The Outer Worlds 2

[Grogan]

Oh that, right. I didn't take those quests in this playthrough, because all of them need higher skills for stupid things I don't want to put points in. The doc automech needs Hack, the plumber needs Speech and there is no other way to do the quests. I didn't complete them in the first playthrough and they just sat there in my quest log. So fuck that stupid shit.

I haven't noticed any music that's been memorable in this game. I mean literally, I can't even remember any of it. I know it's there, as I remember some of it being monotonous but I can't remember a single lick of it. I must be tuning it out

[Grogan]

So I didn't end up taking that sanctimonious fuck Tristan as a follower. I went with him to solve the initial issue and was going to help him with his quest to find out who killed his mentor, but the "you have to follow my rules" conversation choice led to "as long as you don't kill my brethren" which is a big fuck that, because it's exactly what I do. My dismissive conversation choice was "That's a deal breaker". I kill every Protectorate enemy (and their scientists etc.) on sight. I clean out compounds so that when I go back there I can just walk right in (enemies don't respawn) and it makes things like "infiltrate central control" moot

It's the same with Marisol, if you kill Order personnel, she'll leave your employ and/or turn hostile depending on severity (threaten you... "if I ever see you again it will be your last..." and when anybody threatens me in a game they die, if a game will let me kill them). There was one instance on icy Cloister where I didn't even kill anyone, they were already dead from creatures. We killed the creatures and then she gave me shit for killing Order ("if it happens again, I'm leaving"). I went back to a save and didn't shoot anything at first, it was just corpses that were already there. Same in this playthrough, there were no living personnel there.

It's probably the same with Inez if you have her as a follower and kill Auntie's people (which I also do once they are enemies... clean out their compounds etc.)

Aza doesn't mind us killing cultists, they are all "traitors" to her, but she does get testy when I choose conversations that suggest disbanding the cult.

[Zema Bus]

I met Aza last night, she wanted to join up and I thought why not, a third member of the team wouldn't hurt for when dealing with enemies, but I would have had to dismiss one of my companions back to the ship. I didn't want to do that, so I said no, and then she gets mad and violent and so I had to kill her She didn't go down easy either lol!

[Grogan]

That's too bad, she has good personal quests (take revenge on the cultists, and their leader, who isn't what she thought... it's a pretty good little plot twist). She's also good for drawing enemies out and busying them, she runs up and knifes everything and while she's doing that, I'm shooting at it.

Funny that she got violent when you said no though! That somehow doesn't surprise me

[Zema Bus]

Interesting, I left off right after that, I could always go back to a save from just before then

[Grogan]

I kind of like Aza, she's mischievous and cheerfully violent. She says funny, knifey stabby things when anyone complains that I have a cultist with me too.

I just leave the robot on the ship, it just gets in my way, blocks my line of sight, admonishes and mansplains rules and regulations. It's got good combat capabilities, especially when you install the upgrades, but it annoys me. Niles is pretty whiny and needy, not my favourite character. So that leaves my two sinister ladies

[Zema Bus]

I went back in time and agreed to let Aza join My first save load put me right at the moment she started attacking, I was just in time to see her advancing with her weapon raised above her head lol! So I had to go back one more save.

[Grogan]

I guess that's an autosave in case she kills you

Probably what I like best about her is, she's the only character that never admonishes you for killing ANYONE. (and in this game, it seems anyone I don't like must die lol)

This has become my new favourite game. I'm probably going to do a third playthrough when I finish this one.

[Zema Bus]

It's good in the way Borderlands used to be, minus everything we didn't like about Borderlands, like expensive respawns

I needed 2 Hack skill points to turn off power to the shock walkway in N-Range. Fortunately I just happened to have 2 unused skill points. If I had been using skill points as soon as I got them like I'd do in other games, like Borderlands games, I guess I'd be stuck, I didn't see any other way to proceed. I was hoping I wouldn't need skill points for anything else anytime soon. But then after I completed the objective (when the mad scientist blew himself up) I leveled up, and it gave me two new skill points again

[Grogan]

I've not run into anything I wanted to do, that I didn't have points for since I started banking them. Too bad I didn't think of that in the first playthrough. I've got Guns at 20, Hack and Lockpick at 11, Engineering at 5 and my character is at Level 30 now, with 10 free skill points to put in anything I might need. Probably Engineering might need a few more but I'm going to wait, as there will be no more points now.

Yes, hack is essential, I think you'd need at least 3 points in hack, lockpick and engineering to traverse the main game (some side quests may be un-doable without some other shit like Speech). Nothing else really matters. Guns is the most rewarding, and Melee (if you use it, I don't, so 0) and explosives (though grenades work fine at Explosives 1) would be good.

I just finished murdering dear old Auntiepoo

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I tried to get an action shot of her head exploding in the bag, but the timing was wrong and it didn't show much

You can take Auntie's Dress and Wig. The dress is pretty good armour actually, grants immunity to electricity, frost, fire, corrosive and n-ray status effects and stuff. I've never put those on though, but I might do the dress. You never see your character in game anyway, just on the menu screens.

I think to get that quest you have to work with the Order and don't make peace with Auntie's Choice, do Bishop Ruth's quests, and steal a chemical for her that makes her cold and calculating, with no emotions or empathy. Then she sends you to eliminate Auntie Cleo

You go to Auntie's big flagship to do this. It's kind of like Handsome Jack's Casino, all colourful and scammy with advertising everywhere and has trams to get to different sections etc.

[Grogan]

I finished off the game with 8 unused skill points. I just needed 2 more, for Lockpick 13 and didn't need anything else. Well, I didn't "need" it but it was something I couldn't open in the last playthrough. I also could have used Science 13 instead for that quest (to solve an equation instead of finding it in an office), but that was at 0 and I only had 10 points. I think in the first playthrough I had to go in the office through a duct.

This is how ridiculous I would have looked in Auntie's dress, had this been a 3rd person RPG

outerworlds2_auntiesdress.jpg

Like a puritanical female Darth Vader or something. I didn't want to give up the helmet, as it gives me critical hit chance and critical hit damage bonuses, and I have a mod installed in it that gives me an extra weapon slot so I can have 4 guns.

That gun in the picture is a "Heavy Marksman Rifle" and it's probably the most useful gun in the game, as it's got high damage, 30 round mag (with magazine perk, 20 base size) and 4.5/s semi automatic fire. I have a combat type scope on it. At Guns level 20, it does 140 damage per pop. It takes down big Protectorate Dragoon mechs in 2 to 4 shots depending on critical hits.

Ah well, next playthrough I'm going to know from the start how to best handle the points. I might try to do some different quest lines this time, I'd have more if I worked with other factions instead of annihilating them.

[Zema Bus]

[Zema Bus]

I killed Seer Wiley with the help of Aza and Marisol, sent a threatening email to De Vries, and then on the way out of the monastery I got the Oracle rifle.

Looks like they run DOS

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[Grogan]

Yes, I saw those too, it's pretty funny. That's not DOS, it's old Windows NT cmd prompt and fuckery trying to mount network drives. They called dialup "RAS" back then and it was a common way for a remote office to connect to NT Server

The Oracle rifle is good, despite having a bit lower damage per shot than the normal assault rifle of its type, as the projectiles home if the targets were in your reticle. I use that for a while in the game. I'm more into high damage, slower firing weapons though. Once I get a Heavy Revolver I mostly use that and a sniper rifle. It's too bad those Heavy Marksman rifles don't show up earlier in game.

[Zema Bus]

I now have De Vries's sniper rifle, and De Vries lives - she gave me some data after I sided with her. I read that if Niles is with you when you do that, he'll turn on you and you'll be forced to kill him. But I left Niles on the ship.

[Grogan]

Oh wow, there's no way in the known universe where I'd let that cunt live. (I'm with Niles )

I actually agree with de Vries, Auntie must not get a hold of that technology and there's no place for them at the table. I pretty much do what she wants... while I saved the lives of the delegates, I sabotage the negotiations because I don't allow there to be any. The Order's leader, Bishop Ruth Basar, is of that mind too. Also, Auntie's Choice is the aggressor here, ultimately, and I destroy both them and the Protectorate in the end. However, de Vries is both a murderous traitor and a sanctimonious, disagreeable twat and must die. That's just the way this shit works in my mind, in a role playing game. There are several ways you can play things out.

She does have a nice sniper rifle though

[Grogan]

Bummer, I didn't get the conversation choices to tell the prisoner that it was Security Chief Abner that poisoned Cuddy with the Crabble (by not listening about his allergies). I think it's because I'm "Professor" instead of "Lawbringer" character background this time. Or maybe I chose one of the wrong conversation choices with Chief Abner. I did choose a different one for expediency this time, one that just accepted the money for dissolving the corpse.

In my other playthrough I was able to tell the prisoner that it was really Abner, and that he was going to keep her locked up etc. She knew people higher up too and vowed to report this and make his life Hell.

Seeing as he got away with that, I'm going to make a point of going back to that camp as soon as I have no more use for "peace" with Auntie's Choice and exterminate him along with everyone else (free XP cleaning out enemy encampments )

[Zema Bus]

I guess I just wanted to see what would happen, the same reason a lot of Trump voters gave as for why they voted for him the first time

At least by leaving Niles on the ship I didn't have to kill him, but he was still pissed lol!

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I just spent about an hour wondering around the Angie's Choice ship. I got a quest to negotiate with strikers to go back to work, but it doesn't give me any indication as to where to go, there's no directional marker, nothing on the map, and nothing in the journal. I finally had had enough of the Angie's Choice circus, got back on the ship, and traveled to the ice planet, much more relaxing there

[Grogan]

I don't go to Auntie's flagship until it's time to kill Auntie (I'm invited there to be a "disposable agent" after saving their delegate, but I don't ally myself with them at all so I don't do any of their quests. Maybe in some playthrough I will just to have different quests)

I'm generally able to keep Niles happy throughout the game. I bring him with me to kill de Vries and we don't entertain her admonishments at all. I truly detest that character.

[Zema Bus]

I decided to change history, and let Niles shoot her in the head This way it sounds like I won't have to do side missions to gain enough trust to meet with and get help from one of the two factions, since I got that by saving the delegates.

[Grogan]

Oh you'll have to do missions given by the faction leaders, but they are good. Well, the Order's are, that's the only faction I ally with so I can't say what Auntie's would be like. Fixing the Archive computer is really cool, you go down to its subterranean under structure and fix the cooling and data transfer and stuff.

Lots of choices you can make in this game. You'll find out at the end, with the story that's told, if they were good choices or not.

[Grogan]

A few things worth getting here. This Perk, "Shrug It Off" requires you to spend 8 perk points before it becomes available (and requires you to have the Bulletshield perk), but you should get it as soon as you can. It's way better than I thought it was going to be. I got it near the end of my last playthrough just because I didn't really have any perks left that I cared about, but this time I knew better.

The key thing is EVERY time combat starts (or one of your companions is down... Aza goes down a lot because she's silly and stabby), even just encountering random bug creatures while you traverse, it boosts that secondary health bar. Unlike other implementations of that in games, the overhealth doesn't go down until it's damaged. So if you don't get hurt much, you very soon end up with full health, and full temporary health bars. I really have to be in a clusterfuck and being careless to lose actual health with this perk.

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Also, this suit. I missed this in my last playthrough (I had it in the first one) because I must have taken a different route through the Automech Production Facility on Praetor. It's where you go to get the Rift Modulator prototype device (and Valerie's Advanced Mod Kit is there too). It's a main quest, the modulator, so you'll be going there (I think you chose to go to Cloister first?)

outerworlds2_zyraniumsuit.jpg

It's strong armor, but also allows you to glide over dangerous obstacles like electrified floors. It can save you from death, at the expense of some Zyranium poisoning too. It just saved my ass when I jumped from a bit too high, for example, while engaging jump to break my fall. I noticed it on the poisoning bar while my health bar was at zero from the fall. There are enough Autodocs around that a bit of it doesn't matter. There's always one on your ship that has unlimited uses.

[Zema Bus]

Thanks Grogan

[Zema Bus]

I now have the Zyranium Automech Suit! That facility was my next destination since I had finished up with everything on Cloister.

[Grogan]

Excellent, I liked that facility there.

I think Cloister is my favourite area of the game though. When you say you finished up there, did you get to the Archive without the Rift Modulator? I think there is a way, in one of my playthroughs I was already at that side of the bridge somehow.

[Zema Bus]

Looks like I had the planet name wrong, Dorado is the one where I finished all the campaign quests, at least all of them on my map at the time I left (N-Ray Range etc). So Cloister is the one that's the ice planet, I did briefly visit that one but didn't stay long, that was when I went back to a prior save.

[Grogan]

Ahh, very good then, you're on track. If you're still on Praetor (if you have left, you'll go back again if doing side quests etc.) do the lightning tower calibration quest (find and calibrate the towers). When you turn it in, you get these Storm grenades that remind me of something out of Borderlands. You get 15 of them and the recipe to craft them as quest rewards.

I'm on Cloister now, but I'm doing Marisol's loyalty quest there first before going to talk to Bishop Ruth etc. It's pretty good, you go to find her old friend Anais and go on a quest to destroy dangerous, quarantined information. It's also where I start making enemies out of Auntie's Choice (I "infiltrate" by killing everyone lol)

[Grogan]

Holy shit, look what I found. I came across this little facility with a few buildings simply called "EARL" (Experimental Aether Research Lab I think). It's nestled in a cave-like opening on Cloister. I remember walking past it in a previous playthrough, and being too busy to bother going in the prefab shacks, not realizing that against the cave wall was the entrance to a facility. I found some notes from Order researchers that this research should be abandoned because it can be discharged like a terrible weapon. Of course, The Protectorate took it over and did just that.

I had to solve an electrical switch puzzle to get the door to the lab open where this gun was. One of those puzzles where you use the N-Ray Scanner to trace the wire from the door and turn on only the correct switches in the bank (otherwise the puzzle resets).

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I haven't tried it, as so far I have only found 3 "Enriched Rift Particulates" and I don't want to waste it. I don't have a recipe for it (I thought maybe "rift residue" would be the ingredient). I saved at that facility in case I missed something. (I'm going to see if I can look up how to get more of that ammo lol). But 3037 damage has got to be pretty awesome

P.S.
https://theouterworlds2.wiki.fextralife ... rticulates

Where to find Recipe: Enriched Rift Particulates in The Outer Worlds 2

Sold by the Vending Machine in Paradise Island for 350 Credits.

I think that's a typo, it looks like the recipe costs 1500 credits (still trivial)

I was right about the crafting material, Rift residue x1 (I've been picked that up when I open rifts, I didn't know what it was for). I guess I'm fast traveling back to Paradise Island! (probably a good thing I didn't destroy Fairfield... assuming it's that vending machine)

P.P.S. It looks like that's just boiler plate... an incomplete guide. That's copied and pasted wrong information... that's just typically where you'd go to buy "recipes", I think, the Recipe link for it is incomplete. There's no Enriched Rift Particulates recipe in the vending machine. It's likely in that EARL facility I just left, somewhere. I can't see that being in a vending machine.

[Grogan]

Yep, the Enriched Rift Particulates recipe was in the EARL facility, near the rift. I found a clue in a message on a terminal that said "near the workstation where we generate the test samples". That must be the room with the rift, but I'd already got everything from there. I missed it, because I thought it was the text log datapad thing I'd just read (which is just to the right, behind the item card popup). Duh.

outerworlds2_enriftparticulatesrecipe.jpg

Oh well, I can craft ammo for that monstrosity now. I have 15 now, and where I'm going next is going to be occupied by a bunch of Auntie panties. I think I'll "infiltrate" by provoking, then lobbing one of those into all of them

P.S. Yes indeed, that's a formidable weapon. It shoots like a sphere of rift energy or whatever it is, and this sphere doesn't just stop when it hits an enemy, it plows through disintegrating anyone in its path. The only problem is the materials to craft ammo are finite in the game, only available near rift anomalies of which there are probably a few dozen or so in the game, where you'll get one or two.

[Zema Bus]

I went around the room picking up everything I saw too but it doesn't look like I picked that up, I just checked my inventory. I'm currently on my way to the gunfight with the official and then complete the task for the technician I talked to about the rift modulator. After that I'll try to make my way back there.

I found this on the way in:

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