Kazan Yamaoka, A.K.A The Oni was released December 3rd, 2020 in Chapter XIV: Cursed Legacy alongside Yui Kimura and a new map called Sanctum of Wrath. The Oni was welcomed as a welcome change of pace when it came to Dead By Daylight Killers. He remains a very strong and viable Killer while not requiring the immense experience that The Nurse or The Blight requires. Best of all your DBD Oni Build can be very flexible because his power will often pick up the slack for you.
Oni's power is extremely fun to use, while also being very forgiving to inexperienced players. Making him an ideal candidate for new Killer players who want to learn someone top-tier while not spending hundreds of hours practicing their specific power. Upon mastery, The Oni can easily keep up with some of the top-tier Killers in the game.
If you are interested in just how strong The Oni is compared to other Killers, check out our tier list of all 26 Dead By Daylight's Killers!
Step 1: Learn About Dead By Daylight's The Oni
At the core of Oni's strength is his Killer power, Yamaoka's Wrath. It allows you to collect blood orbs dropped by injured Survivors. Upon filling his power meter you can initiate Blood Fury. This furthers his arsenal by adding Demon Dash, and Demon Strike. The Dash allows you to cross the map at an amazing 195% speed. While Demon Strike is a heavy attack with an extended range that immediately puts even healthy Survivors into the Dying state. Furthermore, Oni can stay in Blood Fury for whopping 45 seconds without add-ons.
The Oni's Demon Dash might be similar to The Blight's Rush or Hillbillby's Chainsaw if you are familiar with those powers. Yet it is easily the most beginner-friendly out of the three, while also being extremely effective. The basic difference is that Blight and Hillbilly can run into walls. For Blight this is sometimes beneficial, at other times it is not. But for Hillbilly it is something you 100% want to avoid. And it makes using his power extremely skill-based. The Oni on the other hand will just slide along every obstacle all willy-nilly.
You can also let go of his dash at any point, which slows you down to an almost unnoticeable extent. While Blight and Hillbilly suffer “stun” states if they ever decide to cancel out of their power.
Okay. So why would you ever consider Blight or let's say Hillbilly over the Oni? Sounds like he is leagues above them. Well, for Hillbilly that might be true. But Blight is a different sort of comparison. While comparing the Oni power to Blight power might give an edge to the Oni. You also have to compare what type of power it is.
Blight begins the game with 5 charges of his power. And they regenerate rapidly as soon as he uses a token. But Oni has to farm his power by bleeding his opponents. His power needs 100 charges to fully load, giving you access to Blood Fury. Each blood orb that you absorb gives you 2.5 charges. Each basic attack you land on a healthy Survivor gives you 40 charges. And once injured they drop blood orbs at the rate of 2 blood orbs per 4 seconds. The Oni also generates the charges passively at the sluggish rate of +0.2 Charges per second.
So you will need around 2 hits to gain your power. With passive generation or picking up some blood orbs along the way to finish it out. This means you will not have access to ANY of your abilities for the entire Early Game phase of the match. When going up against experienced Survivors, you might lose before getting to use your power once. So you need to score any hit as early as humanly possible as The Oni.
This is the most important difference between him and almost any other Killer in the game.
Step 2: Improve Your Chances With The Best DBD Oni Build Aviable!
Best Perks For Dead By Daylight's Oni
Oni is like I mentioned, all about that first and second hit on Survivors. And to get them as soon as you possibly can you need reliable information as soon as possible. So remember to invest in one or two strong information-gathering perks. I think one of the better ones is definitely Lethal Pursuer combined with Infectious Fright. But you can pick any out of these 4 and get the job done. Just don't stack too many information perks! Pick 1 or 2 at most!
The best information gathering perks for any DBD Oni build are:
The next category is slowdown perks. As always. The rate at which Survivors repair the generators and complete the game is just too damn fast. And you need something working passively against that.
Without further ado, here are the best slowdown perks for The Oni:
Special shoutout to perks Shadowborn and Monitor & Abuse. As they both increase your Field of View by a little bit. Which just feels nice to have when zooming around with Demon Dash and trying to combo it into Demon Strike.
And now we finally move to add-ons for Yamaoka's Wrath. Oni's add-on's do not have that much impact on his gameplay, so they are not that crucial. However, Oni has some add-ons you NEED to say away from. For example his two rarest add-ons. Renjiro's Bloody Glove makes the survivors suck up the blood orbs when they walk over them, showing their location to you in return. This means… they can easily deny you your power by sucking up all the blood on the floor. Bloody pointless. Especially if you run any information gathering perks that give you information about their position anyway!
Here are the best add-ons to consider when making a great DBD Oni build:
Step 3: Start Playing!
And then, the last step, the most important step toward becoming a great Oni main. You need to play, play, and then play again. Get used to timings, develop strategies for each obstacle in your way. Something that can only come with playing the character and nothing else
Remember to utilize your information gathering perks as much as possible. Any time your perks uncover anyone for you, try to remember their general location on the map. Especially keep track of any Survivors with full health. And immediately make your way over to them when your power is available. That way you can make the most use of your Demonic Strike and down a healthy person instead of chasing someone injured.
With this DBD Oni build, you should become a top-tier Oni player in no time!