outer worlds

12 Tips For Playing The Outer Worlds

The Outer Worlds is a great game full of a ton of things to do, see and shoot. If you’re at all familiar with other first-person RPGs like the modern Fallout games, you’ll already have a pretty good idea of what to expect. If you’re taking your first steps into the genre though, or just want to go into it armed with the knowledge to succeed, then we’ve prepared a dozen quick, simple pieces of advice to help your adventures go smoothly. They’re Spacer’s Choice approved!

It’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!

Talk to everybody, read everything

Communication is key in The Outer Worlds. The more people you talk to, and the more you listen to what they have to say, the more leverage you’ll have in future conversations with them or others. Same goes for reading things like notes or emails on terminals. If you find you don’t have the dialogue or personality skills required to convince a character to help you out, but you know their dirty secrets, you could always fall back on blackmail in a pinch.

Pick up everything…

Sure, weight limits are a thing in The Outer Worlds, but they’re fairly generous, especially once you have companions and perks that increase the limit even further. With that in mind – pick up everything in sight! You’ll have a much easier time with the game if you’re well-stocked in things like lockpicks, ammo and food, and anything you don’t immediately need will always be good for turning into cash or scrap. Anything that’s completely useless will automatically get sorted into a ‘junk’ category, plus you can manually mark items as junk, then sell all of it with one button at any vendor.

…and break down equipment, don’t sell it

It might be tempting to sell all of the excess gear you’re picking up along the way, but hear me out; if you’re playing thoroughly, you’ll find enough money in the game as is. Don’t bother selling your armour or weapons, you’re much better of breaking them down into parts, which are needed to repair your equipment when you’re out in the field. Better yet, unlocking the perk that occasionally grants you a weapon or armour mod when you break something down means you’ll eventually have a huge stockpile of those as well.

Upgrade/look after equipment

You’ll find and equip all kinds of awesome equipment as you explore The Outer Worlds, but it’s highly likely that once you find a combination you like you’ll stick with it for the most part. It’s important, then, to make sure you watch out for your gear’s condition and repair anything that’s starting to wear down so you’re still getting the full benefit. You can spend money to repair things at vendors, or you can use parts to do it on the fly/at workbenches. You can also ‘tinker’ with your equipment (once you have the relevant skills) to bring under-levelled items up to your level and beyond, so if you really love the Plasma Rifle that you’ve modded to hell and back you can ensure it remains useful to you the entire time.

Keep your companions well-equipped and skilled up

Companions are indispensable in The Outer Worlds, but the extent of their usefulness will depend on you keeping their equipment and skills up to date. It’s not a lot of work – just keep their weapons and armour up to date and make sure you’re spending their perk points on new abilities. The ones that augment your character’s own skills are especially useful. Do their companion quests, too. On top of learning a lot more about the people you’re travelling with, you might even unlock some handy new perks! 

Turn on quest objective display

Okay so this one might be a matter of taste, but, if you don’t mind the extra HUD clutter it’s a good idea to turn on the setting that displays your current quest objective in-game. First of all because it’s nice to have a persistent reminder of what it is you were actually doing before you got distracted by shiny things. More importantly, though, the objective display often highlights alternative courses of action that you might not have realised while blindly following the green objective marker.

Refer to your quest logs often

Another thing to be mindful of around quests is that you’ll sometimes have quests that relate to each other in some indirect way. It’s usually minor, but it can always help to check whether there’s another quest worth doing before the one you’re on that might help you complete that one more effectively.

Let your adventures guide you

Not that I’m ever going to tell anyone not to explore off the beaten path in an open world game, but there aren’t a ton of places in The Outer Worlds that your quests won’t already take you to, if you’re doing everything. Once you’re satisfied with the objectives you’ve completed in a particular location then sure, go searching for secrets and loot, you’ll have a nice selection of handy fast travel markers by that point as well. We might not see eye-to-eye on this one, but I’m personally not a huge fan of double handling.

Utilise the Inhaler

The Inhaler is a really cool game mechanic that I realised I wasn’t full taking advantage of until I had to start cleaning out my inventory of hundreds of recovery items. The idea is that you load up each of its (gradually unlocked) four slots with a variety of items so that every time you use it to heal in combat, you get the benefit of whatever else is in there, too. The first slot will always be the standard SOMETHING, so you can leave it completely alone and still always have a quick heal on hand (unless you somehow run of out them). It’s even better to have a bunch of other buffs activate when you already need the help though, and you’ll just be weighed down by a plethora of random foodstuffs otherwise, so make sure to keep that Inhaler topped up! 

Save. Constantly.

This one will be obvious to anyone who’s played a game like this, but save your game all the time. Not only will it be extremely handy to be able to reverse any conversational mishaps that might cost you your objective, but it’s a super handy way to solve problems that you’re not necessarily skilled enough for. Any time you encounter a dialogue option that requires more skill points than you currently have, it’s an entirely valid (if slightly cheese-y) strategy to load up to before the conversation, go back to your ship and respec your skills to be more appropriate before trying again.

Swap your equipment to overcome obstacles

This one kinda plays into the last, although it’s probably a little more sanctioned than manipulating the save and respec systems. Your armour in the game will often come with bonus eggs that can augment your existing skills. Say you come across a locked door requiring a hack skill of 50 and your character’s hack rating is 45 – don’t give up yet! Check that you haven’t picked up a piece of gear that grants a +5 bonus to hacking, you’ll only need to wear it for that moment and then you’re free to switch back to your Elite Troop Armour and Spacer’s Choice moon head.

Take your time and enjoy The Outer Worlds however you want!

Honestly, above all else, just take your time with the game. Soak it all in. And play it however you like – that’s the idea, after all. Obsidian have crafted a pretty great new universe and it’s one worth losing yourself in. Enjoy!