Greetings Reagents,
As we etch closer to October 21st, we wanted to give a brief overview of what is coming with this next update in The Outlast Trials.
Invasion allows players to take the role of Imposters as they go through the Trials donning the appearance of Reagents striving to complete their objectives and survive. Check out our How to Play Invasion Trailer below for a closer look at what awaits in this permanent PvP Game Mode.
Roles
REAGENT: Complete Trials with a risk of being invaded by player Imposters. All your items and Rigs work against the Imposters. Your goal is to survive and complete the Trial.
IMPOSTER: Invade Trials as an Imposter and kill the Reagents. You perfectly mimic the appearance of a Reagent present in the Trial. Your goal is to kill all the Reagents before they finish the Trial.
Access to Invasion
Invasion will be a new permanent Game Mode that is available through the Terminal in the Sleep Room. You will be able to choose the role of a Reagent or Imposter, or select the "RANDOM" option and receive bonus XP.
After each match, you and your team will be placed into a new Trial with your roles swapped. The Invasion Experimental Therapy supports solo play and groups of 2, 3, or 4 players.
Imposter Deployment
Not all Imposters are deployed at once; some hunt while others monitor the Trial environment via surveillance cameras.
Imposters will be on a 2 minute timer while in the Trial and will be shocked to death if they do not return to the insertion gate. When an Imposter returns to the Insertion Gate or dies, the next one in line is deployed. The rotation will continue until all Imposters run out of lives, the Trial ends, or all Reagents are killed.
Imposters are unleashed once Reagents complete the final objective and must escape the Trial. Imposters will also be able to hear the voice of their victims when they are being killed - this can be turned off in the Pause menu.
The number of deployed Imposters scales with the number of Reagents in the Trial:
1–2 Reagents = 1 Imposter deployed at once.
3–4 Reagents = 2 Imposters deployed at once.
Progression and Difficulty
Invasion difficulty will scale as you play: Early runs will feature fewer Trial options and no Ex-Pop Specialists. As you progress and play more of the Invasion Experimental Therapy, more Trials will be added to the pool and Ex-Pop Specialists will be deployed. The scaling is:
1-10 matches: Minimal pool of Trials (~3).
11-50 matches: Limited pool of Trials (~20).
50+ matches: All Trials (40+) and Specialist Ex-Pops are deployed during the Trials.
Matchmaking
When playing as an Imposter, matchmaking prioritizes invading Reagents playing Trials from the Invasion program.
If none are available, it expands to invading Trials from other programs (Genesis, Events, or Routine Therapies).
You can also directly invade friends in Trials via the friends list (requires Therapy Level 30 and privacy settings enabled).
Imposters cannot invade players in Escalation Therapy or Trial Maker.
Invasion matchmaking will use your current group. Be sure to assemble your team beforehand by using the Group Finder.
Global Invasion will Unlocked at Therapy Level 30: Any Trial you play (Genesis, Limited-Time Event, Routine Therapies) can be invaded by Imposters.
When reaching Level 30, you’ll be prompted to enable or disable this feature.
You can always change this setting in the PRIVACY SETTINGS screen.
Friends can directly invade your Trial while you play as a Reagent if your Trial Privacy settings are set to allow Invasion by friends.
Your Invasion Trial Privacy and Group Privacy settings can be changed anytime in PRIVACY OPTIONS (via Terminal or Pause menu).
Invasions are not guaranteed - they remain an unpredictable surprise.
Imposter Chems
Imposters can be enhanced, just like Reagents. You will be able to visit Barlow the Pharmacist in the Sleep Room to acquire upgrades for your Imposter role.
List of Imposter Chems:
Imitate: Carry a fake item to pretend you are a true Reagent.
Slash: Reduce cooldown after a successful slash.
Stab: Faster preparation to stab to kill. (charge time reduced)
Stalk: Move faster while preparing a stab. (while charging)
Brutalize: Complete stab faster with less struggle time.
Retreat: Extend time to return to insertion gates.
Lurk: Increase range of attack from within a hidespot.
Pursuit: Increase running speed.
Evasion: Press crouch while running to slide.
Breach: Break through blocked doors with less hits, and it consumes no stamina.
Vault: Climbs and jump-overs consume less stamina.
Geister Limited-Time Event & More
Program Geister is back again this year with a 3 page Limited-Time Catalog that will last from October 21st at 10am ET to November 18 at 9:59am ET.
Earn Event Tokens by completing Trials and Geister Tasks.
Program Geister Variators are the same as last year:
EXTRACT ORGAN SAMPLES. Find deceased reagents and extract organ samples for analysis.
HALLUCINATIONS? Side effects, trauma or something else?
MORE IMPOSTERS. More NPC imposters in the Trial.
NO PLAYER NAMES. Player names are hidden. (Intensive and Psychosurgery)
ENRAGED ENEMIES. Enemies are on high alert! (Intensive and Psychosurgery)
Other notable additions
This update will feature 2 new MK-Challenges: Beguile the Children (in Fun Park), and Investigate the Minotaur (in Shopping Mall).
Easy Anti-Cheat will be introduced starting October 21st with this update in order to combat potential hacking or cheats in our game, especially given the new Invasion Experimental Therapy. We want to ensure a fair competitive environment for all our players.
The Outlast Trials will introduce a new In-Game Store which includes:
Blackmarket: Explore a selection of brand-new outfits.
Catalogs Collection: Browse Deluxe Catalogs and revisit those from past Limited-Time Events.
The unlock cost of past Event Catalogs available in the Store is adjusted based on your progress of that specific Catalog. For example, Catalogs will be priced lower if you already unlocked a portion of it when the Event was live.
Event Catalogs will only be added to the Store a few months after their run ends in game. They will be free for the duration of the event, and will be purchasable once they are introduced in the Store.
DLCs: Access all available downloadable content packs.
Daily Murkoff Box: Receive a free random reward daily simply for visiting the store.
Murkoff Coins: Purchase the Murkoff Coins currency to spend in the Store.
Free Gift with first purchase: Receive an exclusive outfit with your first purchase of Murkoff Coins.
Twitch Drops Special Event
Link your account to Twitch and earn exclusive rewards by watching participating content creators play The Outlast Trials streams on Twitch! The linking process will be available from the Main Menu when the update is live on October 21st at 10am.