Star Wars Outlaws beginners tips before starting

A long time ago, gamers in a galaxy pretty nearby dreamed of an open-world Star Wars game. But Star Wars Outlaws isn’t just an open-world Star Wars game — it’s open-worlds.

Yes, Star Wars Outlaws spans five whole planets. And since it’s a Ubisoft game — with all the icons on all the sprawling maps that baggage generally entails — each of those planets is as dense as downtown Coruscant. That’s to say nothing of the fact that Outlaws itself is a chimera of, oh, every single popular AAA game design trend from the past 15 years.

To that end, here are 13(13!) beginners tips we would’ve loved to have before starting Star Wars Outlaws.

When you start Star Wars Outlaws, there’s no map — you don’t even have a grayed-out menu option. And there’s just something unsettling about playing an open-world Ubisoft game without a map.

Luckily, that only lasts until you reach the city of Mirogana on Toshara roughly an hour or two in. The game just has to get you through some scripted sequences and teach you the basics for a while first. After you get through that — specifically, once you complete the Reach Mirogana objective during “Underworld” — you’ll get access to a map and, eventually, fast travel.

For a game clearly inspired by Han Solo (you know, the guy famous for shooting first), Star Wars Outlaws downplays shootouts. All pre-release materials, including marketing and previews, suggested a game that allowed you to approach situations with whatever means you see fit, whether that’s sneaking through enemy bases or “going loud” (i.e., shooting first).

In reality, Outlaws is extremely focused on stealth — to the point where there are a number of missions you’ll automatically fail just by being spotted. Meanwhile, some situations where shooting seems like an option will then flood you with so many enemies that you simply don’t stand a chance. It’s the illusion of choice, but really, you only have one option: the quiet one.

The stealth mechanic(s) work a lot like the later Assassin’s Creed games and they’re pretty forgiving, but don’t approach Star Wars Outlaws thinking you can blast your way out of any situation. You’re going to have to be stealthy a lot.

Luckily, you’ve got help with that.

Nix is Kay’s constant companion and partner. It’s unfair to think of him as a sidekick, though. And equally unfair to think of him as a pet. Nix is really an extension of Kay and her abilities. Nix can fetch out-of-reach items, push buttons to open doors, distract enemies and security cameras, pickpocket marks, and even sabotage alarm panels. Better yet, Nix can do all of that without raising any suspicions (probably because he’s so dang cute). Even in hostile areas where Kay would get shot or captured immediately, Nix can move freely.

Can’t figure out how to stealthily navigate an Imperial space station without getting spotted? Maybe Nix can squeeze through a window. Can’t get past a patrolling guard? Send Nix to get them to turn around (or just claw their eyes out).

Using Nix as a distraction has one caveat, though: Distractions only work on one person at a time. Kay’s whistle will only draw one guard (the one closest to you — even if they’re behind you) and Nix’s antics only distract one guard at a time. Sometimes, this works to your advantage, like when you’re picking off guards one by one. More often, however, it’ll be a thing to work around, since guards rarely travel alone. Learn the limitations of distraction early so you know what you’re working with.

Star Wars Outlaws is really challenging our bones-deep belief that every game benefits from the inclusion of a grappling hook. The grappling hook isn’t going to come up a lot, but, when it does, it takes some getting used to. Let us set your expectations.

The grappling hook ability is highly dependent on context. The prompt (clicking the right thumbstick) will only appear when you’re near a grapple point. Sometimes, grappling is just for climbing or descending. More often, though, it’s for swinging. And that’s where the problems start.

Mistiming the dismount while swinging (jumping with X on PS5), often sends you careening into whatever chasm you’re trying to jump across. But if you just detach the grappling hook (Circle on PS5), you’ll continue on whatever trajectory you were originally on — meaning it’s a far more precise method than simply jumping.

You’ll be doing a lot of this kind of traversal as you play Star Wars Outlaws, because…

Kay isn’t exactly welcome everywhere she goes — she’s an outlaw, after all. Between gangs that don’t like you (more on this in a minute) and trigger-happy Imperials, the front door isn’t going to be an option for a lot of the places you need to visit.

Luckily, every base, hideout, station, and even cave in Star Wars Outlaws has at least one other entrance — there’s always (always) an air vent or a convenient grapple point nearby. (You learn this early on while sneaking into the Pyke Syndicate territory.) Whenever you run into a particularly unhelpful guard or bouncer, just look around. There will be another way to get inside not too far away.

Once inside, you just have to worry about being spotted. But not by everyone.

Everywhere you go will be populated by a mixture of armed guards — either gang-members or stormtroopers — along with just random civilians. Civilians don’t care if you’re supposed to be there or not, so you don’t have to worry about being spotted by them.

When you’re in a hostile area — maybe the hideout of a gang with which you have a poor reputation — you only have to watch out for guards. They’ll be wearing uniforms and usually carrying a weapon of some sort. They’re often patrolling and they kind of stand out.

A quick note: Restricted areas are a little different. Those are places you’re never allowed to go regardless of your reputation and are only populated with guards.

Sneaking in through the side door and dodging guards only really matters when you’re not in good with the gang that controls the district, though.

Doing things like providing intel to gang-affiliated merchants, completing missions and jobs, and even just playing cards can improve your reputation with the game’s various gangs. One of the benefits of getting your reputation up to good (or better) with each gang is that you can walk around their districts freely.

That makes your reputation another potential way to get inside most places. If you’re struggling with sneaking in someplace, just do some jobs for that gang and they’ll let you walk right through the front door.

Your reputation can go down as well, though, so you might have to win front-door-privileges multiple times because…

Your reputation with the various gangs and factions in Star Wars Outlaws is going to vary a lot. Most of your missions will work at cross purposes, so doing something that makes the Hutts happy will anger the Crimson Dawn, something that benefits the Pyke Syndicate will upset the Ashiga Clan, and so on.

You’re always going to be juggling the various gangs’ opinion of you versus what you need from them at the moment. Sometimes it’s good to build up a cushion of goodwill with everyone so you can burn a bridge or two to accomplish another goal. Other times, it’s better to focus all of your efforts on one gang at a time so you can get better rewards and access to more contracts.

For a look at how this goes down early in the game, see our guide on whether or not to give intel to Crimson Dawn or the Pyke Syndicate.

You only have one permanent weapon in Star Wars Outlaws — your blaster. (Well, two if you include your fists.) You’ll put a lot of time and energy into finding upgrades for that blaster and it’ll serve you well.

There are, though, other weapons like a DLT-20A sniper rifle or a E-11 blaster rifle you can pick up. These are only temporary pickups, however. The sniper rifle, for example, only has three shots before you automatically drop it. You’ll also drop the weapon if you do something like climb a ladder.

Treat any of the weapons you pick up as temporary power-ups.

Play Star Wars Outlaws for a few hours, and it’ll happen to you: You’ll want to hop on your speeder, but you won’t want to fast travel alllll the way back to wherever the kriff you left it parked. What the game won’t tell you, though, is that you can summon your speeder.

By interacting with any speeder merchant, your speeder will automatically reappear next to the shop. Or there’s the far more effective solution: Simply press right on your D-pad.

Picking locked doors in Outlaws requires you to engage in a rhythm-based mini-game. It’s a cool concept. But at least on PS5, the haptic triggers make it tough to match the rhythm. Plus, crucially, entering the lock-picking minigame doesn’t pause time in the “real” world — meaning patrolling guards can still discover (and shoot at) you while you’re trying to hack into their mainframe or whatever. In other words, deactivating this minigame makes stealth easier (and you’ll be doing a lot of stealthing — see above).

You’ll find the setting to simplify lock-picking in the “gameplay” menu of your settings. Here, you can also streamline a number of other minigames, including slicing (that’s Star Wars for “hacking”), quick-time events, and the innocuous-seeming street food minigame that’s secretly one of the most frustrating parts of the game.

As you play Star Wars Outlaws, you’ll meet Experts — the first is Bram, the bartender from Canto Bight. There are various Experts you’ll meet over the course of the game, and each one has a set of abilities they’ll teach you.

In your menu, go to “Abilities” and then click on an Expert’s face card. The cards across the top of the screen are the abilities you can unlock. Each ability has a set of actions you have to complete or resources you have to gather before they’ll unlock.

At first glance, this might look like an optional challenge mechanic, but it’s actually your skill tree. The Experts’ abilities that you unlock are essential to improving your abilities. You’ll unlock everything from health upgrades, to smoke bombs, to a bigger bacta vial pouch, to huge improvements to your hacking — some of which are necessary for other missions.

You’ll be doing a lot of sneaking around and climbing in Star Wars Outlaws. A lot of the time, these traversal sections will be pretty clear and have lots of prompts to walk you through them. Other times, though, it’s harder to figure out exactly where to start.Star Wars Outlaws doesn’t go out of its way to highlight every ledge and climbable wall. But there is a subtle hint you can watch for — these yellow triangle signs. They won’t be everywhere, and sometimes they’re easy to miss, but if you learn to watch for them, they’ll help guide your way.