The Outer Worlds Skills List – All Attributes & Skills!

Our The Outer Worlds Skills List features a full look at all of the attributes and skills you can acquire in the game! We've got full in-game descriptions for each attribute and skill, which should help you get ahead of the game when thinking about your build.

The Outer Worlds Attributes List

Attributes are the stats you can apply to your character that will help strengthen your skills! Each attribute has specific skills that it affects, so you will want to choose wisely and make sure you pick ones that buff the skills you plan to use.

Body

• Strength: Affects melee weapon damage and the amount you can carry.
  • Affected Skills: 1-Handed Melee, 2-Handed Melee, Heavy Weapons, Block, Inspiration, Intimidate
• Dexterity: Affects melee attack speed and ranged weapon reload speed.
  • Affected Skills: 1-Handed Melee, Handguns, Dodge, Block, Sneak, Lockpick

Mind

• Intelligence: Affects critical hit bonus damage.
  • Affected Skills: Long Guns, Persuade, Hack, Medical, Science, Determination
• Perception: Affects headshot and weakspot damage bonuses.
  • Affected Skills: Handguns, Long Guns, Heavy Weapons, Dodge, Lockpick, Engineering

Personality

• Charm: Affects faction reputation and companion ability cooldowns.
  • Affected Skills: Persuade, Lie, Intimidate, Hack, Science, Inspiration
• Temperament: Improves your natural health regeneration.
  • Affected Skills: 2-Handed Melee, Lie, Sneak, Medical, Engineering, Determination

The Outer Worlds Skills List

Skills are a big part of what makes your character unique. You will earn some each time you level up, and in the early stages of your progression you will be able to add them to broad categories. If you bring a certain category to 50 or above, you'll be able to add points to specific skills. There will also be equipment you can wear that will give you bonus stats to certain skills.

Melee

Melee skills improve CRITICAL HIT CHANCE with handheld weapons. Each point in MELEE significantly increases 1-HANDED MELEE and 2-HANDED MELEE skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to 1-HANDED MELEE or 2-HANDED MELEE.

1-Handed Melee

The 1-Handed Melee skill increases Critical Hit chance with 1-Handed Melee weapons.

• 20: Unlock Power and Sweep Attacks
• 40: Unlock TTD Location Hit Effects
• 60: 1-Handed Melee Weapon Reach +30%
• 80: 1-Handed Melee TTD Drain -50%
• 100: Power and Sweep Attack Chance to Stun +25%

2-Handed Melee

The 2-Handed Melee skill increases Critical Hit chance with 2-Handed Melee weapons.

• 20: Unlock Power and Sweep Attacks
• 40: Unlock TTD Location Hit Effects
• 60: 2-Handed Melee Weapon attacks are Unblockable
• 80: 2-Handed Melee Weapon TTD Drain -50%
• 100: Power and Sweep Attack Chance to Knockdown +25%

Ranged

Ranged skills improve your WEAPON SWAY, and CRITICAL HIT CHANCE with ranged weapons. Each point in RANGED significantly increases HANDGUNS, LONG GUNS, and HEAVY WEAPONS skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to HANDGUNS, LONG GUNS, or HEAVY WEAPONS.

Handguns

The Handguns skill decreases Weapon Sway while firing one handed firearms, and also increases Critical Hit Chance with those weapons.

• 20: Unlock TTD Location Hit Effects
• 40: Handgun critical damage +50%
• 60: Minimum armor penetration damage +10%
• 80: Debuffed enemy critical chance +20%
• 100: Handgun critical hits ignore 100% armor

Long Guns

The Long Guns skill decreases Weapon Sway while firing rifles and other long guns, and also increases Critical Hit Chance with those weapons.

• 20: Unlock TTD Location Hit Effects
• 40: Long Guns Critical Damage +50%
• 60: Long Guns Headshot / Weakspot Damage +20%
• 80: Deadly Focus: No Weapon Sway for 5s after each kill
• 100: Long Gun Critical Hits ignore 100% Armor

Heavy Weapons

The Heavy Weapons skill decreases Weapon Sway while firing heavy firearms, and also increases Critical Hit Chance with those weapons.

• 20: Unlock TTD Location Hit Effects
• 40: Heavy Weapons Critical Damage +50%
• 60: Heavy Weapons Reload Speed +30%
• 80: Heavy Weapon Frenzy: Critical Hits increase Rate of Fire +30% for 3s
• 100: Heavy Weapon Critical Hits ignore 100% Armor

Defense

DEFENSE skills improve your ability to avoid damage. Each point in DEFENSE significantly increases DODGE and BLOCK skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to DODGE or BLOCK.

Dodge

The Dodge skill increases the distance traveled when Dodging and reduces the duration of harmful status effects.

• 20: Unlock the ability to Leap (dodge forward)
• 40: Dodge Recovery Speed +100%
• 60: Dodge Protection: +30% Armor Rating for 5s after every Dodge
• 80: Dodge Force: After Dodging, your next Melee Attack gains Damage +50%
• 100: Dodge Penetration: Weakspot Hits have a 50% chance to Ignore Armor for 5s after every Dodge

Block

The Block skill provides bonus armor rating while holding a melee weapon and can allow a Perfect Block (unlocked at 20).

• 20: Perfect Block: Block just before you get hit to Stagger your attacker
• 40: Weapon Durability Loss from Blocking -25%
• 60: Walk Speed while Blocking +100%
• 80: No Weapon Durability Loss on a Perfect Block
• 100: Perfect Blocks weaken opponents, increasing the damage they take by +100% for 5s

Dialog

DIALOG skills improve your ability to talk with NPCs, both in and out of combat. Each point in DIALOG significantly increase PERSUADE, LIE, and INTIMIDATE skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to PERSUADE, LIE, or INTIMIDATE.

Persuade

The Persuade skill is used in conversations and also has a chance to inflict Cower (crippling fear) when you first damage a human target.

• 20: Cower: Humans have a 20% chance to cower in fear for 3s after the first time you hit them
• 40: Cower Duration +7s
• 60: Cowered Target's Armor -50%
• 80: Human Cower Chance + 10%
• 100: When a Human cowers, you gain +25% Armor for 10s

Lie

The Lie skill is used in conversations and also has a chance to inflict Scramble (slowly attack allies) on an Automechanical when attacking you.

• 20: Scramble: 15% chance Automechanicals will slowly attack other enemies instead of you for 17s
• 40: Scramble Duration +7s
• 60: Scrambled Automechanicals attack at their normal speed
• 80: Automechanical Scramble Chance +10%
• 100: Scrambled Automechanical Weakspot Damage +30%

Intimidate

The Intimidate skill is used in conversations and has a chance to inflict Terrify (flee a short time) on nearby Creatures when you kill one.

• 20: Terrify: 20% chance Creatures will become Terrified and flee for 10 seconds after you kill one.
• 40: Terrify’s area of effect +100%
• 60: Terrified creature movement speed -30%
• 80: Creature terrify chance +10%
• 100: Terrifying a Creature gives 10s Crit Chance +5% and Critical Damage +25%

Stealth

STEALTH skills improve your ability to get through and around security. Each point in STEALTH significantly increases SNEAK, HACK, and LOCKPICK skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to SNEAK, HACK, or LOCKPICK.

Sneak

The Sneak skill reduces your detection range while crouched, increases NPC awareness decay, and allows Pickpocket and Sneak Attacks.

• 20: Sneak Attack: Attack unaware enemies while crouched to deal bonus damage
• 40: Pickpocket: Steal from humans while sneaking
• 60: Crouch Move Speed +25%
• 80: Sneak Attack Weakspot Damage +20%
• 100: Sneak Attacks ignore +50% of the target's Armor

Hack

The Hack skill reduces the hacking time and number of Bypass Shunts needed for hacking, and can allow you to Hack an Automechanical.

• 20: Unlock the ability to sell goods to Vending Machines
• 40: Unlock access to Restricted Items in Vending Machines
• 60: Hack Automechanicals: Turn them off for 10s
• 80: Automechanical Detection Range -30%
• 100: Hack Automechanical Distance +2.5m (5m)

Lockpick

The Lockpick skill reduces the unlock time and number of Magpicks needed for picking locks.

• 20: Doors and Containers requiring 1 Mag-Pick to unlock are free to open
• 40: Find +25% more Bits in containers
• 60: Lockpick Preview: See what is inside locked containers
• 80: Lockpicking speed is increased to be nearly instant
• 100: Find Pristine Item Chance +100%

Tech

TECH skills improve your knowledge of bodies, tools, and the universe. Each point in TECH significantly increases MEDICAL, ENGINEERING, and SCIENCE skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to MEDICAL, ENGINEERING, or SCIENCE.

Medical

The Medical skill increases the Heal Amount provided from items in the Inhaler, increases the duration of effects, and opens extra slots.

• 20: Unlock the 2nd Drug Mixing Slot for the Inhaler
• 40: Unlock the 3rd Drug Mixing Slot for the Inhaler
• 60: Hostile Effect Duration on Targets +50%
• 80: Unlock the 4th Drug Mixing Slot for the Inhaler
• 100: Damage Bonus vs Humans +20%

Science

The Science skill increases damage of Plasma and Shock damage weapons. Science also improves the special effects for Science Weapons. Higher Science skill unlocks the ability to Tinker any weapon or armor in the Workbench, increasing their power.

• 20: Tinker: Improve your weapons and armor in the Workbench
• 40: Tinkering cost -50%
• 60: Corrosion Damage +25% N-ray Damage +25%
• 80: Further Reduce Tinkering Cost to -90%
• 100: Science Weapons are weightless to you Science Weapon Magazine Size +100%

Engineering

The Engineering skill reduces the resources needed to repair your weapons and armor, as well as reducing the cost to mod weapons and armor.

• 20: Field Repair: Repair weapons and armor in the inventory.
• 40: Break down weapons and armor for a 20% chance to extract a basic mod.
• 60: 20% chance items you repair will become Pristine, increasing value and durability.
• 80: Break down weapons and armor for a 10% chance to extract a rare mod.
• 100: Damage vs Automechanicals +20%.

Leadership

LEADERSHIP skills improve companion health and their abilities in combat. Each point in LEADERSHIP significantly increases Inspiration and Determination skills, up to 50 points each. After 50, you can specialize by adding points directly to INSPIRATION or DETERMINATION.

Inspiration

The Inspiration skill increases the damage inflicted by your Companions.

• 20: Companion Abilities: You can order Companions to do special attacks.
• 40: Companions gain +20% armor rating.
• 60: Companion skill bonus to player skills +100%.
• 80: Inspired Precision: When Companions kill an enemy, the party gains critical hit chance +20% for 5 seconds.
• 100: When Companions kill an enemy, all Companion ability cooldowns -20%.

Determination

The Determination skill increases the maximum health of the Stranger and their companions.

• 20: The Inhaler heals you and your companions, but they get 30% of the healing effect
• 40: Companion Critical Damage +20%
• 60: Companions get on additional 25% of the Inhaler's healing effect
• 80: Resolve: If a Companion is downed, party gains +50% Armor Rating and Damage +50% for 10s
• 100: When Companions kill an enemy, they gain 50% Health