Red Barrels took the Outlast formula into co-op with The Outlast Trials, which left Early Access on March 5, 2024. You play a Reagent, a Cold War era test subject processed by the Murkoff Corporation inside the Sinyala Facility and pushed through therapy sessions that are really survival gauntlets. You never get a gun: your entire kit is one Rig, a few throwables, and night vision goggles that eat batteries.
Starting The Outlast Trials can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
The Outlast Trials is a horror game built around Rig abilities and Sanity and psychosis. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Build
| Build | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Stun controller | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| X-Ray scout | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Heal anchor | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Blind trapper | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Solo objective runner | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with X-Ray scout. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Solo objective runner as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Rig abilities
Every Reagent carries one of four Rigs: Stun, Blind, Heal or X-Ray. It recharges on a cooldown and is your only active power, so the Rig you pick decides whether you control fights, spot threats or keep the squad standing.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Rig abilities works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Police Station
Home of Kill the Snitch, the opening trial of Program 1: Rule of Law, and Sergeant Leland Coyle's hunting ground. Tight cell blocks and a heavy electrified theme punish anyone who sprints blindly.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Bottle: it's the most accessible early upgrade. Throwable noisemaker. Landing it away from your position pulls patrolling enemies toward the sound instead of toward the objective you are working on.
Step 4: Understand Sanity and psychosis
Darkness, Skinner Man hallucinations and certain hits drain your sanity bar. Empty it and psychosis warps your screen and audio cues until you find an antidote or reach a lit safe area.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Orphanage
Program 3: Tough Love opens with Cleanse the Orphans, where you turn children away from Mother Gooseberry's teachings. Long sight lines upstairs, cramped dorms below.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Rig abilities
Every Reagent carries one of four Rigs: Stun, Blind, Heal or X-Ray. It recharges on a cooldown and is your only active power, so the Rig you pick decides whether you control fights, spot threats or keep the squad standing.
Sanity and psychosis
Darkness, Skinner Man hallucinations and certain hits drain your sanity bar. Empty it and psychosis warps your screen and audio cues until you find an antidote or reach a lit safe area.
Night vision battery drain
Goggles are the only way to read unlit corridors and they burn battery continuously while active. Batteries sit in fixed spots on each map, so tapping the goggles on for two seconds at a time stretches a charge across a whole objective.
Prescriptions and Amps
Prescriptions are permanent upgrades bought between Trials that raise stamina, inventory slots and battery life. Amps are three equippable modifiers layered on top, adjusting things like footstep noise and item spawns.
Release tokens
A full Trial pays 2 release tokens and an MK-Challenge pays 1. Tokens gate your Therapy sessions and your eventual release, which makes them the progression currency that actually matters.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Running everywhere
Sprinting is loud, drains stamina and pulls Screamers and Franco Barbi straight to you, and almost no objective actually needs the speed.
2. Treating the Heal Rig as a revive button
It restores health and sanity in a gas cloud over about 4 seconds, so it works during a chase, not after someone is already on the floor.
3. Ignoring sanity until psychosis hits
By the time the screen distorts you are at your worst for spotting enemies, which is the exact moment you cannot afford to hunt for an antidote.
4. Hoarding lockpicks for a door that never comes
They are single use and Trials end, so spending one on a shortcut that skips a whole corridor beats finishing with two unused.
5. Splitting up on a map you have not learned
Solo objective running is efficient once the layout is memorised and a fast way to feed the enemy free downs before then.
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Rig abilities and Sanity and psychosis
- Choose X-Ray scout as starting build
- Clear Police Station main content
- Acquire Bottle or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Orphanage
- Night vision drains while the goggles are on, not while you are moving, so tap them for a two second look and turn them off. Reagents who leave goggles running are the ones caught blind in the last third of a Trial when every battery on the map is already gone.
- A fully upgraded Stun Rig holds an Ex-Pop or a Prime Asset for about 7 seconds. That is enough to finish an interaction or drag a downed teammate clear, but not enough to cross a large room, so spend it on a specific job.
Tips for New Players
- Night vision drains while the goggles are on, not while you are moving, so tap them for a two second look and turn them off. Reagents who leave goggles running are the ones caught blind in the last third of a Trial when every battery on the map is already gone.
- A fully upgraded Stun Rig holds an Ex-Pop or a Prime Asset for about 7 seconds. That is enough to finish an interaction or drag a downed teammate clear, but not enough to cross a large room, so spend it on a specific job.
- Leland Coyle disables your Rig for 30 seconds when he lands a hit. If you carry the team's Heal or X-Ray Rig, keep more distance on his maps than you would against Mother Gooseberry.
- Franco Barbi fires at consistent or loud noise in the dark. Stop sprinting and stop opening lockers while he patrols, because he shoots at the sound rather than at a visual on you.
- Antidotes cure psychosis outright. Carrying one costs an inventory slot you could have filled with a brick, and on Intensive or Psychosurgery that slot is worth far more as the antidote.
- Prescriptions are permanent across every Trial, so buy stamina and inventory capacity before spending on cosmetics. An extra slot changes every future run; a new cell decoration changes nothing.
- Trials pay 2 release tokens and MK-Challenges pay 1, but MK-Challenges are much shorter. If you are farming tokens rather than chasing a specific map, back to back MK-Challenges beat a single long Trial.
- The four difficulty levels are Introductory, Standard, Intensive and Psychosurgery. Higher tiers raise enemy count and aggression rather than adding objectives, so learn a map on Introductory before touching the rest.
- In a group of four, assign one Reagent to X-Ray purely as a spotter. Tagged enemies stay visible to the whole team, which turns blind corner deaths into routed detours.
- Hiding under a bed or in a locker resets enemy search behaviour, but only if you broke line of sight first. Diving into cover while an Ex-Pop watches you do it just tells them where to check.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is The Outlast Trials a sequel to Outlast 2?
No. It is a prequel set during the Cold War, before Outlast and Outlast 2, and it follows Murkoff Corporation's brainwashing program rather than Miles Upshur or Blake Langermann.
Can you play The Outlast Trials solo?
Yes. Every Trial and MK-Challenge can be completed alone and enemy density scales down for solo runs. Groups of 2 to 4 are supported but never required.
Which Rig should a new player pick?
Stun is the most forgiving because it works reactively and buys roughly 7 seconds of escape. X-Ray is stronger in coordinated groups, since tagged enemies show up for everyone at once.
Are there weapons in The Outlast Trials?
There is no combat. You get throwables like bricks and bottles that stagger or distract, plus tools such as lockpicks and antidotes. Every encounter is solved by hiding, running or crowd control.
How do you get released from the program?
You bank release tokens from Trials and MK-Challenges, complete the Therapy sessions between missions, and eventually reach the ending sequence. Trials pay 2 tokens and MK-Challenges pay 1.
More The Outlast Trials Guides
- The Outlast Trials The Outlast Trials Overview
- The Outlast Trials Best Builds
- The Outlast Trials Tier List
- The Outlast Trials Walkthrough
- The Outlast Trials Tips & Tricks
- The Outlast Trials Weapons Guide
- The Outlast Trials Combat Guide
- The Outlast Trials Boss Guide
- The Outlast Trials Maps & Locations
- The Outlast Trials Crafting Guide
- The Outlast Trials Classes & Characters
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- Lethal Company Beginner's Guide: horror game with similar mechanics
- Dead by Daylight Beginner's Guide: horror game with similar mechanics
