Early on in The Outer Worlds 2, you’ll recruit Inez as a companion in Fairfield, and before long, you’ll face a big decision that permanently defines her combat role. Inez’s arm is broken when you first meet her, and the first thing you should do is help fix her body with a new replacement. You need to visit Ethel Tinsley for treatment, who offers to repair Inez’s broken graft using a part from one of two local monsters — the Crabble Claw or the Raptidon Fin. Both change the way Inez fights in your team as they come with their own perks, and once you make your choice, there’s no going back.
This guide breaks down what each graft does, how it affects Inez in the long run, and which graft between claw and fin is worth choosing based on which playstyle you like.
When You Unlock Inez’s Graft Quest
After recruiting Inez in Fairfield on Paradise Island, you’ll unlock her companion quest, Better Than Nature. It’s one of the early companion quests you shouldn’t ignore for too long, not just because it’s right next door, but because Inez’s health will continue to decline the longer you put it off.
Ethel Tinsley, a biotech surgeon stationed near Fairfield, tells you she can stabilize Inez’s graft if you bring her a viable monster organ. Your two options:
- A Crabble Claw from a hulking white crabble on the southwest coast.
- A Raptidon Fin from the Raptidon Matriarch located in a northern cave near the Vox Relay.
You can track both on your map, defeat the beasts, and bring both trophies back to Ethel, but she’ll only perform one graft. So yes — no “try both” loophole unless you’re saving-scumming before the operation.
What Inez’s Graft Actually Does
Until you complete Better Than Nature, Inez is stuck as a basic ranged fighter. She’ll shoot and stun the targets with her gun, but she lacks any unique companion ability or special skill. The installation of a graft in her body not only keeps her alive but also unlocks her personal skill tree, which gives you the first real opportunity to specialize her role on the team.
Every five levels, she’ll earn graft-related upgrades that improve whichever mutation you’ve chosen, from stronger plasma blasts to wide healing mist coverage. What that means is her graft completely reflects her performance and powers in battles, and how she supports (or doesn’t support) you.
Should You Pick the Crabble Claw or Raptidon Fin for Inez in Outer Worlds 2?
If you choose Crabble Claw as a graft, it turns Inez into a mini heavy gunner. The graft fires plasma projectiles similar to what the crabble spitters use on Paradise Island. Its main purpose is to shred armor and deal burn damage over time, which helps to fight tough enemies and mechanical targets.
In practice, the Crabble Claw sounds good — a burst of searing plasma with a satisfying “thump” — but its effects highly depend on your Leadership investment. If you haven’t buffed companion skill cooldowns or damage, the ability’s raw numbers can be underwhelming. Later upgrades make it better, which lets plasma rounds leave behind lingering burn pools, but even then, you’ve got other ways to melt armor yourself like the Biomass Pistol or corrosive mods. It’s an exciting and aggressive graft, but it doesn’t drastically change battle flow because Inez still receives shots and mostly goes down before she can make full use of it.
If you’d rather have Inez stick around longer and keep you alive as well, we recommend choosing the Raptidon Fin because it’s the only way to let her be a healer. It grants her the ability to cloak temporarily during a fight so she can reposition or escape aggro, and what’s more, she’ll heal you periodically throughout combat.
Outside of VAL (V.A.L.E.R.I.E.), no other companion can provide healing support. If you’re playing on higher difficulties or like to save inhaler charges, having Inez beside you who continuously patches you up mid-fight is worth its weight in Adreno. Later upgrade to Raptidon tree levels up the ability to more, when the invisibility lasts longer, and she can create a healing mist that covers a small area that heals you and your allies. Essentially, this graft turns Inez from “just another gun” into a tactical support character, and she survives fights far better since she spends less time being shot in the open.
So, unless you’re going for a full-offense, no-healing-needed build, the Raptidon Fin is the better long-term choice. The only reason to pick the Crabble Claw is if you role-play a squad that focuses completely on burning and armor shredding, or if you have a melee-heavy character who wants Inez to keep up the ranged pressure. Otherwise, the Fin wins out in use and survivability by a mile.
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