Forsaken Counter Picker

Three questions decide every matchup

In Forsaken the character is the whole build. There are no perks or loadouts to bring along, so a counter-pick is one fixed kit chosen to answer another fixed kit. Every recommendation in the picker comes from asking the same three questions about the killer, and once you know them you can work out a pick for a collaboration killer the tool doesn't list.

1. Basic attack or ability?

Guest 1337's Block cancels a basic attack completely: Slash, Tag, Lacerate, Stab and Carving Slash all count. It does nothing against ability damage. That single line explains why Guest 1337 is the first answer to c00lkidd, whose 26.5-damage Tag carries most of the pressure, and to Slasher, whose Slash hits for about 28 (33 while enraged) by the wiki's measurement, though the in-game description shows 20 (25), yet only a second choice against John Doe or Noli, who do their real damage through Corrupt Energy and Void Rush. Dusekkar's Spawn Protection has no such restriction: it can absorb a hit that would have been lethal, which is why it matters against Slasher's Raging Pace, when Slasher cannot be hurt at all.

2. Does the killer find you, or wait for you?

Some kits are about information. 1x1x1x1's Unstable Eye shows every survivor's aura for eight seconds, and against that, hiding behind a wall achieves nothing. Noob's Ghostburger, which grants Undetectable and Invisibility, is the counter the guide names for an aura read; 007n7's Clone also grants Invisibility IV and Undetectable I. Other kits are about surprise. Nosferatu's Levitation removes footsteps entirely, so the useful survivor is the one who gives warning: Taph's Tripwire shows the killer to the whole team for eight seconds and slows them.

3. Can the damage be healed?

Chip damage is Elliot's territory. John Doe's spikes land for 11 at a time and Nosferatu leaves Bleeding II, and Pizza Throw restores 5 health at once and 15 more over four seconds. Guest 666 breaks that plan: Hemorrhage covers health so it can't be healed back, which means the right answer is not getting hit in the first place. That is why the picker names Dusekkar first and Elliot second against Guest 666, and puts Jane Doe, with the lowest base survivor health at 60, as the weakest pick.

Why there are no percentages here

Plenty of counter-pick lists put a percentage on every matchup, as if someone had measured it. Forsaken has no ranked mode, no matchmaking rating and no public match data, so those numbers have no source. What the wiki does publish is each ability's damage, cooldown and effect, and each character's health. The picker uses only those, which is also why its hits table counts basic attacks instead of predicting who wins. An honest “three hits” tells you more than an invented “72%”.

Reading the hits table

The table under each matchup is plain division: a survivor's health from the wiki infobox, divided by the killer's basic-attack damage, rounded up. It is the number you are really counting in a chase. A few results are worth remembering because they decide whether a mistake is survivable.

• John Doe's 28-damage Slash takes three hits to finish an 80-health Elliot and three for Jane Doe's 60, while Guest 1337's 110 needs four. That gap is why Elliot is the best pick into John Doe only because he heals: on raw health alone he is fragile.
• c00lkidd's Tag deals 26.5, so an 80-health survivor survives three Tags (79.5 damage) and goes down on the fourth. One heal between hits changes the count.
• Twenty-damage attackers (Guest 666's Carving Slash, 1x1x1x1's Slash) need five hits on a 100-health survivor.
• Slasher's Slash shows 20 (25 enraged) in its in-game description, but the wiki measures about 28 (33). At 28 a 100-health survivor goes down in four hits, and the enraged 33 still takes four.
• Azure's Perforating hits for 22, which still needs five hits on 100 health; the Golem's Pummeling (26) needs four.

Three survivors get a note instead of a single number. Two Time has a first life of 80 and a second of 50, so the table shows both. Chance's infobox lists 58–120 (Reroll itself rolls 70–110, +5% at 2 charges and +10% at 3, capped at 120), so you see both ends. Jane Doe's count is shown before Shatterpoint, the passive that gives her 40% damage reduction and a separate pool of health that outside healing can't restore, so in practice she lasts longer than her 60 suggests.

When the recommended pick isn't yours

Most players don't own the whole roster, and a counter-pick you can't play is no help. Open “Survivors I own”, tick what you have, and the picker tells you which of its picks you can lock in right now. The list stays in your browser, so you only do it once. If you own neither the best nor the second pick, the line under the result names the one worth saving Player Points for. A surviving round pays 25 Player Points, so a 500-point survivor is about twenty rounds away at that rate.

Falling back on what you know is not a mistake either. A survivor you play well will often beat a counter you have never practised. Use the weakest-pick column as the warning that matters most: if your main is listed there, play that round more carefully rather than swapping to something unfamiliar.

Picking blind

In most public lobbies you lock in before you see the killer. Choose “I don't know yet” in the picker and you get the three survivors with an answer to almost everything. Elliot is free and is the best or second pick in three of the seven documented matchups. Guest 1337 has the highest fixed survivor health (110) and shuts down every basic attack. Shedletsky is free, rated 2 out of 5 for difficulty, and his Slash stuns for three seconds. Two of the three cost nothing, so a new account can play the blind-pick plan on day one.

The two free killers, c00lkidd and Slasher, also share the fastest base run on the roster, 28, so you will meet them often. Both rely on basic attacks, and that is the matchup Guest 1337 and Shedletsky are built for. If you're saving Player Points, Guest 1337 at 500 is the purchase the picker recommends most often.

Building a team around the killer

When your group coordinates, pick for what the killer's kit handles worst rather than all locking in the same answer. A server holds up to eight survivors, so these are building blocks, not a fixed line-up. Against killers who win with one committed strike (Nosferatu, Slasher), bring Taph to warn, Dusekkar to shield, Guest 1337 to block the follow-up and Elliot to heal. Against set-up killers (John Doe, Noli), bring a Sentinel such as Shedletsky to interrupt, Elliot for the chip damage, and a Survivalist like Noob or Veeronica to keep generators moving. Against Guest 666, stack prevention, with Dusekkar and Guest 1337 first and Elliot for whatever Hemorrhage hasn't covered.

Two survivors need more care than the table shows. Two Time earns a second life by stabbing the killer, which is hard against ranged or invisible killers. Jane Doe recovers less Shatterpoint health for every other Jane Doe alive, so one is better than two.

Keep reading

• The full counter-pick guide, with every matchup argued in detail and both stat tables.
• All Forsaken killers and all Forsaken survivors, with full kits.
• Killer guides: John Doe, Noli, Guest 666, Nosferatu and Azure.
• The Forsaken tier list for which characters are worth unlocking first.
• Not sure what you like to play? Try the which Forsaken character are you quiz, or browse all Forsaken tools and the Forsaken Hub homepage.

Sources: Official Forsaken Wiki, read 24 October 2026: health and damage from the infoboxes of Guest 1337 (rev. 86303), Elliot (rev. 88136), Noli (rev. 88259), Guest 666 (rev. 88199), Azure (rev. 88248) and the other character pages; matchups from the counter-pick guide above.