Guide: Achievements

Your ultimate guide to unlocking every achievement in The Outer Worlds. Learn how to tackle Hard and Supernova difficulties and earn the Platinum Trophy.

Alright, let's talk about achievements in The Outer Worlds! It's pretty straightforward – most of them are tied to completing the game on different difficulty settings. Don't sweat it too much, we'll break down what you need to do.

First off, the big one: The Outer Worlds Platinum Trophy. This is your ultimate goal, and you'll snag it once you've collected every other trophy in the game. So, focus on those individual achievements, and this one will pop naturally.

Next up, the main story completion achievements. You'll earn The Outer Worlds achievement just by finishing the quest Brave New World on any difficulty. Easy enough, right?

Tackling the Difficulties

Now, things get a little more challenging with the difficulty-specific achievements.

Hard Difficulty

To get the Hard achievement, you need to complete the game, specifically the quest Brave New World, while playing on Hard difficulty. Crucially, you can't switch the difficulty down from Hard at any point during your playthrough. If you're aiming for this and decide to tackle the game on Supernova difficulty, you'll actually earn the Hard achievement too, which is a nice bonus.

Enemies on Hard have more health and hit harder, so expect the early game to be a bit tougher. The good news is you can save whenever you want, and enemies have aggro zones they won't chase you out of. This means you can often sneak up on groups, get a sneak attack in, finish one off with your TTD (Time Dilation) or current clip, and then retreat to let your health regenerate before going back for the next. If you run away without killing a foe, they'll quickly regain all their lost health, so it's vital to take them down one by one in each engagement.

Using elemental weapons can really help out:

• Plasma weapons are great against lightly armored enemies (like most marauders and save the ringleaders) and creatures (except mantids).
• Shock weapons are effective against automechanicals.
• Corrosive weapons work well against automechanicals and heavily armored foes (think marauder ringleaders and corporate troopers).
• N-ray weapons might deal less direct damage, but they ignore armor and are good against almost everything except automechanicals. In tight spaces with lots of enemies, the area-of-effect damage from N-ray can clear groups quickly.

Honestly, once you get a few levels under your belt and have some companions with you, the game becomes much more manageable. Many players find Hard difficulty to be the sweet spot for challenge. Once you leave Emerald Vale, the game's first area, and have put some points into Stealth, Dialog, and Tech skills, you'll find you can pass most skill checks, making combat difficulty less of a factor.

Just so you know, enemies on Supernova difficulty have pretty much the same combat stats as on Hard, so playing on Hard is excellent practice for a Supernova run.

Supernova Difficulty

For the Supernova achievement, you need to complete the quest Brave New World while playing on Supernova difficulty. Similar to Hard, you cannot change the difficulty from Supernova at any point during your playthrough to earn this.

Supernova is the game's ultimate challenge, blending Hard difficulty combat with some light survival mechanics. You'll need to manage Hunger, Thirst, and Sleep Deprivation meters, deal with restricted saving and fast travel, and be aware that companions can die permanently. Let's dive into those specifics:

• Save Restrictions: You can only manually save on your ship, the Unreliable. Autosaves happen regularly when you enter or leave areas, which you can use to your advantage. By simply exiting and re-entering a zone, you can trigger an autosave, which significantly eases the burden of restricted saves. The main challenge with saves comes on Monarch, where you'll traverse long, enemy-filled wilderness areas without fast travel. However, you can still use Stellar Bay, Amber Heights, Fallbrook, and Devil's Peak to zone in and out for autosaves.
• Fast Travel Restrictions: Fast travel is mostly an issue on Monarch. Other areas are relatively small, and being able to fast travel back to the Unreliable is quite generous. This means more walking, but since most enemies can be bypassed, it mainly adds a bit of tedium, especially on Monarch.
• Hunger, Thirst, and Sleep: You'll need to keep an eye on these three meters. Eat food (Carbohydrates and Meats) to manage Hunger, drink beverages (Caffeine Drinks and Sugary Drinks) for Thirst, and sleep on the Unreliable to combat Sleep Deprivation. Other beds are unusable in this mode. Honestly, these meters are only a real concern for the first 30 minutes or so. Once you explore Edgewater, you should have plenty of food and water stockpiled. Just try not to idle or waste time sleeping unnecessarily. Looting thoroughly and stealing are also helpful, and vending machines can be used to buy supplies when needed.
• Injuries: Certain attacks can cripple your limbs. If this happens, you'll need to return to the Unreliable and sleep it off.
• Companion Death: If a companion falls in combat, they are gone for good, which usually means you'll need to reload a save. Companions aren't the smartest or toughest, so this is a common reason for reloading. It's best to avoid quests that put them in high danger, like navigating traps or prolonged, multi-enemy fights. Quests like Space-Crime Continuum and Canid's Cradle are prime examples. To help them survive, equip them with the heaviest armor you can find, set their distance to 'Far', their weapon to 'Ranged', and give them a Heavy Machine Gun or Light Machine Gun. Perks that boost their health and reduce cooldowns are also beneficial.