Using & Training Skills

This page explains how skills actually work day to day: how to use them, how they go up, and how to manage your character’s total skill budget. For the per-skill detail (what each skill does, primary stats, titles) browse the skills index; for the math of how points are awarded see skill gain.

What a skill is

A skill is a trained ability — Magery, Swordsmanship, Healing, Mining, and so on. Each skill has a value from 0.0 to 100.0. At 100.0 you are a Grandmaster (GM) of that skill and earn its mastery title. Your character has many skills, but you cannot max them all (see caps, below), so a “build” is the set of skills you choose to raise.

Open the skill list (the Skills section of the paperdoll / character window) to see all your skills, their current values, and their lock state.

Using a skill

Skills come in two operational kinds:

Active skills — you invoke them. To use one:
1. Open your skill list.
2. Click “Use” next to the skill (the blue active-skill name), or trigger a bound macro / hotkey for it.
3. If the skill needs a target (e.g. Animal Taming, Anatomy, Detect Hidden), a target cursor appears — click the creature, person, or tile. Examples: Hiding, Stealing, Animal Taming, Meditation, Begging, Detect Hidden.
Passive skills — they work automatically whenever the situation calls for them; you never invoke them. Examples: Resisting Spells, Parrying, Tactics, Anatomy (as a damage bonus), Magic Resist. You raise these simply by being in situations where they apply.

Some skills are both: usable on demand and checked passively.

How skills go up

You raise a skill by using it against an appropriately difficult task. The game rolls a skill check on each use (CheckSkill in SkillCheck.cs); whether it succeeds or fails, the code then rolls a separate gain chance. That gain chance is highest when (1) your skill sits well below its individual cap, (2) your overall skill total sits well below the 700 cap, and (3) the task was hard — the lower your odds of success on the attempt, the larger the gain term. A trivially easy task (one you almost always pass) grants very little; an impossible one you can never attempt grants nothing. So you progress fastest against challenges that are difficult-but-doable for your current level. Skills below 10.0 gain automatically on every use to get you started. (Source: SkillCheck.cs GetGainChance — gain scales with distance from caps and with (1.0 - chance).)

A separate Gain-Gives-Skill (GGS) timer also guarantees periodic gains: even on a string of unlucky gain rolls, once the GGS interval for your skill bracket elapses the next use is allowed to gain. The interval lengthens as your total skill rises. (Source: SkillCheck.cs CheckGGS / UpdateGGS / GGSTable.)

The exact gain formula, difficulty bands, and rates are documented in skill gain; read that page before grinding a skill so you target the right difficulty. Practical rule: do the activity the skill is for, against targets that are difficult-but-doable for you, and the number climbs over time.

Stat gain from using skills

Using skills also slowly raises your stats (Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence). Each skill is tied to a primary and secondary stat, and using it gives a chance to gain in those stats. For example, casting raises Intelligence; melee fighting raises Strength and Dexterity. See stat gain for which skills feed which stats and how the rolls work. Stats are capped (225 total — see shard caps), and you can lock individual stats to steer where gains go.

The skill caps: 100 per skill, 700 total

Two limits shape every build:

Per-skill cap: 100.0. No single skill goes above Grandmaster.
Total cap: 700.0 across all skills. The sum of all your skill values cannot exceed 700 — roughly seven skills at GM, or more skills at lower values.

Because of the 700 total, raising one skill past the cap would force another down. You manage this with skill locks.

Locking skills: up, down, locked

Next to each skill in the skill list is a small arrow / lock toggle with three states. It controls what happens to that skill as you approach the 700 total:

Up arrow (raise / ↑): the skill is allowed to gain. Skills you are training should be set to Up.
Down arrow (lower / ↓): the skill is allowed to fall to make room. When you are at the 700 total and a different skill gains, a skill set to Down will lose points to keep the total legal. Set skills you want to retire to Down.
Locked (padlock / ▬): the skill is frozen — it will neither gain nor lose. Use this to protect a skill at its current value.

To re-spec a character at the cap: set the skill you want gone to Down, set the new skill to Up, and train the new skill — the old one bleeds off as the new one rises. Lock everything else you want to keep.

Buying skill from NPC trainers

You don’t have to grind from zero. NPC trainers in towns will teach a skill they know in exchange for gold. The amount they can raise you to is one-third of the NPC’s own skill, capped at 42.0 — and the NPC must know the skill at 60.0 or higher to teach at all (one-third of 60 = 20.0 is the minimum it will set). In practice a typical town trainer gets a fresh skill into the 20–42 range; you cannot buy past that. To buy training:

Find an NPC who practices the skill (e.g. a Mage for Magery, a Healer for Healing).
Say the skill name or ask to learn, or use the context menu, and pay the fee.
Each purchase nudges the skill up a little, until the NPC will teach you no more.

Buying gets a new skill off the ground quickly; past the trainer cap you must use the skill to keep raising it. (Source: BaseCreature.cs CheckTeachSkills — baseToSet = ourSkill / 3, capped at 420 fixed = 42.0, and rejected below 200 fixed = 20.0.)

Reading the skill list

In the skill list each row shows:

the skill name (clickable = active skill you can Use),
its current value (0.0–100.0),
its lock state (Up / Down / Locked toggle).

At 70 you earn the journeyman-tier title; at 100.0 you become a Grandmaster and display that skill’s GM title. Watch the total at the bottom against the 700 cap to know how much room you have left.