In Dead By Daylight, perks are everything. Whether you play Killer or Survivor, your perks will dictate your playstyle for that match. This is especially true for Survivor mains, since each character model is only as unique as the perks you use to flesh them out.

Related: Dead By Daylight: Best Survivor Perks To Counter Tunneling

Leon S. Kennedy is a beloved Survivor that many will recognise from Capcom's Resident Evil. He is a licensed character whom you can purchase, alongside Jill Valentine and The Nemesis, and together they are more than worth the money. To prove it, here's everything you need to dominate a trial with two stacked Leon builds.

Leon S. Kennedy: Summary

Plucked fresh from the zombie-infested streets of Raccoon City, Leon Kennedy is a rookie cop-turned-biohazard blaster. He met Claire Redfield on his first chaotic day at the office, which you can play through yourself in the Resident Evil 2 Remake.

In the world of Dead By Daylight, Leon finds himself stripped of his weaponry as he instead must use his agility and intellect to outsmart Killers, rescue and protect his fellow Survivors, and get out of The Entity's playground alive. He comes with three teachable perks:

• Flashbang
• Rookie Spirit
• Bite The Bullet

In classic Leon fashion, his perks lend themselves best to two kinds of play styles: the heroic altruist and the aggressive survivalist. He is a resourceful Survivor who makes the most out of his surroundings, fashioning flashbangs to blind the Killer and being able to heal teammates right beneath their noses.

The following two builds will help you make the most of Leon and his perks - whilst staying true to his lore as well.

Best Leon Builds: Heroic Altruist Build

For this build, your focus will be on your teammates. Leon is canonically a self-sacrificing kind of guy, readily putting himself in harm's way if it means protecting civilians and staying true to his mission.

Hero types who want a swoon-worthy Leon, look no further than this build.

• Guardian gives Survivors you unhook a seven percent Haste status effect bonus for eight seconds, and they won't leave any pools of blood or scratch marks for that time period too. You'll also be able to see the Killer's location for that whole eight seconds as well, meaning you both have time to get safely out of the way. This is an excellent anti-tunneling perk to have in your bank.
• Bite The Bullet is one of Leon's best teachable perks. It makes both yourself and the person you're healing completely silent, and will only regress by one percent if you miss a skill check. This super stealthy perk will make you everybody's best friend out in the Trials, because who doesn't love a dashing young man who stuns everyone into silence with his magical medical skills?
• No One Left Behind is a chunky perk with loads of payoff, both for yourself and your teammates. It gives you 100 percent more Bloodpoints (in-game currency used to unlock more nodes in the Bloodweb), as well as 50 percent more speed when healing and unhooking. To top it off, it gives your unhooked teammate a seven percent Haste bonus, which will stack up to 14 percent when used alongside Guardian. Since Guardian also allows you to see the Killers location and No One Left Behind shows you the Survivor's location, these two perks really do go hand-in-hand when it comes to getting cross-map information.
• Nea Karlssen's Streetwise is a great perk to use as Leon, since it will not only make your items last 25 percent longer, but will share the love to teammates within an eight-metre radius of you. This will persist for another 15 seconds after leaving the radius, so even if you aren't healing someone yourself, your mere presence will make their medkit last just that much longer. Thanks, Leon!

Best Leon Builds: Aggressive Survivalist Build

This build is for those Leons who want to get their own back at the Killer. He might not have his Matilda pistol or a grenade launcher to hand, but Leon has it in him to be a heavily armed Killer-countering machine if you give him the chance to show off.

In our Aggressive Survivalist build, we focus on perks that allow you to grief or fight back against the Killer using craftable items and actions that either blind or stun them, buying your team some time to get out of the way.

• If you bought the Resident Evil Chapter pack, use Jill Valentine's Blast Mine for this build to allow you to set traps on a generator which are triggered when the Killer kicks it. By kicking it, they will blind themselves for a number of seconds. Be careful, though, since these mines will also blind anyone within range! Hide in a locker to watch the fun play out.
• Leon's teachable perk, Flashbang, works similarly to the above, except that you can carry this flash grenade with you and deploy it to blind a Killer, stun them, and make them drop a Survivor out in the open. Now not only can you be a hero, but you can also do it whilst remaining faithful to the Resident Evil canon! Shame you can't shoot the grenade as the Killer holds it between their teeth, though.
• If these aren't enough blinding perks for you, pick up Haddie Kaur's Residual Manifest. This sneaky ability lets you blind the Killer for ages using a flashlight, so it's a great opportunity to practice your blinds whilst having the security of a flash grenade there if you don't get the angle quite right. Residual Manifests also guarantees that you will find a flashlight in a chest during your Trial, meaning you don't have to risk giving away this aggressive build by carrying a flashlight into the domain yourself.
• Finally, you'll want either Laurie Strode's Decisive Strike or Leon's final teachable perk, Rookie Spirit. Decisive Strike is a strong meta perk that allows you to immediately escape the Killer's grasp after being picked up, stunning them in the process. If you don't happen to have the Halloween expansion pack, don't fret - Rookie Spirit works great in tandem with Blast Mine, as it lets you spot regressing generators from across the map, allowing you to keep track of your team's progress and set traps as a precautionary measure. Leon might be a rookie, but he's going to lead this unlikely band of miscreants to safety!

General Tips

You aren't restricted to Leon's RPD outfit. For a few auric cells, you can unlock his Resident Evil 4 brown suede jacket outfit, a Chris Redfield skin, and a Christmas sweater if you're feeling particularly festive. If you have the Project W expansion as well, you'll be able to purchase a Noir Leon outfit and a Carlos skin from the Resident Evil 3 remake, too!

There is no right or wrong way to play as Leon. The beauty of playing the Survivor side in Dead By Daylight is that you can mix and match each character's perks, allowing you to be as faithful or contrary to the licensed character's source material as you like.

Next: Dead By Daylight: Most Tragic Killer Backstories