The Outlast Trials: Every Trial, Ranked

Highlights

The Outlast Trials’ core gameplay involves brutal trials that challenge players to commit morally reprehensible acts.
Each trial offers unique mechanics, challenges, and themes, providing a variety of terrifying and entertaining experiences.
The Pervert The Futterman trial introduces new mechanics in a toy factory setting for players to navigate and conquer.

The core gameplay in the co-op horror game, The Outlast Trials, sees its players sent into various trials in order to try and mold them into ‘functioning members of society.’ This involves teaching them to kill whistleblowers and rowdy children, convert orphans to a corrupted religion, and pervert the course of justice, among other gruesome and morally reprehensible acts.

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Set in vastly different locations, with thematic enemies, and unique mechanics, each of the trials has a very different feel, despite all being terrifying horror experiences. Each of the core programs has a trial, which unlocks two challenges. Those then unlock each trial at a higher level and, finally, an exam version.

Updated April 20, 2024, by Nyah Payne: Many Outlast fans have been enjoying The Outlast Trials since its early access release in May 2023, but as of March 5th, 2024, it has been fully released. With its official release, Red Barrels introduced players to the brand new Toy Factory map, complete with a new trial called Pervert the Futterman. Whether players are picking up the fully released Outlast Trials for the first time or if they have been experiencing its horrors since early access, these are all the trials currently available to players.

6 Reborn

Escape The Facility In A Unique Trial, Set In The Tutorial Mansion

‘Program X’ is a bit of an outlier among the groups of trials currently available. It is unlocked by completing the initial three programs – ‘Rule Of Law,’ ‘Murder Rides,’ and ‘Tough Love’ – both the trials and the challenges. Gaining familiarity with these programs will assist players in ‘Program X’ itself, as the majority of ‘Program X’ involves going through each of these trials and challenges, including the latest program, but with the difficulty increased. There is one trial unique to ‘Project X’, however: ‘Reborn.’

After players complete the rest of ‘Program X,’ they can buy their freedom through the final ‘Reborn’ trial. The trial takes place in the mansion that players first explore in the tutorial, and it is a satisfying end to return to the mansion for the final trial. The ending also provides some intrigue for players, particularly long-term Outlast fans.

The only reason it is the lowest ranking trial is that the amount of highly challenging games that players have to endure to even unlock ‘Reborn’ feels like a genuine trial. The ‘Project X’ program requires players to complete six of the MK-Challenges at a difficulty rating of four, the three initial trials with a difficulty rating of four, and the ‘Vindicate The Guilty’ trial at a difficulty rating of six, which is the maximum, as the final exam before unlocking ‘Reborn.’ Those who attempt to unlock ‘Reborn’ are sure to be kept busy.

5 Grind The Bad Apples

Grind Up Naughty Children On A Dental Health-Themed Fairground Water Ride

Mother Gooseberry from the Outlast Trials with a duck hand puppet. She has a face full of white paint, and fussy grey hair.

Each of the trials in Outlast Trials is entertaining in its own capacity, and ‘Grind The Bad Apples’ is no exception. The only reason that it features lower on the list than other trials is that its mechanics aren’t quite as unique as some of the other long-form trials. Players need to push a cart full of naughty children through a carnival water ride, follow wires to remove barriers, and raise the water level with wheels.

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While the mechanics aren’t that special, ‘Grind The Bad Apples’ does shine for its environment. The setting is a carnival water ride themed around dental health, which pairs wonderfully with the primary antagonist, Mother Gooseberry, and her dental drill puppet, Doctor Futterman. It’s also an amusingly disturbing trial, as players need to push the cart full of miscreants into rotating blades to ‘grind the bad apples’ once and for all.

4 Pervert The Futterman

Collect Boxes And Keys To Coat And Burn A Victim

Toy Factory With Machine For Boxes Of Wax In The Outlast Trials

The latest trial, Pervert the Futterman, was added to the game for its full release on March 5th, 2024. It is set in a brand-new map called The Toy Factory and introduces a few new mechanics and all new horrific ways to kill the victims of the trials. Players will first need to deliver trash to a compactor until it powers on, crushes the poor man inside, and releases a key to the players, allowing them to enter the factory. From here, it is a lengthy process of sorting through various crates of wax, novelties, and lubricants, some of which are explosive explosives, so players will have to drop and back away from them, load them onto a conveyor belt, and find keys to unlock each section of machinery.

All of this is done to send a man wearing nothing but a creepy Futterman mask through the machinery, getting covered in wax and lubricant until he barely looks human. At the end of it all, players will then have to release pressure valves to burn the man to death before fleeing the trial. While it is a disturbingly amusing trial, and the various different locations are well labeled, the process can feel a little repetitive, and the trail doesn’t introduce players to any new enemies.

3 Vindicate The Guilty

Destroy Evidence And Murder Witnesses In A Deadly Courthouse

‘Truth And Justice’ was released for The Outlast Trials just in time for Halloween. It is set in a courthouse and introduces a new giant enemy and a mechanic that is particularly fun for Outlast Trials duos. Despite this, the premise has similar themes to the ‘Rule Of Law’ program, even reusing its notable antagonist, Sergeant Coyle. The trial is set in a courthouse, and players need to ensure that the judge is killed.

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In order to do this, players must destroy evidence in vats of acid and blow the heads off witnesses. That’s actually where the unique mechanic comes in. One player can use a tracker to find the witnesses, while another can use a device to, well, explode their heads. After all of this, players get to brutally kill the poor judge. It’s a wonderful addition to the already great trials on offer in The Outlast Trials.

2 Kill The Snitch

Electrocute A Whistleblower In A Police Station

Players hiding from Leland Coyale as he searches the area with his stun baton in The Outlast Trials

‘Kill The Snitch’ quickly gains some nostalgia love for players, as it is the first trial that they try. It establishes the premise of the trials wonderfully and sets the game up as it means to go on – terrifyingly. Besides the strange nostalgia, ‘Kill The Snitch’ also shines thanks to its varied stages and mechanics, each in notably different locations. The trial takes players from the street outside the police station and into it as they begin their infiltration.

The player’s primary goal is to push a ‘snitch’ down some tracks towards their electrifying execution. But first, players will need to turn the power back on. This takes them down into the dark basement, where they must find gas to fill generators and get them powered up, Dead By Daylight style. With the electrics back on, players need to push the snitch, finding keys in dead bodies to unlock the gates along the way, before finally frying the poor sucker and getting out of there like a bat out of hell.

1 Cleanse The Orphans

Tamper With Radio Broadcasts, Swap Children’s Film Reels, And Prepare A Gruesome Communion

The Sinister Orphanage Entrance in The Outlast Trials

Combining some of the best mechanics and environments in The Outlast Trials, ‘Cleanse The Orphans’ really shines as a trial. It is set within an orphanage, where players must work to ensure the ‘purity’ and ‘holiness’ of the resident orphans. The initial part of this process involves tweaking radio broadcasts to make sure they’re listening to orphanage-sanctioned radio waves. Players can then call the children to class, gaining access to the classrooms. From here, players need to swap their film reels with more educational material.

The cool mechanic here, especially in groups, is that the film reels can’t pass through the metal detector classroom doors, so players need to send them through via a feeder system. After this point, the trial plays out similarly to ‘Kill The Snitch,’ with players finding keys in corpses and starting generators. The trial ends with players sawing off a crucified NPC’s legs for ‘communion,’ blood pouring down on the happy chapel children. Expanding on and improving the great mechanics from ‘Kill The Snitch’ in an equally varied environment, ‘Cleanse The Orphans’ is also a horrifically amusing trial that really showcases the best of The Outlast Trials.