Best Weird West Abilities: What Are The Best Character And Weapon Abilities?

You may be wondering what the best Weird West abilities are, as you have the option of choosing both character and weapon abilities while playing. Weird West contains five episodes that feature different character stories, and each one gets unique abilities to help them on their journeys through the west. If you want to know what the best Weird West abilities are, we've got you covered. 

• If you need help when starting off with the game, we have a series of Weird West Tips, so you can make the most of your time.

Best Weird West Abilities: What Are Abilities?

In Weird West, characters have a choice of up to four unique abilities, and a series of weapon abilities that cover pistols, shotguns, rifles, bows, and melee arms. Depending on your style of play for each character, the abilities can vary in usefulness, but some of them stand clearly above the rest in most situations. To gain abilities, players need to find Nimp Relics by exploring, completing quests, or purchasing them.

Best Weird West Weapon Abilities

We've split our best weapon abilities by weapon type, as each one has abilities worth picking. Some of them combo with certain character abilities to great effect too, so it's worth experimenting during the different episodes.

Best Revolver Abilities

Fan The Hammer - Your next shot will fire all your bullets rapidly, dealing a high amount of damage that is great for bursting targets down.

High Noon - Lets you target up to six enemies on screen at once and fire a single bullet at each. In combat this usually won't deal enough damage to everyone to be worth it, but from stealth it can net you a damage bonus on unaware targets.

Best Shotgun Abilities

Both Barrels - Your next shot will use both shells, dealing critical damage and making the target bleed, which is another great tool for burst damage.

Rapid Reload - Lets you fire without having to reload for five seconds, meaning you can spam your shots against enemy groups and kill them quickly.

Best Rifle Abilities

Sentry Silencer - Your next shot is dead silent and deals 200% damage to unaware targets. This is one of the most powerful stealth abilities in the game due to the range and damage of rifles. 

Bullet Hail - For the next ten seconds your firing speed increases by 20%, and every kill nets you an additional 10%. A great tool to ambush enemy groups and put most of them down before they draw their weapons. 

Best Bow Abilities

Ambush Arrow - Your next shot will stun the enemy it hits for five seconds, which is an incredibly long time in combat, letting you and your companions drain their health with quick follow-up attacks.

Splash Arrows - For the next ten seconds, all of your arrows deal AoE damage, and also lets you apply any effects like fire, poison, or stun, to the targets. This is useful for groups of enemies or those with weaknesses to specific status effects that you can take advantage of.

Best Melee Abilities

Spinning Strike - Lets you spin in a circle on your next attack, striking all targets in range and stunning them for three seconds. This acts as a get out of jail free card for when you're surrounded by enemies due to its stun, and the chance to cause AoE damage with a melee weapon. 

Adrenaline - Increases your melee attack speed by 50% for the next ten seconds. Useful in a variety of situations, letting you burst down a boss faster or clear a room of enemies without them getting as many attacks in. 

• For the Bounty Hunter storyline, we have a rundown of all the options available in the Weird West Galen's Crossing quest.

Best Weird West Bounty Hunter Abilities

Jane Bell is the first character you'll play as in your Weird West adventures, and as a seasoned bounty hunter, she has a good amount of utility to make the most of various scenarios. 

The first skill worth acquiring for Jane is the Shrapnel Mine, which lets you place a trap that explodes when enemies approach it. It deals massive damage and has a large area of effect, meaning it can one-hit most enemies in its radius and has the potential to take out entire groups. This is great for players who like to stealth behind enemy lines, giving you a chance to surprise and drop them all before anyone can get a shot off.

The other skill that's essential for Jane Bell is a great escape and distraction utility. Charm lets you turn all enemies around you into allies for eight seconds, which is great when you are overwhelmed and need to get the heat off yourself long enough to reposition and heal. Attacking the charmed enemies will turn them back against you, so it's worth letting them fight non-charmed enemies for its duration.

Best Weird West Pigman Abilities

The second episode will see you take on the role of the cursed Pigman, and a lot of his unique abilities are designed for letting you get in your enemies face to deal with them directly. 

The best Pigman ability is Rubber Skin, which makes you invulnerable to any bullets for ten seconds, causing them to ricochet off and hit nearby enemies. This is a stand-out ability as it lets you avoid most potential damage and still deal a constant stream of damage on top of your weapons. It can get you out of sticky situations, and is a good entry tool for getting into the thick of it when the fight won't last too long.

The next best ability is Shockwave, which causes you to slam down on the surrounding ground, causing 70 damage and stunning all enemies in the radius. Combining this with the entry potential of Rubber Skin is great as you can get close enough without suffering high damage, and the stun should give you and your companions enough time to finish enemies off. This ability also detonates any barrels or oil lamps nearby, so you can deal a tonne of extra damage, but you also risk hurting yourself in the process.

Best Weird West Protector Abilities

In the third episode you'll follow the adventure of Across Rivers, who is the best hunter of the Lost Fire Nation. He only has three abilities to begin with, but all of them are incredibly strong in their own ways. 

The premiere ability of Across Rivers is called Western Wind and lets you create a tornado in front of you that travels around picking up enemies and objects, before hurling them to the ground. The tornado can also take on any elemental properties it comes into contact with - for example, letting you combine it with fire barrels to make a flame tornado. This move deals immense damage and is powerful against groups of enemies.

Cousin Bear is another ability that lets you summon a spirit bear to fight by your side for 15 seconds. The bear is incredibly tanky, and can deal out a tonne of damage to enemies, so it's a good tool to get some heat off you and fall back, and a good choice from stealth, letting it weaken enemies.

Best Weird West Werewolf Abilities

Episode four puts you in the shoes of a Werewolf who can turn into a monster at any moment. You still have the option of four abilities, with your fifth slot allowing you to change into the beast. It's worth noting you can use these abilities in any form.

The best ability when in Werwolf form is called Yeb's Fire, which allows you to surround yourself with a fiery nova for eight seconds that burns all enemies and the environment. The Werewolf form lasts the exact same amount of time, so combining those together lets you unleash a tonne of damage on enemies, usually ending the fight before it really begins. 

The Werewolf also has access to the best stealth ability, Yeb's Invisibility, which lets you go invis for ten seconds. You can't run during this, and shooting will end the ability early, but you can still roll, allowing you to bypass entire areas with ease, without ever leaving a trace. 

Best Weird West Oneirist Abilities

The last episode that ties everything together puts you into the shoes of one of the Onerist initiates. These are magical witches, so they have their fair share of weird abilities. 

One of the better abilities for the Oneirist, is called Shift, which functions like a blink from Dishonored. It allows you to teleport eight metres ahead, stunning any enemies at the arrival location. Shift also uses very few action points, letting you get a lot of them in before you need an AP refill. Furthermore, it's useful in both stealth and combat scenarios, giving it a lot of utility for you to take advantage of. 

Summon Wisps is another good choice that's mainly useful for combat, as it summons three lightning charges around you, which protect you from enemies that get too close. Due to its damage, and the stunning potential of electricity, you can get a lot of use from this in busy fights, and even as a way of getting the jump on someone. 

That's all for our breakdown of the best Weird West abilities, and now you know which of the skills are worth picking up for each of the five characters.  

Check our Weird West Length guide to see how long the game will take to complete, depending on the type of playstyle you have.