At every even level (2, 4, 6, 8, etc.) you’ll earn a perk, which you can use to purchase various bonuses in the perk menu. Perks generally provide passive effects that boost some stat or another, and can contribute greatly to whatever build you’re shooting for, as well as providing quality of life enhancements that any player will appreciate.
Perks are divided into three tiers, each with fourteen perks. You can only purchase Tier 2 perks when you have assigned five Tier 1 perks, and you can only purchase Tier 3 perks when you have ten assigned perks between Tier 1 and Tier 2.
A list of perks can be found below.
Tier 1 Perks¶
| Perk | Effect |
|---|---|
| Toughness | +50% Base Health |
| Slow the World | +25% Tactical Time Dilation Meter Max |
| Lone Wolf | +25% Damage when alone in party |
| Strider | +25% Walk Speed |
| Cheetah | +20% Sprint Speed |
| High Maintenance | -25% Weapon/Armor Durability Loss |
| Precision | +15% Companion Crit Chance |
| The Negotiator | -20% Vendor Prices |
| Deadly Demonstrations | +50% XP from Companion kills |
| Traveler | Unlock the ability to Fast Travel when Encumbered |
| Quick and the Dead | +50% Tactical Time Dilation Recharge Rate |
| Pack Mule | +50kg Carrying Capacity |
| A Few Bits More | +100% Additional Ammo stock on Vendors, +100% Additional Consumable and General stock on Vendors |
| Resilient | +5 Base Armor Rating |
Recommended Perks:
- Toughness: A 50% bonus to health is a huge boost in survivability, well worth a perk pick.
- Slow the World: If you make use of TTD with any regularity, this is a no-brainer.
- Lone Wolf: Worth picking if you plan to travel alone, as a 25% bonus to damage is huge.
- Quick and the Dead: Much like Slow the World, if you use TTD regularly this is a good choice.
- Pack Mule: Who doesn’t love more inventory space?
- Resilient: By endgame this is a minor bonus, but early on it’s a pretty substantial boost.
Tier 2 Perks¶
| Perk | Effect |
|---|---|
| Run and Gun | -65% Movement Penalty to Accuracy |
| The Reaper | +25% TTD Restored per Kill |
| Weird Science | +50% Science Weapon Damage |
| Speed Demon | +25% Movement Speed during TTD |
| Scanner | +20% Bonus to Extra Headshot/Weakspot Damage during TTD |
| The Collector | +5m Interactable Highlight Range |
| Snake Oil Salesman | +20% Vendor Buying Price |
| We Band of Brothers | +25% Chance to reset a Companion Ability cooldown on each Critical Hit |
| Tag Team | +25% Chance to reset a Companion Ability cooldown when using the other Companion’s Ability |
| Rolling Thunder | -20% Companion Ability Cooldown for each of your kills |
| Harvester | +15% Health Restored per Kill |
| Hoarder | -50% Consumable Weight |
| Pack of Pack Mules | +40kg Carrying Capacity Bonus from Companions |
| Soliloquy | +10 Dialog Skills when you have no Companions |
Recommended Perks:
- The Reaper: This might sound familiar if you’ve played certain… other games similar to The Outer Worlds. Anyways, TTD is a good way to kill foes, and when you kill foes you get more TTD. Nice!
- Weird Science: If you plan to use Science Weapons, this is a must-have perk.
- Scanner: If you fancy yourself a sniper, or are good at pulling off headshots/weakspot hits regularly, this is just free damage in TTD.
- Harvester: Free healing every time you score a kill? This should be a no-brainer for everybody.
- Pack of Pack Mules: Boosts the carrying capacity bonus for each companion from 10kg to 50kg - huge bonuses, but obviously only for characters who don’t travel alone.
Tier 3 Perks¶
| Perk | Effect |
|---|---|
| Wild Science | +50% Science Weapon Damage |
| Steady Hand | After kill, gain -100% Ranged Weapon Sway, -100% Movement Penalty to Accuracy |
| Confidence | Your next attack after killing an enemy is a guaranteed Critical Hit |
| Armor Master | +10% Armor Rating Bonus, +100% Armor Skill Bonus |
| Super Pack Mule | +100kg Carrying Capacity |
| Tactical Master | +70% Movement Speed during TTD for 5s when activating TTD with a full TTD meter |
| Revenge | +20% Damage when affected by harmful Combat Effect |
| Last Stand | +30% Damage while under 25% Health |
| Boom, Headshot! | Headshot kills deal 25% of their damage to enemies within 2.5m |
| Don’t Go Dyin’ On Me! | Use Inhaler to revive downed Companions to 25% Health, 15m Cooldown |
| Penetrating Shots | Ranged Attacks inflict -1 Armor Rating for 10s, and can stack up to -10 |
| Thick Skin | -15% Area of Effect Damage Received, -15% Plasma Damage Received |
| Tit For Tat | +15% Melee Damage returned as Health |
| Solo Sneaker | -33% Detection Radius of Enemies when you have no Companions |
Recommended Perks:
- Wild Science: Just like Weird Science, if you use Science Weapons, these damage boosts are essential.
- Armor Master: Boosts your armor rating and doubles the amount of skill bonuses you gain from armor. A must-have perk.
- Super Pack Mule: Twice as good as Pack Mule! An obvious pick for pack rats.
- Tit For Tat: A no-brainer for melee builds.
Flaws¶
During the course of your adventure you’ll be offered the chance to accept flaws, usually after taking specific types of damage or taking damage from specific enemies. For example, after having one too many close encounters with Canids we were offered the Cynophobia flaw, which reduced our Dexterity, Perception and Temperament by -1 when we or our companions were fighting Canids. In return for accepting a flaw and its associated penalties you’ll gain a bonus Perk to distribute however you see fit. If you can weather the penalty, the free perk might be worth the trade-off. For example, we accepted Cynophobia, but when another flaw was offered that increased our weakness to physical damage, we declined.
While there’s no penalty for declining a flaw, you won’t be offered the same flaw again in a single playthrough, and you can’t remove flaws later, so consider your choice carefully.
Sign up
No Comments