Everyone knows this. The SM loads into the match, and right off rip they find the 3 closest gens and camp them. As you’re working on the far away gens, you wonder if the killer’s AFK or just new to the game.
Then, you see it. Skully is sitting amongst the 3 gens, with 3 drones up on each one. DC’ing is the best call here.
But what if, like me, you enjoy the killer, but not this playstyle? Well this guide is for you.
Builds
So first things first, the builds.
Possibly my favorite thing about Skulletta is her insane variety with different builds. So this isn’t 100 pages, i’m just going to go over my personal favorite builds I use on her.
Chase Merchant
Save the best for last- Shape Perk
Jolt- Universal Perk
Sloppy Butcher- Universal Perk
Rapid Brutality- Xenomorph Perk
Add Ons: Geographical Readout & Randomized Strobes
This build is high risk, high reward, and you get the most use adopting a hit and run playstyle. If you’re good at killer, you’ll be surprised about how viable this build is and how fast you can snowball a losing match. If they’re being altruistic and staying together, that can be the end of the match. Extremely fun and deadly.
Stealth Merchant
Hex Plaything- Cenobite Perk
Dark Devotion- Plague Perk
Monitor and Abuse- Doctor Perk
Trail of Torment- Executioner Perk
Add Ons: Brown Noise Generator & Ultrasonic Trap Speaker
One of my favorite builds in the entire game. Strangely viable, especially on indoor maps, but on wide open maps, if you can hide LoS, Skully is almost big as a survivor and she’s relatively quiet so you can just sneak up on people so well. It’s very common for me to run into survivors hacking one of my drones as i’m undetectable. The weirdest thing tho, I get less salt comments when I run meta builds on Skully then when I run Stealth.
Endgame Build
Sloppy Butcher (Interchangeable with STBFL or Monitor and Abuse)
No Way Out- Trickster Perk
Hex NOED (Interchangeable with any of the Nightmare’s Perks)
Rancor- Spirit Perk
Add Ons: Same as Chase Build
Extremely fun build that’s resorted to all sorts of outcomes, but 99% of the time you’ll come out with at least 1 kill during your endgame assault. Survivors never expect the Endgame build from a Skully. Just play the game normally throughout the 5 gens, and then just ramp up the pressure when that 5th gen pops; starting with the obsession, if you can. She’s one of best killers for Exit Gate Duels.
Hex Defense Build
Hex: Thrill of the Hunt- Universal Perk
Hex: Undying- Blight Perk
Hex: Pentimento- Artist Perk
Hex: Devour Hope- Hag Perk
Add Ons: Brown Noise Generator & Vital Targeting Processor
This one is fairly straight forward. Keep the focus on the hex totems. This will either force the survivors to have to go cleanse them, in which they’ll see you have them locked down. You want the survivors coming off the gens to go cleanse the hex totems. If they decide to stay on gens, it will cost them the game. Skulletta is easily the best Hex killer in the game and can have some really nasty Hex perk combinations. Experiment and try out different things. You don’t know what might be good or what might suit your playstyle.
She has at least 16 more builds you can use on her, but get creative. For example, a Vault Queen build, pure Anti-Healing, Aura Reading, Status Effect Builds, Anti- Exhaustion builds, and even a Hex build that blocks pallets and windows. That last one is extremely dirty. And like any Killer, she benefits from gen regression builds greatly.
Strategies/Tactics
The only reason to 3 gen as this killer, is if there’s 1-2 gens and it’s a close match and you’re sweating for the 4k. If you’re good enough, a last minute 3 gen against an already hurt team ends the match relatively fast. Use it sparingly and responsibly. Believe me, i’ll tunnel if it means a win, but not a damn 1 hour match. Take your 1-2 kills and move on.
A Youtuber by the name Bazazell has some great content on her which I suggest checking out after reading this guide.
He speaks of 2 tactics that are very viable on her and that aren’t 3 gens. I personally deploy these tactics in my games, and it’s always consistent. IMO, this killer rewards your ability to understand and read survivor’s movements and whereabouts, as well as experience. She can be good for beginners, but then after their inevitable bad matches they’ll just say she sucks and move on, which is a damn shame. No other killer has as much variety as Skully.
M1 Killer Techs
So these tips can apply to pretty much every killer, but specifically pure M1 Killers (if you don’t know, that means all of your damage is done through chasing someone down and hitting them with your weapon), which Skully is through and through. These are also intermediate/advanced tips so I hope these can help you.
Unpredictability- Don’t just walk in a straight line. In a sense, DbD is a “fighting” game, and unpredictability is the #1 thing in fighting. Don’t be easy to read. As survivor, I never expect killers to take long ways around or come from strange angles. Mix it up and be a Predator.
Reads- Is the survivor holding W and vaulting every window and throwing down every pallet in sight? Are they double backing, double vaulting, spinning, run to strong loops, etc? Get a feel for what the survivor does in the first 10-20 secs of the chase. Then, make a decision whether or not the chase will result in an injure or a down. If you feel the chase will be long, leave the chase. Although try to get them to throw down 1-2 pallets before doing so.
Moonwalks- The easiest mindgame in the game for Killers. At high walls, TL loops, and just LoS breaking loops, if you can hear where they’re going, moonwalking works wonders and can even spook them a bit. This is where your ability to read survivors is extremely important as well. You must be one step ahead of them at all times to be a viable M1 Killer at high MMR.
Cutting off the angles- Don’t follow the survivors, follow the loops. Ride the corners as sharp as you can. For example, if the survivor is on the left side of my screen and they’re running towards my right, cut them off by moving towards where it looks like they’re going. And if they then begin to run back towards my left side, then perfect it worked. You can force them to unsafe pallets and loops by cutting off their angle. Remember, the killer is slightly fast then the survivors so this tip is necessary to understand as Killer.
Timing your Lunges- You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. It’s probably placebo, but Skully’s lunge feels very long. Longer then other M1 killers. Whether it has to do with her speed or just her animation, her hits are very consistent and satisfying to land. With experience, you’ll be able to tell when a lunge will land on a survivor. Using the strategies above, this makes her dangerous in chase whether people will like to admit it or not.
Things you may not know about Skulletta
Tracking survivors- For every survivor being tracked in your drone, is locked on and exposed, or have claw traps on, you gain a 3% haste status effect. This stacks with other haste effects from other sources. This is no joke.
Claw Traps- If a survivor fast vaults a downed pallet with a claw trap, the pallet immediately breaks. Base kit Dissolution creates very bad scenarios for claw trapped survivors.
Multi Level Drones- If there’s a gen above basement, you can put a drone in the basement and completely shut down that area. This is brutal on indoor maps, especially on Lery’s. I’d say Midwich is her best map but she doesn’t really have a bad map.
Don’t play by the survivor rulebook- This goes for any killer; stop being nice. Most survivors will be salty for you existing, so just play the damn game and make the decisions that workout most in your favor. Unless you want to farm and be a friendly killer, worrying about what the other survivors think will cost you your fun, your experience, and plenty of games you could’ve won if you played more mean.
Since Skully is a mid tier killer at best, do whatever you have to do to get those wins. She’s not as easy as people think if you decide not to 3 gen. She takes some thinking to get use out of. But don’t hold the game hostage with a boring 3 gen; just git gud.
I can write many more pages about this killer and all of the possibilities with her, but for time reasons, this is my experience so far maining her condensed down. Let me know what else I missed or if you have any questions on her i’ll be happy to answer.
She’s easily my favorite killer in the game and the one I clicked with the most. Of course, i started with Myers so it could be that I just like M1 killers, but I do think she’s a good pick for beginner killers to get a grasp of the game. She’s also a good choice for experienced killers as well to deploy their knowledge and skillset of the game.