The Outer Worlds

There's also a Right for the Wrong Reasons elements. If not for your rebellion, the Board WOULD kill everyone in Edgewater for their "revolt." You find this out if you side with the Board and being ordered to kill everyone in Edgewater if you didn't side with Reed.

After I saw that order on my Board run...my next run had me picking the most violent, tear-it-all-down options available (like turning off Edgewater's power, pretty much shooting through Byzantium, Iconoclasts...boom).

Are there any recommended builds?

I sit on the level up screen for a while trying to roleplay and only upgrading skills relevant to my recent feats (helping Edgewater, killing a lot of robots, obtaining a companion). But it's getting tougher to justify that with each level-up.

I don't know if it's valid to focus on leadership/stuff like that when I've mostly been gunning creatures down. I don't want to overfocus on gun skills and I'm not really doing any melee, but I keep feeling like "wow this is gonna screw me later."

Plus minmaxing to 100 of a stat always bugged me in Fallout.

You can actually play a build focused on Leadership even if you shoot at things, though it depends on using your companions for damage for the most part.

A real leader doesn't shoot things him/herself. You have people for that.

The game is designed so that any build can be viable, but it does reward you for specializing since you need very high skill checks to pass some of the late game interactions. Of course, failing those dialogs doesn't make you lose the game, but it does mean that you need to rely more on combat and you won't get the best endings.

As for Leadership builds, I find the companion AI to be so generally lacking that relying on them to be win fights for you is not the best way to go. It also makes combat less interactive, which seems to be missing the point. I have yet to find the Fallout-style game that can't be bent over the knees and broken like a young mare with a suitable investment into an upgraded combat rifle.

Edited by Fighteer on Nov 26th 2021 at 6:01:21 AM

Speaking of, can you upgrade the weapons indefinitely, or is it only 5 levels from the level you originally picked it up at?

I might go back and start a Leadership/charisma pro-Board character for the hell of it. Be a space bureaucrat, why not. My only concern is not picking up Parvati/other companions early enough to have useful bullet shields I mean comrades.

Edited by FOFD on Nov 26th 2021 at 6:09:05 AM

Now that I don't remember. I haven't played the game in a while. I do remember there being some limits to upgrades, but that's fine because you'll be investing in new weapons to upgrade on a regular basis.

x6 Depends on how much combat you plan on doing. The nice thing about skills in general is that most of them have dialogue applications, and having one or both Leadership skills maxed out, in addition to maybe specializing in one of the Speech skills, is good for a diplomat run. Or an intimidation run. Up to five levels above your current level is the max.

And you can certainly beeline your way to Edgewater without too much fuss, grabbing Parvati as early as possible. The enemies around your pod are a bit weaker, you can let the guards handle the marauders around your ship, and you can skirt around the obvious road into Edgewater and just go up the hill (to the right) around them, getting into the town without fighting.

Edited by Unsung on Nov 26th 2021 at 4:17:56 AM

x4 That is true.

Interestingly, a Lone Wanderer rifle build is particularly good for a Cascadia run. For anyone who hasn't tried the latter, I totally encourage it. It's a totally badass one-Unplanned-Variable war through a mile of gorgeous wilderness full of Everything Trying to Kill You.

Edited by Ramidel on Nov 26th 2021 at 2:16:46 AM

Alright I'm right back to where I was on my original character. Captain Hawthorne is on Monarch and... things have been really murdery.

I went to Cascadia with Nyoka and Felix and no Mantiqueen, Mantisaur, Mega Mantiqueen, Mega Raptidon, or Scrap Automechanical has survived. I'm thinking it's time to take the difficulty up to Hard Mode.

I just repaired the Printing Press for the Iconoclasts so I'm actually one step ahead of my last save (which I still have funny enough, I thought it was long gone).

9,000+ bits and a decent reputation with everybody... so far. I half-considered murdering the Iconoclasts to save myself the hike but... a few non-sociopathic breaths later I went and did things the long way.

And... I just wiped Fallbrook of human existence. For funsies and because I was getting bored and even going up to Hard wasn't doing it. Never go Long Guns 100.

But it did reveal to me how to stress-test the immersion factor of this game - murder everyone in town with Felix and Nyoka by your side, and your reputation goes down sure, but Fallbrook patrons seem to just respawn in the area and flee from you. They don't even register the danger when you're far enough away. They just go back to smoking or sitting around.

No doors got locked, no extra guns were drawn, and Felix and Nyoka had nothing to say about The Unplanned Variable's sudden psychotic episode. I expected to hear ADA or Welles chime in with a What the Hell, Hero? but nothing, or at least I haven't gone back to the ship yet to see.

Violence just isn't the way in this game. It wasn't even hard like it'd be Elder Scrolls where the town guards would tear your existence to pieces in a second.

Mind, I'm not saying I'm gods gift to shooters. I just think they really didn't balance the towns for a mid-game Variable with a Light Machine Gun with Electric damage and tinkered up to Level 20 with 45 damage. I even sold the Shrink Ray and Mind Control Ray because so far I'm just not leveling up my Science stat, and there didn't seem to be that much interesting content to them beyond actually finding them.

So like... yeah. After seeing that being a semi-tough fixer isn't doing it for me. I'm going to restart and go to a pro-Board, talk first shoot maybe kind of character. This game wants me to be the charismatic middleman. The running and gunning just isn't fun around midgame.

EDIT: Which I guess might make more sense since the Variable was in one of many low-ranked jobs. They're not an epic space warrior.

EDIT 2: Goodbye Stara Platinum character save. Hello... Rick Sanchez, space janitorial scientist with pro-Board leanings.

EDIT 3: On my very first character I played more of a chaotic good character. Helped Parvati hook up with Junlei, helped bury Nyoka's comrades, settled a murder mystery, looked for every charisma check I could find, and admittedly gave Edgewater to the Iconoclasts because forget corporate rule. But I just got really tired of that gameplay loop of run/find/shoot/return so this time I wanted to be a space tough Han Solo-esque character. Now that got kind of dull so I decided to test the whole "be a complete psycho" but I feel like that's only going to matter if I go to Welles, or if I do it earlier on.

So... this time, I'm going to solve my problems with words. Because the stealth elements of the game seem like they could be fun, and sneaking through an enemy-filled area or just avoiding it all together more exciting.

Edited by FOFD on Dec 2nd 2021 at 6:52:59 AM

The Murder Everyone route here isn't well-supported compared to some of Obsidian's other games. It doesn't break the plot, but it doesn't lead to much interaction. And yeah, I find the game gets a bit samey if your build is too combat-heavy. If you did want to ever go back to that Han Solo playthrough, don't forget you can re-spec at the machine down the catwalk from the Unreliable's engine room. Han Solo was a charmer, too. And pretty bad at bluffing, but you could choose to succeed where he usually failed.

Hacking and lockpicking can be pretty rewarding here — Science and Medicine also get a lot of significant dialogue checks. If ever you decide to do a Dumb Mode run, note that there are unique "savant" choices for tech skills. Just a little something to consider.

Edited by Unsung on Dec 2nd 2021 at 9:42:54 AM

Being Dumb also allows you to get a non standard game over with an achievement.

How do you get that Non-Standard Game Over? There a specific planet where it happens?

I'm only bummed about that because of that one trailer where Ellie sees you shoot a guy and goes "uh, you know you didn't have to shoot him, right? Eh, you just keep being you."

Edited by FOFD on Dec 3rd 2021 at 4:54:47 AM

It's part of the main story, if your character is dumb you can't miss the prompt.

Yeah, that's kind of fair. There's a lot of reactivity in the dialogue, but not in emergent, spontaneous gameplay the way there would've been in Gamebryo. But maybe they'll be able to build those systems between Avowed and OW 2.

Ah, cool.

Yeah, here's hoping. Granted, I'm not pushing for a combat-heavy game. I think the idea of this game is pretty sound I just approached it from the wrong angle.

Yeah, not your fault. I like the game for what it is, but even taking aside the hype of being the next New Vegas, a claim they didn't make, they did advertise it as a bit more of a faster-moving, more open-ended RPG and shooter than it is, I think. I don't mind it being less of an open world and more of a follow-up to Arcanum (whih makes sense, given the lead devs), but I can see how people were expecting something else.

Alright Captain Hi... I mean, Captain Alex Hawthorne is getting a Power Regulator for Edgewater. Deja vu.

I think I found a playstyle that makes this game tenser and gives me a decent amount of interaction. Guns and Melee Weapons low, Engineering and Medical low (that's what Parvati and Ellie are for), and straightforward personality with some biting sarcasm. Probably going to save the Science Weapons for another playthrough as a mad scientist or a greedy pro-Board Hawthorne. Below Average Temperament. It's amazing what a difference passive health regeneration makes, but I feel like that's an "unrealistic" trait and that you've been on ice for years, so having the ability to slow down the perception of time is enough.

Terra 2 on Hard nearly killed me. I've been sneaking around marauders and running when necessary. It's definitely going to take longer, but I feel like the game validates this - a convenient path out of the location where you find The Illustrated Manual was placed there and I made it away.

I'm doing a few self-imposed things to keep things challenging:

• no heavy weapons (not trained for that)
• minimum use of any long guns (if I pick up an assault rifle, it only stays for a little while and I pawn it off when in-town)
• mainly relying on handguns and some kind of civilian melee weapon (no hammers), and often slipping through undetected
• only level up and upgrade skills/perks when I go to sleep, or when I'm on the Unreliable (these are my "Morrowind rules" for any RPG)
• no taking armor off of dead bodies or Bits (too much work and moral degradation)
• take any and all Flaws
• ___ free space (I'm not sure what yet, but I'm going to come up with some wacky trigger for my character to commit wanton violence)

I've given Reed the town and talked him into giving Adelaide leadership. I've given the power to the Deserters. I was going to give the power to Reed this time, but decided to make it more interesting and just not speak to the Deserters. Easier to make a choice that determines the lives of innocent people if you've never formed or made any attachments to those people.

I guess that would fit a corporate bureaucrat type of character, but hey, I'm a former customer service rep (Persuade +1), so my prerogative is dealing with people as little as possible.

Edited by FOFD on Dec 8th 2021 at 1:49:32 PM

The gimmick runs were always my favourite here and in the Fallouts. Things you might be interested to know: Supernova actually enforces a rule where you can only sleep in your own bed aboard the Unreliable, you can only fast travel to the ship and manually save while aboard it (and autosaves are limited). You also have to eat, drink, and sleep. Not saying you should switch to Supernova, but just something to consider if you're working up to that.

You can also only take three flaws total, unfortunately. I mention that just because if you take all the flaws as soon as they're available, they may not be the most challenging flaws.

I figure I'm gonna beat the game on Hard before I go to Supernova. Finally have a reason to go and buy all that Spacer's Choice product.

And darn. They only let you take 3 flaws? Huh. I should go get the PC version and see if there are any mods that change that.

Flaws depend on the difficulty level. Anything less than Hard its 3, goes up to 4 on Hard, and 5 for Supernova.

Phwoo, I meant to go back to this but my PS 4 copy of it is missing.

Soooo this is a fun song tribute.

Any hopes or news about Outer Worlds 2?

As a part of Epic Games Store's daily free game download promotions for the holidays, this game's Spacer's Choice remaster (with expansion DLCs) is currently available for free to pick up. It's only up for 24 hours until the next day's 11 am EST, where it'll be replaced with a different free game.