Sadako Yamamura, A.K.A The Onryo, was released on March 8, 2022, in CHAPTER XXIII: Sadako Rising alongside Yoichi Asakawa, and surprisingly, no new map. The Onryo is another addition to the Dead By Daylight Stealth Killers roster. And she sadly shipped in a pretty rough state. Her Killer power is nigh useless in any case scenario. While hit'n'run gameplay that stealth Killers encourage is not viable in the current meta. Before buying The Onryo and putting your DBD build for her, you should consider picking up another Killer!
The Onryo has what I could call “pseudo-stealth.” Because you can see her from some distance away. Unlike Wraith, who turns invisible. Or Ghostface, who can crouch and sneak around. So Sadako suffers from all the disadvantages of being a stealth Killer, like being noticeably worse in any case scenario. Still, she doesn't even get the full benefits of being one. Not that there are many benefits to being a stealth Killer in 2022 Dead By Daylight, mind you. But, her power does allow her to transverse the map exceptionally quickly, thanks to manifesting through the television screen. The Onryo doesn't have much else going for her. You are at the mercy of how good Survivors are due to not having any “chase boosters” in your kit. Thus, you need to slow the game down as much as possible by any means necessary.
If you are interested in just how strong The Onryo is compared to other Killers, check out our tier list of all Dead By Daylight's Killers!
Step 1: Learn About DBD's Onryo Killer Power
Deluge of Fear, the Killer power of The Onryo, is super weird, and it breaks down into a couple of smaller components. At the very base of her kit, you have a power that allows Sadako to “Manifest” and “Demanifest” with the press of a button. Sadako is a regular killer with little to no special abilities. This is doubly true in the chase.
The second part of her power is Demanifesting. This is where the fun begins. Sadako is not able to be seen by survivors beyond 24 meters. Within 24 meters of the survivors, Sadako will start to phase in and out of reality, similarly to the Spirit but much more frequently. This continues for a few seconds after the Onryo manifests. To damage survivors and hook them, Sadako must be manifested.
Sadako can also “project” to any powered TV, instantly manifesting her and giving her a temporary speed buff. Any survivor near the TV receives a stack of Condemned when she is Projecting. The Survivors can temporarily turn off these TVs. They simply need to take the VHS tape out of the player to achieve that. But! This, in turn, affects them with a stack of Condemned. Once Condemned has been stacked completely, the survivor will be revealed by Killer Instinct. Sadako can also kill the downed survivor using a special more if he is currently Condemned.
Clever Killer players can make Sadako somewhat successful. A Demanifested Sadako can traverse the map almost undetected and use Projection to ambush survivors working on a generator while setting them up for a quick Mori Death. But don't expect it actually to happen. As Condemned is sort of tricky actually to stack up on Survivors.
The Huntress moves at the standard 115% movement speed. Her walking speed while “demanifesting” is the same as the standard movement speed. But “manifesting” to hit survivors makes her slow down to 92% for like 0.5 seconds, or a full second, before she finishes manifesting. This is kinda huge, much like “uncloaking” with Wraith. It would be best to think about when you want to come out of hiding, unfortunately for Sadako. She doesn't get a speed boost after that, like Wraith.
| Survivor Running Speed | The OnryÅ Basic Movement Speed | The OnryÅ Movement Speed When Manifesting |
|---|---|---|
| 4.0 meters/second (or 100%) | 4.4 m/s (or 110%) | 3.68 m/s (or 92%) |
Demanifest's clever use can make looping of the Onryo difficult since her sudden invisibility is sometimes hard to track. This can be used to compensate for Sadako's subpar chase abilities. And well. Frankly, it SHOULD be used. Otherwise, your downs will come minutes into the match when 1 or 2 generators pop. And then it will all spiral down.
So be mindful of where you pick your battles. Chasing Survivors into well-connected loops littered with safe pallets is a bad idea. Prioritize the prey running into the corners of the map, or make them run off into the corner by body blocking other ways out. They will have a much harder time avoiding your magic in those scenarios.
Step 2: Outplay Survivors With The Best DBD Sadako Build Available!
Best Perks For Dead By Daylight's The Onryo
Surveillance and Discordance are great perks for her. Chase Projecting is a slightly more challenging but rewarding Sadako trick. This was something I learned while playing with her. It is possible to chase survivors towards the TVs and then Demanifest. You can confuse them by the sudden loss or terror radius and then Project to the TV in front of them.
The Onryo teleport power in public benefits significantly from information perks. But to then use that information correctly requires a very keen understanding of Survivor behavior and keeping tabs at all times where your enemies could be. It would be best to utilize information-gathering perks to make this tremendous task a little easier. If you know the positions of the Survivors, it is so much easier to prioritize targets and eventually scare them to death. As always, do not stack too many! 1 or 2 are plenty.
The best information gathering perks for any DBD Onryo build are:
| Barbecue & Chilli* (Perk of the Cannibal) | Call of Brine* (The Onryo's Perk) | Bitter Murmur (Perk Available To All Killers) | Whispers (Perk Available To All Killers) |
|---|---|---|---|
| After hooking a Survivor, all other Survivors' Auras are revealed to you for 4 seconds when they are farther than 40 meters from the Hook. | After damaging a Generator, Call of Brine activates for 60 seconds. The Generator regresses at 200 % of the normal Regression speed, revealing its Aura to you. Each time a Survivor completes a Good Skill Check on a Generator affected by Call of Brine, you receive a Loud Noise Notification. | Each time a Generator is completed, the Auras of all Survivors within 16 meters of that Generator are revealed to you for 5 seconds. Once the last Generator is completed, the Auras of all Survivors are revealed to you for 10 seconds. | You hear the sporadic whispers of the Entity whenever at least one Survivor is within 32 meters of your location. (Good headset is not necessarily mandatory for this perk, as when it is “active,” you can see its icon light up on your HUD) |
The other important category for any DBD Onryo is slowdown perks. Listen, your power doesn't help you in chases. This might not sound like a problem, but the reality is that all the top Killers in the game are chasers. And Onryo is not. It would help if you had these perks to take some of the heat off of you. Otherwise, you will never succeed. There are 4 Survivors, and you can only really pressure one at a time. And there are plenty of tools to make generators pop in 30-40 seconds each.
To counteract said tools consider these slowdown perks for your DBD Onryo build :
| Scourge Hook: Pain Resonance * (Perk of The Artist) | Corrupt Intervention * (Perk of The Plague) | Pop Goes The Weasel* (Perk of The Clown) | Hex: Ruin (Perk of The Hag) |
|---|---|---|---|
| You can read all about it in the table above! | At the start of the Trial, the 3 Generators located farthest from you are blocked for 80/100/120 seconds. | After hooking a Survivor, Pop Goes the Weasel activates for the next 45 seconds. The next Generator you damage instantly loses 25 % Progression. | All Generators automatically regress at 100/150/200 % of the normal speed whenever they are not being repaired. The Hex effects persist as long as the related Hex Totem is standing. |
And you might want to also squeeze into your build some perks that empower your chase potential. As the Onryo REALY struggles with that part of the game.
Here are some of the best chase empowering perks for your DBD Onryo build :
| Make Your Choice* (Perk of The Pig) | Save The Best For Last * (Perk of The Shape) | Hex: No One Escapes Death (General Killer Perk) |
|---|---|---|
| Each time a Survivor is rescued from a Hook when you are at least 32 meters away, Make Your Choice activates: The Rescuer screams and suffers from the Exposed Status Effect for the next 60 seconds. Make Your Choice has a cooldown of 60 seconds. | Each time you hit a Survivor other than your Obsession with a Basic Attack, Save the Best for Last gains 1 Token, up to a maximum of 8 Tokens: Gain a stackable 5 % Cool-down reduction on successful attacks per Token, up to 40 %. Each time you hit your Obsession with a Basic Attack, Save the Best for Last loses 2 Tokens. When Obsession is sacrificed or killed, you can neither gain nor lose any more Tokens. | Once the Exit Gates are powered and there is at least one Dull Totem remaining in the environment, Hex: No One Escapes Death activates and lights its Totem: Increases your movement speed by 4 %. Survivors suffer from a permanent Exposed Status Effect. |
And now we move on to add-ons for Deluge of Fear. The Onryo add-ons are very basic. Some have already changed since the PTB, and I expect them to be changed again sometime in the future. She doesn't have any extremely weak add-ons. But at the same time, her best add-ons will not win you games. Most of them sit comfortably in the middle. So they are okay; they help you, but not that much. So you still need to pull off most of the job yourself or with your perks. That being said.
Here are the best add-ons to consider when making a great DBD Onryo build:
| Bloody Fingernails * (Rare add-on) | Ring Drawing * (Rare add-on) | Iridescent Videotape (Ultra Rare add-on) | Cabin Sign (Common add-on) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Increases the duration of the Post-Projection Movement Speed boost by +50 %. | Condemned Survivors spread their Condemnation to other Survivors, who complete a Healing action on them. | Hitting a Survivor within 8 seconds after Manifesting turns on the last 4 TVs turned off by Projection. | Reduces the time it takes for a TV to turn on after Projection by -12 seconds. |
Step 3: Start Playing!
The Onryo is one of the more skill-dependent Killers in the game. The number of the surprise hits you score with your Deluge of Fear will significantly influence whether it is a 4-kill match or four escapes match. So you better work on using the unique stealth aspects of this Killer and get your muscle memory trained to use some neat projection tricks.
Try to hit'n'run as often as humanely possible outside of chases. But on that note, you need to be super careful of the Circle of Healing boon. You must also remember where your TVs are on each map and plan your chases accordingly. Some maps naturally will have better-positioned TVs, and others will have pretty bad ones. You should identify those maps and recognize which areas you cannot chase down Survivors efficiently.
With all this knowledge, you should become a top-tier DBD Onryo in no time!