Let's be real for a second. Playing as Charlotte and Victor Deshayes is basically like playing a completely different game than the one Behaviour Interactive originally sold us. Most Killers in Dead by Daylight follow a pretty standard loop: find a survivor, chase them, hit them, hook them. But The Twins Dead by Daylight experience is a chaotic, buggy, often frustrating, yet weirdly rewarding exercise in micromanagement that has polarized the community since they dropped in the A Binding of Kin chapter back in late 2020.
They’re weird. There is no other way to put it. You have a French woman from the 17th century with a literal hole in her chest where her brother, Victor, resides until you catapult him across the map like a fleshy, screaming bowling ball. It sounds cool on paper. In practice? It’s complicated.
Why The Twins are the hardest Killer to love
When the Twins first launched, they were, frankly, a mess. I remember the PTB (Public Test Build) where Victor would just... dissolve into the floor. Or Charlotte would wake up from her trance and find she couldn't move her camera. Even now, years later, they still feel like they're held together by duct tape and prayers. But that’s sort of part of the charm for the three people who actually main them.
The core mechanic—switching between two distinct entities—creates a massive skill ceiling. You aren't just managing one perspective; you’re managing map pressure in two places at once. If you leave Charlotte in a dead zone while you’re hunting as Victor, you’re wasting time. If you leave Victor in a spot where a survivor can just kick him in the head (which is, admittedly, the most satisfying thing to do as a survivor), you lose your power for several seconds.
It’s a high-stakes game of chess. Most players hate it because it encourages a very specific, very "unfun" playstyle: slugging. Because Victor can’t pick up survivors, the most efficient way to play the Twins is to down someone with the little guy, then immediately switch to another survivor nearby, leaving the first person bleeding on the ground. It’s effective. It’s also miserable for the person on the floor.
The Lore is actually tragic as hell
We need to talk about the story because Behaviour actually went hard on the Deshayes siblings. They weren't born into some supernatural evil; they were just born "different" in a time when "different" meant you were probably a demon. Being conjoined twins in 17th-century France was a death sentence. Their mother, Madeleine, tried to hide them, but they were eventually hunted down by a cult called the Black Vale.
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The most gut-wrenching part? Victor actually died during their escape. Charlotte spent years wandering the countryside with her brother’s literal corpse rotting in her chest cavity. Imagine the smell. Imagine the psychological toll. The Entity didn't just grab them; it resurrected Victor, giving Charlotte back the only thing she ever loved, but at the cost of turning them both into monsters.
Mastering the Victor Pounce
If you want to actually win with The Twins Dead by Daylight, you have to treat Victor like a precision tool, not a spam button. His pounce is his everything. When he latches onto a healthy survivor, he applies the Broken, Oblivious, and Incapacitated status effects. This is huge. A survivor with a baby on their back can’t repair generators, can’t heal, and can’t leave through the exit gates.
- The Latch: If you latch onto someone, you’re basically taking them out of the game for as long as they take to remove Victor.
- The Down: If the survivor is already injured, Victor just downs them. This is where the "slugging" reputation comes from.
- The Kick: Survivors have a small window to crush Victor after he misses a pounce or while he's latching. If he gets crushed, he regrows inside Charlotte over 6 seconds.
One thing people get wrong is staying in Victor too long. You should be using him for recon. His "Killer Instinct" ability reveals the location of any survivors near him while he’s idle. Smart Twins players park Victor near a contested generator like a sentient proximity alarm. It’s annoying for survivors, but it’s the only way to keep up with the current meta's speed.
The 2024 Rework: Did it actually fix anything?
For a long time, the community begged for a rework. We finally got one fairly recently, but it was... controversial. Behaviour tried to make them feel more fluid by decreasing the switch time between Charlotte and Victor. They also tried to make Victor feel less "punishing" to lose.
But here’s the thing: they almost made them too good. At one point in the testing phase, Victor could basically down an entire team in about forty seconds because the recovery times were so short. They dialed it back, thankfully. The current state of the Twins is much smoother than the 2020 version, but they still suffer from the "clunky" factor. You still have that awkward pause where Charlotte wakes up and groans, which feels like an eternity when a survivor is 10 meters away from a pallet.
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Perks that actually make sense
Don't just slap on the standard meta perks and hope for the best. The Twins need help with information and slowdown because their lethality is split.
- Corrupt Intervention: You need time to set up. Since you’re technically two people, you need to force survivors into a smaller area where Victor can actually reach them quickly.
- Forced Penance: This is a sleeper hit. If Victor latches onto someone and another survivor tries to take a hit or help, they get the Broken status effect. It punishes altruism, which is exactly what you want.
- Sloppy Butcher: Since Charlotte has to do the heavy lifting for the actual hooks, making sure survivors stay injured longer is key. It makes Victor’s job of finding "downable" targets much easier.
Honestly, even with the best perks, you're going to struggle against a coordinated four-man SWF (Survive With Friends). They will literally follow Victor around and "baby-sit" him, waiting for him to miss a pounce so they can kick him immediately. It’s bullying, really.
The "Twin" Problem: Why Nobody Plays Them
If you look at the pick rates, the Twins are consistently at the bottom. Why? Because they’re exhausting. To play them well, you have to be "on" every single second. You’re constantly checking the HUD, tracking two different positions, and predicting survivor movements. Compare that to someone like Wesker or Blight where you just... go fast and hit stuff.
There’s also the "fun factor." Most people play Dead by Daylight for the chase. When you play the Twins, you’re often cutting the chase short with a Victor pounce, or you’re spending half the match looking at the ground while you switch perspectives. It lacks the visceral "slasher" feel that killers like The Trapper or The Oni provide.
But, if you’re the kind of player who likes being a tactician—who likes the idea of being in two places at once—there is no greater feeling than sniping a survivor with Victor from across a wall. It’s a specialized flavor of gameplay that isn't for everyone, and honestly, that's okay. Not every Killer needs to be a fan favorite.
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Countering the Twins (For Survivors)
If you're reading this and you're tired of getting wrecked by Charlotte and her demon baby, here’s the secret: Stay together, but stay apart. That sounds like a contradiction, but hear me out. If Victor latches onto you, you need a teammate nearby to kick him the second he’s removed. But if you’re too close, Victor can down both of you in seconds. The best way to beat a Twins player is to heal. A healthy survivor is Victor’s worst nightmare because he can’t down them in one hit. If you stay injured against the Twins, you’ve already lost.
Also, use lockers. Victor can't pull you out of a locker normally; he just holds the door shut. This buys your team massive amounts of time. If Victor is holding your locker shut, he’s not out there downing your teammates. You're basically holding the Killer's power hostage.
Actionable Strategy for Aspiring Twins Mains
If you’re brave enough to pick up the Deshayes siblings, don't just jump into a match and expect to 4K. Start by practicing the pounce in the tutorial or a custom match. The arc of Victor's jump is deceptive; it’s more of a horizontal launch than a vertical leap.
Focus on "The Sandwich." Position Charlotte on one side of a loop and send Victor in from the other. Survivors will often panic and run right into Charlotte's blade because they're too busy looking at the screaming toddler behind them.
Lastly, accept that you will get kicked. A lot. It’s part of the loop. Don't let it tilt you. The moment a survivor stops to kick Victor is a moment they aren't on a generator. Even in death, Victor provides value. Learn to use Charlotte as the anchor and Victor as the harasser, and you'll find that the Twins aren't just a gimmick—they're a powerhouse in the right hands.
Stop playing them like a standard M1 killer. Start playing them like a dual-unit RTS game. Once that click happens, the game changes entirely. Invest time into learning the specific cooldown timings for switching—it's roughly 1.5 seconds, but it feels like more. Memorize the maps where Victor can jump over obstacles; places like the tractors on Coldwind Farm are goldmines for unexpected pounces. Manage your "Killer Instinct" bubbles like a radar system. If you hear a heartbeat while you're Charlotte, but Victor is across the map, you know exactly where to send the little guy next. This level of map control is something even The Nurse can't mimic perfectly.