The Outer Worlds 2

[Zema Bus]

And I'm across the bridge! I wasn't sure where to find a terminal to print an access card, I thought I'd try that last method first - just kill everyone blocking access to the bridge. I saved my game just before opening up on them so I had nothing to lose. I started with a few grenades before opening fire on the guards. That did indeed work, though it was a bigger battle than I thought, it's not just the three or so guards you can see from the entrance, those were easy enough to kill but there were a lot more inside the gate, plus some sentry guns to deal with. I made my way into a nearby structure to the left which turned out to be the right move since the lever to lower the bridge was on the upper level. Then a few more enemies to finish off on my way across and it was done. I think this was the best solution, the fight wasn't that bad and didn't last long, and it sure beat all the conversations and running around I'd already put in in an attempt to accomplish the same end goal

[Grogan]

The quest from Kaur (you can still go back and talk to her and take her quests) will give you a pointer to where to get the access card. You'll have to find the terminal, but it's not hidden (just explore rooms etc.)

You will want the Zyranium shield, so don't skip the ARC Automech Repair Center. You can probably shoot your way through that too even if you don't get credentials for the guards to let you pass.

There are various places in the game where you have to dash through Zyranium poisoned areas (maybe it's not the only way) and the shield makes it so you can. The shield also works for blocking other damage types too.

Zyranium poisoning sucks, not only because it can kill you pretty fast, but it permanently shortens your poisoning bar until you find an Autodoc which is the only thing (I know of?) that removes it.

[Grogan]

By having the shield gadget, and going back to talk to Officer Kaur, I get a waypoint right to the spot I can sneak in using the zyranium shield. After that, I go to the Skycutter Tower power facility on the left, and input control codes to send a power surge to the Vox Relay to disable defenses so I don't have to fight.

outerworlds2_zyranium.jpg

I discovered that it doesn't actually save much time, because on the way, there's a path to the right blocked by yellow "do not cross" beam that I go to and kill all the Protectorate enemies (I never miss an opportunity to clean out one of their facilities). I just realized that's the bridge I would have crossed had I done it the other way. So really I'm doing both anyway

[Zema Bus]

Ok, I have the shield now. I had to load a previous game save and then get the access card a second time (forgot to save), because when I went back there they remembered what I'd done when I was last there and tried unsuccessfully to give myself access via bullets lol! The last thing to do there is to sabotage the facility by reaching a console to turn off the Zyranium gas, but even with the shield I'm dead before I can find the console. Both doors leading to it are locked so I'm at a loss as far as how to reach it. I guess I'll need to do that before returning to Officer Kaur so I'll look at a walk-through before I go back to it.

[Grogan]

Oh yeah, I died there a few times until I realized that I had to go down the ramp, and then to the left is a maintenance duct to crawl through. Once you get moving through the duct you are out of danger. There's an autodoc nearby after you get out of the duct, too, so you can fix your health and poison bar.

I'm talking about when you first enter that zyranium saturated area. Press Q to enable your shield and then run down the ramp and get in the duct. The shield will protect you long enough to do that, though you probably will take a bit of zyranium poisoning.

P.S. In this quest line for Kaur, there are a few pointless quest turn-ins (fast travel back and talk to Kaur) but after you do that you get new waypoints, so it's worth doing. Also, sometimes when you can't find a thing, and there's no waypoint to it, it's because it's actually a sub quest that you have to set active. If you look at the map it may be there in diminished colour and you can set it active.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan.

[Grogan]

I made sure I lowered that bridge and cleared the whole area, for a convenient return to the Vox relay. I still had that part of Niles' companion quest that needed traversal unlocked and then had to get back again. I also looted the whole area (shock machine gun in the armory, key retrieved from corpse) so it was just fast travel back there and run through across the bridge. (better than traveling from the Skycutter Tower as I did last time). I like that areas stay cleared in this kind of game.

This time, I went around to the other side of the rock formations, and entered the Vox station through a cave with Raptidon dens in it. I found a sewer pipe to open, to sneak into the station. Well, I could have sneaked but just started shooting anyone I came across. I'd rather clear areas as I go, then you can back track to look for things etc.

[Grogan]

So onboard the Vox station, after finding de Vries' safe room and having her protocols trigger the sabotage/crash, THIS is how you prevent it from crashing into Fairfield. (going back to that same panel)

outerworlds2_voxtrajectory.jpg

Typical of this game, I can't do it. Like I said, you always seem to need one more of whatever skill level required, for any major decision.

All I can do is have it crash on Westport instead, which has "disloyal" Protectorate subjects, including Niles' friend Zebulon and his people. That's worse than wiping out Auntie's town Fairfield in my mind.

Alright then, I'm just going to put my points in Guns and then kill everyone as the only solutions. That fucking pisses me off, I just sacrificed a point in Hack last time I leveled up and I still needed "one more" for the next thing. There just aren't enough skill points to be able to do anything in this game. (As I said, it stops at level 30 so you'll never unlock the things you want)

P.S. I went back to a save, thinking I could bugger off, level up and put one more point in Hack, but the door was sealed behind me and there was no exit until after triggering de Vries' sabotage. I still chose Westport as it was at least mostly evacuated (people defecting to Fairfield). I don't think I had any more quests there, and probably Zeb and co. are in hiding now.

It would have been better to direct the station into space, as a nice guy action. Oh well, no more Mr. Niceguy

[Zema Bus]

I left off on the approach to Vox Relay after initiating the power surge at the Skycutter Tower power facility, I stopped at a small power substation and broke in thinking I might find something of value in there, but there was only a mech to fight. I may have misread what the control panel at the power facility said it would do so I may have to go back to a previous save. Sounds like I need to go to Vox Relay first?

[Grogan]

No, the Skycutter power surge is before you go to the Vox station. You make your way to the top of Skycutter Tower and outside you will find a corpse, with the control codes to reprogram the power array to send the overload. The terminal is right up there with the body. After that I take the elevator down. Now, at that point you can go to the Vox relay. I go and do the Niles/Zebulon thing to try to rescue captives and have to travel back after, but you can proceed directly. On the ground, after leaving Skycutter, there's an elevator platform off to the right that you'll see, that you can summon to get to the Vox station.

If you input the control codes from the corpse at Skycutter and got the animation showing the overload, there wasn't anything you needed to read at that terminal. You're on track.

[Zema Bus]

Ok, thanks Grogan

[Grogan]

Fuck... I just discovered that my Guns skill maxes out at 9 in this playthrough. Probably because I didn't specialize in Guns this time (I wanted to start off with 2 points in Hack, Lockpick and Engineering) but maybe because of some of my other choices (I chose something like intelligence over brawn... whatever the traits were called)

This skill point system is highly frustrating. That just relegates this whole playthrough to the garbage, I have no interest in continuing it. I wanted to make some better choices, but nope... always "one more" skill level than I needed. You can't change or respec anything either. So fuck better choices, Guns. Nope, can't even put more points in that etc.

I think I'm just going to call it quits for now, and in a week or two, start a new playthrough. I'm not going through all that crap again this soon.

[Zema Bus]

That sucks. I started out with just Guns and the one right below that. I have 5 in Guns now, a couple into Lockpick, and the last three I got I put into Engineering since there were a number of occasions where I was wishing I had that.

[Grogan]

I put a 4th point in Engineering. Guess what the next "unjam door" I encountered (in the tram station when I first got to Dorado) needed? That's right, Engineering 5

Yes, I'm just going to start over next time I play this. That does suck a whole bag of rotting dicks.

[Grogan]

I started a new playthrough and made Guns one of my specialization skills again, but I'm not sure what actually caused Guns to be limited to level 9. It may be the Brilliant trait, that gives you 3 specialization skills and puts 2 points in each of them. It said something about "allowing you to reach max level faster", but I took that to surely mean just because you get 2 free points in those skills, not that it was going to limit them. (there are achievements for maxing out the levels, perhaps that frames it as a "good thing"?)

So I decided to wait (I wasn't enjoying the prologue this soon again anyway) and ask on the Steam forums before I waste more of my time. It would take me a long time to get 10 points to put into guns to find out.

[Grogan]

So the answer is, skills are capped based on player level (I was told player level +2 but that math wouldn't add up exactly... must be influenced by traits etc. too). I can't increase Guns past 9 until I level up some more. I didn't run afoul of that in my first playthrough because I was trying to spread out my points more. I want guns up to 20... that's the most useful thing, gun damage (since meeting other requirements are so difficult... hack and speech etc.)

I haven't overwritten all the saves from that last playthrough, so I can go back to it.

(by the way, 100 saves in total, for all playthroughs, even though it separates them like new characters)

[Zema Bus]

That sounds better at least. Nice of the game to make things like that clear

[Grogan]

Yes, that's not as bad as what I thought it was. It seems to be AT my level, my max Gun level. For example I'm level 12 and I can put 12 points in guns.

While I was saving a point for Guns, it dawned on me that what I should do is just bank points! I don't care to put points in hack or lockpick (currently at 4) etc. unless I need them, so if I need "one more" to do something I really want to (like being able to divert the crashing Vox relay into space) I can stick a point in it. I have 3 unused skill points now, since I can only put 1 in guns each time I level my character. +200% gun damage is what I want

[Zema Bus]

Forgot about that dilemma until I was facing it, I didn't have the necessary points in Hack so sent it to Westport. The fight with Montelli was pretty straight forward, I was anticipating it being a challenging boss fight, since that's what it would have been in Borderlands. Now I'm wearing Montelli's outfit.

[Grogan]

My point banking strategy would have worked there, but too late for this playthrough. I don't think there were any consequences for destroying Westport though. Zeb is on Praetor (I forgot about that... I'm going to do another quest for him with Niles now).

Well, there were no actual consequences for destroying Fairfield either (fuck Auntie's Choice... I make mortal enemies of them anyway) just that in my mind it kills a lot of innocent people. Also it would kill Inez, who could be a companion you can take, but I wasn't interested anyway and she wouldn't be viable once I start killing Auntie's Choice personnel. I like my two deadly ladies.

Montelli has a lot of armor, but it's not a difficult fight. There are pillars and stuff to get behind in there while reloading etc. too. Depending on what weapons you have it can be tedious though. In my first playthrough I wasn't putting any points in Guns because I didn't think it mattered but this time he went down a lot quicker. But I was just wasting points spreading them out in the first playthrough because I couldn't do most of that stuff anyway without enough points in them. So this playthrough 0 Speech, 0 Medical, 0 Science etc. and just Hack, Lockpick, Engineering... and mostly Guns.

That strategy is working out well, I've put one more point in Hack, Lockpick and Engineering as needed (5 now for those), but not until. I've now got 3 banked skill points again for next time I run into something I want to open, and my Guns skill is at 15. Fuck stuff that needs "Lockpick 13" and such, that's unattainable and it won't be anything game breaking.

[Zema Bus]

I just arrived on Dorado, so far kind of reminds me of Arizona lol! I'm still at the tram station, I'll head out tomorrow.

[Grogan]

Lots of mined areas on Dorado, around war zones when following your waypoint off paths. It's easier to see them at night, they have relatively faint orange lighting around their edges. There would be other ways to traverse, but rather than screw around you can just walk carefully and shoot yourself a path through them. They don't do terrible amounts of damage to you, but it's annoying.

Don't miss Aza on Dorado. She's in the "Decommissioned Autonomous Extractorium" (on your way to the N-Ray range if following the road). You'd have no other reason to go in there, besides murdering and thieving (you know, "exploring" lol). She's locked in a room by her traitorous fellow cultists. She's a great character to have, bloodthirsty and entertaining. Her companion quests are murderous too, getting revenge and finding out why the cult is trying to kill her (she's one of their key people).

Marisol you'll encounter during the quest line. Her companion quest line is pretty good too.

There's another guy, Tristan, a wayward Protectorate soldier that apparently is a companion. He's at the bar at Free Market Station. I killed him in my first playthrough because I didn't like the way he was threatening the settlement. I wasn't supposed to, I just did it (this game lets you pretty much kill anyone you want). I found out later that he was the companion I didn't have, to unlock a quest item I found. I'll probably engage him in this playthrough, I didn't go in the bar yet to trigger it. (I can't see myself liking that character, but it'll be some more companion quests etc.)

[Zema Bus]

I finally got a sniper rifle, I got it from a vendor. I put it to use earlier today, it worked really well. I used it to kill one of the two people I'm supposed to kill (I haven't gotten around to the other guy yet, too much other stuff to do).

When I was talking to the cunt who wanted me to help cover up his crime (in exchange for letting an innocent person go free) by destroying the body, at first I declined and then shot him in the head, and then the whole camp turned on me lol! Even the girl I was trying to free turned into an enemy (she acquired a red health bar), and I became an instant enemy of Aunties Choice. So it was time to load a save from just before I went down that path

[Grogan]

Heheh... I did that too. I didn't like that cunt, so I popped him and then had to kill everyone in the camp. I went back to a save, because that was the easiest task to accomplish of all of those to get that dickhead to relay the info. Of course it's moot anyway, because I'm siding with The Order alone, and I'll be enemies with Auntie's Choice.

I actually wouldn't have it any other way, because killing Auntie herself is just too entertaining to pass up. She's actually a head floating in a bag of nutrient solution connected up to the computers and shit. By reading terminals and shit I learned that when they needed her to make an actual full bodied appearance, they'd temporarily graft her head onto a body and do the commercial and get her back before she dies. You overload something in the mixture and it makes her head explode... pap! all inside the bag. Then, the bag ends up in the infirmary on your ship. I went in there to use the autodoc and "what the fuck is that... oh!"

Are you talking about the bounties at the machine on Dorado? Those were pretty cool, but one of them is a bit difficult to traverse to because you have to get across that zyranium river in a few places. It has to be approached from the right direction and there's a little walkway of boiler plate on pipes, sort of thing. Then it's a climb to get to the mansion at the top of the cliff (not a hard climb or anything) and the two brothers are up there. The bounty for their sister isn't hard to get to, is that the one you did?

[Zema Bus]

Yeah that's the one, the one for the two brothers I haven't done yet but it's on the map. I killed the guy in the area with all the scrapers, while I was on the far side and finished clearing out the enemies there I pulled out my sniper rifle and got him with a couple headshots.

[Grogan]

Wait until you get The Simplifier (after dealing with de Vries, it's on a rifle stand she was going to use to assassinate delegates... don't miss picking it up, it's not active until after)

It's got pretty much unlimited range ("10,000m") and has a good scope, and reloads relatively quickly. It's got higher damage than the normal "sniper rifle" too, so it's higher damage to increase as you put more points in guns, too.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan I'll be looking for it.

[Zema Bus]

I killed the brothers, climbing up there was indeed an adventure. When I arrived it was nighttime so the ambiance was good with the way the mansion exterior looked. After killing them there was a locked door that required 1 point more to pick the lock than I had in Lockpick, but fortunately I had 3 unused points

I'm level 10 now, with 11 points in Guns.

Level_10.jpg

That's Doctor Automech back there, I needed 5 points in Hack to recruit him, but I only had 0 in there.

[Grogan]

So there's another Companion I didn't know about, then. Different companions can do different things for you if you interact with them, I think. It probably has healing abilities or something.

I'm not really interested in recruiting, but I'm trying Tristan to see if his character quests are fun. I haven't got him as a companion yet, as I have to work with him first.

Yeah, I really liked that bounty mission. Both of them, really, and at one of the camps (I think the first bounty, Jan whateverthefucktheirnameis) I found a launcher early in game (none of the vending machines had rockets yet, even) and enough rockets to use sparingly until machines started having them. It was just a 2 shot launcher but with a target locking sight.

The best launcher to find/steal is the Multi Launcher, it holds 4 and does more damage (and you can do a charged shot that fires multiple, hence the name).

I already have my guns to 20, so I spent some points on Lockpick, I needed 11 to open a door in this Mental Refreshment center I was cleaning out, without doing the quest. So far I've been good with Hack 5, but I've banked a few more points now. It's truly the best way to deal with this shit. I found a very good heavy revolver in a locked case, earlier in game than they appear and needed lockpick 7... and had the points to do it.

[Zema Bus]

By recruit I meant as a specialist for the quest to find specialists for the doctor in the refugee camp

I got a better biogun with ricocheting goo, also during a battle at close range I accidentally switched to the body dissolver gun which I still had equipped instead of the biogun but it dissolved the enemy instantly lol!

Some of the random creatures I've come across remind me of those programmatically generated ones in No Man's Sky.

When I was playing BL4 I was missing the music from the older BL games, but the music in The Outer Worlds 2 is pretty good. I like that track that kind of sounds like footsteps.