Skills and Powers

Skills can either be passive or active actions that increases proficiency in various aspect of play, either in battle or increasing reputation with other factions. To use a skill, the base skill must be purchased first.

Skill Points
Buying skills requires skill points, which are attained by leveling up. The amount that is gained upon each level-up is dependent on the creature's Intelligence score, as well as the player's chosen genotype.

Before Intelligence is applied, True Kin gain 70 skill points per level, while Mutants gain 50. Each point of Intelligence above 10 increases the number of skill points gained by 4 per level, and is applied retroactively, meaning that if a level 10 character at 10 Intelligence gained one additional point of Intelligence, they would earn 40 skill points instantly. The opposite is also true for each point below 10.

Additional Requirements
Each skill, in addition to their skill point cost, requires one or more of the player's attributes to be at or above a certain value. For example, players cannot purchase the Trash Divining skill unless their Intelligence is 21 or greater, even if they have the 150 required skill points to purchase it. This is also true of the base skill for each skill tree, which cannot be purchased unless the player meets the attribute requirements for the first "free" skill in the tree. Temporary attribute bonuses, such as those granted by wearing certain pieces of equipment or effects such as Ego Projection, do not contribute to the attribute requirement. Some skills have a required value of 0 for their listed attribute, meaning the player need only have enough skill points to purchase them.

Some skills require that the player has learned other skills before they can be purchased. For example, the Decapitate skill cannot be purchased unless the player also has the Dismember skill.

Learning Skills With Reputation
In addition to learning skills through purchasing them, the player can be taught skills through the water ritual. Rather than needing to spend skill points, learning skills through the water ritual requires reputation with the teacher's primary faction, with the amount often pertaining to how much the skill would cost to purchase normally. What skill is taught also depends on the faction of the creature. Rarely, individuals can teach skills that their faction cannot.

Skills that are learned in this way ignore the usual requirements that must be met to purchase them, including attribute requirements and any skills that must already have been learned.