The Outer Worlds: Get This Secret Ending If You're Really Dumb

You really can be too dumb to live in The Outer Worlds. The new RPG from veteran developer Obsidian tackles the stupidity of a colony overrun by useless middle managers and greedy corporate stooges, and there’s an awesome hidden ending waiting for players with ridiculously low IQ. We’re going into heavy spoiler territory here, so turn away if you don’t want to know how (most) everything plays out.

This secret ending will earn you the ‘Sunburn’ — if you’ve completed the game, you probably already know what this ending is all about. To get it, you’ll probably need to start a fresh save file; you need to have Below Average Intelligence. You can only access the Attributes from the Character Creation screen — there might be other ways to lower your total Intelligence, but I don’t know them. You can stop eating, drinking and sleeping until your total intelligence goes down in Supernova difficulty, at least.

Again, beware of massive end-game spoilers ahead. Let’s go!

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How To Get The Secret ‘Sunburn’ Ending | Worst Ending Guide

Before explaining how to get the secret ending, let’s get a quick overview of the story so far. You play as an unfrozen colonist. The Hope is a massive ship full of colonists just like you, and it’s been abandoned by the Board, a group of evil CEOs and companies that control life on the Halcyon colony.

With the help of rebel doctor Phineas Welles, you’re trying to save the colony by unfreezing all the colonists on the Hope. To do that, your hero has to steal a whole load of chemicals from the Board, then sneak onto the Hope and jump it across the star system so Dr. Phineas can start the arduous process of unfreezing the colonists.

That’s where the secret ending comes in. Without exact calculations, jumping the Hope is dangerous — you could hit another planet, or even the Sun! Normally, that’s impossible. If you’re really smart, you can control the ship yourself. If you’re not smart, you can let ADA, your ship’s computer, take the reigns.

Then there’s a third option. If you’re incredibly stupid, you can order ADA to give you the reigns no matter what. The ending? It isn’t so happy.

How To Get The ‘Sunburn’ Ending

To get the ending, you must have ‘Below Average’ Intelligence as an Attribute. You can set your attributes at the start of the game in Character Creation. If you set your Intelligence to ‘Below Average’, you unlock special [Dumb] dialogue options.

When you reach the Hope, board the ship, connect ADA on both terminals, then access the controls. At the helm, select the [Dumb] option to take the controls yourself.

Instead of taking the ship to Dr. Phineas’ lab to save the colonists, you jump directly into the sun. The ship drifts, and the game abruptly cuts to a ‘The End’ screen. The credits roll without any exposition.

This ending is also the best way to speedrun the game — you’ll completely skip the Tartarus final area, making this just a little easier to complete if you’re aiming for those 30~ minute or less runs.

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