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Outer Worlds is an Action RPG with a deceptively deep combat system, from its action-filled shooting to its Tactical Time dilation system to mimic the effects of the V.A.T.s from Fallout without stopping the combat entirely.
On top of that, you have to consider the other mechanics this game has to offer, both in its regular difficulty and the Supernova difficulty. I am all for realism, but when you have to suffer the consequences of dehydration, the game goes from a moderately challenging time to near impossible.Â
Thankfully for this article, we will be focusing on the damage types that weapons can do. This involves all kinds of weapons, from Unique to Science to melee. I will not be discussing the other combat mechanics in detail, but I will mention them now and then.Â
Weapon WheelÂ
To quickly explain why knowing these damage types are essential. We have the weapon wheel, which is a system that allows the player to equip four different weapons simultaneously; however, it does not mean you can use all four simultaneously. Instead, you can switch between them freely, even while in combat.Â
This gives you a large amount of type coverage as these damage types are more effective against some enemies while doing less for other kinds of enemies. It also changes the dynamic of ranged and melee, attack speed, fire rate, and other mechanics that we will not focus on too much today.Â
So rather than having to plan everything and look through the Weapon Ledger to compare the stats, I have compiled the weapons that do those specific damage types and will leave it to you to decide which one you want to take on.Â
What are the Damage Types in the game?
There are six damage types in the game, each represented by a different weapon in the game. These are Physical, Plasma, Corrosion, Cold, Shock, and N-Ray. While there could be over hundreds of weapons in the game, each weapon is assigned one of these damage types, so you will never find a gun without a damage type.Â
Physical damage is the basic damage type, and it comes from the impact of Kinetic force and is more commonly found on melee weapons, and they are a little weak against armor.Â
Plasma damage is good against flesh and can occasionally apply the Burn status effect, damage over time. It is effective against light armor and creatures, except for Mantisaurs.Â
Corrosion is good against heavy armor, including Mantisaurs, Automechanicals, and armored units. It can also inflict the Acid status effect, which does damage over time and reduces the armor of the inflicted, and it does extra damage to Automechanicals.Â
Cold is like physical damage wherein it is weak against armor; however, it applies the Chilled debuff and occasionally the Frozen debuff. Chilled is a strong debuff that reduces movement speed, rate of fire, and melee attack speed, and Frozen does just that it freezes the target, making them unable to move.Â
Shock weapons are highly effective against Automechanicals and can apply the Shocked effect, lowering ranged weapon accuracy and strength. It is not ineffective against anything.Â
N-Ray Weapons are incredibly effective against creatures, and it causes internal damage and then spread more N-Rays to surrounding targets. It is hugely ineffective against nonorganic entities such as Automechanicals.Â
With all of this in mind, let’s look at what weapons have these damage types. I will not be rating them or putting them on a tier list but instead just give you the stats and abilities, so you have an idea of what they can do.Â
Here we go.
Physical Weapons
These are represented in-game by the white icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
A Spade | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed, Chance to bleed on hit. |
Adelaide’s Gardening Shears | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed, additional damage and bleed on critical hits |
Agony | Unique | Long Gun | Poison, Execute, Attacks always inflict Poison, |
All in | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Stagger, Increased rate of fire, attacks have a chance to stagger |
Assault Rifle | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Assault Rifle Ultra | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Auto-Mag Pistol | N/a | Hand Gun | Stagger |
Auto-Mag Pistol Ultra | N/a | Hand Gun | Stagger |
Axe | N/a | 2-Handed melee | None |
Backscratcher | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Maim, Attacks have a chance to inflict Maim |
Blad on Stik | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Bleed, Does extra critical hit damage |
Brontide | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Bleed, Knockdown, After killing an enemy with this weapon, enemies nearby are knocked down |
Bursty | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger |
Captain Robin’s Spine | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed, Attacks with this weapon ignore a portion of the target’s armor |
Champion Tossball Blocker | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Champion Tossball Stick | N/a | 2-Handed melee | Stagger |
Clapper | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Concuss, Knockdown |
Claw Rake | N/a | 1-Handed melee | None |
Clive’s Cleaver | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed, Increased Critical strike chance |
Contraband | Unique | Hand Gun | Stagger |
Dead-Eye Assault Rifle | N/a | Long Gun | Execute |
Dead-Eye Assault Rifle II | N/a | Long Gun | Execute |
Dead-Eye Assault Rifle III | N/a | Long Gun | Execute |
Equilbrium | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger, the weapon gets more accurate the longer it is fired. |
Euthanasia Kit | Unique | Long Gun | Knockdown |
Fiver | Unique | Hand Gun | Knockdown |
Flurry | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Knockback, weapon slowly builds up its rate of fire. |
Gravedigger | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Knockback, Sweep attacks inflict Knockdown |
Grenade Launcher | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Grenade Launcher II | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Grenade Launcher III | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Grimm’s Tossball Blocker | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Grinder | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Knockdown, Power and sweep attacks permanently reduce the enemy’s armor |
Hall of Famer Tossball Stick | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Stagger |
Hand Cannon | Unique | Hand Gun | Knockout, attacks from this weapon deal damage to enemies near the target |
Handy Deconstruction | Unique | 2-Handed melee | This weapon does bonus damage to Automechanicals |
Hatchet | N/a | 1-Handed melee | None |
Heavy Machine Gun | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Heavy Machine Gun II | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Hunting Rifle | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Hunting Rifle Hyper | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Hunting Rifle Ultra | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Iconoclast Assault Rifle | N/A | Long Gun | Stagger |
Iconoclast Cleaver | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Iconoclast Revolver | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockback |
Impact Hammer | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Knockback |
Impact Hammer mk 2 | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Knockback |
Impact Hammer mk 3 | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Knockback |
Irion’s Flintlock | Unique | Hand Gun | Stagger, fires 2 rounds at a time, Does bonus weakspot damage. |
Light Assault Rifle | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Light Assault Rifle mk 2Â | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Light Assault Rifle mk 3Â Â | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Light Machine Gun | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Stagger |
Light Machine Gun mk 2Â | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Stagger |
Light Machine Gun mk 3Â Â | N/a | Heavy Weapon | Stagger |
Light Pistol | N/a | Hand Gun | Bleed |
Light Pistol mk 2Â | N/a | Hand Gun | Bleed |
Light Pistol mk 3 | N/a | Hand Gun | Bleed |
Long Ranger | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger, Built in Massive Scope |
Lucky | Unique | Hand Gun | Knockback, When this weapon fails to land a critical hit, its critical hit damage increases. Effect resets when this weapon lands a critical hit. |
Man Splitter | N/a | 2-Handed melee | Increased damage to Humans |
Mandibular Rearranger | Science | 1-Handed melee | Stagger, attacks slow enemies, repeated attacks eventually stop enemies for a short duration. |
Maxwell | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Knockdown |
Medal of Honor | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger |
Most Dangerous Game | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger, Attacks on legs will always Cripple |
MSI Pistol | N/A | Hand Gun | Bleed |
MSI Tactical Shotgun | N/A | Long Gun | Knockdown |
Ol’Reliable | Unique | Heavy Weapons | Stagger |
Peacekeeper | Unique | Long Gun | Knockback |
Pickaxe | N/A | 2-Handed melee | None |
Pinkslip | Unique | Long Gun | Execute, deals extra weakspot damage. |
Primal Tamer’s Baton | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Pro Tossball Blocker | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Pro Tossball Stick | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Prototype Light Pistol | Unique | Hand Gun | Bleed |
Quick and Dirty | Unique | 1-Handed melee | None |
Revolver | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockback |
Revolver mk 2 | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockback |
Revolver mk 3 | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockback |
Sawed-Off Shotgun | N/A | Long Gun | Knockback |
Sawed-Off Shotgun mk 2 | N/A | Long Gun | Knockback |
Sentry Saber | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Sentry Saber Mk 2 | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Sentry Saber Mk 3 | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Shears | N/a | 1-Handed melee | None |
Shovel | N/A | 2-Handed melee | None |
Silencer | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Soft Speaker | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown |
Spade | N/a | 1-Handed melee | None |
Special Delivery | Science | Heavy Weapon | Knockback, Homes in on target |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
Sublight Sniper Rifle | Unique | Long Gun | Execute |
Tactical Shotgun | N/A | Long Gun | Knockdown |
Tactical Shotgun II | N/A | Long Gun | Knockdown |
Tactical Shotgun III | N/A | Long Gun | Knockdown |
Telescoping Staff | N/a | 2-handed melee | Knockdown |
Telescoping Staff mk 2 | N/a | 2-handed melee | Knockdown |
Telescoping Staff Mk 3 | N/a | 2-handed melee | Knockdown |
The Exterminator | Unique | Hand Gun | Knockback |
The Good Word | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Stagger |
The Needler | Science | Hand Gun | Acid, Has Poison, Acid, and a Slow |
The Pen | Unique | Long Gun | Knockdown |
The Vermin | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockout |
The Vermin II | N/A | Hand Gun | Knockout |
Thunderclap | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Knockdown, After killing an enemy Concuss nearby enemies. |
Tossball Blocker | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Tossball Stick | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Stagger |
Tremor Cleaver | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Tremor Cleaver Hyper | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Tremor Cleaver Ultra | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Trip-Blade | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Trip-Blade Mk 2 | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Vortex Mace | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Knockdown |
Vortex Mace Ultra | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Knockdown |
Plasma Weapons
These are represented in game by the red icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
Anarchist’s Cookbook | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Knockback, fires smaller and faster shells than a typical launcher. |
Bolter Pistol | N/a | Hand Gun | Stagger |
Bolter Pistol 2.0 | N/a | Hand Gun | Stagger |
Burnout | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger |
Employee’s Benefits | Science | Hand Gun | Heals targets, can revive companions. |
Flamethrower | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Flamethrower 2.0 | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Inferno Scythe | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Burn |
Inferno Scythe Gold | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Burn |
Ionized Paper Knife | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Burn |
Landing Pad Cutter | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Mind Control Ray | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, Mind Controlled |
Montag | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Stun |
MSI Plasma Rifle | N/A | Long Gun | Burn |
MSI Saltuna Searer | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Onslaught | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Burn, attacks that hit multiple enemies increase the wielder’s damage for a short time. |
Overheat | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Pauper Popper | Unique | Long Gun | Burn |
Perfect Game | Unique | 1 Handed melee | Stagger |
Piledriver | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Knockout, attacks deal damage to enemies behind the target. |
Plasma Carbine | N/A | Long Gun | Stagger |
Plasma Carbine Ultra | N/A | Long Gun | Stagger |
Plasma Cutter | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Burn |
Plasma Cutter Gold | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Burn |
Plasma Launcher | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Plasma Launcher 2.0 | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Plasma Propulsion Pack | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Plasma Rifle | N/A | Long Gun | Burn |
Plasma Rifle 2.0 | N/A | Long Gun | Burn |
Plasma Rifle 3.0 | N/A | Long Gun | Burn |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Pulse Hammer | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Knockout |
Pulse Hammer Gold | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Knockout |
Rapti-don’t | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Knockback |
Shrink Ray | Science | Hand Gun | Weaken, Shrunk |
Signed Tossball Stick | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Stagger |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
Sublight Plasma Knife | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Burn |
The Bouncer | Unique | Long Gun | Burn, Bullets Bounce |
The Negotiator | Unique | Hand Gun | Stagger |
The P.E.T. | Science | 2-Handed melee | Bleed, Pulls enemies when charging power or sweep attack. |
Ultimatum | Unique | Hand Gun | Burn, Projectiles richochet off most surfaces. |
Ultimate Bolter | N/A | Hand Gun | Burn |
Ultimate Bolter 2.0 | N/A | Hand Gun | Burn |
Corrosion WeaponsÂ
These are represented in game by the green icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
Aerial Assault | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Knockback, Attacks made while jumping inflict Knockback |
Anti-Manti Ray | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger |
Aqua Regia | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Burn, Weakened, Attacks have a chance to inflict Weakened. |
Infested Flechette Gun | Unique | Long Gun | Knockback, attacks temporarily reduce target’s armor |
Officer’s Spine | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Officer’s Spine Gold | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Officer’s Spine Titanium | N/A | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Salvager’s Helper | Unique | Hand Gun | Bleed |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
Supper Time | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed |
The Needler | Science | Hand Gun | Acid, Has Poison, Acid, and a Slow |
Ulti-Nature | Unique | Hand Gun | Acid, Projectiles richochets off most surfaces |
Cold WeaponsÂ
These are represented in game by the snowflake icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
Coolant Distributor | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Chilled |
Frigidariator | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger, Chilled, Attacks have a chance to inflict chilled. |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
Shock Weapons
These are represented in game by the light blue icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
Discharge | Unique | Long Gun | Stun, When you kill an enemy with this weapon enemies near the target take shock damage. |
Discrepancy Amplifier | Unique | Hand Gun | None |
Force Magnum | Unique | Hand Gun | Stagger, Knockback. Each attack with this gun consumes 2 ammor but on a critical hit the target is knocked back. |
Gloop Gun | Science | Heavy Weapon | Glooped |
Latinus | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Bleed, extra damage on sneak attacks |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Rapti-prod | Unique | 2-Handed melee | None |
Recharge | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Stun |
Security Blade | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Security Blade Hyper | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Security Blade Ultra | N/A | 2-Handed melee | Bleed |
Shock and Awe | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Stun |
Shock Cannon | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Stun |
Shock Cannon Hyper | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Stun |
Shock Cannon Ultra | N/A | Heavy Weapon | Stun |
Shock Stick | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Stun |
Short Circuit | Unique | Long Gun | Knockback |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
Storm Cannon | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Stun Baton | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Stun |
Stun Baton Hyper | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Stun |
Stun Baton Ultra | N/a | 1-Handed melee | Stun |
Tanaka’s Peacekeeper | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Bleed, Increases Leadership skill and Companion’s damage dealt |
The Hammer of Olympus | Unique | 2-Handed melee | Stun |
Thunder | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger, increased critical damage multiplier |
Udder Buddy | Science | 1-Handed melee | Stagger, attacks have a chance to pull enemies towards target. |
N-Ray WeaponsÂ
These are represented in game by the purple icon.
Name | Type | Weapon Class | Special effect |
Doctor’s Orders | Unique | Hand gun | Stagger, Attacks with this weapon deal increased damage when wielder is low on health. |
Eureka | Unique | Hand gun | Attacka have a chance to apply a random debuff on Organic enemies. |
Nova Burst | N/a | Long Gun | Stagger |
Phin’s Phorce | Unique | Long Gun | Stagger |
Prismatic Hammer | Science | 2-Handed melee | Knockdown, Can cycle through damage types. |
Purpleberry Launcher | Unique | Heavy Weapon | Burn |
Spectrum Gatling | Science | Long Gun | Stagger, alternates damage types with each shot. |
The Candy Cane | Unique | 2- Handed melee | Burn |
Wall of Swords | Unique | 1-Handed melee | Bleed, Hitting multiple enemies simultaneously increases the wielder’s damage temporarily. |
As you can see, there are many more Physical weapons than any other, and some weapons are just improved versions of different weapons. So when picking out what you want, make sure to consider which weapon does its best and what extra effects they may have.Â
Weapon Special effectsÂ
Aside from the base damage, weapons can occasionally inflict special effects on both you and your enemies, and here is a quick list of what they are and what they can do.Â
Acid | Damage over time and reduces armor |
Bleed | Damage over time reduces the body Attributes of organic creatures. |
Blind | Reduced vision range and ranged weapon accuracy |
Burn | Damage over time |
Chilled | Reduced movement speed, rate of fire, and melee attack speed |
Concuss | Reduction in all attributes and slows weapon attack rate |
Cripple | Reduces Movement speed, melee attack speed, and rate of fire |
Disarm | Removes held weapons, does not apply to attached weapons. |
Execute | It has a slight chance of instantly killing the target on a hit. |
Frozen | Target is unable to move |
Glooped | Lifts target into the air, incapacitating them, doing shock damage, and applying Weaken. |
Knockback | Pushes the target back, reduces offensive and defensive skill effectiveness, and the target takes increased physical damage. |
Knockdown | Prones the target, they are unable to take any action for a short while |
Knockout | Incapacitates the target for a few seconds |
Maim | Reduces target’s damage output |
Mind Controlled | Target attacks allies rather than enemies |
N-Ray-Dilated | Target radiates a Pulse of N-ray energy that damages enemies around the afflicted. Less effective against Automechanicals |
Poison | Damage over time reduces personality Attributes and does not affect Automechanicals |
Shocked | Reduces ranged weapon accuracy and strength |
Shrunk | Target is shrunken, reducing their damage and armor |
Stagger | Pushes the target back, reduces offensive and defensive skill effectiveness, and the target takes increased physical damage (Less than Knockback)Â |
Stun | Target is unable to attack for a short time. |
Weaken | Lowers all Skills a moderate amount, and the target takes increased Plasma, Shock, and N-Ray damage. |
F.A.Q.
Question: What is better, Plasma or Shock?
Answer: It depends; the shock is good against Automechanical or robotic enemies but is not that effective against other types. Plasma is good against flesh enemies, like creatures, and will burn anything it hits; however, it does not do well against non-flesh enemies. So it depends on who you are fighting.Â
Question: How do Damage Types work in Outer Worlds?
Answer: Every weapon in the game does a specific damage type whenever it hits. So a Plasma gun does Plasma damage while a Cold gun does Cold damage. Against certain enemy types, one damage type does more than others. So think of it matching the damage type with certain enemies for maximum damage.Â
Question What is the difference between D.P.S. and Damage in Outer Worlds?
Answer: Damage is calculated by how much a single projectile or swing affects an enemy. They are reduced by their armor and resistances and buffed by your stats and perks. D.P.S. is calculated by the average of how much damage you output per second. This includes terrain, damage over time, and other effects so long as you created them; it also consists of the damage from your weapon.Â
ConclusionÂ
All in all, Outer Worlds has a weapon for everyone and every damage type. If you feel like you aren’t doing as much damage to certain enemies, why not switch them out with a more effective weapon against that type of opponent. Play smart and use those four weapon slots on your wheel to their fullest.Â
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