How to restore your HUD in Outriders

outriders no hud fix pc
(Image credit: People Can Fly)

Looking for an Outriders no HUD fix? People Can Fly's new looter-shooter hasn't had the easiest of rides after its launch last week: Outriders' servers were especially patchy in its first weekend, even if you were playing solo, there have been crossplay and DX12 issues, and a particularly concerning bug that's completely wiping inventories. Ouch.

While I also encountered some of those issues—and had a fair bit of fun with haircuts and faces I'd previously designed hanging ghoulishly over my current one in the character creator—I also started pretty much all sessions with no HUD in Outriders. Not only did this mean no map, weapon, or skill cooldown details, I also didn't have any crosshairs or screen prompts. It does make for nice, easy header images like the one above, though, so silver linings.

If that's a problem you've been getting, I've got a fix for you before People Can Fly presumably sweep in with their own, so you can get back to perfecting your builds with each of the four Outriders classes.

Outriders no HUD fix: How to get your display details back

The first thing you should do to save yourself plenty of bother—at least at the time of writing—is to play the game on DirectX 11. PC players get the option to choose between DirectX 11 or 12, but I and many others had issues with DX12 performance around launch.

Gain true power with these Outriders guides

Outriders

(Image credit: Square Enix)

Outriders Trickster: Powerful early setups
Outriders Pyromancer: Fiery starter skills
Outriders Devastator: Top tank setups
Outriders Technomancer: Support your squad
Outriders legendary list: Best weapons and armor

Now, assuming you've booted the game in DX 11 and you're still missing your HUD, follow these instructions:

  • Access the HUD menu by hitting Escape, then 'Options', then select 'HUD' with your mouse or the Q/E keys.
  • Turn all the HUD options that are 'On' to 'Off'. They are all on by default, but you can leave the last three that don't have Off/On options.
  • Head back to your still-HUD-free screen, then re-enable all the settings you just switched 'Off'. 
  • Hit Escape again and click 'Return to Lobby'.
  • Dive back into your game and your HUD should have returned.

You don't necessarily have to re-enable the HUD settings then go back to the lobby in that order, though. One time I forgot to re-enable them before returning to the lobby, and I was still able to turn the options back on once I got back into the game. If you make that mistake, too, you can tell the fix has worked because you get your health bar back, which cannot be turned off.

It's also worth re-emphasising that you should play with DX 11 if you're encountering this problem. When I was trying to apply the Outriders no HUD fix with DX 12, each time I tried to return to the lobby I was kicked out of the game entirely.

If, like me, you're having to perform this fix almost every time you log in, it's quite annoying—even if you're using an SSD which means it takes less than a few minutes. Fingers crossed People Can Fly implement a proper fix for it soon for us poor, HUD-free Outriders.

Harry Shepherd

UK — After collecting and devouring piles of print gaming guides in his younger days, Harry has been creating 21st century versions for the past five years as Guides Writer at PCGamesN and Guides Editor at PC Gamer. He has also produced features, reviews, and even more guides for Trusted Reviews, TechRadar and Top Ten Reviews. He's been playing and picking apart PC games for over two decades, from hazy memories of what was probably a Snake knock-off on his first rig when he was seven to producing informative guides on football simulators, open-world role-playing games, and shooters today. So many by now he steadfastly refuses to convey information unless it’s in clickable online form.