The Outlast Trials Multiplayer: Crossplay, Solo and Invasion Explained

Yes: The Outlast Trials is fully cross-play between PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, but there is no cross-progression, so your Reagent stays on the platform where you levelled it. Every Trial can be played solo or in groups of up to four, and from Therapy Level 30 other players can invade your Trials as Imposters unless you change one privacy setting.

This guide is built on Red Barrels' own announcements and patch notes on Steam, from the March 2023 early access FAQ to the Geister update of 20 October 2026, plus the Steam store page. Checked on 23 October 2026, with the Geister 2026 event live. Nothing here relies on hands-on play: where a detail is only community knowledge, it is labelled as such.

Is The Outlast Trials crossplay?

Yes. When the game left early access on 5 March 2024, Red Barrels' 1.0 launch announcement confirmed the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S versions and said the game is fully cross-play, so you can team up with Reagents on any platform.

There is no separate crossplay switch in any patch note we could find, so plan on meeting players from every platform. The only crossplay-related tweak since launch is cosmetic: an April 2024 update made the cross-play notice appear once instead of every time you enter the Sleep Room.

Is there cross-progression between PC and console?

No. Red Barrels said in its early access FAQ of March 2023 that consoles would get cross-platform play without cross-platform progression, repeated it in an April 2023 post on X, and confirmed it again in its December 2023 developer update. None of the season or event notes published since, up to Geister on 20 October 2026, announces account linking for progress.

In practice, a Reagent levelled on Steam does not carry its Therapy Level, Rigs or cosmetics to a PlayStation or Xbox copy. If you are choosing where to buy it so you can play with friends, pick the platform you will actually keep playing on: crossplay means you do not have to match theirs.

Can you play The Outlast Trials solo?

Yes. Steam lists the game as single-player as well as online co-op, and the store description promises the Trials work alone or in teams. The Invasion notes of October 2025 spell it out for that mode too: it supports solo play and groups of two, three or four.

Two caveats. First, Steam's minimum requirements list a broadband internet connection, so there is no offline play, solo included. Second, some modes are harsher alone: the Hardcore weekly Escalation theme introduced in Season 7 has no respawns in solo play.

How does the Group Finder work?

The Group Finder sits on the Terminal's main screen and matches you with players who want the same activity. Red Barrels brought it back in place of Quick Play in the Prime Time update of June 2025, and the Advent of Bogomolova update of February 2026 restored joining Trials already in progress, with the difficulty, Invasion and Join-in-Progress settings all editable from the Trial Details menu.

Two details explain a lot of matchmaking complaints. Since an October 2025 hotfix, the Group Finder only matches players who share the same Global Invasion privacy setting, so turning invasions off shrinks your pool. And difficulty is part of the match: Program Genesis has four tiers (Introductory, Standard, Intense and Psychosurgery) since Season 1. A recurring complaint on r/OutlastTrials in October 2026 is that random groups rarely queue above Standard, which is a community observation rather than official data.

What is Invasion, and can other players invade your game?

Invasion is a permanent PvP mode added on 21 October 2025. Reagents try to finish a normal Trial while player-controlled Imposters, armed with knives, try to kill them. You pick Reagent, Imposter or Random (which pays bonus XP), and after each match your group swaps roles.

How many Imposters you face depends on your group: one Imposter is deployed at a time against one or two Reagents, two against three or four. At launch each Imposter had three lives and could be hurt by Reagents, Prime Assets and some Ex-Pops. Outside the Invasion program, Global Invasion unlocks at Therapy Level 30 and lets Imposters drop into Genesis, event and Routine Therapy Trials; the game prompts you to accept or refuse it, and you can change it later in Privacy Settings.

How do you tell a player Imposter from an NPC Imposter?

AI Imposters have existed since before Invasion, and they impersonate a Reagent with a corrupted name tag; Red Barrels' 16 July 2026 hotfix notes refer to the corrupted names above AI Imposters directly. Players on r/OutlastTrials describe the tell as one wrong letter in a teammate's name, plus a slow approach with a knife.

Player Imposters work differently since Invasion 2.0 in Season 7: they no longer copy a Reagent by default and need the MIMIC gadget to do it. Reagents can now ping Imposters at any time, except a MIMIC user holding a fake item, which is exactly when someone in your group should be suspicious of the extra teammate.

What changed in Invasion 2.0, and which old advice is wrong?

Season 7: Project Boneyard (14 July 2026) rebuilt Invasion around stealth rather than fighting back, and three common tips from 2025 no longer hold.

• Bottles and bricks no longer counter a stab instantly. A stab now starts a STRUGGLE minigame in which both players mash, and the Reagent's remaining health decides how hard it is to win.
• Backstabs exist and changed twice. Season 7 added a Backstab that killed outright; the 22 July 2026 hotfix made it incapacitate instead, and the Chemical Leak update of 8 September 2026 let the Evasive Manoeuvre amp turn it into a STRUGGLE.
• Leaving is final. Since Season 7 no one can quit and rejoin an Invasion match, and cross-team voice chat was added (it can be disabled in Settings).

Solo players got some relief on 22 July 2026: Imposters spend at least 45 seconds on cameras between deployments against a lone Reagent, and active solo invasions last three minutes instead of five.

Which platforms is it on, and does it run on Steam Deck?

The Outlast Trials is on PC (Windows), PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S. On Steam it costs $39.99 at full price (checked 23 October 2026), and Valve rates it Verified for Steam Deck. It also has a healthy population after its Autumn Sale spike, which we covered in our news on the 94,507-player record: Steam's API reported 12,716 players online at 08:09 UTC on 23 October 2026, and the store shows 89% positive among 8,457 reviews from the last 30 days.

What to read next

If you are starting now, the timing matters: our Geister 2026 guide covers the current event, its catalog and when it ends. Everything else we have on the game, from news to Steam data, is collected on The Outlast Trials hub.