None of us are perfect. Some of us may come close, but we all have one or two flaws that keep us from reaching perfection. And that's good! Perfection would be terribly boring. And Obsidian knows it too, why your own character in The Outer Worlds 2 can also have a variety of defects.
Flaws, as the name suggests, aren't all sunshine and rainbows. But when your character isn't perfect, the world suddenly feels like it has so many more possibilities for you to experience. So let's check out all the faults on offer, and which ones are actually worth admitting you have.
What are flaws?
When you create your character, you decide on many aspects yourself. How you look, your skills, characteristics and background. All these things are in your hands. That is not the case for Flaws. They rise up whenever you're a little too dedicated to a certain way of playing as a way to both punish and reward you.
In the original The Outer Worlds, a Flaw was purely negative in exchange for an instant Perk point. Here, instead, you get a constant negative and positive to make the act of accepting a mistake that much more enticing.
Flaws appear randomly, a direct result of the actions you take. For example, constantly crouching to sneak can result in Bad Knees Flaw appearing, makes you move faster while crouching, but makes a loud noise every time you do it. It's all a give-and-take with flaws and learning to balance them with your current playstyle.
If you deny an error after it first appears, it will almost certainly not be offered again. So there is no second guessing them.
How many flaws can you have at once?
In the original game, the number of flaws you could have was limited. This was linked to the difficulty setting, with three being the maximum on normal difficulty, all the way up to five on Supernova.
That is not the case in The Outer Worlds 2. There is no such limit to the number of defects you can have at onceand they can never be taken away once acquired. If you accept your flaws, you remain flawed throughout the playthrough. This is not even admitting the defective flaw, which forces you to accept every flaw. Be careful with it.
Each flaw and what it does
There are many flaws in the game. And there are probably quite a few we have yet to discover for ourselves. For now, though, here's every flaw we've found, as well as how to unlock them.
There are many glitches in the game that unlock in very unusual ways, so apologies if this doesn't include every single one of them.
|
Wrong |
What it does |
How to unlock it |
|---|---|---|
|
Bad knees |
+50% crouch speed, but you make a sound within a 10 meter radius, enemies will investigate when you crouch or stand up. |
Often crouches and remains crouched for long periods of time. |
|
Kleptomania |
Stolen items sell for +100% price, but you will sometimes automatically steal any item you look at. |
Stealing things all the time. |
|
Overprepared |
Magazine size is increased by +50%, but your damage is reduced by 40% for eight seconds if your magazine is completely empty. |
By always reloading your weapon before the magazine is empty. |
|
Defective |
You must accept each error you are offered, but you gain an additional Perk point every five levels. |
By accepting three or more flaws. |
|
Treacherous |
Max health is reduced by 25%, but you get +100% sneak attack damage and enemy awareness drains 50% faster. |
Perform frequent sneak attacks on enemies and attack while undetected. |
|
Anger mismanagement |
+50% damage received while blocking, but +25% Power Attack damage. |
Obtained by attacking with melee weapons and taking a hit. |
|
Mouth-to-mouth syndrome |
Your dialogue options are randomly selected after a few seconds, but you gain +15% experience from all sources. |
By jumping to the next dialog before NPCs finish talking. |
|
Dangerously curious |
You use an extra Bypass shunt when hacking, but gain +100% hacking experience. |
Often hacks things. |
|
ruthless leadership |
You can no longer revive your teammates in battle, but your second companion is healed and empowered when the first is defeated. |
Let your companions be defeated in battle without reviving them. |
|
Gluttony |
You gain +15% healing from food and drink, but have 10% slower movement seeds in battle. |
Got by healing often with food and drink. |
|
Technophobia |
You take +20% damage from Automechanicals, but you also give them +20% damage. |
Defeat and/or take damage from Automechanicals. |
|
Hermit |
Vendor prices are 50% more expensive, but you have a 25% chance to get duplicate materials when breaking down items on a workbench (this includes Niles) |
Break down objects and tinker at workbenches. |
|
N-radiated |
You have a 5% chance when taking damage to be camouflaged, but also take 5% of your maximum health as N-Ray damage. |
Gain when you left the N-Ray Range. |
|
Energy Hog |
Gadget Energy recharges 25% slower, but you get +50 Gadget Energy overall. |
By frequently using gadgets and letting the Gadget Energy bar completely drain. |
|
Slightly scared |
Your footsteps are 25% quieter and enemies are 25% slower to spot you, but your Damage Resistance and Evasion are ignored for eight seconds when a probing enemy spots you. |
Got by sneaking around enemies often. |
|
Soberist |
The medicinal inhaler restores 25% more health, but also increases your toxicity by 25% more. |
Obtained by avoiding using the medical inhaler during combat. |
|
Drug addiction |
You get 20% less health from the medicinal inhaler, but also 40% less toxicity. |
Often uses the medicinal inhaler to heal during battle. |
|
Dependent |
You deal more damage to enemies your companions have recently targeted, but otherwise deal 10% less damage. |
From allowing companions to deal a lot of damage during combat. |
|
Consumer information |
You get a 15% discount with all suppliers, even if your goods sell for 10% less to them. |
By frequently buying goods from sellers. |
|
Easily distracted |
You gain three skill points at each level, but they must be put into the lowest non-zero skill. |
By spreading your skill points across four or more skills. |
As you can see, there is a lot of variety there. Half the fun of Flaws is learning the strange ways in which you acquire them.
Best flaws to take
Flaws, is that they are, well, flaws, will always comes with some downside. They are never completely flexible. But sometimes the positives they offer greatly outweigh the negatives. And given that they tend to appear based on your actions, that means they might already be worth taking!
However, in most scenarios, these flaws tend to offer you the opportunity to really maximize your character's abilities if you know what you're doing. A few flaws add character after all.
Easily distracted
Easily distracted gives you a whole extra skill point to invest each levelgiving you a total of three each level, as opposed to two. It makes this all the more powerful when you get it early.
Its downside is that as long as you've added even a single skill point to a skill, you have to level it up if it's lower than the others. You can also level up the skill with zero points, but you don't have to. As such, it means that if you got this error when you had points in four skills, you would need to level those four skills evenly. But since you get an extra point, you'll get them all leveled up much faster if you can stay focused on those particular skills.
Dangerously curious
Dangerously Curious is good because it's mostly harmless. with that, you get bonus experience every time you hack something. And the higher the hacking skill required, the more experience you get from it.
So what's the downside? You must use two Bypass shunts for all hacking instead of just one. Bypass shunts are incredibly easy to craft though, and Valerie can even restore bypass shunts after they've been used. In fact, her recovery perks can proc on both bypass shunts you use while hacking. So really it's just free experience.
Overprepared
Over-preparation only makes your magazine in your weapons bigger. Now yes, letting the magazine drain will leave you much weaker for a few seconds. But if you caused this flaw to appear in the first place, chances are you're already reloading your weapon every chance you get.
And when you have prepared to do your magazine even bigger with no immediate downsidesthen you're even less likely to empty the magazine when you've defeated your enemies anyway!
Treacherous
Treacherous is a major flaw, but one that should only be taken for very specific playthroughs. Doing so reduces your overall health by quite a bit, though your Sneak Attack damage is doubled. And all of this stacks with your Sneak Attack damage modifiers.
If stealth is just part of your playstyle, maybe avoid this. But if that is your main method of attack. Treacherous is important. Once you start stacking bonuses, all enemies will be dead before they even get a chance to spot you, let alone engage you in combat. Health won't even be a concern.
