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The Slasher [2025 ESSEN pickup pre-order]

The Slasher [2025 ESSEN pickup pre-order]

  • Players: 2
  • Play time: 15-30 min.
  • Language: EN

A tranquil summer camp deep in the woods turns into a blood-soaked nightmare. Shadows stretch long under the moonlight, and somewhere out there, a killer is stalking the cabins with a crimson blade. You and your companion must gather your courage and supplies to escape this slasher’s hunt. Your only chance is to work together, outsmart the darkness, and survive the night.

The Slasher is a cooperative trick-taking game for two players that blends deduction, tension, and cardplay. Players face off against the game’s system by playing tricks under restrictive and evolving conditions, attempting to collect sets of cards that represent survival items. Each trick is both an opportunity and a risk—players must navigate limited communication and mounting pressure as they explore locations, avoid deadly encounters, and gather what's needed to escape. The killer's unseen presence looms throughout, forcing tight cooperation and tough choices with every hand.

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This game is a complete English version, containing an English-language rulebook and all English cards and components.

About the Game

The Slasher Game Overview

2 players will need to work together to collect 4 out of the 5 escape items before they get taken out by the slasher, a killer in hot pursuit.

The game has two phases - the trick-taking phase and the item collection phase.

During the trick-taking phase, players will attempt to win or lose tricks based on the rules of the area they are in (changes each round) and to distribute colored cards to each other in the most efficient way possible.

Yellow cards let players draw items, but red cards represent damage if the killer comes out during the item collection phase. Green cards can be used to cancel out this damage, while white cards have one of the above effects, varying based on each player's current HP.

After the trick-taking phase, players move to the item collection phase. Players apply the effects of the card colors they won during the trick-taking phase, then take turns drawing a pool of item cards face-up depending on the number of yellow cards they won.

Players may choose one of the item cards, which can be anything from a win-condition (the escape items) to a bit of help (like a first aid kit, which recovers some HP). The unchosen items are discarded for the time being, and the next player may then draw their item card pool. If the killer card is drawn at any time, the player who drew it may not collect any item cards and takes damage equal to the amount designated on their red cards. The item deck and discard pile are then reshuffled. Because of this, each time the killer comes out, the probability of drawing the escape items the players need goes down, making this a real life-or-death fight!

The game ends when one player is defeated, or the players collect the escape items and make it out alive.

Rulebook Download

Click here to view/download a PDF rulebook for The Slasher.