Curious about how perks function in The Outer Worlds 2? This extensive perk system, featuring over 90 unique options, empowers you to deeply customize your character’s build and refine your personal playstyle. However, not just any perk can be chosen; many have specific prerequisites, demanding careful consideration of your character’s skill investments.
With The Outer Worlds 2 now available, it’s the perfect moment to start strategizing your character builds, including selecting the best traits. Our comprehensive guide to The Outer Worlds 2 perks will help you pinpoint which powerful late-game bonuses are essential for transforming you into the galaxy’s most formidable individual.
Discovering The Outer Worlds 2 Perks
Perks become available each time your character reaches an even level (2, 4, 6, 8, 10, etc.). Furthermore, a new tier of perks unlocks after you’ve chosen five perks, though your chosen traits might accelerate this process. To access specific advanced perks, you’ll need to strategically invest in certain The Outer Worlds 2 skills, such as Sneak, to gain advantages like trap avoidance and powerful sneak attacks.
Many late-game perks enhance and expand upon abilities you’ve already obtained. For instance, if you secure the “Psychopath” perk, which boosts your damage against hostile factions, you can then unlock “Serial Killer,” a potent perk that grants a health bonus for each “heart” you collect.
Beyond level-based unlocks, additional perks can be acquired through specific actions and choices made throughout your journey. We are still uncovering all of these unique bonuses and will update this guide as more are revealed.
This guide categorizes The Outer Worlds 2 perks to simplify planning your character’s progression. Please note that some perks may appear in multiple categories due to their multifaceted benefits.
Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of every perk available in The Outer Worlds 2:
The perks are organized into several key categories for easy navigation: General, Science, Guns, Hack, Speech, Leadership, Lockpick, Melee, Medical, Explosives, Engineering, Sneak, Observation, and a special category for Unlockable perks.
General Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect |
| Ninja | While sprinting or sliding, you gain an increased chance to evade incoming attacks, boosting your Evasion. This benefit is even greater when wearing light or medium armor. |
+10% Evasion Chance in Heavy Armor +20% Evasion Chance in Light and Medium Armor |
| 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 |
| Trophy Hunter | You gain a small innate chance to land a critical hit. This bonus is increased against bosses. |
+5% Critical Chance +20% Critical Chance against Bosses |
| Assassin | After scoring a kill from stealth, your movement speed is dramatically increased for a short time. | Movement Speed +100% for 5s |
| Ghost |
If you’re crouched when an NPC starts investigating you, you gain Camouflaged. This effect has a cooldown (three minutes), but it can be reduced depending on how high your Sneak skill is. Camouflagued: Invisible to enemies and deal bonus damage. |
N/A |
| Heavy Handed | Melee power attacks knockdown the enemies hit. Has a cooldown between activations. Cooldown: 10 seconds. | N/A |
Science Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Rapid Recharge | Energy recharges faster for a few seconds when you drop to 10% or less gadget energy. |
Energy Recharge Rate +500% for five seconds. Cooldown: 30 seconds. |
Science 1 |
| Electro-Therapist |
Apply Electrocuted faster when dealing Shock damage. Weak auto-mechs become Scrambled rather than Paralyzed when reaching max stacks. Scrambled auto-mechs will attack their allies for a duration and will still take damage over time. This effect doesn’t apply to strong enemies, such as leaders or bosses, unless they have sufficiently reduced health. |
+20% more stacks of Electrocuted applied when dealing Shock damage. Scramble: Will fight for you for five seconds. |
Science 1 |
| Contingency Screen | The Gas-Energy Deflection Apparatus gadget triggers without spending energy when your health drops to 25%. This effect has a cooldown between activations. | Cooldown: 30 seconds |
Gas-Energy Deflection Apparatus Science 3 |
| Zyranium Powered |
Your energy recharges faster based on the amount of Zyranium poisoning you have accumulated. Up to ten energy per second as Zyranium poisoning increases. |
N/A |
Perk: Zyranium Absorbtion Science 5 Requires 7 or more total perks purchased. |
| Targeting Scanner | Focusing on a target with the N-Ray scanner marks them, causing your party to focus their attacks on the new target. | N/A |
N-Ray Scanner Science 5 Requires 6 or more total perks purchased. |
| 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. | N/A |
Auntie’s Acidic Dematerializer Science 6 Requires 10 or more total perks purchased. |
| Weakpoint Scanner | Weakpoints are highlighted on enemies and the damage dealt to them is increased when using the N-Ray Scanner. | +20% Weakspot Damage |
N-Ray Scanner Science 6 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Cold Blooded | Apply Chilled faster when dealing Frost damage, and enemies killed while Frozen 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 Requires 6 or more total perks purchased. |
| N-Radiator |
Every few seconds, the damage you deal will deal the same damage again as N-Ray. Cooldown: three seconds. |
100% additional damage done as N-Ray |
Science 20 Requires 12 or more total perks purchased. |
Guns Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Commando | You unlock an additional weapon equipment slot. | N/A | Melee 1 or Guns 1 |
| Point Blank Artist | Damage dealt to enemies using shotguns, SMGs, and pistols is increased within 10m, but less above that distance. You also gain increased sneak attack damage using these weapons. |
+100% Sneak Attack Damage +30% Damage to near enemies -15% Damage to far enemies |
Guns 1 |
| Sharpshooter | Marksman and sniper rifles deal increased damage at distances >20m, but less below that distance. Sneak attack damage for marksman rifles is also increased. |
+100% Sneak Attack Damage +30% Damage to far enemies -15% Damage to near enemies |
Guns 1 Observation 1 |
| Crabble Rancher | Pistols, shotguns, and marksman rifles deal increased damage. You also gain a bonus to critical hit chance when the magazine of one of these weapons is half empty. |
+10% Ranged Damage +20% Critical Chance |
Guns 2 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Trick Shot | Weakspot kills cause your shots to ricochet, dealing damage to a second nearby target. | N/A |
Guns 1 Observation 1 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Serendipitous Slayer | Your critical hit chance with pistols and SMGs is increased. Critical hits with these weapons automatically restore a portion of your weapon’s magazine. |
+10% Critical Chance Cooldown: one second |
Guns 2 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Shiny New Toy | Gain a damage bonus for a moderate duration after swapping weapons. | +20% Damage |
Perk: Commando Guns 5 or Melee 5 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Deep Drums | Assault rifles, machine guns, and special weapons slowly reload automatically. Also gives all weapons an increased magazine size. | +50% Magazine Size |
Guns 3 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| Gun Runner | Gain the ability to fire while sliding, mantling, and sprinting with SMGs, shotguns, and assault rifles. This perk also reduces the spread for these weapon types. |
-50% Ranged Weapon Spread Movement Penalty to Accuracy -50% |
Guns 4 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| Eden Windage | Gain increased range and weakspot damage with marksman rifles, pistols, and sniper rifles. |
+25% Weapon Range +25% Weakpoint Damage |
Perk: Crabble Rancher Guns 3 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Suppressionist | Pistols gain increased sneak-attack damage and are quieter. Weapons with any type of silencers make no noise. |
-75% Firing Noise +100% Sneak Attack Damage |
Guns 8 Sneak 8 Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. |
| Hail of Lead | Your automatic and burst firing weapons deal increasing damage the more you fire. This bonus has a cap of +100% and resets if you swap your active weapon or if you stop firing for a few seconds. | Hail of Lead: +2% Damage per Shot |
Guns 5 Requires 6 or more total perks purchased. |
| Multitasker | Your holstered weapons automatically reload whenever you manually reload your active weapon. | N/A |
Perk: Commando Guns 14 Requires 7 or more total perks purchased. |
| Penetrating Shots | Your shotguns and SMGs ignore a portion of armor, making them more effective against armored enemies. |
+50% Armor Penetration (Shotguns) +50% Armor Penetration (SMGs) |
Perk: Point Blank Artist Guns 6 Requires 8 or more total perks purchased. |
| Lucky Strikes | Criticals hits do significantly more damage, causing targets to explode and deal damage to nearby enemies. |
+100% Critical Damage Deals 20% of nearby hostile’s health in damage on killing with critical hit |
Guns 20 or Melee 20 Requires 11 or more total perks purchased. |
Hack Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Manual Reset |
You can hack into auto-mechs, forcing them to restart, which temporarily disables them. This also applies to unaware auto-mechs if you sneak up on them, but you will have to have enough Hack skill. Also gain bonus damage against auto-mechs. |
Auto-Mechs are stunned for 20 seconds +10% Damage to Auto-Mechs |
Hack 1 |
| Restricted Access | Access the restricted inventory of vending machines. | N/A |
Hack 1 Requires 1 or more total perks purchased. |
| Bit Transfer | You can hack into bounty terminals to immediately cash out bits. Once you hack into a bounty terminal, you will need to earn 7,200 XP before accessing the accounts again. | N/A |
Perk: Restricted Access Hack 2 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Automech Jammer | You passively jam auto-mechs, causing them to detect you at a slower rate, giving you more time to sneak past them. You also gain a bonus chance to critical hit against auto-mechs. |
-75% Auto-Mech Awareness Detection Rate +5% Critical Chance |
Hack 5 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| Plug Puller | Any auto-mechs you make will now be permanently disabled rather than temporarily disabled. Permanently disabled auto-mechs can be looted and reward you with XP when shut down. | N/A |
Perk: Manual Reset Hack 20 Requires 10 or more total perks |
Speech Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Intimidator |
Weak enemies and creatures become Frightened for a short duration. This effect has a cooldown, but it can be reduced depending on how high your Speech skill is. Frightened: The target flees from combat for eight seconds. Doesn’t affect automechanicals. |
N/A | Speech 5 |
| Charlatan | Your lies become more believable, and your chances of being targeted by enemies is reduced. | N/A |
Speech 6 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Grim Visage | Killing enemies will cause humans and creatures near the target to become Frightened for a short duration, does not apply to strong enemies like leaders and bosses unless they have sufficiently reduced health. | N/A |
Perk: Intimidator Speech 9 Requires 6 or more total perks purchased. |
| Negotiator |
Your companion’s abilities charge faster, and you immediately gain a positive reputation with all factions upon selecting this perk. As long as the faction doesn’t already dislike you, you become Exalted with them, gaining max positive bonuses. This effect doesn’t apply if you have the Abrasive trait, preventing your reputation from rising above neutral. |
+75 Reputation gained with all factions -20% Companion Ability Charge Time |
Speech 9 Leadership 9 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| Tell Tale Teller | You’re able to lie about more things, with the only exception being the most outlandish lies. Deal extra damage to enemies that aren’t targeting you directly. | +20% Damage | Perk: Charlatan Speech 10 Requires 7 or more total perks purchased. |
Leadership Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Inspiring Commander | Any kills your party scores charge each companion’s abilities a small amount. | Companion Command meters fill 5% each time the party scores a kill. | Leadership 1 |
| Comradery | Your 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 when reviving a companion. | +25% Damage Resistance for 10 seconds |
Leadership 5 Requires 1 or more total perks purchased. |
| Busy Bodies | While you’re away from your ship, your companions will gather crafting materials and items based on the amount of XP you’ve earned while away. | N/A |
Leadership 2 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Negotiator |
Your companion’s abilities charge faster, and you immediately gain a positive reputation with all factions upon selecting this perk. As long as the faction doesn’t already dislike you, you become Exalted with them, gaining max positive bonuses. This effect doesn’t apply if you have the Abrasive trait, preventing your reputation from rising above neutral. |
+75 Reputation gained with all factions -20% Companion Ability Charge Time |
Speech 9 Leadership 9 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| On Your Feet | You can revive your companions from a distance. | +10m Companion Revive Range |
Perk: Comradery Leadership 20 Requires 8 or more total perks purchased. |
Lockpick Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Pickpocket | Gain the ability to pickpocket others. Pickpocketing can be activated by crouching up to an unaware human and having enough Lockpick skill. | N/A | Lockpick 1 |
| Bag Check | You can see the contents of a person’s inventory while crouched. You also gain a bonus to critical chance. | +5% Critical Chance |
Perk: Pickpocket Lockpick 4 |
| Through The Keyhole | You can see the contents of locked containers before lockpicking. You also gain an increased range bonus with guns. | +50% Weapon Range | Lockpick 2 |
| 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 |
Perk: Pickpocket Lockpick 8 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
Melee Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Heavy Handed | Melee power attacks knockdown the enemies hit. Has a cooldown between activations. Cooldown: 10 seconds. | N/A | |
| Commando | You unlock an additional weapon equipment slot. | N/A | Melee 1 or Guns 1 |
| Run and Hitter | After sprinting for a short duration, your first melee attack gains bonus damage. The damage increase is larger for two-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. |
Melee 2 |
| Echoing Blows | Your melee attacks deal a small portion of damage in a large cone in front of you. The damage is increased when you use two-handed weapons. |
Heavy melee weapons deal 50% of their weapon damage. Light melee weapons deal 25% of their weapon damage. |
Melee 6 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Pitch/Tossball Hacker | Your melee attacks ignore a portion of the target’s armor. | Ignores 50% of the target’s armor value when attacking with a melee weapon. |
Melee 8 Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. |
| Tit For Tat | A percentage of your outgoing melee damage is converted into health. | Heal for 25% of damage dealt by melee weapons. |
Melee 10 Requires 7 more total perks purchased. |
| Vital Striker | Sneak attack damage with light melee weapons is increased. In combat, light melee weapons will always deal half of their sneak attack bonus. | +100% Sneak Attack Damage |
Melee 15 Sneak 15 Requires 9 or more total perks purchased. |
Medical Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Pharm-Thusiast |
Unlock an additional primer slot allowing you to use the effects of multiple primers at once. Any toxicity gained from using the inhaler is decreased. Using the inhaler with multiple primers equipped applies the effects of both on use, but that also applies to the combined total toxicity when all primers are used. |
-25% toxicity received from the medical inhaler | Medical 1 |
| Caustic Researcher | Apply Vulnerable faster when dealing Corrosive damage. Your critical hit chance is increased against Dissolved foes. |
+20% more stacks of Vulnerable applied when dealing Corrosion damage +10% Critical Chance against enemies afflicted by Dissolved |
Medical 1 |
| Connoisseur | Consumed food and drinks heal for more. Additionally, drugs add another inhaler charge. |
+25% healing from food and drink +25% inhaler charge from drugs |
Medical 1 |
| Survivalist | Creatures always drop raw meat, which can be eaten as food. | N/A | Medical 2 |
| Zyranium Absorption | You will no longer receive Light and Heavy Zyranium Poisoning penalties. Additionally, you automatically remove a period of your zyranium poisoning after recovering from a crash. |
Zyranium poisoning is accumulated 50% slower. -35 Zyranium poisoning on drug crash end. |
Medical 3 Requires 1 or more total purchased. |
| Nature’s Best Friend |
Sneak up to unaware hostile creatures to temporarily tame them and have them fight by your side. Tamed creatures won’t follow you, but they will fight nearby enemies. Gain a damage bonus against all creatures. Tamed: Creatures will fight for you for ten seconds. |
+10% damage to creatures | Medical 4 |
| Hungry Guns | Guns that use bio-mass can hold twice as much ammo before needing to be reloaded. You also deal more corrosive damage. |
+100% Bio-mass Ammo Pool Size +10% Corrosion Damage |
Perk: Caustic Researcher Medical 4 Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. |
| Inhaler Overload | Take a deeper breath while using your medical inhaler, increasing the toxicity cost, but also granting a large number of bonuses for a moderate duration. |
+20% Damage +3 Armor Rating +10% Evasion Chance +50% Movement Speed |
Perk: Pharm-thusiast Medical 5 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased. |
| Crash Recovery | Continuously regenerate a small amount of health while crashing. | 2% Health per second |
Medical 8 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Lasting High | Allows you to use your medical inhaler while crashing, but at reduced efficacy. As a result, crashes last longer. |
-50% Inhaler Haul Effectiveness while Crashing -30% Crash Depletion Rate |
Perk: Crash Recovery Medical 12 Requires 8 or more total perks purchased. |
Explosives Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Hot Blooded | 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 |
| Pitch/Tossball Winger | Hitting someone directly with a grenade or mine deals damage and staggers them. Your explosives also deal more damage. |
+20% Explosive Damages Deal 50 physical damage on direct hit with a grenade or mine and staggers. |
Explosives 1 |
| Grenadier | Unlock an additional throwable equipment slot. Gain a small bonus to explosives damage. | +10% Explosives Damage | Explosives 2 |
| Defuser | Disabling mines automatically adds it to your inventory so you can place it yourself. | N/A | Explosives 3 |
| Secret Recipe | Your explosives deal full damage across their entire blast zone. | N/A |
Explosives 6 Requires 3 or more total perks purchased |
| Incendiary Chef | Unlocks the recipe to craft Volatile Grenades. These grenades deal significant damage, but they can explode in your hands if you hold them for too long. Selecting this perk instantly provides you with several Volatile Grenades. | N/A |
Explosives 8 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Demolitionist |
Your explosives no longer deal damage to you, and all your explosives have increased area of effect damage. Warning: Hazards left by explosives are still dangerous. |
+50% Damage Radius |
Perk: Secret Recipe Explosives 20 Requires 8 or more total perks purchased. |
Engineering Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Scrapper | Auto-mechs always drop some additional crafting materials. | N/A | Engineering 1 |
| Tinkerer | Modded weapons now deal bonus damage, increasing with your Engineering skill. | +10% Damage with modded weapons. Increases by 2.5% per Engineering skill point. |
Engineering 5 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Makeshift Armorer | Your armor gains a temporary bonus to its armor value whenever you craft items, but that value 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. |
Engineering 3 Requires 4 or more total perks purchased. |
| Master Armorer | Your body armor gains an additional armoring mod slot. | N/A |
Perk: Makeshift Armorer Engineering 20 Requires 9 or more total perks purchased. |
Sneak Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Ghost |
If you’re crouched when an NPC starts investigating you, you gain Camouflaged. This effect has a cooldown (three minutes), but it can be reduced depending on how high your Sneak skill is. Camouflagued: Invisible to enemies and deal bonus damage. |
N/A | |
| Silent Steps | After leaving stealth, your footsteps become silent for eight seconds. | N/A | Sneak 6 |
| Light Step | Traps and mines won’t trigger when you walk over them. | N/A |
Sneak 10 Requires 5 or more total perks purchased. |
Observation Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Sharpshooter | Marksman and sniper rifles deal increased damage at distances >20m, but less below that distance. Sneak attack damage for marksman rifles is also increased. |
+100% Sneak Attack Damage +30% Damage to far enemies -15% Damage to near enemies |
Guns 1 Observation 1 |
| Trick Shot | Weakspot kills cause your shots to ricochet, dealing damage to a second nearby target. | N/A |
Guns 1 Observation 1 Requires 2 or more total perks purchased. |
| Face Reader | Any conversational options that reduce your reputation with a faction become highlighted before choosing them. Also grants a bonus to damage against humans. | +20% Damage to Humans | Observation 5 |
| Keen Observer | Gain increased weakpoint damage when crouched and not moving. | +25% Weakspot Damage |
Perk: Trick Shot Observation 8 |
Unlockable Perks
| Perk | Description | Effect | Requirements |
| Art Enthusiast I | While some learn by doing, you learn best by watching. For finding the tram murals on Golden Ridge, you gain a small bonus to experience earned when your companions score a kill. | XP from Companion Kills +2% | Finding the tram murals on Golden Ridge |
This concludes our current overview of The Outer Worlds 2 perks. We’ll continue to update this list as more discoveries are made! For further character development, don’t forget to explore guides on The Outer Worlds 2 companions to learn how to recruit each party member, and The Outer Worlds 2 traits to enhance your build even further.
This guide was originally written by Gina Lees.