Codex HOW TO PLAY Skills

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Skills

Skills are learnable arts unlocked with ability points — two per level-up — spent on the Character screen (F2). Each needs a minimum character level and a minimum score in its governing attribute. Listed below by branch, with the required Level, the governing Attribute and its minimum, and the ability-point cost.

STRENGTH

  • Builder L2, STR 3, 1 AP
    • Each swing at a tree or dead wood knocks loose 50% more scraps and sticks (rounded up - one becomes two).
    • Upgrade wood walls, floors and stairs to stone.
  • Metallurgist L2, STR 3, 1 AP
    • Required to build and work a furnace.
    • Smelt Iron Ore into Iron, char wood into Charcoal, and refine sulphur if you are also an Alchemist.
    • Every rock node you break gives up 50% more - stone, clay and ore alike.
  • Blacksmith L2, STR 3, 1 AP
    • Required to work an anvil - forge iron tools, weapons and armour.
    • Required to build an anvil or a cauldron.
  • Conditioning L5, STR 6, 1 AP
    • +50% maximum stamina.
    • Carrying objects and pulling carts costs half the stamina.
  • Resilience L5, STR 6, 1 AP
    • Hunger drains 20% slower.
    • Thirst drains about 30% slower.
    • Eat raw meat and fish without harm.
    • Gorge yourself as fast as you like without retching.
  • Savage L6, STR 7, 1 AP
    • Your next heavy melee hit after an execution deals +40 damage and causes bleeding.
    • Every bash of yours can knock the weapon out of your victim's hand (5% chance, +1% per point of Strength).
  • Ravager L7, STR 8, 2 AP
    • Every melee blow you land, a swing or a special, has a 20% chance to tear open a bleeding wound - even with a club or bare fists.
    • Your melee blows deal +10 damage to a foe that is already bleeding.
  • Executioner L8, STR 8, 2 AP
    • Required to execute a downed foe with under 10% health left - without this art there is no finishing blow to offer.
    • Your Smash special hits 30% harder.
  • Juggernaut L10, STR 9, 2 AP
    • Never downed or knocked out - no smash, sap, blast or sleep arrow puts you under, and low health won't drop you.
    • A kick, slide, trample or bite can still floor you for a moment.
    • Enemy special attacks and thrown weapons deal 20% less damage to you.
  • Berserker L11, STR 10, 2 AP
    • Unlocks the Berserker Leap: with a melee weapon drawn, X on a foe FACING you hurls you the last two metres onto them.
    • The Leap deals 3x weapon damage and leaves a survivor downed (costs 40% of your stamina).
    • Your special attacks recharge in half the time.
    • After an execution, nearby foes flee in terror.
    • For 10 seconds after an execution, each of your melee hits deals +20 damage and causes bleeding.

AGILITY

  • Nimble L2, AGI 3, 1 AP
    • Unlocks the combat roll: aim, hold a direction and tap sprint to dodge - blows pass through you mid-roll.
    • Unlocks the R special attack - with a weapon drawn or bare-handed, aim and press R for a kick that knocks a foe down.
  • Prowler L2, AGI 3, 1 AP
    • Crouching cuts your detection radius.
    • Crouching shows the alert marker above every nearby NPC head while you stay crouched.
  • Climber L2, AGI 3, 1 AP
    • Required to throw a Hook Rope as a grapple - without this art it is only a weapon in your hands.
    • Lets you FREE-CLIMB: aim at a wall and press jump to take hold of it.
    • On a wall you can go up, down, left and right, and pull up over a ledge.
    • Hauling your own weight is hard work: every move on a face costs a real share of your stamina bar, and running out drops you.
    • Climbing a Hook Rope uses half the stamina.
    • You can make Hook Ropes at the workbench.
  • Acrobat L2, AGI 3, 1 AP
    • Take half damage from falls.
    • Breakfall: on a fall that would hurt you, tap sprint as the ground comes up and you roll out of the landing instead, taking nothing. The prompt tells you when to press.
    • While sprinting, tap jump for a high acrobatic leap.
    • Unlocks POWER CLIMB, the boosted climbing moves (needs Climber to get onto a wall in the first place). Hold sprint while clinging and the prompt lists them.
    • Power climb: hold sprint and tap forward, left, right or a diagonal - each one covers about two metres in the same time. Straight moves cost half as much again.
    • Hold sprint on a wall: back slides down, jump throws you clear of the face.
    • Diagonal wall reaches: forward + left or forward + right.
  • Duelist L5, AGI 6, 1 AP
    • Your special attacks recharge a quarter faster.
    • Fighting in focus mode deals +15% damage.
    • Your stab and thrust specials hit 20% harder.
  • Evasion L6, AGI 6, 1 AP
    • 20% chance to dodge a melee special outright.
    • 50% chance to resist bleeding.
  • Shadow L6, AGI 7, 1 AP
    • Crouching hides you even better.
    • Unlocks the silent stealth kills (strangle & cut-throat) - aim and press X at an enemy's back.
  • Untouchable L8, AGI 8, 2 AP
    • Enables the combat slide (crouch while sprinting) that knocks foes down.
    • In combat stance, double-tap forward or back for an acrobatic flip dodge.
    • Your combat roll stamina cost is halved.
  • Skirmisher L10, AGI 9, 2 AP
    • Every kill you make refills 20% of your stamina bar.
    • Every kill also readies your next hit to land +20 damage - a swing, a special, a throw or a shot.
  • Assassin L11, AGI 10, 2 AP
    • Your silent kill (X from behind) always kills outright.

INTELLIGENCE

  • Bushcrafter L2, INT 3, 1 AP
    • +50% of everything you butcher from a carcass (rounded up) - meat, hide, bones, fat, feathers and trophies alike.
    • Fuel you feed a fire burns 50% longer, and fires you light give off no smoke.
    • Focus mode reveals harvest nodes.
    • Make bone knives and spears, tribal shields and trophy masks.
  • Cook L2, INT 3, 1 AP
    • Required to cook at a cauldron: meals, drinks and lamp oil.
  • Craftsman L2, INT 3, 1 AP
    • Required to work a workbench.
    • Make most workbench goods: cloth and leather clothing, dyes, the chisel, waterskins, clay pots and the hide shield.
    • Make the iron hand tools (Iron Hammer, Iron Knife, Carving Hatchet), rope, bandages, splints and reins.
    • Build workbenches, chests, barrels and mushroom pots.
  • Focused L2, INT 3, 1 AP
    • +50% maximum focus.
    • Focus mode reveals thrown weapons and dropped loot.
    • You can HAGGLE a trader - talk their price down, their offer up and their repair fee lower for as long as you stand at their table.
    • Haggling costs FOCUS, more of it the richer the trader, and you get ONE attempt at each trader until they next come and go.
    • Intelligence decides how often the pitch lands and how much it wins, but no tongue is silver enough to never be refused.
  • Trapper L4, INT 5, 1 AP
    • Required to CRAFT traps of every kind - Bear, Spike, Incendiary and Poison.
    • Spike, Incendiary and Poison Traps also need it to be built and to be armed.
    • A Bear Trap needs no skill to lay, re-arm or disarm once it is made - anyone can work one.
  • Tinker L4, INT 5, 1 AP
    • Repairs cost half the materials and focus.
    • Make recurve bows, crossbows, their bolts and tipped arrows, saddles, backpacks and tribal armour, the helmet, the mail undershirt and iron armour, and mid-tier iron blades, cleavers, javelins and maces.
    • Build strongboxes and carts, the camp wall, the camp gate and the trade stall.
    • Upgrade wood doors and gates to iron.
  • Healer L5, INT 6, 1 AP
    • Anything you eat or drink from your pack that restores health restores 50% more (rounded up).
    • Tend others from your own pack: aim at a hurt player or a friendly person to heal them, bandage a bleed, splint a fracture or cleanse poison and infection.
  • Alchemist L7, INT 8, 2 AP
    • Brew potions and poison at a cauldron, +2 portions from every pot you fill.
    • Refine sulphur in a furnace.
    • Make gunpowder, sleep arrows, poison bombs and explosive charges.
  • Artisan L9, INT 9, 2 AP
    • Make the finest gear: the flintlocks and the blunderbuss pistol and their charges, bombs, lockpicks, flutes, barbed bolts, the great blades, axes and hammers, and the tower shield.
    • Forge Steel from iron and charcoal at an anvil - no other smith can, and the best blades, guns, armour and tools in the valley are all built on it.
    • Build the balloon.
    • Build 25% faster.
    • Focus mode reveals traps.
  • Shaman L11, INT 10, 2 AP
    • Revive the DEAD: a player, a person or an animal, within 90 seconds of their death. You alone see how long each body has left.
    • Aim at the body and press H, then ten seconds crouched over it. Costs half your focus, and no potion will do it.
    • The revived get up weak and limping, and still lose the life their death cost - a death on the last life is final.
    • A revived person gets up and wanders off - an enemy calmed for good - and a revived beast bolts in panic. Reviving a person or an animal earns karma, and a person's own people remember it - except the Hiss'Gar.

PERCEPTION

  • Forager L2, PER 3, 1 AP
    • Gather 50% more from plants and harvest nodes.
  • Angler L2, PER 3, 1 AP
    • The fishing reel minigame is twice as forgiving (double the hit window).
    • You can make fishing rods.
  • Locksmith L2, PER 3, 1 AP
    • Pick HARD locks.
  • Marksman L4, PER 5, 1 AP
    • +5 damage with bows, thrown weapons and firearms while FOCUS MODE is active.
  • Beastmaster L4, PER 5, 1 AP
    • Taming spooks the animal far less (75%->30%) and progresses twice as fast.
    • Every blow you land on a predator has a 25% chance to break its nerve and send it fleeing.
    • A horse you ride is far less likely to throw you when a beast strikes it (50% -> 20%).
  • Vigilance L5, PER 6, 1 AP
    • In focus mode, creatures hidden behind cover are outlined through it - moving ones anywhere in range, still ones within 15 m.
    • Without this skill, focus shows only their nametags.
  • Tracker L5, PER 6, 1 AP
    • +25% loot from carcasses.
    • Sense creatures at greater range.
  • Master Locksmith L7, PER 8, 2 AP
    • Pick VERY-HARD locks.
  • True Sight L9, PER 9, 2 AP
    • Focus mode reveals ore nodes.
    • Focus mode rings each nearby NPC at the range it will spot you.
    • Your ranged hits have a 25% chance to critically hit for double damage.
  • Deadeye L11, PER 10, 2 AP
    • +10 damage on every ranged hit - bows, crossbows, firearms and thrown weapons (stacks with Marksman).
    • A ranged shot on a target that hasn't noticed you deals a further +30.