Skills Guide

**All of this information is courtesy of Reddit user u/DarkSword\_X. This information was originally found on reddit.com/r/GrimSoulSurvival**

## Active Skills

Active skills – what do they do and how do they work ? Game changer or “meh” ? Some are purely great, some are borderline useless; some are useful right off the bat, while other only start to shine after several levels. Lets have a look.

*Note 1: All active skills can be increased up to level 10.*

*Note 2: given the recent updates, some of the numbers may not be correct. However, in no case does this affect the overall comment & analysis for each given skill. Feel free to add corrections in the comment - and the OP will be edited to reflect them.*

Sprint

*Effect*

Increases your run speed by 6% per level. Lasts for 5 seconds.

*Comment*

Pretty useless. Sure, speed is always nice – but there are -as of yet- no real in game circumstance where you *absolutely* need to run really fast towards or from something.

Granted, some enemies actually *do* move faster than you if you have no boots and no passive speed upgrade (they are: bears, direwolves, possessed, cursed merchant, bats and plague bandits - and any AI exile that has better boots than you) - but given that the activated skill only lasts 5 seconds, that enemies do not give up their chase (unless you reset the map by leaving and re-entering; does not work with non-AI spawned enemies with full aggro - those never give up, even if you reset the map) and given that wearing even the lowest possible level 1 boots functionally compensates for the speed difference, being able to sprint doesn't yield any significant advantage. Yes, you run marginally faster for 5 seconds… but does it change anything ? In the grand scheme of things, no.

The only situation where being able to sprint comes in handy is when some coward AI exile that you battled within an inch of its life tries to give up the fight and run away. If it has better boots than you, it actually *can* run away from you, depriving you of the spoils of victory (meaning you spent equipment durability and healing items in the fight for nothing). Being able to sprint, there (and its it's only practical use, really), allows you to catch up to the coward and deal the finishing blow (... just hope he doesn't runs away behind damned knights or templars, though...)

However, given that this situation is so rare, one is left to wonder: is it \*so\* useful that it's better to be able to sprint than to use another active skill ? Also, given that active skills require you to suffer damage to charge up, sprint can only be effectively used to engage or disengage once (it's not the type of skill you can use several times during a battle). To each exile his or her preference, but in general terms of game mechanics, other active skills can be more generally useful.

*Verdict*

Meh. Pass.

Eye of the Raven

*Effect*

Increases your vision range (i.e.: farther perspective of map view) by 100%. You get an aerial view from higher up, during which you can't move, attack or do anything, but can look from much further away - you have to cancel this vision mode and end the skill effect to move and resume exploring. Beware: during the high vision mode, enemies can still move towards you and attack you (but you'll see them coming). Each additional level increases your vision range by an additional 50%. Does not work underground (← needs verification \*EDIT\* *Confirmed* not to work in dungeons)

*Comment*

This skill is not *completely* useless, as having a bigger (-significantly- bigger at later levels) map view at once lets you precisely know what's up ahead in any unexplored area. This can serve some degree of tactical advantage for night cache runs (to locate it faster, before dawn arises), and will give you knowledge of enemy positioning from much further than necessary on “normal” vision.

However, it's not a strategic game-changer, as you can still gather all the scouting info you need in “normal” vision and with the minimap.

*Verdict*

Meh. It's nice on its own - and it does have its situational use when doing night cache runs - but it gets generally outclassed in terms of usefulness by many other skills.

Banisher of Darkness

*Effect*

Scares the Night Guest away. Basically the same effect than equipping a torch or flaming sword (or stepping in the big rune circle in the middle of the map). Additional levels reduce the damage needed for recharge by roughly 5% per level.

*Comment*

For any even slightly skilled player, it serves no real purpose. First off, the Night Guest can be dispelled from any map simply by leaving the area and coming back – and if you absolutely need, for whatever reason, to stay on the map and not leave, a torch yields the exact same effect. Given that the torch is one of the earliest and cheapest items you can craft, this skill's effect, despite being nice, is so easily replaceable that it's not worth having it as your active skill.

*Verdict*

Meh. Pass.

Heavy Strike

*Effect*

Adds +10 true damage to your next attack. +5 additional true damage per additional level. Only works with melee weapons. The added damage is (sadly) not doubled in sneak attacks.

*Comment*

Aaah. Now we're talking! This skill is -very- useful and only gets better as it levels up. Can't go wrong with more damage! It especially shines in long drawn fights with powerful enemies where it can be activated several times. Also, given that it ignores armor, it's a real game changer against powerful armored enemies.

Many players consider this the go-to default active skill unless you have a specific need for something else – and with reason: it's really, really useful.

*Verdict*

Yes! YES! Marry this skill and have legions of children with it. It rules.

Stunning Strike

*Effect*

Once activated, your next melee attack will stun the enemy for roughly 1 second. Stun duration increases with additional levels (increments not yet known – additional information welcome).

*Comment*

This is THE BEST active skill of them all: a stunned enemy is a sitting duck – meaning that you will get at least one, sometimes 2 (or even 3, with very fast weapons) free hits on the enemy without retaliation. While it's not so useful against weak enemies that don't really pose any threat, it shines oh so brightly against heavily armored enemies. Best used as an initiator or mid-fight – but, of course, never as a finishing blow.

Hoooowever (hah, you thought that was too good to be true, didn't you ?… You were right), there is just one small itsy-bitsy-tiny little problem with that skill: its PROHIBITIVELY EXPENSIVE TO ACQUIRE. You can't randomly find it in chests, you have to purchase it from merchants – and they will only sell it to you for GOLD. And gold, my dear exile comrade, can only be synthesized from iron (20 iron ingots for 1 gold bar – with a roughly 80% success rate only) at the alchemy table. This means that this skill will remain unavailable to you until you've acquired a horse, gathered all the alchemy table component from the level 2 Forsaken dungeon chest and mined iron ore upon iron ore in the dangerous Northern Lands.

For those privileged few that actually accomplished those steps, this skill is like the sweetest reward ever – but for the rest of us, it is simply taunting us, far, distant, and inaccessible until we too have passed in the grinder.

Oh, and, for those of us with…. *flexible ethics…* that may or may not have considered it: you cannot simply attack and kill the merchants outright to pry the skill book from their cold dead hands. It will not be in their corpse loot. I know this because… uh… reasons… (*there were no witnesses - nobody can prove anything…*)

*Verdict*

Absolutely magnificent… if you can get it. But for 90% of us, it is naught but a beautiful and distant dream…

Circular Impact

*Effect*

Instant 4 true damage to ALL enemies within a 3 meter radius around the player. Does not require an attack to be activated. Additional +2 true damage with each additional level.

*Comment*

Such a disappointment… This skill is the only AoE attack of the entire game as of yet. You'd think it would have the potential to do wonders against mobs of weak enemies (looking at you “treasure of the damned” event)… but alas, the damage it deals is too small to be of any statistical significance. At maximum level (and good luck getting there) it only does 22 damage, which is not enough to equate even one attack with a one-handed sword, therefore negating any *true* usefulness to this skill. Sure, you may deal damage, but if it still takes you the same number of hits to kill an enemy then the end-sum of the effect is, in practice, non-existent.

It maaaay serve a little role in taking out a near-dead enemy with only a silver lining of life left – but then again, this is highly situational – and when dealing with single targets, heavy strike takes the cake over circular impact.

If only that skill ever reached 25 AoE damage, then it would have had some real value at least against lepers – but, alas it falls short. Unless this skill receives a buff in a future update, it, unfortunately, is mechanically useless in terms of gameplay…

*Verdict*

So, so disappointing… It could have been great… but it falls short of being actually useful.

*“You were the chosen one!”*

Retribution

*Effect*

An “iron maiden”-like effect: for each attack inflicted on you while this skill is active, the enemy will self-inflict 14% of the damage dealt (true damage). Each additional level increases the damage returned amount by 7%. Lasts 3 seconds.

*Comment*

This skill is deceptive, and, generally, only ever becomes useful if you like playing with fire. It returns the damage *DEALT* upon the target, calculated *after* armor and damage reduction. Thus, the more well-armored you are, the more inefficient this skill becomes. For this skill to yield its maximum potential, you would have to be unarmored and fighting a powerful enemy - in other words, a death wish. (*Hey! Templar! Teeeemplaaaar! I'm naked! Come on! Hit me!).*

Of course, this skill's effect is hampered by evasion effects from passive skills and from damage reduction by shield block.

Granted, some enemies hit you hard even when you're well armored (damned knights and above), so this skill is not useless. It lasts only 3 seconds, so you can generally expect to be hit (thus triggering this skill's effect) 2-3 times during it's effective duration (and kiting to avoid getting hit will “penalize” your use of this skill), to inflict somewhere in between 30 to 90 damage to a powerful enemy, it's *not* nothing. If used with great tactical skill against a powerful enemy, this skill actually has the potential to actually inflict MORE return damage than heavy strike - but it is not an easy feat, and it's very risky.

Against weak enemies (damned, lepers, possessed, animals, etc.), it's basically ineffective, as it will, generally, only return 1-3 damage. One last comment: it's surprisingly effective against AI exiles: given that they only ever have 100 hit points, yet are sometimes equipped very well, the damage return can have a significant impact.

*Verdict*

Situational and risky. The more dangerous the area, the more useful it gets. Shines in dungeons and during night caches runs – but it requires a lot of skill to be effectively used. Not bad overall, but you have to willingly put yourself in harm's way to make use of it. A skill of choice for the Leroy Jenkins in you.

Defensive Stance

*Effect*

Increases armor value by 14% for 5 seconds. 7% additional bonus protection per additional level.

*Comment*

Aaah! A FINE defensive skill – and the more well-armored you are, the better it gets. Don't expect it to shine in any way whatsoever if you're clad in basic clothes – but if you're equipped with a copper, bronze, or (ooooh yeeaaah) iron armor set, this skill will increase your defensive rating *significantly,* making it quite useful during dungeon or night cache runs.

Keep in mind that being hit will still affect your gear durability all the same – but you'll lose less (much less) health per attack suffered, and that does make a significant difference, especially in fights with strong enemies. Also, the 5 seconds duration is pretty long, and in a prolonged fight with a powerful enemy, you can have it active (on and again) for a significant portion of the battle. This means a much lower need to consume healing items, while also greatly reducing the threat levels of higher enemies.

As an added bonus, it also synergize extremely well with the "Crowd defense" passive skill, for even more armor when facing multiple enemies (it is unknown if the percentage defense bonus from Defensive stance also increases the flat defense upgrade of Crowd defense; but even if it doesn't, it's still more defense!)

HOWEVER - this skill only starts *really* getting useful when it reaches level 6 (49% more defense). At this point, it really starts to significantly diminish the enemy attack damage by 2-digit numbers; before that, the mere 14%, 21%, ect. increased defense will not significantly help during a battle (i.e.: being hit for 20 damage instead of 22 isn't really a game changer; being hit for 12 instead of 22 on the other hand, that changes something)

*Verdict*

In this humble commentator’s opinion, this is the best defensive skill of the game: it lasts longer, and its overall defensive effects are generally superior to the offensive effects of retribution. BUT, you have to level it up before it really starts to be valuable

Please note, however, that one can't really judge “retribution -vs- defensive stance” because they affect different aspects of defense. An aggressive player may very well prefer retribution for the added damage; but generally speaking, “defensive stance” is much “safer” to use.

## Passive Skills

With so many passive skills at your disposal, one is left to wonder: which should I choose ? Indeed, you start the game with 3 passive skills slots – and once you have completed the altar and paid the ungodly amount of soul shards required to unlock everything, you can have access to 8 slots – still very limited. A selection must be made.

Of course, every player has his or her own preferences. Some players may judge some skills as entirely useless, while others will swear by them (i.e.: some exiles judge evasion skills to be wonderful, others disregard them entirely). Given the limited amount of skill that can be selected at once, this guide will not attempt to create a “perfect list” of skills – but rather provide comments and analysis on passive skills and skill categories in order to help you, dear exile, to make your own selection out of the skill menu.

**DAMAGE SKILLS** (general overview)

*Effect*

Increases attack damage by 1 point for any given weapon per available level. Lower level weapons (fists, clubs, etc.) only have a few levels – while high-end weapons (bastard sword, scimitar) have up to 8 levels.

*Comment*

At first glance, one would think that all those skills are great. Can't go wrong with more damage, right ? Well, actually, it only makes a gameplay difference if you *use* that weapon -and- if the damage increase actually helps to kill an enemy with one less attack. It matters not if you do more damage if, in the end, it takes you the same number of hits to kill an enemy. In addition, given that it takes a soul shard to change a weapon skill for another, juggling between weapon skills is not practical (do you really want to commit an inventory slot to carry around soul shards during an adventure ?), as well as costly.

These skills must be thought about in a long-term perspective, and as such, should be reserved for craftable weapons, ones that you can replace indefinitely. Sure, you have a scimitar right now, but at the end of one or 2 missions, it will be gone, and you will have to wait until you get a new one to benefit from the damage bonus (a time during which your skill investment will be fruitless) – and you have no idea when that will happen.

Basically, a player will want to commit to one or two damage skill for his or her weapon(s) of choice, and ignore the rest.

There, there are two weapons that actually stick out of the lot, for which damage skills are actually very useful: the one-handed sword and the bastard sword. These weapon (especially the one-handed sword) are replaceable, and the increased damage output actually changes something in terms of game mechanics.

**One-handed sword**

For a vast majority of players, the one-handed sword is the default weapon during farming missions. It's not very expensive to craft and it deals sufficient damage to deal with non-armored enemies efficiently. It's really the weapon of choice for farming 3-skull zones; the main activity of mid and high-level players between dungeon runs.

And here, investing in damage skills for this particular weapon is *significantly* useful. With only a single skill point in one-handed sword damage, it takes you 4 hits instead of 5 to kill a direwolf. Given that direwolves are the only non-armored semi-dangerous enemies (because of their significantly higher attack power than all others beneath them) that you will frequently engage in resources runs, being able to kill them faster will have a big impact: you will suffer one less attack (meaning less HP loss and less armor durability loss) and you will have to spend one less attack on them, meaning a longer use of your trusted sword.

But it gets better: if you ever manage to reach level 5, then your one-handed sword will deal 35 damage – and become the functional equivalent of a flanged mace (without the 30% increased cost in copper). This becomes WONDERFUL during dungeon runs – as the 35-damage of the flanged mace is required to dispatch plague demons in 2 hits, and possessed in 3 hits (instead of 3 and 4 hits respectively). This means that you won't have to juggle anymore between one-handed swords and flanged maces when doing dungeon runs, and won't have to spend additional resources (more copper, as well as wires) to craft quantities of maces for that enterprise. This has a HUGE economic impact – as you can safely “commit” to this skill and keep it on all the time and yield direct results, permanently.

Bastard Sword

The other noticeable weapon for which damage increase makes a difference is the bastard sword.

If the one-handed sword is the default weapon for normal farming and adventuring, then the bastard sword is the default weapon for dealing with armored enemies: damned knights, damned templars, forsaken, etc. Of course, it's expensive, but it's nevertheless craftable and has one of the higher damage-per-durability ratio in the game. In many players' opinion, it is even better than the scimitar, because despite having a slower attack speed, it has a much longer reach – and can therefore be used to kite enemies during fights, avoiding many, *many* retaliation strikes during an engagement.

A level 3 bastard sword will actually kill a damned knight in one less hit, and a level 4 bastard sword will send a forsaken to its grave one hit sooner. Given that these are the most frequent armored enemies you will face during night cache runs and dungeon runs, this has a direct gameplay impact. Also, while you shouldn't use a bastard sword to fight direwolves, if you're ever stuck in a pinch and absolutely have to use one on a direwolf, it takes one less hit to kill one at level 3.

*Verdict*

Take at least one for your weapon of choice, maybe 2, and stick to them. Recommended: one-handed sword and bastard sword (but it's really up to personal preference).

**HEALING SKILLS**

*Effect*

Increases health recovery by 1 point per level for the designated healing item. Ale and honey gain 2 points per level instead of one. Maximum 6 levels.

*Comment*

Increased healing is always nice – and it does make a difference in gameplay, but skill selection there should be reserved for the type of healing item you'll use the most often. For the vast majority of players, jerky and fried leek come out on top – because you can easily prepare large quantities.

Ale and honey indeed have a higher recovery bonus than the others, but given that they can't be crafted and are only occasionally found here and there, a skill bonus there won't have much of an impact because you won't be using them often.

*Verdict*

Useful – but limit the selection to that one healing item of choice you use more than all others.

**EVASION**

*Effect*

Gives you 1% chance per skill level to dodge an attack from a given type of enemy, avoiding all damage. Maximum 10 levels.

*Comment*

This is probably the most debated passive skill category in the entire game. Many players swear that it changes everything and makes fighting damned knight and templars significantly easier (a dodged attack means you don't have to break engagement to heal, does not affect gear durability and costs less in healing items) – but other players (and this is a valid point too) insist that a 10% chance to avoid is statistically insignificant given that you will most likely trade less than 10 blows during an engagement, meaning that the whole battle can go on without any evasion taking place. Also, any given evasion skill only works against a specific enemy type – and unless you're specifically battling *that* type of enemy, the skill serves absolutely no purpose.

However, there is a consensus that, among all the available enemies, five stand out for evasion:

- Damned

- Direwolves

- Damned kinghts

- Damned templars

- Night hunters

Damned and direwolves are good candidates for evasion skills during *farming* missions – because you will face them very often and they *are* a nuisance (especially direwolves, when you are low-armored, their attack hits annoyingly hard). The damned are also a prime candidate for the evasion skill in the graveyard event – where they constitute roughly 80% of enemy presence.

Damned knights and templars are also good candidates *if* you intend to pick a fight against them (i.e.: during night cache runs): they are really dangerous and evading even a single attack makes a difference.

Finally, for those lucky ones that can explore the Northern Lands, night hunters are also an extremely interesting choice for evasion. Being, as of yet, the only ranged enemy of the game, night hunters have the annoyingly efficient ability to move in position and fire at you from outside your vision range. You then have to try to figure out which enemy the hunter is on the minimap, then close the distance and shut it down (remember the final duel between Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton in Game of Thrones ?). During that time, you can (you *will*) get shot several times and those arrows *hurt.* Given that there are usually several hunters on any given Northern Lands map, you can expect a direct impact from a fully leveled evasion skill against those guys.

In all cases, one must remember that *none* of those enemies are in the dungeon – making evasion skills useless during dungeon adventuring.

In addition, everyone agrees that lepers, normal wolves and bears are not dangerous enough to warrant using a skill slot for evasion against them. As for plague bandits, while they do hit hard, they have very little life compared to armored enemies and can be killed with only a few hits. This means short engagements and few traded blows, diminishing the long run use of evasion against them.

*Verdict*

Up to player preference really. But costly in terms of skill slots.

IF you want to invest in evasion skills, then, for farming missions, damned and direwolves are the best candidates – and for night cache runs, then damned knights and templars are more appropriate. When exploring the Northern Lands, then night hunters are a good choice as well.

Useless in dungeon runs (for lack of any evadable enemy there).

RESOURCE SKILLS

*Effect*

Grants you 9% chance per level to receive an additional resource when farming the resource buffed by this skill (with the exception of flax fibers, which increases the chance of another resource pickup by 4% per level instead of 9%). Only works for resources that you can harvest from visible nodes on the minimap – as such, pine logs and limestone rocks just lying on the ground for you to pick up are *not* affected by the bonus.

*Comment*

An absolutely AWESOME passive skill set, that just keeps getting better as it levels up. It really starts to show when you reach level 3, where, roughly, one harvesting out of 3 gets rewarded - and only gets better from there.

Given that this game is mostly based on economics and resource management, you will spend a great – GREAT – deal of time in forests and hills chopping wood and mining stone and copper. With this skill, you will be able to fill up your inventory must faster with the desired resource.

For wood, it's basically a convenience – as the 3-skull forest has more than enough pine to fill your entire inventory; but you'll harvest what you need faster (and thus, you will have to fight less enemies in the process – a direct gain for your gear durability and healing items consumption). It's a great skill to have, as it will make your wood-harvesting expedition less costly – and you constantly need wood (for cooking, construction, weapons crafting, smelting metal, etc.), so this skill rules here.

The same goes for limestone – however, your actual need for limestone will drastically decrease once you have fully built your stronghold at your heart's desire. As long as you're building, you will need obscene amounts of limestone to construct and upgrade your stronghold – and during that time, this skill is godly. But, at some point, you will indeed have finished building all the floors, walls and doors you can think of (and gaze with oh so much satisfaction upon your completed, perfect castle ^^ ) - and your need for limestone will drop to near-nothingness (you will still need limestone to craft basic stone tools, but that's it, and it's minuscule). Once you have crossed that line (congratulations on finishing your castle), the limestone harvesting skill becomes almost useless – because you almost no longer need limestone.

For copper, the benefit is even more apparent that fore pine wood: since there are limited amounts of copper even in the 3-skull stone hills, this skill will raise the total amount of copper you can mine in an expedition by increasingly significant amounts. Really useful – since you always need copper to forge new weapons and armor.

For flax fibers, this skill is kinda situational. You basically need ungodly amounts of fiber to make ropes, cloth and heavy cloth when you want to craft armor – so if you're in need of textile, then this skill will make your life a lot easier. However, if you have ample textile reserves and/or a steady textile income from loot (dungeon runs generate a lot of cloth and ropes from defeated enemies, in addition with raw flax fibers too), then its usefulness decreases a lot.

For berries, this skill is not so useful. There are, as of yet, no reason to go on a specific “berry-harvesting” run – and you'll usually find more than enough on the go for in-mission healing as well as to bring back for potion/drink-making in their natural state. Sure, it's nice to harvest 4 berries instead of 3… but do you actually need so badly to harvest more berries that its worth a skill slot ? In this humble exile's opinion, naaah.

Finally, for birch wood and iron, this skill is not only useful, it is a GAME CHANGER. Those few of us that can reach the Northern lands quickly realize two things. One: it is OBSCENELY EXPENSIVE to go there: it costs a LOT of resources to craft proper gear to survive the hostile inhabitants (seriously – if you go there with clothes and a sword, write a will before: you are not coming back), and it also costs a huge amount of horse energy, meaning a lot of oats. You will NOT be able to go there frequently. Two: in addition, as you will quickly see, there are limited amounts of iron ore and birch trees to harvest in a given map. Even if you decide to genocide everything in the area and harvest every single iron ore or birch tree available, you won't find yourself overloaded – there will still be room for much more. In addition, iron ore patches and birch trees only yield TWO resources per node instead of the usual three you've gotten used to with pine, limestone and copper - and an additional resource here means a 50% resource gain instead of 33%. Here, the ability to gain additional resources has a direct economic impact as it will make the end-sum of a costly endeavor directly more profitable.

*Verdict*

First off: these skills are useless during dungeon runs or during events, where resource gathering is not your goal (there aren't even any resources to harvest in the dungeon anyway).

However, when you are heading out to mine or chop wood, they become magnificent. For mainland harvesting, pine and copper are the best. For Northern expeditions, then birch and iron take the cake.

Of course, if you have a specific need for any resource, a harvesting bonus of that resource is always your friend.

A great set of skills.

CHARACTER SKILLS

*Effects*

Skills in this category increase your character stats by a given amount of points, for a certain amounts of levels – as follows

Running Speed: +1 speed per level; max 8 levels

Mighty Health: + 1 health per level; max 10 levels

Drink Ahead: + 2 to maximum water levels; max 10 levels

Eat Ahead: +2 to maximum food levels; max 10 levels

*Comment*

The first two skills are pretty great. The last two, utterly useless.

Increased run speed is ALWAYS good. Even just a few points does make a mechanic difference that will allow you to catch up to (or run away from) enemies that would otherwise be on par with your speed or faster than you. The increased mobility has a direct gameplay impact during combat for repositioning, chasing or running away. It's also immensely useful if you're harvesting “on the go” while damned knights or templar are chasing you – also very useful if you lure enemies to the end of the map and then dash to the central treasures to unlock a chest before they reach you. Invaluable in dungeon runs when you have to reposition and switch gear. There are very few passive skills that good in any and all circumstances – and this is one of them.

As for health, while a meager +1 to your max health is functionnally the same as nothing, at max skill level (+10 health), it does make a impact. A small one, but one nevertheless. Yes, it's not a game changer, as a cautious exile never lets his or her health drop too low before healing – but it can make a difference in very dangerous areas (Northern Lands – Dungeon level 2) if you ever get ganked by several dangerous enemies. Think of it as a sort of insurance policy for when things get uncomfortably dangerous.

As for food and water levels, those skills are a total waste. Water and food levels are never -ever- an issue: since you always eat and drink to heal HP during adventures, your normal healing tactics should make eating and drinking a non-issue on its own. If for some reason, you find yourself hungry or thirsty without food or water, the issue is your planning and gameplay, and there, even a +20 bonus to your max levels will not change the bigger picture.

*Verdict*

Running speed is GODLY

Mighty health is a nice “security cushion”

Drink Ahead and Eat Ahead are useless.

## Special Passive Skills

Among the big list of passive skills, there is a very distinct category that will make curious exiles pause and wonder: “Special” passive skills. While the usefulness (or lack thereof) of basically all other categories of passive skills is self-evident, the purple special skills are not so obvious.

Let's have a look at them. Spoiler alert: their usefulness is *not* distributed along a normal curve. Two of them are very useful. Three of them are utterly useless. One is situational.

HEALING REST

*Effect*

Restores 1 HP at 10 seconds interval while in your stronghold. +1 additional HP recovery per 10 seconds per additional level. Maximum 8 levels.

*Comment*

Completely, absolutely, utterly USELESS. Sure, HP recovery would be extremely nice DURING AN ACTUAL ADVENTURE, but, at home, secured in your base, it serves no purpose, as there are no danger that can threaten you nor any need whatsoever for any large and long-winded recovery assist.

Also, given it's slow rate, even if you were to consider using it to go out naked and hunt the lepers and wolves that stumble at your door for their (albeit meek) resources at no equipment cost, the sheer amount of time it takes to recover your health pool makes it so that you will nevertheless go thirsty and hungry in the process – forcing you to consume food… which, by itself, recovers HP.

So, yeah, not useful at all

*Verdict*

Utterly useless.

PATHFINDER

*Effect*

Reduces walking travel time between zones by 3% per level. Maximum 8 levels.

*Comment*

If you play a lot and/or if energy management is an issue for you, then this skill is very nice. Reduced travel time means you can do more mission runs on foot and are less restricted by timers for limited-duration events. It becomes especially useful when a rare even shows up while you're low on energy.

It it a game changer ? No – but it's very *practical.*

*Verdict*

Pretty useful if you play several missions during a gaming session. Depending on your play style, it can be anything from a nice little utility to a mechanic changer allowing you to run many more missions.

FIRE KEEPER

*Effect*

Increases your torch's duration by 20% per level. Max 10 levels.

*Comment*

“Wow!” I hear you think “200% bonus duration at max level ?! How nice is that ?” … The answer is: “not at all”. As of now, there are no in-game circumstances that require you to *constantly* have a torch equipped. Night time does not affect your vision in terms of gameplay mechanics, and the only actual use of a torch right now is to equip it when the Night Guest shows up, and unequip it as soon its dispelling effect kicks in – because torches are terrible weapons and no sane exile wants to fight with those.

Also, not only do torches last long enough just fine at base level for any adventuring purposes, but they are also very cheap and disposable, so it's not like it would extend the durability of something precious. During night cache runs, most exiles simply bring a torch along to scare the Night guest away by using it a few seconds at a time when necessary, and then throw it away when the looting is done or morning has come – with it still having 90-95% durability left.

Maybe this skill will shine (badum-tss) if the game ever implements caverns or other pitch-black area in which you absolutely need a light source to progress – but right now, it's just like seeking to extend the shelf-life of a twinkie bar: it can already outlast an entire human life as it is and there is simply no practical use in making it last even longer.

*Verdict*

Useless.

IRON GUT

*Effect*

Increases resistance to food poisoning by 10% per level. Max 10 levels.

Note that this does not mean that a level 10 skill makes you 100% *immune*; it makes you *100% more resistant* (i.e.: twice as resistant)

*Comment*

In terms of game mechanics, at base level, you can eat 9 “food poisoning” items just fine, and the 10th will make you sick and throw up. Items that may induce food poisoning are: hollyberry (the bright red fruit), raw meat, wolf treats, mandrake root and ale. With this skill, you can actually eat one more “bad food” item before throwing up per level. (No effect against “grave” mushrooms, that instantly make you sick, whatever your food poisoning levels are). At level 10, you can consume 20 "bad food" items instead of 10 before throwing up.

In practice, the only item *really* affected by this skill are hollyberries, which are abundant and frequently used as a healing source on the go during farming missions. Health recovery from meat is insufficient (better bring it home and cook it) and beer, being limited to chest loot, is not so frequently found that it can impact gameplay. As for mandrake roots, you would have to be unbelievably idiotic to eat those and not turn them into potions instead!

It's… *nice…* we guess… but since food poisoning does not inflict any penalty save for the 3 seconds it takes to vomit when sick (which is very manageable. How ? Just don't eat bad food in the middle of a chase or fight, and you'll be fine), then the end benefit becomes questionable.

In the end, it serves no real purpose – and as such, is a waste of a skill slot.

*Verdict*

Useless.

IMMUNITY

*DISCLAIMER: This skill description is based on hearsay. Any confirmation welcome*

*Effect*

Reduces damage suffered from poison attacks by 5% per level. 10 levels max.

*Comment*

When poisoned, you will suffer 5 true damage per second for 6 seconds, for a total of 30 true damage. So far, there are two poisonous enemies in the game: the Plague Demon (Forsaken Dungeon) and the Bat (Northern Lands). You can also get poisoned from trapped sarcophagi in the graveyard event - and there are also *special* poison traps (pressure plates/tiles) in the second level of the Forsaken Dungeon that inflict -10- true damage for -10- seconds (for a total of 100 true damage - death if you don't heal during the effect!)

Needless to say, this skill serves no use whatsoever in a map where there is no danger of being poisoned. *However*, it can become quite useful in dungeon runs and especially when exploring the Northern Lands (for the privileged few of us that can make it there).

A single poison effect (most of what you'll encounter) is never really a threat – more of a nuisance; but a stack of several poison effects (because, yeah, they can stack) can be significantly detrimental to your like expectancy. During Lv 1 dungeon runs, your scarce encounters with plague demons will probably allow you to manage them one at a time, making it so that you probably won't get poison-stack – but during Northern Lands avdentures, a bat can attack you again and again and again before going down, and it can very well poison-stack you. God forbid you face two at once – they can poison-stack you to death by the time it takes to blink twice. In addition, the increased effect from the special poison traps in the Forsaken Dungeon Lv 2 is *very* dangerous!

But in any event, stacked or not, poison is still at the very least a nuisance that will force you to consume healing items. The ability to reduce poison damage up to 50% has a noticeable impact, not only on the threat level of poison attacks, but also (from an economic standpoint) on the cost in healing items to recover from it – making this skill quite useful!

*Verdict*

Useless in maps with no poison attacks

Pretty useful during dungeon runs (Lv 1)

Life-saver in dungeon Lv 2 and the Northern Lands.

CROWD DEFENSE

*Effect*

Gives an additional +5 defense when 2 or more enemies are nearby (i.e.: within 2.5 meters of you – works even if separated by a wall or door). +5 more defense bonus per additional level.

*Comment*

A WONDERFUL skill: free bonus defense: can't go wrong with that! Sure, it only works when facing multiple enemies, something a skilled player wants to avoid – but that inevitably happens, despite your best efforts (especially during events and in the dungeon). Also, the fact that it gives a flat bonus and not a percentage bonus makes it particularly useful when wearing low-level armor (which is what you want to do most of the time for economic purposes). At level 10, this almost effectively *doubles* your armor rating when wearing basic clothes.

Of course, this skill does NOT turn you into a tank. Don't go after a damned knight with basic clothes just because a leper is nearby – but it does make a significant difference in the long run: all those -1, -2 damage suffered during the several multiple encounters with lower enemies you face will add up at the end of the day, making this skill very useful in the long run

*Verdict*

VERY useful!