How To Play Guide

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The following will serve as a basic guide for the first hour of gameplay of Friday the 13th: The Game.

## Basic Gameplay

### Getting Started

At the beginning of a match, one player is chosen at random to play as Jason Voorhees. Every other player will then begin the match as Counselors of their choosing before the match begins. The counselors must find a way to escape the map using objectives they can repair, and at the same time Jason will try to murder the counselors. The game will last 20 minutes, during which Jason becomes more dangerous as he unlock his abilities upon reaching certain time periods, so counselors must proceed with caution if they're still alive at later points in the game. Alternatively, the counselors can attempt to Kill Jason, but this isn't recommended unless you're able to play a match alongside a coordinated group who knows how to fulfill the conditions.

#### Spawning

Counselor spawn locations are randomized each game. On occasion, a small group of counselors may be spawned in close proximity, but there's no guarantee it will happen to you in a match since the game has no special placements for each different counselor.

Jason, on the flip side, will always begin the match in his shack. He starts off with one ability (Morph) which will allow him to teleport anywhere on the map starting off, and can pick two throwing knives off the walls in his starting room to use against the counselors.

#### Weapons

Counselors can find various utility tools as well as objects which can be used as makeshift weapons to fight Jason off. A few choices are actual weapons, many of them being useful for the Kill Jason win condition.

Make sure to look over the weapon statistic chart found in the game's tutorial (which can also be found on the Weapon page located on this wiki), and figure out which weapons would be better suited for your counselor. The higher a counselor's luck stat is, the more durable weapons will be when wielded by them. As a rule of thumb, any counselor can make great usage of a weapon with above-average stun/durability (e.g. wrench), and only counselors with high strength should consider using weapons that inflict high damage under normal circumstances.

However, always make sure the counselor is armed if you aren't carrying an objective part in hand; without a weapon, a counselor's fear will increase faster. Even a simple fire poker will help a counselor keep their fear under control, and it's better than being armed with nothing.

Jason's weapon is predetermined depending on which Jason is chosen by the player for the match(until Level 113 where weapons can be chosen for each Jason), and always deals a fixed amount of damage (Part 3 Jason, Part 4 Jason and Savini Jason deal higher amounts of weapon damage as a strength). While a few Jason's have slightly longer ranges (Part 6 Jason and Savini Jason), they are otherwise the same, being swung with the same attack speed. He cannot pick up any counselor weapons he finds, nor can he destroy them on sight (except when attacking a counselor who is blocking with the weapon), but he can force counselors to drop their weapons by choke-grabbing the counselors.

#### Items

Various Items can be found throughout the entire map; a normal spot is inside cabins as well as near buildings, although it's best to assume you'll find them in unlikely places as well. For counselors, there are two different types: Inventory and Objective.

Inventory Items are found inside drawers inside most buildings, and the majority of them are stored within your inventory slots (the exceptions to this rule are maps as well as walkie talkies; they are stored without needing an inventory slot). They can be used for varying purposes explained in the item page of this wiki, but in general they are useful for survival. Two of them can even be used to assault Jason, making them invaluable tools for fending off the mass murderer.

Objective Parts are necessary to make repairs on objectives. Any parts which cannot be stored in the inventory slots must be held by the counselor like a weapon, the catch being you cannot use them to fight Jason. Counselors must take extra precautions when they hold these types of items since they cannot fight Jason under these conditions unless they have fire crackers in their possession, and even then it's better to avoid Jason altogether.

Like weapons, Jason cannot pick up any items, and he cannot destroy them as well as open drawers to discover them. He can, however, find throwing knives scattered through the levels which only he can use. Also, if Jason murders any counselor, his victim will drop all inventory items as well as the weapon/objective part they were holding near their body. They can later be collected by fellow counselors, albeit they will suffer a heavy fear penalty for seeing a dead body, and crafty Jasons can leave traps near the corpses as well as hide near the bodies with Stalk activated to attack unsuspecting counselors.

### Winning the Match

For Counselors, there are three different ways to win the game:

* Escape using a fixed objective.
* Survive for twenty minutes.
* Kill Jason

As a counselor, there are various broken machines throughout the level which can be fixed if you have the correct objective parts for them. When an objective is repaired, it can be used to escape the level, therefore granting you a victory for managing to escape from Jason's clutches alive. While anyone can attempt to make a repair, new and/or inexperienced players should only attempt this using a counselor proficient in repairing objectives (e.g. A.J. Mason). New players will have only one counselor starting off with a decent repair stat: Kenny. Try him out to see if you enjoy making repairs, or would rather have someone else do this.

Counselors can also attempt to survive twenty minutes, although this is difficult since Jason becomes stronger as the match goes on (especially if he takes too much damage early on). Furthermore, depending on your counselor's stats, it might be difficult to hide from Jason to begin with. Counselors who have a stealth level less than nine will make noise whenever they jog, and counselors who are quick to panic will be hunted down with greater ease by Jason when he uses his Sense ability. Also, once Jason's Rage ability is activated, counselors will light up red even while occupying a hiding spot, meaning a counselor cannot indefinitely hide forever from Jason.

Finally, killing Jason is possible, but it should only be attempted with a coordinated group as mentioned above. If you wish to learn more about this win condition, look up the Kill Jason guide on this wiki.

For Jason, his sole objective is to eliminate the counselors. He can also takes certain steps to help ensure the counselors will be unable to kill him in a match, and keep a vigilant watch over the objectives to prevent counselors from repairing them with ease.

### Combat

Counselors can fight Jason, and sometimes it's crucial to buy yourself time. Jason is invulnerable, meaning you can only stun him for a varying amount of time (unless you can achieve certain conditions that lead to the fulfillment of the Killing Jason win condition), and you cannot fight unless you're armed with a weapon as well as certain items. Furthermore, if you're fighting Jason alone, he can grab you in order to make you drop your weapon so he can execute you (unless you can escape his grasp through struggling or using a pocket knife). In short, a counselor should avoid fighting Jason alone unless you can ambush him, especially since Jason's attacks/grabs are much faster than any counselor's ability to swing a weapon.

When fighting Jason, stunning him will deal no damage by itself, which is helpful since damaging Jason will shorten the countdown before he gains his Rage ability. However, dealing high amounts of damage in a short period of time also has the chance to knock him down for a longer period of time than normal stuns, meaning you have a window of opportunity to escape. If enough damage is dealt, Jason's mask will fall off; this is a crucial step towards fulling the Kill Jason win condition, and it's worth it to grab his mask so a female counselor can enter Jason's shack without alerting Pamela. However, if you fight Jason by himself, he can counter this by grabbing you in order to make sure you can't rip his mask off, so it's recommended you fight Jason in a group to prevent this from happening.

For new players starting off, focus on using weapons with a high stun chance as well as high durability. Also, keep in mind the strength stat will reduce the amount of stamina a counselor uses when performing any combat-related actions, whether or not you're using combat stance as well.

#### Combat Stance

Everyone in the game can use a feature known as "Combat Stance." When activated, this feature allows you to attack quicker while also giving players more combat related actions to use.

As a counselor, you can block/dodge attacks to avoid taking any damage from Jason, but keep in mind blocking attacks also weakens a weapon's durability. It's not recommended for counselors to use combat stance if you're alone since Jason can still grab you, but it will help immensely if you're try to demask Jason for the Killing Jason quest AND you have allies near you who can stun Jason if he gets the upper hand on you. Weapon damage is doubled when you hit Jason while using combat stance, but this can be drawback since hurting Jason will cause his Rage Mode to activate earlier in a match.

Using combat stance will significantly slow down the player's movement speed, so use it only if you intend to duke it out with Jason. It should be noted that entering combat stance will automatically lock on to Jason, making it useful to immediately face him when you're almost out of stamina. But it can also backfire by accidentally targeting another nearby counselor, something that can get you into trouble if Jason is nearby. Make sure the conditions are right: counselors who are by themselves can simply run from Jason if he approaches them in combat stance, and Jason can always grab someone if he doesn't feel like fighting them in a duel.

Jason, on the flip side, cannot dodge attacks in combat stance (he can only block), and he will not be able to block everything effectively if he has a weakness in defense. Combat stance will help Jason destroy doors faster, although some players will not use this technique for personal reason such as believing it to be an unintended benefit (or even outright cheating). Any Jason who can run (Parts 2-5) has an edge in combat by being able to avoid attacks easier outside of combat stance thanks to their increased speed (you simply move away from counselors when they're about to swing their weapon). As such, whether or not Jason should use combat stance is up to player preference, but it can be useful if you're up against a single opponent or multiple counselors who are all facing your direction (e.g. fighting multiple people in a cramped hallway knowing there aren't any counselors behind you).

## Conclusion

This information, while brief, should now give you a decent idea of understanding how the game works. It's recommended you play with different counselors in order to get an idea of what style of gameplay you favor, whether that be fighting Jason; protecting teammates; hiding from Jason; or something else altogether, so long as you don't break any in-game rules. Likewise, there's more information on this wiki which can give you tips in order to survive.

Make sure to communicate often with your teammates as a counselor so it's easier to survive, and if you help others, sometimes they might return the favor. Likewise, if you put others in harm's way on purpose, or abandon your team, don't be surprised if they leave you behind to die.