The Outer Worlds 2: Beginner’s Guide

8 vital tips on everything from choosing Perks to leveling Companions

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

Looking for a beginner’s guide to The Outer Worlds 2? From exploring the far regions of space to getting addicted to interstellar capitalism, The Outer Worlds 2 has a lot to offer intrepid voyagers of the stars. But it’s also easy to lose your way and become intimidated by the plethora of choice and high-octane combat on display, especially if you never played the first game.

If you’re in need of a Moon Man-like figure to provide some gentle advice, this beginner’s guide will give you 8 tips to make the first hours of The Outer Worlds 2 as smooth as possible .

Choose your Traits well

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You can be an Innovative saviour of Arcadia…or a Sickly one. Or a Lucky one! |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

The Outer Worlds 2 doesn’t utilise a traditional class system like many other RPGs, and instead of Attributes from the first game, Traits are the new gimmick designed to customise your Commander.

Traits are divided into positive and negative variations - for instance, Innovative is a positive Trait, and lets you craft up to twice as many items from a single crafting recipe. Meanwhile, Sickly (which I took for morbid giggles) reduces your base Health and your Toxicity Crash threshold by 15%.

It’s up to you which Traits you want to take, but if you want a fun one that lets you fly by the seat of your pants a bit, I suggest Lucky , which opens up unique player options and gives you a +5% Crit chance.

Expect to accumulate Flaws

Rampant, unregulated consumerism has made these damn things upcharge me. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

Traits are just a sampling of the iceberg. As you play, you’ll be given Flaws depending on your in-game actions. Some of these are pretty wild - take Sungazer, for instance, which is prompted when you spend too much time looking up at the sun. You’ll damage your vision permanently but receive +100% ranged weapon spread!

As you can see, Flaws serve as a neat reminder that the game “remembers” everything you’re doing. You can always choose whether or not you want to take a Flaw, but once you select yes, you’re saddled with it for the remainder of your playthrough. For instance, I got hit with the Consumerism trait early on for somewhat careless spending. This left me with a -10% sell value for all of my junk at vendors…though I did receive a nice decrease of 15% in vendor prices as a trade-off!

Invest in the right Skills and Perks

To do extra damage against these hulking bastards, take the Automech Anatomist Perk. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

Okay, you’ve got a handle on Traits and Flaws now. But what about Skills and Perks? Skills are analogous to traditional RPG talents, and Perks are special benefits that you can unlock with Perk Points upon leveling up.

Useful starting Skills include Guns or Melee (depending on whether you want to shoot bad guys or smash them with a rod) and Lockpick , because there are a heckuva lot of closed doors in the first few areas of The Outer Worlds 2. Medical is also great for increasing your maximum Toxicity, which means you can use your Medical Inhaler more and avoid poisoning yourself.

If you’re into less obvious Skills, Observation allows you to detect hidden objects in the world that can be interacted with. This saves time whenever you’re ransacking a room searching for whatever pickup you need to advance the story. Additionally, the Speech skill has an intriguing mechanic that isn’t immediately evident - whenever you choose to initiate combat with someone via a dialogue option, you’ll either automatically debuff them or buff your party, and the duration of this effect depends on how high your Speech skill is.

Finally, Perks are more random, and provide everything from damage resistance (Comradery) to the ability to see what’s in someone’s pockets before you pickpocket them (Bag Check). There are a few straightforward options worth immediately selecting, like Commando , which gives you an additional weapon equipment slot.

Watch your Toxicity bar

The Toxicity bar is that green one in the bottom centre of the screen. Watch it bounce back and forth the more you juice up. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

There are no health potions in space - instead, healing in The Outer Worlds 2 requires you to take a puff from your Medical Inhaler, which synthesises drugs on-the-fly to give you a sweet hit of adrenaline. Unfortunately, repeatedly puffing your Medical Inhaler over a short span of time will increase your Toxicity bar (the green meter beneath your health in the centre of the screen) and cause a crash. This temporarily prevents you from using the Inhaler, which really sucks in the middle of a firefight.

Your Medical Inhaler is powered by Primers, which can be equipped in your inventory to change the potency and effects of healing. If you’re having trouble dealing with Toxicity and your Inhaler’s limitations, you can always search for or purchase bigger and better Primers, or invest in the Medical skill to gain access to Perks like Crash Recovery , which regenerates 2% Health per second while you’re crashing.

For additional healing at the start of the game, you can also rely on your robotic companion Valerie, who has the ability Life Injection Module , which fires a bunch of syringes at you that heal on impact.

Loot, craft, and mod all the things

Even the most useless rubbish can serve as a surprisingly good way to build a landmine. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

If you’ve played many of Obsidian’s other RPGs, you already know the deal. Pick up everything that’s highlighted on screen, whether it’s lying idly on a table or on a corpse you just defeated. The Outer Worlds 2 is full of both sweet loot and instances where you can only progress beyond a room if you carefully search and pick up a key item.

Here’s an extra tip from Jeremy….

If you’re like me and usually play RPGs in third person, note that The Outer Worlds 2 was designed with a FPS viewpoint first and foremost. You’ll need to line up the dot in the centre of the screen with whatever you want to loot, and possibly switch into first-person to activate tiny, hard-to-see switches and the like.

Once you’ve picked up whatever isn’t nailed down, you can use Workbenches to break down materials you don’t want, craft new items out of junk, upgrade the gear of your Companions, or add mods to certain gear pieces, which grant them extra abilities such as buffs and resistances. Workbenches can be found in key locations like your ship, the Incognito. They can also be found outside of many shops.

Generally, if you’re able to craft or mod something, it’s more economical to do so rather than spending cash at vendors. There are, of course, exceptions to this - if you’re in desperate need of early game firepower, don’t sleep on the legendary Rattler revolver, which can be purchased in Fairfield. It’s expensive but acts as a fine weapon throughout much of the game, as long as you upgrade it.

Companions level up every 5 levels

Your Companions will always lag behind you a little bit, but they can still make or break a tricky firefight. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

If you’re having trouble with a boss, aside from decreasing the game’s difficulty sliders, waiting until your Companions reach their next level can help turn the tide. Your trusty comrades don’t level up at the same time as you do, however. Rather, Companions gain a Perk Point with every 5 levels that you gain . They have a limited number of Perks to choose from - only two per level as opposed to the oodles at your disposal - so leveling them up is a relatively straightforward affair.

Upgrading their gear is more involved. You can do so at a Workbench, and every Companion has two tiers of upgrades for both their armour and their weapon. However, each tier is only unlocked by obtaining that Companion’s Upgrade Kit, which are rewards for completing their side quests. So if you want your squad to be superpowered, be prepared to run around and do whatever tasks your (sadly unromanceable) allies have in store for you.

Experiment with damage types and Tactical Time Dilation

Shock damage! It’s the best for making your screen extra trippy. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

There are numerous ways to make combat in The Outer Worlds 2 easier. First off is experimenting with different damage types, of which there are six - Physical, Plasma, Corrosion, Shock, Frost, and N-Ray . Whenever you deal any damage type aside from Physical, you’ll stack a side-effect on a foe, and depending on that foe’s resistances and weaknesses, the damage can be massive.

At the game’s onset, I found Shock damage particularly useful against the heavy-duty Protectorate Dragoons (those big mech things). Upon completing the Vox Relay questline, you’ll get the Chainspark Cannon, which has a built-in Chain Lightning mod that’ll work really well when it comes to pulverising many robotic baddies in your path.

If you’re having trouble with your aim, Tactical Time Dilation (also known as TTD) returns from the first Outer Worlds as a very useful gadget. Press the Q key to initiate Tactical Time Dilation - doing so will activate bullet time and you’ll be able to rack up those headshots with ease. Standing still makes TTD drain slowly while moving and attacking drains it quickly. Your TTD bar is the same as your blue gadget bar, located on the bottom right side of the screen.

You can kill everyone, but be prepared to become an Outlaw

Here I am, slaying an important person in the Auntie’s Choice faction. Will I regret this? Nah. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Obsidian

Your options for causing chaos in The Outer Worlds 2 are many! You can steal stuff from under the noses of NPCs, and if those NPCs are causing you grief, you can blow ’em away. However, each time you commit a crime, you’ll get a bounty with the Faction that you committed the crime against . If your bounty gets too high, you’ll be branded an Outlaw, and Faction members will come after you.

This is especially noticeable if you attack and kill a Faction’s major NPCs, which is entirely doable if you want to dabble in a little Chaotic Evil. Of course, doing so will destroy your chances of improving your reputation with that Faction, lock off certain Companion quests, and potentially make you feel like a monster - but to Obsidian’s credit, The Outer Worlds 1 could still be completed if you went full-on murder hobo throughout the entire game. The same looks to be true of the sequel!

And that’s a wrap for our handy list of beginner tips for The Outer Worlds 2! Now that you’ve got a proper understanding of the game’s mechanics, you’re more than ready to equip some big guns and fight to defend Arcadia. For more vital intel, keep your eyes on Rock Paper Shotgun in the upcoming days as we proceed to break down more of The Outer Worlds 2, including the best builds and weapons for your Commander.

The Outer Worlds 2

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

PS5 , Xbox Series X/S , PC

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