Flaws in The Outer Worlds are permanent negative effects that the player can acquire throughout the course of the game. These negative effects usually provide a perk point/s in exchange for accepting a flaw, however, players are given the option to accept or reject it. This page contains a full list of all the flaws in the game.

  • Once accepted, flaws are permanent and cannot be erased

 

Spacer's Choice found a Flaw in you!

How do Flaws work?

The Outer Worlds brings a gameplay mechanic called Flaws that introduces a real-life experience to the players. Think of a Flaw as a condition that you may encounter in real life which permanently affects either the physical, mental or emotional aspects of a person. Flaws trigger and appear only if certain causes are inflicted on the player's character, for example, being hit on the head too many times can lead to a permanent concussion, or getting attacked too many times by a specific type of enemy may cause your character to become anxious or paranoid around that enemy. Whenever a flaw is found in you, you are given a choice to accept it which is permanently applied to your character's stats or to reject it.

 

Accepting Flaws

Why should I accept a Flaw? What's the benefit of it?  In The Outer Worlds, there are multiple flaws that can be found that are based on the player's gameplay and actions, and accepting a flaw will reward you with a Perk Point which you can use to learn and unlock Perks. The Flaws system will depend on the type of difficulty you are playing on, Normal Mode will limit you to having up to three flaws, four on Hard Mode, while Supernova Mode is up to five. In all modes, you will be given the option to accept or reject a triggered flaw, and once they are accepted their effects are permanently applied and may not be removed. Some effects have conditions, such as proximity to a specific Enemy type.

 

The Outer Worlds Flaws

Cynophobia!

Effects:
-2 Perception, -1 Temperament

 

Paranoid!

Effects:
-1 Personality Attributes

 

Plasma Weakness!

Effects:
+25% Plasma Damage Received

 

 

Permanent Concussion!

Effects:
Mind Attributes -1

 

Physical Damage Weakness

Effects:
+25% Physical Damage

 

Pitecophobia!

Effects:
-1 Dexterity, -1 Perception, -1 Temperament

 

Corrosive Weakness

Effects:
+25% Corrosive Damage Received

 

Permanently Crippled

Effects:
Unable to Dodge, -30% Movement Speed

 

Farsighted

Effects:
-10 Melee Weapon Skills

 

 




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    • Anonymous

      Seems there are many that are missing. I forget what it's called but there is another for respecing too many times. It disables 1 perk for 24, picking at random.

      • Anonymous

        Is the +5% damage per flaw perk worth attempting to build a character that has every flaw? How does that damage stack and how is it calculated?

        • Anonymous

          I see you can become addicted to drugs, does the same go for alcohol? Or does alcohol fall into drug addiction? I'd like to take on both flaws if possible because it's easy to find drugs and booze and I could counteract the negative side of those flaws pretty easily.

          • Anonymous

            There is also Impediphobia that trigger when you are encombered too many times
            Dexterity -1
            Perception -1
            Temperament -1

            • Anonymous

              Page does not include “N-Ray Weakness - ‘you have been exposed to N-rays once too often, and you now have become susceptible to N-ray damage.’ Effect: N-Ray Damage Received +25%”. I fight a lot of primal beast. Unsure if it’s worth taking as I’m still at Edgewater. Read that late game humans also use N-ray damage.

              • Anonymous

                I found another flaw not mentioned here, tried to edit the page to add it but couldn't figure out how the editor worked exactly. The perk was triggered as I killed couple marauders.
                The flaw that I found is Guilt-Ridden!
                "Killing so many people has made you uneasy when fighting humans."
                Effects:
                Guilt-Ridden: Ranged Weapon Sway +100%
                Ranged Weapon Spread +50%

                • Anonymous

                  Trigger conditions for anything besides Acrophobia, Paranoia and weight-related flaws are completly unreliable. So annoying.

                  • Anonymous

                    There is also a flaw that gives you -1 body attributes when at 50% carrying capacity or over, I think it's gained if you keep going over your carrying limit a lot, but I am not certain, it appeared for me when my carrying capacity got exceeded due to my hunger and thirst reducing my max under what I was already carrying.

                    • Anonymous

                      Such a tacky gimmick. Almost all of the perks are garbage to start off, and all the "flaws" are uninteresting debuffs of varying degrees of annoyance.

                      • Anonymous

                        It would be nice if there was a wider variety of flaws available, even if some might be a bit useless. I was really hoping for some habitual liar or poor memory flaw...

                        • Anonymous

                          is it possible to have multiple 'damage weakness' flaws at once? i swear i can take hits from mega rapt spit all day without getting corrosive weakness when i've already got plasma weakness [similarly, can't get plasma weakness when already weak to physical damage on a different playthrough]. anyone else to confirm/deny?

                          • Anonymous

                            N-ray Weakness: N-ray Damage Received +25% "You have been exposed to N-Rays too often, and you have now become susceptible to N-ray Damage." Got it while fighting Primals around Edgewater.

                            • Anonymous

                              Permanently maimed: "Your arms have taken way too much damage, and you're no longer as good with weapons as you used to be." -20% Offense Skill I'm doing a Melee build and was practicing parries on the Primal. Not sure because blocked a lot or took a lot of damage.

                              • Anonymous

                                Farsighted: "Repeated eye injuries have made it harder for you to notice things close to you." -10 Melee Weapon Skills

                                • Anonymous

                                  "but in Supernova Mode, the flaws will be automatically accepted and permanently applied to your character's stats."

                                  • Anonymous

                                    I'm in Supernova difficulty and was able to refuse a flaw. I don't know if that's a bug or if it was a part of an update and not noted here.

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