The Outer Worlds Attributes Guide

The Outer Worlds may look like a shooter to the passive observer, but don’t let that fool you: this is an Obsidian game through and through. You can play a sharpshooting scientist whose intelligence is one tier above “lobotomized,” or a tech-savy janitor with a deadly broom swing and silver tongue. There are plenty of ways to build a character in The Outer Worlds, but it all starts at character creation with your initial selection of attributes. This guide will walk you through the different options available to better assist you in making the corporate bootlicker or anti-Board rebel of your space-faring dreams.

The Outer Worlds’ attributes and what they do.

You’ll begin shaping your character by assigning six starting attribute points. All attributes start at “Average,” though you can reduce any of them down a tier to “Below Average” for an additional attribute point (this will lead to penalties within that attribute, however, like reducing critical damage and unlocking Dumb dialogue choices for Below Average Intelligence).

There are six categories to choose from, broken down below by general affect, affected skills, and with the affected stats displayed in order of Below Average, Average, Good, High, Very High:

Strength

Strength affects melee weapon damage and the amount you can carry.

• 1-Handed Melee
• 2-Handed Melee
• Heavy Weapons
• Block
• Inspiration
• Intimidate
• Melee Damage (-10%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +30%)
• Carry Capacity (60kg, 80kg, 100kg, 120kg, 140kg)
• Below Average Penalty: Tactical Time Dilation drain for movement is doubled (-100% Move Time)

Dexterity

Dexterity affects melee attack speed and ranged weapon reload speed.

• 1-Handed Melee
• Handguns
• Dodge
• Block
• Sneak
• Lockpick
• Melee Weapon Attack Speed (-10%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +30%)
• Ranged Weapon Reload Speed (-25%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +30%)
• Below Average Penalty: Weapon Durability Loss is increased (-30% weapon durability)

Intelligence

Intelligence affects Critical Hit bonus damage.

• Long Guns
• Persuade
• Hack
• Medical
• Science
• Determination
• Critical Damage (-20%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +35%)
• Below Average Penalty: Critical Hit damage is drastically reduced. Words are hard. Thinking no good. Dumb dialogue options unlocked.

Perception

Perception affects Headshots and Weakspot damage bonuses.

• Handguns
• Long Guns
• Heavy Weapons
• Dodge
• Lockpick
• Engineering
• Bonus to Extra Headshot/Weakspot Damage (-100%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +35%)
• Below Average Penalty: Headset and Weakspot hits do not inflict extra damage.

Charm

Charm effects Faction Reputation and Companion Ability cooldowns.

• Persuade
• Lie
• Intimidate
• Hack
• Science
• Inspiration
• Companion Ability Refresh (-20%, 0%, +10%, +25%, +40%)
• Positive Faction Reputation Reactions (-35%, 0%, +10%, +20%, +35%)
• Negative Faction Reputation Reactions (+15%, 0%, -10%, -20%, -35%)
• Below Average Penalty: Reputation Gains are significantly reduced.

Temperament

Temperament improves your natural health regeneration.

• 2-handed Melee
• Lie
• Sneak
• Medical
• Engineering
• Determination
• Health Regeneration per Second (0, 2.0, 3.5, 5.0, 7.5)
• Below Average Penalty: No passive health regeneration.

As you can see, most skills can be found under multiple attributes, so there are plenty of ways to skin a cat here. Sadly, you can’t set all of your attributes to Below Average: all points have to allocated in order to move forward with character creation. I know, this saddens me as well.

For more The Outer World guides and walkthroughs be sure to check out our guides page!