Outward 2 Beta Survival Guide: Crucial Tips and Bugs to Avoid

The Outward 2 closed beta is currently underway, giving players their first taste of Nine Dots Studio's brutal sequel. As expected from a pre-release build, the game offers a promising but highly volatile experience. While the combat depth and visual design have seen clear improvements, the current playtest is also packed with extreme difficulty spikes and run-ending bugs.

Based on early community reports from the playtest, here is a breakdown of essential Outward 2 tips, unconfirmed mechanics, and major bugs you need to avoid to keep your character alive.

Map Navigation: North Isn't Up

If you are wandering out of the starting town and immediately getting lost, you aren't alone. Multiple players have pointed out a very specific map quirk: North is not at the top of the map. You will need to rely heavily on landmarks and your compass rather than assuming the top edge of your map screen aligns with true North. Keep this in mind before you trek too far into the wilderness.

Early Economy and Difficulty

Combat is currently incredibly punishing. Community feedback suggests that monsters—and even standard human bandits—are currently overtuned, easily taking down unprepared players.

Making silver in the early hours is a grind. If you are struggling to afford basic gear, players recommend farming boar meat and actively looting the rubbish bins around town. Be prepared to hunt down merchants, too. Currently, vendors actually wander around the already complex city layouts, meaning you might have to spend time just tracking down a shopkeeper to sell your trash.

Game-Breaking Bugs You Need to Avoid

Because this is a beta, several systems are not working properly. Take note of these two major community-reported issues that can ruin your playthrough:

Do Not Put Your Mule in the Stable Once you scrape together 400-500 silver, you can buy a bird companion/mule to carry your heavy loot. However, players are reporting that if you check your companion into the stable, the option to retrieve them does not work. Both the animal and all the gear you stored on it will simply vanish. Until a patch is issued, keep your pack animals by your side.

The "Body Hole" Death Trap Death in Outward always leads to a random scenario, but one specific outcome is currently trapping players. After dying, you might wake up at the bottom of a pitch-black pit, with your backpack resting at the top of the hole. If you happen to suffer from the "broken wrist" debuff upon waking up, you won't be able to hold a torch. Without enough wood to craft a campfire for light, you can become completely soft-locked in the dark. Always carry extra wood in your pockets (not just your backpack) just in case.

Co-op and Technical Issues

If you plan to play with a friend, be aware that multiplayer is currently very unstable. Co-op players are reporting a bizarre bug where the guest player's equipment weight directly impacts the host's encumbrance limit. Furthermore, enemy aggro is highly inconsistent, with monsters frequently ignoring guest players to chase the host player across massive distances.

On the technical side, while some early news reports claimed the game has low system requirements, the beta community tells a different story. Performance on Unreal Engine is currently a struggle even on low settings. Additionally, if you are running an older graphics card that does not support DLSS (such as a GTX 1660 Super), the game may crash instantly upon launch due to unhandled DLSS errors.

Note: All mechanics and bugs mentioned above are based on the current closed beta playtest and are subject to change before the full release of Outward 2.