Hey! Obsidian's back! Well, back with a Western-style RPG we mean. The company has been making more complex successful RPGs like Pillars of Eternity for the last couple years but they've returned to the Fallout-inspired fold. The Outer Worlds is their newest game, and, like their previous work Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds has an ultra-difficulty mode.
We're sure many fans of the company remember trying to speedrun Realism mode for the sake of the achievement back in the day. Managing food, thirst, exhaustion, and other daily necessities all while trying to survive against some mindbogglingly challenging enemies. The Outer Worlds Supernova difficulty is more of the same. That said, it's not called Supernova for nothing.
10 Utilize The Game's Odd Auto-Save System
One of, if not the hardest restriction placed on players in Supernova difficulty is the ban on quicksaving. Previously, we quicksaved before every major decision, confrontation, or conversation, but not anymore. And, if you die, which is quite easy to do in this mode, it takes you all the way back to your last autosave!
Turns out the game autosaves right before a zone transition or fast travel. Essentially it saves before the travel occurs, not after. So, anytime the player wants to save, they simply just need to fast travel to their ship, then load the new autosave! Heck, they could even do a manual save while they're there. It's an elongated process sure, but believe us, it's a godsend on Supernova.
9 Supernova Is Easier As A Lone Wolf
The Companions in Outer Worlds work a lot like the ones from Fallout: New Vegas. But, Outer Worlds allies are arguably more important to the core gameplay loop, or at least we think so. Passive stat buffs, individual special abilities, and equippable armor and weapons are now possible. But, in Supernova, none of these matter. Why? Because Allies stay dead, and they're just too squishy.
Seriously, even with heavy armor that has been fully upgraded, Parvati will still die to a squad of normal Mauraders. So, our recommendation is to either not recruit them entirely, or just leave them on the ship.
8 Learn To Crouch And Speak
Melee builds just aren't viable for Supernova. Sorry, we wish it wasn't true. But, neither is a "guns-blazing", full aggression build. To breeze through what is supposed to be the hardest difficulty, we recommend maxing out the 6 skills within the Stealth and Speech categories. Skill checks are everywhere in Outer Worlds, but they appear most frequently in conversations and are related to the three Speech skills. The best part? The game for some reason isn't built for maxing out these skills so early.
So most of the conversations up until like Monarch have skill checks that only need like 20 to 25 of any of Dialog skills. And, lockpicking caps out at like 40-50 on Edgewater and Groundbreaker.
7 Eye Up Every Nook And Cranny For Good To Steal
And, speaking of Sneak, it's great for stealing. Don't worry, Karma is no longer a thing in Outer Worlds, it's all about reputation now! It's perfect for stealing because outside of being caught, there are no penalties! And that's great for a mode where we need every bit of food and water we can find. Take the Groundbreaker for example.
It's a ship that is almost required to be the second destination for the Unreliable. These honest folk worshipped our character as a hero after we fixed the engine. But, little did they know, before we did the repair, we had already broken into every storeroom, closet, and lockbox and taken anything of value from the entire ship. And yet, we're still revered by the Groundbreaker.
6 Distance Is Your Best Friend
Our last little tip for the players who want to follow our sneak route, get a hunting rifle. Most people we've seen are using their Supernova playthrough as their "corporate dog" run where they betray Phineas and only work for the good of the Board. And that actually works out perfectly for our plan, because it makes it easy to grab a hunting rifle by the end of the first hour.
Basically, as soon as you finish the quest to get the power core, go back to the Botanical Garden. Talk to the Sheriff and find Zoe in the Maurader camp to the east, but right after shoot the trusty sheriff in the face. Why? Because the sheriff carries one of the Unique Hunting Rifles! It has a 6x scope that players won't be able to find for as a mod for quite a while.
5 The Traveler Perk Ain't So Bad
Like we said earlier, the only place players can fast travel to on Supernova is the Unreliable. Even when the ship is unpowered, players can still teleport here. It finally makes bringing the ship to every docking bay more than a neat gimmick. And, that same autosave trick we described earlier becomes even better with the Traveler perk.
Why? Because any time you become encumbered, you can just pop over to the ship, throw the extra stuff in your lockers, then head back out. Traveler becomes redundant quite quickly on any other difficulty, but we surprisingly found it quite useful during our Supernova run.
4 The "Corporate" Run Is Best For Speedruns
To expand upon that little snippet from the last paragraph, the "Corporate" route is absolutely the way to go for people trying to speedrun Supernova. Going the normal route has players traveling from Terra-2 to Groundbreaker to Monarch and finally to Byzantium, and that's skipping a few small steps and ignoring every side mission.
But, when roleplaying as a corporate dog, it goes Terra-2 to Groundbreaker, and straight on to Byzantium. This small skip actually equates to 4-5 hours and has allowed people to beat the game in just below an hour. Plus, for those risky players using companions, unlocking Byzantium early helps in both Ellie's and Parvati's side quests.
3 Stack Up On Armor And Weapon Parts, You'll Need Them
We know we just talked about how scrounging up ever little Bit in order to get to Byzantium is important. But, what is equally as important is keeping your guns and armor at high durability. In Supernova, clothes and guns degrade like they're made of wax, and shooting 3 clips of the Hunting Rifle is equivalent to knocking out a full 50% of the condition bar.
But, if players utilize the Maurader gear they pick off bodies or weapons they find in chests, they can easily keep their equipment at max damage-dealing potential. Players can scrounge for Armor and Weapon parts from chests and mechanicals, grab the High Matinence Perk, or even go the Spacer's Choice route and constantly buy cheap replacements whenever something breaks.
2 The Difficulty Curve Is Still There, Just A Bit More Hidden
So, there have been some complaints from diehard Obsidian fans. The Outer Worlds absolutely has a parabolic difficulty curve, and that's on any difficulty. Right when players land on Monarch, that's when things are at their hardest. But, if they conquer the Mantiqueens and Rapitdon Colossi out in the wastelands, they'll come out of it super-powered.
The same applies to Supernova. The first couple hours of Edgewater quests, 3-4 bullets can kill. But, as soon as we headed towards the Groundsbreaker, that's when things start getting easier. That said, if you're going the Corporate route and end up in Byzantium early, things will remain incredibly difficult, so be aware. Seriously we died to some Sprat-exterminating mechs about 4-5 times before we got the hint.
1 Guerilla Tactics Are Best, Especially Indoors
The last great tip we can give new Supernova players is to be aware of their surroundings. An open field with no cover is basically a death sentence. If a player is going to engage enemies, do it with cover nearby, and utilize corner camping to the max. Our recommendation? Get all 3 gun skills to 20 ASAP to unlock TTD hit effects.
That way, you can pop TTD while an enemy is rounding a bend for some outrageous damage. It might seem cowardly, but cowards are the true survivors of modes like Realism and Supernova.