The Outer Worlds has officially released, so it’s time to grab your gun, put on some armor, and venture out into this wacky solar system. Like other RPGs, The Outer Worlds allows you to customize your character with a variety of in-game stats, clothing, and perks. The latter are powerful passive abilities that will enhance various attributes such as damage, carrying capacity, etc.
Since there are 3 tiers of perks, you won’t have access to everything right away. Because of this, you will want to plan ahead to ensure that your personal build is maximized by your selection. Remember, you can respec your character on the ship in the cargo bay.
Here are our choices for the best perks in The Outer Worlds:
Tier One Perks
- Pack Mule: The best way to obtain Bits (cash) in The Outer Worlds is by selling weapons, armor, and medical supplies you don’t need. Since you can go hours at a time without visiting a town, increasing your carrying capacity is a must. It works across all builds and will also be a superb choice, especially if you are like me and compulsively pick up everything.
- High Maintenance: Unless you’re going for a low-kill playthrough, High Maintenance should be an auto-grab for anyone. Reducing your weapon/armor durability loss rate by 25% means you have more time shooting and less spent wasting materials to keep your favorite gun in perfect condition.
- Quick and the Dead: Tactical Time Dilation is one of the best combat abilities you have access to, however, the base recharge rate is quite slow. Picking this up alleviates this issue, allowing you to cripple, blind, or maim your foes more frequently in battle.
- A Few More Bits: Until you progress later into the game, you’ll find yourself strained for ammo fairly often. Picking this up early increases the overall stock amount for Vendors, allowing you to load up on anything you might need. While this perk isn’t a must-have, it’s great for anyone who ends up wasting a lot of bullets.
Tier Two Perks
- Scanner: If you fancy yourself a sharpshooter then Scanner is for you. After picking this up you’ll earn 20% extra damage to all headshot/weakspot attacks when using Tactical Time Dilation. This allows a fast player to instantly wipe out a room of foes if they land critical hits over and over again.
- Rolling Thunder: Companion abilities are quite powerful, as they not only break up the combat but can stagger enemies. By reducing the cooldown of these skills after each kill, you’ll be able to call on your friends more often in battle. This is a nice way to increase your DPS or draw aggro away from you in a battle.
- Harvester: Sometimes you don’t have time to heal in the middle of a chaotic battle. With the Harvester perk, you’ll restore 15% of your health after every kill. While this isn’t great against single, large foes such as bosses, Harvester is an all-star when facing hordes of angry bandits. This perk saved me multiple times during my first playthrough of The Outer Worlds!
Tier Three Perks
- Armor Master: This is certainly an endgame perk, as it gives you a hefty armor and Skill boost. Great for Light, Medium, and Heavy variants, the Armor Master perk will keep you alive longer while increasing your overall effectiveness. Since it boosts your Skill by 100%, even pieces that increase Science or Engineering get enhanced with this perk.
- Don’t Go Dyin’ On Me: If you’re using Companions, this perk will be quite useful as you progress farther into the game. With tougher enemies around the corner, being able to quickly revive your Companion could mean all the difference in the fight. Keep in mind there’s a 15-minute cooldown, so choose who you want to revive carefully.
- Confidence: Working perfectly in tandem with Scanner, Confidence allows you to deal a ton of damage if you can land Critical Hits. Keep in mind, you can score Critical Hits without being in Tactical Time Dilation, which makes this perk even better. Since it’s not restricted, if you manage to get a Critical Hit on a foe, you will most likely kill them on the subsequent shot. Since it works with every weapon type, Confidence is great for any type of build.
- Weird Science/ Wild Science: We’re lumping these two together since they both do the same thing and stack. Focusing on Science Weapons, these two perks combined will increase your damage output from this weapon archetype by 100%. Given Science Weapons are quite potent after you upgrade them, these damage boosting perks can make you a force to be reckoned with. Keep in mind, this doesn’t work with Energy Weapons, as that’s an entirely different classification.
It’s important to remember, that you will also want to pick perks that work with your specific build. The ones listed above are good, general ones since they will enhance your overall character without limiting you into a specific type of play. You should absolutely consider grabbing perks like Soliloquy, Tit For Tat, and Solo Sneaker if they fit with your playstyle.
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