Taking place in a reality-TV-obsessed future, The Finals brings together some of the best in the arena and extraction shooter mechanics for a one-of-a-kind experience. The first-person shooter allows you unique versatility, movement, and opportunities in how you get to the objective.
While it might appear like any other FPS title, The Finals is a high-energy competition on a much smaller scale than what some more recent titles might have you used to. While the challenges are unique, you can make a lasting impact on the arena as long as you’re prepared with the right knowledge.
Understanding The Contestant Classes
When you first start the game, you’ll need to create a contestant that is either light, medium, or heavy in body type. Each of these roles offer unique abilities and stats that you should consider when playing, like the heavy class charging through walls and the light class operating as stealth.
| Contestant Build | Specializations | Role | Movement | Survivability |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heavy | Charge N’ Slam, Sledgehammer, Mesh Shield | Demolition | Slow | High |
| Medium | Healing Beam, Guardian Turret, Recon Senses | Support | Average | Average |
| Light | Cloaking Device, Grappling Hook, Evasive Dash | Stealth, Hit-and-Run | Fast | Low |
There’s no set team structure, but diversifying the character types on your team can help cover where the others might be lacking. For example, heavy teammates will have more health but move a little slower than medium or light teammates.
Interactive Environment
Whether it be interacting with a bridge or knocking some goo out of the sky, The Finals offers players a lot of chances to use, or demolish, the environment to assist in their strategies. There are a range of items you can interact with, even if the game keeps them more subtle. Some examples include:
- Lift bridges via the connected buttons.
- Shoot hanging crates to create explosions or obstacles.
- Destroy floors and walls to move the objective.
- Use map jump pads, zip lines, and other options to get around faster.
There are a lot of options on how to play each map in The Finals, and it will be up to players to learn the tricks and devise their own strategies. Until then, it’s wise to use every tool at your disposal to get the better of the other contestants.
Destroy The World
One of the most appealing parts of The Finals is that it manages to create destructible environments that don’t seem that way until they’re lying in rubble at your feet. This destruction can be as easy as breaking a window or vent and as disastrous as leveling a building.
While the heavy class has the focus, any class can tear down walls and ceilings with the right equipment.
That being said, the heavy class will be the easy favorite for those who like to create destruction. Whether it be running through walls like the Kool-Aid man or using the RPG to create large holes, the heavy character build has the best equipment for demolition.
Understand The Point System
In The Finals, there are two game modes: Quick Cash and Bank It. If you’re going to play either one, then you need to understand how the scoring system works before you celebrate too early and cost the match. Thankfully, both game modes rely on extraction rules that most players will be familiar with.
In Quick Cash, you and your team will work to secure a small box, called a Vault, until it cracks open and reveals $10,000. Once it does, you’ll take it to one of multiple Cashout locations, where you’ll defend it until the money is deposited. If stolen, the timer does not reset.
Out of the three teams of three players each, the first one to reach $20,000, or two successful Cashouts, wins the match and takes home the cash.
Bank It works similarly to Quick Cash, except individual players can make deposits of coins at the Cashout location after receiving them from vaults. Defeated players will drop coins, leaving them to whoever was able to get the upper hand.
Player points are divided as well, with separate sections showing progress for Combat, Support, and Objective in each match. This allows you to see what areas you’re doing well in and others where you can improve.
The Tournament game modes are longer versions of Quick Cash with limited respawns, with players eventually unlocking the Ranked Tournament mode. There are multiple rounds and limit the amount of times that players can respawn, so set aside the time before playing.
The Rules Of Respawning
In the casual game modes, you have no limitation on how many times you can respawn in a match, but there is a timer based on when you or your team were eliminated. While the timer starts when you’re eliminated, it will be reset if your whole team is wiped.
If your team has any respawn credits, or there’s no limit, it will be shown at the bottom of the screen after you’re eliminated.
The Tournament game modes are for more serious players, allowing for longer matches with limited respawn credits. Every time a member of your team dies, they’ll need to use one of the credits to respawn until they run out.
