The Outer Worlds 2 developers have one major combat tip: "Pick a lane and stick with it"

There are a lot of options in The Outer Worlds 2, developer Obsidian Entertainment's latest and greatest sci-fi RPG, when it comes to combat. What's the best weapon to use? What skills should you grab? Are any of the flaws worth it? So, what's the best combat tip? Pick a lane, according to game director Brandon Adler.

Because The Outer Worlds 2 doesn't let you respec once you're really in the thick of things, there's potentially a lot of pressure in getting the kind of build you want just right. That's not to say there is any real right or wrong, but the developers certainly do understand that it can be a bit difficult if you don't put some amount of thought into what you're doing and why.

Skill issue

"Because this is like a true RPG, the one thing that I'll say is pick a lane and stick with it," says Adler when I ask about his biggest combat tip. "I've seen people that have the hardest time are the people that choose a lot of disparate things all over the place, because those all seem interesting. But again, it's an RPG, so you have to kind of rely on synergies and combos with your build, the equipment that you have, the scenarios that are going on. So, I would definitely say that is an important thing."

"Now I'm going to completely undercut everything I just said," continues Adler, "and also say, if you're doing a play style and it is not fun for you, pivot, do something else. Find something else that you actually do enjoy. And you can actually move your character build in different directions depending on, 'hey, I found a cool weapon, I want to use this thing.' OK, well, you can actually start leaning into that as well. You can start getting perks and things that will kind of fit that. I would say, pick a lane and stick with it; that's how you're going to be the strongest. But again, if you're not enjoying that type of gameplay or style anymore, don't feel afraid, but just make sure you're focused when you're doing that, and you're not spreading too too thin all over the place."

"I'll sign on to that," adds Matt Singh, design director on The Outer Worlds 2. "Think about the style of combat experience you want to have, and target your tools and your abilities and your perks around that so that you can be most successful."

While the tip here boils down to "pick a lane," that exact "lane" can be fairly broad. According to Adler, a lot of work went into making sure that everything that might be traditionally considered non-combat skills actually does have some kind of influence on combat.

"Very early, we wanted the directive that everybody needed to be kind of effective in combat in various ways, or have some way to deal with various combats," says Adler. Speech, for example, also provides additional damage toward humans while Science helps apply stacks of elemental damage faster. In other words, high levels in each of those directly translates to combat effectiveness, and this can be seen across the board.

"You might look at that and go, like, 'Well, if I don't build a gun character, how am I going to do this?'" admits Adler. "And it's like, 'Well, I built a character that's built on Speech and Science and stuff, and actually, I'm still extremely effective in doing this.' […] And that was really something we wanted to do, again, with every kind of player build we could think of is how can they actually engage with combat."

The Outer Worlds 2 is currently available for Xbox Series X, PS5, and PC. If you're curious but haven't played yet, be sure to check out our The Outer Worlds 2 review.