Outriders can be a tough game once you start to get into it. Despite access to a host of different ludicrous superpowers, you're still human at the end of the day, and if you get nailed with enough bullets or slashed by enough monster claws, you're going to die. You can mitigate some of that incoming damage with Outriders' cover shooter mechanics, but because of the way most character classes recover health, you need to be constantly slaying foes. If you're not using equipment mods to help with that, you're kind of playing the game wrong.

There's a pretty deep and robust modding system in Outriders, but it's easy to overlook. First, when you're introduced to the system, you don't really need it yet. Second, you go through so much gear in Outriders that you might be thinking, "I'll wait till I get the really good stuff before I start making changes." Unfortunately, that's a mistake--by not modding your gear, you're likely making the game much harder than it needs to be.

Gear mods can give you significant perks for your armor and guns, making your abilities and status effects a lot more powerful. Even relatively early in the game, you should be tuning your gear to fit the powers you like and the enemies you expect to face to give yourself the biggest advantage you can. But to do that, you need to understand how mods work and how to create character builds, even with less-than-optimal gear. Here's everything you need to know about modding in Outriders, including why you should be doing it.