The number of people playing Outriders is going through the roof right now. This is because of a big Steam sale and the release of a huge new patch and content update for the game this week called “New Horizon.
So, I thought it might be time to bring back an article I wrote about how to play the game when it first came out last February. Now that the game is in a “good” state, people may be getting back into it or starting it for the first time, so it seemed like a good time to bring this up again. I just went back and looked at my previous five tips, and you know what? They are still there! But I will change them to fit this new time. Here are five things I wish I had known before I started Outriders (again):
Just don’t use a cover.
This is by far the best way to enjoy Outriders, once you figure out how to not play it like a cover shooter, even though there is literally cover everywhere. Imagine that you are the boss of the world in this universe. This is where your enemies hide when they want to avoid you. If you stay in cover for more than a split second, you’re playing wrong and need to be aggressive to heal on kills, which each class does differently (Pyro heals on skill-marked enemy kills, Devastator and Trickster heal on close-range kills, and Technomancer heals on any damage).
This didn’t come with this update, but since I wrote the original, there have been patches to fix bugs with damage mitigation. This should make it easier to survive in the open more often than before, reinforcing how this system is supposed to work (with you not using cover).
2. Make decisions early and frequently.
One of the things I like best about Outriders is that you can start making “builds” for yourself very early on, with only purple and blue gear, long before you get to the point where you can use legendaries. It doesn’t cost much to do this, so there’s no reason not to keep changing the perks on the gear you find to get a good build that works well with your weapons and skills. It’s the difference between feeling like you can accomplish anything and having to struggle through parts of it.
Update to the New Horizon Bonus: With the release of New Horizon, it is now easier to target farm-specific pieces of gear for builds. In the endgame, you can now buy random legendaries from Tiago. Before this, a system was added to protect against getting duplicate legendaries as rewards, making it less likely that you’ll get one you already have.
3. You don’t always have to be on the hardest world tier to make progress.
When the game first came out, I saw a lot of people make this mistake because they always tried to play at the hardest world tier they had unlocked. But that usually stops your progress, since dying a lot resets your progress toward the next tier. You need to farm for gear, and once you have enough, you can change the difficulty and skip to the next tier or so.
The same is true in the endgame, according to the New Horizon Bonus Update. Under the new Expedition system, which doesn’t have a timer, it might be better to speed farm easier Expeditions than to crawl through harder ones until you have enough gear for them. There is no longer a chance that your DPS check timer will fail, but you should still make sure you have the right level and gear.
4. Trading in skill points is free, so you should try everything.
Outriders is great because it lets you try out different builds for almost no money. You can respec the whole skill tree at any time for free, so you can try out AP or gun builds for any class, or build up to be a tank or healer. Make sure you change the mods on your gear to match.
Since the game came out, almost all classes have gotten big buffs, so something that wasn’t good when the game first came out may be great now. And now that expeditions don’t have timers, you can be a tank or healer and help your team instead of hurting them. Last but not least, do you know what else is free? Since this last patch, the game has a new transmogrification system, so try it out.
5. Try every possible way to talk.
I haven’t played this game in a while, so I forgot how much I liked the story. I’m a big fan of science fiction, and by the end, I thought this was one of the best stories in the genre I’ve seen in a while, even though it may not seem that way at first. I also liked how our hero became an “annoyed superhero” as the game went on. I think you should talk to everyone and not skip dialogue or cutscenes. There’s a good science-fiction story here.
Update on the New Horizon Bonus: Well, I don’t have anything for you. Other than some new dialogue in the four new expeditions, the new patch doesn’t add much to the story. Worldslayer, a real-story expansion, will come out in 2022.
So, have fun! We’re glad to see you again. or the first time they’ve been here.
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