The Outer Worlds

Murder on Eridanos. Mystery is in the air.

No new skill levels or perks, bummer.

Just got to the second DLC area after starting a new game a few days ago. Haven't done much yet, but there's a nifty little gadget essential to the plot that's pretty cool, basically being a portable Detective Mode device to help spot clues.

Been having a lot of fun with this. More dialogue and investigation, as you might expect, compared to Gorgon. Your companions chime in a lot. The Discrepancy Amplifier too. I like this new faction of Sublight, and the environment does a good job of selling the size of the colony, where even Byzantium made it feel kind of small... if only because it's so closed-in that it never really makes you take a good look at the urban sprawl beyond the area you can actually walk around in. The Groundbreaker and Stellar Bay do the same thing, where there does seem to be more to it than the explorable area, but you have to go out of your way to notice it. Here the spaceport feels a bit more like a spaceport, and I can believe there are more floors and rooms to the hotel than we ever see.

There were supposed to be more perks and flaws, according to the interviews and launch description. No one's been able to find the perks, as far as I'm aware, and a lot of people would've already been maxed out on flaws, so I don't know what they are, or if they're bugged as well.

Edited by Unsung on Mar 19th 2021 at 10:01:19 AM

On my new playthrough I think I'll tackles the Eridanos content DLC first then go to Gorgon. I'm already familiar with Gorgon and I want to tackle the new stuff first asap.

Imma start fresh with a handgun build since I'm betting we'll get that sweet looking handgun Halcyon Helen has in the poster and trailer.

Edited by M84 on Mar 20th 2021 at 12:00:00 AM

There's a super-sweet assault rifle-sized science weapon minigun that fires every elemental damage type in succession that I'm liking a lot. Played a Science/Engineering/Persuasion character as my main and a Lie/Hack/Handguns character for my second run, and didn't get to try out big guns to their best effect in the later game. So this is nice.

So a Long Gun version of the Prismatic Hammer, basically?

Similar idea, but very different execution just because of how fast it fires, while having a relatively tight spread. Takes a minute to spin up, though, so my fragile scientist really needed to stand well back behind Parvati and Nyoka, for the first time since those first few levels after arriving on Monarch. For which I'm not sure it's actually better than the shrink ray, other than for bosses. And no, it doesn't quite manage to outpace Special Delivery, but it *is* fun to use.

On that same note, people say all the early science weapons (other than the Prismatic Hammer) suck, but I got a lot of use out of them. If you take the perks and tinker them, they actually do a respectable amount of damage. And used for their debuffs, especially with your allies doing the damage, they can really take the bite out of a lot of enemies. But even taking all that aside — they are fun. I do still wish that shrinking and mind control would last longer when you weren't actively focusing the beam on the enemy, though. I'd have accepted even weaker damage and a lesser debuff in exchange.

Edited by Unsung on Mar 19th 2021 at 12:06:29 PM

I consider the Prismatic Hammer an "early" Science Weapon since you can get it on the Groundbreaker. And it's one of the most powerful weapons in the game.

...meant to make an exception for the hammer. Edited that in just now. But I stand by the rest of my point about the early science weapons not actually being *that* bad.

I'm busying enjoying Demon's Souls Remastered right now, but when I get the chance I'll tackle Murder on Eridanos with my Leadership/Science build.

I am very sad. It turned out that I can't end the hedge maze quest by getting very uniquely shitfaced.

Which is the most I can say about the quest without spoilers.

Alright, so after trying out the Spectrum Gatling gun for a few seconds just out of curiosity, I've decided I'll start a Long Gun build after I've finished my Handgun playthrough.

What can I say, the Spectrum Gatling's a pretty fun weapon to use. It's a shame it burns through ammo so quickly though. Granted, it's a late-game weapon so by that point you should have a ton of ammo ready.

...Unless you're an idiot who accidentally sells all of their ammo to a shopkeep and only notices much later.

Don't ask.

Getting off a chain of sniper shots in TTD is pretty good, and running and gunning with assault rifles feels nice with high Dex (for the increased reload speed as much as anything) and the perk boost for Walk speed. Sprinting and Dodging, too, but you can't sprint and shoot, so...

But yeah, the Gatling is great. I like how every party member wants it for themselves. Or at least Nyoka, Ellie, and Felix each have dialogue saying so when you pick it up.

Man, I kind of wish you could've gotten a special interaction for drinking the bottle yourself. And extra dialogue with the potential buyers. Disco Elysium has spoiled me.

The Needler however is the most "action movie / game" like weapon, if that makes sense. Every other gun, even the other Science Weapon ones, at least acknowledge the reality of a limited amount of ammunition and a magazine.

The Needler? Nope, just straight up infinite ammo.

Man, I slept on Flaws so much when I first started that I'm glad I got to learn how great they actually are for any build. While I'm getting ready to take my Leadership/Science character into the new DLC I'm playing on Hard to get 4 Flaws for the additional perks. I've gotten 3 so far; Pithecophobia, Raptiphobia, and Permanently Maimed, and I'm working on Impediphobia right now for number 4.

There may not be many great perks in this game, but there's still no reason not to take any you think are nice. I've gotten Super Pack Mule and both Science Damage Perks, with Nietzsche's Reward being the final perk I want because it boosts all my damage by 5% for every flaw I have.

The best flaws to take imho are the damage type ones. Especially Cold Damage if you can manage to get it — the only enemies that inflict it are the Frost Mantids on Gorgon.

Btw, did anyone else here find out you can get a pet Canid for your ship?

I did. It's weird that you get Anubis for *helping* Mostly. Doesn't seem like he'd want to give him up. But hey, I wanted more decorations for my cabin and ship, not less.

That's the funny thing. It's not because Milburn decided to give him up.

If you visit Milburn again, he mentions that he's decided to reward Anubis by letting him wander around unsupervised, since he's sure Anubis will come back on his own.

The idiot doesn't realize Anubis ditched him so he could hang out with you instead.

Edited by M84 on Apr 6th 2021 at 11:13:21 PM

Ohhh, I can't believe I never checked that. I remember I went back and talked to Jasper and Blakeslee, but I guess I never got around to Mostly. That's pretty good.

Edit: Oh wait, was Anubis the other guy's canid, the one on the lower floor? That would make more sense. Okay. Still though. That's not bad.

Edited by Unsung on Apr 6th 2021 at 9:24:35 AM

Also, so two out of three of my playthroughs, I didn't get the unique Negotiator pistol from completing Sublight quests.

I think I figured out the difference. In the one playthrough I did get it, I actually killed Slaughterhouse Clive.

Which I guess makes sense. Catherine very much wants him dead before taking over.

Not like it's that big a deal — like a lot of unique weapons in this game, it's kind of overrated and not worth using that much past its level.

Edited by M84 on Apr 6th 2021 at 11:35:58 PM

I don't think I've ever gotten it. Huh. What does it do? Looks like a bolter and the bolter is pretty good.

I really don't like the leveled weapons in this. Said it before, I'll say it again. I really want a mod that makes it so the damage range of weapons is fairly flat, and your skills matter more, like in Fallout — My 100 points in guns should make me deadlier with a mostly unrepaired 9mm than the guy with the the fully-modded brush gun, if he only has like Guns 35. I like how they handled stats and skills for the most part, but I hate the loot treadmill. If we do one day get a sequel, I hope they change that.

Edited by Unsung on Apr 6th 2021 at 9:59:40 AM

The Negotiator is basically a Bolter 2.0 that does a bit higher DPS. That's it.

Yeah, it's pretty underwhelming.

I didn't mind the leveled gear too much, but I do wish that increasing weapon skills offered flat damage bonuses too.

At least the higher level variants of weapons have more going for them than just more damage. They also have additional Mod slots.

Edited by M84 on Apr 6th 2021 at 11:56:58 PM

I don't hate it the way some people do, it's usable, but it's clunky and doesn't really add anything other than busywork. Maybe they could fix that... but maybe they don't need to.

In a way it'd be better if most if not all unique weapons were more like science weapons. More uncommon, but that much more gimmicky. They do have their gimmicks as it is, but you level up so fast that you can hardly hang onto any of them for any length of time until you're already hitting the level cap.

Like, that's one of the things about Eridanos in particular — even taking aside the science weapons, which are pretty great, the other unique loot is pretty interest as well, and it's just a shame you're finally at a point where you won't outlevel it, but there's maybe not a ton of content left, either. But oh well. It's had a good run. Maybe it's not FNV, but I do find myself going back and trying different things in the same way.

Edited by Unsung on Apr 6th 2021 at 10:14:09 AM

It occurs to me that Monarch Stellar Industries might have started out as a backhanded references to the Kings from FNV. Sanjar is very deliberately not the King, MSI wants back onto the Board instead of wanting the NCR out, but Graham Bryant is a dark deconstruction of that anarchist Robin Hood figure. I wonder.