I've been playing the game with my second character - the pistol build, I just finished the Vale, and most of the side quests on Stellar bay. I'm finding that its really hard to stick with a pistol build. I got a decent one from vale but the sniper rifles (you can steal really good one in stellar bay) is still much better.
In essence sniper rifles are excellent for distance killing, in most games, even Cyberpunk 2077, I carry one, but the pistol buffs which I consider completely unrealistic in CP2077 allows me to use it most of the time, the biggy is the buff that removes distance penalties. Most of the buffs in CP2077 are fantasy buffs no relationship to reality, although you could argue that with cyber-augmentation, some abilities might be possible, therefore acceptable not to break immersion, and I’ve accepted and enjoy the framework, not much different than accepting magic in a game.
As far as Outer Worlds, I’m not remembering how much benefit, XP gained buffs provide, but I do know typically in all of these games, for melee or close encounters, I carry a blade/shotgun (preferred semi-automatic) for room to room, pistol for 1shot- head shots, and a sniper rifle for long head shots.
Back in Fallout 4 I rejected using assault rifles/machine guns because of their ammo requirements, using a stealth/assassin build there, I had a super sniper rifle, and an outstanding pistol, no blade, and the stealth buffs were also at the fantasy level.
If you could refresh my memory, would you describe the Outer Worlds XP buffs as pretty typical over the top abilities? And are you forced to specialize or can be an effective Jack of all trades? I’ve added no rifle buffs in CP2077, yet my sniper rifle usually is effective for headshot kills.
