First we need to address that you cannot, repeat CANNOT, play Final Girl with the Core Box alone. You need to have one of the Feature Films with you. The usual starting point is the Happy Trails Horror box, as this lets you learn the game without too much extra information from the Killer and Location that may disrupt you. So we’ll talk here about how to play the base game in its purest form, and follow up with the separate extra rules from the Feature Films. Let’s get spooky.
Set Up
Again, you will need a Feature Film box to play this game! (Last time, I promise.) Choose a Killer and a Location from among the Feature Films you have. Remove the Killer and Location boards (which are on the reverse side of the box covers) and their associated component trays in preparation for setup.
Open the Core Box and choose a Final Girl card or pick one randomly. If this is your first time playing, you will find the Final Girl cards in the Feature Film boxes, but they should be stored in the Core Box for future games. Take the Player board out of the Core Box and place it on the table, choosing either normal difficulty or Extreme Horror Mode on the reverse side of the board. Place your Final Girl card below the player board with the Victim Saved spaces showing.
Take the six custom dice out of the Core Box and place them to one side. Take the Action cards out of the Core Box. Set the six Zero Cost Action cards aside as your starting hand. (You can easily identify the Zero Cost cards by the gold hourglass icon with the number “0” in the lower right corner of the card.) Sort the remaining Action cards into respective piles by name and place them in a tableau in two rows as shown. Some piles will have two cards while some piles will only have one. This is called the Action Tableau.
Set the Victim (yellow) meeples, the Special Victim (one each of white, orange and blue) meeples, and the three Victim Holding boards and their matching tokens aside for now. Also, remove any meeples, markers or tokens remaining in the Core Box and keep them available for use during the Feature Film box portion of the setup and/or during gameplay.
Those Location and Killer boards we put to one side earlier? Get those back and place the chosen Killer board on the table above the Player board. Then, place the chosen Location board directly to the right of the Killer board. Shuffle the Killer’s Finale cards (those with card backs of the Killer’s upper body) and place one face down so that it lines up with the art on the board. Then, shuffle the Killer’s Dark Power cards (those with card backs of the
Killer’s lower body) and place one facedown below the Finale card. Return the remaining Finale and Dark Power cards to the plastic tray.
Take the Killer’s Terror cards and the Location’s Terror cards and shuffle them together into one deck. Then, deal out 10 of these cards facedown to form the Terror deck and place it to the right of the Location board. Set the remaining Terror cards off to the side.
Shuffle the Location’s Item cards together and deal out three piles of four facedown cards each above the Location board. Then, flip the top card in each pile faceup. Place the remaining Item cards back in the plastic tray.
Shuffle the Location’s Setup cards and draw one. Setup the Location board as shown on the card using the components from the Core Box. The “Girl” icon indicates the starting space of your Final Girl meeple, the “K” icon indicates the starting space of one of the red Killer meeples, and the spaces with numbers indicate how many yellow Victim meeples go in that space. Keep the Setup card faceup above the Location board for future reference. Put the remaining Setup cards back in the plastic tray.
This next part is very important. It says so in the rules. Take the nine black Final Health tokens from the Core Box and mix them around facedown (the sides with the +1 die icon should be showing). Place one on the circle on the bottom left side of the Killer board and one on the circle on the upper left side of the Player board. Do NOT look at it! Place the remaining black Final Health tokens back in the box WITHOUT LOOKING AT THEM!
Place Health markers in the space on the left side of both the Killer and the Player boards so that each has a number of Health markers equal to the maximum health shown on their board and card respectively (including the black Final Health token!).
Place the red Bloodlust marker at the bottom of the Bloodlust track on the right side of the Killer board. Place the blue hourglass shaped Time marker on the blue ‘6’ space on the Player board. Place the second red Killer meeple on the circular Horror track on the Player board. This meeple is now the Horror marker. The Killer’s starting Horror Level is indicated by the number next to the icon found in the upper left corner of the Killer board. Shuffle the Location’s Event cards and place them facedown next to the Location board. Draw the top card and follow the instructions on the card (possibly adding new Victims, introducing an effect on gameplay, etc.). You are now ready to begin the game!
Gameplay
A turn in Final Girl has 5 phases:
1. The Action phase, where you play action cards and do those actions.
2. The Planning phase, where you chose new actions for next turn.
3. The Killer phase, where the Killer does Killer things, resolving a Terror Card.
4. The Panic phase, where Victims who’ve witnessed another Victim die, and if they’re with the Killer panic.
5. The Upkeep phase, where usually not a lot happens, but some effects may refer to the Upkeep phase.
1. Action Phase
This is where you’ll play Action cards and resolve their effects. The cards will have three potential outcomes, depending on the values you get from the Horror Roll you make. You’ll roll as many dice as shown on your Horror Level, which will most likely be two dice at the start of the game. The outcomes are Failure, Success and Double Success (from bottom to top). A Success occurs if you roll a 5 or a 6 (usually, some cards can change this) and a Double Success is if you get a 5 or a 6 on more than 1 die.
The actions have a variety of effects, including Movement; gaining or losing Health, Horror, or Time; dealing damage; searching for items on specific spaces highlighted in orange; or ending the Action Phase.
When you move, you may take up to two Victims with you, unless you move into a space containing the Killer, in which case they stay behind. If you get a Victim to one of the green exit spaces, the Victim escapes, and moves to your Final Girl Card. You gain a bonus when you place the Victim. If you fill in the final Victim slot, you flip your Final Girl over to gain an additional ability.
A lot of cards will cost you Time in order to use them, so you’ll need to make sure you don’t run out. When you spend Time, move your marker down on the Time track. At any time on your turn though, you may discard an Acton card to gain one Time.
You can continue playing Action cards until either:
- You decide to stop.
- You run out of cards to play.
- An Action card results in the End Action phase icon.
- The Time marker goes BELOW zero (if it is on zero you may still continue). Do not be afraid to end the Action phase while you still have some cards in your hand. Sometimes those cards will be of much greater use on a future turn.
2. Planning Phase
During this phase you will spend any remaining Time to purchase cards from the Action Tableau.
Do the following in this order:
a. Spend Time to purchase Action cards from the Action Tableau. If the cost of a card is greater than zero, move the Time marker down one space on the track for each Time spent. The cost for each Action card is shown in the bottom right corner of the card. You can always add zero cost action cards to your hand even if the Time marker is on or below zero. You may NOT:
- Purchase Action cards that were played or discarded since the last Planning phase (or the beginning of the game in the first turn).
- Purchase a card if paying the cost would move the Time marker below the zero space on the Time track.
- Purchase a card if you already have 10 cards in your hand.
b. When you have finished purchasing Action cards, reset the Time marker to 6 on the Time track – any unspent Time is lost!
c. Lastly, place all Action cards played or discarded since the last Planning phase (or beginning of the game on the first turn) back into the Action Tableau with other cards of the same name. This includes the Zero Cost cards which may all be placed in the same pile.
3. Killer Phase
During this phase the Killer acts and/or other location related things will happen. Resolve the following in order:
1. Resolve the Killer Action as indicated on the Finale card next to the associated icon. If the Finale has been revealed, skip Step 2.
2. Draw the top Terror card and resolve its effects from top to bottom.
Terror Cards can do a few different things. Some involve the Killer targeting Victims or the Final Girl, moving and attacking. Others will increase the Horror Level, add new Victims to the board or do other specific effects.
A Killer Action involves the Killer choosing a target and then moving and/or attacking (as explained below). Resolve the Killer Action from left to right, finishing each step before moving onto the next on. The target will either be specified as the closest Victim, the Final Girl, or whomever is closest between the two options, choosing the group with the most Victims in as the target if there is a tie.
Once a target is chosen, and if there is a Movement Icon on the Killer’s action, the Killer will move towards their chosen victim. The number of spaces it can move is indicated by the Killer’s current Movement Value (determined by the Bloodlust marker on the Killer board).
When the Attack icon is present in the Killer Action, the Killer attacks a single target in its space. For each icon the Killer will perform one attack. The amount of damage the Killer deals with each attack is indicated by its current Attack Value (determined by the Bloodlust marker on the Killer board). Each attack will have one target, either a Victim or the Final Girl. The Killer will always attack Victims in their space before the Final Girl unless the Final Girl was specifically indicated as the target. Victims have only one health and will be killed automatically if attacked. Add the meeple to the Dead space of the player board.
If it was the Final Girl who was targeting, you may use blue Reaction cards, such as Guard or Retaliate, as a response to a single attack. You make a Horror Roll as normal, which may affect how much damage you take.
4. Panic Phase.
After the Killer phase, you must check to see if any Victims will panic (the Final Girl does NOT panic during the Panic phase). A Victim will panic if:
- At least one Victim was killed this turn (where and how this occurred does not matter) AND
- the Victim is in the same space as the Killer.
To resolve panic, roll a die for the Victim and consult the numbers in their space on the board. Move the Victim one space in the indicated direction or leave them where they are if the number rolled is not shown. Repeat this process for each Victim that panics. If multiple Victims will panic, you can choose the order. While Victims will not follow you into the Killer’s space, they will panic into the Killer’s space from time to time.
5. Upkeep Phase
Most times there will be little or nothing you need to do in the Upkeep phase, but make sure you keep aware of any effects from Events or other special rules that require you to do something in this phase. Do the following in this order:
1. Finale Check. If there are no Terror cards left in the Terror deck, reveal the Finale card.
2. Perform any required upkeep indicated by Events, Items, other cards, or special rules.
3. If you wish, you may rearrange any Items to and from your backpack and hands. This is the only time you may rearrange your inventory other than when you get a new Item card.
You are ready for the next turn.
Revealing the Finale
When there are no Terror cards left in the Terror deck, the Finale will be revealed during the Upkeep phase. Flip the card faceup and place it in the same space. Some Finale cards have immediate effects when they are revealed, and some have ongoing effects that should be applied as the card indicates.
In the rare case that the Finale is revealed and the Dark Power card is still face down, the Dark Power should be revealed as well.
The new Finale Killer Action shown in the upper left-hand corner of the card will replace the initial Killer Action that was on the back of the card. This new action is the one that will occur during the Killer phase for the remainder of the game. Once the Finale is revealed, since the Terror deck is empty, you will no longer draw a Terror card during the Killer phase.
The Game’s End
The game ends as soon as you have killed the Killer (victory) or you are dead (defeat). In the rare case that both happen at the same time, you are still victorious because you accomplished your goal, and you can celebrate in the afterlife.
The rulebook has some additional rules regarding Items, the Final Health token, and bloodlust, but this will do to get you started!
Good luck, girls. You’re going to need it.
About the Blogger
You can find more of Luke’s ramblings about board games on his YouTube channel, The Game Imporium and as the host of the Bucket List Board Gamers Podcast.
