Star Wars Outlaws starter tips to make you the best galactic thief

Star Wars Outlaws has been out for the last few days for anyone who ordered the special edition of the game, but its wider release is set for 30 August. This gives you a few days to prepare yourself for a scoundrel’s adventure across the galaxy.

While Ubisoft does a good job of introducing Kay Vess and Nix, having some tips for getting started is never a bad thing so we’re sharing some pointers for a smooth transition into the life of a thief.

We won’t be including any spoilers in our tips, so fear not.

Use Nix constantly

Nix is a very handy little companion who can do a bit of everything. Nix can distract guards, steal trinkets, pickpocket people, sabotage control panels, and even leap onto the heads of enemies for you to sucker punch them. And a lot of these abilities can be used in the heat of battle. For example, if you spot someone running to an alarm to call in more guards, you can get Nix to interrupt them; or if you’re sneaking past a group of enemies, Nix can be grabbing nearby loot for you.

Call for your speeder

I don’t remember the game specifically telling me this, but you can call your speeder bike by pressing ‘right’ on the D-Pad. It’s a bit like whistling for Roach in The Witcher 3 or calling your horse in The Legend of Zelda. There’s an ability to fast-travel to your bike, but this seems a pointless addition when you can call it to you in the open world, though you could use it as a temporary waypoint if you need to pop back to town for something.

Star Wars Outlaws - Ubisoft

Search for datapads

As with random items and trinkets, you’ll often find datapads scattered throughout the planets you visit. A lot of these contain interesting lore and background information, but many of them will give you important clues to side missions, or even tips for Fathier racing, where you’ll know the winner for a rigged bet. Not only do these datapads offer some funny moments, but without them, you’ll be missing out on some great diversions.

Don’t worry about failing

When it comes to hacking terminals - known as slicing - or picking locks, Ubisoft has been very generous. There are no failed attempts at these activities and you can try for as long as you need. With lockpicking, this is very useful as it relies on rhythm-based timing which can take some getting used to. Whereas slicing gives you a few attempts to solve the puzzle and get some credits as a reward, but if you pass this and enter the ‘red’ attempts, it doesn’t mean a fail or any alerts going off.

Star Wars Outlaws - Ubisoft

Focus on the experts

Rather than upgrading your skills with experience points like in other RPG adventures, your new skills here will be learned via experts you meet throughout the story. You can find them in the menu along with your journal for quests. Each expert offers a specialty and their skills are very useful for all aspects of being a thief. As you unlock them, explore what they offer and you can even track the conditions needed for unlocking a new ability.

Use fast-travel

This might seem like an obvious point, but you can fast-travel to a lot of places. Even from planet to planet which, if you’re limited on the amount of time you can play, will cut down on a lot of travelling. The same goes for open-world exploration, you can quickly travel to points of interest you’ve discovered, your ship, or your speeder. The only time you can’t fast-travel is when death troopers are after you, if you’ve annoyed the Empire enough.

Star Wars Outlaws - Ubisoft

Don’t stress about losing reputation

Despite a lot of emphasis put on the criminal factions you will work for, they’re remarkably fickle. Show them just an ounce of kindness and they’ll welcome you with open arms. And it’s very easy to regain rep lost if you make the mistake of punching out a guard you shouldn’t, not that I did that, at all. If you do find yourself being negged by a faction, just sell them some intel, do a couple of missions from the broker and you’ll be fine.

Sell, sell, sell

Whenever you visit a vendor you can sell all the random stuff you’ve been pocketing along the way. There are two things to note; firstly, you’ll make more money if the vendor is from a faction that likes you. They’ll offer you a bit more cash on each item. Secondly, you can press a button (usually ‘Y’ or ‘triangle’) to sell useless valuables. Some items will have a note saying that they can be sold, but might be helpful later down the line. Keep these as they’ll be related to factions and can get you out of a pinch.