Outriders World Tier System Difficulty, Loot, and Scaling Explained

The Outriders World Tier system dictates the game’s dynamic difficulty. As you play through the looter-shooter RPG, you fight a variety of snarling beasts and bandits ready to send your Outrider packing. However, you may find the difficulty ramps up quickly if you’re playing well or dipping if you get killed too often. That’s the World Tier system at work. 

World Tiers are independent of your overall player level and fluctuate based on how well you play each area and encounter. Managing this directly not only impacts the difficulty of the game but the quality of loot you receive from normal enemies, elites, bosses, and chests.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Outriders World Tier system and how to maximize your loot while minimizing your pain.

What is World Tier?

World Tier ranges from levels 1 to 15. The system acts as the difficulty setting in Outriders. Each tier increases the level and by extension, the difficulty of enemies relative to the player.

World Tier 1, dubbed “Story” in-game, gives every enemy a level two levels lower than the player. A Level 5 character, for example, will face Level 3 enemies. World Tier 3, called “Normal” in-game, spawns enemies at the same level as the player, and subsequent tiers add one level.

The highest world Tier is 15, dubbed “Madness,” and gives enemies a full 12 level advantage. Best of luck to those who take on that challenge, especially close to or in end-game content.

It’s not all about difficulty, however. Outriders rewards gear based on World Tier. Each escalation in level increases the chance for loot to drop at higher rarities and boosts the drop rate for legendary weapons and legendary armor. For example, 

In addition, items that drop will do so with the same level modifier as enemies. Tier 1 drops gear two levels below the player, Tier 5 drops two levels above the player and so on. 

How to Unlock Higher World Tiers

Outriders begins at World Tier 1. Earning XP killing enemies and not dying unlocks the next tier (there is a yellow progress bar directly below the blue player-level bar at the top of the screen). The game, by default, automatically raises you to the next level when the yellow bar fills. Dying removes a portion of the progress towards the next World Tier, but once a tier is unlocked, it cannot be lost. 

The difficulty increase from World Tier isn’t designed to be linear with player progression. Eventually, you may be better off disabling the automatic World Tier progression and manually selecting the highest tier that is comfortable for you. Just note that you will not progress towards unlocking higher tiers and loot drops will be lower-level unless you are playing at your current maximum.

World Tier and Multiplayer Scaling

World Tier affects the entire team when playing in multiplayer co op. In those situations, the level is determined by the party leader. If the party leader is Level 20 and World Tier 1, then everyone will face Level 18 enemies and receive Level 18 quality loot.  

It’s worth noting that Outriders also scales multiplayer encounters based on the number of players in a group. For example, it appears that there are 3x as many enemies in a three-person co op group and 2x as many in duos as there are in solo play. Combining this with World Tiers can make some late-game encounters extremely tough. 

How to Change World Tier

Word Tier can be changed at any time in the Hero Menu under the Quest Map tab. In the Quest Map tab, look to the bottom left corner to see which input on your platform brings up the World Tier Menu. It should be, by default: 

• Left D-pad on consoles
• Z on PC

If you change level mid-battle, then existing enemies will maintain their current strength, and new enemies will spawn with the updated level. Keep in mind that chests will adjust loot to whatever the lowest world tier level is you used during an encounter.

World Tier is a very user-friendly way to manage the difficulty of enemies and the odds of good loot. Used properly it is a great way to tailor the Outriders to the experience you are interested in. You set the pace and enjoy the rewards. Don’t be afraid to adjust as needed. If you are interested in taking on the harder levels, be sure to check out all of our Outriders tips on being the best monster killer and bandit slayer you can be.