The Outer Worlds 2: Side Effects Guaranteed arrives December 2 for $14.99, and Obsidian’s first story expansion pushes the level cap from 30 to 36 while it drops your crew into a brand-new region of Eden. It’s part one of a two-part expansion, and the second half is due in spring 2027 with your choices carrying over. It lands on Xbox Series X|S, PS5 and PC on the same day.
Elysium Valley and a Sub Rosa Rescue Job
Obsidian’s Mikey Dowling laid out the setup on Xbox Wire. A distress signal pulls the Incognito to a derelict ship full of crew members frozen in suspended animation. They picked up something nasty on a heist, and the captain’s video message says it ends in what she politely calls liquefaction.
That message leads you to Gordon Hazen, an agent of Sub Rosa, the criminal outfit that steals from every faction instead of working for one. Gordon sends you to Elysium Valley, a settlement of former Protectorate subjects their leaders forgot about, because he thinks the cure is there. He’d rather you talk your way through it. A second Sub Rosa agent, Algernon Lankester, wants your help squeezing those same settlers for profit. Who you side with decides what happens to the settlers, the frozen crew and Sub Rosa itself.
Elysium Valley also brings new wildlife. Vicious canids are one. Primal sprats are the other, and Obsidian describes them as regular sprats at roughly 100 times the size.
Level 36, 15 New Perks and Four New Flaws
The six extra levels are the systems news. More levels mean more skill points, and the higher cap leaves room for three more perks on a single Commander, picked from 15 new ones.
Flaws are back too, with four new ones. Obsidian named two:
- Lethally Tolerant: your max toxicity goes up, but a Toxicity Crash kills you instantly.
- Must Have Been the Wind: each combat group gets a marked assassination target. Kill it for a 20% damage and speed buff until the fight ends. Miss, or hit someone else first, and you take a 10% damage and speed penalty for 30 seconds.
The rest of the pack covers new weapons, new armor, a new outfit for every companion and a Sub Rosa radio station with 20 new songs.
A Level 27 Alternate Start at the DLC
The expansion’s events kick in just before the base game’s point of no return, but there is a shortcut if your last Commander is long gone. A new alternate start on the main menu loads a pre-made level 27 character at the beginning of Side Effects Guaranteed. You spend your skill and perk points and go. That’s handy for anyone who finished the campaign last year and doesn’t want to replay 30 levels just to reach the new region. A same-day update also lets you respec a Commander at any time, and a new custom-game option lets you change how many skill points you get per level, according to Obsidian’s PlayStation Blog post.
$14.99 Now or the Premium Upgrade for Both
Side Effects Guaranteed costs $14.99 on its own. It’s also part of the Premium Edition and the Premium Edition Upgrade, which bundle a pass for both story expansions with the Moon Man’s Corporate Appreciation Premium Prize Pack, a digital artbook and the soundtrack. On Steam the Premium Upgrade Edition is $30 for anyone who already owns the base game, and The Outer Worlds 2 itself is $69.99 there.
Obsidian hasn’t priced part two yet, so the math isn’t final. If you know you’ll play both chapters, and you care about the artbook and soundtrack, the upgrade is the tidier buy. If you only want the December story, $14.99 does the job.
The Outer Worlds 2 isn’t sold on GOG. The first game is on GOG in its Spacer’s Choice Edition, which is the place to grab Obsidian’s original if you skipped it. We also just covered controller support for Pillars of Eternity arriving in a public test on GOG. For another big RPG on the calendar, Owlcat just dated Warhammer 40,000: Dark Heresy for January.
Obsidian promised expansions when The Outer Worlds 2 launched in October 2025, and December 2 is when the first one finally shows up. Six more levels and a fresh region give returning Commanders a reason to load back in. Choices made here carry into spring’s finale, so the Sub Rosa call you make in December follows you into part two.