Best Traits in Outer Worlds 2 – Investment Policy

When you begin The Outer Worlds 2, you’ll choose one of nine Traits for your character. Each Trait gives you a special starting bonus and opens up unique dialogue options and alternate ways to finish quests during your playthrough.

In Outer Worlds 2, the most useful Traits are those that offer good bonuses no matter how you like to play. Traits like Brilliant and Innovative are great for everyone. However, don’t hesitate to pick Traits that specifically enhance your chosen playstyle. If you prefer close-combat, the Brawny Trait is excellent, but it won’t be as helpful for someone who prefers to fight from a distance.

Okay, so I’ve been checking out the Traits in Outer Worlds 2, and honestly, there’s one I’d steer clear of. But the other seven? They all seem pretty good and useful in their own ways, so don’t be afraid to experiment!

Best Trait: Brilliant

Extra Skill Points & Multiple RP Opportunities

You’re intelligent, able to more easily solve problems and pick up new skills.

Brilliant Effect: During skill selection, specialize in 1 additional skill. Specialized skills start with 2 points.

In Outer Worlds 2, the Brilliant trait is a great choice because it gives you a head start by letting you begin the game with two extra skill points in any two skills. This is like getting an entire level’s worth of skill points right away, which can be really helpful when you’re first starting out and building the skills you need to unlock Perks.

Having high Intelligence is a particularly useful trait because it opens up many more options during conversations and role-playing scenarios. While all traits offer unique dialogue choices, Intelligence checks appear more frequently than those for other traits.

Innovative

Extra Ammo In An Ammo-Scarce Game

You are inventive and crafty, always able to find unique solutions to complex problems.

You’ve found numerous ways to be more efficient when crafting.

Innovative Effect: Crafting recipes for ammo, throwables, and resources create up to twice as many of those items for the same amount of crafting materials.

The Innovative trait is a great choice for players of Outer Worlds 2 because it helps with a common problem: limited ammo. Ammo can be scarce throughout the game, especially when you’re first starting out, and buying more from shops can be expensive.

The Innovative trait lets you craft twice as many grenades, resources, and bullets. If you enjoy a lot of fighting, this trait is a great choice to make sure you never run out of ammo.

Brawny

The Perfect Pick For Melee Builds

You’re able to perform great feats of strength.

In combat, you’re an unstoppable force.

Brawny Effect: Sliding or sprinting into hostiles will knock them down. Cooldown: 5s

If you’re building a character for close-range fighting, controlling enemies—or “CC”—is key. Without it, you’ll likely be overwhelmed and defeated. The Brawny trait helps with this by letting you knock down most enemies simply by sliding or sprinting into them.

If you don’t intend to fight enemies up close, avoid the Brawny trait. However, if you’re building a character for close-range combat, Brawny is almost essential.

Heroic

Use Companion Abilities More Often

Others tend to naturally follow and look up to you.

Heroic Effect: -20% Companion Ability Charge Time

In Outer Worlds 2, you can travel with up to two Companions when you leave the ship to explore planets. While they aren’t very tough and can fall in battle frequently, their special abilities are really helpful – assuming you can keep them alive!

In Outer Worlds 2, the Heroic trait lets you use your Companion’s special abilities more frequently. This is a helpful trait for most character builds, but it’s particularly strong for players who prefer to fight from a distance and depend on their Companions to draw enemy fire.

Resilient

Death Prevention In Every Combat Encounter

You can power through even the deadliest of injuries.

It requires more than usual to take you down in combat.

Resilient Effect: Death is prevented for 3s the first time you would have died in each combat.

Staying alive in Outer Worlds 2 can be tough, particularly if you prefer fighting up close. The Resilient trait is incredibly helpful for melee characters, offering a little extra breathing room when you find yourself in a difficult fight and have committed too much.

This trait isn’t very helpful for characters built for medium or long-range combat, or those who depend on companions during fights. Also, there aren’t many opportunities to use it in roleplaying conversations.

Lucky

Great RP Opportunities & Extra Crit Chance

You’re lucky, things tend to go your way.

Lucky Effect: +5% Critical Chance. Certain opportunities are just accessible to you.

The Lucky trait’s bonus isn’t very strong. While increasing your Critical Hit Chance is useful, you can easily boost it through armor and perks as you play, so using a trait slot for it might not be the best choice.

The Lucky trait is really fun because it creates funny roleplaying moments. For instance, at the end of the Paradise Island quest, players with the Lucky trait might get a vision of where the Vox Relay actually goes. Combining this with the Dumb trait can lead to even more comical and entertaining roleplaying scenarios.

Suave

Cheaper Goods & More Criminal Wiggle Room

You’re skilled at using language to your advantage, whether it’s negotiating better prices or talking yourself out of small troubles.

Suave Effect: 10% discount at all vendors. Bounty must be 2x higher than normal to be seen as an Outlaw.

While not a bad choice, the Suave skill isn’t the most effective in Outer Worlds 2. Choosing it will give you a slight discount when shopping, but it also means you’ll need to complete twice as many bounties before a faction considers you an enemy.

If I’m building a character who’s a silver-tongued criminal, or someone with a past like the Ex-Convict background, this perk can be useful. Honestly though, the discount isn’t that big, and that extra bounty money only matters if I actually break the law – which, sometimes, I try to avoid!

Witty

All Factions Stay At Neutral Or Above

Your fun demeanor and quick wit makes you popular with others.

Others are willing to forgive your past transgressions.

Witty Effect: Reputation with any faction can never decrease below Neutral, preventing any penalties that would be gained from having a negative reputation with a faction.

Okay, so the ‘Witty’ trait is kind of a funny one. Honestly, it’s not super impactful most of the time, but it’s really cool because it basically means you can do anything and a faction will never become truly hostile to you. You can commit crimes, make choices they don’t like, and they’ll still stay at least neutral – no bounty hunters coming after you! It’s like having a get-out-of-jail-free card with every faction, which is pretty awesome as a player.

Basically, the Witty trait doesn’t affect your game unless you break the law or deliberately upset the major factions. However, it does unlock a lot of fun and interesting conversation options, which is a benefit for any character build.

Worst Trait: Nimble

Move & Crouch Faster… But There Are More Useful Traits

You’re quick and dextrous, able to move more quickly while stealthing and in combat.

Nimble Effect: +25% Crouch Speed and Combat Sprint Speed

In Outer Worlds 2, all character traits offer benefits and can be useful, but the Nimble trait stands out as one you might want to reconsider. Unlike other traits that come up frequently in conversations and roleplaying choices, Nimble rarely offers unique dialogue options.

While a 25% increase to crouch and combat sprint speed sounds good, it doesn’t make a huge difference in practice, as the base crouch speed is already quite fast. The combat speed boost can be helpful for close-range characters, but there are more effective traits available in Outer Worlds 2 that those players should focus on instead.

2025-10-29 02:06