18 terms

Dead by Daylight Terms Explained

Every term below is explained twice over: what it means in the game, and what it means when the chase is being timed and the result goes on a ladder.

That second half is the part most guides skip, and it is where competitive play actually differs from everything else.

Chase

Looping

Running the killer around an obstacle so they cannot reach you.

Pallet

A droppable wooden barrier that blocks the killer and can stun them.

Greeding

Squeezing extra time out of a loop instead of playing it safe.

Mindgame

Winning a loop by making the other player guess wrong.

Chase

The state of the killer actively pursuing a survivor.

Vault

Jumping through a window or over a low obstacle.

Map

Tile

One self-contained chunk of the map, usually with its own loop.

Deadzone

An area of the map with no pallets or usable loops left.

Killer

Bloodlust

A speed bonus the killer builds up during a long, uninterrupted chase.

Terror radius

The area around the killer where survivors hear the heartbeat.

Survivor

Gen rush

Survivors completing generators as fast as possible to end the trial early.

Exhaustion perks

Survivor perks that grant a burst of movement and then share a cooldown.

Body block

Using your character's collision to physically stop someone moving.

Match & setup

Tunneling

The killer focusing one survivor relentlessly, ignoring the others.

Camping

The killer staying near a hooked survivor to prevent the rescue.

Hook stage

One step of a survivor's progress toward death on the hook.

DBD ID

Your in-game cross-play identifier, formatted Name#abc123.

Custom game

A private lobby the players create themselves, outside matchmaking.

Where these terms come from

Almost none of this vocabulary is official. Behaviour Interactive does not call it looping or greeding - players did, and the names stuck because they described something the game never bothered to name.

That is worth knowing when you read any guide: the words are community consensus, and they shift. What does not shift is the underlying mechanic, which is why every entry here explains the thing rather than just the label.

Killer tier list & rules Competitive maps

DBD Arena is a community project and is not affiliated with Behaviour Interactive.