Home Getting Started Skills

Skills System

Skills are your long-term survival engine. Every meaningful action writes progress into the matching discipline, and that XP compounds into level-ups, stronger passives, and higher consistency under pressure. You are not just collecting numbers, you are training reliability into your runs.

Skill List

  • Gathering: Your field-harvest backbone for wild food, herbs, and resource consistency
  • Hunting: Improves engagement reliability and hunt outcomes in hostile or food-critical loops
  • Fishing: Governs catch stability and efficiency in water-based sustain routes
  • Tracking: Expands route intelligence: better detection, pursuit, and early warning reads
  • Butchering: Converts kills into usable yield with less waste and better material extraction
  • Cooking: Turns raw inputs into safer, higher-value food outcomes for long-run stability
  • Crafting: Raises build reliability and output quality for tools, traps, and gear
  • Carpentry: Supports structural progression and durability-heavy base development
  • Farming: Drives crop reliability, growth flow, and food-economy scaling
  • Stealth: Reduces exposure and detection pressure across dangerous movement windows
  • Mining: Improves extraction efficiency and supports ore/stone-focused material loops
  • First Aid: Increases treatment effectiveness and strengthens recovery control under attrition

XP and Leveling

XP Gain

  • Base XP: Every discipline pays differently, so progress speed reflects action type, not a flat global rate.
  • Intelligence Bonus: Intelligence amplifies all tracked skill XP at +5% per point above 3. A sharper survivor learns faster from the same field time.
  • Sleep-Deprivation Penalty: At sleep deprivation level 3+, XP is cut by scaling penalties:
  • Level 3: 75% XP
  • Level 4: 60% XP
  • Level 5+: 45% XP
  • Outcome Quality Matters: Many actions award larger XP rolls on strong outcomes and smaller rolls on weak ones, so consistency compounds.

Leveling Formula

  • XP to next level uses xpToNext(L):
  • round(5 + 0.7 L + 0.015 L^2)
  • Practical read: early levels climb fast, mastery levels demand deliberate repetition and better route planning.
  • Skill Cap: hard-capped at level 100.

Attribute Synergy

Skills also feed attributes as a second progression track:

  • Attribute XP Gain: every supported skill grants 50% of earned skill XP to its mapped attribute
  • Strength: Hunting, Butchering, Carpentry, Mining
  • Agility: Stealth, Fishing, Tracking
  • Intelligence: Crafting, Cooking, First Aid, Farming
  • Endurance: not skill-fed; it grows from movement and damage-survival systems
  • Attribute Cap: attributes are capped at 10, with level-up costs scaling by current attribute level (level * 100 XP)

Skill Unlocks

Every tracked skill has milestone unlocks at 20 / 40 / 60 / 80. Think of them as field promotions: each threshold shifts how safe, profitable or repeatable your runs become.

Gathering

  • Level 20: Identify rare medicinal plants
  • Level 40: Gather more efficiently (15% bonus)
  • Level 60: Notice hidden caches while gathering
  • Level 80: Master Gatherer - 25% chance for double yield

Hunting

  • Level 20: Track prey over longer distances
  • Level 40: Improved aim, 20% less arrow wastage
  • Level 60: Harvest premium cuts from game
  • Level 80: Master Hunter - critical hits deal 50% more damage

Fishing

  • Level 20: Identify the best fishing spots
  • Level 40: Fish become easier to catch (15% better chance)
  • Level 60: Catch rare fish species
  • Level 80: Master Angler - 30% chance for double catch

Crafting

  • Level 20: Repair items more effectively
  • Level 40: Crafted items gain 20% better durability
  • Level 60: Improvise tools from scavenged materials
  • Level 80: Master Crafter - items gain 40% better quality

Tracking

  • Level 20: Identify animal species by tracks
  • Level 40: Notice danger signs earlier
  • Level 60: Predict animal movement patterns
  • Level 80: Master Tracker - never lose a trail

Cooking

  • Level 20: Preserve food longer
  • Level 40: Cooked meals provide 20% more nutrition
  • Level 60: Create gourmet meals from simple ingredients
  • Level 80: Master Chef - meals provide temporary stat bonuses

Butchering

  • Level 20: Waste less meat while processing carcasses
  • Level 40: Harvest additional organs and fat
  • Level 60: Expert Butcher - 25% more yield from carcasses
  • Level 80: Master Butcher - harvest rare materials (sinew, bladder)

Carpentry

  • Level 20: Build basic furniture
  • Level 40: Structures become 20% more durable
  • Level 60: Design complex multi-room buildings
  • Level 80: Master Carpenter - weatherproof structures last 50% longer

Farming

  • Level 20: Understand crop rotation basics
  • Level 40: Crops grow 15% faster
  • Level 60: Cultivate rare and exotic plants
  • Level 80: Master Farmer - crops yield 35% more produce

Stealth

  • Level 20: Move more quietly through terrain
  • Level 40: Predators are 20% less likely to detect you
  • Level 60: Avoid most environmental hazards while hidden
  • Level 80: Master Infiltrator - near-invisible in any terrain

Mining

  • Level 20: Identify valuable ore deposits
  • Level 40: Stone gathering yields 20% more resources
  • Level 60: Extract rare minerals from rocks
  • Level 80: Master Miner - 30% chance for bonus ore and gems

First Aid

  • Level 20: Bandages heal 20% more effectively
  • Level 40: Lower infection chance during treatment
  • Level 60: Treat severe injuries more effectively
  • Level 80: Master Medic - all healing items are 50% more effective

Specialization Threshold

  • At level 70+ in a skill, the specialization system becomes available for that discipline.
  • Operationally: level 70 is where a skill stops being broad competence and starts becoming role-defining mastery.

Skill Synergies

Synergy is a practical cross-training system: your secondary disciplines quietly reinforce your primary one.

  • Scaling rule: every full 10 levels in a related skill grants +0.5 to the primary skill.
  • Step-based calculation: partial tens do not count (floor(relatedLevel / 10) is used).
  • Hard cap: total synergy bonus is capped at +10.

Synergy Relationships

  • Gathering: Boosted by Tracking, Cooking
  • Hunting: Boosted by Tracking, Butchering
  • Fishing: Boosted by Gathering, Cooking
  • Crafting: Boosted by Carpentry, Gathering
  • Tracking: Boosted by Hunting, Gathering
  • Cooking: Boosted by Gathering, Butchering
  • Butchering: Boosted by Hunting, Cooking
  • Carpentry: Boosted by Crafting, Gathering
  • Farming: Boosted by Gathering, Cooking
  • Stealth: Boosted by Tracking, Hunting
  • Mining: Boosted by Crafting, Carpentry
  • First Aid: Boosted by Cooking, Gathering
Field example: If your Hunting is supported by Tracking 58 and Butchering 49, synergy is:
  • Tracking: floor(58 / 10) * 0.5 = 2.5
  • Butchering: floor(49 / 10) * 0.5 = 2.0
  • Total Hunting synergy bonus: +4.5

Starting Skills

Your opening skill profile is a profession-shaped baseline, not a flat starter template.

  • Primary skill (from your kit): 50-60
  • Secondary skill (from your kit): 40-50
  • All other tracked skills: 15-35

This creates a clear early identity while still leaving enough breadth to pivot as the campaign evolves.

Perk Modifiers

  • Keen Eye (keen_eye): +15 Tracking, +15 Gathering (capped at 100)
  • Poor Vision (poor_vision): -15 Tracking, -15 Gathering (floored at 0)

Practical read: your first route should exploit your strongest lane, but your long-run power comes from building the weaker lanes before the map forces them.

Companion Skills

Recruited companions are role-built specialists with their own skill packages, bonuses, and growth path.

  • Scout: Tracking 70, Hunting 60, Stealth 65 | bonus focus: Tracking +15, Hunting +10
  • Craftsman: Crafting 75, Carpentry 70 | bonus focus: Crafting +15, Carpentry +10
  • Healer: Gathering 65, Medicine 70 | bonus focus: Medicine efficiency x1.5
  • Farmer / Gatherer: Farming 70, Gathering 60 | bonus focus: Farming +20, Crop Yield x1.3, Gathering +10
  • Hunter: Hunting 75, Tracking 60, Butchering 50 | bonus focus: Hunting +20, Butchering +10
  • Warrior: Combat 75, Strength 70, Endurance 60 | bonus focus: Combat +15, Carry Capacity +20
  • Trader: Bartering 70, Persuasion 60 | bonus focus: Trade Value x1.2, Bartering +10
  • Fisher: Fishing 75, Butchering 40 | bonus focus: Fishing +20, Butchering +5
  • Miner: Mining 75, Strength 60 | bonus focus: Mining +20
  • Beekeeper: Farming 68, Gathering 62, First Aid 55 | bonus focus: Farming +12, Gathering +8, Crop Yield x1.1

Companion progression is active: their primary skill advances over time, and they unlock perk milestones at 20 / 40 / 60 / 80.

Practical read: recruit for a route problem, not flavor. The right companion turns risky loops into repeatable ones.

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