Full Outer Worlds 2 perk list and how they work

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Full perk list

The Outer Worlds 2 perks can significantly impact your playthrough. Whether it’s boosting damage, providing you with stat changes or even allowing you to hold more weapons, there are a range of bonuses to get from your perks.

Once you select a perk in The Outer Worlds 2, it cannot be undone or changed as there are limited Outer Worlds 2 respec options, so ensure you choose wisely. While some perks can be considered better than others, which ones you choose will be heavily based on how you want to play.

In order to unlock certain perks, you’ll need to ensure you have the correct The Outer Worlds 2 skills. This means you need to ensure you’re choosing the right options for you right from the start of the game based on what perks you’re hoping to obtain.

The Outer Worlds 2 is significantly more expansive than its predecessor with more in-depth character customisation, a larger universe to traverse and, so, a whole load more to choose from. If you’re struggling to come to grips with the 90 different The Outer Worlds 2 perks, then I've got you covered.

The Outer Worlds 2 full perk list

Below is a full list of all The Outer Worlds 2 perks which you can pick up in the game. Each one has different requirements so be sure to consider the skills as you’re picking up if you’re hoping to obtain a specific perk.

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All Outer Worlds 2 perks
Perk	Description	Bonuses	Requirements
Assassin	After scoring a kill from stealth, movement speed is greatly increased for a short time.	+100% Movement Speed for 5s	Sneak 1
Automech Anatomist	Your weakspot hits against automechanicals cause shock damage to chain to nearby enemies.	None	Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. Hack 10
Automech Jammer	You passively jam automechanicals, reducing the speed at which they detect you and making it easier to sneak by them. You also gain a small bonus chance to critically hit against automechs.	-75% Automech Awareness Detection Rate +5% Critical Chance	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. Hack 5
Bit Transfer	Bounty terminals now have an option to immediately cash out bits by hacking into bank accounts. Once an account is drained, you’ll need to earn 7,200 Experience Points to access the accounts again.	None	Requires 3 or more perks. Perk: Restricted Access Hack 2
Bag Check	While crouching, you can see the contents of a person’s inventory before pickpocketing them. You also gain a small bonus to critical chance.	+5% Critical Chance	Requires 2 or more perks. Perk: Pickpocket Lockpick 4
Brand Enthusiast	While all of your equipped armor and weapons share the same brand, gain bonus damage and armor.	+20% Damage Armor Rating +10	None
Bulletshield	You gain a bonus to damage resistance and max health, but enemies are more likely to target you over your companions.	+10% Damage Resistance, +10% Base Health	None
Busy Bodies	Your companions will gather crafting materials and items for you while you’re away from the ship. The amount gathered is based off of XP earned while away.	None	Leadership 2
Caustic Researcher	You now apply Vulnerable faster when dealing Corrosive damage. Additionally, your critical hit chance against Dissolved foes is increased.	+20% more stacks of Vulnerable applied when dealing Corrosion damage +10% Critical Chance against enemies afflicted by Dissolved	Medical 1
Charlatan	Many of your lies are more believable and will more likely be accepted as true. Additionally, the likelihood that enemies will target you is reduced.	None	Speech 6
Cold Blooded	You can now apply Chilled faster when dealing Frost damage, and enemies killed while Frozen will shatter, dealing frost damage to hostiles in the area.	+20% more stacks of Chilled applied when dealing Frost damage Deal 20% of nearby hostile’s health in damage on killing a Frozen target	Science 9
Commando	You unlock an additional weapon equipment slot.	None	Melee 1 OR Guns 1
Comradery	The party gains significant damage resistance for a short period of time after reviving or being revived by a companion. Additionally, taking damage no longer reduces your progress to reviving a companion.	+25% Damage Resistance for 10s	Leadership 5
Connoisseur	Consumed food and drinks heal for more. Additionally, drugs add additional inhaler charge.	+25% Healing from Food and Drink +25% Inhaler Charge from Drugs	Medical 1
Contingency Screen	When your health hits 25%, the Gas-Energy Deflection Apparatus gadget automatically activates without spending energy. Has a cooldown between automatic activations. Cooldown: 30s	None	Gas-Energy Deflection Apparatus Science 3
Crabble Rancher	Marksman rifles, pistols, and shotguns deal increased damage. While the magazine of one of these weapons is half empty, also gain a bonus to critical hit chance.	+10% Ranged Damage +20% Critical Chance	Guns 2
Crash Recovery	While crashing, you continuously regenerate a small amount of health. 2% Health per second.	Regenerate 2% Health per second while crashing.	Medical 8
Deep Drums	Machine guns, Special weapons, and Assault Rifles slowly reload automatically. Additionally, all weapons have an increased magazine size.	+50% Magazine Size	Guns 3
Defuser	Whenever you disable a mine, it is added to your inventory so you can place it yourself.	Gain mines on disabling them	Explosives 3
Demolitionist	All of your explosives have increased area of effect and can no longer deal damage to you. WARNING: Hazards left by explosives are still dangerous!	+50% Damage Radius	Perk: Secret Recipe Explosives 20
Duelist	You gain the ability to perform a perfect block with melee weapons. Timing your blocks against incoming melee attacks will stun the attacker.	On Perfect Block, stun the target for 8s	Melee 1
Echoing Blows	Your melee attacks deal a small portion of damage in a large cone in front of you. The damage of the cone is increased for two-handed weapons.	Heavy Melee weapons deal 50% of their weapon damage. Light Melee weapons deal 25% of their weapon damage	Melee 6
Eden Windage	Marksman rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles have increased range and weakspot damage.	+25% Weapon Range +25% Weakspot Damage	Perk: Crabble Rancher Guns 3
Electro-Therapist	You now apply Electrocuted faster when dealing Shock damage. Additionally, Weak Automechs become Scrambled rather than Paralyzed when reaching max stacks. Scrambled automechs will attack their allies for a duration and will still take damage over time. Strong enemies, such as leaders and bosses, cannot be Scrambled this way until their health has been sufficiently reduced.	+20% more stacks of Electrocuted applied when dealing Shock damage. Scramble: Will fight for you for 5s	Science 1
Face Reader	In conversations, options that reduce reputation with a faction are highlighted before choosing them. Additionally, gain a bonus to damage against humans.	+20% Damage to Humans	Observation 5
Ghost	If you’re crouched when an NPC starts investigating you, gain Camouflaged for a short duration. Has a cooldown between activations, which decreases based on Sneak skill.	Invisible to enemies and deal bonus damage. Cooldown: 3m	Sneak 2
Grenadier	You unlock an additional throwable equipment slot. You also gain a small bonus to explosives damage.	+10% Explosives Damage	Explosives 2
Grim Visage	Scoring a kill will temporarily cause human and creature enemies near the target to be Frightened for a short duration. Strong enemies, such as leaders and bosses, cannot be Frightened this way until their health has been sufficiently reduced.	Frightened: The target flees from combat for 8s. Does not affect automechanicals.	Perk: Intimidator Speech 9
Gun Runner	You can now fire while sliding, mantling, and sprinting with assault rifles, shotguns, and SMGs. Additionally, the spread for these weapon types is reduced.	-50% Ranged Weapon Spread Movement Penalty to Accuracy -50%	Guns 4
Hail of Lead	Guns with automatic or burst fire deal increasing damage the more you fire. This bonus resets after swapping weapons or not firing for a few seconds and has a cap of +100%.	+2% Damage per Shot	Guns 5
Heavy Handed	Melee power attacks knock down enemies. Has a cooldown between activations.	Cooldown: 10s	Melee 1
Hot Blooded	You now apply Burn faster and heal whenever Burn deals damage or reaches max stacks.	+20% more stacks of Burn applied when dealing Plasma damage Heal for 50% of damage dealt by Burn and plasma explosions	Explosives 1
Hungry Guns	Guns that use bio-mass as ammo can hold twice as much before needing to be fed (reloaded). Additionally, you deal more corrosive damage in general.	+100% Bio-mass Ammo Pool Size +10% Corrosion Damage	Perk: Caustic Researcher Medical 4
Incendiary Chef	Unlocks the recipe to craft Volatile Grenades. Volatile Grenades deal significant damage, but holding them for too long can cause them to explode in your hands! On selection, immediately gain several Volatile Grenades for use.	Can craft Volatile Grenades	Explosives 8
Inhaler Overload	Gain the ability to take a deeper breath when using the Medical Inhaler, using an extra inhaler charge, increasing toxicity cost, but also granting a large amount of bonuses for a moderate duration.	+20% Damage +3 Armor Rating +10% Evasion Chance +50% Movement Speed	Medical 5 Perk: Pharm-thusiast
Inspiring Commander	Kills scored by either you or the party charge each companion’s ability a small amount.	Companion Command meters fill 5% each time the party scores a kill.	Leadership 1
Intimidator	Dealing damage to Weak humans or creatures Frightens them a short duration. Has a cooldown between activations, which shortens with your Speech skill. Strong enemies, such as leaders and bosses, cannot be Frightened this way until their health has been sufficiently reduced.	Frightened: The target flees from combat for 8s. Does not affect automechanicals. Cooldown: 2m	Speech 5
Keen Observer	You gain increased weakspot damage when crouched and not moving.	Keen Observer: +25% Weakspot Damage	Perk: Trick Shot Observation 8
Lasting High	You can now use your medical inhaler while crashing, but at reduced efficacy. Crashes now last longer.	-50% Inhaler Heal Effectiveness while Crashing -30% Crash Depletion Rate	Perk: Crash Recovery Medical 12
Light Step	Walking over traps and mines will never set them off.	None	Sneak 10
Lucky Strikes	Critical hits do significantly more damage. Critical hits that kill cause the target to explode and deal damage to nearby hostiles.	+100% Critical Damage Deals 20% of nearby hostile’s health in damage on killing with critical hit	Requires 11 or more total perks purchased. Guns 20 or Melee 20
Makeshift Armorer	Whenever you craft items, your armor gains a temporary bonus to its armor value that degrades from incoming attacks. The amount of armor added is based off the total value of the materials used. The bonus armor can take more hits before degrading as your Engineering skill increases.	+1 Armor Value to your equipped armor for every 25 bits crafted	Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. Engineering 3
Manual Reset	You can hack into automechanicals, forcing them to restart, temporarily disabling them. You can reset unaware automechs by sneaking up to them and having enough Hack skill. Also gain a bonus to damage against Automechanicals.	Automechanical is stunned for 20s +10% Damage to Automechanicals	Hack 1
Master Armorer	Your body armor gains an additional armoring mod slot, allowing you to add a second mod to your armor.	+1 Mod Slot for Body Armor	Requires 9 or more total perks purchased. Requires perk: Makeshift Armorer Engineering 20
Multitasker	Your holstered weapons reload automatically when you manually reload your active weapon.	None	Requires 7 or more total perks purchased Perk: Commando Guns 14
N-Radiator	Once every few seconds, when you deal damage, you will deal the damage again as N-Ray.	100% additional damage done as N-Ray. Cooldown: 3s	12 or more total perks purchased. Science! 20
Nature’s Friend	You can temporarily tame hostile creatures, having them fight by your side for a moderate duration. You can tame unaware hostile creatures by sneaking up to them and having enough Medical skill. Tamed creatures will not follow you but will fight other enemies nearby. Also gain a bonus to damage against creatures.	Tamed: Will fight for you for 10s +10% Damage to Creatures	Row 47 - Cell 3
Nature’s Best Friend	Tamed Creatures are now permanently tamed, rewarding XP, but can’t be looted. Tamed creatures will not follow you but will fight other enemies nearby.	None	Perk: Nature’s Friend Medical 10
Negotiator	Your companion abilities charge faster and you immediately gain positive Reputation with all factions. This bonus is given for all factions already met upon selecting this perk and granted immediately when you meet a new one. As long as a faction doesn’t already dislike you, you will be Exalted with them, granting max positive bonuses. WARNING: The Abrasive trait still prevents your Reputation from ever rising above Neutral.	+75% Reputation gained with all factions -20% Companion Ability Charge Time	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. Speech 9 Leadership 9
Ninja	While sprinting or sliding, incoming attacks against you have an increased chance to be outright avoided, increasing your Evasion. This is increased further when in light or medium armor.	+10% Evasion in Heavy Armor +20% Evasion in Light or Medium Armor	None
On Your Feet	You can revive your companions from a distance.	+10m Companion Revive Range	Perk: Comradery Leadership 20
Palm Greaser	Bribes now cost less and stolen items sell for more.	-50% Bribe Costs +20% Vendor Buying Price for Stolen items	Speech 2
Penetrating Shots	Your shotguns and SMGs ignore a portion of armor, making them more effective against armored enemies.	+50% Armor Penetration	Requires 8 or more total perks purchased Perk: Point Blank Artist Guns 6
Pharm-thusiast	You unlock an additional primer slot, allowing you to use the effects of multiple primers at once. Additionally, toxicity gained from using the inhaler is decreased. Using the inhaler with multiple primers equipped applies the effects of both on use, but combines the total toxicity of all primers when used.	-25% Toxicity received from the Medical Inhaler	Medical 2
Pickpocket	Gain the ability to pickpocket others. Pickpocketing can be activated by crouching up to an unaware human and having enough Lockpick skill.	None	Lockpick 1
Pitch/Tossball Hacker	Your melee attacks ignore a portion of the target’s armor. Ignore 50% of the target’s Armor Value when attacking with a melee weapon.	None	Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. Melee 8
Pitch/Tossball Winger	Directly hitting anyone with a grenade or mine will deal damage and stagger them. Explosives also deal more damage.	+20% Explosives Damage Deal 50 physical damage on direct hit with a grenade or mine and staggers	Explosives 1
Plug Puller	Hacked auto-mechs are permanently disabled rather than temporarily disabled. Permanently disabled auto-mechs reward XP and can be looted.	None	Requires 10 or more total perks purchased. Perk: Manual Reset Hack 20
Point Blank Artist	Damage with shotguns, SMGs, and pistols is increased against targets within 10m, but less above that distance.	+100% Sneak Attack Damage +30% Damage to near enemies -15% Damage to far enemies	Guns 1
Psychopath	Gain bonus damage against any faction you have negative Reputation with. This bonus is greater the worse your Reputation is.	+10%, +20%, or +40% Damage against enemies with Cautious, Begrudging, or Indignant factions respectively.	Requires 1 or more total perks purchased.
Rapid Recharge	After dropping to 10% or less gadget energy, energy recharges faster for a few seconds.	Energy Recharge Rate +500% for 5s Cooldown: 30s	Science 1
Restricted Access	You can access the restricted inventory of vending machines.	None	Requires 1 or more total perks purchased. Hack 1
Run and Hitter	After sprinting for a short duration, the first melee attack performed gains bonus damage. This damage increase is larger for 2-handed melee weapons.	+25% damage on your next hit with a 1-handed melee weapon +50% damage on your next hit with a 2-handed melee weapon	Requires 1 or more total perks purchased Melee 2
Scrapper	Automechanicals always drop some additional crafting materials.	+ crafting materials	Engineering 1
Secret Recipe	Your explosives deal full damage across their entire blast zone.	None	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased Explosives 6
Serendipitous Slayer	You gain an innate critical hit chance with pistols and SMGs. Additionally, critical hits with these weapons automatically reload a small portion of the weapon’s magazine.	+10% Critical Chance Cooldown: 1s	Requires 2 or more total perks purchased Guns 2
Serial Killer	After killing a human, you have a chance to automatically harvest their heart. Each of these trophies increases your Max Health permanently. Humans you kill that don’t fight back or weren’t hostile when you attacked them will always have their heart harvested.	+2 Max Health per heart collected	Perk: Psychopath
Sharpshooter	Marksman, assault, and sniper rifles deal increased damage at distances >20m, but less damage below that distance. Sneak attack damage for marksman rifles is also increased.	+100% Sneak Attack +30% Far Damage -15% Near Damage	Guns 1 Observation 1
Shiny New Toy	You gain a bonus to damage for a moderate duration after swapping weapons.	+20% Damage	Requires 2 or more total perks purchased Perk: Commando Guns 5 OR Melee 5
Shrug it Off	When combat starts and whenever one of your companions is downed, immediately gain temporary health equal to 50% of your max health.	Gain 50% of Max Health as Temporary Health	Requires 8 or more total perks purchased. Requires perk: Bulletshield
Silent Steps	After leaving stealth, your footsteps are silent for a short duration.	Foot steps are silent for 8s	Sneak 6
Sleight Of Hands	Pickpocketing is significantly faster and you gain a bonus to sneak attack damage based on your Lockpick skill.	-50% Pickpocket Interaction Time +10% Sneak Attack Damage per Lockpick skill	Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. Perk: Pickpocket Lockpick 8
Slow-more	While using the Tactical Time Dilation gadget, you gain an increased Evasion chance, ignoring incoming attacks. Additionally, anytime you evade an attack, you restore a small amount of gadget energy. This can occur regardless of whether Tactical Time Dilation is active or not.	+25% Evasion Chance while in TTD +1 Energy on evading damage	Science 3
Space Ranger	Your Speech skill also scales damage.	+2.5% Damage per Speech skill	Speech 1
Sprayer Prayer	Auntie’s Acidic Dematerializer can be charged, allowing its projectile to travel further and deal more damage. Charging the gadget costs more energy.	None	Requires 10 or more total perks purchased Auntie’s Acidic Dematerializer Science 6
Stalker	You gain increased sneak attack damage against hostiles that are investigating you, a distraction device, or a corpse you’ve left behind.	+200% Sneak Attack Damage	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased Perk: Assassin Sneak 5
Suppressionist	Pistols gain increased sneak-attack damage and are quieter. Guns of any type with Silencers make no noise whatsoever.	-75% Firing Noise +100% Sneak Attack Damage	Requires 5 or more total perks purchased Guns 8 Sneak 8
Survivalist	Creatures always drop raw meat, which can be eaten as food.	None	Medical 2
Tall Tale Teller	Only your most outlandish lies aren’t believed, with you being able to lie about even more things. Additionally, you gain a bonus to damage when attacking that aren’t attacking you directly.	+20% Damage	Requires 7 or more total perks purchased. Perk: Charlatan Speech 10
Targeting Scanner	Focusing on a target with the N-Ray Scanner will mark them. Marking targets prioritizes them for companions and causes the party’s attack against them to regenerate your energy.	None	N-Ray Scanner Science 5
Through the Keyhole	The contents of a locked container can be viewed before lockpicking. Also, you gain an increased range bonus with guns.	+50% Weapon Range	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased Lockpick 2
Tinkerer	Your modded weapons now deal bonus damage, increasing with your Engineering skill.	+10% Damage with modded weapons Increases by +2.5% per Engineering skill point	Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. Engineering 5
Tit For Tat	A percent of outgoing melee damage is returned as health.	Heal for 25% of damage dealt by melee weapons.	Melee 10
Tracker	Hostiles on the mini-map are no longer hidden by the shroud – the area outside the player’s field of view – and have their facing shown.	None	Observation 3
Treasure Hunter	Searching through containers can occasionally reward you with bits or crafting materials.	None	Observation 1
Trick Shot	Weakspot kills ricochet, dealing damage to a second nearby target.	None	Requires 2 or more total perks purchased Guns 1 Observation 1
Trophy Hunter	You gain Critical Hit Chance with all weapons against all enemies. The chance is increased against Strong enemies, such as Leaders and Bosses that aren’t heavily damaged.	+5% Critical Chance +20% Critical Chance against Strong enemies	None
Vital Striker	Sneak Attack damage with light melee weapons is increased. Additionally, in combat your light melee weapons always deal half of their sneak attack bonus.	+100% Sneak Attack Damage	Melee 15 Sneak 15
Weakspot Scanner	Weakspots are highlighted and damage dealt to them is increased when using the N-Ray Scanner.	+20% Weakspot damage	N-Ray Scanner Science 6
Wholesale Spender	Buying or selling items with a vendor accrues goodwill. After acquiring enough, you gain a permanent discount and sell bonus with that vendor.	-10% Vendor Prices +20% Sell Value and Vendors	Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. Speech 4
Zyranium Absorption	You accumulate zyranium poisoning much slower and can no longer receive Light and Heavy Zyranium Poisoning penalties after accumulating too much. Additionally, if you enter a drug crash from using the medical inhaler, when the crash ends a portion of your zyranium poisoning is removed. Warning: Maxing our your zyranium poisoning will still kill you!	Zyranium poisoning is accumulated 50% slower. -35 Zyranium poisoning on drug crash end	Medical 3
Zyranium Powered	Your energy recharges faster based on the amount of zyranium poisoning you have accumulated.	Up to 10 energy per 1s as Zyranium poisoning increases	Requires 7 or more total perks purchased. Perk: Zyranium Absorption Science! 5

When building your character as you progress through the game, you’ll find that your skills, perks and even Outer Worlds 2 flaws will likely intertwine with one another. You can create a completely unique character which suits your playstyle entirely.