Skills

Overview

Skills give players special or improved abilities. Some require that you learn other skills first, and a few are available only to a certain character class or side. Skills are bought with XP.

Certain skills, like haunting scream and basic tracking, unlock actions which consume AP. Other skills, like trekking and close quarter combat, are passive and do not need to be activated after being purchased for the player to benefit from them. While most skills in a tree have effects that stack on one another, haunting scream and shocking shriek remain individual skills (but banshee wail will replace shocking shriek).

Learning an initial skill costs 100 XP. After that, each learned skill costs 25 XP more than the previous one, until you reach level 30. Hence the formula for a skill's XP cost is 100 + 25 * (your level). (Your character's level, which you can see in your profile, is the number of skills you have learned.) To go from level 30 to 31 costs 1000 XP, and each level above that requires an additional 200 XP. So the above formula is modified to read 1000 + 200 * ((your level) - 30).

A pirate needs 15550 XP to buy the 32 available skills. Explorers and Scouts need 17300 XP for their 33 skills. Soldiers, scientists, warriors and shamans will have spent 19075 XP after buying all 34 skills available to them. Settlers and villagers spend 22875 XP to buy their 36 available skills.

Generic skills

• Basic language - Understand the smaller words of foreign languages
  See Language for more information.
  • Advanced language - Better understanding of foreign languages
    • Expert language - Full comprehension of foreign languages
      • Foreign Writing - Not only can you understand foreign languages, you can also write it well enough to be understood
      • Foreign Speech - Not only can you understand foreign languages, you can also speak it well enough to be understood

• Close quarter combat - Gain 10% to hit with melee attacks (e.g., 20% to 30% with a machete)
  • Advanced close quarter combat - Gain 15% to hit with melee attacks (e.g., 30% to 45% with a machete)
    • Balanced Stance - Sometimes turn a miss into a glancing blow.
    • Headhunting - Take the heads of your victims as trophies or signpost decoration (natives only)

• Body building - Increases melee damage (+1 damage; e.g., 2 to 3 with a machete)
  • Stamina - Increases max HP by 20

• Ghostly whisper - Allows spirits to communicate
  With ghostly whisper, spirits can speak to any player that has the sixth sense skill. Other spirits can hear ghostly whispers, even if they lack sixth sense.
  • Haunting scream - Attract other spirits and scare nearby living players
    It is believed that haunting scream gives spirits a chance of dealing 1 HP of damage to living players in the area at the cost of 1-2 AP. All nearby players hear the scream, and some percentage of them take damage. It is believed that a spirit receives 0-2 XP per scream depending upon the number of listeners (perhaps 0, 1, 2+ yields 0, 1, 2 XP).
    • Shocking shriek - Scare nearby living players
      Shocking shriek is similar to haunting scream but allows spirits to deal more damage to players they frighten. Shocking shriek is superceded and replaced by the more powerful banshee wail.
      • Banshee wail - Frighten nearby living players
        Spirits with banshee wail can emit powerful wails for a cost of up to 6 AP per wail. All characters in the area of effect hear the wail, and a small percentage of hearers take 4 HP of damage. XP reward for wailing is 0-15 XP per wail depending on damage caused, averaging 8 XP in crowded locations.
      • Possession - Be able to possess the bodies of the living, Allowing you to force you to make them Write or Say something. Speaking costs 3AP, Writing costs 4AP (may be variable, untested).
        Unavailable to players below level 10.
        • Forceful possession - Sometimes a stronger presence is needed to be able to possess the living, Allows you to force the person to attack people near them. Costs 6AP (may be variable, untested).
          Unavailable to players below level 25.

• Exploration - Helps you remember some of the places you've been
  Enables the "Map" button, which gives you a large-scale map of places you've visited while alive and haven't forgotten.
  • Cartography - Stops you forgetting anywhere you've visited
    Note that map information is rarely forgotten and that meta-gamers can use the Shartak overlay.
  • Trekking - Faster movement through the jungle
    Makes movement through grassland, beach, and d1-d6 jungle terrain cost 0.5 AP instead of 1.
  • Swimming - Faster movement through water
    Makes movement through water cost 1 AP instead of 2; deep water costs 2 AP to move through instead of 3.

• Basic tracking - With some difficulty, you can track animals and people. (2 AP; e.g., "wild boar went south")
  See Tracking for more information.
  • Advanced tracking - You can track animals and people who were here recently. (1.5 AP; often gives 3-6 most recent tracks)
    • Expert tracking - You can track animals and people who were here several days ago. (1 AP?)
      • Tracking mastery - Tracking animals and people is nearly effortless.

• Clan leadership - Allows you to start your own clan or help lead one.
  Unavailable to players below level 5.

• Sixth sense - Sense presence of and hear spirits (lets you know how many spirits are present, and lets you hear them when they speak)
  • Psychic recognition - Lets you recognize active spirits (gives you the name/profile link of a spirit who speaks, wails, etc.)

• Haggling - Be able to obtain slightly better prices from some traders

• Digging - Be able to dig deep holes.
  See Digging for more information.

• Faith - Belief in the spirits of the ancestors increase charm effects. (Faith is a special skill that must be unlocked.)

• Native knowledge - Outsiders gain basic native knowledge (outsiders only)
  Allows outsiders to use and recognize items such as blowpipes (and poison darts) and healing herbs (which normal outsiders see as "dried herbs") and to tell the difference between tasty and poison berries (which normal outsiders can only do by eating them).

• Outsider knowledge - Natives gain basic outsider knowledge (natives only)
  Allows natives to use and recognize items such as rifles (and bullets), first aid kits, and GPS units.

• Triage - Be able to tell who is most injured
  Shows the hit point total of the most damaged character (not necessarily the character with the fewest hit points).
  • Natural medicine - Heal 10 HP with healing herbs (natives only)
  • First aid - Heal 10 HP with first-aid kit (outsiders only)

• Basic blowpipe use - Lowers AP cost of firing blowpipe. (natives only)

Settler and Villager skills

• Animal affinity - Lessens the chance of animals attacking
• Scavenging - Assists in finding things within certain areas
  Improves search odds in certain areas. Confirmed areas wherein this skill works are the medicine hut and the weapons hut. Other areas are yet to be confirmed. Roughly speaking, search odds are improved from 1:5 to 1:3. Searches also yield less dross and more valuable items.
• Seance - Holding a seance can identify passive spirits (5AP, requires Psychic Recognition)

Soldier skills

• Firearms training - Gain 20% on firearms attacks (20% to 40%)
  • Advanced firearms training - Gain 20% on firearms attacks (40% to 60%)

Warrior skills

• Blowpipe training - Gain 20% on blowpipe accuracy (20% to 40%)
  • Advanced blowpipe training - Gain another 20% on blowpipe accuracy (40% to 60%)

Explorer and Scout skills

• Trailblazing - Increased ability to move and chop through dense jungle
  Makes jungle chops and movement through d7-d9 jungle terrain cost 0.5 AP instead of 1. (requires Trekking)

Shaman skills

• Seance - Holding a seance can identify passive spirits (5AP, requires Psychic Recognition)
• Exorcism - Exorcise spirits from area. (4AP, requires Psychic Recognition)
• Spirit Summoning - Summons spirits from surrounding area(range unknown) (5AP, requires Psychic Recognition)
• Malevolence - Makes all spirits in the area release a haunting scream, a shocking shriek or a banshee wail depending on highest skill available on them (2-5AP, requires Psychic Recognition)

Scientist skills

• Advanced triage - Be able to see all injured characters in the same square (requires Triage)
• Emergency first aid - Slowly heal yourself without the use of a medical kit (requires First aid)
  • Field Surgery - Skilled at healing, even in the middle of nowhere (requires Emergency first aid)
    Allows the Scientist to heal shark bites (3AP for 2XP reward), possibly poison?
    Not available to scientists below level 10.

Cannibal skills

• Ritual Feasting - Feast on your defeated enemy and steal their power (5AP, requires Stamina)
  Allows cannibals to feed from a corpse. Feasting restores 10 HP to a wounded cannibal, or 5 HP if they are at full health, up to 109 HP. The feasting gives 5 XP. It appears that corpses may not be feasted upon more than three times.
  Not available to cannibals below level 5.
  • Ritual Gluttony - Feasting can now fill most of your needs from a single body. (3AP, requires Stamina)
    Improves ritual feasting by restoring 20 HP to a severely wounded cannibal, 10 HP to a lightly wounded and 5 HP to a healthy one, up to 109 HP. Gives 3 XP.
    Not available to cannibals below level 10.

Pirate skills

• Lead belly - You've drunk enough to be immune to the poisonous effect of most fungi.

Skill Progression Table

Level	Starting XP	XP Required to Advance
0	0	100
1	100	125
2	225	150
3	375	175
4	550	200
5	750	225
6	975	250
7	1225	275
8	1500	300
9	1800	325
10	2125	350
11	2475	375
12	2850	400
13	3250	425
14	3675	450
15	4125	475
16	4600	500
17	5100	525
18	5625	550
19	6175	575
20	6750	600
21	7350	625
22	7975	650
23	8625	675
24	9300	700
25	10000	725
26	10725	750
27	11475	775
28	12250	800
29	13050	825
30	13875	1000
31	14875	1200
32	16075	1400
33	17475	1600
34	19075	1800
35	20875	2000
36	22875	2200
37	25075	2400
38	27475	2600