Skills

Skills are basic character attributes that determine how good the character is in particular areas - for example knowledge of firearms, or ability to do magic.

## Skill points

Character attributes can be improved by by assigning skill points to skill. Skill points are received on levelup - 5 for each level - or gained by using Memory orbs. Skill books can also be used to increase skills. Each skill point invested in a particular skill will slightly improve character abilities - for example "increased melee damage by 5%" (for Melee).

## Skill levels

Skills can provide additional benefits by increasing their level. Benefits vary by skill, can for example be "increased damage threshold by 1" (for Survival).

To increase level of a skill, certain amount of skill points must be assigned to it. In PipBuck>Status>Skills, skill levels are represented by boxes with digits inside them. When a box is filled, it means that skill level was reached. You can also see current skill level on the right side (see example below).

In the example above, Telekinesis reached level 3, Melee level 2 and Firearms level 3. Notice that Firearms has one additional skill point assigned to it - it provides the benefits of adding skill points (see section above), but doesn't increase skill level - 4 more skill points need to be assigned to Firearms to reach level 4.

Each skill level requires a larger amount of invested skill points. Level 1 requires 2 skill points, level 2 - 3, level 3 - 4, etc. Therefore it's harder to achieve higher skill levels.

## Memory orbs

Skill points can be gained by using memory orbs, which are very rare items. Memory orb grants a single skill point that can be spent on any skill.

On some difficulty levels, memory orbs can only be used in base camps.

## Skill books

Skill points can also be gained by reading skill books, which can be quite rare. A skill book increases a particular skill by 1.

For a list of skill books, see Consumables.

After reading a skill book, it changes to a pre-war book that can be sold or used to complete the Library quest.

Skill books for Attack, Defense or Knowledge don't exist. However, if you max out a particular generic skill, reading a skill book of that category will grant you a random skill boost (one point) for one of these special skills. This is true even before your character reaches level 20 (before Attack, Defense or Knowledge are available) - one of those skills will be incremented, and bonuses for reaching skill level (e.g. resistance to damage for Defense) will be added. However, this situation is very unlikely.

On some difficulty levels, skill books can only be read in base camps.

## List of skills

### Telekinesis

The "Telekinesis" skill determines your ability to move various objects with magic, and can also serve as a support for a jump in the air.

* With every skill point invested, the magical power consumption for telekinesis and "Double Jump" decreases.
* With each skill level your telekinetic power will increase, in particular, you can lift heavier items, and it will be harder for enemies to escape from your telekinetic grip.

*Main article: Telekinesis (skill)*

### Melee weapons

Skill "Melee weapons" determines combat effectiveness with any melee weapon.

* Each invested skill point increases damage by 5%.
* Each skill level allows using more advanced weapons. Insufficient skill level decreases attack speed and increases action points consumption in S.A.T.S.

*Main article: Melee weapons (skill)*

### Firearms

Skill "Firearms" determines your ability to handle pistols, rifles, shotguns and a minigun.

* Each invested skill point increases damage and accuracy of these weapons by 5%.
* Each skill level allows using more advanced weapons. Insufficient skill level will make you miss more often.

*Main article: Firearms (skill)*

### Energy weapons

Skill "Energy weapons" determines your ability to handle different laser, plasma or pulse weapons and a flamethrower.

* Each invested skill point increases damage and accuracy of these weapons by 5%.
* Each skill level allows using more advanced weapons. Insufficient skill level will make you miss more often.

*Main article: Energy weapons (skill)*

### Explosives

Skill "Explosives" determines your ability to work with everything that is capable of exploding.

* Each invested skill point increases damage of your explosives by 5%, also increases throwing distance for grenades.
* Each skill level allows using and creating more advanced explosives, improves success rate at defusing and helps you detect enemy mines from longer distance.

*Main article: Explosives (skill)*

### Magic

Skill "Magic" determines your knowledge of magical arts, directly affecting power of your spells, both offensive and defensive.

* Each invested skill point increases damage of your offensive spells by 5%, and defensive - by 10%.
* Each skill level decreases cooldown time for all spells.

*Main article: Magic (skill)*

### Repair

Skill "Repair" helps you keeping your weapons and armor in good condition, and using mechanisms of all sorts.

* Each invested skill point increases effectiveness of repairs by 4% (with base value of 20%) and increases damage for the crafted weapon by 5%.
* Each skill level enables you creating advanced weapons, also repairing or shutting down more complex mechanisms.

*Main article: Repair (skill)*

### Medicine

Skill "Medicine" directly affects your health and ability to heal yourself without medic`s help.

* Each invested skill point increases effectiveness of healing potions and other medication by 3% (with base value of 40%).
* Each skill level increases your maximal health and enables you to operate special medical instrumentation.

*Main article: Medicine (skill)*

### Lockpicking

Skill "Lockpicking" allows you to open mechanical locks.

* Each invested skill point increases probability to open a lock and decreases chance of jamming.
* Each skill level allows you to pick locks of more sophisticated design.

*Main article: Lockpicking (skill)*

### Science

Skill "Science" represents your knowledge in different scientific fields, particularly those about electronics and information technology.

* Each invested skill point increases chance of successful hacking of electronic locks and protected terminals.
* Each skill level enables you breaking through more advanced defense systems, and using additional PipBuck features by applying special extension modules.

*Main article: Science (skill)*

### Sneak

The "Sneak" skill allows you to move unnoticed by enemies or to attack them from ambush, suddenly and deadly.

* Each invested skill point makes you harder to be noticed or heard.
* With each skill level a chance to deal critical damage to an enemy who hasn`t seen you is increased by 5%. It also helps you to shut down alarm systems.

*Main article: Sneak (skill)*

### Barter

Skill "Barter" helps you to negotiate with all sorts of merchants in the Wasteland to get better goods and services for lower price.

* Each invested skill point decreases prices for purchasing and repairs by 3%.
* Each skill level expands selection of merchants` goods and allows you to access some exclusive deals, that can`t be found anywhere else.

*Main article: Barter (skill)*

### Survival

This skill represents ancient knowledge almost forgotten by ponies, but mastered and perfected by zebras. With this knowledge you will survive where others would perish.

* Each invested skill point increases your resistance to any damage by 1%.
* Each skill level increases your damage threshold by 1, and enables you to prepare magical potions by zebras' recipes.

*Main article: Survival (skill)*

## Special skills

There are three special skills that work differently than "normal" skills. They are Attack, Defense and Knowledge.

* They are not available before reaching level 20
* Individual skill points have no effects, only skill levels
* The first level costs 5 skill points, the second 6, the third 7, and so on (generic skills start at 2 skill points). The maximum skill level is 10, after investing 100 skill points.

## Attack

### ID

`attack`

With each level of this skill the damage of any weapon is increased by 5%. If you have nothing worthwhile left for increasing the damage your weapons do, then this can be a minor but helpful boost to your offensive power.

Alternatively, damage for specific types of weapons can be increased by taking perks, for example Laser show, Pyromaniac and Commando.

## Defense

### ID

`defense`

With each level your resistance to any damage increases by 3%. While it sounds nice, in practice it's far better to invest the points in Survival - each skill point increases resistance to any damage by 1%. This means that by spending *5* points on Defense you gain only *3%* resistance, and by spending them on Survival you gain *5%* resistance, in addition to other benefits of Survival (increased damage threshold and ability to make zebra potions, if you increase Survival level). And this is only for first level of Defense - for next levels you'll need to spend increasingly more points.

## Knowledge

### ID

`knowl`

With each level of this skill, you gain an additional perk. **Important**: this doesn't mean you get two or more perks every time your *character* levels up, but every time the *knowledge skill* levels up. Basically it's a way of exchanging skill points for perks.