10 Star Wars Outlaws tips and tricks to become a master thief

In Star Wars Outlaws, Kay Vess is very much an underdog using all sorts of sneaky strategies to stay alive, and if you want to do well in the game, there are a few tricks of your own that you might want to try out.

We’ve gone through and listed some of our favourite pointers that will help you out massively in your playthrough. Whether it’s little things that will make your life a little easier, or things that will save you from dying in the middle of a quest, here are our top Star Wars Outlaws tips and tricks.

Prioritise Key Parts

As you meet certain characters, you’ll unlock quests to find Key Parts that let you unlock new Abilities such as better slicing tech or smoke bombs. Do these as soon as you get them. Each one is a huge boost to your capabilities and will make your time with the game significantly easier, whether that’s being able to access new areas with your Speeder or talking your way out of trouble with Fast Talk.

Disabling cameras

In stealth sections, you’ll often come across security cameras that will set off an alarm if they catch you. Sometimes, there’s a computer nearby that can disable them, but you can also disable them by simply shooting them with your blaster’s ion module. This will raise suspicion, but not the alarm, letting you sneak past undetected.

Pick a Syndicate

There are four Syndicates in Star Wars Outlaws, and performing quests for them will increase your reputation with one, while decreasing it with another. You might want to try and balance them all, but you should instead pick one and try and max out your reputation with them. High reputation provides powerful items and buffs, and access to unique quests. Check out the rewards for each Syndicate and aim to collect them.

Most choices don’t affect the story

At the end of plenty of quests, you’ll be given the option to help out one Syndicate over another. This doesn’t actually impact the story, nor the rewards you get – it only affects the reputation you have with each Syndicate. So if you’re with Crimson Dawn but worrying if choosing them will have a bad outcome, don’t! Just stick with whoever you want to impress more.

It’s only illegal if you get caught

Sometimes, while you’re in the middle of sneaking around, it can be tempting to go all guns blazing and blast your way through. But say you’re stealing from the Hutt Cartel for Crimson Dawn and you never get caught, you’ll gain reputation with Crimson Dawn, but lose none for the Hutt Cartel. Stealth isn’t just important for staying out of trouble, it keeps your name in everyone’s good books.

✓ Use your stun liberally

Your Blaster’s stun module can instantly incapacitate an enemy, so if an enemy spots you, make sure you’ve got your stun ready to go, as that’ll keep you hidden.

Contracts are your best friend

Contracts are quests you complete for Syndicates, and boy are they worth doing. Not only are they the fastest way to net yourself some reputation with a certain Syndicate, but they also tend to come with some nice rewards, whether that’s a huge sum of credits or a ton of materials to use for upgrades. And as your reputation grows, more contracts with more lucrative rewards become available – it’s a winning cycle!

✓ Betrayal

Many contracts give you the opportunity to betray the Syndicate who hired you, so make sure you know who you want to be friends with.

Take quests from your ship

If you’re looking to take some quests, you have to go and find one of the brokers to see what they’ve got on offer. But if you’re lazy, like us, you’ll be pleased to know that you can actually take on quests from your ship. Head to the room next to the cockpit and interact with the table to get a list of quests from every world to choose from. 

Check your ship’s storage

Every now and then, you’ll get some rewards for the quests you’ve completed delivered straight to your ship. On your way out via the landing bay, check to your left and you’ll see a briefcase. Interact with it, and you can collect a variety of rewards from credits to cosmetics. Once you’ve got ND-5 on board, he’ll remind you if you’ve got something to collect, too.

Use Nix in combat

Nix gets plenty of use when sneaking around, whether that’s distracting guards or activating switches. But you might not realise that you can use him in combat too. As soon as you enter combat, you can hold down the button to activate him, and then press and hold the ‘Protect Kay’ prompt in the bottom left. This will set him loose to automatically start attacking enemies, briefly incapacitating them and relieving a bit of pressure from you.

As well as stealing from and distracting enemies, he can jump on their faces to briefly stop them from attacking.

Raid Imperial watchtowers for quick cash

If you’re in need of a quick buck for whatever reason, one of the best ways to do that is by raiding some Imperial watchtowers. These are typically lightly guarded, and you can dispatch all the stormtroopers in no time flat, and they’re full of loot, and usually a container or two containing a bunch of credits. Sometimes, you might even find a terminal you can slice where you can transfer arrest credits for another nice wad of cash.