Grunts

The Grunts
Alias	General Ex-Pop Lost Men
Affiliation	Ex-Pop
Status	Alive
Attributes
Gender	Varies
Hair	Varies
Eyes	Varies
Appearances
The Outlast Trials
Game Information
Equipment	Machetes Modified claws
Voiced by	Tristan D. Lalla - Male Grunt 2 Tamara Brown - Female Grunt 1 Catherine Kidd - Female Grunt 2
Gallery • Dialogues

 

"The doctors are watching. You have to be... good."

―One of the Patrolling Grunts

 

The Grunts are some of the antagonists in The Outlast Trials. They are the most common Ex-Pop encountered within each of the Trials, patrolling the Trial Environments and attacking Reagents if they spot them.

There are currently 19 Grunts, with 9 being female and 10 being male, and they also are seen to be Asian, Black, and White. They are each categorized into easy, medium, and hard difficulty, with the hard difficulty grunts fitted out with more complex outfit pieces.

Background

According to General Ex-Pop, many Grunts are assumedly former drug addicts, felons, and homeless people, who were put into contact with the Sinyala Facility through their advertisements during PROJECT LATHE ONE.

Characteristics

Many are seen in similar outfits to that of the Reagents, including the more rare outfit pieces, as well as bandages and medical equipment.

Many openly voice their discomfort as well, be it: physical pain from injuries, the effects of the drugs used by the facility, the pain of using the equipment, or the effects of the brainwashing that have twisted their views of the Reagents.

Story

The Outlast Trials

Taken from the harsh effects of the Cold War, The Grunts were picked from the street as well as taken from Mount Massive Asylum. They are among the first subjects of Project LATHE Phase 1, hurt and experimented for the sake of science and money.

There were hundreds of people willing to participate out of desperation; however, Murkoff only accepted a hundred of them for Project Lathe and the rest were sent to other facilities, shipped like human cattle. Murkoff also got more Grunts from Mount Massive, hoping for a different result from patients affected by the Asylum compared to those who came from the streets.

Unfortunately, many were brainwashed by Easterman into believing his words of war and future. They are now restricted to stay in the facility forever, or for as long as the cost to take care of them remains cheap.

Personalities

The Grunts are extremely violent and brutal individuals. They can often be heard yelling insults at Reagents as they chase and stalk them. They have deep hatred towards the Reagents, perceiving them as either communists, rats, or house invaders. Some idle Grunts can also express their disgusts on the Reagents passing by, seeing them as mindless executioners and threatens the Reagents to keep their distance if they are nearby. They would do anything to protect their 'home' and country to satisfy Dr. Easterman.

However, this does not apply to all Grunts. Some armored Grunts are still afraid of Easterman and the punishment Murkoff could give to them if they fail. They also can be heard apologizing to the Reagents that they had to hurt them in order to avoid punishment.

Some Grunts still have a portion of sanity and consciousness, realizing the delusion Murkoff is trying to enforce on them. They know some things aren't real, such as Gooseberry's children, who are nothing but moving mannequins. Weaponized Grunts don't seem to be afraid of Big Grunts or Prime Assets, as they don't mind hunting the Reagents with them.

Physical description

The Grunts have a variety of different appearances throughout the trials. Hard difficulty Grunts appear to wear full body leather armor with wires wrapped around their arms and connecting to devices worn around their heads. Three Grunts in particular wear separate head devices. Two females wear what seems like a hearing device that covers their ears, while the male wears an EEG cap which has an entanglement of wires shoved into his mouth. These armored Grunts carry a double bladed claw-like weapon.

There are other Grunts that wear more ragged clothes with their arms covered in bloody bandages. While they are much smaller, these Grunts also appear to wear EEG devices, metal apparatuses or goggles on their heads. They carry around large machetes.

The idle Grunts that do not actively chase around players wear even more tattered clothing. Their exposed bodies are covered in scars and sores that have yet to heal. Many of them show signs of hair loss, evident from the bald patches on their head. None of them carry any type of weapon, opting instead to punch or kick any Reagents brave enough to get close enough. From what we can gather based on their appearance, these Grunts are at the bottom of the Ex-Pop food chain. They are of no significance to Murkoff and are simply disposable subjects put in to catch any off guard Reagent.

Player death animations

• A Grunt with a machete can stab a Reagent in their groin before slitting their throat.
• A Grunt with a machete can disembowel a Reagent by slashing them open from their abdominal region to their groin.
• A Grunt with a machete can use the tip of their machete to repeatedly stab a Reagent in the throat before slashing their neck open.
• A Grunt with a machete can repeatedly stab a Reagent in the face with the tip of their machete.
• A Grunt with a claw can straddle a Reagent and strangle them to death.
• A Grunt with a claw can stomp on a Reagent's face repeatedly with their boot and finish them off by jumping directly on their head.
• A Grunt with a claw can step on a Reagent's neck and slowly suffocate them until their throat is crushed.

Balance Changes

May 19, 2023 (Early Access Launch) Enemies AI have been tweaked to become more brutal, deadly, and relentless. October 26, 2023 (Early Access Update # 3 / Program Geister) All enemies are more lenient in chases, thereby diminishing the likelihood of them miraculously discovering Reagents' whereabouts attempting evade detection by breaking visual contact with them. Slightly diminished the AI's sensitivity to footsteps. December 13, 2023 (Early Access Update # 4 / Winter Kills) Updated their lunge attack animations. (Undocumented) March 5, 2024 (Full Release) Updated Grunts reactiveness. (Undocumented)

Trivia

• The word "grunt" is often used to refer to a person, or group of people, who are ranked low (often at the very bottom) of a hierarchy or chain of command. In the military it is a slang term for infantrymen, who are often ranked lowest and only serve a basic all round purpose. The Grunts most likely get their name due to this fact as they only serve the purpose of hunting down and killing Reagents.
• The Grunts are the first Outlast enemies that have various races. There are Asian and Black Grunts in the Facility, which makes Outlast Trials have the most diverse enemies compared to previous Outlast games.
• The Grunts are also the first Outlast enemies that can do what normally only protagonists can do, such as peeking through the door, locking and unlocking doors, and crouching through small spaces.
• Some Grunts were implied to be the Reagents, due to voice lines referring to the Skinner Man as well as responses to direct quotes from Dr. Easterman words that a Reagent receives in after trial evaluations.
• Based on the dialogues, one of the patrolling female Grunts in the Fun Park may used to have children and was apparently taken away from her by the Murkoff.
• One of the idle Grunts in the Docks mentioned Whitehorn's name, blaming him for the oil tank blocking the path to the drug laboratory.

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