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Skills
This section covers all skills obtainable in Vampyr. Make sure to read the first section to see our recommendations on best skills.
Best Skills
As outlined in the Tips and Tricks page, it is recommended that you stick to one play style at a time, so that you can be sure that you are being as effective as possible during your play-through. There are, however, some skills that will greatly benefit you, regardless of which style you are playing (killing, or refraining).
The most important skill to upgrade quickly is your Stamina. This governs all movement and physical attacks in Vampyr, and running out of stamina can mean death for you - quickly. After that, make sure that your Blood Barrier is getting leveled up, as having that hit of armor is extremely useful as you go through the game.
From there, it's really up to you how you want to proceed. If you are finding that enemies are killing you too quickly, upgrade your health. If you are playing a non-killing run, it is going to be more important to upgrade your passive stats in general since they will come into play much more often than active skills.
Read about each skill below to see our comments on its usefulness.
Don't be afraid to experiment a few times during your play through, as you can always reset your skills for a small XP cost that raises each time you do it.(0/250/500/etc.)
ACTIVE SKILLS
Active skills are abilities that you manually activate, either in or out of combat. This includes the Autophagy healing ability, combat attacks such as Bloodspear or Ultimate Attacks.
Autophagy
This is a unique skill, because it doesn't fit into any of the sections. It is however, your healing skill, and probably your most important power to have. For a very small blood cost, you will heal a fairly large amount of health.
The top upgrade path will keep the blood cost low, and will add the additional heal benefits as healing over time, rather than right away.
The bottom upgrade path makes the skill cost a little more, but keeps the healing instantaneous.
It is recommended that you go with the top path for an evil playthrough and the bottom path for a good playthrough.
XP Costs: 600/1300/2000/2700/3400
Defensive
Defensive skills focus on mitigating incoming damage.
Coagulation
This is a defensive skill that will completely freeze opponents (yes, even bosses), for an amount of time, until they get hit. This allows you to either get a free hit on them, or focus on the other enemies while they are held in place. At higher levels you even have the choice to make this skill drain blood from your opponent, which is extremely useful! This skill is also completely free to use, which increases its usability!
The top upgrade path will increase the time that the opponent remains helpless.
The bottom upgrade path will drain the opponent of blood, adding it to your own.
The bottom upgrade path is definitely the more recommended path, as holding an opponent for 10 seconds (the longest time) is not really practical, as you will probably end up hitting them before that time runs up.
XP Costs: 600/1300/2000/2700/3400
Blood Barrier
This is a defensive skill that will form a shield of blood around you, absorbing 1 hit at first, but can be leveled up to block up to 3. This skill is extremely strong, as it allows you to get in and do damage without worrying about the opponent being able to hit you back! This skill is also completely free to use, which increases its usability!
The top upgrade path will absorb a maximum of 2 hits, and will last 5 seconds, but will deal damage to your opponent after the shield disappears. This will also add a blood cost to the skill, so keep that in mind.
The bottom upgrade path with absorb up to 3 hits, and lasts a maximum of 10 seconds. This path keeps the skill completely free to use as well.
The top upgrade path is recommended if you are a more aggressive player, while the bottom is more for the defensive style of player!
XP Costs: 600/1300/2000/2700/3400
Offensive
Offensive skills are for dealing damage in combat. They can be upgraded to deal increased damage and make any lasting effects more potent.
Claws
This is your go to up close alternative to your melee weapons. It counts as a physical attack for defensive purposes, but is stronger than any weapon that you can find. It also doesn't use stamina, so it can be useful to throw into your combos for some extra damage. At higher levels it can also drain blood to help reduce the cost of the attack.
The top upgrade path will be slightly weaker, but will actively drain blood for the enemies as they get hit. At the max level, this attack will also drop down to a recovery time of .5 seconds, allowing for much faster usage of the skill!
The bottom upgrade path will be a LOT stronger than the top one, and will add a stun effect to it as well. This skill does retain the slightly longer recovery time, but the damage buff more than makes up for it.
Honestly, both paths can work for either playthrough. It really depends more on the other skills that you intend to use, as to which path you should choose. If you put more emphasis on biting, then the bottom path is probably more up your alley. But if you put more emphasis on movement and aggression, then the top path is probably better for you!
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4500/6000
Bloodspear
This is your go to long distance alternative to guns. It counts as a Blood attack for defensive purposes, and is stronger than MOST guns you will get in the game. The range on this attack is also longer than the shotguns, and can pierce multiple enemies, making it better for crowd fights.
The top upgrade path will make the spear bigger and do slightly more damage than the bottom path, while retaining the distance the spear had before.
The bottom upgrade path will split the attack into 3 separate spears, dealing slightly less damage and losing a little range on the attack.
Think of the difference here as the difference between a rifle and a shotgun. If you prefer fighting up close, the bottom path is better for you, but if you want to keep a distance, then the top path us probably better for you!
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4500/6000
Shadow Mist
Shadow Mist is an attack that sets a puddle below the enemy, and then after a short period of time, explodes, hitting all enemies in the blast zone. This is by far, the strongest of all of the aggressive skills, but keep in mind, it does take a while to come out. This attacks counts as a Shadow attack for defensive purposes.
The top upgrade path will keep the attack the same for the most part, just adding damage, and making the explosion bigger.
The bottom upgrade will actually become a damage over time attack, doing a lot less damage, but hitting the opponent multiple times. This attack will also drain the opponent of their blood, adding it to your own pool.
If you like the way that the original skill works, then definitely stick with the top upgrade path. However, if you wanted the skill to be a little more versatile and work better with more skills, then go with the bottom path.
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4500/6000
Tactical
Tactical skills increase your mobility both in and out of combat.
Spring
This is a very unique tool that will fling you forward and cause Shadow damage on your target when you get there. Your advanced progression paths will either cause this to do more damage, or cause a massive amount of stun, which can be very useful if your game plan involves doing stun damage and going for bites.
The only difference between the paths, is the top path does more damage, and the bottom path adds stun to the attack. If your play style utilizes stun over raw damage, than go for the bottom path here. Otherwise, the top path will be better for you.
XP Costs: 500/1000/1500/2250/3000
Shadow Veil
This is a skill that will turn your character completely invisible and allow you to stay this way at the cost of stamina. This is a skill that at first seems extremely useful, but late game, it's loses a lot of its usability due to the number of enemies who just completely nullify this skill, and for the fact that the game isn't difficult enough to really need a "stealth" factor.
The differences here are probably the biggest in the game in terms of differences between skill paths.
The top path will retain the skill cost of 10 blood, and the stamina drain rate of the base skill, but will add in a stun and damage bonus on your attack as you leave the shadows.
The bottom path makes the skill completely free, and makes the stamina drain the same whether you are standing still, or moving (at max level). The most interesting thing about this path, is the fact that you now have the ability to dodge while you are cloaked in shadow!
The path that you should choose is 100% dependent on how you intend to use the skill. If you want to use it as a way to elude enemies, the bottom path is better. If you want to use it to gain an advantage in combat, then the top path is more for you. In general, we found that the bottom path is much more useful in most situations, since there will definitely be times when you want to get around the city without having to deal with enemies interupting you.
XP Costs: 500/1000/1500/2250/3000
Ultimate
Ultimate skills are extremely powerful skills that have 0 cost, but have a huge amount of cooldown of them (99 seconds).
Rage
This is a skill that turns your character into a savage beast for a short period of time, dashing around, doing damage to anything it approaches. This is definitely the weakest of the Ultimates, but it is the best for crowd control, as the other skills only target 1 enemy at a time (they can hit multiple if they are in the blast radius though). This attack counts as a physical attack for defensive purposes.
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4000/6000
Abyss
This is the strongest skill in the entire game. This skill forms a puddle below the opponent, and then lifts them up, into the air, leaving them suspended for a short time (allowing for follow up attacks). Finally it slams them down on the ground, giving you plenty of time to reload your gun, or refill a little stamina. This attack counts as a shadow attack for defensive purposes.
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4000/6000
Blood Cauldron
This is a damage over time skill, with an explosion at the end that can damage nearby enemies. The really cool thing about this skill is that it is a great compliment to your physical combos, since the explosion will disrupt them, allowing for effectively two separate openings to attack. This attack counts as a blood attack for defensive purposes.
XP Costs: 1000/2000/3000/4000/6000
PASSIVE SKILLS
All Passive Skills have XP Costs: 300/300/600/600/1000/1000/1500/1500/2000/2000
Body
These skills focus on your durability and physical prowess.
Body Condition
This increases the amount of health that you have. Very useful as you get later into the game, as enemies will kill you in 1 shot if you don't upgrade this to some extent.
Physical Prowess
This increases the amount of stamina that you have. This is by far the most important passive skill (and probably the best skill overall) to level up quickly. This is because everything that you do, requires stamina, and if you run out, you will be a sitting duck, unable to dodge, or attack.
Bite
Hard Biting
This increases the damage that you do when you perform a bite attack on the enemy. Useful for normal enemies if you rely on biting for any reason.
Fast Regeneration
This increases the amount of health that you take from the enemies when you perform a bite attack. This is nice, but is definitely less important than a lot of the other passive skills that you could put your XP into.
Blood
Blood skills are used to maximize the effectiveness of your active abilities.
Blood Capacity
This increases the amount of blood that you can store. This is extremely useful if you use a lot of aggressive skills to get your damage.
Big Thirst
This increases the amount of blood that you regenerate when performing a bite attack on your enemies. This is only very useful if you perform a lot of aggressive skills AND fish for stun damage a lot, which is definitely a viable strategy.
Science
Medical Bag
This upgrades the amount of medicines that you can hold. The default is 2. Honestly, the 3 types of medicines are very limited in their usage, which, in turn, makes this upgrade limited in its usage. There is a medicine that will upgrade your stamina regeneration rate, which would be good for trying to run through something quickly, but otherwise, spend your XP on something else.
Cartridge Bag
This upgrades the amount of bullets that your guns can hold. This upgrade sounds wonderful, but it upgrades the ammo count at such a slow rate that you will really only get a few extra shots in at the maximum level of this skill. Ultimately, your XP is probably better spent elsewhere.