As Dead by Daylight has gone through its various updates, killers often become harder or easier to face with time. The Onryo is an extremely tricky one to outplay, with an infamous ability to kill survivors after building up her stacks of condemned without even needing to hook them once. So while I list out some strategies to help mitigate this ability of her’s, I’ll play a few games of my own to further explore the ins and outs of this killer– Oh my god I’m already condemned.
Pick Up a Tape as Soon as the Game Begins
In our last match, a fatal mistake we made was that we didn’t pick up a VHS tape as fast as possible. Acquiring a tape and holding onto it prevents players from gaining condemned stacks when the killer teleports around the map. So now that we’ve prevented her from condemning us, we should be safe–
Wait, never mind. She’s chasing us. And injuring someone with a tape causes them to automatically gain 2 out of 7 stacks? And now that we lost our tape, she’s using her power to resume stacking on us once more. So in the end, we didn’t make any progress… Okay, she’s killing us again. Let’s load up the next match and try something new.
Ignore the VHS Tapes Until Absolutely Necessary
If you simply ignore the VHS tapes until you are near condemned, it gives you more time to work on objectives. Ignoring killer powers should be a more viable strategy for all killers, in all honesty. If one could simply say ‘no thanks’ to a Skull Merchant’s drones, the world would be that much closer to healing. But in this case, the Onryo is left that much powerless.
The Onryo is something of a “bully killer.” She will push you around, have you fearing each time you run around a corner or begin hearing that ominous screeching noise while she’s stealthed. But bullies only have as much power as you give them. Just push forward, focus on your objectives so you may escape unscathed.
Wait, never mind. She caught on to this strategy. Now she’s chasing us while spam teleporting along the way so that we can’t manage our condemned stacks ourselves. Okay, maybe this calls for the opposite strategy, if this one is working out so poorly.
Place VHS Tapes into TVs as Fast as Possible
So the moment one hits 3 stacks of condemned, they should go running for the VHS tapes. Returning them to a TV takes away exactly 3 of those stacks, so in theory, we should be able to keep pace with the Onryo, right? Well wrong, according to this nightmare of a game I’m trapped in right now.
All the TVs are on cooldown. Everyone in my lobby has the same idea. And the killer is teleporting around the map like she just set her ping to 1000+. If she isn’t hunting down players like rabid dogs and hitting them with a mori, she’s hooking them and making us more scared to touch generators than non-unionized technicians. But let’s just take a breather and think before we queue up for another game. If we think like an Onryo player, we can beat them at their own game.
We Can’t Beat Them
I’ve seen that stare so many times. You can try any angle, but it never works. If I don’t pick up a tape, I get condemned. If I do pick one up, I’m attacked and then the stacks come anyway. I can’t keep the stacks down long enough before the TVs are on cooldown. My friends are dead after witnessing the horrifying stare so many times, strangling their very being like an anaconda.
Everywhere you go on any map, she’s there. Waiting for you to show yourself, to make a single slip up. She’ll rip those VHS tapes from your sweaty hands and then humiliate you through a mori. It’s like she’s taunting us. A god, toying with her food. Letting us know just how much more powerful she is than us, and only when the dread sets in, she finally ends us.
We’re going back to the lab with this one. There isn’t a simple solution to this. We can’t just think like this is a game, we have to dig deep into the code. We have to run tests, consult experts. Maybe watch 45 minutes of Otzdarva guides before we feel brave enough to try again. But in the meantime, we give one more strategy a try.
Play Something Else
You know, I’ve been meaning to continue that Tactician run in Baldur’s Gate 3. About time I got back on it. There’s still a lot of new stuff I’m finding in this game, it’s pretty impressive. Did you know that if you sneak away with the Idol of Silvanas in Act 1, it gives your party a buff so long as you hold it? I just found that out. It’s really handy if you’re not already playing a druid.
At least I can take this game at my own relaxing pace. There’s also that backlog I’ve been meaning to chip away at. And oh, sweet, some games gifted for the holidays. This is nice. Why don’t I do this more often? I feel the color coming back to my skin, my brain being flooded with dopamine from treating myself the way I deserve to be. I have no earthly idea how people manage to play the same game for years on end like how I once did. I’m a new man, reborn with a new purpose.
Inevitably Return
I forgot the reason I took a break from Baldur’s Gate was because I was stuck on that final Act 2 boss fight and gave up for a while. So we’re back on Dead by Daylight. We’ll have to make our peace with Onryo. After all, there are dozens of other killers in the game, who my opinions vary on depending on who killed me last.
For now, my only advice against Onryo is to just commit to the previous strategies mentioned. Pick up those tapes, then place them into a TV once your stacks begin to make you frown just by looking at them. Once the stacks climb too high, and active TVs are too low, consult your favorite streamer and/or Fog Whisperer about which god is most efficient to pray to and more likely to give you a haste buff.
