How does Soul Guard work in Dead by Daylight?

Comparable to online card games, Dead by Daylight faces a perk/status effect overflow where both survivors and killers are unsure what certain effects convey. This is due to the sheer amount of varying effects and perks in the game. Not only that, but perks like No Mither and Unbreakable receive updates constantly, making it hard for players to remember what they do.

A similar perk is Soul Guard, a survivor perk with several effects built into it that can make it confusing for those using it and the killer facing it alike. Thus, an explanation diving into the perk's effects is useful to determine what exactly Soul Guard does.

What is Soul Guard in Dead by Daylight?

Soul Guard is a unique perk that can be acquired by playing as the survivor Cheryl Mason from the CHAPTER 16: Silent Hill expansion of the game. The perk's effects are as follows:

• After recovering from the Dying State, Soul Guard grants you the Endurance status effect for 8 seconds (at max level).
• Any damage taken that would put you into the Dying State will instead trigger the Deep Wound status effect.
• Taking any damage while under the effect of Deep Wound or if its timer runs out will put you into the Dying State.
• Soul Guard allows you to completely recover from the Dying State when you are affected by the Cursed status effect.
• Soul Guard has a cooldown of 30 seconds.

Related: How does Memento Mori work in Dead by Daylight?

As you can see, Soul Guard has a heck of a lot of effects. Let's tackle each one individually:

• First effect: The first effect gives survivors the Endurance status effect after being healed or recovering from the Dying State (stuck crawling on the ground).
  • Endurance allows survivors to take a hit from the killer without going into the Dying State, being then highlighted by a white outline to show the killer that Endurance was active.
• Second effect: The second effect will prevent survivors from going into the Dying State when hit, instead giving survivors the Deep Wounds status effect.
  • Deep Wounds gives survivors a 20-second window in which to begin healing themselves. If they do not begin healing in this time, they will go down. Furthermore, they must completely heal one stage, for if they start healing but stop before fully healing a stage, Deep Wounds will continue to count down.
• Third effect: The third effect simply states that taking further damage while Deep Wounds is active will put survivors in the Dying State and reiterates that they must heal to prevent this.
• Fourth effect: The fourth effect provides a similar effect to the Unbreakable perk, allowing survivors to get out of the Dying State on their own as long as they have the Cursed status effect.
  • The Cursed status effect is active when the killer is using any of the Hex perks that create Hex Totems and will continue to be active as long as a Hex Totem still exists on the map.
• Fifth effect: The fifth effect simply states that Soul Guard has a 30-second cooldown, but this is poorly explained and quite important to how the perk works. This 30-second cooldown will trigger under one of three conditions:
  • The Endurance effect ends.
  • The Deep Wounds effect ends
  • A survivor picks themselves up from the Dying State.
  • This 30-second cooldown was added due to an unintended loop effect created with other perks that allowed survivors to become unkillable.
• A cool side-effect this perk has is that it actually combos with the Unbreakable perk by gaining healing speed from Unbreakable when in the Dying State.

Craving more killer information about Dead by Daylight? Take a look at How does Last Standing Work in Dead by Daylight? Explained and the Best Wesker Build in Dead By Daylight from Pro Game Guides!