Visual effects a Reagent sees under the effects of Psychosis, while the Skinner Man approaches
Psychosis is a mental state a Reagent undergoes when sanity is fully depleted, which occurs by being exposed to the mind-altering Psychosis gas. The gas can be encountered when the Pusher sprays it in a Reagent's face, released when failing a puzzle objective, stepping near gas mines, or when its sprayed out by booby-trapped containers and doors. During this state, the Skinner Man will manifest and begin pursuing the affected Reagent.
Though the state in itself is not physically harmful, the encounter with the Skinner Man can be.
Description[]
After Easterman finishes explaining the mission to the Reagents while being transported to the trials, they are sprayed by the psychosis gas, causing them to hallucinate and see foreshadowing or horrific situations from the trial, including flaying tentacles resembling those of the Skinner Man.
During the trial, there are multiple ways that the Reagents can lose their sanity:
- Being caught by the Pusher will drain all three sanity bars, or less if interrupted early.
- Stepping on a psychosis mine or being hit by aerial gas after detonation drains two sanity bars. However, stepping on passive smoke gas after detonation drains one sanity bar instead.
- Get caught by the door trap, which sprays gas after five seconds. If the trap remains, gas will continue to spray every five seconds, draining one sanity bar.
- Failing to move away from a rigged item container in time will drain one sanity bar.
- Failing to complete the lockpick minigame within 10 seconds result in draining one sanity bar.
- Turning the wrong valve in the Root Canal drains one sanity bar.
- Picking a wrong objective item such as the toy box or the mannequin drains one sanity bar.
- In certain instances, Murkoff Corporation may apply modified psychosis gas to the Reagents before starting the trial, forcing them to survive with a partially filled sanity bar or causing the Skinner Man hallucinations to appear] even with full sanity. Unlike regular psychosis, these effects cannot be recovered by any means and persist for the remainder of the trial.
- When Psychosis Damage variator is active, the Reagent loses one sanity bar upon taking any damage.
- Getting contact with the psychosis gas in hazard vents drains one sanity bar. This effect will continue to apply after every few seconds when Reagent does not move away from the gas.
When the trial has Deadly Traps variators active, the sanity bar damage effect becomes doubled.
When sanity is only reduced by one bar, the Reagent occasionally suffers from the weaker psychosis-induced hallucinations, distorting both vision and hearing, making it harder to hear traps or Ex-Pop and also gather visual information from them. The Skinner Man also starts appearing as a occasional harmless jump scare, rushing toward the affected Reagent with a loud noise when looked at and cause the Reagent to scream by jump scaring them when they open the doors or use hiding spots.
When sanity is only reduced by two bars, the psychosis-induced hallucination becomes more distorted, with the addition of tentacles appearing to block the affected Reagent's path when the psychosis distortion effect happens. Making physical contact with the tentacle causes the Reagent to take slight damage and briefly stunned.
When all three bars are drained, the Reagent enters a full state of psychosis. During the psychosis state, a Reagent's vision becomes blurry, warped and distorted. The colors on the screen will appear with a saturated red and green tint, coupled with parts of the screen twitching and warping around. The Skinner Man will appear by phasing from up through the floor, after which he pursues the mentally-affected Reagent with tentacles rising constantly. When the affected Reagent is inflicted with another psychosis gas, the duration of the psychosis effect resets completely. The Skinner Man will never end his pursuit of a Reagent, as he will always know where they are at all times, making hiding from him impossible. However, while under the psychosis effect, the Reagent is completely ignored by most Ex-Pop and not pose any harm, even on psychical contact unless the Trial is on Psychosurgery difficulty. However, some Ex-Pop such as the Jaeger and the Imposter Reagents can still attack the Reagents under the psychosis effect regardless of the difficulty. When the Reagent gains enough distance, the Skinner Man teleports to a nearby location and continues the chase.
There are various ways to recover from Psychosis:
- Using an antidote, which completely restores a Reagent's sanity.
- Using the Heal rig with the Detox upgrade fully cures the user and their teammates from psychosis effects.
- The Reagent equipped with an Antitoxin amp will have one bar of sanity recovered every 60 seconds.
- When the sanity is fully drained, simply keep avoiding the Skinner Man until sanity fully restores itself for about 30 seconds (or half with Antitoxin amp) where the Skinner Man ends his pursuit and de-manifests.
- In Psychosurgery difficulty, the psychosis effect duration lasts for 45 seconds.
- When the Reagent exits through the trial shuttle, it fully recovers their sanity but will not count towards their grade. This can be useful for Reagents wanting to remove psychosis effects and also return to help their teammates escape.
Though risky for Reagents, intentionally triggering psychosis mines or letting Pusher spray gas on them can be beneficial in certain scenarios. Being ignored by most Ex-Pop provides an opportunity to complete objectives or navigate trial environments. However, traps can still detect and harm them, the Jaeger and the Invader Imposters will continue to target them, and performing objectives that require a Reagent to remain stationary poses significant risks from the Skinner Man. This strategy does not apply on Psychosurgery difficulty as the Ex-Pop will continue to chase the affected Reagent.
When the Nostophobia variator is active for a Trial, Reagents will never lose their sanity even when they get inflicted by psychosis gas from activating wrong objectives like valves or toy boxes. When there are Bad Trip variators active, the Skinner Man's contact can still deal damage to Reagents after a few seconds of being cured from the full psychosis effect.
Patch notes[]
December 10, 2024 (Project Breach)
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Trivia[]
- Some of the unused dialogues from Closed Beta suggests that, realistically, the Reagents were unintentionally inflicting physical self-harm during the psychosis state.[1] This is also evidenced by other Reagents observing them.
- When Reagents are exposed by the psychosis gas inside the transportation, the tendrils of the Skinner Man are only seen during the hallucination.
- When Reagent recovers their sanity with Bad Trip variator, Skinner Man can still damage them before retreating.