How Skills and Skill Trees Work
In April 2025 the game launched into Early Access with the first Dragon General, Velgar, and the first two regions: Brynmoor and Ghornfell. It launched with 9 unique skills to level up, unlocking powerful, transformative Skill Spells.
You'll chop trees, mine rocks, craft equipment, cook, build and fight to survive in this new, magical landscape of Ashenfall, and every action deepens your mastery.
You'll gain experience (or XP) for every action, and those will help level you up through Skill Trees with active and passive unlocks, including Skill Spells that totally transform how you play.
Leveling your agility skill increases your stamina recovery rate, and it also allows you to move across the map in more efficient ways, so take any chance you have to level your agility.
From there, woodcutting, mining, and cooking are also essential, and combat matters as well.
In June 2025 the Magic Skill Tree was expanded, and additional building pieces were added, including the Palisade Walls for protecting against Base Raids.
In September, Ranged skill tree abilities were added, including Hunter Sense, Spectral Arrow and Snare Skill Spells, along with poison, barbed and flaming arrows to deal poison, bleed and fire damage, as well as enchanted bolts for Crossbows.
In December, the first Major Update "Fellhollow" arrived with the Farming skill, a new building kit, two new NPCs and a shop for trading Soul Fragments with Death himself.
Material upgrades brought the Castle kit to make a spooky stronghold, and you can also earn and equip Steel tier gear, complete with its iconic plumed Full Helm, before Mounts were added so you can ride a terrorbird across the terrain.
Three new quests were added: "Cook's Assistant", "Animal Magnetism" and "A Room with a Garou", alongside the Fishing skill which lets you catch pristine fish to make new wall-mounted decorative trophies of your finest catches, providing the best healing-per-stack of any food item.
Auto-run and auto-magnetising nearby items were added to reduce inputs picking up items around you, along with the option to hide your helmet to show off your beautiful face.
The latest and largest Major Update, Umbral Sands, introduced a new form of Mount, the flying carpet, and a region inspired by the Kharidian Deserts of RuneScape.
Within that region, the Kalphite Queen and her brood, Fuzan the Fire Dragon and the Kot'Haar, sentient golems of Obsidian, were introduced, and the Nightmare Crucible was added so you can earn upgrade materials to power up your favourite weapons from lower Power Levels to max level.
The region allows users to craft Adamant Armour, Red Dragonhide and Infinity Robes as well as additional vestiges including Obsidian Armour, the Obsidian shield and the Fire Cape.
The Skill Trees for Mining and Woodcutting were expanded, giving you new Skill Spells and passive rewards, and more NPC traders were added for users to trade with.
The Enchant Weapon: Water Skill Spell enchants your current Melee weapon with the power of Water, striking enemies with Water damage and occasionally creating healing orbs to restore your health, costing 15x Water and 5x Astral Runes with a 300s cooldown.
Divine Rock lets you drop 5 ore on the ground and turn it into a personal mining vein, costing 100x Earth Rune and 100x Nature Rune with a 1500s cooldown.
Overdrive is a long requested Skill Spell that can be cast on mechanical-based processing stations to empower them and boost their processing speed for a while.
Woodcutting and Mining Skill Trees will be filled out to 99 with new spells, recipes, perks and rewards.
Skill Progression Questions
- How do I level up my skills?
- You'll gain experience (or XP) for every action, and those will help level you up through Skill Trees with active and passive unlocks, including Skill Spells that totally transform how you play.
- Which skills should I prioritize early on?
- Leveling your agility skill increases your stamina recovery rate and allows you to move across the map in more efficient ways, so take any chance you have to level your agility. From there, woodcutting, mining, and cooking are also essential, and combat matters as well.
- Are there more skills planned for the future?
- Woodcutting and Mining Skill Trees will be filled out to 99 with new spells, recipes, perks and rewards.
- What are some examples of Skill Spells?
- Enchant Weapon: Water enchants your current Melee weapon with the power of Water, striking enemies with Water damage and occasionally creating healing orbs. Divine Rock lets you drop 5 ore on the ground and turn it into a personal mining vein. Overdrive can be cast on mechanical-based processing stations to empower them and boost their processing speed for a while.