- "One of the Sleep Room observers had the gall to suggest this Skinner Man is a reflection of ME, simply because he overheard Reagents calling it "Doctor Skinner." Ridiculous. I am like a kind father to my patients, and they love me as much as I respect them."
- ―Skinner Man Research from Easterman Journals[1]
The Skinner Man is one of the primary antagonists in The Outlast Trials. It is a phantom-like entity bearing a demonic avatar of Doctor Hendrick Joliet Easterman, frequently haunting and tormenting Reagents as an unexpected side effect of Project Lathe's mental conditioning. Throughout the Trials, the Skinner Man manifests and pursues Reagents whenever they suffer from Psychosis.
In the Rebirth endings, it becomes apparent that the Skinner Man plays a vital role in completed Reagents, as it can influence or control Reagents the moment they are activated by the Spider Eye Lamb trigger phrase.
Background[]
The Skinner Man shares a resemblance to Project Lathe's head scientist, Dr. Easterman.
Characteristics[]
The Skinner Man's presence in the Trials is only triggered if a Reagent loses all of their sanity and enters Psychosis. Loss of sanity can be caused by a Reagent getting caught and drugged by the Pusher, triggering psychosis mines, rigged doors or containers, or failing at lock-picking mini-games. If the Reagent is only exposed to a small amount of gas, the Skinner Man will taunt them by appearing in doorways or hiding spots and quickly rushing towards them in an attempt to "jump scare" them, even though this ultimately does no damage.
While a Reagent is under the effects of full Psychosis, the Skinner Man will emerge from the floor nearby and immediately begin pursuing them. Unlike the Ex-Pop, the Skinner Man is always aware of where his target is located, making it impossible to hide from him. Rather than attacking through physical force, the Skinner Man will slowly drain a Reagent's life from their body with an "area of effect" aura if a Reagent is too close to him. Due to being a non-physical entity, the Skinner Man is completely unaffected to everything thrown at him, which includes bricks, bottles, and Stun Rigs. He also has the ability to walk through barricaded doors and even Blind Rigs. Once a Reagent cures themselves with an antidote or outlasts the duration of Psychosis, the Skinner Man will cease chasing and sink through the floor.
Skinner Man cannot chase the Reagent through the trial shuttles used for entering or exiting trials. However, when the shuttles are within the middle of the trials, he will instead stare at the Reagent and wait to teleport to the other side.
Much like other antagonists in the Outlast series, the Skinner Man relentlessly pursues the Reagents without stopping. The Skinner Man communicates very little, only occasionally mimicking Easterman's voice. Unlike most of the other antagonists in the series, the Skinner Man is not a corporeal entity, as he appears to be a projection from the Reagents' minds during Psychosis unless the trial is on Psychosurgery difficulty.
Because standard solid objects do not affect the Skinner Man, he shares properties similar to ghosts like the Walrider and Loutermilch. However, despite being a ghost-like thought-form, he is still impeded by walls and most solid obstacles, but phases through doors with no effort.
The Skinner Man is able to wildly and erratically contort his body at an alarmingly high speed. This is mostly seen in the form of the Skinner Man grabbing his head with his hands and violently twitching his torso around as tendrils shoot out of his body, which is most likely a reference to the mentally anguishing state the Reagents are in when undergoing Psychosis.
Even though the Skinner Man is a thought-form, he appears exactly the same way to multiple Reagents. However, unlike the Walrider, each Reagent perceives the Skinner Man independently, meaning teammates cannot see him from each other's perspective and allows Skinner Man to haunt multiple Reagents under psychosis effects simultaneously.
Story[]
The Outlast Trials[]
The Skinner Man first appears in the Mansion shortly after the Pusher gasses a Reagent, providing a tutorial for the effects of Psychosis. He disappears through the floor after the Reagent takes a nearby antidote.
At any Trial, whenever a Reagent loses 1/3 of their sanity, the Skinner Man will start appearing occasionally and rush towards them when looked at, and also scares the affected Reagent by trying to grab or approach them when opening doors or using hiding spots. In 2/3 sanity loss, he will attempt to use his tentacles to block his target's path. Once Reagent loses all their sanity, the Skinner Man will rise from the floor and begin the chase. Whenever he gets close to his victim, the Reagent will scream out in pain and rapidly lose health. This will continue until the Reagent either outruns Skinner Man, or is downed by him. Skinner Man always knows the Reagent's location and cannot be fooled by hiding spots. Additionally, Skinner Man phases through nearby obstacles and can to teleport to a nearby location when the Reagent is far enough to continue the chase. However, while experiencing psychosis, the Reagent is completely ignored by all Ex-Pop, even upon psychical contact unless the Trial is set on Psychosurgery difficulty or Extreme Psychosis variator is applied.
Despite his existence as a phantom hallucination, he can somehow cause Reagents' rigs to become disabled, reset their cooldowns, or even cause sanity loss when certain variators are applied. However, he is not capable of inflicting the bleeding effect when the Bleeding variator is active.
Doctor Easterman and the other Murkoff faculty members are aware of the existence of the Skinner Man phenomenon, with Doctor Easterman himself taking personal offense to the idea that it resembles him in any way, as he fully believes that his experiments are helping the Reagents rather than harming them.
The Skinner Man cannot be killed or beaten, Reagents can either run away until their psychosis ends, or take an antidote.
Personality[]
Enigmatic and silent, the true personality of the Skinner Man is difficult to pin down. The only obvious characteristic the Skinner Man exhibits is that he seems to be a malevolent being with the goal of tormenting and causing harm to the Reagents.
Physical description[]
The Skinner Man appears as a tall, grayscale humanoid wearing a black suit, loosely imitating the appearance of Doctor Easterman. Whenever he gets close to a Reagent, the skin on his head vanishes to reveal a skull with glowing red eyes. He also has flowing, writhing tendrils that stick outward from his head, appearing to defy gravity. Though he has visible human hands, he does not appear to have a neck, as the top part of his body where flesh should be is mostly accompanied by a black mist.
After the Program Geister 2024 update, the Skinner Man has received a visual overhaul. Whenever he gets close to a Reagent, his head morphs into a grotesque, fleshy skull with three sets of glowing eyes, each of them are split in white without pupils and red on opposite sides, the teeth in the upper central incisor missing with extra set of teeth within his mouth, tendrils extending outward from his head in an array of colors, beginning with white, followed by red, and then black. Additionally, his hands have been warped, elongated into white sharp claws.
Patch notes[]
May 19, 2023 (Early Access Launch)
September 10, 2024 (Countdown)
October 29, 2024 (Program Geister)
December 10, 2024 (Project Breach)
June 3, 2024 (Prime Time 2025)
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Trivia[]
- The Skinner Man is the second antagonist to appear as a torturous thought form, with the first being the demonic version of Father Loutermilch.
- Chronologically, he is the first of the two.
- It is unconfirmed but possible that they are the same entity.
- There are several people that are aware of Skinner Man's existence: one of the male grunts, a Sleep Room observer[1], Olivier W. Baranczyk[1], a man named Private Raymous[2], the Pushers [3], A. Bradley Avellanos[4], Dr. Wernicke, and the Company Board[4] .
- Program Geister was approved on the basis of making use of the hallucinating effects and how they combine with the Skinner Man amongst unrelated Reagents. [4]
- When the Reagents hallucinate inside the Shuttle, the Skinner Man's tendrils are seen around them.
- It appears that those tentacle hallucinations resemble the Skinned Man shrine from Outlast 2.
References[]
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