The Outer Worlds: Eight Playthroughs

1. The Eight Builds

1.1. 1. Sneaky McKill — Sniper/Stealth Hybrid

Tagged skills: Ranged and Stealth. Tim's natural RPG playstyle — killing from distance, withdrawing when overwhelmed. He perked Head Shot, kept a modded/tinkered Dead Eye rifle at all times, and used companions primarily as a frontline to prevent swarming. Completed almost every quest via combat unless an obvious stealth solution presented itself. Verdict: very satisfying.

1.2. 2. Whassup Dude — The Generalist

Skills spread evenly across every category. By level 30, every skill sat between 50–60. The first half was "super fun" because any quest could be solved any way — fighting, sneaking, talking, leadership, swapping companions as needed. But the endgame became very hard as the character lacked specialization. Named so that NPCs would greet him with "Hello, What's Up Dude."

1.3. 3. Snuggler — Pure Dialogue (Pro-Board Path)

Tagged: Dialogue and Ranged (backup). Intended name was "Smuggler" but a typo stuck. Tim wanted to fast-talk through everything, but found himself falling back on combat more than expected. This was the only character to do the Board path, and Tim was surprised at how heroic it felt — though companion Felix regularly called him out. High dialogue skills kept companions around, but they all fared badly in the end slides. Had to kill Phineas at the end, which "made me sad."

1.4. 4. Butch McPunchy — Melee + Dumb

Tagged: Melee and Defense, with below-average Intelligence for dumb dialogue options. Tim is not a melee fan but needed to confirm the game was completable melee-only. He was heavily dependent on companions, especially in areas with enemies at varying heights (Devil's Peak on Monarch, the Pit on Tartarus). Since he never used ammo, it became extra money — making bribes and the Monarch Navkey purchase easy. Toward the end, he jumped the Hope into the sun "just because I could." Least favorite playthrough — melee-only felt too restrictive.

1.5. 5. Dr. Leader — Science Weapons + Companions (Most Fun)

Tagged: Tech and Leadership, with low Dexterity (not needed for those skills). Science weapons had weird combat effects, and high leadership made companions super powerful. Tim's favorite playthrough overall. Low Dexterity meant weapons broke faster, costing lots of money and parts — but high Science also raised Engineering, improving repair.

A notable bug: Dr. Leader had four flaws on Normal difficulty (should cap at three). Two were Robophobia — offered twice, accepted twice, and they stacked. When robots were around, "he sucked." The Warden Bot on Tartarus was the hardest fight of any playthrough; Dr. Leader spent most of it hiding in a dark closet while Nyoka and Max handled it.

1.6. 6. Rango McLeader — Supernova Difficulty

Tagged: Ranged and Leadership. Tim chose what he thought would be the easiest Supernova build — ranged killing plus powerful companions. But companion permadeath meant constant reloading whenever one died. Getting Parvati through Emerald Vale alive was very hard; he played the Ice Station five times before no companions died. He bought every companion-boosting perk and inhaler upgrade, and modded/tinkered all equipment for himself and companions at every opportunity.

Verdict: "I'm not sure I would play Supernova again. I played it to prove I could do it, but that mode — just like Iron Man mode in my other game, The Temple of Elemental Evil — is just not for me."

1.7. 7. Eric Deil — Kill Everyone

Named after the game's producer. Tagged: Melee and Ranged (every combat skill). Tim wanted to kill every NPC in the game. He cleared Edgewater, Roseway, and the streets of Byzantium completely, but found the Groundbreaker too hard to clear out. He killed every companion before they could join or speak, testing all solo perks. The Warden Bot — hard for other builds — fell easily to extended Tactical Time Dilation, enhanced weaponry, and weak point aiming.

Fastest playthrough: 6.5 hours (vs. the typical 15–22 hours).

1.8. 8. Sneaky Speaker — Story Mode / Pacifist

Tagged: Stealth and Dialogue. Designed for Story Mode (easiest difficulty). Terrible at combat, companions existed to do damage and soak bullets. Talked through most encounters — including using Persuade and Lie on MacReed to get radiator parts without fighting or convincing him to pretend she'd killed him. When talking failed, she'd sneak or pickpocket.

Completed every companion quest, every faction quest, and almost every side quest. On Tartarus, every faction except the Board sent help, making the prison easy. Instead of fighting the Warden Bot directly, she hacked it to disable weapons and turn support drones against it. In the end slides, she made the CEO into a puppet in her "new world order."

While Dr. Leader was the most fun overall, Sneaky Speaker was the most fun Tim ever had on Tartarus.

2. Key Observations Across Playthroughs

• Generalist builds are fun early but punished by the endgame's difficulty scaling
• Melee-only is viable but feels restrictive; ammo becoming pure currency is a nice emergent benefit
• Science weapons + Leadership produced the most entertaining emergent gameplay
• Supernova's companion permadeath is the mode's real challenge, not personal survival
• Kill-everyone runs are dramatically faster, suggesting combat-heavy solutions skip massive amounts of content
• Dialogue/stealth builds produce the richest narrative outcomes and most satisfying endings
• The Robophobia flaw stacking bug is a great example of why systematic playtesting catches issues QA scripts might miss

3. Bonus: Ridiculous Purchase Requests

Tim also shared a document of things team members asked him to buy during development (no names, no context):

• A pizza oven, a goat, a garden plot at the US Antarctica research base
• A chicken and a GoPro
• The island of St. Lucia
• A pig wearing a mocap suit
• A golf cart, a hat, and a plasma cannon
• A penguin, a cow, a cacao tree, a tank, a moose, and a Volvo
• A 3D chocolate printer ("that might have been me")
• A wrecking ball, a life-sized chocolate coffin with gold foil wrap
• An inflatable wavy arm dancer
• "A laser — a big fat laser"

4. References

• Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kdeDSAcLZa8