※This article is a machine translation of the previous Japanese article【The Outer Worlds 2】爆薬ビルドでベリーハードを攻略したらヌルゲーすぎた【アウターワールド2】. There may be some parts that have not been translated perfectly, but I hope it will be helpful for those who want to clear Very Hard mode without using Speech skills.
Introduction
While replaying the game, I was testing the strength of maxing out every skill one by one, but I had been putting off the Explosives skill, thinking, “Even if grenades get stronger, so what…?”
However, I realized that the effects of the Explosives skill apply to the Explosive Rounds modification for certain guns. When I tried a specialized build, it was so powerful that the challenge of Very Hard mode turned into baby food. So, I decided to create this guide.
Just like the Rattler build I introduced last time, this build invests nothing into Speech skills.
Character Creation
I’ll skip the background. If I had to recommend one, “Former Criminal” has many useful moments.
Attributes
For Very Hard, I think Fortitude is a must. The number of game-overs changes drastically with or without it, so let’s pick it to reduce stress.
Also, since this build focuses on critical hits, I also chose Luck. A +5% critical hit chance might not seem like much, but since all weapons that can equip Explosive Rounds have a high rate of fire, your DPS will change quite a bit depending on your crit chance.
For the negative attribute, Goofball is fine. Locking the five skills of Melee, Sneak, Medical, Speech, and Leadership causes no issues, so the downside of Goofball is virtually non-existent.
Skills
Since you can re-select your skills after waking from cryosleep, for character creation, choose Hacking and Observation to get through the Horizon Point. Combined with Luck, you can utilize almost all map gimmicks, making the Horizon Point much easier to navigate.
When you re-select, switch your specialized skills to Guns and Explosives.
Companions
The starting members are Niles and Valerie, and you’ll keep them until the very end without any changes. The performance you want from your companions is healing and taunting, and these two are the perfect fit as they fulfill both roles.
Flaws
The following flaws provide nothing but benefits for this guide, so they are a must-take. Other flaws are up to your preference.
- Consumerist (Discounts)
- Over-Prepared (Ammo capacity +50%)
- Loose Cannon (XP gained +15%)
- Tunnel Vision (Armor penetration +25%)
Paradise Island
This is arguably the most difficult part of the game since your skills and equipment are insufficient in the early stages.
To overcome the Montelli fight, you’ll need two preparations: “aiming for level 10” and “obtaining a Machine Pistol (and a sidearm)”.
Also, do not sell any junk items until just before the Montelli fight.
Aiming for Level 10
To reach level 10 on Paradise Island, you’ll need to clear a fair number of side quests. Let’s earn experience while exploring.
Regarding skill points, put everything into Guns and Explosives, except for 1 point in Lockpick at level 2 and 3 points in Engineering between levels 9 and 10. As a guideline, prioritize Explosives, and if you can’t, put points into Guns. This will make acquiring perks smoother later on.
For perks, you should acquire them in this order:
- Level 2: Pickpocket (for early game money)
- Level 4: Trophy Hunter
- Level 6: Lucky Killer
- Level 8: Resounding Drums
- Level 10: Makeshift Armorer
(If you are confident in combat, Makeshift Armorer and 3 points in Engineering are not necessary. I have confirmed it’s possible to clear without them.)
Obtaining a Machine Pistol
To take advantage of the Explosives build, we’ll acquire a weapon that can use Explosive Rounds right away.
Purchase a Machine Pistol from Supply Officer Caldossa in Fairfield, and buy the Double Barrel and Explosive Rounds modifications from a vending machine to equip them. Now you’re all set.
In the early game, since your skills and perks aren’t fully developed, it might not feel that strong for the amount of ammo consumed. However, since it benefits from both the Guns and Explosives skills, the rate at which your damage increases with each level-up becomes tremendous.
Specifically, you should start seeing a noticeable damage increase around the time you acquire the Lucky Killer perk.
However, a downside of Explosive Rounds is that friendly fire is inevitable, so you can’t use it openly where there are non-enemy NPCs.
Therefore, it’s recommended to equip a shock weapon as a sidearm to complement its role. You can get a Shock Machine Gun from the armory accessible from the roof of the Fairfield detention center.
Any armor will do, but for headgear, equip something with increased critical damage. We’ll be focusing on crits for headgear from start to finish.
The Montelli Fight
As a preparation, use the workbench right before the fight to repeatedly trigger Makeshift Armorer and raise your defense.
It’s even more efficient if you use Valerie’s perk, “Recovery Tool,” which she learns at level 10, to dismantle junk and unused equipment.
This can raise your defense by over 100, reducing the onslaught of Very Hard mode, which would normally be fatal, to Normal difficulty or less.
As a tip for the Montelli fight, it’s efficient to first take out the adds in the back to eliminate all enemies other than Montelli. Once it’s just him, you can easily defeat him by continuously electrocuting him with the Shock Machine Gun.
Golden Ridge
The main objective here is to upgrade your equipment; you don’t need to focus too much on leveling up. You’ll probably exceed level 16 just by progressing normally. Acquiring perks in the order of Secret Formula → Lead Storm → Gunrunner will be efficient for strengthening your character.
Upgrading Your Equipment
We’ll upgrade both armor and weapons.
In Mother of Patriots’ Eden, purchase the body armor Patient Stride. In the Citadel of Patience (or as a reward for clearing the Eden Refugee Problem quest), purchase a Burst SMG (and Explosive Rounds from a vending machine).
Patient Stride is, without exaggeration, the best body armor you can get in this game, not just for the Explosives build. It eliminates TTD gauge consumption while moving, making it versatile for closing distances at low risk or for escaping.
Purchase the Charge Repulsor (negates an attack every set amount of time) modification from the Flea Market Station and install it on Patient Stride. Combined with Fortitude, your durability will skyrocket.
The Burst SMG is almost a direct upgrade to the Machine Pistol, but since it uses light ammo, you can continue using the Machine Pistol until you’ve gathered enough ammo.
The Wiley Fight
Just like the Montelli fight, prepare by triggering Makeshift Armorer beforehand.
Unlike the Montelli fight, the Wiley fight has a large number of surrounding enemies, so it’s more efficient to take down Wiley first and then clean up the rest.
Make good use of Niles’s taunt to avoid taking damage while you quickly defeat Wiley.
Praetor to Cloister
After reuniting with De Vries, it’s finally time to complete the Explosives build.
We’ll aim for level 30 while upgrading our weapons and progressing through the main quest.
By the way, the Makeshift Armorer perk that has been so helpful in boss fights is now retired. Why? Because from this point on, the fight will be over before you even get hit by an enemy attack.
Obtaining an Auto-Spray SMG
First, head to the ACS Uncontested Claim and purchase an Auto-Spray SMG from the weapon shop, as well as the Double Barrel and Explosive Rounds modifications from a vending machine.
This is the reason why the Explosives build is the strongest, its ultimate form.
With Resounding Drums and Over-Prepared (Flaw) doubling your magazine size, the Auto-Spray SMG’s capacity becomes 106 rounds. However, during combat, Lucky Killer will constantly trigger, so your ammo count will never decrease. There’s no need to reload; the fight ends by just holding down the click button, making you almost forget you’re playing on Very Hard.
Aiming for Level 30
To solidify the Explosives build, we’ll do side quests to reach level 30.
For skill points, raise them in this order: Explosives 20 → Guns 20 → Lockpick 4 → Science. The reason for prioritizing Explosives over Guns is that the requirement for the powerful perk at 20 skill points is lower for Explosives.
We took Secret Formula → Lead Storm → Gunrunner for perks up to level 16, but after that:
- Level 18: Demolition Man
- Level 20: Close Quarters Master
- Level 22: Armor Piercing
- Level 24: Lucky Strike
- Level 26: Shakedown
- Level 28: Bulletproof Shield
- Level 30: Poised Stance
Acquire them in this order.
Considering the requirements, I believe this is the most efficient path.
The timing when you can clearly feel your strength is, after all, with the Explosives skill.
Secret Formula (makes the entire blast radius a damage zone) allows you to hit by shooting randomly, and Demolition Man (blast radius +50%) makes the concept of aiming disappear entirely.
The Guns skill skyrockets your damage, the Shakedown perk from Lockpick raises your crit chance, and Poised Stance shores up your defense.
By the time you reach level 30, you will literally be unmatched. You can wipe out enemies just by spraying bullets, so there’s no way to even struggle.
Final Boss Fight
On the way to the Strategos, you can actually just run through without fighting properly. By equipping the Guardian’s Impact Converter headgear and using Poised Stance and the Gadget Shield together, while using Valerie’s heal when you’re in danger, it’s possible to run through (except for the hangar).
And as for the Strategos fight itself… the Very Hard version of the Strategos has 20,000 health, so it should normally be quite tough, but… I just sprayed the Auto-Spray SMG around where the Strategos was, and somehow its spiritual pressure just vanished. I realized that being too strong can also be a bit of a letdown.
Conclusion
When I cleared Very Hard with the Rattler, I thought it was the optimal solution for that difficulty. However, this Explosives build just laughs at it in terms of strength. It was just, well, too strong.
Especially after getting the Auto-Spray SMG, not even needing to use TTD, unlike with the Rattler, was just too comfortable. Above all, not having a short reload time, but rather not needing to reload at all during combat, was an overwhelming advantage.
The only drawback is that ammo consumption is inevitably very high. It’s normal to go through several thousand rounds on a single planet.
Also, in this build, the Science skill ended up at a halfway point. However, if you don’t take Makeshift Armorer, you can use those points, or if you choose the “Gifted” trait, your total skill points will be 64, making it possible to raise Science to 20 and acquire the N-Ray Emitter build. In that case, you would be giving up the crit chance from Shakedown (Lockpick 4) and Luck, so please adjust according to your preference.
Finally, in my last article, I said that the Rattler was the recommended way to clear the game, but I’ll take that back once again.
The Explosives build is the strongest build and the optimal solution for The Outer Worlds 2.
