Dead by Daylight: Best Builds for The Nurse

The bane of Survivors everywhere, The Nurse is one of the deadliest Killers in Dead by Daylight. She is a total game-changer, as she can completely ignore the standard rules of looping by Blinking through structures at devastating speeds. This allows her to quickly land hits on Survivors both near and far before they have a chance to react.

This guide will spotlight some of the best builds to run on one of the most dangerous Killers in Dead by Daylight. These builds have an emphasis on both teachable and non-teachable builds for new players and veterans alike, so that they can strike fear into the hearts of Survivors as they cut them down, regardless of skill level.

Updated on May 25, 2026, by Mark Sammut: We updated the section detailing whether beginners should use Sally, while also adding another section discussing some 2026 meta changes.

The Nurse: Best Non-Teachable Build

As powerful as the Nurse is, her mechanics can prove difficult to master for new players. This build aims to passively slow down the game with Thanatophobia to give newer players more time to perfect the Nurse’s movement and encourage pressuring multiple Survivors at once – something that The Nurse excels at. Furthermore, Bitter Murmur, Spies from the Shadows, and A Nurse’s Calling will allow players to keep track of Survivor movements and interrupt healing actions.

• A Nurse’s Calling (The Nurse) – Survivors who heal within a 28-meter range will have their auras revealed.
• Thanatophobia (The Nurse) – For each injured Survivor, repair, sabotage, and Totem-cleansing speeds are slowed by 2%. After all 4 Survivors are injured, there is an additional 12% speed penalty.
• Bitter Murmur (General Perk) – Each time a generator is completed, the auras of Survivors within 16 meters of that generator are revealed for five seconds. Once the last generator is complete, all Survivors’ auras are revealed for 10 seconds.
• Spies from the Shadows (General Perk) – Within a 36-meter radius, cawing crows provide The Killer with a visual cue.

The Nurse: Best Build

This build focuses on using some of the best tracking and generator regression perks currently available in Dead by Daylight. By using The Nemesis’ Lethal Pursuer, The Nurse can immediately find the location of Survivors in order to quickly land a hit. Meanwhile, Pop Goes the Weasel and Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance will massively slow down generator progress upon hooking a Survivor. Finally, Nowhere to Hide allows players to find other Survivors near generators.

• Lethal Pursuer (The Nemesis) – At the start of the trial, all survivors’ auras are revealed for nine seconds. This perk also increases the duration of other aura-reading abilities by an extra two seconds.
• Nowhere to Hide (The Knight) – Kicking a generator will reveal the aura of all Survivors within 24 meters for five seconds.
• Pop Goes the Weasel (The Clown) – After hooking a Survivor, kicking a generator in the next 45 seconds will remove 30% of its current progression.
• Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance (The Artist) – The Killer starts with four tokens. For each different Survivor hooked on a white Scourge Hook, lose one token and explode the generator with the most progress, causing it to lose 25% of progress.

The Nurse: Best Add-Ons

Plaid Flannel

Useful for beginners, this simple Common Add-On shows players the target location of a Blink, allowing for more accurate positioning.

Heavy Panting

This Rare Last Breath Add-On increases The Nurse’s lunge attack by 30% after performing more than one Blink. This allows the Killer to land hits where Survivors would otherwise be out of reach.

Fragile Wheeze

Acting like Sloppy Butcher (one of the strongest Dead by Daylight Killer perks), the Fragile Wheeze Add-On inflicts the Mangled status ailment for 70 seconds on Survivors hit by Blink attacks. This can help slow down healing speeds by 25%.

Jenner’s Last Breath

Among The Nurse’s most oppressive Add-Ons, Jenner’s Last Breath enables her to warp back to her original position once all her Blinks have been used. This can be used to great effect when patrolling an area while still defending a hook or generator, preventing the anti-camping meter from filling up.

Torn Bookmark

Perhaps The Nurse’s strongest Add-On, this Ultra Rare gives her an extra Blink, at the cost of a 30% power recharge time, giving her more opportunities to land a hit on a Survivor.

Do You Need To Do Anything To Unlock The Nurse?

Currently, Dead by Daylight has 40 Killers, a number that will only grow moving forward. Unsurprisingly, most of these characters are not available right out the gate, and you will need to spend money to buy them. As a rule, a licensed Killer or Survivor can only be purchased by dropping money on them; meanwhile, original characters are either available for free or can be unlocked by buying them using either cash (by purchasing Auric Cells) or Iridescent Shards earned by playing the game.

Sally Smithson is not only an original character, but she was also the first Killer released as DLC (in Chapter 1: The Last Breath). Her chapter was immediately free since it was released as a thank you to players who stuck around following Dead by Daylight‘s first two months on Steam. Nowadays, if you buy a version of the game, you will instantly have The Nurse available as a Killer. While the PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC iterations have some differences, Sally is part of the free lineup in all of them.

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In 2026, Behaviour Interactive took measures to try to nullify modifier stacking, which refers to builds that focus on amplifying the same skill, like healing or action speed. Although these roll-outs impact Dead by Daylight quite a bit, they don’t hurt great Nurse builds all that much, since she has never been a character that relies on gimmicks like stat-stacking. That said, if somebody did go down this route, it is no longer effective.

Is The Nurse A Good Killer For Beginners?

Ah, the age-old question: Should I bother? Due to debuting just shortly after DBD‘s launch, The Nurse is a staple of the game, to the point that veterans likely know everything there is to know about the Killer. Consequently, this article’s value lies entirely in what it offers to either beginners or people looking to switch to a new character. The latter must have faced enough Nurse players to have an idea of what to expect, but I cannot say the same about complete newcomers. On the surface, Sally must be one of the most tempting picks for people starting their journey. Why? Well:

• She is free. No need to buy any DLC or spend Iridescent Shards, making her one of the most accessible DBD Killers purely in terms of cost.
• She is recognized as a strong Killer by the community. Although not every newbie will be tapped into the meta enough to know what DBD players think of the Nurse, they might have heard enough to know she ranks among the very best Killers in the game.
• Her design is pretty cool. That might not seem important, but it matters.

So, is she actually one of the best Killers for newcomers in DBD?

All that sounds great, but we do have one little problem: The Nurse is a terrible Killer for beginners. Taking into consideration her immediate availability, she might actually be the worst Killer for beginners, as characters like The Singularity and The Skull Merchant at least need to be unlocked. While nuance can be found in every character, Sally comes with a far steeper learning curve than most other Killers, and her success relies more on understanding and executing mechanics rather than positioning or strategy. To balance her power in expert hands, The Nurse’s base stats kind of suck, meaning the game severely punishes mistakes.

However, what truly makes The Nurse the worst Killer for beginners is the simple fact that she doesn’t teach DBD‘s fundamentals. If somebody plans to stick with her indefinitely, then that isn’t an issue; however, newcomers should try different characters, and they might eventually want to shift to a premium Killer. Their first pick should help them build a base for the rest of their time with the game, rather than teaching them behavior that holds no value when using anybody besides Sally.

Is The Nurse Worth It In 2026?

Full stop, The Nurse is a terrible killer for Dead by Daylight beginners who are still coming to grips with the game’s basics. Along with just not being a great option to learn how to play DBD, Sally is just an all-around difficult Killer for everybody, including veterans (of the game, not her specifically). That raises the question: Should anybody even bother learning how to use The Nurse nowadays? Is that time better spent elsewhere?

The answer is yes, but with some caveats​​​​​​. Let’s be crystal clear – The Nurse is one of the best Killers in Dead by Daylight​​​​​​. She is the strongest free Killer, too. She has sat in the A-tier for most of her existence, and Behaviour Interactive has shown little interest in nerfing her abilities in recent years. In 2026, she isn’t extremely popular in terms of usage, mostly ranking between 10th and 20th according to nightlight.gg, and this position is indicative of Sally’s potential and drawbacks. In the right hands, she can feel downright broken; in the wrong hands, she drops off a cliff and becomes a Killer that Survivors can exploit fairly easily. There are no average Nurse players, as you are either great or awful.

Even if a player has dropped hundreds of hours into Dead by Daylight‘s Killers, they are unlikely to just pick-up-and-play The Nurse. In fact, they might feel almost like beginners, as they need to unlearn strategies that are second-nature.

What Makes The Nurse Top-Tier in 2026?

We have covered some of these points already, but they are worth mentioning in full here.

• Sally doesn’t play by DBD‘s rules. Blink lets her bypass pallets, windows, and even loops sometimes. She breaks the chase system, which has helped her remain relevant as she isn’t subjected to the same standards and comparisons as most Killers.
• A capable Nurse who hits her stride can be unstoppable. She can down survivors in seconds and chain pressure across the map, allowing her momentum to snowball. Survivors can feel helpless during these situations.
• Most Killers shine on specific maps (or struggle on maps with strong loops). Sally isn’t really map-dependent, making her a viable option in most matches.

Why Is The Nurse Not For Everyone?

We touched upon these elements in the beginners’ section, but most of these points extend beyond just newcomers to the game.

• Sally’s Blink is extremely powerful, but it is also skill and precision-based. Players need to be able to read Survivor pathing well, and they need to be very familiar with maps. Early performance is worse than that of many other Killers.
• The Nurse leaves little room for mistakes, as missing Blink gives Survivors plenty of time to recover and reset. An argument could be made that Blink’s recharge time should be longer due to its capabilities, but that would make The Nurse almost unplayable by any newcomers to the character.

Alternative Killers With A Lower Barrier For Entry

As great as The Nurse is, not everyone can put in a few dozen hours to really grow comfortable with her. Consequently, they might want to try Killers that are more welcoming.

• The Spirit – A top-tier Killer who is also among the easiest to pick up and even master. She is a strong chaser, too.
• The Artist – Not extremely easy by any means, but a great strategic option for players who want something a bit different from M1 Killers.
• The Blight – Probably the closest to The Nurse, at least mechanically. Nowadays, Blight is more popular and, arguably, better than Sally. He is also a mobility Killer that requires skilled players, but he is a bit more intuitive than The Nurse.

Released

June 14, 2016

ESRB

M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language