A daughter of the cursed Yamaoka bloodline, Dead by Daylight’s Rin Yamaoka lives an ordinary life until she returns from work one night to find her mother’s body hacked apart by her father. Attacking her with their family’s ancestral sword, as Rin bled out, her thirst for vengeance pulled her into the Entity’s realm in Dead by Daylight.
A powerful entity with the ability to disappear, The Spirit can throw Survivors’ tracking off-kilter and force them to rely on sound alone. With such an unusual power, The Spirit herself can speedily carve her way through Survivors who aren’t accustomed to facing her. This guide will highlight the best builds for The Spirit to ensure her victory against more coordinated Survivors, featuring teachable and non-teachable perks alike.
Updated August 23, 2025 by Mark Sammut: It is all well and good learning some fantastic builds, but this info only matters if The Spirit is worth picking up as a Killer. While she is a fun character to try out and master, Rin is not necessarily the most obvious candidate for beginners looking to get started with Dead by Daylight. We added a section that explores whether The Spirit is a good option for new players.
The Spirit: Best Non-Teachable Build (2025)
Though a strong Killer, The Spirit comes with a few impressive base kit perks, forcing her to rely on more tried and tested means of killing Survivors, interrupting healing, and stalling the game until the Exposed status hits everyone in the trial.
- Rancor (The Spirit) – Whenever a generator is completed, the Obsession sees the killer’s aura for a short time while the latter sees the location of all Survivors briefly. Once the exit gates are powered, this perk permanently inflicts Exposed on the Obsession and allows the killer to kill them with their hands.
- Hex: No One Escapes Death (General Perk) – After the final generator is completed, all Survivors suffer from the Exposed status ailment, and you gain a 4% Haste effect until the Hex Totem is cleansed.
- Sloppy Butcher (General Perk) – Basic attacks cause the Mangled and Hemorrhage status ailments for 90 seconds, slowing down healing by 25% and regressing healing progress when left unfinished.
- Hex: Haunted Ground (The Spirit) – Two Hex Totems spawn in the match. When either Hex Totem is cleansed or blessed, all Survivors are Exposed for a certain period, up to a maximum of a minute, at the highest rank. The other Hex Totem immediately becomes a Dull Totem.
The Spirit: Best Build (2025)
With The Spirit’s powerful mobility, perks such as Pop Goes The Weasel, Discordance, and Friends ’til The End synergize exceptionally well with her kit. When everything might look bleak, opt for No Way Out to reliably secure a victory.
- Friends ’til The End (The Good Guy) – After hooking a Survivor that is not the Obsession, the latter is Exposed, and their aura is revealed for a brief period. When the Obsession is hooked, a random Survivor becomes the new Obsession, screaming and revealing their location.
- Discordance (The Legion) – Generators being repaired by two or more Survivors within a large radius are highlighted in yellow. The first highlight triggers a notification, and the aura persists for another four seconds if the generator is no longer in range, or if only one Survivor is working on it.
- Pop Goes The Weasel (The Clown) – After hooking a Survivor, kicking a generator within a set amount of time regresses the generator by a hefty amount.
- No Way Out (The Trickster) – Hooking a Survivor accumulates a token, up to a maximum of four. Once the exit gates are powered, both of them will be blocked when a Survivor interacts with an exit gate. This will trigger a notification and the duration of the block is dependent on the number of tokens, up to a maximum of one minute.
The Spirit Best Add-Ons
Gifted Bamboo Comb
While all The Spirit’s Common Add-Ons offer decent buffs to her base kit, perhaps the most effective is the Gifted Bamboo Comb. This power modifier speeds up the rate at which you charge Yamaoka’s Haunting by 15%, allowing you to enter phase faster in a chase.
White Hair Ribbon
Pairing well with the aforementioned Gifted Bamboo Comb, the White Haor Ribbon increases Yamaoka’s Haunting charge speed by 20%.
Rin’s Broken Watch
Need a shorter power cooldown? As a Killer that moves 0.2m/s slower than average, The Spirit’s strength relies on the speed of Yamaoka’s Haunting – the best Spirit players know how to manage their 15-second cooldown. Rin’s Broken Watch reduces this cooldown by 30%.
Muddy Sports Day Cap
Speed is everything to The Spirit as her Haunting makes her one of the fastest Killers in Dead by Daylight. The Muddy Sports Day Cap Add-On increases her movement speed during power by 10%.
Uchiwa
Simple, but effective. This Rare Spirit Add-On instantly recharges your power when hit with a pallet stun. This addon is great for Dead by Daylight beginners who often get stunned.
Rusty Flute
A stronger version of Rin’s Broken Watch, the Rusty Flute increases The Spirit’s power recharge rate by 40%.
Dried Cherry Blossom
The Spirit’s best Add-Ons match The Blight’s in terms of transformative strength. The Dried Cherry Blossom reveals Survivors within 3 meters during power. This comes at the cost of no longer being able to see scratch marks from Survivor footsteps, so you should only run this if you’re already familiar with listening out for Survivors’ breaths and injured noises.
Mother-Daughter Ring
Like the Dried Cherry Blossom, this Ultra Rare Add-On removes The Spirit’s ability to see scratch marks in power – however, she can move at a massive 25% extra speed as she phases. With this addon, you can catch up to Survivors incredibly quickly, provided you can hear them well enough.
How To Unlock The Spirit In Dead by Daylight
Dead by Daylight only has a couple of free killers, and this lineup has remained relatively stable throughout the game’s run. Consequently, if you are interested in playing as Rin Yamaoka, you will need to buy her first. Now, fortunately, as she has been around for quite a long time (since 2018, to be exact), she qualifies for the cheapest bracket of DLC characters, costing 2,250 Iridescent Shards or 125 Auric Cells in the In-Game Store. Her original DLC, Shattered Bloodline, is available on the PC version, but it can be more expensive than buying the character individually since Rin often goes on sale.
If you just want The Spirit, the best option is to just buy her solo. Iridescent Shards can be earned by just playing the game and leveling up; yes, the process is quite slow, but you will eventually be able to pick up Rin. Auric Cells require investing real money, with the cheapest being $4.99 for 500.
The Spirit is also one of the Killers included in Dead by Daylight: Gold Edition, so you don’t need to do anything else if you picked up that version.
The Spirit As Part Of DBD Packs
On PC, there is the Maddening Darkness Pack, which includes The Spirit along with The Hag, The Doctor, and The Clown. The package also has four Survivors (Ace Visconti, Feng Min, Kate Denson, and Adam Francis), along with a bunch of cosmetics (but none for Rin).
Please note that Maddening Darkness Pack is not available on consoles since a few of the characters are part of the base game, although The Spirit is not one of them.
Rin is also part of the Terror Expansion Pack, which comes with 11 Killers on PC and 9 Killers on console.
Is The Spirit A Good DBD Killer For Beginners?
The Spirit is a weird case that has a bit of a complex answer when it comes to deciding whether she is a newcomer-appropriate Killer, as the question can be answered in two ways.
Firstly, is Rin a difficult Dead by Daylight Killer to learn? Honestly, no. While not as beginner-friendly as someone like The Wraith, The Spirit is one of the simpler Killers in Dead by Daylight, especially since her typical strategy involves listening to Survivors and phasing, making her a great mind-games Killer. Put on some solid headphones, and you will already be at a strong advantage. Look out for scratch marks and use your phasing as freely as possible. Like with any Killer, you will need a few rounds to come to grips with Rin’s moveset and strengths, but she is among the easiest characters to grasp.
So, in a vacuum, The Spirit is a good Killer for beginners. However, Dead by Daylight should not be played in a vacuum, and beginners should prioritize characters who can teach them the basics that hold true for most Killers (or Survivors). The Spirit functions differently from most other Killers, so her strategies do not really translate since she relies so heavily on her phase-walking. Consequently, once you master The Spirit, your expertise will not go far beyond this one Killer, making it difficult to transition to another character.
