Picking the best armor for your commander in The Outer Worlds 2 will depend on what you're aiming to accomplish, as well as your skills. You might want to tank damage and wade into the fray, you might prefer to hang back and snipe enemies, or even get up close and personal with a knife for that tasty sneak attack bonus.
No matter your planned build, there are plenty of unique armor options to grab early in the game that'll set you up for success. These 12 unique armor pieces all come from the first region, Paradise Island, plus I've included two good ones you can get shortly after you leave. Besides their unique mod, each of these armor pieces also has an additional mod slot, and a basic set bonus you can see in the corresponding image.
Monocular Target-Finder
- Range Scanner: Grants additional Weakspot damage relative to how far away the target is. Further distances grant a larger bonus, but damage falloff is still applicable. Damage bonus maxes out at +30% at 100 meters.
For my money, this is the most useful helmet you'll find on Paradise Island, and it's really easy to grab as soon as you arrive in Fairfield. Simply talk to Huell Chaudry outside the Sheriff's office to get the Perilous Journey to the Grove quest, then head to Spire Grove by climbing the cliff if you can't repair the elevator.
Once there, you'll get the P.A.L.E. double jump upgrade with which you can complete A Final Death For Gravity, helping the trapped researchers. The reward for this quest is the Monocular Target-Finder. I didn't take this off for my entire time on Paradise Island, and it's perfect if you're planning to be a sniper, or to put a suppressor on a longarm and sneakily pick off enemies at range.
Malpractice
- Misconduct: While Crashing, gain +20% damage. Scales up to 40% with your medical skill.
Another helmet, you can find Malpractice in the Mysterious Cave on the west side of Paradise Island—you get here by heading south from the landing pad and then around and up the other side of the coast. This is actually the location where the Skeleton Crabble boss from Inez's quest lives, but you have to activate the sound system to make it appear, meaning you're relatively safe to grab this one whenever, besides the other Crabbles hanging out in the cave and en route. Malpractice is just on a table next to a text log in the center of the cave.
Just to clarify, Crashing is when you heal too much and fill your toxicity threshold, which prevents you from healing for a bit. While that might not sound good, this helmet gives you a damage bonus in that state, and there are certain weapons also based around toxicity. For example, the Adrenaline Edge Mk III knife, which you can buy from the Requisition Mech in Westport, passively grants toxicity and energy in combat, meaning you could trigger Crash purposefully to gain the damage boost.
Bomb Suit
- Extra Cushion: Damage taken from explosives is reduced by 90%. May recover parts from mines you step on (Chance increased with engineering skill)
- Grit-Enhancing Materials: 20% chance to ignore incoming attacks when below 50% health.
This is definitely the tankiest armor set you can find on Paradise Island. Considering how often bosses throw grenades at you, that 90% explosion damage-reduction is nice, especially when stacked alongside Grit-Enhancing Materials. You can find this one in the locked Bridge armory on the south side of The Bridge of the Reverent outpost, in the very centre of the island where you cross to the north half.
You'll either have to lockpick the door or acquire the key from one of the soldiers—once inside, you'll find it in a crate. Seeing as it also has 9 armor and 10% damage resistance, it more than rivals Kaur's Cuirass or the Arbiter Vanguard Suit, for sheer tankiness.
Limited Production Gentleperson's Oxyonian
- Marketing Manager: Companion abilities charge 10% faster. Scales up to 30% with your speech skill.
While I personally don't rely on companion abilities all that much, due to their slow cooldown, this top hat can remedy that a bit if you're running a character with high speech. You'll likely recognise this headwear as Minister Milverstreet's top hat. While you can get it by helping Milverstreet instead of Kaur and completing his two quests (as well as his suit, which is much less impressive), you can also just steal this by pickpocketing his key and opening his safe in the big home next to the greenhouse in Fairfield.
Kaur's Cuirass
- Adrenaline Shot: Whenever you take damage in combat, any toxicity you've accrued is reduced by 1. The amount of toxicity lost scales up to 3 with your medical skill.
- Cost-Cut Materials: +30% damage resistance, but 5% is lost every time the wearer takes damage, down to no additional bonuses. Resets at combat end.
While not quite as tanky as the Bomb Suit, Kaur's Cuirass does have that interesting Adrenaline Shot passive that reduces toxicity based on taking damage—handy if you're planning a tanky build or have a high medical skill rating. Honestly, this would combo quite well with Malpractice above. Both passives scale with medical, and Kaur's Cuirass would help you remove the toxicity after Crashing (to get the damage bonus), so you could heal again sooner.
The only way to get this armor is to help Kaur instead of Milverstreet and complete her quest to sabotage the Euphoria Coast Automech Repair Center. You could potentially kill her also, but that will make you an outlaw to Auntie's Choice so isn't worth it. She's also really tough to kill and I can't guarantee she'd drop it.
Escape Suit
- Escape Protocol: If the wearer's HP drops below 30%, a smoke bomb is dispensed at their location. Has a 10m cooldown which reduces based on your sneak skill.
- Cost-Cut Materials: +30% damage resistance, but 5% is lost every time the wearer takes damage, down to no additional bonuses. Resets at combat end.
This is one of my favorite armor sets from Paradise Island, mainly because it looks super cool with its bandolier and optical camo cape. It's also a decent armor piece if you're running a stealth build but struggle to escape enemy awareness to re-enter stealth, which is honestly the hardest part of stealth combat in The Outer Worlds 2. The smoke bomb will help with that a bit, even if it's got a hefty cooldown.
You can get this from the chest in the room with Ormsby after completing The Lab That Shouted Incoherently and Often quest at Eden's Bounty Agricenter, just to the south-west of Westport. When you head over that way, you'll get the distress signal on the radio, which will start the quest. Essentially, you sneak inside to meet Envisioner Ormsby and then sneak around some more, synthesizing an antidote for the berserk employees.
Arbiter Vanguard Suit
- First in: Whenever you take damage in combat, gain a stacking +1% crit chance. Resets after landing a critical hit, or when combat ends.
- Grit-Enhancing Materials: 20% chance to ignore incoming attacks when below 50% health.
A set of heavy armor that doesn't actually look all that heavy, the Arbiter Vanguard Suit offers a decent boost to crits if you're likely to be tanking damage. To be honest, this would stack really well with The Lonesome Ranger hat (which I mention below), seeing as that gives you +33% damage (up to the three stacks) for every two seconds you don't attack. So, you could run around getting shot to build your crit chance for six seconds, then shoot them with a big one-shot for 99% increased damage (but also potentially a crit).
To get this armor set, you'll need lockpick level 5. You'll also have to fight your way through the Arbiter Training Facility to the east of Fairfield. The armor itself is located in the safe in the office at the far back of the compound.
Tactical Trajectile Defense-Dome
- Safety Sphere: Trajectiles that come too close will automatically be destroyed at the cost of the user's energy.
So this one is basically a helmet that gives you your own shield (separate from the gadget-based one). Obviously, expending all your energy isn't ideal from a gadget perspective, but there are other ways to get energy, such as the Adrenaline Edge Mk III knife I mentioned in the Malpractice entry above, so there are definitely build possibilities here.
To get this one, you'll have to head to the Ministry of Accuracy, though you have to go here for either Kaur or Milverstreet's quests anyway, and then proceed through the facility to find the High Security Lockbox in the sealed room at the end. You'll then have to find five Advanced Decryption Keys to unlock it.
Manager's Tasking Hat
- Inspiring Authority: Enemies you hit with your attacks become Marked, causing companions to prioritize them and decreasing the damage they deal to the party (scales with speech skill).
Another great option if you're running a speech and leadership-based character. Companions can often be a little spotty in combat, either getting blasted down quickly or not focusing on the most ideal targets. This fancy helmet will let you coordinate things a little more, while also decreasing the damage you all take from a target, so it's a good one for bosses in particular.
This one comes from the lockbox you find in the basement at the end of the Mystifying Case of the Midnight Marauder quest in Fairfield, which you can start near the greenhouse by talking to the trooper with the cowboy hat. You'll also need four decryption keys to open it.
Native Species
- From Nowhere: Sound radius for weapons is decreased by 25%, decreasing to 50% with your sneak skill
- Cauterizing Materials: You no longer take damage from burn, instead healing with burn.
Another good option if you're running a sneaky sniper character, or even a close-range sneak character with a suppressed weapon. The healing with burn bonus is all a nice added extra benefit.
You find this chest piece in a lockbox by a limbless scientist corpse in the Red Spires area, northwest and up the hill from Eden's Bounty Agricenter near Westport. This is also where Envisioner Ormsby sends you to get Red Spores during The Lab That Shouted Incoherently and Often quest. You'll also need four decryption keys to open it.
Pilferator
- Stealthy Salubrity: Gain increased healing from your medical inhaler, increasing with your hack skill. You may also hack AutoDocs by expending Bypass Shunts to reactivate them (once per AutoDoc).
This is a great option for higher difficulties, since getting to use each AutoDoc twice means more inhalers uses overall, plus your inhalers will give extra healing.
This helmet is right after you finish Paradise Island. Head to Free Market Station in your ship and then to the bazaar, where you'll find a merchant called Doc Halvorson. While you can buy this, it's on the shelf right behind her, and is easy to steal if you manoeuvre into the right position behind her where you're undetected.
The Lonesome Ranger
- Between the Eyes: When in combat and not attacking, gain +33% damage every 2 seconds until your next attack, reload, or swap weapons (max 3 stacks)
A buff of 99% increased damage is a lot. Sure, you have to wait six seconds before firing your gun, but if you fire a big one-shot weapon, and build into crits as well, you'll be doing a lot of damage, chunking bosses in a single blast. This one isn't available until Golden Ridge after Paradise Island, but you can find it in the refugee camp where you go to recruit Tristan as part of his quest.
You'll first find him in The 2nd Choice on Free Market Station, then you can head to the camp at Golden Ridge as part of the quest. The lockbox it's contained inside is located in the house to the left as you enter. You'll also need four decryption keys to open it.
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