I have just completed a full playthrough of The Outer Worlds 2 in 70 hours, achieving the “best” (IMO) ending. Over the course of the game, I was taking notes on various Skill Check thresholds to try and better understand how many points were required for certain outcomes. Here is what I wrote down:

• Act 1 – 2, [4], 5
• Act 2 – [8], 12
• Act 3 – 7, 9, [11], 17
• Negotiations – [9]
• Companions – [14], 20
• Endgame – [7], 20

The bolded number in brackets is the predominant Skill Check level for that particular Act. So, for example, having Speech or Engineering 4 in the first area of the game is good enough to pass the vast majority of the corresponding Skill Checks. It is important to note, however, that some Skill Check levels depend on evidence collection and/or other dialog choices made beforehand.

Do I need Speech 20 in The Outer Worlds 2 for the best ending?

Technically no. There is a Speech 20 check at the very end of the game that bypasses the last fight, and delivers an easy resolution for the final dilemma. However, there are two other good options to resolve the dilemma. The second best requires only Speech 5 and talking down a particularly vexing character earlier in the game. The other option is supposedly convincing a faction leader to solve it with Speech 14. Barring that, you must either convince one of your crew, or go solve it yourself.

Was Lockpicking or Hacking Worth Taking?

I ended the game with Lockpicking 17 and Hacking 11, both of which were enough to open everything in the game except a final Hacking 20 computer at the final fight… which appears to just control a turret. If I remember correctly, the Lockpick 17 Skill Check I encountered was just a room full of forgettable loot, but since I had the Sleight of Hands perk (+10% Sneak Attack/level of Lockpick), I went ahead and kept it rather than reloading the save. Otherwise, I do not recall seeing a Lockpick check of higher than 12.

Is Sneak Worth Taking?

No… unless you are also doing a Melee-focused build. Sneak Attacks are extremely powerful and can one-shot most enemies, but you don’t actually need the Sneak skill to do so. The Treacherous Flaw will give you +100% Sneak Attack damage and Sleight of Hands gives you +10% per level of Lockpick. Between the two, I had +270% Sneak Attack damage across all weapons, which was further increased by various weapon-specific Perks (e.g. Point Blank Artist) and attachments like silencers. I routinely one-shot 3,000 HP enemies with zero points in Sneak.

That said, the Vital Striker Perk gives light weapons half of your Sneak Attack bonus damage even in combat. It does require Sneak 15 and Melee 15 though, so it is a spec-specific, late-game option.

How Useful are the Traits?

Most are functionally useless. The only good ones are:

• Brawny – Bypasses many Engineering checks
• Lucky – Bypasses a few plot/skill checks + grants extra 5% crit chance
• Innovative – Crafting twice as much ammo immensely helps in early game; bypasses a few checks too

In my playthrough, I took Brilliant and Witty (just like me IRL, tee-hee). Brilliant came up once, but otherwise solely functioned as +2 Skill Points. Witty came up as a dialog option all the time, but did absolutely nothing to affect the conversation. Plus, unless you are purposely killing entire factions, the Reputation protection doesn’t matter at all. And if you are doing that, you are probably taking the perk that grants bonus damage against factions that hate you, so Witty is double-useless.

Are there any Must-Have Legendary weapons?

The only Legendary weapon I consistently used throughout the game (once I got it) was Last Whisper. This is an absurdly powerful silenced plasma shotgun that deals +100% damage to unaware enemies (with up to 150% depending on Sneak) that automatically burns the body of anyone it kills. With a number of perks further enhancing Shotgun damage in general, I was able to consistently one-shot all non-boss enemies in the game… even with zero points in Sneak.

Other than that, The Rattler is a Legendary pistol you can (and should) purchase in the first town that holds its own for most of your time in Arcadia, with or without supporting Perks.

Are there any Must-Have Perks?

These come to mind:

• Pickpocket (Lockpick 1) – on launch you could steal quest rewards from NPCs, but that was patched out. Still, you can frequently steal valuable items and some plot items that would normally only appear after killing the NPC.
• Treasure Hunter (Observation 1) – The earlier picked, the better this Perk becomes. Every single container in the game – including piles of poop! – now can contain hundreds of bits worth of crafting ingredients to sell or fashion into useful items. Wouldn’t be surprised this gives 30k+ bits over the course of the game.
• Makeshift Armorer (Engineering 3) – Never took this myself, but if you want to add 500 armor to anything you wear, this is the Perk. The idea is that you craft expensive mods, then scrap/sell them for additional material, then repeat. Keeping Niles around as a companion means you can craft anywhere.
• Contingency Screen (Science 3) – effectively a free ~350 HP for every encounter.

Any Final Tips?

One thing I didn’t realize until very late in the game is that those Mod Vending Machines are actually kind of important. When you purchase a mod from them or a regular vendor, you get the mod and the recipe to craft the mod. This is important to know because you can find Legendary weapons later in the game that are typed to be the same as weapons you found earlier, such as Stun Baton. But when you have all the planets unlocked, good luck remembering which area sells Stun Baton mods – endgame areas only sell endgame weapon-types mods. It’s actually immensely frustrating.

I’m not saying to purchase every mod from every vendor, mind you. Just that if you think you’ll want Silencers on future guns, you may want to buy the Silencer mod for every weapon type that you come across, just in case. Or, I suppose, just have the Wiki handy.