Welcome to Halcyon, partner! The Outer Worlds 2 drops you back into the sprawling, corporate-controlled galaxy with Obsidian's signature blend of dark humor and player choice. You'll be navigating the untamed wilds and corporate machinations, making tough decisions, and likely shooting your way out of trouble as you explore a new frontier. It’s a story-rich, open-world RPG built for single-player exploration, perfect for those who love a good narrative and a bit of chaos.
This guide is here to help you master everything this new adventure throws at you. We'll cover combat strategies, resource management essentials, and quest progression from your first steps to tackling the toughest apex threats. Whether you're aiming to unlock all the Steam Achievements or just want to make sure you don't miss any crucial story beats, we've got your back.
Guide and Walkthrough (PS4) by chris-williams
The Outer Worlds 2 introduction and tips. Learn about character creation, locations, items, and more in this guide.
- 1Introduction: Covers the basic elements of starting your journey.
- 2Tips: Provides fundamental advice for navigating the early game.
- 3Advanced Tips: Offers more nuanced strategies for players seeking an edge.
Table of Contents Overview:
- Character Creation: Details Attributes, Skills, Aptitudes, Perks, Flaws, Companions, and Builds.
- Stranger in a Strange Land: Covers Edgewater and Emerald Vale.
- Passage to Anywhere: Covers Groundbreaker and Roseway.
- The Puppet Masters: Covers the first visit to Byzantium.
- Radio Free Monarch: Covers Monarch and Scylla.
- The City and the Stars: Covers both the first and second visits to Byzantium.
- Brave New World: Covers The Hope and Tartarus.
- Items: Lists Weapons, Armour, Consumables, and Decorations.
- Trophies: Information on achievements.
Advanced Tips
Discover advanced combat strategies, unique weapon locations, and rare armor mods in The Outer Worlds 2. Optimize your build with these expert tips for challenging encounters.
This section is for players already familiar with the game. Mild spoilers ahead.
Miscellaneous Tips
Melee combat features a three-swing combo followed by a pause. The Ionized Paper Knife, a high-level 1-handed melee weapon, allows for unlimited swings and may be worth building around. Supper Time also offers unlimited swings but is lower level and acquired late, making it less effective.
The rare Reactive Kinematic Shield Protector Armor mod grants 3 seconds of invulnerability and 10 seconds of healing when health drops to 10%, followed by a 15-second cooldown. This cooldown is shared with the Chrono Field Aggregator and Electro Charged Surface mods. It might synergize well with the Last Stand perk.
The Exact-O-Sight mod adds 15% post-armor damage. For example, a Dead-Eye Assault Rifle II (263 damage) against 30 armor would deal (263 - 30) x 1.15 = 268 damage. This mod, when paired with a Mag-2-Ray magazine, can provide a significant damage increase.
Completing Vulcan's Hammer and giving the blueprints to Shaw yields the unique Ultimatum pistol. Alternatively, selling the blueprints to Gladys results in the Ultimate Bolter becoming available for purchase, with a 2.0 evolution. The Ultimate Bolter is not a great weapon but offers variety for subsequent playthroughs.
The Ultimatum pistol is unique, as is the Hibernation Helmet and the starting Hibernation Suit. Some items in Jolicoeur's shop, like the Duchess (the only explicitly feminine clothing item), are also unique.
Instead of using the trunk, unique items can be displayed in your cabin using the drop item function.
To make enemies scream, equip Parvati and/or Felix with flamethrowers and use their companion abilities to get them into range quickly.
Hard-to-Find Stuff
Most items can be found in obscure locations or by completing sidequests. Some items are mutually exclusive, such as the MSI Saltuna Searer and the Good Word. Others require specific conditions or are guarded.
- Colony Ship Guard Armor / Mardet Helmet (non-unique armour): Obtainable by pickpocketing security guards on Groundbreaker, particularly the one in the Restricted Area.
- Fiver (unique Revolver): Available in Stefan's stock, often unaffordable until after completing 'Now Comes the Power' when Stefan departs.
- Long Ranger (unique Hunting Rifle): Carried by Grace Romero in Emerald Vale, superior to standard hunting rifles and includes a Super Scoper 2000.
- The Negotiator (unique Bolter Pistol): Acquired after confronting Clive Lumbergh and killing Eva Chartrand during 'The Chimerist's Last Experiment' to become a SubLight contractor. It consumes three ammo per shot despite firing two and has high spread.
- Nightfall Squad Armor / Helmet (unique heavy armour): Appears in Percival's stock after completing 'Demolished Woman' and 'Foundation' with 100% positive Board reputation. Features a weapon-swapping bonus but standard Stealth penalty.
- Peacekeeper (unique Sawed-off Shotgun): Carried by Constable Reyes in Edgewater; can be pickpocketed. Considered poor quality, even for unique shotguns. Not found on her body after completing 'Foundation'.
- Prisoner gear (non-unique clothing): Obtained by skipping 'The Hope' to Tartarus, allowing the crew to be dressed as convicts.
Chimaera Armor Early
The Chimaera Armor, normally unlocked late in Byzantium, can be acquired much earlier by playing strategically:
- (Optional) Purchase 10 x Primal Leather from Stefan at the Botanical Lab before rerouting power.
- Ensure you have a complete set of Marauder armor after Emerald Vale.
- Complete all quests on Groundbreaker to earn at least 8000 bits.
Guide and Walkthrough (PS4) by chris-williams (2)
Learn about The Outer Worlds 2's Introduction, including tips, advanced tips, character creation, locations, items, and trophies.
- 1Tips
- 2Advanced Tips
Related Sections:
- Character Creation
- Stranger in a Strange Land (Edgewater, Emerald Vale)
- Passage to Anywhere (Groundbreaker, Roseway)
- The Puppet Masters (Byzantium - First Visit)
- Radio Free Monarch (Monarch, Scylla)
- The City and the Stars (Byzantium, Byzantium - Second Visit)
- Brave New World (The Hope, Tartarus)
- Items (Weapons, Armour, Consumables, Decorations)
- Trophies
Tips
Master character creation and get essential tips for The Outer Worlds 2, including vital skills like Hack 20 and Science 40.
- 1Gender choice in character creation has no impact on gameplay, only on companion dialogue (e.g., Parvati saying "ma'am" instead of "sir").
- 2Don't overemphasize initial attributes; most bonuses can be replicated through skill investment and perks. For example, +35% critical hit damage from three points in Intelligence, or +50% from 40 skill points in Ranged. The only unique benefits are health regeneration from Temperament and unique dialogue options from low Intelligence.
- 3Aptitudes are not important and have no lasting impact on the game.
- 4Essential skill ranks for any build include Hack 20 (for selling to vending machines), Science 40 (for reduced tinkering costs), and Engineering 20 (for repairing weapons and armor without a workbench).
- 5Unlock Inspiration 60 if you plan to use companions, as it doubles their skill bonuses.
- 6Skill ranks beyond 100 (achieved through gear or companion bonuses) offer minimal to no benefit, as there are no skill checks above 100. Some skills offer minor exponential benefits up to 100, like critical hit chance or companion damage, which then increase only slightly.
- 7Generally, refuse Flaws (negative traits) after unlocking the associated trophy, as the penalties often outweigh the benefits of the few available perks. Accepting a mild Flaw might be considered to unlock Armor Master two levels earlier, or for role-playing reasons.
- 8After the initial cutscenes (brief narrative sequences), adjust settings in the menu. Consider hiding companion headgear to avoid seeing them in undesirable helmets, and change the item stat display to show bonuses from your skills and perks, not just base stats.
- 9Status icons on your HUD (Heads-Up Display, showing game information) are explained in the Codex, found under the Journal. The Codex also records read log entries.
- 10Plasma is the most useful overall damage type for weapons, as it deals high damage against most enemies and is boosted by any Science skill level. Shock damage is effective against automechanicals and other enemy types. Corrosion damage, rare and boosted at Science 60, is only best against manti-creatures found on Monarch. Mag-2-Power and Mr. Power mods are plentiful and cost-effective.
- 11N-ray damage ignores armor and applies damage over time to nearby enemies. While poor on single-shot weapons, it's effective on automatic weapons with a Mag-2-Ray mod (a community-made modification that changes the game). The Mr. N mod on melee weapons can cause self-damage due to its Area of Effect (AoE) effect.
- 12Tinkering increases weapon effectiveness but has exponentially increasing costs. At 40 Science, you can afford about 10-11 levels of tinkering; at 100 Science, about 12-13 levels. You will likely find higher-tier weapons before reaching these limits. Heavy Machine Guns are often better than Light Machine Guns due to their higher base level allowing more tinkering. Companions' starting equipment is already leveled; recruiting Nyoka at level 24, for example, gives her a level 24 LMG.
- 13Most unique weapons are not cost-effective to tinker due to their fixed level and high costs; sell them unless you want a complete collection.
- 14Science weapons are cost-effective to level up if your Science skill is at 100, capping tinkering at 200 bits per level. This makes builds centered around the Prismatic Hammer viable.
- 15Armor provides flat damage reduction per hit. Weapons with high DPS but low single-shot damage are most affected. A gun skill of 100 allows critical hits to ignore enemy armor.
- 16Unique armor often has useful skill bonuses (e.g., A Nice Hat, Safecracker's Jacket) beyond its protection.
- 17Body armor receives most incoming damage. You can pair heavy armor with lighter headgear like Hemlock's Eyepatch for a stylish look and sneak attack boost without significant protection loss.
- 18Carry spare outfits to boost Stealth, Tech, and Dialog skills. Heavy armor often reduces Stealth skills; swapping to clothing with +5 Stealth can provide a +10 boost to Lockpick effectiveness when picking locks.
- Consider taking a point in a skill you don't plan to max out, as Aptitudes have no lasting impact.
- Focus on skills like Hack 20, Science 40, and Engineering 20 for practical benefits.
- If using companions, Inspiration 60 is crucial for doubling their skill bonuses.
- Avoid taking skills significantly beyond 100, as benefits diminish greatly.
- Generally, decline Flaws unless for specific role-playing or a minor early perk unlock.
- Experiment with weapon damage types: Plasma is generally strong, Shock is good against automechanicals, and N-ray is effective against groups with automatic weapons.
- Be mindful of tinkering costs; higher base-level weapons or Science weapons with high Science skill are more cost-effective to upgrade.
- Unique armor pieces can offer valuable skill bonuses that outweigh their defensive stats.
- Utilize outfit swapping to temporarily boost skills like Stealth or Lockpick for specific actions.
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