
The Outlast Trials Season 4 Just Dropped – Why Horror Fans Can’t Miss This Update
July 20, 2025Red Barrels has returned with The Outlast Trials Season 4 update, and this round isn’t pulling any punches. If you thought surviving the Murkoff trials was brutal before, just wait until you run this season’s nightmarish additions. From a grotesque new toy weapon to map updates drenched in even more dread, Season 4 raises the stakes for players who like their horror multiplayer twisted, cruel, and co-op tested.
What’s been added in Season 4?
Let’s start with the weapon that’s already stirred the player base, the Brain 1st toy. This nasty piece is essentially a giant brain in a fluid-filled casing, but it’s more than just a grotesque showpiece from Murkoff’s funhouse. It activates a powerful frenzy mode that increases your sprint speed tremendously while draining stamina. Time it right, and you’ve got yourself a perfect getaway tool. Misuse it? Well, you’re bait.
Joining the arsenal is an array of newly unlocked character perks and prescriptions, including the rare Tier 3 unlocks. Veterans know unlocking Tier 3 means pushing limits, and that brings far more aggressive strategies into Trials, particularly in solo runs. Notably, these unlocks are designed to encourage more diverse gameplay styles and give players reasons to mix up their builds, a conscious shake-up that fans have been demanding for multiple seasons.
On top of that, Red Barrels has expanded the pool of Weekly Programs with modifiers, essentially rotating challenge missions with new, cruel conditions. One notable addition restricts all players’ field of vision to a tiny circle. Yes, a literal darkness around you as if someone dimmed your brain. It sounds punishing because it is. And it only works when paired with the other new feature — dynamic animation tweaks that make enemies even more unpredictable.
New Map & Big Visual Overhauls

Strapped into Season 4’s Laboratory X environment yet? You should be. This new environment drops players into a decaying government research centre caked with clinical horror aesthetics and Fallout-esque dread. Layered with environmental storytelling and tight corridors, Lab X is as much about psychological unease as it is about gameplay intensity. Word to the wise: it favours solo players less, so team efforts are highly recommended.
Even returning maps have received visual updates. Lighting has been noticeably improved across several areas, shadows are cast with more eerie precision, and new post-processing effects make it feel like the game’s grime level has been turned up to 11. It’s not just about polish; it reinforces the feeling of paranoia and menace, a clear effort to elevate the horror visuals as we head deeper into this game’s lifecycle.
The Outlast Trials continues to evolve smartly. Unlike many co-op horror games that burn out after early peak, Red Barrels seems genuinely committed to diversifying fatigue mechanics, pushing player skill expression, and teasing new lore threads hidden in seasonal drops. Whether it’s a strategically timed new toy like Brain 1st or increasingly punishing trials with modifiers, The Outlast Trials Season 4 is evidence that this game has firm roots and a roadmap built to scare and satisfy in equal measure.