The Outer Worlds 2 – Best Flaws Ranked!

Looking for the BEST Flaws to unlock in The Outer Worlds 2? We’ve got you covered! These are the Best Flaws to pick up in The Outer Worlds 2!

Flaws in The Outer Worlds 2 reward and reinforce your player character based on how they interact with the world around them, responding to specific conditions or decisions. Flaws present trade offs that may seem drastic at first. However, if anything, some of the flaws are also very powerful without too many negative attributes depending on your chosen build and playstyle.

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Best Flaws Ranked – The Outer Worlds 2

Here are the Best Flaws in The Outer Worlds 2 ranked by usefulness and positive impact to your Character Build. As always, your mileage may vary depending on your TOW2 build, but generally speaking these are the best Flaws you want to proritize.

Overprepared
Easily Distracted
Bibliomania
Bad Knees
Consumerism
Easily Startled
Technophobia

7. Technophobia

Description: Automechanicals chill you to your core. They deal more damage to you, but you deal more damage to them.

Effects: +20% Damage taken from Automechanicals; +20% Damage to Automechanicals

The Technophobia Flaw increases your damage taken and damage dealt to Automechanicals by 20% each. This Flaw could be easily managed if you have a decent tank companion on your team including Niles or Tristan, as they could conceivably take all the damage for you while you would simply benefit from the bonus damage.

Pros: Bonus Damage to Automechanicals
Cons: Increased Damage taken from Automechanicals
Best use: Use a tank companion, Niles or Tristan, to distract Automechanicals and soak up damage so you only gain the benefit

6. Easily Startled

Description: You’re so easily surprised that you always try to get the jump on enemies. Getting caught leaves you open to damage for a short time, but you are better at stealth now.

Effects: -25% Footsteps Volume; -25% NPC Awareness Detection Rate; Your Damage Resistance and Evasion are ignored for 8s when caught by an investigating enemy.

The Easily Startled Flaw is very interesting for Stealth Builds such as a Stealth Assassin IF you don’t get caught. With this Flaw you have -25% Footsteps Volume and -25% NPC Awareness Detection Rate but your Damage Resistance and Evasion are ignored for 8 seconds when you are caught by an existing enemy. This means that once you are caught you are essentially defenseless – no damage resistance and no evasion!

Pros: Makes it easier to remain undected
Cons: No damage resistance or evasion for 8 seconds after being detected
Best use: Stealth Build, Sniper Build

5. Consumerism

Description: You’re the reason our marketing works. Promotions and sales have riddled your brain, and you’re more interested in buying the next big thing than financial planning.

Effects: -15% Vendor Prices, -10% Sell Value at Vendors

Consumerism is a unique Flaw that is tied to the Premium Edition release of The Outer Worlds 2. This Flaw is actually pretty good because it saves you more in Vendor Prices (15%) than it costs in Vendor Selling prices. Also, its common to Breakdown gear for crafting resources instead of selling it to Vendors, so if you take this approach frequently then this Flaw really has no downside.

Pros: Vendor costs reduced
Cons: Sell Values reduced as well
Best use: Any build that prioritizes Crafting vs Selling

4. Bad Knees

Description: Years spent crouching have really done a number on your knees. They ache and squek, but as long as you stay crouching you can ignore the pain.

Effects: +50% Crouch Speed; Crouching emits a 10m radius sound that hostiles can hear and investigate

With the Bad Knees Flaw, you move faster throughout game while crouching which is great for Stealth builds, but your knees make a loud popping noise when you first enter crouch or exit the crouch. This Flaw is good if you plan on specializing completely into a Stealth playthrough. The extra speed while crouched will be amazing and you’ll just need to make sure to enter and exit crouch away from any hostile NPCs.

Pros: Faster Crouch Speed
Cons: Exiting Crouch alters enemies within 10m
Best use: Stealth Build, Speech (Pacifist) Build

3. Bibliomania

Description: You have an unhealthy obsession with books, and are left exhausted when talking with others. You have a permament bonus to your max health, but talking to anyone will reduce it for a long duration.

Effects: +20% Base Health; -30% Base Health for 2m after talking to anyone.

The Bibliomania Perk is another powerful choice which massively increases your Health pool by 20% but decreases it by a greater 30% for 2 minutes after talking to anyone, including companions. This perk makes for the ultimate Lone Wolf or Solo Build, best played with no companions. You can also mitigate the negative effect by simply waiting 2 minutes after dialogue to start combat, run away, etc.

Pros: 20% Health Bonus
Cons: 30% Health reduction after dialogue
Best use: Any Build except Speech

2. Easily Distracted

Description: Your skills are erratic to say the least, but a jack of all trades is often times better than a master of one. You can raise more skills faster, though it’ll be harder to ever maximize any particular one.

Effects: When leveling, you can only add skill points into your lowest non-zero Skill or any Skill you have no points in already.

The Easily Distracted Flaw forces you to add skill points to your lowest non-zero skill, but also gives you +1 Skill Points gained per level. What this means is that you can only increase your lowest skills. This is an interesting concept and could work well for a minimalist build with only a few skills invested into. In total, up to 30 extra Skill Points can be added, which is a huge bonus!

The Easily Distracted Flaw works best with the Dumb Trait, which already locks you to using only 5 of your 12 skills. Consider using this Flaw if you are an experienced RPG Gamer with a plan on exactly how you want to progress your skills and you’ll get a lot of value from it.

Pros: 1 Extra Skill Point every level up
Cons: Skill Points must be spent on lowest level skills first
Best use: Any Build

1. Overprepared

Description: Missing only a shot or two? Doesn’t matter you’ve already reloaded. If you ever let a weapon run out of ammo you’ll deal less damage for a short time, but all your guns now hold more ammo.

Effects: +50% Magazine Size; -40% Damage for 8s after a weapon’s magazine hits empty

The Overprepared Flaw is the best Flaw in The Outer Worlds 2, as it works for all guns that use a Magazine and gives you a solid bonus of 50% Magazine Size. The negative aspect of this Perk is easily manageable if you pay attention to your ammo and never let it drop to 0 by reloading first. We recommend all gun-based builds consider this Flaw as it offers an excellent bonus and is easy to control.