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 Upshur enters the Female Ward, Father Martin will stay where he tells the player to go to the top floor. He will spawn later, giving dialogue. However, when reaching the balcony that he is originally standing on, his character model will remain standing there, stationary.
Another instance of this is when the wheelchair Variant in 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 in a T-pose and clipping through his wheelchair.
Animations[]
Outlast Stairs glitch
The glitch in action
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.
Sometimes, animations may clip into geometry, such as walking or running up stairs.
Spawning and 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[]
Outlast door glitch
The glitch in action
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.
If you hold left click to slightly open a door and then let go and jump forward at the same time, that door will now be closed, but it will have no collision. This state can also be achieved by slowly opening or closing the door, then gently reversing one's movement while at the same time letting go of the interact button. NPCs cannot clip through doors that are glitched like this, and they will still have to break them down, during which they cannot be interrupted. Opening the door will fix its collision.
The glitch seems to primarily work on PC versions of the game and is not reproducible on its console ports.
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. Similar to this, Trager's clothing will clip to the floor after you kill him.
Door boost[]
Doors are not rendered as solid during their opening/closing animation. Thus, it is possible to clip into a door swinging in the direction of the player. This can be achieved by holding left click to slightly open a door, jumping backwards to release the door and immediately jumping forward into the still opening door again. This will propel the player on top of the door (Since it is also solid, it is also possible to land on the doorknob instead if the trick is not correctly executed). For instance, this trick can be used to skip Walker's second appearance in the Male Ward after activating the first sprinkler valve in the hall filled with bathtubs.
The usefulness of this glitch varies though, since it very much depends on the nature of the surrounding walls. Certain walls do not have collision above the doors while others do.
Hitbox shrinking[]
When hurdling over obstacles that are close to a wall, it is possible to jump really close to the wall (this does not directly result in clipping, but lets the player stand closer to the wall than the hitbox would normally allow, hence the term "hitbox shrinking"). This effect persists until the player moves away from the wall, after which the hitbox returns to normal. But, being close to the wall and doing a jump without other directional input gives a small boost in the direction the player is facing, which lets the player go out of bounds.
In a room adjacent to the Entrance Hall in the Administration Block, this trick can be used to jump into the wall and drop directly into the basement, without bothering with the security terminal first. Moreover, on the third floor of the female ward, it can be used to skip the laundry fuse section in its entirety, by hurdling over a small iron rack and clipping into the decayed room where Father Martin appears.
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.
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 Sewer, 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[]
When the player's gamma is set to 3, dark areas can have strange blocky shadows.
A picture of the glitch in action
In Male Ward, 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.
Model size glitches[]
An example of this glitch in the prison block, shortly after escaping from Chris Walker after the explosion. The floor is not big enough, so under this door, you can see the void. Also, the bottom part of the wall does not extend to the doorway.
Sometimes, models like floors or walls may not be extended enough. This can lead to the player seeing the void.