Best build for Supernova difficulty?

[tjoe1bkhjtqxm]

So as soon as I've started the game I saw that you can already spend some ability points and talents. 

 

Since I'd like to do the only run in Supernova, what do you suggest?

[Rando-Calrisian-]

I made a similar character the the "Dead Eye" build outlined in the link below:

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019/10/guide_the_outer_worlds_character_builds_-_attributes_skills_and_perks_for_every_style_of_play#deadeye

 

I had the following when creating the character:

Strength: below average

Dexterity: Good.

Intelligence: Very High

Perception: Very High

Charm: High

Temperament: Below Average

 

As I leveled up early I put most skills into ranged and Long Guns to maximize damage. I am L15 and already have 100 skill point in Long Guns. I also put in points to Dialog to maximize what I could get out of conversations and potentially avoid combat in some situations. I haven't put too much extra into tech as I already had high tech skills due to initial character creation, this gave many options in dialog and crafting, hacking, lock-picking. Tinker your favorite long guns to increase their damage at a work bench. Perks were put into TTD skills then increasing base health, Armour and weight ( I am still on Tier 2) as I was a bit squishy to start.

 

I probably should have put a bit more into leadership to buff my companions more. I will focus on that next. You have the ability to tell companions to stay in one spot during combat so they don't die so quickly.

 

The thinking is do as much damage as possible as fast as possible so that battles end quickly. The longer they go on, the more chance that your companions dies. They die permanently in Supernova. As you cannot save manually you have to reload a previous Autosave which could be from 20-30 min before. As you enter exit an area (when you see a loading screen) the game autosaves. Keep this in mind as going through areas.

 

With the above said, I think it will be very hard to everything in a single on Supernova due to the fact that you can't save manually. With planning you could use manual backups on USB's but it would be a huge pain and you would probably ruin the story for yourself. It will probably be faster to do two play troughs.

 

I am doing a blind play through focusing on combat trophies based my build (I may not be able to do the sneak and melee trophies with my build) then will mop up remaining trophies in second play though.

 

Hope this helps.

Edited October 27, 2019 by mjan8935

[igs63]

I've been doing a blind playthrough on Supernova, and it's actually not as bad as I might have anticipated. You definitely want high dialog skills as you can talk your way out of a lot of potential combat situations with them. This also helps with vendor prices, as I found you get thirsty quite quickly and it's not easy to get water very early on without the bits to buy it. You also want good stealth as you can really just stealth your way through a lot of enemies without having to fight. I'm planning to worry about anything combat related afterwards.

 

With companions, you can actually go into their settings (go to their name in the menu) and set it so they act defensively. This means they won't engage in combat and instead keep away from it, and from my experience the enemies will then ignore your companions and go for you, thus keeping them alive. If you need their help however you can instruct them to attack an enemy.

 

There's also a workaround for not being able to manual save anywhere but the ship. Whenever you can fast travel to your ship, it actually makes an autosave at the place you were BEFORE you fast travelled. So you can fast travel to the ship, and then load the most recent autosave, and there you go! You're back where you were and you now have an autosave at that point. While it does't help inside buildings, it does work great for all the outdoor combat situations you could run into.

[Akrioz]

I am actually more interested in fastest route to the ending credits than in actual build. Like, what you can skip and which one out of two main quests is generally easier and involves less combat. 

Currently comleted about 75% of the game(probably) on casual difficulty and I am having a good time. Later will do a full second run with a dumb character, and thats why I want to route third supernova run as short as possible. 

[Subseven07]

I finished the game at normal mode yesterday. Now I start the supernova run. My question is: Is it better play with companions? Or use the perk for making 25% more damage if youre alone and dont have to take care of your companions? 

 

And a Question for endgame:

 

Spoiler

At the endboss...there is a door in the room which you can lockpick with 100 points lockpicking skills. Behind that door is a terminal which you can hack with 85 (If I remember correctly) points hacking skills. Can I deactivate the boss without fighting with him?

 

[GoDBoss173]

3 hours ago, Subseven07 said:

I finished the game at normal mode yesterday. Now I start the supernova run. My question is: Is it better play with companions? Or use the perk for making 25% more damage if youre alone and dont have to take care of your companions? 

 

And a Question for endgame:

 

  Reveal hidden contents

At the endboss...there is a door in the room which you can lockpick with 100 points lockpicking skills. Behind that door is a terminal which you can hack with 85 (If I remember correctly) points hacking skills. Can I deactivate the boss without fighting with him?

 

Well the companions are dying pretty fast without dealing much damage, especially against several enemies. I assume solo with the 25% more damage perk is better/less annoying. Supernova isnt even hard as long as you repair your weapons all the time, otherwise the weapon performance is terrible (less than 70% durability)

Edited October 29, 2019 by GoDBoss173

[Subseven07]

Thanks for your tip. ?I will try it on this way.

[Rando-Calrisian-]

43 minutes ago, GoDBoss173 said:

Well the companions are dying pretty fast without dealing much damage, especially against several enemies. I assume solo with the 25% more damage perk is better/less annoying. Supernova isnt even hard as long as you repair your weapons all the time, otherwise the weapon performance is terrible (less than 70% durability)

I'm at L20 and companions dying is a pain occasionally ( falling down a lift shaft for example after a 20min quest) but not a deal-breaker. The companion buffs make things easier in many other areas. I have heavy armour equipped on them and L50 leadership to give them more health. You can set their behaviour so they stay close and are defensive or passive or command then to move to certain locations.

[stargate1995]

6 hours ago, Akrioz said:

I am actually more interested in fastest route to the ending credits than in actual build. Like, what you can skip and which one out of two main quests is generally easier and involves less combat. 

Currently comleted about 75% of the game(probably) on casual difficulty and I am having a good time. Later will do a full second run with a dumb character, and thats why I want to route third supernova run as short as possible. 

 

Just do your run for dumb character and supernova in the same run, it hardly impacts anything and even gives you a number of options to proceed through certain dialogs faster/with lower skill checks. Currently running through supernova and am at the later end of Monarch within roughly 5 hours with everything setup to hit the end as soon as I finish here. From what I've seen it's recommend to go with Phineas for the ending as that gives an easy path through the final mission in the form of speech checks. Though during the run you definitely want to play both sides for the big xp chunks.

 

For the actual run I started with -1 Int, +1 Dex, +2 Per, +2 Charm and +2 Temp. Levelling up at the beginning you want to get long guns to 20 (for TTD effects) and stealth skills to 40 at least (general usefulness and pickpocketing) after that dump everything into Speech skills and tech skills then focus on Persuasion to 100 and Science to 90 (ending skillchecks). You might want to put any leftover skillpoints into Intimidation (100 skillcheck for the end, can be boosted with companions though afaik) and Sneak for anything else.

 

Side with Reed and convince the deserters to move back to town but keep Reed as mayor (I removed him as mayor but I need to do the ludwig was right trophy on this run), Complete all other quests before leaving Edgewater though. Complete everything on Groundbreaker (no combat here and lots of xp) and Buy Udoms seal (8k bits) back for him and get the navkey for Byzantium. Also worth mentioning to grab the defective moonman hat in the backroom behind moonman for a +1 Temp. Go to Byzantium and do the board stuff there (cartographer etc) and plant the fake signal on Phineas lab. Also worth completing the actor, sprats and retirement (just sneak otherwise this ones dangerous) quests for extra xp. Sophia gives you the navkey for Monarch eventually. You can completely skip Rosewater though you should probably get the module to turn SAM on there (helps with the Intimidate check), I did the other missions there though because they are fast and not very hard. On Monarch you have to complete both Sanjar and the Ionoclasts questlines, you could probably just kill them but that's dangerous. Apart from that just sprint your way to the radio area and deal with that. leave Monarch (no need to finish the feud there) and follow Phineas questline to the end. The final few missions can be cleared entirely using speech checks and stealth. Doing it this way the only real fighting is at the beginning and during certain parts of Monarch though none of it's particularly hard.

Edited October 29, 2019 by stargate1995

[Akrioz]

21 minutes ago, stargate1995 said:

Just do your run for dumb character and supernova in the same run, it hardly impacts anything and even gives you a number of options to proceed through certain dialogs faster/with lower skill checks.

I wanted a full walkthrough for role-playing purposes(dumb violent man who resolves everything with a trusty hammer), but you are tempting me to do it your way instead. If -1 INT is enough than it's actually a viable choice.  But I didn't take any flaws on my current walkthrough so it may still be problematic to get 3 on them on supernova. Anyway, thanks for the responce.

Edited October 29, 2019 by Akrioz

[Gage]

1 hour ago, Akrioz said:

I wanted a full walkthrough for role-playing purposes(dumb violent man who resolves everything with a trusty hammer), but you are tempting me to do it your way instead. If -1 INT is enough than it's actually a viable choice.  But I didn't take any flaws on my current walkthrough so it may still be problematic to get 3 on them on supernova. Anyway, thanks for the responce.

 

You should likely still be offered 3 unless you're really optimized on how you're running. I was offered 3 on my run but didn't take the third since it was fear of talking to people which wouldn't be good for the last area of the game. If you need at the end you could turn the save from before the point of no return down to story  difficulty then go let animals beat you up or enemies shoot you to try and get those flaws. 

Edited October 29, 2019 by Gage

[Stormwarrior90]

8 hours ago, Gage said:

 

You should likely still be offered 3 unless you're really optimized on how you're running. I was offered 3 on my run but didn't take the third since it was fear of talking to people which wouldn't be good for the last area of the game. If you need at the end you could turn the save from before the point of no return down to story  difficulty then go let animals beat you up or enemies shoot you to try and get those flaws. 

OT Question Felix is angry with me for killing the cartographer and the robo destruction on Edgewater. I have not been given his companion quest yet, have I messed this up? Or will he still give me his quest as I progress further? Hope I havnt messed it up

Edited October 29, 2019 by Stormwarrior90

[NaseemJohn]

I started my first play through on supernova and while it was quite annoying at first due to companions dying so easily, I gotta say it’s actually not hard at all once you get past the starting area. Majority of my skill points are invested in stealth and dialogue but I’m still getting into every combat encounter possible then getting through without any trouble. 

 

1. Don’t underestimate your companions as they’re able to dish out just as much if not more damage than you. Put enough points in leadership so that both your skills can be level 50 and watch as your companions become tanks that never die while dealing a ton of damage. Combat will be over before you even know it.

 

2. Toughness, slow the world, quick and the dead, pack mule, cheetah, run and gun, the reaper, speed demon, scanner,  harvester,  last stand, confidence, armour master, super pack mule and penetrating shots are the best perks. 

 

3. Assault rifle, plasma rifle and dead eye assault rifle are the best guns early on. Irions flintlock, assault rifle ultra, prismatic hammer and shock cannon ultra are some of the best weapons mid to late game. 

 

4. Invest skills in dialogue, stealth, tech and leadership. Prioritize dialogue and stealth first but aim to get all of these up to 50.

 

5. Fast travel back to your ship every quest just to save so you don’t lose progress. 

 

6. Don’t avoid combat too much. When you start the game and don’t have much weapons or skills it’s understandable but after awhile you’ll just be missing out on experience if youre avoiding combat too much.

 

Theres more but honestly I feel like just those very few tips will be enough to get you through supernova. It sounds harder than it actually is. 

Edited October 30, 2019 by NaseemJohn

[stargate1995]

10 hours ago, Akrioz said:

I wanted a full walkthrough for role-playing purposes(dumb violent man who resolves everything with a trusty hammer), but you are tempting me to do it your way instead. If -1 INT is enough than it's actually a viable choice.  But I didn't take any flaws on my current walkthrough so it may still be problematic to get 3 on them on supernova. Anyway, thanks for the responce.

 

If you wanna do a role-play run go ahead, the games not to long anyway and it's setup pretty well for just killing quest givers etc. -1 Is actually the lowest you can go in a stat though which I think equates to -5 or 4 in each of the associated skills, this is however offset pretty much by the extra point you get to put into Charm/Temp/Perception (my extra point went into Perception, Charm and Temp are better for the supernova run so you want them at +2 regardless). IMO strength is a pretty much useless stat apart from the carry weight increase (which is pretty minor but helps a tiny bit at the start).

 

I did the same and avoided flaws on my first playthrough though I think there's a few you can grab that you probably wouldn't have been offered, such as drug addiction, eating addiction and I assume there's one for alcoholism. During the supernova playthrough you will probably be offered eating addiction, which admittedly makes you have to eat about 2x as much but food really isn't an issue anyway. I haven't and probably won't be offered anything else before the end of the run but if you manage to get any of the extra elemental damage flaws they are worth taking. Post run you could also pretty easily force agoraphobia (fall damage) by jumping off landing platforms.

 

 

Edited October 30, 2019 by stargate1995

[Gage]

2 hours ago, Stormwarrior90 said:

OT Question Felix is angry with me for killing the cartographer and the robo destruction on Edgewater. I have not been given his companion quest yet, have I messed this up? Or will he still give me his quest as I progress further? Hope I havnt messed it up

 

I wasn't able to get his by talking to him until like 2/3 through the story, so you potentially might just not have progressed enough. I would think outside of the few where you can just fail the quest during them or have the companion leave you shouldn't be able to miss them. For trying to do everything in one playthrough I generally avoided killing people for that reason though, just in case something like that happened. :/

[lionheartcs]

23 hours ago, Akrioz said:

I am actually more interested in fastest route to the ending credits than in actual build. Like, what you can skip and which one out of two main quests is generally easier and involves less combat. 

Currently comleted about 75% of the game(probably) on casual difficulty and I am having a good time. Later will do a full second run with a dumb character, and thats why I want to route third supernova run as short as possible. 

You can actually dumb yourself quite a bit with Adrena-Time if you want the trophy for the 3rd ending. You don't actually have to do another play through. My character had "good" intelligence, and I was still able to choose the option after taking like 10 Adrena-Times.

[dernop]

Currently playing through supernova with a lone-wolf 2h melee, heavy armor type character, working out quite well so far, but the lack of dialogue and other "secondary" skills is a bit annoying sometimes. But if you mostly wanna speedrun through it you can always just murder everyone i guess

 

Btw i made a habit out of kinda circumventing the "no (quick)saves" thing on supernova by fast-traveling back to my ship often and immediately reloading the latest save once i arrive in my ship. The game actually autosaves where you left off, so you can make yourself a checkpoint/autosave this way.

If there is another transition area near, this is obviously even faster, especially indoors.

 

Overall a fantastic game, having a blast so far!

[zeit86geist]

Quick Question! Can you right off start with Supernova Difficulty, or do I have to unlock it? (Already answerd)

Is there an option to go to NG+ SN Difficulty? 

Edited November 3, 2019 by zeit86geist

[Akrioz]

11 minutes ago, zeit86geist said:

 

Is there an option to go to NG+ SN Difficulty? 

No.

[RoxasOnFire]

I focused on mostly stealth and dialogue choices with the dumb stat. You can skip many main quests if you know who to kill to make the game faster. Took me 6 in game hours while skipping all companions and sending to the sun for that trophy, reloading, doing what Phineas wants last and rushing tough with disguises. Skipped almost all combat and was lvl 20 by main quests alone. I know its cheap but I just want to enjoy the game on hard. I have no idea what was going on in the story so I followed the guy who finished it in 21 mins to the sun and did the rest myself. He played on easy and clearing the bots in Edgewater was the hardest part.

 

Loading times were the worst part btw

Edited November 3, 2019 by RoxasOnFire

[ZenRhino]

I finished my Supernova run in about 10 hours playtime yesterday.

 

Wasn't too hard once you know that fast travel to your ship creates an autosave.

 

I used this build, which was excellent: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONiiPBXtb-c&t=545s

 

Just go easy with Parvati in defensive mode for the first 7 levels and it's okay after that. I had to reload three times through my playthrough. The key is to have ranged heavy weapons on your companions and equip them with the best heavy armour you can find...always prioritise your companions gear as you won't be shooting much.

 

I sided with the board turning in Phineas, skipped Roseway altogether, shot the faction leaders as soon as I landed on Monarch. At the end, I got to level 20 then respecced before Tartarus and avoided any combat altogether with disguise and skill checks...easy peasy.

 

 

Edited November 7, 2019 by ZenRhino

[Narniak]

Finished Supernova last night for "Load Screen Simulator 2019".  It's not that bad at all if you're doing it on your 2nd run.  Other than having to babysit your companions, I'd argue it's the best way to experience the game.  The best part is that because fast travel is so limited, you get less of the BRUTAL load screens.  Rest assured my friends, you still get to experience a lengthy load screen at every single transitional door in the game.  I especially enjoyed the load screens every time going in and out of your ship, those are super swell!  The load screens are so terrible in this game that I was risking not fast traveling back to my ship and saving, just to avoid them.  I only got burned 3 or 4 times doing this, and they usually throw you an auto-save so you don't even lose that much progress.  It's also refreshing that you actually need to use the consumables you are picking up everywhere to counter negative status effects. 

 

Supernova run took about 10 hours.  Got to rank 25 just doing main quest double-agent, plus everything in the first Edgewater area when things are actually difficult.  Never stepped foot in Roseway, Cascadia or Scylla, and only did side quests that were easily completed with dialogue checks.  You don't need to stress at all about allocating enough points into persuasion, science, lockpick, etc.  The entire Tartarus level only takes about 10 minutes from your final save point if you know the route.  If you've messed up the skill checks required at the very end, remember you can just respec your skills and perks on your ship.

17 minutes ago, ZenRhino said:

I finished my Supernova run in about 10 hours playtime yesterday.

 

Wasn't too hard once you know that fast travel to your ship creates an autosave.

 

I used this build, which was excellent: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONiiPBXtb-c&t=545s

 

Just go easy with Parvati in defensive mode for the first 7 levels and it's okay after that. I had to reload three times through my playthrough. The key is to have ranged heavy weapons on your companions and equip them with the best heavy armour you can find...always prioritise your companions gear as you won't be shooting much.

 

I sided with the board turning in Phineas, skipped Roseway altogether, shot the faction leaders as soon as I landed on Monarch. At the end, I got to level 20 then respecced before Tartarus and avoided any combat altogether with disguise and skill checks...easy peasy.

 

 

Yeah Companions to 60 is critical for their skill bonuses, also helps keep their sorry asses alive.  Parvati and Felix seem the best because I think they both have Persuade and Lockpick.  Ellie is nice with her health perks, but honestly the game is so easy even on Supernova that you don't need her.

 

Another critical item is the "Silver Tongue" armor mod, which I think gives both dialogue and leadership bonuses so you don't have to spend as many skill points leveling up.  Not sure if the effects stack when used on your companion's armor, I honestly just thought of that and never tried it.

[Killbomb]

Yeah, the load times are easily the worst part of the game. I cannot wait for PS5 with its promised zero load times. All that time wasted spent staring at load screens can be used to get more trophies!

[Tianna_Mortis]

I finished my Supernova play through last night. I went High on Dexterity for sure and Perception I think. I soloed it without companions, stuck to Heavy Guns and put all my points in that once I reached 50 on Ranged Weapons, I just made sure I had one heavy gun of each ammo type equipped at all times and traded out as I needed to. For the rest of my points, I did 25 into Science to tweak my equipment, then the rest was a mix of Persuade, Lockpick and Hack. Perks I focused on damage, armor rating, TTD and one each of carry weight and vendor prices.

 

By the time you reach the last couple of levels, you won't even need that many points in your weapon skills with how high your persuade and hack will be. If you want to avoid combat all together, you can reskill at your ship before you go into the Hope, dump 100 each into Lockpick and Hack, at least 70 in Persuade and you're good to go.