The Outer Worlds

[Art Blade]

ah man, I decided to respec my character yet again (3rd time, for "only" 2k bits) in order to adapt to a situation I had no means to solve without doing that: I really wanted to hack a computer and had to get to level 150 for that. The vicar and SAM provide hacking support but I'm phobic of SAM thanks to that flaw related to robots which meant I had to somehow get to a rather high level on my own already so the vicar could just close the gap to 150 but with SAM along, it's even more and I could respec to get it only with those two by my side. However, I rather leave SAM at home unless I really need him.

respec 3 (all skills I spent points on are visible)
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With this I can get all of the following to 150:
persuade,
intimidate,
hack,
lockpick,
science
and engineering

Not all at once but using suitable outfits combined with supporting companions I get one or more of the above at once.

[Art Blade]

make that one more, I just managed to get "lie" to 150 as well (now at level 32)

Also, "lie" at 150 gets you -60% buying and +30% selling at vendors. So any dialogue skill at 150 works.

[Art Blade]

oh, there are weapons Mk3. Just found my first couple of those. I had thought there had been only normal-mk1-mk2-ultra/gold. Now there's Mk3, too. I'm starting to think that those guns might actually get interesting now regarding damage

[Art Blade]

OK, once more.. the suffix "ultra" isn't the end of it. There is an even higher tier of guns called "hyper."

What I like is that each higher tier represents more or less your own level. More less than more but still.

With "I like" I'm referring to the tinkering costs. If you try to tinker a basic weapon to level 30+, you're going to have to play for a year in order to rack up enough bits. But if you find or buy a Hyper version, you'll already start out at 30+ and tinkering is peanuts. That's why I like the tier system.

[mandru]

I think I need to stop trying to figure out stat balances and just play the damn game. 

I spend too much time paralyzed about this weapon goes with that armor to be able to kill this or that or complete yet another lock, hack, or speech check.  I easily spend ten times more time watching TOW videos and agonizing over stat balances than logging in and actually playing.

At this point I don't know how many hours I've spent trying to find or collect the bits to gather a set of gear that isn't total *bleep* for vicar max who will become a companion when we leave Emerald Vale to go to Ground Breaker.

(**I know what breaking wind is and don't want to thing about breaking ground**  ( ))

I'm still on Terra 2 (? the starting world) at level 8 and I'm still running around trying to find rare after completing everything at this location random re-spawns of any valid (non-citizen) enemy to garner resources.

There's the unique weapon Maxwell which is a single hand power hammer available in the Edgewater shop.  When I compare it against Parvati's hammer Maxwell looks like it's a wimp.  Anyway my base stat for melee (both 1 and 2 hand) is only at 9 so it would be a waste of an arduously collected 3000 bits for me to even try to wield it.

There's just too many greasy slippery sliding around ever confounding numbers. 

[Art Blade]

before I get back to your worries in my upcoming post, mandru, I'll first have to drop a bomb here before I forget.


ATTENTION

I ran into a rare game-breaking bug late in the game and thanks to lots of older saves I was able to avoid causing it. I didn't find any solution on the net so I had to figure it out myself.

Two conflicting missions seem to be the reason, actually the order in which you finish them.

FIRST finish Signal Point In Space and THEN finish Foundation because the other way round will cause the (same) quest giver of both missions to simply not appear so you cannot finish the mission signal point in space. I tried various things ranging from respec'ing over using different paths to get to the quest giver to changing companions and it always ended in that bug until I discovered that only the order plays a role.

I'm not going to spoil anything but you should remember it because signal point in space is a huge package. I'm going to describe it spoiler-free:

Don't worry about it too much because it's simple to know when the bug might hit you: when either mission tells you to return to Sophia is when you should quick-save and if talking to her ends the mission (it disappears from your active missions list and shows up in the completed missions list) you just reload the save and do something else, like doing the same thing with the other mission until that one ends, reload the save and then finish them in the correct order. It worked when I completed and finished Signal Point In Space by going to Sophia (who hadn't disappeared) and then picked up Foundation by first activating the robots and then the next part of the mission was to kill the robots, then report to Sophia about your success and all was good.

It's probably rare because not everyone might actually get to see either one of the missions or maybe only one. It's only a problem if you get both missions and then do them in the "wrong" order. Apparently that bug is quite old but too rare for the publishers to do anything about it. This is when I really want to curse a lot, it's unbelievable that they won't sort it out. The official forum shows three posts and they're old and nobody ever replied. Reddit got one post without any replies. And that's all I found. Just GREAT.

[Art Blade]

now, mandru, back to you

First of all, when you look at the abilities and skills and perks: the game allows you to do what you want. Emphasis on YOU and on WANT. There are no "builds." That's just some stuff some people think is good for their YouTube channel so everyone keeps uploading vids about builds and stuff. It's not what you want. If you follow them, then you do what they want. Read the game descriptions, read the help section (which is quite good) and start picking stuff you think is cool. And live with it. You may respec the skills and perks, only the attributes are permanent. If they're not perfect in hindsight doesn't mean you can't play the game at all. You can still level up skills like crazy and you can later buy a respec. It's 500, 1000, 2000, 4000... bits so it keeps doubling. I respec'ed my character three times. First quite early and mostly because I wanted to test the machine, then maybe around level 20 and the last around level 30. So don't be afraid of playing with a "wrong" setup. It still works, you'll simply have hmm, unexpected bonuses if you chose the "wrong" attributes or skills or perks. And if you respec, you'll maybe realise that you miss some things that you had before respec'ing. All of that is called "learning process." Consider it a base and knowledge for your next build and playthrough.

Also I don't recommend buying stuff. You'll find tons of stuff and can use the money for tinkering instead. Need mods? You can spend skill points and perks (Parvati is good for that) that cause you to find more and better mods both from looting and breaking down weapons and armour. If you get maybe more than three of the same type, sell them. I once sold a big batch of collected mods that I had stowed away in a container. Selling the spare mods, seriously, rewarded me with like 25k bits. Just like that. And I spent it straight on tinkering

Remember that everything you buy early will look and feel outdated and too weak when you level up a bit and that's when you're likely going to regret having spent a lot of money buying stuff. You can still buy stuff when you have enough experience, money and by then a decent level of like 20+. Before then, I'd spend money on tinkering only.

And yes, man, PLAY the game, make mistakes, learn from them but most importantly: ENJOY PLAYING the game. Listen to all the funny dialogues and loot the living daylight out of every map

It's a great game.

[mandru]

Art, thanks for the feedback.  There was some good info there.

Still seeking better armor for the vicar I went into the constable's office, made a quick save, and killed her and the other three officers that were there for looting.  All I got was a hand full of pits and a level 4 security armor.

There wasn't anything worth keeping so I reset to the save point and let them all live.

[Art Blade]

welcome That early in the game as you are, it's more about exploring and dealing with surprises like running into marauders and monsters, trying to stay alive and to level up for better stats. Just play and you'll get better in every which aspect

[Art Blade]

maybe one more tip (the way I played it)

Keep gathering every side mission you can get because not one of them expires. They are never timed. Then try to finish them within the same region (like, planet) so you don't have to travel around much. Some missions will lead you around the galaxy but even then, the current objective always states on which map/planet you need to be. In my experience at one point every mission I still had going led to Scylla. That's when I went there, not before.

[Art Blade]

I'm definitely end-game now. The final mission caused a pop-up telling me to finish any open missions including DLC because going on to the finale, it warned me, will only allow save games for the last mission and anything else won't be accessible any more from then on.

So I did one last side quest that was still open and all I've left is the DLC before going to the finale. Which means, DLC time now.

[Art Blade]

Gah! I've been level 33 for some time now and for reasons unknown, I can't get any XP any more no matter what I do.

And then I found this explanation:

"The level cap increase for The Outer Worlds is going up by 3, meaning the new max level will be 33 for the game and adding about 6-8 hours of gameplay."

Level cap.. that's so stupid.

[Art Blade]

The Gorgon something something DLC looks promising. Very nice visuals, a huge map as far as I can tell, and I found the first power armour (without needing power) and it's even an Expanded Heavy PA. By comparison (always remember that attributes, skills, perks and level affect guns, armour and other stuff) my "normal" armour ranges somewhere between 50-90 after tinkering to the max, depending on which one I'm using. That PA came as high as 114 even without tinkering.

I needed two shots to kill that guy who wore it. Two shots with about 3,000 damage each. I noticed that my old guns really didn't cut it any more so I discarded most of them in order to replace them with Mk3 or Hyper variants plus tinkering and modding everything for maximum effect. My fattest single shot damage score exceeded 6,000 and instantly knocked the life out of something like a behemoth primate. I don't recall what it was exactly but it was really big. The best was that my shot also sent him flying high while spinning like crazy.. it was quite stunning And boy do I need that firepower. That's got nothing to do with the DLC, it's because of my maximum level of 33.

But now something for you two newbies out there ( )


***

Here's another tip that might help you: Don't even think about levelling any skill to 150. At least not that early and maybe try it late-game or during the next playthrough(s) when you know how to handle everything.

If you realise your skills aren't high enough for say, a lockpick or a speech check, fast-travel back to the ship and take another companion or even two different ones. You need to remember their ability to boost your skills. For instance, Felix and Parvati both boost your lockpick and persuasion. The vicar and SAM boost intimidation and hack. And so on. Use them to boost your skills and overcome those locks, hacks, speech checks and whatnot. You may want to return to your ship again to swap out your companion(s) after passing whatever it was you needed them for. As always, a (quick) savegame is your best friend It's well worth investing skill points and perks as well as keeping armour/headgear with useful skill boosts that help you benefit the most from your companions.

I still do all of the aforementioned. I rather do that than spending all of my precious points on one skill just to get it to 150 while everything else remains subterranean. 60 or 80 is enough to unlock the good stuff, the rest to 150 can be done with perks plus skills plus gear plus companions.

[Dweller_Benthos]

Yeah I'm spreading my points in weapons, hacking, and speech, I think, I'd have to look. But getting any of them to 150 wasn't in my plan.

As for what armor to give companions, I just give them the ones that give the best protection, and if they have a skill boost, nice, but not required.

There's a special weapon in the primal nest on Terra 2, I got wrecked going in there too early, but went back after picking up better guns on the Groundbreaker, and made short w0#k of them. Also found the special weapon on the Groundbreaker and gave it to Pavarti, as she likes hammers, it seems.

Went to Monarch thinking I'd progress that mission for the Vicar real quick and got my *bleep* handed to me, didn't even get off the landing pad lol. So that will have to wait for later. Did the communication relay instead which went smoothly. Had to raise my hacking with some boosting food to get into the terminal, then found the code anyway lol so that was good.

Thanks for the tip on the quest breaking bug, Art, will keep that in mind.

[mandru]

Ah.  Thanks Art, so much information to absorb.

I've got a question about leveling up and weaponry.  Does a player's level improve the impact of a weapon?

What I mean is when a level 5 weapon when is used by a level 5 player it has a max hit capacity.  Does it still hit with the same force if that same weapon (un-tinkered) is used by a level 8, 10, or 15 player?

I think certain armors improve combat but I don't know if weapon base value is boosted as well.