Outriders Classes | What's the best class for starters and solo players?
With the full version of Outriders now available, it's time to commit to picking a class.
But whether you’re starting your adventure on Enoch solo or with a multiplayer team, choosing the best class in Outriders for your playstyle will shape your experience for the better.
Although there are 4 unique classes to choose from - due to the number of hectic, flashy abilities on-screen - Outriders only supports 3-player co-op, making it extra-important that you round off the rough edges of your squad.
Across hands-on preview events, the free demo, and now the full game, we’ve played through a sizeable chunk of Outriders with every class - getting to grips with their quirks, strengths and nuances.
Here’s what we’ve picked up regarding the best classes to start with so far. However, we’ll update this page as more of a meta emerges, and as end-game strategies become clearer.
- Outriders Best Classes - Which should you pick?
- Best Outriders Classes for solo players
- Best Outriders classes for co-op players
Outriders Best Classes - Which should you pick?
The experience of Outriders is quite different based on whether you plan to play your class solo or with a team.
Outriders’ campaign is apparently close to 40 hours long, and with 15 uber-hard end-game missions to slog through as well, you’re going to want to make the right choice.
Best Outriders Classes for solo players
Personally, I feel like the Trickster and Devastator are the most suited to solo play.
The Devastator is the tank class in Outriders, and although they’re not the flashiest, their survivability means you can stay alive in all but the most hectic situations. This only becomes more relevant as your World Tiers get tougher, and you crank up the difficulty in search of legendary loot.
Making use of rock armor, barriers, and area-of-effect earthquakes to force enemies into an easy-to-manage zone rather than let them overwhelm you, playing as the Devastator feels sturdy, and the most like a traditional 3rd person shooter experience.
On the other hand, the Trickster relies on their incredibly powerful offensive and defensive abilities to quickly defeat enemies with greater mobility than the other classes.
Teamed with a Life Leech weapon to offset their close-range healing, you can survive surprisingly well as a solo Trickster, flitting around the battlefield with your warp abilities to make best use of shotguns and your Anomaly-powered sword swipe.
While your time-slowing bubble ability can be used effectively to trap enemies around you in a tar pit as you systematically take them out, it can also be used as a defensive shield to catch bullets while you take cover, reload, and recharge.
Past the demo areas, you start to engage enemies in even more expansive areas. This only serves to make the Trickster's mobility even more effective as you supplement your skills with shield boosting mods to make yourself tankier too.
There’s also solo potential in the Technomancer, thanks to their area-of-effect heavy offensive skills and ability to buff their aggro-generating turrets with different kinds of elemental status damage.
And when it says all of your dealt damage restores your health, it means all damage. Slapping an LMG or AR into your primary weapon slot gives you a solid amount of survivability at any distance.
However, as Outriders tells you, this class is designed for support and you might find a lot of their later game skills less useful as a solo player.
What's more, some of the Technomancer's mods are specifically geared towards returning health to your allies and other support buffs. This means you'll be losing out on some of the power of your equipment if you're just using the Technomancer solo.
But with that said, you can always invest your skill points in passive damage buffs and swap out obsolete mods to focus on being a lone wolf.
Best Outriders classes for co-op players
The above is not to say that the Pyromancer is a bad class - it’s just when you’re playing on your own, they can feel squishy. Having to constantly line up ability kills while you’re juggling the entire battlefield is tough and you can feel overrun.
However, as part of a team, the Pyromancer is an exciting and eye-catching member, who liberally throws out status-inflicting and debilitating abilities at a wide-array of foes. So in that sense they’re worth a try.
The defensive capabilities of the Devastator also make them a strong member of a team, where they can draw the aggro of enemies and pick them off as they’re worn down by the supporting fire of others.
Similar can be said of the Trickster, who can shield their squad mates with their time bubble. However, having a Trickster without a Devastator might leave you exposed when they want to slink off and reload.
Then, as we mentioned before, the Technomancer is designed as a specific support class and suits a player who wants a less twitch-intensive role on the battlefield.
They’re the only class that can heal their squadmates, and therefore should fill a slot on any co-op team - no questions asked.
This means that you should look to build a varied team of different classes, utilising the long-range Technomancer, and then any two of the other three classes.
That might be a Technomancer, a medium-range Pyromancer, and a close-range Devastator. Or a Technomancer looking after two close-range damage dealers, ie. a Devastator and a Trickster.
Now that you've picked your starting class, you might be thinking about more in-depth character builds. If so, check out our guide to character sub-classes and recommended builds.
For more on how Outriders came to be, we have an interview with the development studio People Can Fly, here.
While we’ve also broken down how to beat one of the tougher bosses in the Outriders demo: Reiner.