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The Outer Worlds

Perks

By
Nathan Garvin

At every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) you’ll earn a perk, which you can use to purchase various bonuses in the perk menu. Perks generally provide passive effects that boost some stat or another, and can contribute greatly to whatever build you’re shooting for, as well as providing quality of life enhancements that any player will appreciate.

Perks are divided into three tiers, each with fourteen perks. You can only purchase Tier 2 perks when you have assigned five Tier 1 perks, and you can only purchase Tier 3 perks when you have ten assigned perks between Tier 1 and Tier 2.

A list of perks can be found below.

Tier 1 Perks

Perk Effect
Toughness +50% Base Health
Slow the World +25% Tactical Time Dilation Meter Max
Lone Wolf +25% Damage when alone in party
Strider +25% Walk Speed
Cheetah +20% Sprint Speed
High Maintenance -25% Weapon/Armor Durability Loss
Precision +15% Companion Crit Chance
The Negotiator -20% Vendor Prices
Deadly Demonstrations +50% XP from Companion kills
Traveler Unlock the ability to Fast Travel when Encumbered
Quick and the Dead +50% Tactical Time Dilation Recharge Rate
Pack Mule +50kg Carrying Capacity
A Few Bits More +100% Additional Ammo stock on Vendors, +100% Additional Consumable and General stock on Vendors
Resilient +5 Base Armor Rating

Recommended Perks:

  • Toughness: A 50% bonus to health is a huge boost in survivability, well worth a perk pick.
  • Slow the World: If you make use of TTD with any regularity, this is a no-brainer.
  • Lone Wolf: Worth picking if you plan to travel alone, as a 25% bonus to damage is huge.
  • Quick and the Dead: Much like Slow the World, if you use TTD regularly this is a good choice.
  • Pack Mule: Who doesn’t love more inventory space?
  • Resilient: By endgame this is a minor bonus, but early on it’s a pretty substantial boost.

Tier 2 Perks

Perk Effect
Run and Gun -65% Movement Penalty to Accuracy
The Reaper +25% TTD Restored per Kill
Weird Science +50% Science Weapon Damage
Speed Demon +25% Movement Speed during TTD
Scanner +20% Bonus to Extra Headshot/Weakspot Damage during TTD
The Collector +5m Interactable Highlight Range
Snake Oil Salesman +20% Vendor Buying Price
We Band of Brothers +25% Chance to reset a Companion Ability cooldown on each Critical Hit
Tag Team +25% Chance to reset a Companion Ability cooldown when using the other Companion’s Ability
Rolling Thunder -20% Companion Ability Cooldown for each of your kills
Harvester +15% Health Restored per Kill
Hoarder -50% Consumable Weight
Pack of Pack Mules +40kg Carrying Capacity Bonus from Companions
Soliloquy +10 Dialog Skills when you have no Companions

Recommended Perks:

  • The Reaper: This might sound familiar if you’ve played certain… other games similar to The Outer Worlds. Anyways, TTD is a good way to kill foes, and when you kill foes you get more TTD. Nice!
  • Weird Science: If you plan to use Science Weapons, this is a must-have perk.
  • Scanner: If you fancy yourself a sniper, or are good at pulling off headshots/weakspot hits regularly, this is just free damage in TTD.
  • Harvester: Free healing every time you score a kill? This should be a no-brainer for everybody.
  • Pack of Pack Mules: Boosts the carrying capacity bonus for each companion from 10kg to 50kg - huge bonuses, but obviously only for characters who don’t travel alone.

Tier 3 Perks

Perk Effect
Wild Science +50% Science Weapon Damage
Steady Hand After kill, gain -100% Ranged Weapon Sway, -100% Movement Penalty to Accuracy
Confidence Your next attack after killing an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Hit
Armor Master +10% Armor Rating Bonus, +100% Armor Skill Bonus
Super Pack Mule +100kg Carrying Capacity
Tactical Master +70% Movement Speed during TTD for 5s when activating TTD with a full TTD meter
Revenge +20% Damage when affected by harmful Combat Effect
Last Stand +30% Damage while under 25% Health
Boom, Headshot! Headshot kills deal 25% of their damage to enemies within 2.5m
Don’t Go Dyin’ On Me! Use Inhaler to revive downed Companions to 25% Health, 15m Cooldown
Penetrating Shots Ranged Attacks inflict -1 Armor Rating for 10s, and can stack up to -10
Thick Skin -15% Area of Effect Damage Received, -15% Plasma Damage Received
Tit For Tat +15% Melee Damage returned as Health
Solo Sneaker -33% Detection Radius of Enemies when you have no Companions

Recommended Perks:

  • Wild Science: Just like Weird Science, if you use Science Weapons, these damage boosts are essential.
  • Armor Master: Boosts your armor rating and doubles the amount of skill bonuses you gain from armor. A must-have perk.
  • Super Pack Mule: Twice as good as Pack Mule! An obvious pick for pack rats.
  • Tit For Tat: A no-brainer for melee builds.

Flaws

During the course of your adventure you’ll be offered the chance to accept flaws, usually after taking specific types of damage or taking damage from specific enemies. For example, after having one too many close encounters with Canids we were offered the Cynophobia flaw, which reduced our Dexterity, Perception and Temperament by -1 when we or our companions were fighting Canids. In return for accepting a flaw and its associated penalties you’ll gain a bonus Perk to distribute however you see fit. If you can weather the penalty, the free perk might be worth the trade-off. For example, we accepted Cynophobia, but when another flaw was offered that increased our weakness to physical damage, we declined.

While there’s no penalty for declining a flaw, you won’t be offered the same flaw again in a single playthrough, and you can’t remove flaws later, so consider your choice carefully.

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Guide Information
  • Publisher
    Private Division
  • Platforms,
    PC, PS4, XB One
  • Genre
    RPG
  • Guide Release
    25 October 2019
  • Last Updated
    28 May 2021
    Version History
  • Guide Author

Share this free guide:

Lost in transit while on a colonist ship bound for the furthest edge of the galaxy, you awake decades later than you expected only to find yourself in the midst of a deep conspiracy threatening to destroy the Halcyon colony.

As you explore the furthest reaches of space and encounter a host of factions all vying for power, who you decide to become will determine the fate of everyone in Halcyon. In the corporate equation for the colony, you are the unplanned variable.

Inside this comprehensive strategy guide for the latest RPG from Obsidian Entertainment you will find:

  • Character creation guide.
  • Companions guide.
  • Full walkthrough of all main quests, side quests, companion quests.
  • Strategies for completing Supernova difficulty
  • Trophy guide.
  • And much, much more!

This guide will be initially released on December 6th 2019 and will be updated regularly with future updates over the following weeks.

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