Things Keep Getting Worse For Outriders

Although critics enjoyed the game early on, "Outriders" players can't seem to catch a break at this point. People Can Fly's co-op RPG shooter has been plagued with issue after issue since its release in early April. Now, following the game's latest patch, players report dying instantly or way too easily in instances where they shouldn't.

One Twitter user clipped an example of the bug where they appear to have an adequate amount of health and equipment, but die instantly after a monster swipes them. Stacked defenses with armor, heals, and other buffs apparently couldn't save them from a 1-hit KO with at least a half bar of health left. It's hard to argue that an instakill is the norm, though some say that certain situations could have reasonably killed a character in a short time.

People Can Fly acknowledged the issue soon after the reports came in, and the dev encouraged players to keep reporting. "We are aware of the issue whereby damage mitigation isn't acting as expected for some players, resulting in those players dying very quickly or in some cases instantly when hit by an attack," the team tweeted. Square Enix has also set up a megathread on Reddit to track the "damage mitigation issue" and offer thorough updates and explanations.

Unfortunately, at the moment, there's no time window for when players can stop worrying about accidental instadeaths.

Damage mitigation hasn't been the only recent problem with "Outriders." A few launch pains included spotty servers, missing functionalities, and crossplay issues. As with the damage glitch, Square Enix has created a subreddit dedicated to tracking all the issues, some of which haven't been completely patched yet.

On the bright side, players who lost their loot to the inventory-deleting bug in April can look forward to getting their gear back. People Can Fly recently announced its "Inventory Restoration Roll Out" to return players' hard-earned loot in groups. Group A, which includes "most of the affected players," restores unplayable characters with lost inventory, will receive fixes first. Group B includes players who can still log in with their characters and see inventory, but still lost gear. 

Despite the wait, players mostly seem to appreciate the fixes. One Redditor wrote that, while they personally weren't affected by the glitch, they were happy to see the developers take action. "This will hopefully help stem the tide of bitterness across the community," the comment read. "It took longer than anybody would like, but it's here!" 

Some players have already reported restored gear, suggesting that People Can Fly are working quickly on this fix. People Can Fly plans to steadily return assets, though some players might need to wait a bit longer than others. Hopefully the dev's latest fixes don't open the door to more issues.