Summary
Dead By Daylighthas grown its roster of killers considerably over the years, starting with just three and now fielding several sports teams' worth of murderers and monsters at an impressive number of 36. This has included licensed killers as well as original creations, leading to speculation about just who is the strongest killer in the game.
There is a difference, though, between the strongest in-game and the most powerful canonically. New maps and balance patches mean the strongest killer to play can constantly change, but who are the strongest killers according to the lore of the game and the licensed killers' franchises? Read below to find out.
Updated May 25, 2025, by Jon Eakin:Since this article was originally published, Dead By Daylight has had an incredible year full of excellent licensed characters and outstanding original ones. With that in mind, we decided to update this list with old and new characters alike, as well as crank the gens and give it some new features.
13The Hag
Mud And Magic
Lisa Sherwood, the Hag, is potentially one of the most powerful killers in the game whose lore far outmatches her performance. With knowledge of magic passed down through her family, she can manipulate luck, control mud, teleport, and possibly more.
Lisa was never able to fully explore her magical talents before being kidnapped by cannibals and making a deal with The Entity for her freedom. If she weren’t locked into hunting Survivors, there is no telling how strong she could become, or even if she could eventually challenge The Entity itself.
12The Blight
Once A Survivor, Now A Killer
Talbot Grimes, known as The Blight, is responsible for some truly incredible feats. His serum has transformed him into a feral monster capable of unbelievable speed. His lore goes deeper than this, though, with the developers stating that he is given special permissions by The Entity and can even harness some of its power for himself. Since The Entity is the creature behind all of the games Killers, this is a truly wild amount of power for one man to have access to.
What truly sells his power is the fact that he is responsible for other killers' Blighted skins, which shows that he has been able to experiment on them with no consequence to himself. The only thing that makes his true strength uncertain is that not every killer has a Blighted skin, making it difficult to judge where he lies in the pecking order.
11Michael Myers
The Trick Is To Stay Alive
Whether Michael Myers, called The Shape in Dead By Daylight as an homage to the original movie, is immortal or not is a matter of some speculation and ultimately depends on whichHalloweenmovie you happen to have watched most recently. In some, he is genuinely impossible to kill; in others, he is just extremely difficult to kill.
Whatever the case may be regarding his exact nature, Michael Myers is considered an embodiment of evil and an almost unstoppable force. One thing known for certain is that he doesn’t play by the rules The Entity has laid out and can kill survivors of his own will. Not even extra-dimensional spider monsters can stop Michael Myers, it seems.
Michael Myers was the first licensed Killer to be introduced to the game, releasing in the very same year the game launched. He paved the way for Dead By Daylight to be what it is today: a museum of horror.
10The Mastermind
Seven Minutes To Spare
Albert Wesker is often in the running for most iconic video game villains, and for good reason. A living bioweapon, Wesker has enhanced strength, speed, stamina, agility, the ability to regenerate, and the ability to mutate into more monstrous forms.
There is a reason he’s called The Mastermind, however. Wesker is perhaps best known for his intelligence and long-reaching plots. How this advantage stacks up against the supernatural abilities of other killers is up to you, but his keen mind is leagues above most others in the game.
9The Demogorgon
Back At Last
The Demogorgonhas had a tumultuous journey in Dead By Daylight. When it was introduced, it was one of the most successful chapters the game had ever seen, but the license expired, and it became unavailable for purchase. But now, with the license renewed, it has returned and remains a terrifying creature with superhuman strength, durability, a healing factor, and more.
Its most dangerous ability at its disposal is creating tears in space, tunneling to and from the Upside Down to ambush victims even when they think they’re safe. Demogorgons in later seasons of the show seem to have lost this ability, but the Demogorgon in Dead By Daylight still makes use of portals, securing a place amongst the strongest killers in the game.
8The Xenomorph
Our Queen
The Xenomorph, of Alien fame, is known for being one of the deadliest alien lifeforms across all media. This iconic extra-terrestrial is strong, fast, and durable. They can easily climb walls or ceilings and have a deadly tail and acidic blood. They are particularly disturbing for their intelligence. Able to use machinery and anticipate human behavior, they deserve their place atop the food chain.
The potentially far-reaching lore implications of the Xenomorph’s inclusion in Dead By Daylight can be seen with a skin available in the store for a Xenomorph Queen. If eggs start appearing across the maps, it might be time to give the survivors a way to keep their faces free from hugs, or The Entity will have a realm with a lot fewer people to torment and many more Xenomorphs.
7The Unknown
Undefined Power
As a tribute to Analog Horror, the lore for The Unknown is deliberately vague. It is speculation itself, absorbing qualities of urban legends and rumors. An axe murderer, a government experiment, an alien, The Unknown has elements of all of these things but isn’t truly any of them.
That means The Unknown has a broad range of powers and abilities, including illusion, mimicry, and teleportation, to name only a few. With so much of what it can do left deliberately uncertain, it’s likely capable of far more than we’re even aware of.
Reader beware - it’s worth mentioning that trying to define and understand The Unknown is precisely what calls it to you, marking yourself as the next victim. We take no responsibility if bizarre horror monsters open portals in your bathroom.
6The Dredge
Darkness Itself
The Dredge is unique among the killers in Dead By Daylight for not being a single creature or person. Instead, The Dredge is an amalgamation of the dark thoughts of a tortured community. Coalescing into a black mist, it dragged those who helped form it into its own darkness, constructing a physical form from their body parts.
Aside from being arguably the most visually unsettling killer on the roster, The Dredge has a suite of supernatural abilities. It can teleport and sense the location of others. Even more impressively, it can change the nature of the realms created by The Entity, causing darkness to fall across them. With so many questions still remaining about its nature and how anyone could ever defeat it, The Dredge is by far one of the more impressive killers original to the game when it comes to power.
5Pyramid Head
Relentless Punishment
The true poster boy for Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head is a manifestation of protagonist James Sunderland’s grief and guilt. Inhumanly strong and relentless, Pyramid Head cannot rest until it has carried out punishment. It cannot be reasoned with or placated and is effectively immortal.
As part of the human psyche made flesh, Pyramid Head cannot be killed or stopped until the person conjuring it has been made to face their past actions. In Dead By Daylight, though, Pyramid Head isn’t specifically punishing any single person, meaning it can never be put to rest.
Pyramid Head is one of the few Killers powerful enough to circumvent the rules of the trials and ignore the wishes of The Entity. It can ignore hooks and send Survivors to cages instead. It can also kill Survivors by its own hand without the need for a Mori add-on.
4The Cenobite
The Box, You Opened It
The Cenobite, more commonly referred to as Pinhead, is an extra-dimensional being dedicated to exploring pain and suffering in all their forms. Able to summon chains into the trials, Pinhead is aneffective and creative killer.
What truly establishes the power of Pinhead is that The Entity didn’t invite him into the trials. True to his appearance in the Hellraiser film, Pinhead is instead summoned as a result of someone completing The Lament Configuration puzzle box. That The Cenobite can come and go from the realms of The Entity freely and even take survivors with him in his Mori animation shows just how powerful he really is.
