to take up running as long as I can instead of hiding. This way I make the killer lose precious time and give the other survivors the opportunity to repair their generators in peace. Extreme cases of this method have resulted in chases lasting all 5 generators or the killer leaving the match.

If you also want to go this route then you must have a high awareness of what the map looks like at any given time. It is required to know the places where pallets appear and to know which pallets have already been used. This is where Windows of Opportunity can help you. This is one of my favorite perks for the survivors. It shows palettes and jump locations within a 24/28/32 meter radius of us. This is priceless for new players, as it enables you to learn where you will encounter palettes, and thus where you can loop the killer. For more experienced players who play with random people, it enables you to see what pallets have been used and adjust accordingly.

Windows of Opportunity in practice.

This perk can be supported by any means. However, if you are aiming for typical anti-tunneling build then it is best to incorporate the so-called second-chance skills:

1. Off the Record - Zarina Kassir's perk. It activates when the hook is removed and lasts for 60/70/80 seconds or until damage is received. During this time, the endurance effect is applied, moans are suppressed, and the killer is unable to see the survivor's aura.
2. Decisive Strike - Laurie Strode's perk. Activates when taken off the hook and lasts for 40/50/60 seconds or until some action is performed. If during this time the killer knocks you down and picks you up then a very difficult skill test is activated. If you pass it then you will stun your tormentor and free yourself. Keep in mind that this perk does not work when the exit gates are activated.
3. Unbreakable - Bill Overbeck's perk. It enables you to leave agony status on your own once per game. It works very well when the killer tries hard to knock down all survivors.