The Texas Chain Saw Massacre game is often confusing and hard to follow when you first jump into it. That’s why I’ve put together this guide to help players understand the killer/Family side of the game. This is where you’ll work with two other players to hunt down the four Victims.
However, unless you watch a ton of tutorial videos in the main menu, you’ll probably be lost. And even if you do watch those videos, it can still be difficult to learn. These are a mixture of basic and advanced tips and tricks to give you an edge. So jump into our Texas Chain Saw Massacre guide below.
Tip 1 – Feed Grandpa Blood For Perks
Juggling chasing after Victims and feeding Grandpa can be rough at first. But if you get a kill, you’ll completely fill up on blood.
A big part of playing as the Family in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is feeding Grandpa blood. You’d think this is an obvious tip not worth mentioning but a lot of Family players won’t feed him. In doing so, you’ll activate useful passive perks picked from before the match starts. Also, you’ll start to level up Grandpa and unlock his sonar vision.
Even though Grandpa will use his sonar vision once the Victims wake him, it won’t be as strong. As you work through the five blood levels, you’ll reduce the time in between shouts while also making it easier to see Victims. Upon reaching level 5, Victim players won’t be able to hide from his vision. With that said, some players are better suited to feeding Grandpa, so not everyone necessarily needs to.
Tip 2 – Make Sure the Generator is Running
You can usually hear a generator running loudly but car batteries can be much quieter. Always look for a nearby gate light to know for sure.
Depending on what character or map you’re playing, you may spawn near a generator or battery. It’s important to make sure that it’s running because it varies by map. An easy way to know if it is or not aside from sound is by looking at the light of a nearby gate.
The gate will show a red light if it’s on or a green light if it’s off. As the Family, you’ll always want the battery or generator showing as a red light (on). This is because it’s vital to prevent Victims from escaping outside the map and winning.
Tip 3 – Work Together With Your Team
This player thought they were safe squeezing through the wall not realizing Leatherface is on the other side.
The best thing you can do in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is work together. It doesn’t matter if you’re on the Family or Victim side, communication is huge. With that said, you can still work together even if you’re not using voice chat. Despite this being the best way to communicate quickly. Some players may not even realize you can talk across different platforms too.
Aside from communicating, you can still help your team by surrounding Victim players. Especially when someone squeezes through a wall gap or through a crawlspace. Also, a fun idea is to sneak into the basement to help Leatherface if the Victims are still down below. This can make a huge difference if you’re able to sneak through walls where Leatherface can’t.
Tip 4 – Use Your Scanning Vision Ability
Your spidey senses reveal all sorts of fun useful information for both new and experienced Family players.
Every Family member has an ability to scan for useful information like where Grandpa is, doors, blood buckets, and more. This ability alone is why I’d recommend playing as the Family first in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Primarily because you’ll have an easier time learning each map.
Especially since there are minor changes to each map like blood bucket placements and where Grandpa is. Aside from that, it can also help you detect if a teammate is the one causing loud noise. So you can distinguish if that’s a Victim player or not. By default on PC, you can press middle-click on your mouse to use it. Keybinds aren’t currently changable, but the developer has stated plans for it in an update.
Tip 5 – How to Level Up and the Meta Game
Each Family member leans toward a certain playstyle but you can still customize it with skill points and attributes.
Leveling in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre can be a little confusing to understand. First, every character has their own level and each person has an account level. If you want to improve your character with new perks and attributes, you’ll need to level up your account. This then provides skill points that you can allocate to any character regardless of Family or Victim.
The nice part about this is you can play any character while gaining experience toward your account level. And in doing so, use those skill points on any character. However, you’ll still need to grind them to level up perks and abilities for more upgrades. Fortunately, players can respec to move their skill points around.
Tip 6 – Spread Out Most of the Time
Spreading out makes it easier to catch someone by surprise like this Leland player sneaking around the Family House.
It’s often a good idea to spread out so you’re not covering the same area while searching for Victims. However, sometimes you’re better off sticking together if you’re trying to trap another player. This usually relies on communication as we previously mentioned in this guide.
While it’s not the end of the world if you’re bumping into each other, it just means you may not see a Victim escaping elsewhere. With that said, if I notice two of my teammates chasing a player and they don’t need help, I won’t run over. This is so I can potentially catch another one taking advantage of that distraction.
Tip 7 – Learning the Two Most Common Exits
This is one type of exit players often look for. Even though this is on the Gas Station map where expert players often rush a side door near me.
Every map in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre has four different exits but players more commonly use two. When you’re new to the game and struggling to learn a map, these two are the ones to watch. The far sides of each map on the left and right typically have a locked gate with a power source.
This requires a player to pick the lock and then turn off the car battery or generator. Otherwise, they’ll get a shock if they try to run through the gate. One example of a map with a similar exit that doesn’t have a gate is Family House, however. You’re most likely to have players attempt these escapes, especially at the lower levels.
Tip 8 – Check Gate Locks Frequently
A locked gate is a good gate. This lets us know they at least haven’t come this way yet. Just be careful of Connie players who can pick locks almost instantly.
As Victims start escaping the basement it’s good to fall into a rhythm where you rotate between locked gates. While each map is different, there are often locked gates or doors that lead deeper toward exits. By rotating between each door to check if a lock has been picked, you’ll learn where players are headed.
If you don’t mind using voice chat, you can also let others know if a door is still locked or not. A good reason to let them know when it’s still locked is so they don’t have to check it. Also, this can be a good opportunity for Cook players to re-lock doors. Just make sure to let your team know. Plus, while checking gates you can sometimes see or hear if a generator is still running.
Tip 9 – Break Barricades as Leatherface
Barricades like this one can frequently get in the way saving Victims when they need to escape.
I didn’t dive too much into playing Leatherface in this guide, but here’s one tip to focus on. One of the best ways to make your team’s life easier is by breaking barricades. Typically, I may only break a couple in the basement that blocking narrow paths. Since you don’t want to spend too much time stuck in that animation.
Once you leave the basement, you should start breaking a bunch. This is so Victim players can’t easily escape your teammates. Aside from breaking those, you can also get rid of crawlspaces too. I don’t focus on these as much since certain Family members can use them or close them.
Tip 10 – Listen For Exit Clues and Victim Chatter
Even though Cook has special ears for listening, you can hear a lot of useful stuff too.
This section is two tips in one where it helps to pay attention to different audio cues. For example, a generator shutting down makes a loud sound that you can hear from far away. If you’re not nearby it may already be too late but if not, you may have a chance. Whereas hearing a pressure valve pop with a loud hiss sound can be corrected before they escape.
The second part of this tip is to listen for Victims saying things. For whatever reason, Victims will sometimes say something like, “Why are they doing this?” giving away their position. I don’t know for sure what triggers them to say something. But, I’m going to guess it’s based on how hurt they are and if the game thinks you already see them.
Even Family members will communicate seeing a Victim. This can help if you have a team that isn’t talking to each other.
That’s all there is to this in-depth guide on playing as the Family in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Be sure to drop some tips of your own in the comments or who you like playing most! I’m a fan of Sissy and Leatherface for sure.
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.