Weird West Tips: 10 Ways To Make Your Adventures Through The West Easier

Our Weird West tips will ensure your five journeys through this magical alternative of the American frontier go smoothly, no matter what evils and horrors you encounter. Weird West draws inspiration from CRPGs and immersive sims for most of its mechanics, letting players carve out their own methods for dealing with situations and solving quests. This means there are a lot of potential ways to interact with the environments and characters around you, so read our 10 Weird West tips to make the most of your experience. 

• We have a breakdown of the Best Weird West Abilities if you need to know which ones are worth investing in.

Weird West Tips: Get A Horse Early 

Click to enlarge

You'll travel around the Weird West map by moving across the overworld and entering specific locations or coming across random encounters, similar to titles like the original Fallout. Travelling on foot can be quite slow, and cause you to come across more dangerous situations like coyote or bear attacks, but horse travel is much quicker and safer. A horse can be purchased from most populated towns at the stable for $279, so it's worth building up the funds early to get the most use out of one. This also lets you gain extra storage from the saddlebags which is always easily accessible. 

Weird West Tips: Cacti Are Great Sources Of Water

Click to enlarge

The deserts and barren plains of the Weird West are devoid of many water sources, and with the risk of fire damage from explosives or just walking too close to a cooking pit, you'll need to be ready to douse yourself. This is where cacti plants come in, as they are full of water, and attacking one with a weapon will cause it to explode into a shower of water. You can also use this to create a puddle at enemies' feet, which will make them weaker to electric damage and stun them. 

Weird West Tips: Make Use Of Your Parkour Skills

Click to enlarge

Weird West doesn't outright inform you of your parkour abilities, but most walls that are reachable by jumping can be climbed. This is useful in a few ways, as you can gain entry to locations by climbing over walls, or gain a vertical advantage by climbing buildings for new lines of sight and entry points. One of the perks also gives you the chance to jump higher, letting you get to previously unreachable places. For an extra tip, the bank in the first town of Grackle houses some extra loot if you enter through the skylight…

Weird West Tips: Melt Down Your Metal Bars

Click to enlarge

During your adventures, you'll come across solid bars of gold, silver, and copper, and they are pretty valuable resources. Your first instinct may be to sell them, especially as solid bars are worth more than ores on their own. However, they are far more valuable when smelted down into their ore form, so they can be used to upgrade your weapons at a blacksmith. This lets you increase the power of your arms, giving them extra damage, increased fire rate, and longer effective range. 

Weird West Tips: Get The Lockpicking Perk Early

Click to enlarge

Would it be a role-playing game if you can't pick locks? Weird West's lockpicks are consumed after you use them to open a lock, so sometimes the rewards aren't worth the loss of a lockpick. However, the lockpicking perk gives you a 25% chance of gaining back one after use, with it rising higher as you upgrade the perk. This means the earlier you get the perk, the higher your chance of retaining lockpicks throughout your playthrough, in turn letting you access more loot.

Weird West Tips: Pay Attention To The Elements

Click to enlarge

As an immersive sim, Weird West has a few interconnecting systems and mechanics that can play on each other for your benefit. One of these are the game's elements, such as fire, poison, electric, and more. Certain elements will interact, like fire and oil, or electricity and water, to increase the area of effect for damage or the amount of time the element will persist. 

Weird West Tips: You Can Only Stack Five Items

Click to enlarge

Your personal inventory is quite limited in Weird West, and will quickly fill up with weapons, equipment, utility items, and general junk to sell off. Equitable items cannot be stacked, but all junk items and many consumables can only stack up to five in one inventory square before occupying another one. This means you'll have to manage your inventory a bit more and make a note of which items will sell for the most.

Weird West Tips: Use The Dodge Roll In Combat

Click to enlarge

While in combat, taking cover and keeping mobile are the keys to staying alive and not eating every bullet sent your way. This is alleviated by having companions with you, but one of the most powerful tools in your arsenal is immediately available - the dodge roll. With the press of a button you can dodge in any direction, and during combat, this will slow down time and put you into a Max Payne-like bullet time, letting you place your shots and down enemies in style. It's pretty overpowered as there is no cooldown, and you can even grab a perk to increase your fire rate while in this state. 

Weird West Tips: It's Only Stealing If You're Caught

Click to enlarge

Anything that isn't pinned down in Weird West can be taken for your own use, so stealing from shops, houses, and people directly is all possible, and a great way of getting some extra resources. The game signposts thievery well, as interacting with something that doesn't belong to you will have a red outline, and it will say "steal" when you're grabbing an item. If no one sees you do this then you're not at risk of being caught or arrested, but it's worth noting that companions who are particularly lawful can take issue with it and even leave your company.

Weird West Tips: Buy A Deposit Box At The Bank ASAP

Click to enlarge

In the first town of Grackle you can purchase a Deposit Box at the bank for $150, letting you gain more storage space that is especially useful for holding upgrade materials and amulets. It also persists through all the episodes and all the banks in the game, so you only need to purchase it once, and you'll reap the benefits for the rest of the experience. 

That's all for our list of Weird West tips, and now you know a few ways to make your time in the magical American west a little easier.

Wondering just how long the game will take you to finish? Check our breakdown of the Weird West Length.