Final Girl – Core Rules: All basic rules for all Feature Film Boxes

Reading time approx. 8–10 minutes

Last updated: 11.08.2026

This core rulebook collects every rule that applies equally to all 20 Feature Film boxes, regardless of Killer, location, or series. Read it thoroughly once, and afterward you'll only need the box-specific quick-start guides for each box's special mechanics.

This guide assumes no prior knowledge. It's aimed at newcomers as well as players who just want to look up a specific base rule.

1. What You Need

• Core Box: Contains all shared components, including dice, action cards, meeples, and markers.
• Feature Film Box: Contains the Killer Board, Location Board, Terror cards, Event and Setup cards, plus the two Final Girls for that box.

Base rule: Final Girl cannot be played with the Core Box alone. You always need at least one Feature Film box.

Extreme Horror Mode: The player board is double-sided. The back offers a harder mode with a tougher Horror track and only 5 Time instead of 6 per round. For your first games, the normal side is recommended.

2. Objective of the Game

Victory: The Killer loses all Health and their Final Health Token is empty.

Defeat: Your Health drops to 0 and your Final Health Token is empty.

Special case: If you die at the same time as the Killer, you still win. The ultimate sacrifice.

Adjacent Spaces: Spaces count as adjacent if a line on the board connects them, not because they look close together. When in doubt, only the drawn connecting line counts.

3. The Game Boards

4. Setup – The Fixed Steps

1. Choose a Character: Pick one of the two Final Girl cards from the box.
2. Starting Hand: Take all Zero-Cost action cards – recognizable by the golden hourglass symbol with a "0" – as your starting hand. Lay out the remaining action cards as the Action Tableau in ascending order.
3. Setup Card: Draw a random Setup card for the location. It shows starting positions for all figures and any special rules.
4. Event Card: Draw the top Event card and resolve its instructions immediately. The card stays visible for the rest of the game.
5. Terror Deck: Shuffle Killer and location Terror cards together, then lay out exactly 10 of them as the Terror deck. Return the rest to the box.
6. Items: Shuffle the Item cards, then place 4 face-down on each of the 3 search piles. Reveal the top card of each pile.
7. Health Tokens: Place a black Final Health Token face-down on the player board without looking at it. Fill up the rest of the health track with normal heart markers.

Example: A Final Girl with 5 total HP = 1 black Final Health Token + 4 normal heart markers. A Killer with 12 HP = 1 black Final Health Token + 11 normal heart markers.

5. The Game Turn – 5 Phases

1. Action Phase

You play action cards from your hand to move, attack, search, or focus. Almost every card requires a Horror Roll.

Common mistake – it's successes that count, not individual dice: Action cards have three possible outcomes: 2+ successes for the top line, 1 success for the middle line, 0 successes for the bottom failure line. A single 5 or 6 is therefore only enough for the middle line. With only 1 die, for example at red Horror Level, the top line is fundamentally out of reach. That requires at least 2 dice that are either successful or successfully converted.

The Time Token starts at 6. If it drops below zero, the Action Phase ends immediately, though only after the current action finishes resolving. If it's exactly on zero, you may still keep playing.

Common mistake – playing a card doesn't cost Time: The Time value in the bottom right of an action card is its purchase cost during the Planning Phase, not a cost to play it. You can play as many cards in a row during the Action Phase as you have, without that automatically lowering your Time. Time is only lost when a card result explicitly says so, shown by the "Lose 1 Time" symbol.

Gaining Time: At any point before the Action Phase ends, you may discard hand cards, each one granting +1 Time. Once the Time Token has dropped below zero, though, you can no longer gain any Time.

Attacking: To attack, you must be in the same space as the Killer, unless an ability or item explicitly allows a Ranged Attack. Two different weapons equipped: If you're carrying a different weapon in each hand, you choose exactly one of them when attacking. Their effects cannot be combined.

Movement: When you leave a space, you may bring up to 2 Victims with you. They will not, however, follow you into the Killer's space. If Victims are already in the Killer's space when you leave it, though, they follow you normally.

Saving Victims: On a green Exit Space, you may save every Victim there, even if you're only passing through. Each saved Victim grants an immediate bonus. Once every slot on your Final Girl card is filled, it flips over and permanently unlocks your Ultimate Ability.

Often misplayed – Reaction Cards: Guard and Retaliate, recognizable by their blue card back, may only be played when the Killer attacks you during the Killer Phase, not freely on your own turn. Against a single attack you may play several Reaction Cards in a row. If the Killer attacks multiple times separately, each attack needs its own card. These cards protect the Final Girl only, never a Victim.

2. Planning Phase

1. Purchase cards: Spend your remaining Time to buy new action cards from the Tableau. Zero-Cost cards can always be taken, even at zero or negative Time. Cards played or discarded this round cannot be purchased, and this also applies to Zero-Cost cards, even though they wouldn't cost anything. Hand limit: 10 cards maximum.
2. Reset Time: Reset the Time Token to 6. Any unspent Time is lost.
3. Return cards: Return all played and discarded cards to the Tableau.

Tip – cards as a resource: It's worth buying cards you don't need right away, too. More hand cards mean more chances to convert 3s and 4s into full successes. The 10-card hand limit always applies.

3. Killer Phase

1. Killer Action: The Killer first resolves the action shown next to the corresponding symbol (K) in the upper left of the Finale card.
2. Draw a Terror card: Then draw the top Terror card and resolve all of its effects fully, top to bottom.
3. Minions act: If the box includes Minions, they carry out their action per the current Terror card.

Common mistake – order: Resolve the Killer Action first, then draw the Terror card. Not simultaneously, and not reversed.

Note: If the Terror deck runs out this turn, you do not reveal the Finale card immediately during the Killer Phase. That happens later, during the Upkeep Phase's "Finale Check" step, after the Panic Phase. Until then, the round continues as normal.

4. Panic Phase

If at least one Victim died this turn, every Victim in the same space as the Killer panics. Roll a die for each affected Victim in turn; the panic number on the board indicates the direction of movement. If multiple Victims panic, you choose the order.

Exceptions via card effects: Some Terror or Event cards explicitly set other conditions under which Victims, or even the Final Girl, panic. In that case, the card's instructions override the standard rule. If the box includes Minions, Victims in the same space as a Minion panic just as they would in the Killer's space.

Common mistake: Only Victims in the same space as the Killer panic – not every Victim nearby.

5. Upkeep Phase

• Finale Check: If no Terror cards remain in the deck, reveal the Finale card. The endgame begins.
• Box-specific Upkeep effects: Some boxes bring automatic effects into this phase, such as vehicle movement. These are covered in the relevant box-specific quick-start guide.
• Rearranging Items: Only possible when picking up a new Item or during the Upkeep Phase, not at any other time. Items in your Backpack also cannot be used directly.

6. Important Mechanics

Final Health Token

At the start of the game, a black marker is placed face-down without anyone looking at it. When you reach 0 Health, it's revealed:

• Heart symbol with a number (1–3): You barely survive. Place a white marker and fill your health up to the shown number; the black marker is removed from the game.
• Blank side: Immediate defeat.

On revival: If anyone returns to the game via the Final Health Token, the current phase ends immediately, no matter what's happening. After that, the game continues normally with the next phase.

If the white marker is later removed as well, there is no further chance.

Adrenaline Rush

As long as you or the Killer are down to your Final Health Token, you roll +1 die on every Horror Roll. If both of you are there, it's +2 dice. Experienced players use this deliberately – sometimes it's worth fighting on at 1 HP instead of spending valuable Time healing.

Important – Adrenaline Rush ends immediately: The bonus die only applies while you're actually on your Final Health Token. If it turns out to show hearts when revealed, you're no longer on your final life, and the bonus disappears at that moment.

Bloodlust and Dark Power

When a Victim dies, the Killer's Bloodlust increases by 1. Certain points on the Bloodlust track trigger one-time special effects, including revealing the Dark Power card, which grants the Killer a permanent ability. Which cards these are depends on the specific Feature Film box and varies by which card is drawn.

Minor Dark Power as a shield: Some Terror cards are themselves "Minor Dark Powers" and grant the Killer extra Health markers on the card itself. If you deal damage to the Killer, you must remove these extra markers first, before damage carries over to the normal Killer health track. Only once all markers on the Minor Dark Power card are removed is it discarded and the Killer loses the associated ability.

Killer Behavior: Targeting, Movement, Attacking

Targeting: Unless stated otherwise, the Killer always targets the closest target (Victim or Final Girl). In case of a tie, they choose the group with the most Victims (the Final Girl doesn't count as a Victim for this). If there's still a tie, the ambiguity rule applies (your own decision, by whatever principle you prefer).

Movement: The Killer only moves if the Killer Action includes a movement symbol (boot icon). If that symbol is missing, they do not move under any circumstances, no matter how far away their target is. Rule of thumb: "No boot, no movement." If a movement symbol is present, the Killer always takes the shortest path to their target and stays put if the target is already in their space. Once they reach their target, they stop immediately, even if movement remains. They pass through spaces containing the Final Girl or Victims without stopping, as long as those aren't their actual target.

Attacking: The Killer always attacks Victims in their space first, before attacking the Final Girl, unless the Final Girl was explicitly set as the target. If they end up in a space that wasn't their intended target, say through a card effect, they still attack whoever is there.

Event Cards and Special Victims

A new Event is drawn as soon as the corresponding symbol comes up. If an Event card's effect can't be applied, for example because there are no Victims left on the board, it's simply ignored and no replacement card is drawn. Multiple ongoing Event effects can be active at once; a new Event doesn't cancel earlier ones.

Special Victims (white, orange, and blue meeples) behave, unless their card states otherwise, exactly like normal Victims: they follow you (the 2-Victim limit still applies), can be saved, and trigger a Bloodlust increase when they die.

Minions

Some Feature Film boxes bring so-called Minions in addition to the Killer – weaker but still dangerous enemies with their own reference card for Health, attack, and movement values. Their own rules apply:

• Attacking Minions: If the Killer and a Minion are in the same space, you must decide who to attack. You can't attack both at once.
• Splitting damage: If you attack multiple Minions in the same space, your total damage is directed against all of them together, and you may distribute it freely between them. Excess damage is lost. Splitting damage between Minions and the Killer at the same time isn't possible.
• Victims follow you into Minion spaces too, unless the Killer is also there.
• Killer Phase order with Minions: In addition to the Killer Action, there's a Minion Action (sometimes only this, with no Killer Action). Minions act first, then the Killer.
• Panic Phase with Minions: Victims in the same space as a Minion panic just like they would in the Killer's space.

Horror Level

Determines how many dice you roll on a Horror Roll. The green zone of the Horror track with 3 dice is your most important goal. If the Horror Level rises past the top of the track, the Killer's Bloodlust increases by 1 immediately. The Focus action lowers the Horror Level and returns Time, and it's almost always worth it once the level climbs to 5 or 6.

Reaction Cards

Guard and Retaliate are recognizable by their blue card back. Both may only be played when the Killer actually attacks you. Against a single attack, you may use several Reaction Cards in a row, for example two Guards, or a Guard followed by a Retaliate, with each individual card always affecting only that one attack. If the Killer attacks multiple times in a row, with several separate attack symbols, each of those attacks needs its own, separate Reaction Card, since a card can't apply twice. These cards protect the Final Girl only, never a Victim. Guard prevents the entire attack's damage. Retaliate deals damage back and, combined with a strong melee weapon, is often the strongest damage play in the game. Against pure health loss from a symbol (e.g. the heart symbol with a minus), neither card helps – Reaction Cards only work against an actual attack.

7. Action Cards – Ratings and Combos

The most important insight up front: more dice beats everything else. The priority is always: first get your Horror Level into the green zone, then find a weapon, then save Victims. Games without a weapon, or with many dead Victims, can still be won, but not while stuck on 1 die permanently.

Tier 1 = always buy | Tier 2 = early or situational | Tier 3 = rarely worth it

8. Core Principles

✔ More dice is always better. The green zone of the Horror track is the goal, everything else is secondary to it.
✔ Card priority follows a fixed order: first reach three dice, then secure a weapon, only then save Victims.
✔ Melee weapons beat ranged weapons almost every time.
✔ Buy Close Call as soon as it's available – no other card in the game brings that much safety.
✔ Keep Guard and Retaliate in hand once the Killer is within reach.
✔ Fight, don't hide. Final Girl only wins if the Killer dies.
✔ The 10-card hand limit applies at all times, even outside the Planning Phase (officially confirmed). Anyone over the limit immediately picks a card to discard, with no Time bonus for it.
✔ Only enter the Finale prepared: weapon equipped, Guard or Retaliate in hand, Close Call ready.
✔ Time management beats even the most elaborate card combo.

9. The Most Common Mistakes

• Playing too cautiously: The Killer is usually slower than you'd think. Actively attacking and then moving away again pays off more than hiding, since hiding just gives the Killer time to grow stronger.
• Confusing playing a card with its purchase cost: The Time value on an action card only applies when buying it during the Planning Phase, not when playing it during the Action Phase. Playing cards costs no Time by itself.
• Misreading the Time Token: If it's on zero, you may still play. If it drops below zero, the Action Phase ends immediately, and Time can no longer be regained afterward by any means.
• Looking at the Final Health Token before the game starts: It's placed face-down and only revealed once you reach 0 HP.
• Misapplying panic: Only Victims in the same space as the Killer panic, not everyone nearby.
• Forgetting Bloodlust on a Victim's death: Every time a Victim dies, no matter how, the Killer's Bloodlust increases by 1. This is easy to miss in the heat of the moment, especially if you were just attacked yourself or busy with a Reaction Card.
• No boot, no movement: If the Killer Action has no movement symbol, the Killer doesn't move at all, no matter how far their target is. Many players instinctively assume the Killer still closes in; some Killers simply attack wherever they're already standing.
• Playing Reaction Cards on your own turn: Guard and Retaliate are exclusively a reaction to a Killer attack during the Killer Phase.
• Getting the Planning Phase order wrong: First buy → then reset Time → then return cards. Not the other way around.
• Getting the Killer Phase order wrong: First resolve the Killer Action from the Finale card → only then draw and resolve the Terror card. Not simultaneously, not reversed.
• Ignoring the hand limit: Maximum 10 cards in hand, Zero-Cost cards included. The limit applies at all times during the game, not just when purchasing: if you gain a card outside the Planning Phase, say through a rescue reward, you must discard down to 10 immediately, choosing which card yourself. Officially confirmed by designer A.J. Porfirio (BGG, 01/20/2024): "10 is the limit. You cannot go over 10. If you get the opportunity to take a card through an effect, you have to discard a card so you don't go over 10." A forced discard grants no +1 Time – that bonus only applies to voluntary discards during the Action Phase.
• Confusing the Finale card with the Dark Power card: The Finale card (top half) determines the new Killer Action after the Terror deck runs out. The Dark Power card (bottom half) grants a permanent bonus effect. If an effect calls for a second Dark Power card, it doesn't replace the first – both stay permanently active and stack.
• Forgetting purchase costs when buying cards: Easy to overlook, but the Time cost in the bottom right of the card is deducted directly from your remaining Time.
• Multiple copies of the same card: Allowed, for example 2× Close Call or 2× Guard. The Tableau stacks duplicates, and nothing stops you from buying both.
• Misunderstanding Adrenaline Rush: The bonus die only applies while you're actually on your Final Health Token. If revealing it shows more hearts, you're no longer on your final life, and the bonus disappears immediately.
• Overlooking the Minor Dark Power shield: Extra Health markers on a Minor Dark Power card must be fully removed before damage carries over to the normal Killer health track.
• Using Reaction Cards against symbol damage: Guard and Retaliate only work against an actual attack; they don't work against pure health loss from a symbol.
• Searching the wrong Item pile: Each Search Space is fixed to exactly one Item deck. If you're standing on, say, the "Dock" space and play a Search card, you may draw only from the Dock pile, not from any other Item pile on the board, even if it's closer or on the same Location board. Which space belongs to which deck is fixed and shown on the Location Board above or next to the relevant pile.

10. Conclusion and Further Reading

This core rulebook applies equally to all 20 Feature Film boxes. The box-specific quick-start guides build on it and only explain each box's special mechanics, which keeps them significantly shorter and more focused.

You'll find all box-specific quick-start guides, Terror card glossaries, Event card glossaries, and Item card glossaries in the overview of all quick-start guides.

Here's the link to the original rulebook.

Note: This is an unofficial fan quick-start guide and is not affiliated with the game's publisher or manufacturer. Final Girl and all related names, cards, and game content are the property of Van Ryder Games. This site is neither sponsored nor endorsed by Van Ryder Games.

We assume no liability for the content of linked pages. Responsibility lies with the respective operator; if legal violations become known, affected links will be removed promptly.

Original text, translations, and compilation: © ReDesign.