Skills

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Revision as of 20:32, 16 September 2007 by Wulla-mullung (talk | contribs) (From what I can tell, all natives can purchase the basic blowpipe skill.)
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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.
  • 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.
      • Trailblazing - Increased ability to move and chop through dense jungle (explorers and scouts only)
        Makes jungle chops and movement through d7-d9 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
    • Psychic recognition - Lets you recognise active spirits
      • Seance - Holding a seance can identify passive spirits (settlers, shamans and villagers only, 5AP?)
      • Exorcism - Exorcise spirits from areas (shamans only, 4AP)
  • Haggling - Be able to obtain slightly better prices from some traders


  • Digging -Be able to dig deep holes.
  • 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 wounded character who currently has the fewest hit points (not necessarily the most damaged character).
    • Natural medicine - Heal 10 HP with healing herbs (natives only)
    • First aid - Heal 10 HP with first-aid kit (outsiders only)
  • Blowpipe use - Allows use of blowpipes without reloading.

Settler and villager skills

  • Animal affinity - Lessens the chance of animals attacking (settlers and villagers only)
  • Scavenging - Assists in finding things within certain areas (settlers and villagers only)
    Improves search odds by an unknown amount in certain (unknown) areas.

Soldier skills

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

Warrior skills

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

Scientist skills

  • Advanced triage - be able to see all injured characters in the same square
  • Emergency first aid - Slowly heal yourself without the use of a medical kit.

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