What are the best The Outer Worlds builds? The best RPG games allow us to play out unique character fantasies, and Obsidian’s spacefaring epic allows us to indulge in that with a sci-fi twist. From a Han Solo-like scoundrel that excels in talking their way out of any situation, to an intergalactic hitman who blasts their way past any obstacles.
Behind the role-play, however, there is a web of The Outer Worlds perks, flaws, and skills that dictate how well we can pull off our chosen build. For example, investing your skill points into dialogue gives you more conversation options to shape how you choose to interact with people. Even The Outer Worlds companions affect how you play as companion perks can give you a buff, too. The Outer Worlds weapons also play a key role – what’s a long-range build without a trusty sniper?
In this The Outer Worlds builds guide, we’ll go over some of the best builds you can use and where you’ll want to invest your points for the best results. Where it’s needed, we’ll also suggest some guns. Now that’s out of the way, here are the best The Outer Worlds builds.
The best Outer Worlds builds are:
Slow-mo sniper build
Starting attributes
- Strength – average
- Dexterity – average
- Intelligence – very high
- Perception – very high
- Charm – average
- Temperament – average
Skills
- Long guns – You’ll find long guns in the ranged category, and investing in it will give you a slew of buffs. Getting your long-range stat to 40 gives you a 50% boost to critical damage, while maxing out the stat means your critical hits ignore 100% of your enemy’s armour stat.
- Sneak – A particularly useful skill for those crouched in the distance with a sniper in hand. Upgrading this stat to 20 means you’ll do bonus damage while crouched, and bumping it up to 80 adds 20% to your weak spot damage while crouched.
- Science – This one is pretty straightforward. Investing in science increases your shock and plasma damage across the board. Pick your poison and add the correct plasma or shock damage mod to your sniper for even more damage.
Perks
- Quick and Dead – your TTD meter recharges 50% faster
- Slow the World – TTD lasts 25% longer
- The Reaper – every kill fills 25% of your TTD meter, though it doesn’t work while you’re in TTD mode
- Scanner – 20% boost to headshot and weak spot damage while in TTD
- Confidence – your next hit after a kill is guaranteed to be a critical hit
The three skills we are primarily interested in are long guns, sneak, and science. Beyond that, you’re free to spend your skill points wherever you like.
For your starting attributes you’re interested in intelligence and perception. Putting both of these to very high will give you a 35% boost to your critical damage and another 35% to your extra headshot and weak spot damage.
Most of these perks are quality of life improvements for this build, and boost your Tactical Time Dilation meter. Confidence, however, is the must have here as you’ll be doing enough damage to consistently one-shot foes.
There are currently no stand out snipers in the game, which is handy as you can find one that suits you and stick with it. The only essential component here is that you mod your chosen rifle with a shock or plasma mod to tap into your science skills.
Catch this melee build
Starting attributes
- Strength – very high
- Dexterity – very high
- Intelligence – below average
- Perception – below average
- Charm – below average
- Temperament – very high
Skills
- Melee – Investing in melee is wise as it’ll boost both one-handed and two-handed melee attacks – leading to more damage for both and making either attack unblockable. You’ll truly be able to punch your way through anything.
- Defence – Sadly, we will not be face-tanking here, but for a good reason. Putting 80 points into your dodging stat means you’ll gain increased melee damage on your next hit after a dodge, leading to that knock-out blow. Getting 20 points on your block is also handy as it allows you to stagger your enemies by pulling off a successful block.
Perks
- Tit for Tat – gain 15% for melee damage back as health
Setting our strength attribute to very high gives us a 30% boost to melee, which is a fine start to this build. This goes quite nicely with dexterity, as it increases your melee attack speed by 30%, too. Setting your intelligence to below-average does make you a bit of an idiot in conversations – as you’ll see through the dialogue options – but why not commit to the idea of being a mindless thug who is merely here to throw hands?
Skills here are broader and focused into melee and defence as one-handed melee, two-handed melee, dodge, and block are all things that benefit this build. Perks are also open-ended though we’d argue you want to unlock Tit for Tat to make you tankier.
Galaxy brain science weapons build
Starting attributes
- Strength – very high
- Dexterity – average
- Intelligence – very high
- Perception – average
- Charm – average
- Temperament – average
Skills
- Science – Obvious, we know, but maxing this out increases the damage of science weapons while making them cheaper to mod and tinker with.
- Ranged and Melee – This one is a touch more vague, but it’s worth leveling these both up to 60 as it’ll cover one-handed melee, two-handed melee, handguns, long guns, and heavy guns. That’ll cover all the science weapons we come across, and buff their damage. If you find that there’s one science weapon you like more than the others, though, you can take that skill tree up to 100.
Perks
- Weird science – bumps up science weapon damage by 50%
- Wild science – another 50% buff to your science weapon damage
There are multiple science weapons we want to use for this build, which makes assigning attributes tricky. We’re going for strength and intelligence, however, as it gives us a handy 30% boost to melee and 35% to critical damage. Also, what galaxy brain wouldn’t have intelligence maxed out.
When it comes to skills it’s vital we fully max out the science skill in the tech group to fully utilise the potential of that weapon archetype. After that, you want to take the ranged and melee group to 60 to give yourself a chance to try multiple weapons.
Once you have a favourite, you can take its corresponding skill to 100 for more buffs. Perks are down to your preference, but we’d say weird science and wild science are musts as they’ll each boost your science damage by 50% each.
As for science weapons, you’ll get most of them during a quest called ‘Weapons from the Void’. You can get a shrink ray that deals damage and, er, shrinks foes. Apart from that, there’s the mandibular rearranger one-handed melee weapon, the prismatic hammer two-handed melee weapon, the gloop gun heavy weapon, and the mind control ray gun. All of them are quite fun and quirky, though we’re quite partial to the hammer due to the damage it puts out.
The smooth-talker build
Starting attributes
- Strength – average
- Dexterity – average
- Intelligence – very high
- Perception – average
- Charm – very high
- Temperament – average
Skills
- Dialogue – The main reason you’ll want to invest in Dialogue is, well, the dialogue options that come with it. Investing here will allow you more options to persuade, intimidate, and lie. You can invest in Dialogue until all of these skills are level 50, then they’ll need to be individually upgraded thereafter.
- Inspiration – You can find this skill in the Leadership group. It’s a nifty one to have as it buffs your companions in battle.
Perks
- Soliloquy – adds 10 points to your dialog skills
Charm and Intelligence are what you want to spec into here. Having very high Intelligence gives you more dialogue options while Charm ups your faction reputation gains by 35%. Skills are pretty straightforward, too, and Dialogue is the clear winner. It’s up to you if you focus on persuading, lying, or intimidating, but keep in mind that there’s one conversation option at the end of the game that requires your Persuade skill to be 100, so keep that in mind. Perks are pretty flexible, too, but we recommend getting Soliloquy for sure as it bumps up your dialogue skills by ten.
The Outlaw
Starting attributes
- Strength – average
- Dexterity – average
- Intelligence – very high
- Perception – very high
- Charm – average
- Temperament – average
Skills
- Handguns – what’s an outlaw without a pistol? We’re rolling with the handguns skill tree here. You can find it in the Ranged category if you’re not sure. Investing here not only allows us to boost our critical hit damage, but ignore the armour stats on foes, too.
- Science – this once isn’t as vital, but it sure is nifty. You can find science in Tech and you’ll benefit from it as it’ll allow you to upgrade and mod your pistols much easier.
Perks
- Harvester – grants 15% of your health back on each kill
- Scanner – 20% more headshot and weak spot damage while using TTD
- Confidence – guaranteed critical hit after each kill
When it comes to starting attributes, we’re primarily interested in intelligence and perception as the former boosts our critical hit damage while the latter shores up headshot and weak spot damage. As we’re using a pistol here we’ll be getting plenty of value out of the increased critical damage. Skills are pretty straightforward – we’re investing into the Handguns tree for more critical damage. As for the weapons themselves, The Vermin II is one of the most lethal weapons in the game with the right skills backing it up.
Alternatively, if you’d like to combine this build with the Galaxy Brain Science build, you can opt for the Shrink Ray as that’s also a pistol. If you do, though, think about opting for the Weird and Wild Science perks to further boost your weapon damage.
Silent Thief Build
Starting attributes
- Strength – average
- Dexterity – very high
- Intelligence – average
- Perception – very high
- Charm – average
- Temperament – very high
Skills
- Dodge – Perfect for escaping from rough situations, you always need a backup plan. Dodging can be really handy for making it out of a busy area without taking too much damage – ideal for a wannabe catwoman.
- Sneak – Pretty obvious, this one. No self-respecting thief would ever stroll about will-nilly, they would sneak. This skill gives you boosts to speed and damage when crouching, and makes you harder to spot.
- Lockpick – How are you going to steal things if you’re stumped by a simple locked door? To really put the ‘silent’ in Silent Thief, you’ll need to be able to pick locks as easily as you can snaffle loot.
Perks
- Strider – improves your movement speed
- Speed Demon – another boost to movement speed, this time while using TTD
While this build is optimised for sneaking, we’ve invested heavily in speed as well. This means you can be in and out before anyone has a chance to spot you, but also gives you an option to fall back on if you’re caught. That option is pretty much just ‘run’, but it’s better than nothing.
It may also be worth investing in some one-handed skills or perks, as it’s a rarity that you’ll get through an area without any confrontations. If you’re heading into the Peril on Gorgon DLC there may be fewer NPCs around, but enemies still roam the asteroid, so watch your back.
And there you have it, the best Outer Worlds builds. We’ve tried to include something for all sorts of players, from the stealthy marksmen to the fist-flingin’ thug. If you just want to destroy everything, then the science build will serve you well. Either way, we hope these Outer Worlds builds help you in your journey across the galaxy.