Welcome back to the chaotic cosmos of The Outer Worlds 2, where the innovative flaw system makes a grand return! This time, the negative attributes your character can acquire seem even more impactful than before. By bravely embracing these optional flaws, you’ll earn valuable perk points, unlocking powerful new abilities to shape your unique playstyle. The number of flaws you can take on scales with difficulty, offering a dynamic way to make your adventure either more forgiving or intensely challenging.
With a universe full of skills, perks, and traits available in The Outer Worlds 2, crafting your ideal character build can be a significant undertaking. Flaws are an integral part of this process, but they shouldn’t be chosen lightly, as their effects are permanently etched into your character’s persona in this engaging RPG.
Identifying how to unlock these flaws can be a bit of a mystery, as the game rarely offers explicit instructions. However, with a keen eye for detail, you can often deduce the connection between your actions and the flaws you acquire. Ready to see what disadvantages await?
Here’s every flaw we’ve uncovered in The Outer Worlds 2 so far:
- Consumerism
- Flawed
- Kleptomania
- N-Radiated
- Reckless Leadership
- Hermit
- Easily Distracted
- Anger Mismanagement
- Bad Knees
- Energy Hog
- Sungazer
- Overprepared
Consumerism
Due to an overwhelming exposure to sales and promotions, you possess an insatiable urge to purchase items, often disregarding your financial well-being.
- -15% Vendor Prices (items you buy cost less)
- -10% Sell Value at Vendors (you get less for selling items)
How to unlock: Acquire the Premium edition of The Outer Worlds 2.
Flawed
Having navigated life’s challenges with resilience, you’ve developed a knack for turning disadvantages into strengths.
While flaws must be accepted, you’ll earn an additional perk point every five levels. This bonus even applies retroactively to levels already gained.
How to unlock: Consistently accept two or more flaws during your playthrough.
Kleptomania
You harbor an irresistible urge to claim items that aren’t yours. This sometimes results in automatic theft, but anything you do manage to pilfer fetches a significantly higher price.
- +100% Vendor Buying Price for stolen items
How to unlock: Successfully steal multiple items throughout your game.
N-Radiated
Frequent exposure to the N-Ray Range has brought about a profound change within you.
Whenever you take damage, there’s a 5% chance you’ll automatically become Camouflaged, turning invisible to enemies and dealing bonus damage. However, this comes at the cost of an additional 5% of your max health in N-Ray damage. This ability has a 30-second cooldown.
How to unlock: This flaw typically appears after you’ve completed the N-Ray Range section and dealt with Victor.
Reckless Leadership
Your unconventional leadership style often puts your companions in harm’s way, but it also spurs their unexpected growth.
You can no longer revive your companions during combat. However, when one companion falls, your other companion receives a significant boost: they are fully healed, and their companion ability meter instantly replenishes.
How to unlock: Allow your companions to be knocked out frequently in combat scenarios.
Hermit
Your exceptional self-reliance and crafting prowess have made vendors hesitant to engage with you, leading to inflated prices.
- +50% Vendor Prices
- 25% chance to double items when breaking them down
How to unlock: Craft a large number of items throughout your playthrough.
Easily Distracted
While you excel at developing a broad range of skills quickly, specializing in any single one becomes a greater challenge.
When leveling up, you can only allocate skill points to your lowest non-zero skill or any skill you haven’t invested in yet. However, you gain an extra skill point per level.
How to unlock: Consistently distribute your skill points evenly across various skills as you level up.
Anger Mismanagement
Your intense fury makes blocking incoming attacks less effective, but in return, your power attacks become significantly more devastating.
- +50% Damage Received while Blocking
- +25% Power Attack Damage
How to unlock: Primarily use melee weapons and consistently avoid blocking incoming attacks.
Bad Knees
Years of continuous crouching have taken their toll on your knees. Staying crouched can alleviate the discomfort, but it now comes with a noticeable drawback.
- +50% Crouch Speed
- Crouching now generates a 10-meter radius sound that enemies can detect and investigate.
How to unlock: Spend prolonged periods of time in a crouched position.
Energy Hog
You have a penchant for excessive power consumption. Your gadget energy now recharges at a slower rate, but you compensate with a significantly larger overall energy reserve to deploy or, perhaps, squander.
- -25% Energy Recharge Rate
- +50 Gadget Energy Meter Max
How to unlock: Frequently deplete your gadget energy, even in situations where it’s not strictly necessary.
Sungazer
Years of gazing into the heavens have left your vision permanently compromised, resulting in blurry sight and reduced accuracy with ranged weapons. However, you’ve forged an enduring bond with the daylight.
- Permanent damage to your vision
- +100% Ranged Weapon Spread
- Continually heal up to 50% health when outdoors during the day.
How to unlock: Stare directly into the in-game sun for a specific duration.
Overprepared
You meticulously ensure your weapon magazines are never empty. Should you ever completely run out of ammo, you’ll suffer reduced damage output for a short time. As a trade-off, your magazines now hold more ammunition.
- +50% Magazine Size
- -40% Damage for 8 seconds after a weapon’s magazine is fully depleted.
How to unlock: Consistently reload your weapons before their magazines are completely empty.
Now that you’re aware of the various flaws in The Outer Worlds 2, you can strategically plan your character. Don’t forget to also explore the companions you can recruit to join your party and the factions you’ll encounter throughout your journey.
Article originally penned by Gina Lees.