Four openings backed by the BGG forum, what each one is good for, and how to pick one by looking at the board on turn 1.
01 Read the table
Three questions after setup. The recommendation updates on its own.
Is there a melee weapon face up in any item deck? Axe, bat, knife. Ranged weapons don’t count.
Are there grouped victims within reach, on the way to an exit?
Does the killer start two spaces or less from you or from a group of victims?
—Answer all three
Meanwhile, all four exits are below. If you only remember one thing: turn 1 is for economy, not action.
02 The four exits
A turn is: you play cards, and then you buy with the time you have left. Buying is the end of your turn, not the start: what you buy is played next turn.
The three time rules
The number in the corner is the buy cost. Playing a card costs no time; you only lose time if the result carries the icon.
Unspent time is lost when it resets to 6. If you have extra, buy something even if you don’t need it: it works as fuel for converting.
You can’t buy what you played or discarded that turn, not even cost-0 cards. They go back to the tableau and can be picked up on a later turn.
Exit A
Full economy
What it’s for: reaching 3 dice on turn 2 and never looking at Horror again. Good against killers that spit out horror icons, like Hans.
Turn 1 actionYou play nothing. Discard your whole hand except the 2 Focus: +4 Time, 10 total.
Turn 1 buy2× Distraction, Improvise, Close Call.
Turn 2Improvise first. Then the two Distraction. Use the Focus as fuel to convert the 3s and 4s.
LaterNow in green, Sprint and Search nonstop.
Risk You give away all of turn 1. If the killer starts on top of a group of victims, bloodlust climbs before you’ve done anything. Its own author reports mixed results.
Exit B
Soft Horror
What it’s for: the same as A but without giving away the turn. It’s the default exit and the one with the most reported wins.
Turn 1 actionPlay one Focus and move with the Walks to where you want to be. Discard what you don’t use for time.
Turn 1 buyOne Distraction and one Close Call. Spend the rest on whatever.
Turn 2Play the Distraction. You’re at 3 dice.
MiddleOnly Sprint and Search. Rescue and loot. Ignore everything else unless horror spikes.
EndStack Retaliate and attack cards. Wait for him to come to you.
Note Focus is worth it again from horror 5 or 6, not before: it gives you time back.
Exit C
Aggressive rescue
What it’s for: freezing the killer. It’s the exit for games won without a weapon, and the best one if the map puts grouped victims nearby.
Turn 1Move with both Walks toward the group. Buy Sprint, and a second one if you can afford it.
Turns 2-4Ignore the killer completely. Sprint and rescue, as fast as possible.
RoutePlan the path counting rescue bonuses: a 2-space detour comes free if they give you free movement.
GoalFill the Final Girl card and flip it. Ultimate unlocked.
LaterLoot, and only then fight.
Why it works Every dead victim raises bloodlust, and bloodlust is his damage and his movement. Reported games: 10 victims saved left Hans stuck at 2 damage and 1 movement the whole game.
Exit D
Weapon first
What it’s for: only when you see a melee weapon face up at setup. A weapon multiplies your damage by more than two; nothing else does.
BeforeCheck which space opens that deck. Each search space is tied to a specific deck, not the nearest one.
Turn 1 actionPlay your two Walks toward that space, detouring for victims. Discard Weak Attack and Short Rest for time.
Turn 1 buySearch and Sprint, 2 of each. With leftovers, the second Search or a Close Call: unspent time is lost.
Turn 2Sprint to get there and Search right on the spot.
DiggingUse both Search. The first takes the top card, the second digs deeper.
LaterGo back to exit B or C with the weapon in hand.
Risk While you dig, he kills. If the weapon is far and the victims are near, C wins.
Variant
What if the weapon is far away?
What really costs you isn’t distance, it’s where you pass through. Moving away from the killer is cheap even when it’s far: Hans and company are slow and you can loot the tip of the map before he arrives. Crossing his path is expensive even when it’s close.
Measure in turns, not spaces. With Walk and Sprint you move about 3 spaces per turn. The Terror deck is 10 cards: three turns of travel is a third of the game before the Finale.
Make the trip pay for itself. Route over the victims. Rescue bonuses include free movement, so a two-space detour comes free and also slows bloodlust. This turns exit D into C without giving up the weapon.
There are two other decks. You only see the top card of each: 3 items out of 12. The deck next door hides 4 cards you haven’t looked at. Digging nearby usually beats traveling far.
Predict his route. He always goes for the nearest target, and on a tie the group with the most victims. Pick the deck on the opposite side from where he’s heading.
Quick rule More than two turns of travel and victims dying in another direction: forget the weapon you can see, take exit C and search the deck that’s on your way.
03 The burst
The attack pattern. Don’t chip away one hit per turn: build up your hand and unload everything in a single round.
PrepareEnd your action phase with Retaliate + Furious Strike + Weak Attack in hand. And a Close Call.
BaitStep into his space, or let him come to you.
His phaseHe attacks you → Retaliate. Damage, and the weapon counts.
Your phaseWeak Attack and Furious Strike. The weapon counts on both.
ExitMovement card and out. Don’t end the turn in his space.
Three hits Three instances of damage in one round, all with the weapon bonus. One of them is free, because it comes from his turn and not from your action phase.
Retaliate only lands every other turn, since you have to rebuy it. Alternate with Guard.
If you finish him with Retaliate, the killer phase ends right there. If he gets back up, you go straight to your action phase instead of eating the rest of his turn. Better to finish in his phase than in yours.
Weapon modifiers only apply if the card already dealt 1 damage. A missed attack with an axe = nothing.
You’re not forced to use the equipped weapon (confirmed by the designer). You can punch bare-handed if the weapon hurts you.
04 Weapons
What people mistake for bad luck is usually this.
Weapon
Rating
Why
Axe
The best
High damage and works with Retaliate
Bat
Very good
Melee, no drawbacks
Knife
Decent
Low damage but counts as a weapon
Ranged
Not a weapon
See below
The ranged weapon trap
They can’t be used with Retaliate or with attack cards. The only exception is the Old Revolver with Weak Attack. And several have a minimum range greater than 0: you can’t attack the killer if he’s in your space.
If you draw one, search again and drop it. Treat it as if you hadn’t found a weapon.
The only good use: shooting from afar to eat the extra life markers of Minor Dark Powers without getting close.
05 Dice and defense
Probability of rolling the 2 successes that unlock a card’s good line.
Horror zone
Dice
Empty hand
With cards to burn
Red
1
0%
0%
Yellow
2
11%
44%
Green
3
26%
74%
Green + adrenaline
4
41%
89%
Your hand matters more than the third die. 2 dice with a full hand beat 3 dice with an empty hand.
Adrenaline: +1 die while you’re on your Final Health token, +2 if the killer is too. Some people let themselves drop to 1 health on purpose.
Lowering horror isn’t progress, it’s holding your position. If you’re at 5 and drop 2, the Terror card puts you back at 5. If you don’t drop, it leaves you at 7 and on a single die.
Two knives are two attacks
It’s not one attack that does double. It’s two attacks in a row, each with full damage. One reaction card covers one attack. You can stack two Guards on the same attack, but one Guard never covers two.
Hans, 3 attack, two knives
No defense
1 Guard
2 Guard
Attack 1
−3
0
0
Attack 2
−3
−3
0
Total
−6
−3
0
06 What costs you games
Mistakes the forum players themselves confess to.
Paying the card’s cost again when you play it. The cost is for buying only.
Converting two partials with two cards. It’s 2 cards per die: two 3s cost four cards.
Playing an important card without 2 or 3 spare cards in hand to convert.
Not discarding face-down cards for +1 Time. That’s where Critical Blow and Ambush come from.
Buying both Close Calls at once. Buy one and leave the other in the tableau for next round.
Not buying with leftover time. Cards you won’t play are still conversion fuel.
Ending the turn in the killer’s space. Many stab for free whoever is next to them at the start of their phase.
Hiding. You only win by killing him, and he gets stronger every turn. Get in, hit, get out.
Forgetting that the 10-card hand limit always applies, not only when buying. And forced discards give no time.
Using Guard or Retaliate against life loss from an icon. They only work against real attacks.
07 Map tricks
Dead ends: leave victims there. The killer spends 2 or 3 rounds going after a single kill.
No boot, no movement. If the killer’s action has no movement icon, he doesn’t move no matter how far his target is.
Two boots are two separate moves, not one long one. It matters with items that slow him: Padlock stops one and he keeps going with the other.
Target: always the nearest. On a tie, the group with the most victims. You can use that to divert him.
Victims in your space take the attack before you do, unless you are the declared target. A legal human shield, at the price of bloodlust.
Fireworks, Bear Trap and Pepper Spray control where he goes. A trap costs him whole turns.
08 What 13,920 games say
Real data from the community tracking sheet, not estimates. Last game logged: . About 8 come in per day.
Games
Wins
Easiest box
Hardest box
Each box as it comes: its killer with its location. Tap one to see the breakdown.
Locations, from hardest to easiest
Heads up Here each location is measured against all killers, not just its own. That’s why Sacred Groves comes out worse than any complete box: it’s the map that punishes the most, whoever shows up.
Final Girls, sorted by wins
Heads up Minimum 20 games. The gap between the best and the worst is about 20 points, much less than between boxes: choosing the right box matters more than choosing the right girl.
Game state
Read it backwards The buckets with few games are the ones that end early. That “Finale not revealed” has a worse win rate means the games that get lost are lost before reaching the Finale. And the Final Health token saves you 42% of the time, but saves him 86%: when you think you’ve killed him, you almost never have.
09 Against each killer
All 26, yours first and then from hardest to easiest. Which exit to use, what will kill you, and which Dark Power and Finale to fear. The exit is my own judgment based on each box’s rules and the forum; the source of each warning is indicated.
Thresholds Win rate shown from 5 games; hardest Dark Power and Finale only with 20 or more. Without enough data, it stays blank.
