11 The Outer Worlds 2 Tips Every New Player Needs Before Their First Planetfall

The Outer Worlds 2 throws a lot at you early: choices, skills, loot and combat options. Below are concise, factual tips to help you manage skills, ammo, theft, quests, gear and saves so your first hours go smoother.

1. Don’t be afraid to specialize
2. Get more ammo
3. Watch out for unintended thievery
4. But also, steal like nobody’s watching
5. Side questing is as important as anything else
6. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure
7. Experiment with combat styles
8. Aim for weak points
9. Hide your helmet
10. Keep gear duplicates and use mods
11. Save, save, save

Don’t be afraid to specialize

The Outer Worlds 2 limits you to two skill points per level, so spreading points across many skills makes it hard to meet higher skill-check thresholds. Therefore, focus on a few skills you use often. This increases your chances of passing Hacking, Medicine, Engineering and other checks that gate rooms, dialogue and quest outcomes.

Also, remember there are usually multiple ways to approach content; missing a check is not game-breaking, but specialization helps you consistently access specific outcomes.

Get more ammo

You will run out of ammo if you only rely on pickups. So, buy or craft extra ammunition proactively.

To buy ammo, use vendor machines found in settlements. For example, one early vendor machine is located in the heart of Fairfield on the first planet. In addition, vendor machines sell ammo crafting recipes.

To craft ammo, purchase the recipes and use any crafting workbench to convert materials into rounds. Thus, combine buying and crafting to avoid empty magazines during longer excursions.

Watch out for unintended thievery

The game does not prompt you before you pick up an owned item. Loot and owned items share the same outline color (light blue by default), and the only immediate difference is the tooltip. If an item is owned, hovering over it will show the word “steal” in red.

Therefore, avoid grabbing items inside houses, shops or offices unless you confirm they are free. Otherwise, you may gain a bounty or damage faction reputation.

But also, steal like nobody’s watching

When an item is safe to take, looting can be worthwhile. For instance, food items can be consumed outside of combat to restore health, which saves limited healing consumables and reduces trips to Autodoc units.

However, bear in mind that stealing reduces your standing with the governing faction for that location, and any bounties must be paid off or resolved later.

Side questing is as important as anything else

Many side quests provide resources, characters, or items that directly assist main story objectives. Consequently, doing side content early can unlock information or gear that simplifies main quests.

So, balance main and side missions rather than rushing only the main campaign.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure

Sell extra “trash” items early to build up credits. While many items can later be broken down into crafting materials, vending unwanted junk is an efficient way to obtain cash for gear and supplies in the early game.

Experiment with combat styles

Try different weapon types to learn their handling and damage patterns. For example, Science-based weapons still deal elemental effects even without high Science skill, and heavy melee weapons remain effective without investing heavily in Melee.

Also, begin encounters with diverse damage types in your loadout to cover enemy resistances and weaknesses.

Aim for weak points

Targeting weak points increases damage. For humans and creatures, the weak point is usually the head. For mech-type enemies, weak points are often glowing parts that vary by model; aim for those cores or lights to deal extra damage.

Hide your helmet

If you prefer character faces, go to Settings > Gameplay and toggle Show Helmet to Hide Helmet. This setting also applies to all companions globally — you cannot hide or show helmets on individual companions independently.

Keep gear duplicates and use mods

Weapon and armor mods change performance but cannot be removed once applied. Therefore, keep duplicate copies of items you like so you can apply different mods for different situations.

Mods can add silencers, change damage types or add special ammo effects. Likewise, armor mods can alter resistances, so carrying alternatives is practical.

Save, save, save

Create multiple manual saves. The game keeps several autosave files, but those typically only go back around twenty minutes. Because choices and dialog branches can have significant consequences, manual saves let you return to earlier points if you need a different outcome.