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A glitch, otherwise known as a "bug" or "fault", is an in-game error that produces an effect that was unintended by programmers. Players can utilize some of these glitches to get an advantage over the AI and finish the game with less effort. Below are glitches that can occur in Outlast and Outlast: Whistleblower.

Frozen Character Models[]

Occasionally, character models will freeze. Sometimes, when Miles enters the Female WardFather Martin will stay where he tells you to go to the top floor. He will spawn later, giving dialogue. However, when you reach the balcony that he is originally standing on, his character model will remain standing there, stationary. Another instance of this is when the Variant in the wheelchair in the Administration Block does the same. This can occur whenever Miles walks back and looks at him after restoring the power. A notable point about this glitch is that the wheelchair Variant will appear standing, with his arms stretched, clipping through his wheelchair.

Animations That Play Regardless of Collisions[]

There are many scripted animations throughout the game, and some are bugged. Sometimes, if a character is in a doorway and the door is shut, they will still attack Miles, clipping through the door. Also, in the Sewer, there's a door that when opened, will have a Variant shove his hand through some wooden barricades. If the door is shut, his arm will still come out, and will go through the door.

Spawning/Checkpoint Errors[]

Checkpoints have always been a big problem for game design. Many bugs are related to these, as they control character spawns, and when parts of each chapter are loaded. In the Male Ward, going into the vent near the elevator will cause Richard Trager to become unaware of Miles. If you go back down, and have him notice you, he will continuously see and lose you, even in plain sight, if you stay on the bed near the vent. Also, at the end of the Male Ward, jumping over a closed doorway and skipping part of the chapter can result in Chris Walker spawning twice, as his first spawn is temporary, and leaves. If you skip the checkpoint that causes him to despawn, he will be present, along with the second one, leaving you with two of him chasing you.

Clipping Through Solid Objects[]

On rare occasions, Miles, or another character may have their model forced into an object (such as a wall) that the game engine views as solid. This will usually result in death, being shoved out of the object, or simply being stuck in place, unable to move.

Clipping Through Non-Solid objects[]

Often, you can clip through objects not rendered as solid. These are the most common bugs in most games. Objects like raindrops are not needed to all be individually rendered, so, they are only visual, and don't affect much. This means that raindrops constantly clip through Miles, Walker, and others outside. However, Miles' jacket, although masked to his model, is not solid. Neither are his fingers. This is present when hiding under a bed, as his sleeves and fingertips can clip into the floor.

Invincibility[]

Occasionally, something will block you from damage, or your model will fail to be updated. Whenever the player is hit, their model will sometimes not register the damage, doing nothing. Sometimes, when the game is lagging due to overworked hardware, or invalid coding, damage will simply never register to anything. This is rare, but playing on too high of graphics, or hitting certain points in the PS4 version will cause these instances. Usually, you can tell when these instances occur, as you will suffer a loss of frames.

Crouch Spam[]

Occasionally, the player can trigger a glitch by spamming the crouch button which will disrupt the AI's attempt to inflict any damage to the character. However, the enemy will still pursue Miles without directly interacting with him. This is mostly effective against Walker and less against other antagonists, such as Trager and the common Variants. Interestingly, if this method is used to disrupt Chris' killing animation, the player might still get caught in it despite visibly not being within its range, because the game still registers the player as being next to Walker. This is jokingly dubbed the "force choke" due to its visual resemblance to an ability of the same name from Star Wars.

Run While Crouching[]

Jumping, sprinting, and returning to a crouched position while starting crouched will result in you being able to sprint while remaining crouched. This isn't too useful, as based on your speed, the game still considers you standing, and doesn't let you go through tight spaces.

Skipping Chapters[]

The most common skip used in-game is the vent skip. If you can walk along the edge of a vent, and cross the gap you're to drop to, you can continue into the vent, until you go out of the map. As you're not supposed to cross the gap, the vents are actually quite short, because you should never need to walk there. If you find a way back into the map, you can trigger a later checkpoint, and continue the game without playing the section you skip. This is frequently done by speedrunners, and can be done just before the decontamination chamber explodes in the Prison Block, as well as many other places with vent drops.

Sound glitch[]

In the Sewer chapter, there's a door that when opened, will have a Variant shove his hand through some wooden barricades, but if the door is opened slowly, any audio (SFX, voice clips, music) supposed to play at that moment and after it won't be playing correctly and will be playing garbled noises instead. The noises will keep on playing and will temporarily stop when the game is paused and will only permanently stop if the player restarts/quits the game or makes it to the Male Ward.

Lightning Glitches[]

In the Male Ward chapter, if the player looks at the exit, they can see it's bright as day outside, even though it's pitch black when they actually go there later.  This is probably due to the lightning bolt, which brightens the Courtyard every time it appears, whose effect is most likely showing up when it shouldn't, and for as long as the player is in the elevator, even though the effect is only supposed to be a quarter of a second long when it happens.

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