This guide concerns the mechanic named Evaluation Reports.


The grade system is a hidden point-scoring system. The more points you get, the higher your grade.

Doing positive things (e.g. disarm door traps, using rigs on enemies, using throwables) during a trial increases your points, and thus increases your grade.

Doing bad things (e.g. triggering traps, suffering psychosis, getting hit) during a trial decreases your points, and thus decreases your grade.

Time spent in a trial is not accounted for when calculating your grade.

Certain actions score more points than others. For example, taking respawn pills scores more than distracting enemies with a bottle, and getting hit loses more points than triggering a sound trap.

(Rightmost image depicting an example of a players Evaluation Report at the end of a trial.)

I'll be running through the most important scoring objectives in this guide, organising them by highest to lowest priority and recommending a couple of amps and rigs that stand out when it comes to giving players the advantage in consistently maximising their score.

If you'd like a full breakdown on the numerical values and equations that go into your rating at the end of a match, you can check out this guide below:

https://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3599611386

In this section, I'll quickly run through what your priorities should be when entering any trial with the goal of getting a high grade.

Completing your therapy (finishing the trial) and secondary objectives are your top priorities.

(An example of primary and secondary objectives. Only the primary objective is required in order to complete the trial.)

Secondary objectives come in many forms, but in standard Trials and MK Challanges it is to collect propaganda Posters. If in solo-player, there will be 3 that can be collected, and if there are 2+ players then 5 can be collected.

Every item that counts towards the secondary objective that is collected after the initial goal has been met will grant extra points towards players Evaluation Report, so don't start ignoring them once you've gathered the minimum amount.

If you're struggling to find these, then I'd recommend taking an upgraded X-ray rig with you into the trial. These collectables may look like posters, bodies, gift boxes, or something new entirely depending on which trial you're running.

Losing health from any damage-source is the most detrimental thing you can do. For context, being incapacitated will decrease your total grade from the equivalent of an A+ down to an A-.

(A Reagents health-bar being displayed after taking damage from an ex-pop.)

Remember that crouching in a low-light area will make the majority of ex-pops unable to locate you, to the point that this is often more effective than using a hiding spot. If you're in a chase, run into a dark room, crouch, keep moving, and enemies will quickly lose track of you.

Keep an eye out for traps. Opening doors slowly, crouching under hanging traps and paying close attention to your surroundings both visually and audibly (most enemies have sound-cues to let you know that they're nearby) will be enough to come out of the majority of your trials unscathed.

Every cooperative action in the game will increase your overall grade massively over time. Things like helping your teammates with traps, kicking enemies away and revivals can add up fast.

Leaving your teammates for dead in the trial is one of the worst things you can do for your scoring and will tank your overall points more than anything else in the game, taking you from the equivalent of an A+ all the way down to a B+ per teammate. Don't abandon your fellow reagents.

In this section I'll gloss over a few non-essential but still solid sources of point-scoring towards your overall grade.

Documents - leaked Murkoff transcripts and the like that are scattered all over the trials - reward a sizable amount of points towards players Evaluation Reports once collected, and thus it's almost always worth grabbing these.

Losing sanity is just shy of being as detrimental as taking damage in Trials, however, if you're able to survive full psychosis then players are rewarded quite handsomely opposed to when they cure their insanity. If you're in a (relatively) safe position, outlasting your psychosis has the capacity to take your grade from the equivalent of an A up to an A+.

(A Reagents sanity bar after reaching full psychosis.)

Lastly, regarding objectives, there are a couple of deceptively unimportant scoring penalties in Trials that I'd like to take the time to properly outline in the following section.

You shouldn't be ignoring noise traps, however, avoiding them entirely may be unrealistic depending on your loadout or skill level. Triggering noise traps is the most shallow of offences that can affect your scoring, to the point that it can be immediately mitigated by something as simple as using an item or bashing open a locked door (among other things.)

(A hanging noise trap example.)

Don't get too comfortable with them, but there's no point in despairing if you accidentally step on some glass once or twice during a run.

While I stated earlier on in this guide that avoiding damage should be a top-priority, triggering tripwires, door traps or receiving damage from other non-ex-pop related sources isn't detrimental because of a reduction in points; the main reason to avoid losing health to these kinds of pitfalls is due to the knock-on effect it can have later in the game.

If you accidentally step on a mine or are caught in an explosion, so long as you're able to heal up quickly it will impact your game by a negligible margin.

Aside from potentially being incapacitated or killed, there are no significant detriments to being harmed by an imposter. You will have plenty of opportunities to balance the cons of being invaded by fighting back against imposters during the trial.

In addition, if you manage to survive an invasion you will be granted points towards your grade that is equivalent to completing your secondary objective.

If you're struggling to truly reach your potential by the end of your trials, there are a small selection of amps and rigs that grant a significant advantage in scoring high in your Evaluation Report.

X-ray Rig
This is by far the best rig in the game for point scoring. Not only does it grant you valuable information as to the whereabouts of objectives, items, enemies and other reagents, but its cooldown can be as low as 36 seconds when fully upgraded.

All of this allows you to get an impressive number of additional points towards scoring well in your Evaluation Report, to the point that using your X-ray consistently during a trial can comfortably substitute the completion of the secondary objective.

Slippers will provide a very minor boost to scoring (as you won't be triggering sound traps as often) and can be a good set of crutches to use while getting used to jumping over, around, or avoiding glass all together.

Keymaster and Lock Breaker will provide more opportunities to open locked containers, which will give you a consistent source of rig rechargers and items to bolster your score by the end of the trial.

Smash will give you better mobility during chases (being able to break down doors immediately) and allow for easier access to points earned from breaking down doors.

Antitoxin is useful for those who are prone to activating traps that reduce sanity and gives you a better chance at surviving full psychosis. These are similar to Slippers in that it can be a good perk to get players used to avoiding traps all together.

Incognito provides players with better mobility when crouching; useful in situations where you are baiting enemies to keep them off of teammates and you need an easier time escaping or find yourself sneaking around in the dark a lot.

Boosted is generally a solid amp to have as it will immediately give you access to a random booster at the start of a trial, increasing your chances of survival.

Thank you for reading all the way through!

Let me know if you have any questions, anything that I've missed that you think would be helpful to add or if I've missed anything.

All images used in this guide were sourced either from myself or the Outlast Fandom Wiki[outlast.fandom.com] and resized for your viewing pleasure by me.

Cheers, folks.