The Outer Worlds Flaws Guide: Which Flaws are Worth it?

As you play through The Outer Worlds, you will be asked several times if you wish to accept or reject a flaw that has been found in you by Spacer’s Choice.

While taking on a flaw doesn’t sound like a tantalising prospect at first, it does come with the reward of getting one perk point.

In some cases, taking the negative effects caused by the flaw appears to be worthwhile for the reward, but it should be noted that the effects of a flaw are permanent and cannot be removed in The Outer Worlds.

Perks are earned every two levels, but as you progress further, levelling up takes longer. As perks offer very powerful effects, taking on some flaws is worth the hit.

In this The Outer Worlds guide, we’ll breakdown how flaws work and which flaws are worth taking when they are triggered. There’s also a list of all 20 of the flaws that we’ve found at the bottom of the article.

How flaws work in The Outer Worlds

In The Outer Worlds, you are offered the chance to accept or reject a flaw if a certain incident happens to your character. This can include being attacked too many times by a certain creature or being hit in a certain way.

Once triggered, the game will stop and a pop-up which reads “Spacer’s Choice Found A Flaw In You!” will appear, detailing why the flaw has been discovered and its effects. The flaw screen will also inform you that you’ll get a reward of one perk point, should you accept the flaw.

You can accept multiple flaws, all of which are permanent. If you’re playing on normal difficulty, you can accept three flaws; four if you’re playing on hard difficulty; and five if you’re playing The Outer Worlds on supernova difficulty.

Accumulating more perks outside of levelling up is the primary reward, but for anyone seeking 100 per cent completion of The Outer Worlds, accepting three flaws will unlock the ‘Flawed Hero’ achievement.

Flaws worth accepting in The Outer Worlds

In The Outer Worlds, Spacer’s Choice can find 20 different flaws in your character, ranging from drug addiction to a fear of certain creatures. As such, there are 20 different ways that you can pick up perks outside of levelling-up.

Of the 20 flaws in The Outer Worlds, there are likely five flaws that any player could easily accept and still enjoy the game without too much of a hindrance.

Cynophobia

The Cynophobia flaw in The Outer Worlds is triggered by being mauled too many times by Canids. Accepting the flaw causes -2 perception and -1 temperament, you become less effective and jittery when one attacks, but the flaw does reward one perk point.

Cynophobia will probably be triggered quite early in your playthrough as Canids are regularly encountered in conflict when you fight marauders and outlaws.

Taking on the Cynophobia flaw in The Outer Worlds is one of the better flaws to accept. The negative effects aren’t too bad, and Canids are among the weaker creatures roaming around in the game.

As with all creatures, there is a Mega Canid in the game (found outside of the Geothermal Plant, named Orthrus), but as Canids are weaker than other creatures, this flaw won’t be as damaging to your goal of hunting the mega creatures in The Outer Worlds.

So, feel free to accept the flaw of Cynophobia when it’s found by Spacer’s Choice.

Physical Damage Weakness and Farsighted

When the Physical Damage Weakness is found by Spacer’s Choice, the line reads: “Taking too much physical damage has made you soft and vulnerable to more physical damage.”

Naturally, if you’re already taking a lot of physical damage, you don’t want to become more susceptible to physical attacks.

As the effect of this flaw is that you take on +25% physical damage, you’ll only want to accept it if you prefer to fight at range with guns as opposed to running into the action with a melee weapon. However, due to the marauders who surge at you with their melee weapons, it is easy to trigger this flaw.

If you’re more into the firearms side of combat and have a decent ranged weapon, such as the Sublight Sniper Rifle or the Pink Slip, you can pick off the melee attackers before engaging, and then go all-in with your automatic rifles and handguns.

Accepting the Physical Damage Weakness does deliver a rather significant effect, but by adjusting your tactics before engaging slightly, you can minimise its impact while getting another perk point to use.

If you are going for an all-gun build, taking on the flaw Farsighted also wouldn’t be too disadvantageous as it only delivers -10 melee weapon skills.

Drug Addiction and Food Addiction

The Drug Addiction flaw is one of the more predictable flaws that you’ll encounter in The Outer Worlds. As drugs can offer immense benefits for a spell, many players encounter this flaw.

To trigger Drug Addiction, you simply have to use drugs often in the game. The Outer Worlds drugs are Ambidextrine, Fast Ration Pill, Nico-Pad (low nicotine), Nico-Pad (high nicotine), Pep Pills, Spacer’s Chaw (high nicotine), and Spacer’s Chaw (low nicotine).

Accepting Drug Addiction will give you -1 dexterity, -1 perception, and -1 temperament whenever the Drug Addiction Withdrawal effect kicks in. When your character goes through withdrawals, you simply have to take another drug to counter the effects.

Drugs are rather easy to come by in The Outer Worlds, and using them gives you significant benefits for 15 or 30 seconds. On top of that, of course, accepting the flaw will reward you with one perk point.

For similar reasoning, Food Addiction is a perfectly manageable flaw to accept, impacting the same effect of -1 dexterity, -1 perception, and -1 temperament as well as withdrawals.

Flaws to avoid

Cynophobia is the easiest creature-based flaw to accept as Canids are relatively easy beasts to stop.

Raptiphobia (brought on by Raptidon encounters), Pithecophobia (brought on by Primal encounters), and Herpetophobia (brought on by Manti-family creature encounters) all mean that you’ll be at a disadvantage against significantly stronger beasts.

You could probably take on Raptiphobia, as long as you don’t couple it with Corrosive Weakness as the Raptidon’s projectile attacks are corrosive.

Quite possibly the worst ones to take on are Robophobia – as automechanicals are tough enough as it is – Pithecophobia, Permanently Crippled, Permanent Concussion, and Permanently Maimed.

All of the flaws in The Outer Worlds

Here’s a list of all of the flaws that we’ve found in The Outer Worlds.