The Texas Chain Saw Massacre – Super Basic Beginner’s Guide

If you have not played a single game of TCM, have a quick look through this. Or don’t! It’s a Horror Game after all, so maybe play one or two games letting yourself be scared, before coming back here.

Newbies Guide to Basics

Winning Conditions

• Victims win by escaping.
• The family’s needs to kill the victims.

Victim Health

• Victims slowly lose health over time, but this happens extremely slowly.
• Significant health loss occurs when attacked by family members.
• If a victim’s health drops to zero due to an attack, they are instantly killed.
• Victims dropping to zero health for reasons other than an attack will start bleeding out, rendering them immobile. Family members can kill them during this period. If left unattended, victims will automatically get up after a short time, but this can only happen once. Dropping into the bleed-out state a second time results in death.

Exits

• There are four exit types: Generator Exit, Car Battery Exit, Pressure Gate Exit, and Fuse Box Exit.
• Generator and car battery exits require victims to disable electrified wiring in front of the exit by turning off the generator or car battery. Usually, there is a locked gate in front of these that also needs to be unlocked
• Pressure Gate exit requires collecting valves and locating the pressure gauge. After around a minute, the pressure gate opens, granting escape. Family members can turn it off, stopping the timer until a victim reactivates it.
• Fuse Box exit necessitates finding a fuse somewhere on the map and bring it to the fuse box. A color and number matching mini-game is involved. The box is upstairs and the exit itself in the basement. Family members can disable it, but there’s a cool down period.

Locked Doors

• Locked doors serve as guidance for victims, showing them potential escape routes, specifically to the Generator and car battery exit.
• Victims need to find a lock pick from a toolbox and complete a small mini-game to unlock these doors without breaking the lock pick, which happens if the bar to the left fills.
• For family members, it’s essential to protect these locked doors and communicate if they’re opened.

Items

• Victims can collect bone scrap from bone piles, and lock picks from toolboxes.
• When collecting bone scrap or lock picks, there is a small mini game. If the bar to the left fills, it creates noise, allowing the family to see the victim
• Bone scrap has multiple uses, such as destroying bone ornaments, killing chickens, stabbing grandpa and stunning family members from behind or fighting them if approached from the front (Leatherface can’t be fought, and can only be stunned from behind).
• Health vials are the only way for victims to heal, and are found just laying around.
• The valve and fuse also counts as an items
• Victims can only carry a maximum of two items at a time.

Noise and Grandpa

• Noise, like running through bone ornaments, waking chickens, or rushing toolboxes or bone piles, may awaken Grandpa, who has the ability to reveal victims’ auras.
• If Grandpa screams, victims must stand still to avoid revealing their location to everyone. Grandpa’s power increases when he is fed blood by the family, which they collect from buckets and by hitting victims. At level 5, he can reveal victims even when they stand still.

Game Start

• Leatherface always spawns in the basement, and the game cannot start without him.
• Victims begin in the basement and must wiggle free, an event that generates noise if rushed.
• The other two family members are located upstairs and cannot access the basement until Grandpa awakens.

Family Actions

• Family members can open any locks and should lock them behind them.
• Some doors have latches. If latched, a door needs to be broken through slowly and noisily if approached from the other side.

Victim Actions

• Victims can navigate crawlspaces, slits in walls, use ladders, hide in lockers, trunks, and chests, and go through barricades.
• Cook and Johnny can kick crawlspaces closed but cannot follow victims through them.
• Sissy and Hitchhiker can follow victims through crawlspaces and slits in walls, but are unable to go through barricades.
• Leatherface is the only family member who can destroy barricades. He is the only one who cannot climb ladders however.
• Windows and wells allow victims to escape chases, and no family member can directly follow them, but they cause damage.

Character Abilities

• Leatherface – Needs to be in every game, otherwise it can’t start. Spawns downstairs. Can’t attack if his chainsaw isn’t turned on. Can rev his chainsaw, moving faster and dealing more damage while it is revved up, but overheating if he goes too high. Can destroy crawlspaces and barricades. Cannot move up ladders.
• Cook – can place a red lock on any 3 doors. Usually best used to reinforce doors that already have locks, as most other doors have other ways to get into the room. Once the locks are unlocked, they are gone for good. He does not get notified if his locks are broken, but he can use family instinct to see it from afar, and he sees if they are gone. Can also use his listening ability to reveal victims that move around near him. They are revealed only to him, unless he has a certain upgrade, letting him show them to the entire family.
• Hitchhiker – Can set up to 3 traps. Victims need a bone scrap or a special perk to disarm them, but Hitchhiker can reset them, or pick them up and place them somewhere else. Usually placed in front of locks or through doors. To break out, victims need to do a mini game. If they disarm it, he doesn’t get notified but he can use family instinct to see it from afar, and he sees if they are gone.
• Johnny – Can find footprints left behind by Victims. Once he finds them, he can track them down by following the footprints.
• Sissy – Can use powder to blow clouds of poison that make victims be revealed to everyone. Also makes their vision blurry. She can also poison valves, fuses, and health vials, which will not reveal victims if they are grabbed/used, but will still make them make loud sounds, letting them be tracked more easily. With certain upgrades, she can also poison electronics, toolboxes, or her own knife

On the victim side, the abilities are more clearly explained in the game itself. I mainly explained the family members because they can be a bit complicated and confusing. Now, Have fun!