Outriders handles its difficulty curve differently than most looter shooters. Instead of a normal and New Game Plus variant, Outriders uses a system named World Tiers to dictate how hard enemies are.

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Strangely, this system isn't used at all for Outriders' endgame activity, Expeditions. The game instead shifts towards Challenge Tiers (sometimes referred to as CT), a system that behaves similarly but is only tied to this mode. Many players have gotten stuck at certain Challenge Tiers for various reasons, ranging from not enough damage output to getting one shot. In this guide, we'll go over what Challenge Tiers are, how to unlock them, and tips for bypassing progression blocks.

Updated June 14th, 2021 by Charles Burgar: While Outriders has been out for a few months now, some players are still struggling to break into Expeiditons and the Challenge Tier system. We've updated this article to answer some frequently asked questions surrounding this system, including its relation to World Tiers and why its so important to increase.

What Are Challenge Tiers?

Outriders Expedition Explanation Menu

Challenge Tiers determine the level of enemies and items you stumble across in Expeditions, Outriders' endgame activity. This system is unlocked upon completing the main campaign. This system has no relation to World Tiers, and World Tiers have no impact on the loot received from Expeditions.

There are 15 Challenge Tiers that you can unlock, each increasing the rarity of gear you obtain when completing an Expedition. If you want to receive level 50 gear, the best gear in the game, you'll need to complete Challenge Tier 15 (CT15, for short) Expeditions.

Unlocking Challenge Tiers

Outriders Expedition CT Screen

Similar to World Tiers, you unlock Challenge Tiers by completing an Expedition while at your highest unlocked Challenge Tier. For example, to reach Challenge Tier 10, you'll need to beat an Expedition at Challenge Tier 9. Higher Challenge Tier unlocks also require Bronze, Silver, or Gold Expedition completions. In general, you'll want to complete Expeditions with a Gold rating to further your Challenge Tier progression.

Challenge Tier Levels

a trickster dual-wielding pistols

Here's a breakdown of the level of enemies and gear you can expect from each Challenge Tier.

  • CT1: Level 31
  • CT2: Level 32
  • CT3: Level 34
  • CT4: Level 35
  • CT5: Level 37
  • CT6: Level 38
  • CT7: Level 40
  • CT8: Level 41
  • CT9: Level 43
  • CT10: Level 44
  • CT11: Level 46
  • CT12: Level 47
  • CT13: Level 48
  • CT14: Level 49
  • CT15: Level 50

Completing Challenge Tier 15 Expeditions will grant the highest chance of legendary gear (25% four times per Gold Expedition) and level 50 items, the highest item level in the game.

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Additionally, completing any of these Challenge Tiers will increase your equippable item level. For example, completing CT10 will raise your equippable item level to 44. This also allows you to improve item levels to that cap through the crafting system.

Challenge Tier FAQ

Outriders-Trickster-Throwing-Knife

There is some confusion about how Challenge Tiers work and how they relate to World Tiers. We'll clarify some smaller details surrounding this system.

Are Challenge Tiers And World Tiers Connected?

No. World Tiers are used to scale the difficulty and rewards of the campaign. Challenge Tiers scale the difficulty and rewards of Expeditions, Outriders' endgame activity. They are in no way connected. Increasing your World Tier will not increase the rewards or difficulty of Expeditions and vice versa.

What Does "CT" Mean?

CT is short for Challenge Tier. When people state that a build can clear CT15 content, they're referring to Challenge Tier 15 Expeditions—the hardest content in Outriders.

What's The Best Challenge Tier For Farming Gear?

Whichever tier you can achieve a Gold clear on comfortably. Challenge Tiers make the game exponentially harder as you progress. If you want to upgrade your gear to bypass certain Challenge Tiers, you'll want to farm rares at a tier you can comfortably clear with a Gold completion rating. We discuss this gearing strategy in the next section.

RELATED: Outriders PSA: World Tiers Don't Actually Matter

As for obtaining Legendaries, we recommend either Challenge Tier 14 or Challenge Tier 15. CT14 is much easier than CT15, making Gold completions more feasible. CT15 reduces the time you have to achieve a Gold clear on some Expeditions, and all of the enemies are much tougher. If your build is strong enough to clear CT15 content with a Gold rating, then you'll want to farm CT15 Expeditions.

Is Playing On The Highest Challenge Tier A Good Idea?

Starting out, yes. The higher CT you unlock, the higher level of gear you can use. And gear level has a massive impact on the strength of your character's abilities and mods, so you'll want to be unlocking higher Challenge Tiers whenever you can.

With that said, if you hit a progression roadblock, start farming at a Challenge Tier you can comfortably reach Gold with. We'll cover how this strategy works in the next section.

How Do Challenge Tiers Work In Multiplayer?

The host determines the Challenge Tier of the mission. If you have CT15 unlocked but the host only has CT8 unlocked, you can only run CT8 Expeditions until the host unlocks higher Challenge Tiers.

Why Should I Increase My Challenge Tier?

Challenge Tiers determine the following:

  • The rarity of gear you obtain.
  • The quantity of gear you obtain.
  • Your maximum item level.
  • Which Expeditions you can clear.
  • How tough enemies are.

Certain Expeditions have a Challenge Tier requirement you'll need to reach before you can run them. Beyond that, the most important reason to increase your CT is to increase your item level. Once you reach the item level cap of 50, then you'll want to clear CT15 Expeditions to have the best shot of obtaining Legendaries.

Bypassing Progression Roadblocks

Outriders Classes Fighting Together

Most players experience a progression roadblock at some point during their Challenge Tier climb. These roadblocks typically occur at CT4, CT7, CT9, CT11, and CT 15. Excluding CT 15, all CT tiers mentioned jump up two levels instead of one, providing a significant boost in difficulty for players that don't have at-level gear. At these tiers, it's recommended to play one tier lower to reach your current item level cap.

More specific advice is covered below.

Equip Your Highest Level Gear

Outriders The Bulwark Legendary Shotgun

Item level in Outriders determines your weapon's intrinsic Firepower, your Armor rating, and grants passive Health and Anomaly Power bonuses as you reach item levels past 42. Needless to say, your damage and survivability will skyrocket if you equip your highest level items. Even if the attributes aren't perfect, use items with the highest item level possible to increase your chances of survival.

Mod Your Gear

Outriders Epic Boots Mod Menu

Mods can make or break your build. Since you'll frequently be changing your items as you progress through each Challenge Tier, there's a chance you forgot to swap your armor mods out for more beneficial alternatives. Don't forget to do this!

If you're struggling to kill enemies, you'll want to equip weapon mods that either grant a flat damage effect (Claymore, Storm Whip, etc.) or scales your damage (Killing Spree, Anomaly Enhancement). Armor mods can also help with this (Bloodlust, Stand Tall).

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For survivability, mods that increase your Armor rating (Damage Absorber, Mitigation from Death) are invaluable. These mods give a substantial amount of Armor that will frequently double or triple your physical damage resistance.

Finally, always remember to use mods that enhance your skills. The best mods for each skill will boil down to your build and playstyle, but anything that increases your damage output or survivability will work wonders at higher Challenge Tiers.

Upgrade Rares To Epics

Outriders

If you're stuck at CT10 or higher and can't seem to progress, you might want to try keeping any rares you stumble across that have good attributes. You can use those items to create max item level items that can help you push to the next Challenge Tier.

The process looks something like this:

  • Your boots are a level under your item level cap. You hoard rare boots you find from Expeditions at lower Challenge Tiers.
  • A pair of boots drop with perfect attributes.
  • Use the crafting system to raise the item's level to your item level cap.
  • Now upgrade the item from rare to epic.

This process will allow you to use equipment at the highest item level possible while still maintaining good stats. More importantly. upgrading rares this way doesn't cost Drop Pod Resources like epics do, making it magnitudes cheaper to upgrade your character.

Focus On Attributes

Outriders Tresspasser's Cowl Attributes

Attributes are the passive effects that you can find on all weapons and armor. Effects such as Cooldown Reduction, Weapon Life Leech, and Bonus Firepower are all attributes you can find on your gear.

You have three weapons and five armor pieces on your character, each providing some sort of passive benefit. Take advantage of them! If you're playing an Anomaly-focused caster build, focus on obtaining armor pieces with Cooldown Reduction and Bonus Anomaly. Focus on using attributes that benefit your playstyle. They make a massive difference if you optimize your character around them.

Scale Firepower Or Anomaly

a technomancer in outriders preparing to shoot from afar

There are two damage sources in Outriders: Firepower and Anomaly Power. Firepower determines how much damage your weapons and round-related skills deal, and Anomaly determines the damage of your abilities and melee attacks. Scaling these stats becomes paramount when you reach higher Challenge Tiers where enemies have copious amounts of Health. You should also consider investing in Armor Piercing or Resistance Piercing to more quickly kill elites with weapons or skills, respectively.

Increase Your Armor Rating

a devastator wielding a gun with tusks

Armor reduces the amount of physical damage you take from enemy attacks. The more Armor you have, the more physical damage mitigation you'll receive. Armor can mitigate up to 85% of physical damage from all attacks. Reaching this cap requires a different amount of Armor for each class, but every class can easily reach this cap by using Armor-scaling mods and high-level armor pieces.

A few common Armor-scaling mods include Damage Absorber and Mitigation from Death, both of which are class-agnostic T2 armor mods.

Farm Chem Plant

Outriders Chem Plant Expedition CT Menu

Chem Plant is the Expedition on the far left of the Expedition map. This mission is by far the easiest Expedition in Outriders, containing mostly fodder enemies and an easy final boss. The time limit for Chem Plant is lenient, making Gold completions trivial for most builds. If you need to increase your Challenge Tiers as fast as possible, run Chem Plant whenever it's up.

Tip: You can refresh your available Expeditions at any time. To do so, launch any available Expedition. When you load in, abandon the mission. This will refresh your available Expeditions on the Expedition map.

Gold Scorched Lands

Outriders Scorched Lands Expedition Completion Times

Unlocking the last few Challenge Tiers will require you to complete Expeditions with a Silver or Gold time. This can be tough on certain Expeditions, Boom Town being a prime example. Fortunately, there's one Expedition that's incredibly easy to achieve Gold on.

That Expedition is Scorched Lands. You'll have to unlock Challenge Tier 12 to access this mission. While it unlocks near the end of your CT climb, unlocking CT13-15 is a nightmare for solo players. This mission doesn't have that issue because its Gold time is nearly 24 minutes! Most builds can clear this mission in half that time, making it one of the easiest Expeditions to Gold in the game. Unlock the last few Challenge Tiers with this Expedition.

Next: Outriders Complete Guide And Walkthrough