The phrase “unstoppable killing machine” is overused and often misused at that. But Jason Voorhees – our special, special little boy – in Friday the 13th: The Game has provided cause to dust off the trite descriptor.
If it feels impossible to beat Jason, you’re not alone. Several hours of in-game time have yielded very few positive results for the counselor, with Jason killing everyone or at least mostly everyone before the counselors get even one item to help them escape. Assuming you make it past this step, which method of escape should you go for? Follow these tips below to avoid the death traps and find the best method to get safely outside of Camp Crystal Lake.
Worst: Killing Jason
Look, I’m sure the Friday the 13th community will come up with really great strategies built around murdering Jason. As of right now, such a victory is mostly a thing of legend. A friend’s cousin’s ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend’s little brother once watched a stream where it happened – that kind of thing. The devs themselves are willing to confirm only the prepared statement “Jason can be defeated.” They won’t necessarily tell you how.
The legend goes that if you hit Jason enough times, his mask will come off – already a hard task, given that getting within arms length of Jason is usually suicide. After that, a female character needs to get Jason’s mom’s sweater from his shack, which is in a different spot in each level. After that, someone must have radioed for Tommy Jarvis, and someone must have already died and came back as Tommy Jarvis. Then, sweater girl and Tommy need to team up, stun Jason with the sweater powers (a new ability bound to Q on the PC), and then Tommy needs to shoot him. At this point, the stunned, maskless Jason will die. Or so the story goes.
The fact that you maybe have one or two people on the web claiming they saw this happen, and that you certainly can’t find a video of it, should tell you that this is far and away the hardest way to escape.
Also the Worst: Car
Near as I can figure, the cars are just a death trap, only one car can trap four people instead of just two. You put in a ton of effort clamoring around for a battery, a gas can and keys, two of which you need to do an overlong quick-time-event to actually pull off, and it’s all for naught once Jason gets on you.
Jason’s Morph ability lets him teleport to any point. So, once Jason is aware that you have a car, he can teleport to the middle of the road right before it splits off to two exits and just sit there, walking toward the car. You can see this on Streams if you don’t want to try this out for yourself. Jason will teleport in front of the car, temporarily disable the car, and pull people out of it as they frantically try to restart it. Once they do restart it, assuming enough people survived, the process repeats.
Escaping in the car can be done if counselors manage to split their efforts, perhaps go for two cars at once, or someone else is calling the police at the same time, anything that can distract Jason. But, if four counselors are left and all of them go for the car, it’s GG. You can also try to take the car solo after it’s already been crashed once, and that might work. Just don’t be a hero.
Kind of Okay in Some Situations: Timecap
Each level has a 20-minute time-cap. So, in theory, if you survive for 20 minutes without escaping, you will automatically “win,” so to speak. Why is this one so low down on the list? Let’s just say there’s a reason I won’t be writing any “how to win as Jason” guides. How to win as Jason should be as simple as playing Jason.
The developers even admit as much. They don’t want this to be a game you can, as a counselor, easily “win.” Friday the 13th: The Game is about maybe surviving your encounter with him. Gun Media wants Jason to feel like this unstoppable insurmountable force. The truth is, any Jason played to even 75 percent of his capabilities should be able to clear out a whole camp, unless the counselors get really lucky with their early-game item finds.
But this is viable if you, as a counselor, want to forgo all your honor and dignity. If you play as the counselor Jenny Myers, you’ll notice her composure is 10/10. That means that, so long as she avoids encountering too many things, she will be virtually invisible to Jason’s sense ability, (the one that highlights people in bright red). Again, all you really need to do as Jenny is hide off on the outskirts of the map somewhere, and wait it out. Make sure to move slightly every now and then to avoid getting an inactivity kick, but it should be good.
Solid, but Still Difficult: Boat
In levels that don’t have a two-seater car, there is instead a two-seater boat, and it’s one of the best ways to escape. For one, you only need two parts to get it ready: you need to find gasoline and an engine rotor. That’s it. Find those two items, head for the boat, and you can speed out of town, and never look back.
Strategically, the boat is closer to the outskirts of the map, so you won’t be too much on Jason’s radar so long as you don’t make too much noise and keep your fear down, as most Jason’s tend to hunt toward the middle where all the cabins are, in addition to the cars. The obvious caveat is that the boat can only hold two people, but honestly I’d leave as soon as you get it running regardless of how many people are around. Don’t be a hero.
Jason can stop the boat, so it’s not necessarily smooth sailing as soon as you get it running. Just like with the car, he can Morph in front of it underwater and then pop up and tip the boat. But, it’s much more difficult that stopping a car, as the water provides several ways for you to swerve around Jason, whereas roads are much narrower. If I’m Jason, and someone gets in the boat, unless they’re the last survivors, I will probably cut my losses and focus my attention elsewhere.
Best: Call the Cops
Calling the cops should probably be the first thing you try to do. In terms of materials you need to collect, it requires the least amount. All you need is to find the fuse, and install it around the back of the cabin with the phone. Then, go inside and call the police. After calling the police, they will arrive at one of the two camp entrances in 5 minutes.
You have to be careful while doing this, as Jason knows where the phone will be, but, if you find the fuse quickly enough it won’t matter. The highest rate of survival I’ve seen usually comes when people call the cops in the first few minutes of any one match. At that point, it puts Jason in an awkward position where he wants to try to puppy-guard the exit with the police, but doing so will give the other counselors ample opportunity to escape with other methods.
Once you call the cops, be very careful about simply approaching the exit. Stay crouched as often as you can, as any noise will present a blip on Jason’s radar. If you have a counselor with high composure, like Jenny Meyers again, this will also help. You also want to conserve your stamina so you can make a mad dash once you’re in range.
Also, unless Jason is noticeably pre-occupied with other counselors (general murdering, or trying to stop a car), don’t approach the exit with the police without at least one item to stun or evade Jason. A pocket knife is ideal, but a flare gun or firecracker will also suffice. If you have these, you can move toward the exit basically unafraid. He will likely cut you off at the mouth of the road, but then you can just stun him and run past.
Don’t get me wrong, though: none of these methods are great. I played a game where the cops were called within the first two minutes, and Jason still wasted all but one of the counselors. But, if you’ve played enough games, you’ll know those are damn good odds.
