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Outer Worlds 2
Best Leadership Build
The Leadership build empowers your companions, allowing them to both take and deal more damage in Outer Worlds 2. Learn more about what skills and perks to get for the Leadership build, as well as what weapons and armor to equip, here!
Best Leadership Build
Build Summary
| Leadership Build | |
|---|---|
| Background |  Lawbringer |
| Traits |
 Brilliant Brilliant You're intelligent, able to easily solve problems and pick up new skills.
 Heroic Heroic Others tend to naturally follow and look up to you.
 Sickly Sickly Your body is weak, prone to breaks, scrapes, and illness. Injuries and crashing from primers are more likely.
|
| Skills |
 Engineering Engineering The Engineering skill increases the effectiveness of all armor, granting inherent Damage Reduction. In conversations and while exploring, Engineering aids in the ability to act on the knowledge of mechanical systems. Investing in Engineering allows you to select perks that further increase your defenses and benefits from weapon, helmet and armor mods.
 Guns Guns The Guns skill increases damage dealt with all types of guns, including ballistic, shock, plasma and bio guns. Investing in the Guns skill allows you to select perks that further improve your ability to use guns of various types.
 Leadership Leadership The Leadership skill increases the damage and survivability of your companons. Investing in Leadership allows you to select perks that let you use companion abilities more and improve the overall effectiveness of your companions.
 Medical Medical The Medical skill increases maximum Toxicity, allowing more uses of the Medical Inhaler at a time and increased resistance to Zyranium poisoning. Investing in the Medical skill allows you to select perks that further improve your inhaler, temporarily tame creatures, and make better use of corrosive weapons.
 Observation Observation The Observation skill reveals hidden objects inthe world and the subtle behaviors in conversations. Investing in the Observation skill allows you to select perks that lets you find more loot, track enemies, and more effectively use enemy weakpoints.
 Speech Speech The speech skill allows you to better influence others in conversations. Investing in the Speech skill allows you to select perks that let you get discounts a vendors, intimidate others, and gain more reputation with factions.
|
| Weapons | |
| Armor | |
| Pros and Cons | |
 Improved Companion stats Decent survivability and damage Reliant on Companions for damage Build effectivity goes down with each downed companion |
|
Click the links above to see the detailed explanations for the build!
The Leadership Build empowers your Companions, allowing them to deal and tank more damage and giving you the ability to safely attack enemies without worry of counterattack.
Best Leadership Build Background
Lawbringer
The best background for the Leadership Build is the Lawbringer, as it gives the image of a well-loved and feared Agent, capable of bringing peace to the land with their trusty allies.
Best Leadership Build Traits
Positive Traits
 Brilliant |
・During skill selection, Specialize in 1 additional skill. Specialized skills start with 2 points. |
|---|---|
 Heroic |
・-20% Companion Ability Charge Time |
For Positive Traits, we highly recommend Brilliant and Heroic. Brilliant allows you to select a third Specialized skill, giving you a head start in leveling Skills.
Heroic, on the other hand, decreases Companion Ability Charge Time, allowing you to use Companion Abilities more often.
Negative Traits
| Trait | Effect |
|---|---|
 Sickly |
・-15% Base Health ・-15 Toxicity Crash Threshold |
As you will be picking two Positive Traits, you will also need to pick a Negative Trait. We highly recommend Sickly, as the lowered Base Health and decreased Toxicity Crash Threshold can be easily remedied using certain Perks and Flaws.
Best Leadership Build Flaws
| Flaw | Positive Effect | Negative Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Overprepared | +50% Magazine Size | -40% Damage for 8s after a weapon's magazine hits empty. |
| Teetotaler | +25% Health restored by the Medical Inhaler | +25% Toxicity received from the Medical Inhaler |
| Dependent | +25% Damage to enemies recently damaged by a companion. | -10% Damage |
| Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome | +15% Experience Earned | Conversation options are now randomly chosen for you if you take too long to decide. |
| Drug Addiction | -40% Toxicity received from the Medical Inhaler | -20% Health restored by the Medical Inhaler |
These are the Best Flaws to get for the Leadership Build. These flaws provide effects that provide additional XP for fast leveling, improve your damage against enemies your Companions are attacking, improve your Medical Inhaler, and buff your combat abilities.
Their negative effects are either manageable or easy to play around.
Best Leadership Build Skills
Specialized Skills
| Specialized Skills | ||
|---|---|---|
| Leadership |
Speech |
Medical |
The Leadership build focuses on buffing your Companions as much as possible. As such, specialize in Leadership to improve their damage and HP. Take Speech to complement Leadership, as well as Medical to help in unlocking important Perks.
Other Useful Skills
| Useful Skills | ||
|---|---|---|
| Guns |
Engineering |
Observation |
Other than the Specialized skills, you will also need to take Guns, Engineering, and Observation. Guns will improve your damage output, while Engineering will improve your Damage Resistance while also giving you access to survivability Perks
Lastly, Observation will improve your Weakspot damage, reveal hidden interactables, and give access to some strong perks.
Final Skill Allocation
| Skill | Points | Priority |
|---|---|---|
| Leadership | 20 | High |
| Guns | 15 | High |
| Speech | 14 | Medium |
| Medical | 5 | Medium |
| Engineering | 5 | Low |
| Observation | 5 | Low |
This includes the 58 Skill Points you get from leveling up to 30, as well as the 6 points you get from Brilliant
This Skill allocation will allow you to fully improve your Companions, while still giving you good damage and survivability.
Prioritize leveling Medical until you reach Medical 5. Afterward, prioritize Leadership and Speech until they both reach Level 10. Level your Engineering and Observation to Level 5 afterward, before finally dumping the rest of your points on Leadership, Speech, and Guns.
Best Leadership Build Perks
Essential Perks
| Level | Perk | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 2 |
 Inspiring Commander
|
・Companion Command meters fill 5% each time the party scores a kill. |
| 4 |
 Pharm-thusiast
|
・-25% Toxicity received from the Medical inhaler |
| 6 |
 Comradery
|
・+25% Damage Resistance for 10s |
| 8 |
 Inhaler Overload
|
・+20% Damage
・+3 Armor Rating and 10% Evasion Chance ・+50% Movement Speed |
| 10 |
 Negotiator
|
・+75 Reputation gained with all factions
・-20% Companion Ability Charge Time |
| 12 |
 Bulletshield
|
・+10% Damage Resistance
・+10% Base Health |
| 14 |
 Intimidator
|
・Frightened: The target flees from combat for 8s. Does not affect automechanicals. 2 minutes cooldown. |
| 16 |
 Grim Visage
|
・Frightened: The target flees from combat for 8s. Does not affect automechanicals. |
| 18 |
 Charlatan
|
・Higher success chance when lying in dialogue
・Reduced chances of enemies targeting you |
| 20 |
 Tall Tale Teller
|
・+20% Damage |
| 22 |
 Space Ranger
|
・+2.5% Damage per Speech skill |
| 24 |
 Sharpshooter
|
・+100% Sneak Attack Damage
・+30% Damage to far enemies ・-15% Damage to near enemies |
| 26 |
 Shrug it Off
|
・Gain 50% of Max Health as Temporary Health |
| 28 |
 Makeshift Armorer
|
・+1 Armor Value to your equipped armor for every 25 hits crafted |
| 30 |
 On Your Feet
|
・+10m Companion Revive Range |
These are the perks that you should get for the Leadership Build. All of these perks work toward improving your Companion's stats, as well as improving your survivability and damage.
We recommend tagging these skills as your Favorite to make it easier to find them and see their Skill requirements.
Best Leadership Build Equipment
Weapon Loadout
| Jump to a Section! | |
|---|---|
| Weapons | Armor |
| Weapon | Mods |
|---|---|
 The Oracle
|
・Plasma Barrel ・Tracing Unit ・Prediction Optics |
 Matron's Mauler
|
・Defense Grip ・Motivator |
The Leadership Build's loadout is very flexible, but we highly recommend The Oracle equipped with the Tracing Unit and Plasma Barrel. This lets you mark enemies whenever you hit their Weakspot. Marked enemies take more damage, and are prioritized by your Companions. Additionally, the Prediction Optics allows you to lock on to enemies, making it easier to deal damage.
Equip the Matron's Mauler as your secondary weapon, as it allows you to Charm an enemy and make them fight for you. Its cooldown will get lowered thanks to your increased Speech skill.
Armor Loadout
| Jump to a Section! | |
|---|---|
| Weapons | Armor |
| Armor | Mods |
|---|---|
 Manager's Tasking Hat
|
・Inspiring Authority ・Synergy Boosters |
 Scoundrel's Aegis
|
・Corrosion Soak ・Last Stand ・Cost-Cut Materials |
This armor loadout is the best for Leadership Builds as they buff your Companions, and increase your survivability. The Manager's Tasking Hat synergizes well with the Tracing Unit on your primary Weapon, making marked enemies not only take more damage, but also deal less damage thanks to Inspiring Authority. Equip Synergy Boosters to improve your Companions' survivability.
As for your Armor, Scoundrel's Aegis is the best, as it provides a large amount of temporary HP whenever you activate a Companion Ability. As Companion Abilities charge fast with this build, you will be able to continuously receive temporary HP. Equip the Corrosion Soak to reduce its damage and effects on you.
Best Leadership Build Companions
| Companion | Perks |
|---|---|
 Tristan |
・Juggernaut ・Shield of the Law ・Zyranium Regeneration ・Aggressive Challenge ・Demoralizing Entry ・Groundshaker |
 Inez |
・Surgical Strike ・Experimental Biomass Conversion ・Lethal Graft Research ・Experimental Primer Research ・Self Betterment ・Drug Diffusion Modification |
When running a Leadership Build, bring along Tristan and Inez as your Companions. Tristan serves as a tank, while Inez is your Offensive support.
Tristan will Taunt and Goad enemies, making it easier to attack them. Inez, on the other hand, can provide numerous buffs to the entire team, including increased gun stats, and even temporary invulnerability whenever you use your inhaler.
Best Leadership Build Items
Gadget
TTD Gadget and N-Ray Scanner
The best gadgets for the Leadership build are the Tactical Time Dilation (TTD) Gadget and the N-Ray Scanner.
The TTD Gadget allows you to enter Tactical Time Dilation, slowing down time and allowing you to aim at the enemy's Weakspot. The N-Ray Scanner, on the other hand, increases your Critical Chance, improving your overall damage output.
Inhaler
Inez's Symbiotic Primer and ED Primer 1X
Inez's Symbiotic Primer applies a 30-second buff on you that recovers Health whenever your party scores a kill. The ED Primer 1X, on the other hand, gives you some healing over time, with relatively low Toxicity.
Throwable
Bio-Mass Grenade
Bio-Mass Grenades are the best throwable to use, as not only do they deal damage to your enemies, but they can also apply Vulnerable on your enemies, lowering their armor and eventually removing it completely. This allows you and your companions to deal even more damage to your enemies, especially fully-armored ones.
Outer Worlds 2 Related Guides
All Character Builds
| Character Builds | |
|---|---|
| Stealth | Science |
| Gunslinger | Melee |
| Leadership | |
All Background Builds
| Background Builds | |
|---|---|
| Ex-Convict | Gambler |
| Lawbringer | Professor |
| Renegade | Roustabout |
Comment
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Best Leadership Build
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