General Perks in SLAYER are documented across Common, Uncommon, Rare and Legendary tiers. Their effects include flat damage, healing, mitigation, first-hit bonuses, repeated-hit scaling, parry rewards, dash resets, low-health power, squad effects and explicit burdens. Read the whole passive before judging the upside.
Role index
Flat offense
Examples include Might, Skill Adept, Keen Edge and Close Blade. Check whether the bonus applies to skills, M1s, criticals or all damage.
Sustain
Swift Recovery, Leech, Rhythm, Executioner and Undying Moon are documented around regeneration or healing, often with a burden or trigger.
Defense
Thick Skin, Iron Body, Last Stand, Second Wind and Unbroken support survival under specific damage or health conditions.
Parry and movement
Clash, Counter Instinct, Fluid Motion and Phantom Step reward defensive execution or reset dash access.
Pressure
Opening Strike, Wrath, Momentum, Wildfire and Fever Dance build value through timing, hits, dodges or parries.
Group and outnumbered play
Calamity and War Banner use complex ally/enemy conditions. Read range, side count and burdens before relying on them.
The index organizes decisions without declaring a universal best perk. Exact values and status can change, and some effects are valuable only in a specific activity.
Read every burden
Several documented perks trade power for a cost. Leech reduces maximum health. Close Blade increases M1 damage while increasing damage taken. Wildfire adds fire pressure but carries a defensive burden. Long Sword is documented with an M1 bonus and loss of flashstep. Undying Moon removes natural regeneration.
Evaluate the burden in the same activity as the benefit. Losing flashstep can be more costly than extra M1 damage in a movement-heavy fight. No natural regeneration can transform a sustain perk from comfortable to risky between encounters.
Choose for your reliable trigger
A perk is only active when its condition occurs. Opening Strike needs a gap without landing a hit. Momentum needs repeated contact on the same foe. Counter Instinct needs a parry and a fast follow-up. Phantom Step needs a successful dodge-through interaction. War Banner needs nearby allies or current fight relationships.
Review a normal session and count the trigger. Choose the effect you can produce deliberately, not the one with the largest theoretical number.
Defensive learning perks
New players often gain more from repeatable defense than peak damage. Thick Skin targets M1 damage; Iron Body adds health; Last Stand activates at low health; Second Wind combines a timed emergency state with dash and mitigation. Each protects a different failure.
Do not intentionally stay at low health to activate a perk before you can control incoming damage. A conditional survival tool should rescue a mistake, not become the plan for every exchange.
Complex Legendary effects
Calamity, Fever Dance and War Banner have multi-step conditions. Read the live tooltip carefully and test one part at a time. Calamity changes with side counts; Fever Dance builds steps through parries or dodges and loses them under failure conditions; War Banner counts allies and changes solo output.
A summary cannot replace the current text. If the server value differs from the public card, use the current tooltip and record the date.
Test a perk cleanly
Use the same target, level, clan, style or art, stats and move. Reproduce the trigger and compare against a control attempt. For healing, record health before and after. For dash reset, watch the actual cooldown. For damage, use several non-critical trials unless the perk specifically changes criticals.
Avoid testing during a global event boost unless the boost’s scope is known. Do not claim a percentage from one rounded damage number.
Common mistakes
- Reading the upside and ignoring the burden.
- Choosing a PvP, boss or squad perk for an activity where the condition never occurs.
- Comparing perks with different health, stats or target states.
- Assuming rarity guarantees a better fit.
- Treating a complex Legendary summary as complete after a patch.
Sources and confidence
Names, tiers and broad effects come from the identity-linked SLAYER Trello General Perks card, last activity observed October 20, 2026. Exact live values, rarity odds, enabled state and interactions require in-game verification.