The Outer Worlds, in development by Obsidian, looks and feels like a shooter but is, at its core, an RPG. Everything in The Outer Worlds is governed by stats and that includes your Armour and Clothing. Equipping different Armour and Clothing will give your character different bonuses and penalties to skills in addition to being of different types; Heavy, Medium or Light.
Each piece of Armour and Clothing has an Armour Rating, Type and Skill Bonus. The higher the Armour Rating, the better protection you’ll have.
Armour and Clothing also has a weight so carrying around tonnes of it is likely going to leave you encumbered. The Armour you wear will be dictated by what type of character you’re playing too. So, you’ll want to find Armour that improves your important skills.
The Outer Worlds Armour
In the image above, you can see A Nice Hat I found while exploring Monarch. The hat only has an Armour Rating of 2, which is practically nothing, but it adds 5 to Leadership Skills and 7 to Persuade.
Turns out in The Outer Worlds Armour/Clothes really do make the man.
Other bonuses and penalties I’ve seen attached to Armour and Clothing are;
- +3 to Inspiration
- +5 to Heavy Weapons and -5 to Stealth on Heavy Power Armour
- +3 to Medical
- +7 to 2-Handed Melee
Each bonus and penalty is context-specific and relates to the piece of Armour or Clothing. Doctor’s clothing is going to increase medical, while Power Armour is going to improve Heavy Weapons and your Armour Rating.
If you’re trying to play as a stealthy character, you certainly won’t want to take the stealth penalty by wearing Power Armour for example. There seems to be a huge variety of Armour and Clothing in The Outer Worlds and with it also able to be modified, you’re potential is only limited to what you can find.
The Outer Worlds will be available for PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 25, 2019. It will release for Switch at a later date.
