The Cook (Best Perks & Strategies)

The Cook in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is all about being a team player and finding the best strategy to track down Victims or prevent their escape. He has the lowest starting Endurance out of any character in the game, Victim or Family, but he can make up for it in some of his other skills. However, this might make him a challenging character to conquer for beginners.

The Cook is one of five Family Members in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, which, unlike other similar games, has more than one player controlling the enemy faction. Both sides must work together to succeed, and the Cook, while challenging at first, has become a favorite for the support role on the Family side. While Leatherface or Sissy might take on the task of hunting down Victims, the Cook can facilitate Grandpa’s goals without ever seeing a Victim.

Related: Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Best Perks For The Family

Best Perks For The Cook

The Cook’s low Endurance in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre presents the biggest challenge to overcome, as he begins with a lowly 10 points, but this can be counteracted through wise use of the Skill Tree. The best path to pick at the beginning for the Cook is to go directly up and invest in the Endurance tree. Most of the Perks here will boost the Cook in crucial moments, such as his unique Perk, Prey Drive, and others can force the Victims to take things more slowly, such as with Nobody Escapes Hell.

The Cook’s Seek ability allows him to listen for Victim noise and focus in on it to mark a Victim for a short time, allowing him to track them down easily. He can then lead someone else, such as Leatherface in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to the Victims to finish it.

Prey Drive allows the Cook to have a boost when he sees a Victim, which means he can chase down a Victim should he come across one without taking any negative effect for it the rest of the time. As well as being able to use a special Seek ability, his other ability allows him to lock more doors, move certain locks around, and block off paths for the Victims, which will take them more time to move through if he has equipped Nobody Escapes Hell.

The Cook, however, is also quite good at collecting Blood and feeding Grandpa in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and he can spend a lot of time doing so while listening out for any Victims who have made their way upstairs. He could even force them to navigate around Grandpa if he blocks off other escape routes, which can alert the entire Family to where the Victim is if they wake him up.

Perks like Scout could work well here, as it would increase the Cook’s movement speed while reducing his melee damage. While the reduction is unfortunate, the Cook is not likely to be doing much of the killing himself, and he can help the other Family members find the Victims and lead them to them. The added movement speed would then be a bonus while he locks doors and finds Blood to feed Grandpa. Similarly, any Perks that boost his Blood gathering skills would contribute highly to the team and make winning easier in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Best Strategies For The Cook

Investing points in the Seek ability tree will be crucial for how effective the Cook will become and what he can do to help the entire team. The best part of the Cook’s Seek ability will come at Level 3 on the far right side of the tree, with the ability “All Family See Noise.” This is what makes the Cook such a good Support role, and how he alerts the whole Family to the presence of a marked Victim that he has heard.

This is why he does not have to do the actual chasing in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, as he can just use his Seek ability and give the entire Family a significant advantage over the Victims. His Level 2 and Level 1 Seek abilities do not matter as much, but putting at least one level into increasing the Detection Range would allow the Cook to hear Victims from even further away, and both the Recharge Rate and Reduced Ability Drain elongate the time in which the Cook can use his ability.

By investing the additional ability points into Endurance, the Cook can become a true force to be reckoned with, and his Seek ability means that players will have a much harder time hiding from him. With the right strategy and high investment into finding Victims, the Cook can guide the rest of the Family to the Victims and make Grandpa proud of him in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

• The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

  Franchise:

  The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

  Platform:

  PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

  Released:

  2023-08-18

  Developer:

  Sumo Nottingham

  Publisher:

  Gun Interactive

  Genre:

  Multiplayer, Survival Horror

  ESRB:

  M