If you’re struggling to reach that A+ grade in The Outlast Trials, just know that you’re not alone. It’s a tricky feat to earn the highest grade in the game, with lots of obstacles and enemies standing in the way. This guide tells you which actions can improve your grade, and what might be standing in your way.
Let the quest for an A+ grade begin!
How to Improve your Grade in The Outlast Trials
In The Outlast Trials, events that happen during the trial will either positively or negatively affect your score. This includes finding collectables, stunning enemies, being injured, using items, etc.
Simply put, if you want to earn the highest grade in the game, you need to do as many of the positive things as possible whilst also limiting the negative events.
Here’s the list of factors that will help you improve your grade in The Outlast Trials:
Collect all the Propaganda Posters
One of the most important things to do through the trial is collect all the posters. It is literally impossible to earn the top grade in The Outlast Trials without them.
For single player, you must collect three posters, and in multiplayer, you should collect all five.
If you’re struggling to find the posters, just keep searching around the map. The time spent in the trial doesn’t impact your score, so you’ve got time to look.
Fortunately, there are some extra posters around the map which will make this process a little easier. If you collect more than three posters (or five in multiplayer), you won’t earn any extra score however.
Damage and Distract Enemies with Throwable Items
Across the trial, you’ll find bricks and bottles. These can be used as distractions if you strategically throw them across a room or near an enemy. Not only does this allow you to sneak past enemies that are standing in the way, successfully distracting enemies will increase your overall score.
You can also use bricks to damage those pesky enemies. Throwing a brick directly at one will stun them for a short period of time. This gives you some extra time to run and find a hiding spot, and also increases your overall score!
Personally, I think that bricks are the most useful item in the game, as they are essential to helping you escape a tough situation. I always try to keep one or two bricks in my inventory at all times.
Using your Rig Successfully
The more trials you complete, the more green vouchers you’ll earn to upgrade your character’s rig in the lobby. The rigs allow your character to perform some really cool and useful moves, such as blinding enemies or healing your teammates.
Successfully using your rig to complete an action during the trial will positively count towards your final grade.
I’d recommend playing each trial a couple of times before trying to earn the A+ grade. This gives you time to upgrade your rig, and also get to know the map a bit better.
Healing and Reviving Teammates
Since The Outlast Trials is a multiplayer-oriented game, of course you’ll be rewarded for helping your teammates. Healing and reviving your fellow team members positively impact your score.
Naturally, it helps your final score even more if they don’t get injured or downed in the first place, but that’s easier said than done.
Performing Cooperative Actions
Sticking with multiplayer-only score modifiers, you can boost your score by performing cooperative actions. This includes collaboratively bashing through barricades or helping your teammate climb up somewhere high.
Collecting Documents
Alongside the propaganda posters, there’s also documents of evidence hidden around the trial. Finding these documents will also boost your final score.
Using Items
One of the easiest ways to increase your score is by using items. I like to use the more useless items as soon as I find them. For example, there’s not really any reason to carry around batteries with you, as the night vision is still decent if you’re out of batteries. I just use the batteries as soon as I find them, to guarantee a little extra score. Every little helps!
Using lockpicks to open doors or locked containers will also improve your final grade.
Surviving a Psychosis
In The Outlast Trials, there is a sanity meter which is very important to your score. As will be discussed later, losing sanity negatively affects your final grade.
There are four main ways of losing sanity:
- Triggering a door trap
- Stepping on or triggering a gas mine
- Missing lockpicking skill checks
- Getting sprayed by the Pusher (the enemy in the gas mask)
If you lose enough sanity, you will enter psychosis and the Skinner Man will chase you.
Obviously, the best thing for your score is to completely avoid losing sanity. I always try to disarm any door traps and mines as soon as I find them. Plus, I always make sure to hide whenever I hear a Pusher entering the trial which is signalled by a loud ‘beeping’ audio cue.
If you do lose any sanity, try to use an antidote to fully restore your sanity meter. In the chance that you enter psychosis, try your best to survive the trip – this will positively impact your score. Of course, you will have already lost a significant amount of points by entering into psychosis in the first place, but earning some points back is worthwhile when aiming for that A+ grade.
Hiding
Hiding from enemies lowers your chances of triggering a noise trap or being injured. If you’re being chased by an enemy and successfully hide from them, it will improve your score.
Nevertheless, it’s definitely recommended to go slow and steady where possible, and your final grade will definitely thank you for the extra caution.
Completing the Trial
And of course, you’re not going to earn the highest score if you don’t actually complete the trial. Successfully completing the trial and escaping is necessary if you want to earn that A+ grade.
And if you’re playing in multiplayer, don’t just leave your teammates behind to die. This can actually affect your final score, meaning that all your hard work could be for nothing.
Factors that Lower your Grade in The Outlast Trials
If you’ve been following the advice above, but still are just shy of that A+ grade, the game might be penalising you for certain actions. I often find that the pesky broken glass traps are the cause of a lower ranking, but there’s a couple other factors that might be pulling your score down without you realising.
Here’s a list of factors that can lower your grade in The Outlast Trials:
Taking Damage, Being Knocked Out or Killed
Whenever you take damage, it negatively affects your score. And if you are knocked out or killed, this will severely lower your score, and make it near impossible to earn a high grade.
To get an A+, try to avoid taking damage more than a couple of times. Usually I’d say that if you’re taking damage more than three times, it’s probably going to be difficult to get that top grade.
Losing Sanity
Similarly, losing sanity in any way (through traps, Pushers, or missing lockpick skill checks) will lower your overall score. And if your sanity drops low enough to enter into psychosis, then it’s going to be tricky to earn an A+.
Always make sure to disarm door traps and mines, hide or run away when you hear the Pusher activate, and successfully hit those skill checks on locked cabinets.
Triggering Traps
Whenever you trigger any traps, your score is going to drop. This includes sanity traps, but also hanging noise traps and broken glass on the floor. Broken glass on the floor is the bane of my existence, as it’s so easy to run over whilst being chased. This is a great reason to try to stay as stealthy as possible, as it’s difficult to avoid mid-chase.
Leaving your Teammates Behind to Die
If you leave the trial whilst your teammates are knocked out or dead, it’s unfortunately going to lower your final score. So even if you have to endure a few hits to get them back up, I’d argue that it’s probably worth it to rescue them.
Final Thoughts
The easiest way to achieve the A+ ranking in The Outlast Trials is by collecting all the propaganda posters, avoiding getting injured, and completing the trial. Of course, it’s easier said than done, so you can take the other measures listed above to improve your grade as much as possible.
It’s important to note that the time spent on the trial has no impact on your final grade. It’s not necessary to rush, and it seems that in most cases, it’s actually better to take your time and remain stealthy.
We hope that you found this guide useful, and wish you luck in The Outlast Trials to earn your first A+ grade!