It’s fair to say that The Outer Worlds 2 loves its weird weapons. From the first moment you step foot on Paradise Island, you’ll start discovering all sorts of strange murder contraptions, from a sniper rifle that fires sneaky explosive bolts you detonate when you reload, to a pistol that infects enemies with a contagious disease they can spread.
The strangest weapon by far that I’ve discovered in my travels through Arcadia, though, is a sword that turns combat into a rhythm game. Yes, you read that correctly—if you don’t slash and slice to the old timey beat, you won’t gain its bonus. This sword might seem like a bit of a meme at first, but when fully powered up, I’m convinced it might be the best melee weapon in the game.
- Dance Mode: Perform the prompted dance action to keep the beat alive!
How this actually works is when you enter combat, a new UI will appear in the center of the screen, the music will start, and two arrows will come in from either side. All you have to do is swing the sword at the right time to power it up a little. Each swing changes the colour of the sword and fills the note in the UI, and this is where it starts to get a bit busted.
The Spectrum Dance Saber applies effects to enemies based on the colour it is when you hit them. If the note is white, for example, it will freeze them, whereas if it’s red, they’ll detonate in a fiery explosion. Once you’ve successfully hit enough beats and the note is full of all the colours, the sword will enter its super state, flashing a rainbow as it cycles through them at speed.
With every slash, you’ll apply a different effect to enemies based on sword colour and the results are pretty chaotic as they simultaneously freeze, explode, corrode etc. as you stack conditions on them. You also no longer have to keep the beat in this turbo-state, meaning you can just attack at will. Once it’s done, the sword will start the minigame again.
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Even though the beat is very consistent, it’s challenging to match your attacks with enemies while also blocking, evading, and just generally staying alive. However, your timed swings don’t actually have to hit enemies to count, meaning you can power up your sword with regular swings from cover, and then rush into combat when it reaches its turbo-state. Admittedly, this might be a bug that gets patched out later, but for now it works.
You can get the Spectrum Dance Saber once you complete Paradise Island and unlock Free Market Station. Head to the bazaar and go upstairs in The 2nd Choice tavern to find Fionna F. Walker. If you can collect 25 Tossball/Pitchball cards (to beat her collection), this Sub Rosa merchant will let you access her special inventory, including said rhythm sword.
While 25 cards might seem like a lot, I managed to gather most of them from Paradise Island, Free Market Station, with the last few coming from Golden Ridge. When the game fully releases, I’ll be publishing a guide with all of the locations, so I’ll be sure to link it here.
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