the artist about to swarm survivors in dead by daylight
Screenshot by Destructoid

How to Swarm Survivors as The Artist in Dead by Daylight

Feed them to the crows.

The Artist is one of the most challenging Killers to play in Dead by Daylight, even more so when you’ve got a challenge to complete for her and don’t have many hours played in her shoes.

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With more than 30 Chapters now released for Dead by Daylight, the game has a huge number of characters to play across Survivors and Killers. As if that wasn’t enough, the game also throws challenges for each of these classes, and sometimes each character, through the Tomes that make up its seasons. One of the hardest challenges to tackle involves The Artist and using her ability to swarm Survivors during a Trial.

How to Swarm Survivors as The Artist in Dead by Daylight

laying dire crows in dead by daylight as the artist
Screenshot by Destructoid

To Swarm Survivors as The Artist in Dead by Daylight, you must hop into a Trial as The Artist in the Killer role, lay down her Dire Crows, and launch them at Survivors. That might sound rather complicated, because it is, until you get into the role of The Artist and learn how her Dire Crows ability works.

When you use Dire Crows, you place down a giant crow head. If Survivors run into these, they’ll trigger a murder of crows that swarms them and alerts you to their position. Certain Add-Ons can enhance the swarm, but there’s another way you can use it to actively hunt down Survivors.

swarmed survivor in dead by daylight
Screenshot by Destructoid

Once placed, you can launch Dire Crows. They’ll travel across the map and out of it in the direction they’re facing unless they hit a Survivor. If they hit a Survivor, they’ll call in that same murder of crows to swarm the Survivor. The best way to use them is to place them facing generators and launch them all simultaneously. This should net you one or two swarms each time and help you hunt down Survivors.

Using this method, you can easily cause Dire Crows to swarm at least six Survivors in a single trial, as is a challenge in Tome 19: Splendor. To take it even further, you can place Dire Crows close to generators or hooked Survivors to catch those hoping to repair or rescue them.

A great way to buff your Dire Crows as The Artist is with Add-Ons like Thick Tar, which increases the time required for Survivors to escape a swarm, and Untitled Agony, which hits swarmed Survivors with the Hindered status effect. There are a few of these that will help you craft a pretty powerful build, but you still need to put together a nifty loadout of Perks that suit your play style so you can sacrifice as many Survivors as possible.


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Author
Jamie Moorcroft-Sharp
Jamie is a Staff Writer on Destructoid who has been playing video games for the better part of the last three decades. He adores indie titles with unique and interesting mechanics and stories, but is also a sucker for big name franchises, especially if they happen to lean into the horror genre.