Obsidian is finally back with its next nihilistic RPG The Outer Worlds. The company is most well-known for its amazing additions to the Bethesda Fallout series, Fallout: New Vegas. And, The Outer Worlds is unapologetically based upon the mechanics of the present-day Fallout games, complete with a pseudo VATS system, companions, and even the perks.
Though Outer World's Perk tree might be a bit more boring in terms of the "wackiness" of the perks, it's definitely one of the most balanced iterations. This article will explore which are The Outer Worlds' best perks within these three tiers of overpowered abilities.
Updated on August 6th, 2021 by Josh Davison: Obsidian's Outer Worlds remains a beloved and popular game amongst those who enjoy a space-faring action RPG. While this game isn't among the most difficult of the genre, any expansive open-world RPG can be quite daunting at first glance. Furthermore, more people are checking this one out after the announcement of its sequel earlier this year. As such, it seems as good a time as any to dive back into Outer World's mechanics and perk system and try to sus out which are the best for keeping your character alive in the unforgiving wilds of the Halcyon colonies.
15 Tier 1: Toughness And Resilience Can Keep You Alive
Right off the bat, health is important. Outer Worlds is actually a relatively easy game, so many players and publications are recommending people play on Hard, and we agree. That said, the Hard difficulty is at its toughest in the early game we think, as players haven't been able to pump up their armor or perks quite yet.
So, our advice is to hold back that excitement for the more interesting perks and grab these two ASAP. Believe us, bullets shred health quite quickly in Edgewater, and a bit more health and some armor make quite the difference.
14 Tier 1: Quick And The Dead Or Slow The World Boost Time Dilation
The Tactical Time Dilation gauge or as we like to call it the "Definitely not the VATS system" is Obsidian's way of improving upon the Fallout franchise's poster-boy mechanic. While activated, time plays out very slowly and players can target specific areas of enemies.
It's minorly useful in the early game, but massively helpful once players unlock the hit-location effects. So, we recommend players grab one or both of these perks sooner than later because stacking debuffs on enemies is the best way we've found to manage tons of enemies all at once. Our favorite thing is to waltz into a Marauder camp, spend our TTD to blind every single bandit, then wack them with our big ol' hammer, one by one.
13 Tier 1: Deadly Demonstrations Or Lone Wolf (Depending On If You Use Companions)
Unlike the last recommendation, we included both of these perks as one entry primarily because it's important to pick what playstyle you want to go for.
There are six Companions in The Outer Worlds, and while only two can be used by the player at a time, they get pretty overpowered as soon as they're handed some decent armor and weapons. But, some players love a challenge, and they also like to take out every enemy themselves. So, it's important to figure out early if you're going to be a Lone Wolf, or roll with a crew because there are quite a few perks and advantages to either.
Picking early allows players to nab either of these perks that both make a huge difference in helping get over that early hard-difficulty hurdle. That said, respeccing is available right from within the ship, so neither of these is a permanent commitment.
12 Tier 1: Cheetah Makes The Player Run Faster
Being able to run 20% faster is just generally convenient for traversing the vast wildernesses across the Halcyon colony. There is a lot of open area between settlements, so it's helpful to be able to shorten that downtime between combat and objectives.
That said, running faster is also useful for outrunning Mantiqueens, moving from cover to cover in a firefight, or closing the distance on enemies for melee combat.
11 Tier 2: Soliloquy Boosts Dialogue Skills When Alone
As with any Obsidian RPG, being able to talk one's way out of sticky situations is still a useful skill. Not every situation needs to be solved with violence and bloodshed. Sometimes a quick tongue can solve more than a quick gun hand.
The drawback is that the Soliloquy perk only works when the player is without any Companions. That said, it gives a +10 boost to dialogue skills, so perhaps leaving your friends back on the Unreliable isn't a bad idea.
10 Tier 2: Scanner Allows More Damage To Weak Spots
The Scanner perk is especially useful for those who rely on the Tactical Time Dilation ability. This one allows the player to deal more damage with headshots or attacks to the weak spot by +20%.
Some enemies have thick hides or heavy armor that can be better dealt with by hitting them in their particularly soft parts. The Scanner ability makes it so the player can deal out even more devastating attacks when exploiting those weak parts.
9 Tier 2: The Reaper Can Heavily Weaken Opponents
Just like we mentioned earlier, the TTD Gauge is crucial after a certain point in the game. It can cause opponents to temporarily go blind, get staggered, weakened, crippled, bleed, or even knocked down. All of these effects play a huge part in fights with lots of enemies, and some of them are the defacto best way to fight Mega-versions of creatures.
That said, none of these effects are possible without TTD, so the player needs a lot of it. If they grabbed either of the TTD-focused Tier 1 abilities recommended previously, this perk only becomes even more useful. And finally, when combined with the Harvester perk, players will be able to bounce back into the fight after every single kill.
8 Tier 2: Harvester Boosts The Effect Of Consumables
Speaking of the Harvester Perk, here it is. Yes the TTD gauge is useful, but you know what's even more crucial? Keeping the health bar above 0%. In fact, we might be so bold as to say that's the most important thing in the game. Crazy right? So what can help with that? Well, the Inhaler, a few base health buffing consumables, oh and the Harvester Perk.
This ability essentially boils down to Life Steal. After every kill, players receive 15% of their health back, and that's including Companion kills. As someone who just recently ventured through the monster-infested wastes of the Monarch Wilderness, it can be stated without a shadow of a doubt that Life Steal is crucial for surviving fights against five or more enemies.
7 Tier 2: Weird Science Boosts The Crazy Fun Sci-Fi Weapons
Just like in previous games, Outer Worlds has a seriously lopsided bias towards technical skills. Original players of New Vegas might remember that the most important skills to rank up early were both the hacking and lockpicking skills, as players will find an absolute abundance of chests and terminals in their travels. Well, this bias is back, and now the Science skill has entered the mix thanks to Science Weapons.
These are specialty weapons players can find in the game that deal damage depending upon the player's Science Skill. But, there are also two perks that buff Science Weapon damage by a staggering amount, and Weird Science is one of them. Notice how useless but fun that Shrink Ray is? Well, grab this Perk and try the Shrink Ray again to see how strong Science Weapons can be.
6 Tier 3: Confidence Makes The Player A Melee Champion
Again, not a perk that's necessary until the player starts fighting 5+ groups of enemies consistently, but once they do, this Perk is obscenely strong. It's pretty simple, after every kill, the player gets a free critical hit on their next attack. This could be a melee attack, a sniper shot, or even a shotgun blast.
It's perfect for a melee build, especially with power swings. Though, it's even more perfect for sniper-builds, as every kill after the first quickly becomes a one to two-shot kill. One of the best methods of abusing it comes from fighting Mega-creatures. Usually, they're accompanied by goons, so take this gun, use the free crit on the big boss, take out another goon, and repeat. And that's just one way of utilizing this shockingly useful Perk.
5 Tier 3: Don't Go Dyin' On Me Revives Allies When You Heal
The AI in Outer Worlds could use some improvement. Companions are helpful, but there is only so much they can do with their limited intelligence capabilities. This is admittedly a problem in a game that encourages exploring with Companions so much, but there are ways to try and circumnavigate it to a point.
The Don't Go Dyin' On Me perk allows the player to revive incapacitated companions by using a health Inhaler. It gives the revived Companion 25% of their total health, but it does have a 15 minute cooldown time. Regardless, this can turn the tide of a battle completely in the right circumstances.
4 Tier 3: Boom, Headshot Hits Enemies Near The Exploding Head
If someone's preferred playstyle in an action RPG is sticking behind cover and scoring headshots on Marauders coming their way, then this is definitely a perk worth picking up. This Perk causes the enemy's head to explode upon dying from a headshot; as a bonus, the exploding head will do 25% of the headshot damage to nearby foes.
This can cause a limited chain reaction, where one exploding head will put another enemy within lethal range, blowing up their head could kill another enemy, and so on. It's a brutal perk that can level groups of enemies quickly.
3 Tier 3: Revenge Deals More Damage When The Player Is Ailing
This skill is a bit misleading. The summarized description just says 20% more damage, but what it actually means is 20% more damage when under the effects of a negative status effect. But, what does "Negative Status Effect" cover?
Obviously, fire, poison, N-ray damage, and the like are all covered, but what about phobias? From what we can tell, yes they count, and that's what makes this skill so good. There are quite a few flaws in the game that permanently cause the player to do less damage against certain types of enemies.
This skill seems to proc whenever a phobia is activated. Which makes it useful to travel around with the S.A.M robotic companion when the player has the Robophobia flaw. Sure, they'll do less damage to mechanicals, but in exchange, they'll do 20% more damage to everything else.
2 Tier 3: Tit For Tat Regains Help When Doing Melee Damage
Sure sure, this is primarily for melee builds but it also works for the Quick melee that is available with every weapon. For players who don't know, there's a button for quick melee in the game that basically just amounts to smacking the enemy with the butt of your gun. And, doing this when an enemy gets too close is an easy way to get a bit of health back with this Perk.
Sure, 15% is pretty small, but still. That said, Tit for Tat is biased towards melee builds, and as someone who always does a melee build, we can tell you it's helpful while we smack our way across the galaxy.
1 Tier 3: Penetrating Shots Bust Through Enemy Armor
Contrasting the melee-focused Tit for Tat perk, the Penetrating Shots perk is awful on melee builds. But, it's amazing on any other build. Every single shot that hits an enemy reduces their Armor by 1. It can stack up to 10 times and lasts 10 seconds per stack. The 10 seconds thing might make some players wary, but have no fear, each hit resets the timer.
What this means is that fighting Mega creatures and Marauder Ringleaders just became a cakewalk. Use an LMG or Assault Rifle for the first 10 hits, then switch to a Plasma-based shotgun for some truly incredible damage.