.22 Caliber SMG

Lore & Background

In the Halcyon system, firearms are as varied as the people who carry them. The .22 Caliber SMG is the product of a long tradition of small-caliber personal defense weapons that predate the colony's founding. Its .22 rounds are inexpensive, widely available, and produce a satisfying sharp crack that echoes off the tin roofs of Edgewater's market stalls. It's the kind of gun you find in a junk drawer, behind a bar counter, or in the coat of a dockworker who'd rather not get into trouble but isn't above settling a debt with a few well-placed shots.

The weapon's design reflects the practical, no-frills engineering culture of the Halcyon colonists. There's no exotic energy cell or plasma coil here—just a simple blowback mechanism, a short magazine, and a folding stock that tucks the whole thing under a jacket. It's not pretty, and it's not powerful, but it works. In a system where the big corporations control the supply of high-grade ammunition and exotic weapons, a .22 SMG is one of the few firearms a regular person can afford to keep loaded and ready.

Players who start their journey aboard the Monarch will encounter this weapon early, either as a drop from the first hostiles they face or as stock at one of the ship's small vendors. It's a gentle introduction to the game's weapon system: simple stats, no special effects, just a reliable spray of small rounds that teaches the player the rhythm of The Outer Worlds' third-person combat before they graduate to the rarer, more exotic armaments scattered across Halcyon's moons and stations.

In Their Own Story

The bar in Edgewater was called The Rusty Anchor, and the bartender had a .22 Caliber SMG taped under the counter with a strip of duct tape and a prayer. Three of the Monarch's crew had come in looking for a quiet drink. They were not quiet. The first one had a rifle. The second had a shotgun. The third just had a very bad attitude and a very good suit.

The bartender—name's Marge, though nobody asked—reached under the counter, peeled the tape off the little gun, and felt the cold steel of the magazine seat. Twenty-two rounds. Maybe twenty-three if she'd counted right. She racked the slide once, listened to the dry click of the empty chamber, and set the mag back in with a soft thud.

"Ladies and gentlemen," she said, not looking up from the glass she was muddling. "I'd like to suggest everyone here is a very good person who wants to leave now."

The one in the suit laughed. That was the last sound that was a laugh. The .22 SMG went off in short, sharp bursts, each round punching a small white star into the wood paneling behind the bar. It wasn't elegant. It wasn't powerful. But it was fast, and Marge had been holding it for a long time, and the three of them were not expecting a sixty-year-old bartender with a taped-down pistol to be the one deciding who got to walk out of The Rusty Anchor that night.

By the time the coast guard shuttle landed, the bar was empty, the glasses were broken, and the .22 SMG was back under the counter, re-taped, waiting for the next bad afternoon.

Reader's Guide

Item: .22 Caliber SMG Type: Submachine Gun Tier: Common

Stat Block: Damage is low (entry-level SMG range), weight is light, and it carries no special effect. Its primary advantage is a high rate of fire, letting you lay down a steady stream of .22 rounds to suppress or finish off lightly armored targets. It is not a one-shot-kill weapon; think of it as a crowd-control tool for the early game.

Acquisition: The .22 Caliber SMG is available very early in the campaign. You can find it as a drop from the first enemies encountered aboard the Monarch or in the initial Halcyon landing area. It also appears in the inventory of early-game vendors. It is NOT quest-gated and NOT DLC-exclusive—it is a standard common-tier weapon available to all players from the start.

Tips: Because it is common-tier, you will likely outgrow it quickly. However, it makes a decent backup weapon to slot into a fast-equip rotation alongside a primary rifle. Its light weight means it won't burden your inventory. If you find a higher-tier SMG (Uncommon, Rare, or Epic), the .22 becomes expendable—sell it to a vendor for a small amount of credits to fund better gear.

Flavor: The weapon's in-game description is brief and matter-of-fact, consistent with the game's dry, deadpan tone. There are no hidden easter eggs specific to this item, but its existence as a .22-caliber weapon in a sci-fi setting is itself a small nod to the franchise's retro, grounded aesthetic—real-world small arms reimagined in a 1970s space-western context.

Did You Know?

• The .22 Caliber SMG is one of the few weapons in The Outer Worlds that uses a real-world small-caliber designation, fitting the game's retro-futuristic aesthetic where technology feels like the 1970s crossed with the 207
• As a common-tier weapon, it has no special effect or unique perk, making it a pure stat weapon—its value is entirely in its fire rate and low weight profile.
• The .22 SMG's availability early on the Monarch makes it one of the first weapons players can use to learn the game's third-person cover and aim-down-sight mechanics before encountering more complex armaments.
• In The Outer Worlds, weapon tiers (Common through Legendary) determine both base stats and the presence of special effects; the .22 Caliber SMG, being common, carries no special effect, which is a deliberate design choic