When playing Dead by Daylight, the HUD (Heads Up Display) is a useful tool for knowing how you and your fellow survivors are doing. I’ve already discussed the status effects on the right side of the screen (Dead by Daylight: Status Effects for Beginners), now I’m going to cover the Character Icons on the left side.
Although the left side of the HUD has two rows of icons (the character icons and the activity status icons), I’m only going to concentrate on the character icons for this post.
Character Icons
The Character Icons indicate a player’s current status, if they’re downed, being carried, chased, etc… This is shown by switching their Character Icon with one of the below images.
- Hook: the player is on a hook.
- Person in a Cage: the player is in a cage.
- Skull: the player is dead. If the skull is elongated, the player was sacrificed to the Entity. If it’s a standard skull, they passed away by their wounds or the killer.
- Bear Trap: the player is caught in a bear trap.
- Person Lying Down: the person was downed by the killer.
- Person Hunched Over: the person is being carried by the killer.
- Scratch Marks over the Character Icon: the player is injured.
If the Character Icon is surrounded by a single set of the Entity’s spider legs, it means that they are the killer’s Obsession. The killer will get extra points for the Obsession, so they’re apt to be in more danger than a regular survivor. If the Character Icon is surrounded by a small set of the Entity’s spider legs, they’re being chased by the killer.
The image below shows me (Zachary) on the hook, the player below me was sacrificed to the Entity, and the next player down is injured, and the last one is the killer’s Obsession (large spider legs) and is being chased by the killer (smaller spider legs).
Killer Specific Icon Overlays
Some of the killers have a specific way to injure survivors. For instance, The Doctor will instill madness on players, which will be shown as a static overlay on the player’s icon.
The killers with their own player status overlays are:
- The Doctor: three types of static depending on the level of madness the player is undergoing. Tier I: horizontal lines of static; Tier II: vertical lines of static; Tier III: static noise.
- The Onryō (Sadako): a static filled circle around the icon that turns from white to red.
- The Cenobite: a chain around the players icon.
- The Nemesis: the heartbeat line of an electrocardiogram.
- The Knight: a turquoise circle
- The Mastermind: a patterned ring around the icon that turns from white (infection) to red (critical infection).
- The Trickster: blades in a circle that go from White, to Fushia, to Red (one hit away from going down).
- The Skull Merchant: a yellow digitized timer.
- Ghost Face: highly stylized blooddrops emanating from the center, outwards. It means you’re exposed to Ghost Face.
- The Plague: a red stain or yellow stain. The stain turns to yellow in a clock-like fashion to show the progression of the sickness. Yellow is fully infected (see last image below).
- The Nightmare (Freddie Kruger): a timer.
- The Executioner: barbed wire surrounds the players icon.
- The Pig: the death timer will appear when you have a reverse bear trap on your head. It will show how long before you die.
The image below shows that the top player (Zachary) has been contaminated by The Nemesis (the electrocardiogram overlay) and is being carried. The two players below Zachary have been injured, with the third also being the Obsession. The last player has been sacrificed to the Entity.
Below shows that Zachary is injured, the next player down is the Obsession and has been in contact with The Plague’s vomit; the next player is fully infected; the last player’s infection is progressing.
Hopefully you found this post helpful. As always, feel free to reach out to me on social media with questions, comments, or just to say hello.