The Outer Worlds: The Best Perks You Need To Prioritize First
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These Are The Perks For You!
The Outer Worlds is out now! It's a great modern game with classic RPG sensibilities. I loved it. And one of the things I loved most about it was the different ways you could spec out your character to tackle the world and its challenges. Adopting classic RPG traits means that character creation--stats, skills, perks, attributes--play a big part, and there are a lot of options to choose from when you level up and earn points to spend.
Having finished the game for the purposes of the GameSpot review, features editor Matt Espineli hit me up and said "Hey Ed, could you please put together a guide on the best perks to choose in the game?" and I said "Matt, this is a game where there isn't necessarily a right or wrong answer! The "best" perks for someone who wants to play a solo melee character will be completely different to someone who's playing with companions and focusing on the game's cool Science weapons!"
But he insisted that I make the guide anyway, so here we are. In this "Best Perks" gallery, I'm highlighting some of the perks I found most useful in my first playthrough of the game, where I focussed on ranged combat and speech skills. Some of these perks will be universally helpful for anyone playing the game, some of them will be less useful depending on how you want to build your character. Either way, scroll through and have a look at what my maxed-out character looked like by the end of the game and remember--you can always respec your skill points and perks using the machine located on your ship, the Unreliable.
In my review of The Outer Worlds, I gave it a 9/10 and said "I finished The Outer Worlds wanting more, eager to jump back into the world to see extra things. It's not a short game, but it's one packed with such a steady stream of wonderful characters to meet, interesting places to explore, and meaningful, multi-layered quests to solve, that it didn't feel like there was any room to get tired of it. I wanted to rewind the clock and do everything in a completely different way. The Outer Worlds is consistently compelling throughout, and it's a superb example of how to promote traditional RPG sensibilities in a sharp, modern experience."
For more on The Outer Worlds stuff, check out these fine pieces of content!
Tier 1 - Cheetah
Cheetah is good. Cheetah makes you sprint 20% faster. Why is that good? "Ed! Have some damn patience and soak in the world!" I hear you shout.
No.
A big part of The Outer Worlds is moving around and getting to places, and sure--walk around and enjoy the sights, but when you need to get stuff done, doing it fast is important. I mean c'mon, you're there to play a game and have a good time, but also make the most of that precious free time. Don't let slow running bog that down!
Sprinting fast is also very, very handy in combat, especially if you're playing a build that focuses on melee or short/mid-ranged firearms. Coupled with the dodge ability, sprinting faster means you have the ability to close the gap between you and your enemies more quickly, letting you hit them or shoot them or zap them or hug them or whatever you wanna do.
If you don't pick Cheetah as one of your first skills, and then you get to Monarch and think to yourself "Wow, this planet is really big and getting places is taking longer than I would have liked. I should have listened to that stupid perks guide on GameSpot", then shame on you.
Tier 1 - Deadly Demonstrations
The Outer Worlds is an RPG. You know what's important in RPGs? XP (Experience, by the way--just a little explaination for those who are too young to understand the nuances of RPG lingo).
Do you want more XP? Get Deadly Demonstrations. It gives you 50% more XP from kills that your companions make.
"But Ed!" you say, "I want to play a lone wolf build on my first runthrough!"
Are you INSANE? Companions are one of the best parts of The Outer Worlds. You should have companions with you AT ALL TIMES. They're SO GOOD.
Leave the lone wolf playthrough for Supernova difficulty, where your companions will inevitably die permanently as soon as you get into your first combat encounter with them.
Speaking of which, don't forget that you can respec and remove this perk once you hit the max level cap (30) and move that point to something more useful.
Tier 1 - Quick And The Dead
Tactical Time Dialation (TTD) is a really useful skill in The Outer Worlds. It allows you to slow down time during combat, and, if you're skilled enough in the appropriate category, apply debuffs to enemies if you attack them in certain spots, like blinding them, crippling them, maiming them, all that fun, lighthearted stuff.
The problem with TTD is that in the early game, you can't do a whole lot with it--the meter will run out very quickly. There are a bunch of perks that will help you increase and support that skill to make it incredibly viable to rely on in the late game, and this is the first of a few.
Quick And The Dead will give you a 50% recharge rate to TTD. That means even if you blow your meter early, it'll come back faster, so you can run around, buy time, and then get back into slowing down time to shoot things even faster.
Tier 1 - Pack Mule
This should be self-explanatory to anyone who's played an RPG like this. You're going to pick up a lot of stuff in The Outer Worlds. Weapons, armor, food, mods. Carry too much of it, and you'll be encumbered, unable to spring or fast travel.
We all know that marking things as junk and deconstructing them is way too much effort, so why not give yourself the option to just hold onto that useless thing you're never going to use??
Pack Mule gives you an extra 50kg of carrying capacity so you can ignore your inventory admin duties for longer.
Tier 1 - Slow The World
Tactical Time Dialation (TTD) is the combat mechanic in The Outer Worlds where, if your skill is high enough, you slow down time to analyse enemy attributes and make pinpoint attacks on enemy body parts. Doing so will, again--wait hold up, I just realised that I already described TTD two slides ago. Whoops.
Anyway, Slow The World is another perk which will help make TTD more viable more often, by increasing the maximum amount of meter you have by 25%.
Honestly, invest in TTD! Whether you're melee or ranged, the status effects and breathing room it offers are super good!
Tier 2 - Run And Gun
We're in Tier 2 perks now, which you can access after you've spent at least 5 perk points. Now we're getting to some good stuff! I have celebrated this by changing my character's armor for your viewing pleasure, because let's face it--this perk screen is kinda boring to look at.
Okay so Run and Gun--it gives you 65% reduction in the penalty you get to your accuracy while you're moving.
Why is this useful? If you're playing a build that uses a gun, it's likely that you're going to be shooting that gun a lot. You can't rely on TTD to make accurate shots all the time, so you need to get used to running around, using that fast sprint to close the distance, and using that dodge to avoid enemy fire. You can also shoot during all of this!
And wouldn't it be great if that shooting you did while moving around the battlefield actually hit something? Yeah. Get this skill.
Tier 2 - The Collector
Okay so The Collector perk, which increases the range at which items are highlighted, wasn't something I picked up during my first playthrough because I'm very, very thorough.
If you're not, however, this will help you find items in the world. Useful items, like lockpicks, ammo, containers, and loot you can sell for money later.
I'm finding that in Supernova difficulty, where everything matters a whole lot more, The Collector is useful because it makes sure that I absolutely do not miss anything. The stakes are super high, and I want to give myself every advantage I can. So, this is a good pick for higher difficulties and people who aren't particularly meticulous.
Tier 2 - The Reaper
Aaaaallllllright, now we're talking. Here's where your TTD start to become really, really useful. The Reaper will give you back TTD meter every time you kill somebody. Get this perk. All "vampire" style perks are good.
This will help you get to the point where you can start spending a lot more time TTD, if you manage to pick your shots carefully. If you have a strong gun you can just jump into TTD, line up a few perfect weak point shots, and just keep going for as long as you can.
It's great. It turns you into Neo. You're Neo. You're breathtaking.
Do you think someone has made Keanu in the character creator yet?
Tier 2 - Harvester
Whoops! Pre-emptive costume change. But I guess this is way more of a vampire outfit, so this works.
Harvester is like The Reaper, only it gives back health after every skill. That's a good thing. Vampire skills are a good thing. This isn't just a tip for The Outer Worlds, it's a tip for every video game thing ever. HEALTH ON KILL. HEALTH ON KILL. Don't forget it. It will help you survive fights.
Tier 3 - Wild Science
Oh wow, Tier 3 already?
Okay, I forgot to mention the Tier 2 version of this, but these Science perks will increase the damage and effectiveness of the game's Science weapons, which do wacky things to your enemy like shrink them, levitate them, make them fight each other, and so on. It's madness.
Science weapons are a lot of fun, so if you think you want to commit to using them yourself the majority of the time (I mainly gave them to my companions during my playthrough) then it's worth investing in these to make sure you're getting the biggest bangs for your bucks. And by bucks I mean perk points.
Tier 3 - Penetrating Shots
Yes yes, this perk rules. Penetrating shots will reduce the armor of an enemy by 1 point for 10 seconds every time you shoot them, and this effect will stack up to 10 times.
This skill will help you absolutely melt enemies, and is especially effective if you're using something like a fast-firing pistol or an assault rifle-style weapon.
SHOOT. THE. THINGS.
Tier 3 - Armor Master
Dear lord how many of these things did I put in here?
Armor master. It makes your armor better, meaning you get 10% more armor defense. It also increases any skill bonuses attached to the armor (more common on lighter armor options) so grab this skill and mod your armor with all the things.
Yes, do the things.
Tier 3 - Boom, Headshot!
Boom, Headshot! Haha nice, you really iced those guys bro. And did you see how that Marauder's head exploded, and how that explosion dealt 25% damage of the killing blow to the other Marauder who was within a 2.5m radius? Yeah, that was wicked sick. Shaka braaahh.
In retrospect, I don't think this skill is particularly useful, but it's very cool and I love watching it happen, especially in TTD during the end of the game where you can make it happen all the time.
Tier 3 - Confidence
Now THIS is a great skill, especially when you marry it with the Harverster skill which gives you TTD meter on kill.
With confidence, whenever you kill an enemy, your very next hit will be a critical hit, meaning this is another tool in your arsenal to help you stay in TTD and get clean headshots and weak point shots in slow motion until everyone is gone.
It's very satisfying.
Tier 3 - Steady Hand
Oh my gosh, we're almost at the end and I can go eat dinner soon.
Speaking of rushing off, if you've decided that you want to play The Outer Worlds as a run and gun action game, this is a great perk to pick up. It will give you a 100% reduction to weapon sway and a 100% reduction in the movement penalty to accuracy when you kill an enemy, meaning you can load up on LMGs and HMGs and just go to town.
It's a very satisfying feeling, especially toward the end of the game when you're possibly a bit tankier. Rat-a-tatatatatatatatatatata. Good stuff.
Tier 3 - Super Pack Mule
Wow... I really ended on a boring one here, didn't I? Sorry about that. But this doesn't take away from the fact that carrying capacity is very important in The Outer Worlds! Super Pack Mule will add another whopping 100kg to your carry capacity.
Of course, there are even more carry capacity perks but I didn't just want to list them all here otherwise this article would just be me talking about carry capacity again and again and again so you're welcome.
That's all the perks I got. Hopefully, if you've stumbled across this perk gallery from Google or whatever, you've found it somewhat useful. But like I said at the beginning, there's no real 'best' way to play The Outer Worlds, and that's why it's so great. I appreciate you scrolling to the bottom, though! We love it when people actually read our things! Leave us a comment! Let us know that somebody out there is listening! We're so lonely!
I'm just kidding, we're okay. Please enjoy playing The Outer Worlds, and come back to GameSpot soon!