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Even in a place as dark and desolate as The Entity’s Realm, it’s important to make friends. The Survivors have each other, but what about the Killers? Surely, they need some companionship as well. It’s a good thing, then, that the latest Killer to enterDead By Daylightbrings along her own faithful companion to keep her company.
The Houndmaster, aka Portia Maye, is a vengeance-fuelled pirate from the Caribbean who hunts down Survivors with the aid of her prized hunting dog, Snug. Her Power allows her to track and grab Survivors, lining them up for an easy Basic Attack, and her unique Perks can enhance a variety of playstyles.
How Does The Houndmaster’s Power Work
The Houndmaster’s Power is called Scent of Blood, and it allows her tocommand Snug to find and restrain the Survivors.By pressing the Secondary Action button (CTRL by default), you may change between the Chase Command and the Search Command.
Chase Command
Chase Command is your primary weapon,ordering Snug to charge forward in a (mostly) straight line by holding your Power button to aim and then tapping your Attack button to release.Snug is smart enough to move around curved obstaclesand can leap over windows and pallets in his path. you’re able to see the path that Snug will take and if he’s going to jump over anything along the way.
If Snug connects with a Survivor, he will Grab them,giving them the Hindered and Incapacitated status conditionsand dragging them towards the spot where you were when you issued the Command.
Search Command
If you want to ferret out where the Survivors are hiding (or if you’re in a location that would be hard for Snug to move through),you’re able to use her Search Command to send Snug on a scouting mission.Holding your Power button charges up Search Command, allowing you to send him further and further away, as shown by a target on the ground.
While Snug is following a Search Command, he has an aura of Houndsensethat gets larger with distance traveled. If a Survivor enters the Houndsense radius,they will be revealed by Killer Instinct and receive the Houndsense status condition.Healthy Survivors who become Injured while affected by Houndsense gain the Deep Wound status, and Injured Survivors who are Downed leave more Pools of Blood and make louder Grunts of Pain.Any Survivor who is affected by Houndsense will glow bright red to The Houndmaster.
Finally,while Snug is heading toward the target of his Search Command, he leaves behind a Search Path.If The Houndmaster moves along the Search Path, her movement speed increases over time, ending when she steps off the Search Path.
While it may be impractical in the middle of a match,you’re able to pet Snug by pressing the Interaction button(Space by default) while standing still near him.
Tips For Playing The Houndmaster
The Houndmaster is best atstopping Survivors from reaching the Windows and Pallets that would ordinarily protect themor finding and debuffing those that would hide from you. Here are a few tips to help you make the most of your new hunting buddy:
Best Add-Ons For The Houndmaster
Any good pirate will have amassed quite a collection of loot and memorabilia,and The Houndmaster is no different. Here are some of her best add-ons to give you the edge in your next hunt.
Spiked Collar
Rare
Gives the Mangled and Hemorrhage status conditionsto Survivors who are Injured while Grabbedfor 45 seconds.
Marlinspike
Very Rare
Applies Houndsense to Survivors within 20 meters of a Grabbed Survivorwhen they are Grabbed.
Ship Figurehead
Increases your Terror Radius by four meterswhen Snug is with you.Decreases your Terror Radius by four meterswhen Snug is away from you.
The Houndmaster’s Unique Perks
Portia Maye will stop at nothing in her vengeance-fuelled quest, and her selection of unique Perks reflects that.She is a terrifying combatant,showing no mercy to her foes and forever searching for her sworn enemies.
All-Shaking Thunder
Enemies on land and sea learned to tremble before your might.
After falling from a high place, All-Shaking Thunder activates for 16 seconds.While active,your Lunge distance is increased by 75 percent.This Perk then goes on cooldown for five seconds.
No Quarter
Every skirmish ended with a relentless volley of cannon fire, leaving no doubt who was superior.
When a Survivor reaches 75 percent healing progress while healing themselves, No Quarter activates,causing them to receive continuous difficult Skill Checks until the healing is completed.
If they fail any of these Skill Checks, or if the heal is interrupted,that Survivor is Broken for 30 seconds.
Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass
Sometimes the compass points north. Other times it points somewhere else entirely.
At the start of the Trial, four Hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks.When you Hook a Survivor on a Scourge Hook,the Aura of the Generator with the most progress turns yellow for ten seconds.
In addition, whenever a Survivor is Unhooked from a regular Hook,it becomes a Scourge Hook for the rest of the Trial.
If you want to claim the Adept Houndmaster achievement, you’ll need to kill all four Survivors as the Houndmaster while using only the three Perks listed above.
Best Build For The Houndmaster And Perk Synergies
The Houndmaster can function well with a variety of Perks, but there are a handful that stand out amongst the crowd,allowing her to achieve her full, murderous potential.
Here are some recommended Perks to aid Portia and Snug in catching those lily-livered Survivors:
Starstruck
While carrying a Survivor, any other Survivors who enter your Terror Radius gain the Exposed condition.After you Hook the carried Survivor, or after they leave your Terror Radius, the effect lingers for 30 seconds. After you stop carrying a Survivor, this Perk goes on cooldown for 60 seconds.
This effect is strong in isolation, asyou can often use Chase Command to catch nearby Survivors after hooking one,but it gets even better with the Ship Figurehead add-on to increase your Terror Radius.
Surge
After downing a Survivor with a Basic Attack, nearby Generators explode, losing 8 percent of their progress immediately and regressing from there.
As The Houndmaster exclusively uses Basic Attacks to injure Survivors,being rewarded for Downing a Survivor with some free Generator regression is a great deal – especially if they went down in one hit due to being Exposed or unable to heal.
Leverage
After a Survivor is Unhooked,the Survivor who rescued themsuffers a50 percent healing speed debuff.
This Perk capitalizes on The Houndmaster’s ability to interrupt healingby making it take significantly longer.And if you find Survivors regularly play around this effect by healing themselves,you may bring No Quarter to counter them.
Scourge Hook: Floods of Rage
At the start of the Trial, four Hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks.When a Survivor is Unhooked from a Scourge Hook, see the Auras of all other Survivorsfor seven seconds.
If the Unhooked Survivor is being healed under the Hook,you can interrupt them with Snug.If they leave the area, you can follow them. And if you bring Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass,you’ll have plenty of Scourge Hooks to go around.
All-Shaking Thunder Perk Synergies
Functioning similarly to the Survivor PerkBalanced Landing, this Perk rewards you for jumping dramatically from high places in pursuit of your victims. And unlikeCoup de Grace, another Perk that enhances your Lunge distance,this one lets you Lunge as many times as your piratical heart desires– within the Perk’s time limit, of course.
Here are some Perks that synergize with All-Shaking Thunder:
Sloppy Butcher
Hitting a Survivor with a Basic Attack causes them to receive the Mangled and Hemorrhage conditionsfor 90 seconds. In addition, Survivors leave more Pools of Blood than normal, and the healing regression from Hemorrhage is increased by 25 percent.
Landing a cheeky long-range Lunge is good, but applying a nasty status effect at the same time is even better. Keep in mind thatthis Perkdoes not stack with the Spiked Collar add-on or any other source of Mangled.
Save the Best for Last
When you hit a Survivor who is not the Obsession with a Basic Attack, you gain a Token, up to a maximum of eight.For each Token this Perk has, you gain a four percent boost to Basic Attack recovery speed (the animation that plays after you hit with a Basic Attack). If the Obsession loses a health state via a Basic or Special Attack, you lose two Tokens.If the Obsession is sacrificed, you can no longer gain or lose Tokens.
This Perk makes your chase even stronger,allowing you to get more uses out of All-Shaking Thunder’s limited durationandpotentially send Snug out sooner for a follow-up hit. Combine with the Smoked Snapper add-on for maximum efficiency.
No Quarter Perk Synergies
This Perk punishes Survivors who heal themselves,forcing them to decide between playing Injured or wasting time searching for a teammate to heal them. While situational,if you can slow their healing speed and/or regularly interrupt them, it gets much stronger.
Here are some Perks to help you get the most from No Quarter:
Coulrophobia
While within your Terror Radius, Survivors heal 50 percent slower, and healing Skill Checks move 50 percent faster.
As if receiving constant Skill Checks wasn’t difficult enough,Coulrophobia makesactually hittingthose Skill Checks much harder– and since you’re slowing down the Survivor’s healing speed,they’ll need to make twice as many.Combine this with the Ship Figurehead add-on, the Perk Distressing, or any Killer with a naturally large Terror Radius (such as The Mastermind/Wesker) for best results.
Scourge Hook: Gift of Pain
At the start of the Trial, four Hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks.When a Survivor is Unhooked from a Scourge Hook, they suffer from the Mangled and Hemorrhage conditionsfor 90 seconds.
If they are healed back to Healthy,they suffer a 16 percent penalty to repair and healing speeduntil they become injured again.
This one is a triple-whammy: it slows healing speed, causes them to lose progress if they get interrupted,andsticks them with a repair speed debuff if they power through the first two parts.This gets even better with Agitation or Scourge Hook: Jagged Compassto make your Scourge Hooks more convenient.
Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass Perk Synergies
Because of the twin effects of Jagged Compass,it pairs well with any other Scourge Hook Perks, but also with Perks that reward you for interrupting Survivors on Generators.
Here are a couple of my favorites to pair with Scourge Hook: Jagged Compass:
Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance
At the start of the Trial, four Hooks are changed into Scourge Hooks.The first time a Survivor is Hooked on a Scourge Hook, the Generator with the most progress explodes,losing 20 percent of its progress immediately and regressing from there.
If you’ve used this Perk before, you know that its biggest downsidewhen compared to other popular slowdown Perksishow unreliable it can be. If you Down a Survivor across the map from all of your Scourge Hooks, you simply cannot make use of it when you need it. Jagged Compass fixes that issue bycreating new Scourge Hooks as the match goes on,andits secondary effect of pointing you toward the Generator with the most progress usually means telling you which one Pain Resonance just hit. If you’re lucky,you might be able to interrupt the Survivors before they can stop the regression.
Dead Man’s Switch
After you Hook a Survivor,the first Survivor to stop repairing a Generator causes that Generator to become blockedfor 50 seconds. You can see the outline of blocked Generators in white.
Best case scenario: you find the Survivors still on the highlighted Generator, you scare them off, andDead Man’s Switch prevents them from finishing it.Worst case scenario, someone across the map lets go of a low-progress Generator instead. Even in that case,you’re still applying pressure to at least two Survivors– and you know which Generator they might look to complete next.
