The two tips I want to add to this is simple: First, never, ever give up. Doesnt matter how desperate the situation seems, doesnt matter if defeat seems guaranteed... just dont give up. Because you never know. I've had some absolutely stupid wins pulled out of the jaws of seemingly guaranteed losses, such as one playthrough with the Poltergeist in Maple Lane (basically the worst place to fight her) where I had to dig to the bottom of every item deck before Carolyn finally showed up, and then survive multiple turns of the Poltergeist's teleport + attack finale AND heal to full before leaving... seemed impossible, did it anyway, through careful combinations of well timed actions and item usage (after all, I'd drawn so many of them). And the second tip, while it's preferrable to get a weapon whenever possible, they arent absolutely necessary to win, even against a super tanky killer like Hans or the Ratchet Lady. And dont mourn the items you arent getting... instead, find a use for what you do get. I had a win just now against Ratchet Lady where it was this loopy drawn out brawl during her finale ("Hold Her Down") and I managed a quick search (we were in an item room) in an attempt to hopefully get a weapon... got the doctor's bag instead. But that cinched the win... barely... by getting just the extra heals I needed to survive a couple more rounds and finish her off. Absolutely loopy wins, since I didnt give up. This game is really, REALLY good at that, giving the player those situations where there's just no way to truly be sure how it'll end despite how it may seem, and the only way to find out is to just keep going. Just goes to show, while the game is hard and also genuinely can be unfair (and even the designer has said so... as he put it, it "has no interest in treating you fairly") it is absolutely not pure luck. I love it. And that was the same about Hostage Negotiator, really. That one was even less luck despite how it seemed. Final Girl cant truly be "solved", but HN absolutely was solvable. It's just too bad that game got the reputation it did, it's a great game. Not as good as FG, but still, darned good.
Nice list! I would add the tip: Resist that compulsion to play every card every turn. This is probably not a problem for some, but for me, I have to be disciplined and evaluate the upside vs downside of every card play. Often I realize early in a turn that the downside is way too severe (often because I don't have good cards to discard on 3s & 4s). So then I just stop playing cards, wait until next turn, and enjoy a monster hand. Monster hands as such are generated 2 or 3 times per game and pair very well with Improvise like my man said.
Were you secretly taping my Final Girl plays?? May I have your permission to share this video with people who always say that FG is too luck based. What players do not get is this is a hand/resource management game and not a traditional dungeon crawler. All this tips you provide are what I do. In Season 2 I was 10-3 and one loss was from the insta-death finale from The Thing!! I see the game in two Phases- Phase 1 is Horror/Save/Search. Reduce horror, save victims and find a weapon. Phase 2- Guard/Retaliate/Blow&Strike- time to take on the killer and win the day. Thanks again for saying out loud what I figured out as well!
Great video! I was wanting to make one just like this, but you beat me to it. I can't believe how many playthroughs I have seen where people constantly trash the Focus cards and only buy the Distraction card after they are dangerously close to rolling one die. Gotta be proactive about that horror level and keep it in the green to maximize chances of success.
Thanks. What mainly prompted me to make this video was a combination of people talking about how hard and luck dependent Final Girl is as well as watching playthrough videos where people made major tactical errors. I posted a link to this on Reddit and people added their own tips as well.
@@MerlinsManor I agree that the game is very luck dependent and sometimes the dice just don't favor you, but if you are smart, then you can usually stay ahead of it and win more often than not. I am about 60-70% win ratio as well.
The first advice I can give is to come to the realization that not every victim can or should be saved. Of course, try yoir best to save the ones that seem possible. But there will be times where the majority of the victims and you are on opposite sides of the map and the killer is so much closer to them. Just accept that those victims will die and keep moving to either saving the victims closer to you or maybe even searching for items. On the flip side, it will help you a lot if you can save enough victims to havr your character card flip to its special ability side. So, definitely pick and choose when you wanna save victims. Number two is to get to know the action cards. Close Calls are god tier if you're not rolling well, Sprint is always a safe bet so you have more movement options since Walk is meh. But my number one advice for taking down the killer, well, Hans and the basic killers in particular, is to stock up on Guards and Retaliate and letting them come to you. This works really well bc you'll negate a few points of damage and damge them back at the same time. Of course, this won't work all the time depending on the Bloodlust level and which killer you're playing against and if they have minions that can overwhelm you.
After watching this video, I realized that I have been playing on Deluxe Hard Mode for all my games: 1) I have been spending the Time cost for buying cards when USING the card in the Action phase in addition to the green/red time indicators for the different rolls. e.g. spending 3 Time to use the Distraction card from my hand. 2) I have been assuming that the number of dice shown on the Planning card were how many you can roll TOTAL, and not in addition to my current dice.
Were you spending the time to buy them and then spending it AGAIN during the action phase (thus spending time twice for them)? That would be brutal. Well, now you can get in there and it will be much easier after practicing on super hard mode.
Nice video. I agree that a lot of people credit too much of the game to luck. I think a lot of people have a bad first couple games then jump straight to "it's all luck". There's definitely a lot of strategic choices and luck mitigation.
The card symbols on the dice can make them successes if you burn cards?! I’m not sure how I missed this in the rules. To make 3s and 4s successful would have changed my plays so much! I basically have been playing on hard mode lol! Wow I feel silly.
That is a huge part of the luck mitigation, and from what I've seen a lot of people who even know it exists ignore it too often or don't set themselves up to be able to use it (by playing cards with less than 2 cards left too often or when success is vital).
Rewatching this, and with a lot more experience in the game... I sort of disagree with the tip to search for a weapon and focus on rescuing people initially. If one's available quickly, sure. Or if you can get away with it, rescuing a bunch of victims early can be a big help. But sometimes it's more important to run in and immediately start wailing on the killer. Or if facing the poltergeist, maybe you don't bother rescuing victims, because they'll distract the ghost while you go searching for the kid (and possibly her doll). Or maybe you don't need to worry about rescuing anyone, because a police officer just showed up after everyone ran out onto the main street, and the killer is shuffling after the cop car slowly while all victims get rescued at once. Seen it happen in one match against Dr Fright on Maple Lane.
You have a point, but I find that strategy incredibly boring, I approach each game with the same cadence of rescuing, searching, laying traps, and having the final showdown at the end and I still win most of the time. I prioritize my story progression over finding the most efficient way to defeat the killer. Different strokes I guess.
Yeah, I don't make use of Planning a lot either (very situational), but Improvise is a large part of my big attack turns and sometimes other situations where I want to get a lot done.
That's a pretty solid percentage. Improvise and planning are not things I use a lot (typically once... maybe twice... in a game). I use improvise when I am hoping for a big turn full of important actions and planning right before a big action I want very badly to succeed and succeed well (often a Critical Blow or Furious Strike).
I think a very important piece of Advice is that some Times you will be in a situation in which you can not win unless Your final health token has extra hearts on it. If you find yourself in the situation, you need to prepare for the possibility that you can survive. Getting the pop back app does not automatically equalswimming so sometimes you realize this is the situation you're in. You don't do anything that turn. Keep all the stuff you have in your hand in your hand and then buy what you need. 41 very active turn even the possibility of having to run away. I said you're not using anything on this term. Because you're prepared to die. You can spend those cards for extra time where you need it
@@MerlinsManor I've been in the situation a few times I can't run because They have enough movement. They all catch up on me and just kill me. This is usually Dearing the finale doesn't have to be though. Sometimes you just have to suspect a terror card is going to ruin your day. I can't cycle my blocks it away that's gonna keep me alive. After all they can sometimes have a ton of attacks. I believe with the right finale and dark power combination Hans can have 3. Every turn Andy hits like a truck so it's ridiculous. But yeah, I've been in those situations a few times and though this doesn't always work out. My decision to just take the hits that are about to come. Drop down and if I have extra hearts, be prepared. Being able to prepare has allowed me to win. The few times i've had the extra heart. There have been times where I've made this calculation. Have decided this is the plan. I have to go with Hawai lose anyways. And I just don't have the extra hearts.
Just got the core box and a couple feature film boxes. First game was brutal. I kept rolling nothing but 1's and 2's when trying to do things. Then Within the first 3 turns all but two victims got killed due to brutal Events and the Terror cards triggering the killer and his puppets to all move and attack, then I got cornered by Geppetto and his puppets and killed on turn 4. In the second game I again had a bad run of luck with dice rolls combined with Event cards comboing with Terror cards to wipe out most of the victims in a turn or two. At least in the 2nd game I did some damage to the killer, even if half of the damage was 'wasted' clearing a minor dark power.
It be that way sometimes. There are a lot of ways to strategize and mitigate luck, but sometimes the bad luck just compounds too much, especially if things are comboing together. Keep at it.
@@MerlinsManor I have finally won a game, using Charlie vs Dr Fright in Maple Lane. But yeah, the game can be very swingy. Still great fun, even when things go horribly wrong.
@faerieknight2298 Congrats! This is definitely my favorite solo game. It can be a great challenge to try to work around the bad luck at times and to prepare yourself for the fight and get in there when you feel you are as ready as you are going to be and fight the killer. Each killer and location offers a different challenge and feel
@@MerlinsManor Which is such a great aspect. Even with only 2 feature film boxes, there's a fair bit of variety, with each killer having an entirely different feel depending on which map is used. Do I try rescuing civilians quickly, or try to grab a weapon and go after the killer right away? How much time do I risk devoting to getting a weapon or saving people? It can matter so much, and location definitely affects the mental math. As does initial setup and early Events.
I hear the points in the video, but to address the comment that 'the game is too luck based', nearly every action relies on dice rolls. Even trying to mitigate luck requires...you guessed it! More luck! Yes you can drop cards (IF you rolled partial successes), but it feels like the game punishes you for just trying to use basic actions like walking or attacking. "Oh you wanted to walk? Well now you've lost time and won't be able to get as many cards next Planning Phase". When you have a turn that you were unable to do ANYTHING AT ALL because of shitty dice rolls, that doesn't feel like you're playing a game. It feels like a Saw Movie torture device. The summation of how the game feels to me is like trying to walk through waist-high mud. I don't enjoy that experience. It's like if someone too Zombicide (a favorite game of mine that doesn't feel like a mud-walk) and then was like 'Now you have to roll to see if you even can move'. I'm not saying FG is a bad game, by far, I'm just saying they didn't make this game for me.
We all have our preferences when it comes to games any given game is not for everyone. However, the amount luck plays into this game has been overstated by many. Yes, luck is involved as with any dice game, but with 66% odds on each dice of success if you have cards to discard and generally rolling at least 2 dice, the odds of success are a little more in your favor than not. Plus, if you fail on a walk you can choose to take a damage to move, which often is a decent choice over not moving... and thematically is like you tripped and fell (a trope within horror movies). Again, this might just not be a game for you because of the punishing nature of the game and that is perfectly fine.
The two tips I want to add to this is simple: First, never, ever give up. Doesnt matter how desperate the situation seems, doesnt matter if defeat seems guaranteed... just dont give up. Because you never know. I've had some absolutely stupid wins pulled out of the jaws of seemingly guaranteed losses, such as one playthrough with the Poltergeist in Maple Lane (basically the worst place to fight her) where I had to dig to the bottom of every item deck before Carolyn finally showed up, and then survive multiple turns of the Poltergeist's teleport + attack finale AND heal to full before leaving... seemed impossible, did it anyway, through careful combinations of well timed actions and item usage (after all, I'd drawn so many of them).
And the second tip, while it's preferrable to get a weapon whenever possible, they arent absolutely necessary to win, even against a super tanky killer like Hans or the Ratchet Lady. And dont mourn the items you arent getting... instead, find a use for what you do get. I had a win just now against Ratchet Lady where it was this loopy drawn out brawl during her finale ("Hold Her Down") and I managed a quick search (we were in an item room) in an attempt to hopefully get a weapon... got the doctor's bag instead. But that cinched the win... barely... by getting just the extra heals I needed to survive a couple more rounds and finish her off.
Absolutely loopy wins, since I didnt give up. This game is really, REALLY good at that, giving the player those situations where there's just no way to truly be sure how it'll end despite how it may seem, and the only way to find out is to just keep going. Just goes to show, while the game is hard and also genuinely can be unfair (and even the designer has said so... as he put it, it "has no interest in treating you fairly") it is absolutely not pure luck. I love it.
And that was the same about Hostage Negotiator, really. That one was even less luck despite how it seemed. Final Girl cant truly be "solved", but HN absolutely was solvable. It's just too bad that game got the reputation it did, it's a great game. Not as good as FG, but still, darned good.
Great advice!
Nice list! I would add the tip: Resist that compulsion to play every card every turn. This is probably not a problem for some, but for me, I have to be disciplined and evaluate the upside vs downside of every card play. Often I realize early in a turn that the downside is way too severe (often because I don't have good cards to discard on 3s & 4s). So then I just stop playing cards, wait until next turn, and enjoy a monster hand. Monster hands as such are generated 2 or 3 times per game and pair very well with Improvise like my man said.
Thanks. And that is definitely a very good tip!
Were you secretly taping my Final Girl plays?? May I have your permission to share this video with people who always say that FG is too luck based. What players do not get is this is a hand/resource management game and not a traditional dungeon crawler. All this tips you provide are what I do. In Season 2 I was 10-3 and one loss was from the insta-death finale from The Thing!! I see the game in two Phases- Phase 1 is Horror/Save/Search. Reduce horror, save victims and find a weapon. Phase 2- Guard/Retaliate/Blow&Strike- time to take on the killer and win the day. Thanks again for saying out loud what I figured out as well!
I am glad you enjoyed the video. You certainly do have my permission to share the video. Thanks for watching.
Great video; thanks. I might actually win a game now!
Thanks. Good luck in your future games!
Excellent advice, thank you!
Great video! I was wanting to make one just like this, but you beat me to it. I can't believe how many playthroughs I have seen where people constantly trash the Focus cards and only buy the Distraction card after they are dangerously close to rolling one die. Gotta be proactive about that horror level and keep it in the green to maximize chances of success.
Thanks. What mainly prompted me to make this video was a combination of people talking about how hard and luck dependent Final Girl is as well as watching playthrough videos where people made major tactical errors. I posted a link to this on Reddit and people added their own tips as well.
@@MerlinsManor I agree that the game is very luck dependent and sometimes the dice just don't favor you, but if you are smart, then you can usually stay ahead of it and win more often than not. I am about 60-70% win ratio as well.
@shelfhelpgaming A lot of people grossly underestimate the luck mitigation though.
@@MerlinsManor right
Love the aluminum bat. Used it for the first time. There is nothing better than beating the Minor Dark Powers and extra health out of the baddy!
Thanks for this!
You're welcome.
The first advice I can give is to come to the realization that not every victim can or should be saved. Of course, try yoir best to save the ones that seem possible. But there will be times where the majority of the victims and you are on opposite sides of the map and the killer is so much closer to them. Just accept that those victims will die and keep moving to either saving the victims closer to you or maybe even searching for items. On the flip side, it will help you a lot if you can save enough victims to havr your character card flip to its special ability side. So, definitely pick and choose when you wanna save victims.
Number two is to get to know the action cards. Close Calls are god tier if you're not rolling well, Sprint is always a safe bet so you have more movement options since Walk is meh.
But my number one advice for taking down the killer, well, Hans and the basic killers in particular, is to stock up on Guards and Retaliate and letting them come to you. This works really well bc you'll negate a few points of damage and damge them back at the same time. Of course, this won't work all the time depending on the Bloodlust level and which killer you're playing against and if they have minions that can overwhelm you.
Great advice. I mainly try to save those who convenient to save enough to unlock the final girl's ability
After watching this video, I realized that I have been playing on Deluxe Hard Mode for all my games:
1) I have been spending the Time cost for buying cards when USING the card in the Action phase in addition to the green/red time indicators for the different rolls. e.g. spending 3 Time to use the Distraction card from my hand.
2) I have been assuming that the number of dice shown on the Planning card were how many you can roll TOTAL, and not in addition to my current dice.
Were you spending the time to buy them and then spending it AGAIN during the action phase (thus spending time twice for them)? That would be brutal. Well, now you can get in there and it will be much easier after practicing on super hard mode.
@@MerlinsManor That's exactly what I've been doing, yeah!
Oh god I just did the same thing…
Oof. Super hard mode.
I'm 0-1 so far. I didn't even damage Hans. Glad to have some tips.
Ok. I’m 0-4 against Hans. Will watch this and let you know how it goes.
Cool. May the odds be ever in your favor... really though I hope it goes well!
How did you do?
I think hans got him irl
Same Han is kicking my ass
Nice video. I agree that a lot of people credit too much of the game to luck.
I think a lot of people have a bad first couple games then jump straight to "it's all luck". There's definitely a lot of strategic choices and luck mitigation.
So true!
Great stuff!! Thank you.
Thanks.
Hey man! Glad I found your channel. This is definitely one of my favorite games at the moment. Great tips!
Thanks! Final Girl is my favorite solo game these days. I also have a top 10 solo board games video that has several more solid solo games.
The card symbols on the dice can make them successes if you burn cards?! I’m not sure how I missed this in the rules. To make 3s and 4s successful would have changed my plays so much! I basically have been playing on hard mode lol! Wow I feel silly.
That is a huge part of the luck mitigation, and from what I've seen a lot of people who even know it exists ignore it too often or don't set themselves up to be able to use it (by playing cards with less than 2 cards left too often or when success is vital).
@@MerlinsManor this is a game changer! 😀 and your analysis I feel is quite correct!
Rewatching this, and with a lot more experience in the game... I sort of disagree with the tip to search for a weapon and focus on rescuing people initially. If one's available quickly, sure. Or if you can get away with it, rescuing a bunch of victims early can be a big help. But sometimes it's more important to run in and immediately start wailing on the killer. Or if facing the poltergeist, maybe you don't bother rescuing victims, because they'll distract the ghost while you go searching for the kid (and possibly her doll). Or maybe you don't need to worry about rescuing anyone, because a police officer just showed up after everyone ran out onto the main street, and the killer is shuffling after the cop car slowly while all victims get rescued at once. Seen it happen in one match against Dr Fright on Maple Lane.
Poltergeist really does require some very different strategies... and luck... lots of luck.
You have a point, but I find that strategy incredibly boring, I approach each game with the same cadence of rescuing, searching, laying traps, and having the final showdown at the end and I still win most of the time. I prioritize my story progression over finding the most efficient way to defeat the killer. Different strokes I guess.
Improvise I use quite a lot to set up a big turn. But planning I used only once in 12 games.
Yeah, I don't make use of Planning a lot either (very situational), but Improvise is a large part of my big attack turns and sometimes other situations where I want to get a lot done.
I'm close to 60%, so I should use improvise and planning to higher my % of wins.
That's a pretty solid percentage. Improvise and planning are not things I use a lot (typically once... maybe twice... in a game). I use improvise when I am hoping for a big turn full of important actions and planning right before a big action I want very badly to succeed and succeed well (often a Critical Blow or Furious Strike).
I think a very important piece of Advice is that some Times you will be in a situation in which you can not win unless Your final health token has extra hearts on it. If you find yourself in the situation, you need to prepare for the possibility that you can survive. Getting the pop back app does not automatically equalswimming so sometimes you realize this is the situation you're in. You don't do anything that turn. Keep all the stuff you have in your hand in your hand and then buy what you need. 41 very active turn even the possibility of having to run away. I said you're not using anything on this term. Because you're prepared to die. You can spend those cards for extra time where you need it
Interesting tip. I have never thought to assume death and prepare for a next round in case I have extra hearts.
@@MerlinsManor I've been in the situation a few times I can't run because They have enough movement. They all catch up on me and just kill me. This is usually Dearing the finale doesn't have to be though. Sometimes you just have to suspect a terror card is going to ruin your day. I can't cycle my blocks it away that's gonna keep me alive. After all they can sometimes have a ton of attacks. I believe with the right finale and dark power combination Hans can have 3.
Every turn Andy hits like a truck so it's ridiculous. But yeah, I've been in those situations a few times and though this doesn't always work out.
My decision to just take the hits that are about to come. Drop down and if I have extra hearts, be prepared.
Being able to prepare has allowed me to win. The few times i've had the extra heart. There have been times where I've made this calculation. Have decided this is the plan. I have to go with Hawai lose anyways. And I just don't have the extra hearts.
Great video for a great game!
Thank you very much!
Just got the core box and a couple feature film boxes. First game was brutal. I kept rolling nothing but 1's and 2's when trying to do things. Then Within the first 3 turns all but two victims got killed due to brutal Events and the Terror cards triggering the killer and his puppets to all move and attack, then I got cornered by Geppetto and his puppets and killed on turn 4. In the second game I again had a bad run of luck with dice rolls combined with Event cards comboing with Terror cards to wipe out most of the victims in a turn or two. At least in the 2nd game I did some damage to the killer, even if half of the damage was 'wasted' clearing a minor dark power.
It be that way sometimes. There are a lot of ways to strategize and mitigate luck, but sometimes the bad luck just compounds too much, especially if things are comboing together. Keep at it.
@@MerlinsManor I have finally won a game, using Charlie vs Dr Fright in Maple Lane. But yeah, the game can be very swingy. Still great fun, even when things go horribly wrong.
@faerieknight2298 Congrats! This is definitely my favorite solo game. It can be a great challenge to try to work around the bad luck at times and to prepare yourself for the fight and get in there when you feel you are as ready as you are going to be and fight the killer. Each killer and location offers a different challenge and feel
@@MerlinsManor Which is such a great aspect. Even with only 2 feature film boxes, there's a fair bit of variety, with each killer having an entirely different feel depending on which map is used. Do I try rescuing civilians quickly, or try to grab a weapon and go after the killer right away? How much time do I risk devoting to getting a weapon or saving people? It can matter so much, and location definitely affects the mental math. As does initial setup and early Events.
Great tips! 👍
Thanks.
I hear the points in the video, but to address the comment that 'the game is too luck based', nearly every action relies on dice rolls. Even trying to mitigate luck requires...you guessed it! More luck! Yes you can drop cards (IF you rolled partial successes), but it feels like the game punishes you for just trying to use basic actions like walking or attacking. "Oh you wanted to walk? Well now you've lost time and won't be able to get as many cards next Planning Phase". When you have a turn that you were unable to do ANYTHING AT ALL because of shitty dice rolls, that doesn't feel like you're playing a game. It feels like a Saw Movie torture device. The summation of how the game feels to me is like trying to walk through waist-high mud. I don't enjoy that experience. It's like if someone too Zombicide (a favorite game of mine that doesn't feel like a mud-walk) and then was like 'Now you have to roll to see if you even can move'. I'm not saying FG is a bad game, by far, I'm just saying they didn't make this game for me.
We all have our preferences when it comes to games any given game is not for everyone. However, the amount luck plays into this game has been overstated by many. Yes, luck is involved as with any dice game, but with 66% odds on each dice of success if you have cards to discard and generally rolling at least 2 dice, the odds of success are a little more in your favor than not. Plus, if you fail on a walk you can choose to take a damage to move, which often is a decent choice over not moving... and thematically is like you tripped and fell (a trope within horror movies). Again, this might just not be a game for you because of the punishing nature of the game and that is perfectly fine.
Clearly not, because the game gives you tons of ways to mitigate bad rolls, which you seem to not have figured out.
Utterly useless
There are incredible videos that address all combos of maps and bad guys that absolutely rock