Pick whichever The Outer Worlds 2 background you want, but this one skill is absolutely vital on the first planet

Xbox Game Pass players are now free to jump in and try out The Outer Worlds 2. But before you start playing Obsidian's new space opera properly, you'll have to choose your background, your traits, and your first few skills.

Regular visitors to the RPG genre will know that the decisions you make in these opening menus, and your subsequent spending of skill points, will have an impact later on.

With that in mind, it's only natural to sit in those opening menus for ages and wonder what is the very best way to customise your character at the start of the game.

I'm here to tell you that it's actually more about skills than it is about your background, in terms of which choices here will come back and bite you on the bottom later.

While I was working on our The Outer Worlds 2 review, on my first play-through, I opted for the 'Roustabout' as my character's background.

I really wanted to see how funny the comedy side of this game's writing was, and this seemed like a choice that would really play into that.

Devising my character as a bit of muck-up, someone who somehow keeps failing upwards and stumbling out of sticky situations unscathed, seemed like a fun little option. And I don't regret it.

Being a Roustabout opens up some silly dialogue options all through the game, and I never felt like I was being punished for choosing a dumb option at the start. If anything, I was being rewarded with little gags on the regular.

It's actually in the skill point system that I'd most recommend that you invest your resources as mindfully as possible. If you waste your skill points on the wrong things, you'll run into high-stakes moments later on without the knowhow to resolve them in a positive fashion.

In fact, there's one area in which I'd really recommend that you pump a few skill points early on.

My key piece of advice would be this: make sure you spend four skill points on Hack as soon as you can.

Why, I hear you ask?

Well, the answer to that question is a pretty big spoiler, so look away now if you don't want to know even a vague description of the situation I'm trying to save you from.

Still here? Okay, great. The reason I say that you will want to have your Hack skills at four or above factors into the first planet's main mission.

Once you're past the tutorial and into the game proper, you'll be dropped on a planet and given the ultimate goal to infiltrate a secret lab called the Vox Relay.

It'll probably take you hours to actually get to the Vox Relay, and you're likely to level up a few times along the way, giving you ample time to invest a few skill points in Hack.

When you finish the Vox Relay mission, you'll have the option to interact with a computer and make a split-second choice that will impact a lot of people across multiple locations.

If you don't have four skill points or more in Hack, you won't be able to choose the peaceful solution here. Instead, you'll be in a 'no win scenario' where you have to make a binary choice between two pretty bad outcomes.

If you do have four skill points in Hack, you can advert disaster and finish the first planet without blowing up anything important or turning any factions against you. And that, dearest gentle reader, is why I strongly recommend that you pump four skill points into Hack before you head to the Vox Relay to wrap up the first planet.

As you get deeper into the game, it's inevitable that you'll run into some situations where your skills don't measure up to the demands. I'd recommend spending a few on Speech if you like avoiding boss battles, and a little Engineering goes a long way too.

It's all about your personal playstyle, and you'll learn as you go which skills you use the most, which weapons you favour in combat, and so on.

In terms of traits and flaws, which you will also get to pick throughout the game, I wouldn't say there are any wrong answer there. Read the descriptions carefully and if something sounds up your alley, go for it.

I opted for the Consumerism flaw, because the rewards were worth the risks in my opinion, and I've chosen my traits pretty carefully to match my playstyle (I don't care about pickpocketing or stealth, for example, so I didn't pick the traits that play into those styles of play).

But yeah, put four into Hack and thank me later. You won't regret it! The game doesn't let you respec after the tutorial, either, so there's no undoing the skill point decisions you make.

For more on The Outer Worlds 2, check out our developer interview over on YouTube!

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