Your reputation in The Outer Worlds 2 works as the invisible social currency that shapes how every faction, companion, and vendor reacts to you, friendly or hostile. It decides if a guard salutes you or shoots you, or a corporate rep offers you a quest or a lawsuit. Reputation affects dialogue options, discounts on brand trademark items, quest availability, and even different game endings. If you want to be the most beloved Captain in the Arcadia or the galaxy’s most wanted menace, here’s how reputation works in The Outer Worlds 2 and what you can do to raise or lose it.
The Outer Worlds 2 Reputation Explained
Reputation represents how much a faction likes (or despises) you based on your actions, dialogue choices, and quest outcomes. Every faction, from Auntie’s Choice’s profit-hungry execs to the zealous Order of the Ascendant, tracks your standing separately. Each faction’s reputation meter has positive and negative values that combine into an overall status like Neutral, Friendly, Allied, or Revering on the good side and Agitated, Bitter, or Repulse on the bad.
On high reputation levels, factions open their doors for you with cheap vendor prices, special missions, and insider perks. But if you drop too low in rep with them, they’ll do the opposite, such as mark you for death, slap a bounty on your head, or refuse to talk to you.
In The Outer Worlds 2, your companions’ loyalty is now linked directly to faction reputation as they are a part of specific factions. A companion aligned with the Order will disapprove if you help Auntie’s Choice and vice versa. Your decisions can strain relationships or even cause party conflicts, depending on how extreme your actions are.
How to Increase Reputation in The Outer Worlds 2
Complete Faction Quests
Every major faction in The Outer Worlds 2 has its own chain of story quests. These aren’t filler side jobs but some of the best-written quests in the game, and if you complete them, it supports the faction’s goals and increases your reputation. That can mean anything from helping Auntie’s Choice secure a trade route to assisting the Order to close a Rift.
Some quests also offer gray routes where you can help one group without completely burning bridges with another, but if you double-cross a faction in the final stage, expect your reputation to nosedive right away.
Do Favors and Help Their People
Even smaller acts count. The reputation improves once you complete side quests for faction-aligned NPCs, save their citizens, or defend their territory from enemies. These don’t always have “Faction Missions” label, but if the questgiver’s badge or location matches an order’s hub, your actions will impact your standing with them.
Make the “Right” Dialogue Choices
Sometimes, a single conversation does more for your reputation than a dozen fetch quests. NPCs remember your tone and loyalties. Support their beliefs, agree with their philosophies, and they’ll warm up to you. The Face Reader perk is a good help for that; it highlights dialogue options that would reduce your faction reputation so you can avoid saying something that’ll get you hated before dessert.
How to Lose Reputation in The Outer Worlds 2
Get Caught Stealing or Committing Crimes
If you’re caught stealing supplies, hacking terminals, or trespassing in a faction-controlled zone, you’ll take a big hit to your reputation. Do it often enough and they’ll place a bounty on you. That bounty doesn’t go away until you pay it off, bribe a contact, or prove your innocence. With the reputation reduced to a very low status, faction members will attack you on sight to kill you if a bounty is active on your head.
Tip: Stealth, disguises, and companion distractions go a long way to “borrow” without consequences.
Choose Hostile or Sarcastic Dialogue Options
Sarcasm can be fun but in The Outer Worlds 2, it’s also dangerous for your reputation. Mocking a faction leader, threatening an NPC, or openly rejecting a faction’s philosophy will quickly sour relationships. If you want to be a rebellious character, you won’t care but to have a good reputation to keep a few paths open, choose dialogue options carefully. Losing access to a faction hub or questline early can lock you out of valuable rewards and alternate endings.
Sabotage or Harm Faction Interests
The most dramatic reputation drops come from completing missions in ways that harm a faction or are not in their favor, like blowing up their facilities, betraying their contracts, or helping their rival. In some late-game quests, you can deliberately manipulate outcomes to favor one order over another. These choices permanently turn the outcome of how the Arcadia system views you and who’s willing to deal with you in the end.
How Reputation Affects Gameplay
Your reputation in the game actively changes how things play out ahead:
- Vendor Prices: The better your rep with the faction, the cheaper the goods to buy at their affiliated shops. With a bad reputation, you should expect inflated prices or a complete refusal to trade.
- NPC Behavior: Guards meet you with happy faces or sneer at you. Similarly, faction leaders either welcome you to meetings or order your execution.
- Companion Relationships: Your allies’ approval now rises or falls with faction choices, so alienating their home faction will create tension or even departures.
- Quest Availability: Many side quests, perks, and faction-exclusive rewards only unlock at higher rep tiers.
- Endings: The fate of the Arcadia and your companions can depend on how factions think about you when the credits roll.
The Outer Worlds 2 includes biased news reports across Arcadia. Your exploits are broadcast differently depending on faction allegiance; it can be reported as “hero rescue” at one place or as a “terrorist attack” somewhere else.
Tips to Manage Reputation
If you want to walk the diplomatic tightrope (or avoid being shot at on sight), here are tips to follow to play your cards right around the rep system:
- Save before big dialogue choices. Reputation shifts aren’t always obvious until it’s too late.
- Use the Face Reader perk. It’s worth the Observation Level 5 requirement and saves hours of accidental bad blood.
- Spread your favors around early. Keep multiple factions neutral or friendly until you decide which one is good for your playstyle or moral code.
- Don’t stress over perfection. The best thing about The Outer Worlds 2 is in its chaotic morality — being loved and hated at the same time is part of the fun.
The Outer Worlds 2 Reputation is as much about politics as it is personality. Every quest, theft, and snarky remark ripples through the factions of Arcadia. If you want to be a beloved corporate poster child, a righteous ascendant, or a wildcard outlaw, your reputation will set the legacy.
