Star Wars Outlaws is now right around the corner, and we’ve lately put quite a bit of time into the open world space adventure. Here, as you prepare to dive into its offerings, we’re going to go over a few tips and tricks to get you started. Without further ado, let’s begin.
EXPERTS
Scattered throughout the galaxy in Star Wars Outlaws are key, elusive characters known as Experts, each of whom comes with a specific skillset. Tracking down as many of them as you can, and as often as the game gives you the option, is crucial to progressing forward. From Speeder boosts to various combat buffs, different Experts teach Kay different sets of skills, making seeking them out well worth it.
BLASTER MODULES
Appropriately enough for a budding scoundrel in the galactic underworld, Kay’s blaster serves as her primary weapon in Star Wars Outlaws, though it can be used in multiple ways. This is where Kay’s blaster modules come into play, which you can switch between on the fly with the press of a button. From the blaster module’s firepower to the ion module’s effectiveness against droids and all things electronic, different modules bring different strengths, so keep that in mind during combat encounters.
BLASTER UPGRADES
Kay’s blaster starts out with limited functionality (to say the very least), but as you progress through Star Wars Outlaws, you will expand it quite a bit. In addition to the aforementioned modules, you’ll also be able to choose between different variants, each suiting different play styles- though as you would expect, such upgrades won’t come cheap. As such, it’s key to keep an eye out for the resources and materials that are required for blaster upgrades, which is something you can keep an eye on in the menu.
ENEMY WEAPONS
Kay’s blaster is her primary weapon, as we’ve been over, though it’s not the only one she can use. Often, the enemies that you fight will drop weapons, and our recommendation is to pick up and use them whenever you can. From rifles and machine guns to grenade launchers and more, there’s several options available, and not only are they usually pretty fun to use, they can also be quite useful in combat.
NIX
Nix accompanies Kay throughout her journey, and he plays an equally important role in the gameplay. In fact, if you’re not fully utilizing him and his abilities, you’re missing out on a lot. Nix can fetch objects and items, he can distract and incapacitate enemies, he can set up and set off traps, and more. Keep an eye on your surroundings and how Nix can use them to his advantage, because your adorable companion can be seriously handy.
NIX SENSE
Another way Nix helps out massive, especially in stealth, is with the mechanic known as Nix Sense- which, as you may have guessed, is a scan that temporarily highlights the enemies and objects of interest in your vicinity. As you might imagine, this can be a huge boos in stealth sections (of which there’s no shortage in this game).
NIX’S PROTECT KAY MODE
Rather than individually having to select each action for Nix, if what you want him to do is be a passive protector for Kay rather than someone you need to actively give commands to, you have that option as well. By setting the “protect Kay” command for Nix, he enters a mode where he will attack any enemy that gets too close to Kay. Insta-fail sections in particular can be a bit less frustrating thanks to this feature.
STUNNING ENEMIES
In addition to its main modules, Kay’s blaster is also equipped with the ability to work as a stun gun- but in a very limited capacity. During stealth, you can stun and knock out enemies by firing a stun shot at them, but once you do, you have to wait until its cooldown finishes. That can take quite a bit, because the cooldown is surprisingly long- so choose your moment to stun an enemy carefully.
CAMERAS
Stealth sections in Star Wars Outlaws will often also task players with dealing with security cameras, and it’s crucial that you do so without any errors, unless you want to alert all enemies. In the initial hours of the game, the only way to do so is by making sure you don’t walk into the camera’s field of vision, though once you get the ion blaster module, you can simply use it to disable cameras, so keep that in mind.
LOCKPICKING
Seeing as you’re playing as a professional criminal in Star Wars Outlaws, it’s no surprise that the game has a lockpicking minigame, though you’re often required to be more careful while lockpicking something than you would expect. Lockpicking happens in real time in Outlaws, which means enemies continue to move on their patrol routes, which means they can stumble upon you while you’re trying to pick a lot. Thankfully, the game lets you look around while you’re in the middle of picking a lock without having to exit out of the minigame, so make sure to use that feature to keep looking over your shoulder.
LOCKPICKING AID
Star Wars Outlaws’ lockpicking minigame is more audio-based than anything, requiring players to time trigger presses with the rhythm of the lock’s audio. If, however, that’s something that you’re struggling to get right, you also have the option to turn on a visual aid that shows shrinking circles on to help time your trigger presses with the rhythmic audio cues.
EAVESDROPPING
Every once in a while, you’ll find opportunities for eavesdropping in Star Wars Outlaws, and as is the case in any game that lets you listen in on conversations that you’re not a part of, we’d recommend not ignoring these opportunities. Eavesdropping can yield pretty useful intel, which in turn takes you to useful items, rare discoveries, and even optional quests.
REPUTATION
The Reputation system is the heart and soul of Star Wars Outlaws, and you’ll be getting plenty familiar with it as you make your way through the experience. What always remains its rule of thumb right from the get go, however, is that you should try and not let your reputation with any faction drop too much. Your reputation will obviously drop with different factions at different times – that’s pretty much unavoidable – but seeing as the results of a particularly tough working relationship can be quite deadly, it’s best to ensure that you’re not pissing off any one syndicate too much.
CONTRACTS
There’s no shortage of side content to be found throughout the galaxy in Star Wars Outlaws, but the one mission type that we’d say is more important than most others are contracts. These are, as their name suggests, special side jobs that have been put up by different syndicates, which means they’re a great way of getting your reputation with factions up quickly.
TRANSMOG
The loot system in Outlaws is a pretty lean one, but it does have plenty of options on offer across the three gear slots you do have. Many of these bring different gameplay advantages, as you would expect, though there’s also equipment to be found that is purely cosmetic in nature. Luckily enough for you, if you want to mix and match the look of, say, one top with the perks of another, Outlaws’ transmog system lets you do just that.