Everspace 2 handles perks a bit differently than its predecessor. In addition to being able to unlock a character perk every five levels, players can also acquire a wide variety of companion perks. Companion perks don't have any level requirements, but they do cost a fair amount of resources to unlock.
Related:
While character perks largely revolve around improving combat capabilities, companion perks tend to be more utilitarian in nature. Since combat isn't the game's only focus, it's a good idea to create a build that has a healthy mix of both.
10 Autonomous Cargo Dispatcher
Autonomous Cargo Dispatcher is a utilitarian perk that can be acquired from HIVE. The AI companion offers a couple of other perks as well, but this is easily the most useful one. Autonomous Cargo Dispatcher sends excess cargo directly to your Homebase, removing the need to destroy or dismantle equipment whenever your inventory gets full.
To get the most value out of a perk like this it's important to unlock it as soon as possible. You won't have to worry too much about limited inventory space toward the late game, but early on this can be a big problem. Luckily, HIVE joins you just as you're about to finish the very first system, so you won't have to wait long for the chance to unlock Autonomous Cargo Dispatcher.
9 Relentless
Relentless is one of the three character perks you unlock once you reach level 15. The perk provides 20% extra weapon energy capacity for every warfare device currently installed on your ship. It's important to remember that there are two types of devices in Everspace 2 and this perk only affects warfare devices. Support devices will not be taken into consideration.
The reason why this is such a good perk is because most weapons have fairly low energy capacity, forcing you to constantly switch between them in combat. While this can make combat more dynamic, it can also make it very annoying in a lot of situations. Certain ships allow you to install up to four warfare devices, increasing energy reserves by a whopping 80%. Although, ideally, you'll want to save one or two of those slots for support devices instead.
8 Tractor Beam
Tractor Beam is a companion perk that can be acquired either from Dax at the very start of the game or from Ben once he recovers from his injuries. True to its name, the perk improves your tractor beam in a variety of ways, the most important of which is the ability to pull multiple objects at once. Considering how much time the average player spends looting in Everspace 2, it's easy to see why a perk like this is so useful.
Tractor Beam has three tiers, the first of which only increases the beam's range. While certainly useful, the second-tier upgrade is the one you'll really want. That's the one that enables you to pull multiple objects at once. Meanwhile, the third tier increases the beam's speed and is arguably the weakest of the three. You're generally better off sticking with Tractor Beam tier two and using the resources you would spend on the final upgrade on something else.
7 Ship Dealers
Ship Dealers is one of the perks you can acquire from Tareen, an Okkar trader that has a lot to offer to players who manage to get on his good side. In fact, you'll want to unlock all of his perks at some point, but this is the most important one since it increases the number of ships offered by dealers while providing a bunch of other benefits to boot.
Related: Everspace 2: How To Change Your Ship
Ship Dealers has no less than six tiers and is very difficult to fully upgrade. However, you don't need to max out the perk in order to start seeing benefits. The sweet spot here is around tier three. At that level, you'll start seeing more ships at dealers and every ship will have an alternate set of Passives. In addition, Marie de Windt at the Flying duch*ess will start selling ships as well, albeit her selection will be quite small until you upgrade the perk to tier four. The final two tiers are also very solid, but the upgrades require a lot of rare resources that are hard to come by.
6 Location Scanner
Location Scanner is a companion perk you acquire from Khala the Navigator. This perk adds some very important features that should have been made available much earlier in the story, if not right from the get-go. Namely, the perk reveals the completion rate of a location on the star map and can help you find Mainframe Components and various other collectibles you may have missed.
While mostly aimed at completionists, the perk is useful for everybody considering some of the items it helps you locate have a direct impact on the gameplay. If you want to take things one step further, you can upgrade the perk to also have it reveal the number and type of undiscovered secrets for each location. Location Scanner only has two ranks, so you shouldn’t have a difficult time maxing it out.
5 Spatial Bypass
Spatial Bypass is another perk offered by Khala the Navigator and is arguably even more useful than Location Scanner. Once you unlock the perk, you’ll gain the ability to build Spatial Bypasses at specific locations and travel between them. In essence, the perk enables fast travel between systems. While it’s a bit of a hassle to set up, this perk can potentially save you a ton of time in the long run.
Spatial Bypass only has one rank and can be unlocked by gathering all the Spatial Bypass components during the “Picking Up The Pieces” mission. Even though Everspace 2 is a fairly linear game, you'll still need to travel to systems you’ve already visited on occasion, so you’ll definitely get quite a bit of value from this perk. Players who love trading will find it even more helpful since they tend to travel frequently between systems to sell their commodities at better prices.
4 Energy Orbs
Energy Orbs is a perk you can acquire from Delia Wendo, one of the first companions you’ll encounter in the game. Once you unlock this perk, you’ll notice that certain enemies will start dropping energy orbs that replenish the weapon and boost energy when collected. Relentless takes care of some of your weapon energy problems, however, this perk is quite a bit better. Not only can it be unlocked a lot sooner, but it also provides a number of other benefits.
This perk has no less than six tiers, all of which revolve around the titular energy orbs. Starting with tier two, the orbs will replenish armor while at tier three they’ll also replenish shield energy. If you have resources to spare, you should definitely go for the tier four upgrade as that will give you a chance to spawn a rare orb that provides more energy while also improving ship handling for 20 seconds. The final two upgrades aren't too shabby either, but you can stick to tier four if you can’t afford to spend the extra resources.
3 Retaliation
Retaliation is one of the three character perks you unlock at level 25. The perk reflects 30% of all incoming damage back at enemy ships and is one of the best defensive abilities you can acquire in Everspace 2. Unlike many of the other combat-oriented perks in this game, Retaliation works all the time and doesn’t require you to fulfill special conditions before it becomes active. As long as you’re taking damage, 30% of it will be reflected back.
Related: Everspace 2: How To Unlock Blueprints
Ideally, you’ll want to pick up a perk like this only if you’re flying ships that can already take a decent amount of punishment. If you’re piloting a light fighter that goes down after only a couple of hits you’re probably not going to get a huge amount of value out of this perk, though it may still save you from dying on occasion. But if you’re piloting a ship that can take a beating, you’ll find Retaliation to be fantastic as both a defensive and offensive tool.
2 Fire Support
Fire Support is the only perk you can acquire from Elek, and it’s a really good one. Provided you can get it to proc, of course. Upon unlocking the perk, Elek will show up out of nowhere during combat to give the protagonist a helping hand. Elek is quite a competent fighter that can single-handedly take down enemies while distracting others. The only issue is that Fire Support is based on RNG, so you can’t always count on Elek to save the day. When he does show up, he can do a lot of the heavy lifting for you.
Fire Support has three tiers and, unfortunately, the upgrades won’t guarantee that you’ll get to see Elek more often during combat. However, they will guarantee that the NPC will be even stronger than usual. That’s because the tier two upgrade replaces Elek’s standard weapons with powerful Equalizer coil guns while the third tier upgrade gives him access to EMP Missiles. The best part of Fire Support is that it costs very little to unlock and fully upgrade. However, you will need to complete a few missions for Elek before you’ll gain access to his perk.
1 Ride The Lightning
Ride the Lightning is one of the three character perks you unlock at level 30. Unsurprisingly, all the max-level perks are very powerful, but this one is a bit more reliable than the others. With Ride the Lightning active, destroyed enemies will drop orbs that attach to your ship and act a bit like the Retaliation perk. However, instead of reflecting back 30% of the damage you receive, they instead reflect a percentage of your maximum shield capacity while also applying three seconds of EMP.
The only downside of Ride the Lightning is that it only works while your shield is up. On the bright side, the perk has a secondary effect that triggers once you gather five orbs and gives you unlimited boost energy and 30% increased fire rate. Combined with certain passives or ultimates, the increased rate of fire will absolutely decimate anyone who tries to mess with you.
Next: How Does Everspace 2 Get Space Exploration So Wrong?
