The Outer Worlds 2 – Best Skills Ranked!

Looking for the BEST skills to invest into in The Outer Worlds 2? We’ve got you covered! From guns to melee, speech to lockpick, these are the skills you NEED to get!

Skills in The Outer Worlds 2 are each designed to help a specific aspect of gameplay like melee, sneak, lockpicking, speech, and so forth. When you increase a skill, you gain a percentage bonus to that skill. For instance, Guns skill level one gives +10% Ranged Damage and +1% Armor Penetration. With four points into the skill, you gain 40% and 4% increases. Read on to learn which skills are best and why.

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Best Skills Ranked – The Outer Worlds 2

Here are all skills in The Outer Worlds 2 ranked by usefulness and impact. As always, your mileage may vary depending on your TOW2 build, but generally speaking these are the skills you want to proritize in order.

Guns
Lockpick
Speech
Science
Observation
Sneak
Engineering
Melee
Medical
Hack
Leadership
Explosives

12. Explosives

The Explosives skill in TOW2 increases damage dealt with explosive throwables such as grenades and mines and also allows the disarming of sensitive objects like mines and traps. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Explosives skill increases Explosive damage by 10% and increases Damage Resistance by 1%.

Unfortunately, the Explosives skill is not worth putting many points into unless you want to fully specialize as an Explosives build. The reason for this is that most explosives are difficult to use effectively in combat, especially because most human NPCs actively move away from a thrown explosive as part of their AI behavior. Critters tend to ignore explosives though, making it a good option when facing off against alien wild life.

Pros: Big damage if you can land it
Cons: hard to control explosives placement; NPCs run away
Best used with: Explosives Build or when you want NPCs to run away

11. Leadership

The Leadership skill increases the damage and survivability of your companions. Investing in Leadership allows you to select perks that let you use companion abilities more and improve the overall effectiveness of your companions. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Leadership skill increases your Companions’ Damage by 8% and Companion Health by 4%.

In theory, Leadership seems like a strong skill. Specifically, increasing Companion combat damage and health should make them defeat enemies faster and survive for longer. However, Companions are typically the first to go down in any combat scenario, and even a fully upgraded Companion is less than amazing when compared to what you can do as the main character. Therefore, while increasing Leadership may be useful for unlocking a handful of Perks and reducing Companion cooldowns, its overall impact on your playthrough is marginal at best.

Pros: Increase Companion Damage and Survival
Cons: Bonuses are smaller requiring greater investment of skill points; Companions still die quickly
Best used with: Leadership Build, Speech (Pacifist) Build

10. Hack

The Hack skill allows unauthorized access to various mechanical systems such as terminals, automechanicals, and vending machines. Investing in the Hack skill allows you to select perks that let you disable automechs directly, hack into bounty terminals, and access the restricted inventory of vending machines. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Hack skill increases the level of Terminal you can hack into by 1 and increases your damage versus automechanicals by 5%.

The Hack skill is a bit underpowered in The Outer Worlds 2 because there are often other ways to bypass terminals and automated doors, such as finding a password, reconnecting wires or using a keycard, none of which actually require the Hack skill.

On the plus side, the Hack skill in TOW2 does give you a bonus 5% damage per rank to automechanicals of which there are quite a few you will come across in your adventures, however this damage does not scale as well as the general damage bonuses you get from skills such as Guns, Melee, or even the bonus Weakspot damage from the Observation skill. Bottom line: Hack can be useful for some niche builds but may not be worth investing into heavily.

Pros: Easily access terminals and bonus automechanical damage
Cons: Terminals can be accessed in other ways
Best used with: Stealth Build, Speech (Pacifist) Build

9. Medical

The Medical skill increases maximum Toxicity, allowing more uses of the Medical Inhaler at a time and increased resistance to Zyranium poisoning. Investing in the Medical skill allows you to select perks that further improve your inhaler, temporarily tame creatures, and make better use of corrosive weapons. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Medical skill increases your Toxicity Crash threshold by 7% and increases damage to creatures by 5%.

The Medical skill is a bit of a mixed bag in The Outer Worlds 2. The best benefit by far is the increased Toxicity Threshold, which allows you to use your medical inhaler for self-healing more often before crashing. Crashing can kill your character outright if you use your inhaler too much, so increasing that Threshold is helpful, however there are ways around this such as using inhalers with lower Toxicity or using Inez’s special companion ability. Still, this Skill is more useful on harder difficulties where you will find yourself needing to heal more frequently.

The bonus 5% damage to Creatures is a nice side benefit of the Medical skill, though it is less impactful than the 10% damage bonus given through Guns or Melee, and Creature enemies tend to be more rare than Human NPCs.

Pros: heal more without crashing; bonus damage to creatures
Cons: smaller bonus damage compared to Guns or Melee
Best used with: Any Build

8. Melee

The Melee skill increases damage dealth with Melee weapons. Investing in the Melee skill allows you to select perks that futher improve your ability to use melee weapons of various types. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Melee skill increases your Melee Damage by 10% and reduces Damage Received while Blocking by 2.5%.

While Melee Builds can be strong in The Outer Worlds 2, generally speaking a Guns build will perform better and in a wider variety of situations. Particularly in the later game levels, you’ll be flanked by Snipers and other ranged damage dealers from all sides, making Melee not the most optimal playstyle. Blocking is also not an especially useful tactic versus snipers and big gun toting enemies or bosses making the secondary bonus for this skill weak as well.

If you are dead set at playing a Melee Build then of course you will want to invest skill points here, and the bonus also stacks with Stealth for a Stealth Melee build which can be quite powerful, but otherwise there are no secondary uses to speak of that make the skill worth picking up.

Pros: Allows for greater damage scaling of melee weapons
Cons: Less Melee Weapons are in the game compared to Guns
Best used with: Stealth Build, Melee Build

7. Engineering

The Engineering skill increases the effectiveness of all armor, granting inherent Damage Reduction. In conversations and while exploring, Engineering aids in the ability to act on the knowledge of mechanical systems. Investing in Engineering allows you to select perks that further increase your defenses and benefits from weapon, helmet and armor mods.

In practical applications, the Engineering skill is often used as the first means of getting through broken doors in addition to explosives, so having at least a few points here will help you progress through the game more easily early on. Also, the benefit here of improving Mods can be quite helpful as there are many powerful mods available for Weapons and Armor in The Outer Worlds 2.

Pros: Open sealed or broken doors, access improved Mod options
Cons: Damage resistance bonus is small
Best used with: Any Build

6. Sneak

The Sneak skill makes it harder for enemies to detect you while crouched. Investing in the Sneak skill allows you to select perks that avoid traps and perform sneak attacks. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Sneak skill increases your Sneak attack damage by 35% and lowers NPC Awareness Detection by 2%.

Sneak is clearly a niche skill in The Outer Worlds 2 unless you intend to specialize into a full Stealth/Sneak Build, making it worthless for builds outside that particular playstyle. However, for those that invest even a few points into a Sneak Build, the end results are impressive, and Sneak builds in end-game are one of the most fun ways to play The Outer Worlds 2. Imagine stalking your enemies around the map, sneaking up behind them and dealing 500-1000 percent bonus damage. Yes, you can actually do this! Perks such as Assassin, Traits like Nimble and even the Bad Knees Flaw make you incredibly fast while in Stealth (Crouch), and you can even combine this with Tactical Time Dilation for some incredibly fun gameplay.

Sneak is not for everyone, though. Unlike other skills such as Speech or Hack, the Sneak skill gives no further bonuses outside of its intended playstyle which you should keep in mind. A Sneak/Stealth build is high risk and high reward, so your mileage may vary. But I really enjoy it!

Pros: Allows for massive damage in melee or at long range if you can remain undetected
Cons: Not useful vs. bosses or where you cannot Sneak; no additional bonuses
Best used with: Stealth Build, Sniper Build

5. Observation

The Observation skill reveals hiden objects in the world and subtle behaviors in conversations. Investing in the Observation skill allows you to select perks that lets you find more loot, track enemies, and more effectively use enemy weakspots. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Observation skill increases your Weakspot Damage by 15% and allows you to find hidden objects.

Observation is an interesting and useful skill in The Outer Worlds 2. Its main interaction in terms of exploration is helping your character find hidden items and areas. This may open up new paths or lead to bonus loot. The more points you invest into the Observation skill, the more of these unique opportunities you will find.

In terms of combat however, Observation may be even more effective as it greatly boosts your Weakspot Damage versus targets. Nearly all enemies in The Outer Worlds 2 have Weakspots (the head on a human NPC for example), meaning that you’ll get this bonus on all enemy types, which is great. Plus this bonus applies to all weapons from Pistols, to Rifles to Melee, meaning any build you play can take advantage of the bonus Weakspot Damage obtained through boosting Observation.

Pros: Find hidden areas and items; huge bonus to Weakspot Damage
Cons: Must hit the Weakspot for bonus
Best used with: Gunslinger Build, Sniper Build, Stealth Build, Melee Build, Rifle Build

4. Science!

The Science! skill increases your maximum Gadget Energy, allowing you to use gadgets like Tactical Time Dilation for longer. Investing in the Science! skill allows you to select perks that further improve your gadgets and potency with shock weapons. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Science! skill increases your Gadget Energy max by 7% and increases stacks on non-physical damage types (shock for example) by 10%.

The Science! skill is a unique option in The Outer Worlds 2 that focuses on Gadgets as well as status effects. Gadgets in TOW2 are especially strong such as the Tactical Time Dilation (TTD) device which slows down time, allowing you to more easily aim for enemy Weakpoints. Combining this with a Pistol or Sniper Rifle will make for some truly outstanding damage capabilities as you freeze time and pick off enemies one by one.

Pros: Increase Gadget Meter Max and Status effect stacks
Cons: none?
Best used with: Gunslinger Build, Sniper Build, Stealth Build, Science Build

3. Speech

The Speech skill allows you to better influence others in conversations. Investing in the Speech skill allows you to select perks that let you get discounts at vendors, intimidate others, and gain more reputation with factions.

The Speech skill is a general all around strong skill because it increases damage to humans and helps with speech checks. This is likely going to be critical for anyone playing through The Outer Worlds 2 wanting to influence dialogue. With this skill, you can play a persuasion or negotiator playstyle and pick any companion or faction that you want since the bonuses are so broad. In addition, the 5% bonus damage to humans per rank is one of the most effective skill boosts in the game since so many enemy target are humans.

Pros: Bonus damage vs. humans plus extra dialogue options
Cons: Not useful versus robots or critters
Best used with: Any Build

2. Lockpick

The Lockpick skill allows you to unlock locked containers and doors. Investing in the Lockpick skill allows you to select perks that grant the ability to pickpocket humans and preview the contents of locked containers. The Lockpick skill is a highly functional one that helps with opening chest but also a small boost to evasion chance, meaning you will always get some benefit from it no matter the situation.

As mentioned, points must be invested into Lockpick to gain access to Pickpocket. The Lockpick / Pickpocket combination is one that allows you to easily progress through the game, unlocking doors and gaining access to unique weapons and armor from NPCs or simply stealing bits or crafting materials to improve your own build. Some chests and doors even have very high lockpick thresholds (10+) meaning you might need to invest heavility here, but that invest is worth it. The extra bonus to Evasion however make this Skill even more highly desired as you will be less likely to get hit in combat.

Pros: Easily get through doors and open chests for bonus loot; extra Evasion boost in combat
Cons: Requires 10+ points invested for higher level locks
Best used with: Any Build

1. Guns

The Guns skill increases damage dealt with all types of guns, including ballistic, shock, plasma, and bio guns. Investing in the Guns skill allows you to select perks that further improve your ability to use guns of various types. In terms of stats, each point invested into the Guns skill increases Ranged Damage by 10% and Armor Penetration by 1%.

Guns is the ultimate skill for Damage dealers in The Outer Worlds 2, increases your damage across the widest array of weapons (guns of all types). This is particularly powerful now that all Guns fit under one skill category unlike the original game. This means that no matter what ranged weapon you use and versus any target (Human, Robot, Creature) you’ll get the same bonus of 10% per point invested, plus this can even stack with other skills such as Observation.

Obviously you would not invest points here if you choose to play a Melee Build exclusively, but other than that, the Guns Skill is hands down the best skill in The Outer Worlds 2!

Pros: 10% bonus damage versus all enemy types
Cons: Does nothing for Melee builds (obviously)
Best used with: Gunslinger Build, Sniper Build, Rifle Build, Machine Gun Build

Best Skills Frequently Asked Questions

Can I respec skill points?

No, respecing isn’t in the Outer Worlds 2 and you’re not likely able to change your skills unless you want to add to them.

What’s the best skill for new players?

Guns and Speech because they influence combat and dialgoue the two most important aspect of the games.

Dive Into The Outer Worlds 2!

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