The Finals, stylized as THE FINALS, is a free-to-play dynamism-focused first-person shooter developed and published by Embark Studios. The game focuses on team-based matches within arenas with a fully destructible environment, where players are able to leverage the dynamic environment to their advantage.
Gameplay
Players compete as contestants in the fictional VR combat game show The Finals, set in the year 2100. Matches are presented as live spectacles of "the world's greatest game show" in front of holographic crowds spectating the arenas, and bolstered by an announcer who often reacts to exciting moments in a larger-than-life manner. Players receive diegetic updates on the game state from the show's two commentators— Scotty and June— who comment on the status of the teams (such as team wipes and respawns), objectives, the round timer, and highlight bursts of destruction or elimination streaks. Developer Embark Studios has stated that the game is partly inspired by The Hunger Games, The Running Man (1982) and Gladiator (2000).
Each game mode varies from 2 to 4 teams, each competing in a free-for-all competition. Players create their contestants beginning by choosing between the Light, Medium, or Heavy build. The three builds differ in size, speed, and health. Light contestants are the smallest and exceptionally fast— specializing in stealth and evasion while executing hit-and-run tactics— but with low survivability given only 150 HP. The Medium build is akin to a traditional soldier class— specializing in utility and support— with balanced health and movement speed. Heavy contestants are visually the largest, have high survivability from a pool of 350 HP but the slowest movement speed. Heavies specialize in demolition and fortifications.
Each build has a unique set of specializations, weapons, and gadgets, among some universally available gadgets. This variety allows players to design a loadout that suits their desired playstyle. The Light build is given specializations related to stealth and movement: the Cloaking Device, Evasive Dash, or the Grappling Hook. Some gadgets unique to the Light build help players to evade and flank enemy contestants, such as teleportation Gateways, Vanishing Bombs, and Sonar Grenades, making them glass-cannon ambushers. The Medium build is given many specializations related to support and disruption, with the general idea of providing utility: the Healing Beam, Shockwave, Guardian Turret, and Dematerializer, a multi-device triggered specialization toggling a dematerialized state upon physical surfaces such as walls, floors, and ceilings, allowing any contestant to see or pass through. The gadgets unique to the Medium build further reinforce their utility role, including the Defibrillator, Glitch Trap, APS Turret, Jump Pad, Zipline, and more. The Heavy build encourages a wide variety of gameplay. Their list of specializations include the Charge 'N' Slam, Mesh Shield, Winch Claw, and Goo Gun; each completely changing the manner in which the contestant is played. Heavies have at their disposal powerful, hard-hitting destructive tools and weapons, such as the Sledgehammer, RPG-7, and C4, as well as defensive measures such as deployable Barricades, a spherical Dome Shield, and Healing Emitter.
The game mechanics encourage dynamic emergent gameplay by way of the many free variables present. These include highly player-modifiable terrain (both destruction and limited construction), varied weather and time of day (which change between rounds), and additional conditions such as moving platforms or structures suspended in the air. The arenas contain numerous items which can be picked up and thrown by the player, including but not limited to plant pots, chairs, and tables. Different types of canisters and barrels can be found both throughout the arena, and suspended in hanging boxes. These canisters can explode to destroy the environment, create temporary structures made up of goo, or create various effects such as fire, toxic gas, smoke, glitch explosions, and lingering health regeneration. Entire buildings can be toppled if the correct supports are targeted, and large enough debris can destroy other buildings. The game also allows for limited construction in the form of deployable cover (such as Barricades), as well as through the use of the Goo Gun, Goo Grenade and Goo Barrels, which solidify on impact, creating destructible structures of goo that resemble foam insulation. Smoke can extinguish fires, while fire can ignite toxic gas and burn through goo. These interactions allow players to combine environmental effects or counter those created by opponents.
Contestants who are eliminated disintegrate into coins and leave behind a revive statue which their teammates can pick up to reposition and interact with to revive. It takes five seconds of continuous interaction to revive a contestant. Alternatively, Medium-build players may use an equipped defibrillator to revive their teammate after a short charge, during which the contestant's outline appears and visually refills with voxels. Contestants revived by a defibrillator respawn with 50% of their health, the same state of their weapon at elimination, and incur a short cooldown on their specializations and gadgets. If enough time elapses, a player may choose to respawn themselves at full health using Respawn coin. In quick-play game modes, there are unlimited Respawn coins, while in Tournament game modes, the amount is limited, gaining one extra coin per round. If a team wipe occurs, the respawn timer is reset and all members will respawn together at the same time without consuming their coins. Players who are eliminated with no more coins must wait for a teammate to revive, or a team wipe. While potentially strategic in Cashout, a team wipe penalty in Ranked Cashout costs 15% of the team's total cash.
Players earn in-game currency, known as VRs, by playing matches. These can be spent to permanently unlock new weapons, specializations, gadgets, and scopes. The maximum holding limit for VRs is 5000, and exceeded VRs will not be returned.
As of Season 8, released on September 10, 2025, new players are now presented with a variety of preset playstyles. Each Playstyle contains a specialization, weapon and three gadgets, in addition to a variety of reserve items immediately unlocked upon starting the game. Further gameplay allows new players to obtain Playstyle Tokens that can unlock extra playstyles, in addition to purchasing individual items with VRs.
Game modes As a live service game, The Finals receives new game modes and revisions to existing ones regularly. Game modes are divided into casual ("Quick Cash") and competitive modes.
Cashout
Cashout is The Finals' premier game mode. In Cashout, four teams of three contestants compete against one another to deposit and cash out as much cash as possible. The primary source of money are Cashboxes, that must be unlocked from Vaults around the arena and brought to a Cashout station. Upon contact with a Cashout station, a Cashbox will enter and the team that deposits it earns 20% of its value. The team that holds the Cashout station once the cashout completes receives the remaining 80%. Other teams can steal a cashout in progress by interacting with the Cashout station without interruption for 7 seconds. Excluding the final round, two cash boxes will be in play at any given time, with a new vault spawning every time a team cashout is completed.
Each successive pair of vaults that appears in the arena is more valuable than the last, ranging anywhere from $10,000 to $22,000, enabling a team that would otherwise surely be eliminated to qualify, even in the very last second of the round. Multiple vaults can be brought to a single Cashout station, combining their payouts under one timer. Additional bonus money can be earned by eliminating enemy players ($500 each), unlocking vaults ($1000 each), and stealing cashouts ($1000 each). Contestants start with two Respawn coins, and gain an additional coin at the end of each round.
Cashout durations are relatively the same across matches. If there is not enough time left for a Cashout, up to one minute of overtime will be triggered. +Cashout DurationsGame ModeStandard DurationDuration at 2:00Duration at 1:30Duration at 1:00Duration at 0:30Duration at 0:00Quick Cash Head2Head Final round of Cashout and Ranked Cashout2:002:001:301:000:300:00Knockout rounds of Cashout and Ranked Cashout2:102:001:301:000:300:00 Aspects of Cashout take inspiration from capture the flag and king of the hill, requiring teams to obtain, hold and then defend different objectives to progress and ultimately win the tournament.
Rounds last 9 minutes, with the possibility of an additional 1-minute overtime if a vault is deposited into a Cashout station within the last 60 seconds of the round (see table above). Players cannot change their contestant once the round starts, but they can swap items from their reserve loadout once eliminated. Any changes take effect only if respawning (i.e. not revived by a teammate).
Cashout and Ranked Tournaments are played in a tournament-style bracket with 8 teams: In the first round, teams compete against each other in groups of four, with the top two teams from each group moving to the second round. The top two teams in the second round then fight in a final round to declare the tournament winners. In the final round, the rules are modified: The first team to score two cashouts wins, regardless of eliminations or objectives done. During Season 2, there was also a single-round variant of Cashout.
World Tour Debuted on June 13, 2024, with Season 3, World Tour was originally a mode consisting of weekly rotating Cashout Tournaments with changing variations of the standard ranked rules. Players were ranked on a leaderboard based on their cash earned, while Win Points given based on tournament placement were used to progress a World Tour badge and gain additional rewards at the end of the season. The Finals initially featured both Ranked and Unranked Tournaments, but the Unranked variation was removed in Season 2, and later reintroduced as World Tour. In Season 3, the Cashout ranked tournament was temporarily replaced with World Tour to allow the developers to experiment with balancing changes, before it would be reintroduced alongside World Tour in the next season.
Now, all game modes— including Ranked— progress players' World Tour badge.
The amount of World Tour Points granted after each match is based on player performance. Higher match placements award more World Tour Points, and points cannot be lost. Acquiring points upgrades the player's World Tour Badge, which rewards premium in-game currency at the end of the season.
While Cashout features the same format as Ranked Tournaments, including four teams of three in each round, the rules are slightly more relaxed, allowing for gameshow events such as Mega Damage and Low Gravity, and players swapping items from their reserve loadout between respawns. At the end of the first two rounds, the two teams among the four with the lowest cash are eliminated from the match. At the end of the final (third) round, the first team to obtain $50,000 cash will win the tournament.
Ranked Cashout