Greetings Reagents!
This update brings bug fixes, quality-of-life improvements, and balance changes based on player feedback.

This update also introduces a new experimental Special Event: Program Omega Ω.
We continue to improve the game experience for solo players as well as the first-time user experience in the early game.

Special Event: Program Ω


We are introducing our first special event: Program Omega Ω. This is an experimental program for Reagents looking for the ultimate coop challenge!

• Program Omega details: [list]
• Unlocks at the same time as Program X.
• Group is required (2-4 players).
• Therapy Level 20+ is recommended.
• New Variator: Stay Together

[/list]

• Please be advised: [list]
• This is an experimental special event.
• Participating in this program is completely optional and not required to progress.
• Exceptionally, this program is coop exclusive.
• It will only be limited for a few weeks until it is vaulted.

[*] We are curious to hear your feedback about this first special event![/list]
New Variator: Stay Together

• Stay Together is applied to all Trials of Program Omega.
• Stay close to your friends or you will take damage.
• Voice chat range is limited, so stay close.

Solo Play

Dev comment: Solo play is an important element of The Outlast Trials. Given the feedback we received, we realize that we may have been a bit too brutal on those playing alone. We’ve decided to revisit some mechanics to ensure solo players have a good time and that they can make continuous progress without being overly punished.

• Players now has unlimited respawns in solo, but will get a grade penalty for each respawn.
• Respawns (in solo) now restore 100% health (previously 50%).
• Enemies and Prime Assets won’t linger around objectives as much.
• General tweaks and rebalancing to AI behaviour when playing solo and cooperative in early game.
• We will observe and continue to gather player feedback and make improvements on solo play.

Arm Wrestling

• You can now challenge other players while sitting at the table.
• Point at a player and press the interact button to challenge them.

Prescriptions

Dev comment: These actions are now available from the start instead of being locked behind upgrades. Purchasing these prescriptions will now improve their base actions.

Redesigned some Actions/Prescriptions (Rx):

• “KICK TO HELP” is now “HARD KICK”:[list]
• Players can now help teammates grasped by enemies without needing to acquire an upgrade.
• However, helping teammates now exhausts the player.
• Purchasing “HARD KICK” prescription greatly reduces the stamina cost of helping teammates.

[/list]

• “LIFE SAVER” is now “STAY OF EXECUTION”: [list]
• Players can now save teammates being executed by enemies without needing to acquire an upgrade.
• Saving teammates now exhausts the player.
• Purchasing this prescription greatly reduces the stamina cost when performing this action.

[/list]

• Players who acquired the previous prescriptions will automatically receive the newer version and it will be equipped. New players will have to acquire them as usual.

Rigs
Healing Rig:

• “Poison” upgrade:[list]
• Affected enemies slowdown effect has been increased.
• Affected enemies slowdown duration has been decreased.
• Fixed missing reaction animation on some enemies.
• Dev Comment: The poison upgrade wasn’t perceptible enough, so we increased its effect but reduced the duration. We also fixed an issue where poison wasn’t triggering the reaction animation on some enemies.

[/list]Blind Rig:

• Base Rig:[list]
• Increased base deploy time to 3s (was 2s).
• “Deploy Technique” upgrade:
• Increased upgraded deploy time to 2s (was 1.5s).

[/list]X-Ray Rig:

• Fixed an issue where X-Ray wouldn’t work properly if 2 players would use the rig at the same time.

Balancing and improvements

• All players in a group can now navigate the Programs menu.
• Completed Trials via Coop play are now replayable even if requirements are not met. [list]
• Previously, players would still have to complete requirements in order to replay a Trial that was previously completed via Coop (selected by a leader who had access to this Trial).

[*] Stamina consumption while running decreased by 20% - you can now run for longer duration.
[*] Exhaustion time decreased by 20% - exhaustion now recovers faster.
[*] Recovering from bleed-out now restores 25% health (was 50%).
[*] Exit Trial objective marker is now displayed from further distance.
[*] Completing a Trial that wasn’t unlocked will now make it available for replay, instead of having it locked until the unlock conditions are met.
[*] “Slippers” amp now only works when walking on glass. Running will still trigger a sound disturbance.
[*] Walking on glass while having the “Slippers” amp equipped won’t register as a score penalty anymore.
[*] Added a new GAMEPLAY category in the Settings screen:

• Toggle run (define the run input behavior).
• Hide item after delay (auto hide the equipped item after a short delay to clear the field of view).

[*] “Toggle Run” setting now works correctly on gamepads.
[*] Increased the sound made by Pouncers in hiding spots.
[*] Added new voice announcements during the Exit Trial countdown to help players understand the remaining time.
[*] Added border art around Player Icons in all menus where player icons are displayed.
[*] Visual tweaks of the Settings menu.[/list]
Fixes

• Fixed a memory leak introduced in the previous update.
• Fixed and updated some text, typos, and grammatical errors.
• Fixed an issue where the global handwritten Murkoff comment was not correct to the situation.
• Fixed an issue where Vouchers or Release Tokens were sometimes not correctly rewarded to players.
• Grades of Trials completed in Coop will now display correctly
• Fixed an issue where walking on glass with the Amp “Slippers” was still incrementing as “Triggered Sound Traps” in the Results screen.
• Fixed navigation issues and bugs in all Trials.
• Fixed some issues for grab animations that would occur in some instances.
• Fixed an issue where the equipped item would sometimes disappear when used while in Psychosis.
• Fixed an issue where sliding got players stuck and unable to move.
• Fixed an issue where enemies wouldn’t get stunned by thrown items in some situations.
• Fixed an issue where players could survive the Exit Trial post-countdown using the Healing rig.

On the radar
As we continue to gain feedback from all our players through our Survey we are looking at these key areas to work on in the future:

• Reward efforts even in the event of failing a Trial.
• Penalize group players not participating to Trials.
• Improve the Trial selection process as a group.
• Keep improving the solo experience.
• Keep improving the AI behavior in some edge case situations.