Outlast 2 Insane Difficulty Walkthrough (No Batteries Speedrun)

This video & text walkthrough shows how to beat Insane difficulty in Outlast 2. Insane is the highest difficulty. It’s a permadeath mode based on Nightmare difficulty, but without any checkpoints. If you die, the game will restart from the beginning. Because there are no checkpoints you must do it in one sitting without leaving the game (pausing is okay). To earn the “Messiah” trophy all of this has to be done without reloading the camera’s battery! Night vision can only be used for brief moments so it’s vital that you know the game by heart and can navigate areas in the dark. The game is twice as long as Outlast 1, has more enemies and is a lot more challenging. It’s highly recommended that you do a practice run on Nightmare difficulty and replay all enemy encounters until you can do them 100% successfully every time.

Insane Difficulty Video Walkthrough

INSANE DIFFICULTY TIPS & STRATEGIES:

• Put Gamma in game options to the maximum, also increase the brightness & contrast of your TV / Monitor to 100%. This way you can see in the dark without using the camera!
• Practice, practice, practice… replay all difficult sections on nightmare until you get the methods down. One mistake and you’re dead.
• You are allowed to pause the game (for Ashael Speedrun trophy) but there are no checkpoints, so you cannot leave the game.
• Know when to consume battery power and when not to. Only use it for tricky enemy encounters. Don’t waste it on navigation, just try around until you find your path through the dark (e.g. instead of using microphone to find Jessica in the dark, roam around the area for a few minutes until you run into her by accident).
• Quickly turning night vision on and off consumes less energy than keeping it on continuously. Turn it on for just a split second to get a single image of your surroundings. This should be enough to find the right path.
• Be quick when being chased by enemies! If they catch up to you it’s game over.
• If possible use a stealth approach to avoid combat. It may take longer but it’s safer.

STRATEGIES FOR TRICKY SPOTS:

• Marta (Witch with Axe) after power generator: on the left side of the area there’s a hole in a fence. Crawl back and forth through the hole. She’ll run around the other side but can’t reach through the fence. Repeat 2-4 times until the music stops playing, then run to the elevator.
• Archer 1st encounter: Hide in the tall grass at end of area, crawl through tent and quickly run through woods (beware of enemies along the path).
• After crucifixion: Get the bandage, heal yourself, then crawl through tree trunk if you’re undeteted. If you get detected, run in a circle around the cross to lose the enemies.
• Archer 2nd encounter (dark woods with barbed wires): Crouch from tree to tree. Hide behind trees until he goes way. He may stand in front of the exit for 2 minutes but he’ll leave eventually. You can also make some noise by running a little bit and he’ll come to invesntigate (then sneak around the tree behind his back).
• Archer final encounter: Use the buildings as cover from his arrows. At the start run straight to the house on the hill (right side). Look around the corner and when the archer is standing behind the little wooden shack your make a run for the house on the other side, then to the exit where you can place the rope.
• Demon in library maze: In the school you’ll have to go through a pitch-black library. It’s a maze of bookshelves. At the end of the maze the demon will start to hunt you. Lure it around the first bookshelf and run to the exit.
• Demon chase after finding dead Jessica: this is in the school section right after the aforementioned library maze. First you must run to the last toilet cubicle and close the door behind you. Now crawl under the cubicles and wait for the song to end (important!). Once the song has ended (and only then) you exit through the cubicle closest to the door and run upstairs as fast as possible. Don’t close any doors behind you, just run (can use night vision on upper floor to find the path).
• Encounter with the first 2 heretics: After another school section there’s a room with two heretics. One crawls under some rubble, the other breaks open a door. The 2nd one goes away after a few seconds. The 1st one can “smell” where you are and always comes to you, he has slightly random behavior. What worked best for me was to hide behind the dark pillar where you entered the building. Wait for him to go there, then sneak behind his back while he searches the area. If you’re detected just run upstairs as quickly as possible.
• Heretic Boss (Val) in flooded area with eletric wires: Hide underwater near the first power switch and let her pass. Turn on first switch. On your way to the 2nd switch do not break the lamp (she might hear you, so just crouch under the lamp to not bump your head into it). Turn on 2nd switch, quickly run back to 1st switch. Hide underwater until she goes to investigate the 2nd switch. Quickly exit the area.
• After final chase with Heretic Boss: you’ll have to balance over some wooden beams. They break and you fall down into a dark flooded area. Two heretics will be in the water with you and it’s very hard to see anything. There’s a light at the end of the water, quickly run there (run, don’t just walk). If you’re quick enough and don’t get stuck, the heretics won’t notice you.