The Outer Worlds has its pros and cons, but is a wonderful callback to what makes RPGs so great. Although comparable franchises such as Fallout have been steadily shedding the role-playing elements that gave them such an immersive and satisfying amount of mechanical depth, The Outer Worlds has found inventive ways to keep them intact while modernizing them for the contemporary gaming audience. While this might be intimidating for some, it's actually not all that complicated, especially if you head into the game with a few tips on getting the most out of it.
And wouldn't you know, that just so happens to be precisely why we're here today! Featured below is a list of tips that are sure to come in handy whether you're on the fence about diving in, or just getting started and looking for a few pointers to get yourself oriented. So have a seat, get comfy, and keep scrolling to join us as we unpack ten invaluable tips and useful bits of info when it comes to tackling the relatively lawless frontiers of Halcyon.
10 Attributes Are Less Important Than Skills
As per usual, players are bound to spend entirely too much time agonizing over their choices during character creation. This is especially true when assigning your attribute points, which are more or less permanent. So it might be helpful to know that the greater majority of that self-induced headache is entirely unnecessary.
Attributes do provide some good bonuses as well as some additional dialogue options, but your actual skills are going to be far more important when it comes to gameplay. And since skills, unlike attributes, can be improved by leveling up, you'll have plenty of opportunity to tailor them to your liking.
9 Start With At Least 20 Science (For Tinkering)
The Outer Worlds has a limited, but nonetheless important crafting system that allows you to modify, and more significantly, upgrade your weaponry. The latter part is crucial, as it allows you to keep your favorite weapons up-to-par with your level in terms of damage.
However, in order to make use of that feature — referred to in-game as "Tinkering" — you'll need a minimum of 20 in the Science skill. You can, of course, level it up as you progress further into the game, but getting it to 20 right off the bat prevents you from forgetting about it later and being stuck unable to upgrade your weapons for yet another level.
8 Focus On Dialogue Skills
The major improvement that The Outer Worlds makes over its contemporaries is the return to true, branching dialogue choices and interactions that focus specifically on your character's ability to persuade, lie to, or intimidate the NPCs they interact with. So naturally, if you want to get the most out of The Outer Worlds, you should raise those skills.
It's also worth noting that these skills don't just unlock further dialogue options, but actually have their own unique impact on combat. Combat Dialogue Skills are unlocked at certain levels, and they can be pretty powerful. At twenty, for instance, your persuade ability can cause human enemies to cower in fear for a few seconds when struck.
7 Loot Everything
Although we're pretty well used to regarding the majority of items present in ope -world-style RPGs as useless clutter, every item present in The Outer Worlds serves a purpose. All food items provide some sort of bonus, some of which are pretty notable, such as doubling your passive health regeneration or preventing you from wasting valuable medical supplies.
Spare equipment, in particular, is invaluable. Not only can it be sold for bits, but it can be dismantled for the weapon and armor parts used to repair your equipment. There is a weight limit after which you'll become over-encumbered, but continuously dismantling pieces of kit that you won't be using should keep you well under it.
6 You Can Respec Your Skills (But Not Attributes)
The Vocational Competence Respecification Machine is located conveniently on "your" ship, the Unreliable. And as ADA helpfully points out, using it won't make you a better person. What it can do, however, is make you a more efficient one, or at the very least undo a few mistakes you might've made while leveling up.
It refunds all of your spent skill and perk points for a fee. It starts out at 500 bits, but this fee doubles with each usage. Use it both sparingly and wisely, because that will add up fairly quickly. It can't change the attributes that you chose during character generation, but the option to totally reset your skills is enough.
5 Explore Thoroughly
The invitingly unique and vibrant environments of The Outer Worlds practically beg to be explored to begin with, but if satisfying your adventurous spirit isn't enough incentive, the game makes sure to provide more tangible rewards for checking out every nook and cranny. Namely in the form of fairly hefty chunks of experience.
Although this isn't a new concept, the experience provided for location discovery in The Outer Worlds is significant, sometimes outpacing the amount granted by defeating enemies. It doesn't stop there, either, as discovering amenities like vending machines tucked away inside of buildings will also provide bits of experience.
4 Create Combos With Your Inhaler
Generally, you'll be using your Medical Inhaler to quickly imbibe Adreno in order to heal yourself during combat. However, as you level up your medical skill, you'll unlock more inhaler slots to fit in additional consumables, which are administered simultaneously alongside whatever else you have slotted into it.
For example, having Adreno and Skin-Tuf Salve equipped will not only heal you, but temporarily grant you additional armor, reducing the damage you take while you're recovering health. Or perhaps you'd rather have Dervish Mist equipped alongside your Adreno, giving you a boost to movement speed so you can seek cover. The combinations are nearly endless, so make sure to experiment until you have a consumable cocktail that fits your playstyle.
3 You Can Store Excess Loot On The Ship
The game does a fine job of glossing over this one, and you'll need to complete the game's initial stages in Edgewater before it even becomes available as an option. But you can, in fact, store away excess or unique equipment that you're not quite ready to scrap or sell for later retrieval, utilizing containers aboard the Unreliable.
As mentioned, you won't be able to actually access them in terms of item storage until you've finished with your first major quest in Edgewater, but the lockers near the ship's entrance and the bin in the captain's quarters will serve as safe storage spaces for the items that you just can't seem to bring yourself to get rid of.
2 Customize Your Follower's Behavior
Does Parvati keep running to the fore during your sniper battles and getting herself downed? Tired of Max blocking your shots by rushing into melee? Or perhaps having him get in close to soak up some damage is exactly what you want. These are all issues that are very easily solved by dipping into your companion menu and ticking through a few options.
The options available are limited, but effective, allowing you to tailor your companions' combat specifics in a way that suits your current objective. If you're trying to keep your enemies at range while you pick them off with a rifle, for instance, you can have your followers set to "Passive" for that fight, keeping them from charging in and being riddled with bullets.
1 Use TTD To Examine Enemies Before Fighting
Tactical Time Dilation is a great tool to break out in the middle of a gunfight, but it can also help determine whether or not you should get into that gunfight to begin with. Using it outside of combat and settling your crosshairs on an enemy will reveal a great deal of information concerning your target.
And the information provided is practically invaluable. You'll get to see their armor rating, weaknesses, resistances, and general level of difficulty. Of course, you can still get this information while using TTD in combat, but by then you're already committed to the fight, whether you're prepared for it or not.