Star Wars Outlaws: Beginner's Guide & Best Tips

The Honest Truth About Star Wars Outlaws

Look, I’m gonna level with you. I bought Star Wars Outlaws on day one thinking I was getting a polished heist sim in a galaxy far, far away. What I actually got was a game that hates you for the first ten hours and then suddenly clicks so hard you can’t put it down. I’ve put about 80 hours into it across two playthroughs, and I’ve seen the forums. I know you’re out there dying to the same stupid droids I died to.

This isn’t one of those guides that tells you to “explore every corner” or “take your time.” I’m here to tell you which corners are traps, which upgrades are bait, and how to stop rage-quitting when the Sabaac Den mission decides you need to fight three Pyke syndicate elites at once with a blaster that hits like a wet napkin.

The game is gorgeous. The cityscapes are the best they’ve ever been in a Star Wars game. But the tutorial is aggressively mid, and the difficulty curve is shaped like a fist. So let me save you the headache I went through.

Why You’re Probably Getting Wrecked

Here’s the real talk: Outlaws has a stealth system that works 70% of the time and a combat system that feels like it was designed by someone who hates cover shooters. The first real mission after the prologue — the one where you break into the Imperial base on Canto Bight — almost made me refund the game. Why? Because the game punishes you for playing the way you’d expect to play.

Pain point #1: The wanted system is not your friend. I spent my first three runs thinking I could just shoot my way out of anything. Spoiler: you can’t. The second you get a high wanted level, the Imperials send these jetpack troopers that one-tap you from across the map. I died so many times to the Death Trooper patrol on Toshara that I started hearing their footsteps in my sleep.

Pain point #2: The skill tree is straight-up misleading. See that “Synaptic Acceleration” node that sounds like it makes you faster? It doesn’t. It increases your hacking speed by 10%. That’s it. I wasted my first two skill points on it and immediately regretted it.

Pain point #3: Pace yourself on the syndicate rep. I went all-in with the Pykes early because their vendor had a cool blaster. Then the Crimson Dawn locked me out of a key story area for six hours. The rep system is not a “choose your favorite” thing — it’s a balancing act, and the game doesn’t tell you that.

Pain point #4: The Trailblazer (your ship) is not a fighter. I tried to dogfight a TIE interceptor with the base loadout. I exploded so fast I thought my game glitched. Space combat is purely about evasion until you get upgrades. Don’t be me.

If any of this sounds familiar, keep reading. The fixes are actually simple once you know them.

What You Actually Need To Do First

Forget everything the intro mission tells you. Here’s your actual checklist for the first five hours.

• Rush the “Nix Whisperer” skill first. Nix is your animal companion, and he’s the single most useful tool in the game. The base version is fine, but the Level 2 upgrade lets him distract two enemies and disable alarm panels. I spent 45 minutes stuck on a stealth section before I realized I could just have Nix turn off the terminal. His cooldown is 15 seconds. Abuse it.
• Do the “Slicer’s Kit” side quest on Canto Bight immediately. It gives you the Advanced Dataspike, which cuts hacking minigame times in half. The base hacking minigame is not hard, but later doors have three layers and a 90-second timer. Without this upgrade, you will fail those. I failed the Imperial Armory door four times in a row before I got it.
• Buy the “Reinforced Chestplate” from the Akiva vendor. It costs 2,500 credits. It gives you a flat 25% damage reduction to blaster shots. It’s the single best piece of armor in the first half of the game. I ignored it because the flavor text sounded boring. I was wrong.
• Don’t upgrade your blaster damage first. I know it’s tempting. The base blaster does 18 damage per shot. The first damage upgrade takes it to 22. That’s not gonna save you. Instead, put your first two weapon upgrades into “Ion Cooldown” (makes you stun droids faster) and “Ammo Capacity” (you will run out of ammo at the worst possible moment). The stun shot is your panic button — use it when you’re cornered.
• Fast travel is your best friend. The planets are huge. I walked from the market district to the spaceport on Mirogana thinking it would be scenic. It took 12 minutes. Use the taxi terminals. They cost 50 credits. That’s dinner money. Spend it.

One more thing: save your game manually before every big mission. The autosave is inconsistent. I lost 40 minutes of progress on the Kijimi heist because the game saved me at the start of a conversation I had already finished. Manual saves are in the pause menu. Do it.

Tricks The Game Doesn’t Tell You

Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to stop surviving and start thriving. These are the techniques that separate a smooth heist from a bloodbath.

1. The crouch-jump-dash cancel. This is not a bug, it’s a movement tech. If you sprint, crouch, jump, and then dash immediately, you cover about 40% more distance than a normal sprint. It also makes you almost impossible to hit with blaster fire because your hitbox shifts. I use this to clear the Imperial checkpoint on Mirogana every time. Practice it for five minutes in the hub area.

2. Syndicate rep is a resource, not a score. Each syndicate has four reputation tiers. The middle tier — “Respected” — is the sweet spot. It gives you access to the good vendor items and some story shortcuts. But if you go to “Honored” with one syndicate, the others start actively hunting you. I maxed out Crimson Dawn rep and then couldn’t step foot in a Pyke-controlled zone without getting shot on sight. Keep them all in the middle range. The only exception is the Ashiga Clan — they’re isolated on one planet, so you can max them out safely.

3. The Stun Dart is a delete button. Yeah, the blaster is loud. But the Stun Dart (equipped as a secondary weapon) is silent, has unlimited range, and drops any human enemy for 8 seconds. That’s enough time to kill them with a melee finisher or just walk past. You get it from a crate in the Akiva jungle — it’s inside the crashed freighter near the Old Research Station. Do not leave Akiva without it. I didn’t find it until hour 18 and I was furious.

4. Space combat tip: fly into the debris fields. TIE fighters are fast and hit hard. But they’re dumb. If you fly through the asteroid fields or the wreckage of old ships, they crash into things constantly. I defeated the Moff Tharius boss fight by just circling a derelict Star Destroyer for three minutes while his escorts exploded on the hull. The Trailblazer’s base shields are 400 HP. You can’t tank anything. Use obstacles.

5. Nix can carry items through ventilation shafts. This is the most underutilized mechanic in the game. If you see a small vent grate, order Nix to pick up a datacard, a keycard, or a stim and send him through. He can access areas Kay cannot fit into. There’s a Pyke safehouse on Kijimi where the only entrance is a vent. Nix crawled in, picked the lock from the inside, and I walked in the front door. I felt like a genius.

If you enjoy figuring out movement and positioning like this, you might also like how Ghost of Tsushima handles stealth — check out our Ghost of Tsushima beginner tips guide for similar thinking on open-world stealth flow.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

I made every single one of these so you don’t have to. Read this list. Internalize it.

• Don’t sell your crafting materials. I know you need credits. I sold a stack of 40 Chromium Plating for 1,200 credits and then immediately needed 35 Chromium Plating to upgrade the Trailblazer’s hull. The vendor price is a scam. Every crafting material is worth 3x more to you as an upgrade than as credits. Only sell junk items with red icons — those are actual trash.
• Don’t ignore the “Bounty” side missions early. They give you Skill Points and unique weapon mods. I skipped them because I wanted to do main story. By the time I hit the “Derelict” mission (around hour 20), I was four skill points behind the expected curve and everything was a slog. The game expects you to do side content. It’s not optional.
• Don’t stay in cover for more than 3 seconds. The enemy AI flanks aggressively. If you sit behind a crate, two enemies will move left and right and you will get cross-fired. The best “cover” in this game is the crouch-jump-dash cancel — keep moving, shoot from mid-range, and never plant yourself. Every time I died in a firefight, I was sitting still.
• Don’t melee droids. Melee attacks deal 30 damage to organics. Droids take 15 damage and then explode with a shockwave that stuns you for 2 seconds. I punched a KX-series security droid once. It did not go well. Use the ion shot on droids. Two ion shots stun them, then you can hack them from a distance.
• Don’t trust the “Easy” difficulty for stealth. The difficulty setting only affects combat damage and enemy HP. Stealth detection ranges are the same on Easy and Hard. I tested this. A stormtrooper with his back turned spots you from 12 meters regardless. The only thing that changes stealth is your skills and your patience.

Frequently Asked Questions

What’s the best blaster in the game?
The DL-44 heavy blaster is the community favorite, and it’s good — 45 base damage, decent fire rate. But I actually prefer the RK-3 you get from the Crimson Dawn vendor at “Respected” rep. It has a 30% larger magazine and a slightly faster reload. The DPS difference is negligible (the DL-44 is about 290 DPS, the RK-3 is about 275), but the RK-3 lets you down less enemies before reloading. In a game where reloading gets you killed, that matters.

How do I farm credits fast?
The fastest way I found is the Sabaac card game on Canto Bight. The buy-in is 500 credits, but if you learn the two betting patterns (always double-down if you have a hand of 20 or higher, always fold below 15), you can win about 2,000 credits per 10 minutes. It’s boring, but it works. Alternatively, smuggling contracts for the Hutt Cartel pay 1,500-2,500 per run once you’re at “Respected.”

Is there a way to respec skill points?
No. There is no respec option. This is my biggest complaint with the game. If you put points into the “Brawler” tree like I did, you’re stuck with it. That tree is only useful for the one fistfight mission on Mirogana and nothing else. I have 3 wasted points there. Plan your build. If you’re unsure, prioritize the “Slicer” and “Survivor” trees — they help every playstyle.

What’s the deal with the “Memory” collectibles?
They’re completely optional. They give you lore about Kay’s past. No stat bonuses, no meaningful rewards except one outfit cosmetic at 100%. If you’re a completionist, go for it. If you want gameplay value, ignore them. There are 36 total, and the last one is in a locked room on the final planet that you cannot re-enter after the story ends. I’m still mad about it.

How long does it take to beat the game?
If you do main story only, about 22 hours. If you do everything the game has (all side quests, syndicate contracts, max upgrades, all collectibles), you’re looking at 55-60 hours. My first playthrough was 47 hours because I got lost on Kijimi for three hours trying to find one vendor.

For players coming from more skill-based action games, the flow here is closer to Elden Ring in terms of “hit a wall, find an upgrade, destroy the wall” — just with fewer goat deaths.