Outer Worlds: Supernova Tips & Tricks

You Can Actually Sleep Before the First Quest

Outer Worlds Supernova Tips & Tricks

This is something I definitely wish I knew before starting my Supernova playthrough of The Outer Worlds. It would’ve saved me a lot of grief, but it’s too late for me now. I’ve lost too much. Instead, I’ll impart this wisdom to you, dear reader, in the hopes that it’ll help you in your Supernova endeavors.

While playing on Outer Worlds’ Supernova difficulty, you can only sleep in the Unreliable. However, the cabin remains locked until you complete the Edgewater quest and get the power regulator.

This might make it seem as though you won’t be able to sleep at all before completing the first quest. In actuality, if you head into the Unreliable, you’ll find a small cot or hammock on the first level, opposite the workbench. If you ever need a breather, or if you need to recover from limb damage, fast travel back to your ship and rest up.

Adjust Your Companion AI Settings

Outer Worlds Supernova Tips & Tricks

This is a major one. Companions are pretty damn squishy in The Outer Worlds, especially on Supernova difficulty. And since they can die permanently on this setting, you’ll need to take extra precautions to keep them safe.

Once you get your first companion, who’s likely gonna be Parvati, you can tweak her companion AI settings to make sure she doesn’t rush towards the closest enemy immediately.

The Distance setting is essentially her aggro/attack range, so setting it to Medium or Far will allow her to attack from a longer range, while changing her Weapon setting to Ranged will ensure that she only uses ranged weapons. This keeps Parvati away from danger, and makes her less likely to be killed.

Some companions just do better with melee weapons, but if you can help it, try to give them ranged weapons instead so they’re not all up in your enemies’ faces. If you really want to bring your companions into battle, it’s also best to invest in skills that really beef them up, such as extra health and base armor rating.

Get the Lone Wolf Perk ASAP

Outer Worlds Supernova Tips & Tricks

In my playthrough, I’ve been doing pretty decently without any companions, and that’s all thanks to the Lone Wolf perk, which gives you a 25% damage increase when you’re alone in the party.

25% is nothing to scoff at, and it’s actually quite a significant boost in damage output that you can take advantage of without needing any assistance. You’ll want to pair this up with other perks that increase your base armor and damage ratings, and health to make sure that you’re always healthy and dealing a good amount of damage to your enemies.

In addition to that, make full use of the Tinker option at the workbench whenever you get a chance.

For a small fee, you can boost the base armor and damage ratings of your equipped gear, giving you a better chance at surviving in combat.

Stealth Builds Work Pretty Well

Outer Worlds Supernova Tips & Tricks

The nice thing about Supernova difficulty is that even though enemies are tougher, they don’t feel like bullet sponges.

My general strategy in the game was to improve my character’s sneaking abilities so that I could always get a powerful sneak attack on an enemy before the battle even began. Most of the time, this allowed me to completely kill one enemy, or at least deal a ton of damage to a tougher foe.

After that, once your enemies are in alert, you’ll want to make use of Tactical Time Dilation as often as possible to get your headshots. Aside from that, make use of your environment to take cover and only peek out and shoot when it’s safe.

If you ever need to make a hasty retreat, you can always run from a fight and come back later.

In addition to that, because you can actually talk your way out of a lot of combat situations in The Outer Worlds, it can also be worth investing points into your dialogue skills. With high enough dialogue, you can reap all the experience and rewards from a quest without having to fight at all.

You Can Force Autosaves

Outer Worlds Supernova Tips & Tricks

The last crucial tip to keep in mind is that it’s actually possible to force the game to save your progress automatically. On Supernova difficulty, you can only manually save your game in the ship, and you can only fast travel to your ship.

So whenever you’re about to do something risky, you can fast travel to your ship from wherever you are, then load the most recent autosave to start from the location you were at before you actually fast traveled.

It’s a bit of a cheap way to record your progress, but hey, on an extreme difficulty setting like this one, no one’s judging.

Be sure to check out our Outer Worlds guide wiki for more tips and information on the game.