Every item in Outriders rolls with randomized stats, giving you a reason to farm for the same legendaries. Items that are at least rare also have mods, game-changing perks that provide the core identity of an item.

RELATED: Outriders: 10 Best Legendary Armor Mods

Unlike most looter shooters, Outriders lets you swap these mods between your items, even if they originated from a legendary. This allows for some absurd build potential that few games in this genre can match. As flexible as this system is, learning how it works can be somewhat intimidating if you're new to the genre. In this guide, we'll give a breakdown of what mods are, how to unlock them, and some of the mods you can expect as you carve a path through Enoch.

Note: This is a breakdown of the modding system, not which mods are best. If you're curious about which mods are worth using, check out our best mods guide.

Updated May 27th, 2021 by Charles Burgar: Now that the endgame of Outriders has been thoroughly explored, we've seen the ins and outs of the modding system. We've clarified a few misconceptions tied to mods, explained how to mod your items, and have answers to some common questions players have about this system.

What Are Mods?

Outriders Mod Selection

Mods are unique perks that add unique functionality to your weapons and abilities. Weapons can equip weapons mods that add new effects, and armor can equip armor mods that alter your abilities or grant powerful buffs. Mods come in three tiers, each tier providing stronger bonuses and more exotic effects.

There is a mod cap that's determined by your item's rarity:

  • Rare: One mod
  • Epic: Two mods
  • Legendary: Two mods

While epic and legendary items have the same mod cap of two, legendaries always come with one tier three mod.

How To Obtain Mods

Outriders Character

Every mod in Outriders is obtained by dismantling items that have a rarity of rare or higher. You can dismantle items either from the inspection screen or by marking items for dismantling (right-click on PC). Once dismantled, you will permanently have access to that mod through the crafting interface. Mods are character bound.

RELATED: Outriders: How To Earn Hell's Rangers Content Pack

Additionally, you can obtain mods through the crafting system. When you increase an item's rarity from unusual to rare or rare to epic, you'll have three random mods you can choose between that will be added to your item for free. Rare-quality gear gets a T1 mod, and epic-quality gear gets a T2 mod. The randomly chosen mods can pick a mod you don't already know. Apply a mod you don't know, then dismantle the newly-crafted item to learn the effect.

Keep in mind that this is a rather resource-intensive means of unlocking a mod, but this is a strategy you can use in the early game if you don't have many mods unlocked for a given tier.

Note: You can give your alternate characters certain mods by crafting items with mods they need. Craft an item with a certain mod you want on your alternate character, place it in your stash, then log into your alternate character. Dismantle the item from your stash to learn the mod. This trick allows you to share most of your mod library across all of your characters.

Can I Tell Which Mods I Own?

Outriders Known Mod

Yes! When viewing an item in your inventory, check for a square icon to the right of the mod. If you see that icon, you already have that mod unlocked on your character. If not, dismantling the item will unlock that mod in your collection.

Applying Mods

Outriders Dr. Zahedi Crafting

To apply a mod, you must first rescue Dr. Zahedi and recover his briefcase in the Salvation quest. Once complete, you'll be able to speak to Zahedi to mod your weapons and armor. You'll be able to apply any mod you own onto any weapon or armor piece for no cost. You can alter an item's mod slot as much as you like.

However, once you mod an item, you cannot alter the second mod on that piece of gear. If you're modding a piece of rare gear, then you will only be able to alter the first mod slot—even after you upgrade the item to epic tier. Keep this in mind when you're modding legendaries especially.

Mod Tiers

Outriders Legendary Weapon

All mods in Outriders come in one of three tiers. The higher the tier, the stronger the mod is. The rarity of your item determines which mod tiers it can roll with:

  • Tier One: Rare, Epic, and Legendary
  • Tier Two: Epic and Legendary
  • Tier Three: Legendary

Strangely, crafted mods don't have rarity restrictions. You can apply any tier of mod onto any item with a mod slot (rare or higher). The inverse is also true: you can apply lower-tier mods onto epics and legendaries.

Tier One

Outriders Tier 1 Assault Rifle

Initially found on rares, T1 mods offer some useful effects on weapons that can help kill enemies or increase your survivability. Armor T1 mods are all class-specific, enhancing your abilities by granting new effects or enhancing existing ones.

  • Weapon Mods: Generic damage or utility effects.
  • Armor Mods: Class-specific ability augments.

Examples

  • Shield Maiden (Weapon): Shots add a small amount of shield.
  • Fireworks (Weapon): Shots create an explosion that deals X damage to enemies within a 6-meter radius. Cooldown of 3 seconds.
  • Cleansing Wind (Technomancer)Activating Fixing Wave removes negative statuses from allies and grants 5 seconds of immunity from them.

Tier Two

Outriders Tier 2 SMG

Epics are when T2 mods start to appear. Besides offering more powerful variants of T1 mods, tier two mods focus more on providing utility and on-kill effects. Replacing your dodge with a phase shift, detonating corpses after an opponent dies, and gaining a stacking damage buff for killing targets are just a few things you can expect at this tier. Ability-centric mods are not present at this tier.

  • Weapon Mods: More unique effects that grant damage or utility, most of which persist for a variable duration.
  • Armor Mods: Class-agnostic augments that anyone can use.

Examples

  • Phantom Dash (Armor): During combat, your default roll is replaced with Phantom Dash, which enables you to quickly pass through enemies.
  • Gale of Protection (Weapon): Killing shots grant you a bullet-stopping gale for 5 seconds.
  • Perseverance Munitions (Armor): Whenever your Health drops below 30%, increase your Firepower by X for 5 seconds.

Tier Three

Outriders Golem's Limb Legendary Shotgun

Only found on legendaries, tier three mods offer the most potent effects in Outriders. These mods have powerful on-hit and on-kill effects, skill alterations that fundamentally change your playstyle, and effects that mimic what other classes provide.

  • Weapon Mods: Exotic damage or utility effects that are incredibly powerful.
  • Armor Mods: Class-specific and class-agnostic effects, granting powerful buffs or ability augments.

Examples

  • Golem Rising (Weapon): Killing an enemy grants you a protective Golem effect for 5 seconds.
  • Martial Arts (Armor): Reduces the cooldown of your melee skill by 50%.
  • Ammo Bargain (Trickster)While Twisted Rounds is active, killing shots replenish 20% of the ammo in your magazine.

If you want to see what each mod does in Outriders, visit the Outriders Fandom Wiki.

Mod FAQ

Outriders Tier 2 Armor Mods

Outriders' modding system has quite a few moving parts that can confuse newcomers and veteran players alike. We'll answer some frequently asked questions to break some common misconceptions and obscure mechanics tied to mods.

Do Mods Stack?

Mods with the same name cannot stack. For example, you can't stack the Trickster's Additional Mag mod on all of your armor to get six magazines worth of Twisted Rounds. If you have duplicates of the same mod, the game will highlight the duplicate mod in red on items with it equipped.

RELATED: Outriders: Every Legendary Armor Set In The Game

Strangely, mods that behave similarly do stack, so long as both mods are in a different tier. A good example of this is the Storm Whip T2 mod and the Ultimate Storm Whip T3 mod. You can use both mods simultaneously since they technically have different names, causing your weapon to alternate between both mods when they're off cooldown. However, you can't stack the Storm Whip mod twice on a single gun since they share the same name.

Do Mod Effects Scale?

Yes. Most mods in Outriders will scale off of your item level. Excluding most ability-centric mods such as cooldown reductions, increasing an item's level will make your mods significantly stronger. The item level cap in Outriders is 50.

What Do These Mod Symbols Mean?

Outriders Mod Icons

There are two mod symbols that you might find while inspecting an item. Here's what they mean:

  • Screwdriver And Wrench: You've crafted a mod in this slot, preventing you from modifying a second slot on the same item.
  • Windowpane: This mod is known and can be applied to other items.

What Are The Best Mods?

We have a guide covering the best mods in Outriders.

What's The Best Way Of Obtaining Mods?

The best farm is easily Expeditions, Outriders' endgame activity. If your character hasn't unlocked Expeditions yet, then focus on completing side quests. Quests that grant large quantities of Titanium typically contain Elite enemies that drop half a dozen items when slain, making those farms solid for obtaining mods as well.

Are Tier 3 Mods Objectively Better Than Tier 1 Or 2 Mods?

Not exactly. For weapons, most T3 mods are objectively better than their T1 or T2 counterparts. It gets somewhat complicated when you discuss armor.

T3 armor mods contain class-agnostic and class-specific mods. These class-agnostic mods are generally powerful, granting a massive boost to your Firepower or Anomaly in some form. Class-specific mods range from incredibly strong to lackluster. Have a clear idea of what your build needs before you start chasing certain T3 armor mods, as the rarity of legendaries in Outriders can make these long-term goals not worth the hassle.

You do not need T3 armor mods to complete the game's hardest content for most builds. The only "mandatory" T3 mod you might want is Killing Spree, a weapon mod found on the Amber Vault Double Gun. This grants a 25% damage boost per kill for 20 seconds and stacks up to three times. Firepower builds arguably need this mod to complete Challenge Tier 15 Expeditions. Anomaly builds depend highly on the class in question.

Next: Outriders Complete Guide And Walkthrough