Skills are the most important upgrades inFlintlock: The Siege of Dawn.Not only do they increase the damage that you deal with your attacks, but they also provide critical new combat abilities that you’ll need in your battle against the gods. They’re expensive, though, especially the higher-tier ones, so you need to be judicious about how you spend your Reputation.
We’ve picked the best Skills in the game at all levels of Nor’s character tree. If you’re not sure which abilities to take, one of these will always serve you well for the fights ahead.
10Rend Spirit
Hold Still!
Enki isn’t particularly helpful until you’ve leveled him up via the Path of Magic. Teaching himRend Spiritis the first step, and it makes solo fights against unarmored enemies much easier.
By holding Enki’s attack button, you cancause him to levitate your target in the air.This drains Enki’s charges quickly, butbuilds his Withering gaugeand gives you a chance to attack the helpless foe. In a pinch, you’re able to also use it totemporarily neutralize one enemyin a group.
Rend Spirit doesn’t work against enemies with armor, so you’ll need to break through their protection with a Critical Attack first.
9Charged Shot
The Perfect Opener
Charged Shot is the first Skill you can unlock in the Path of Powder, and it’s a strong choice for yourfirst pick in the entire game.Once you have it, you canhold the pistol triggerto increase the damage from the bullet once it fires.
You can release the trigger early for a smaller damage bonus.
With a decently powerful pistol, a fully-charged shot is enough toeliminate some weaker enemies outright, and it can put a dent in stronger foes before you close to melee range. Even better, you may get Reputation bonuses for firingboth fully- and partially-charged shots!
8Hearty Fortitude
What’s In That Flask, Anyway?
Hearty Fortitude is at the top of the Path of Steel, making it very expensive, but it’s worth the investment. It makes your Healing Flaskfully replenish Nor’s HP with each swig, allowing for much more efficient healing in combat.
This meansyou can afford to wait until you’re nearly deadbefore taking a sip from the Flask - it’s risky, but saving your drinks until you really need them allows you to stretch out your heals and survive longer overall. Furthermore, you no longer need to take two drinks to get back to full when facing bosses and other dangerous foes, which meansless time stuck in the helpless healing animation!
7Extra Shot
More Is Better
Extra Shot isn’t flashy, but it’s hard to deny the usefulness of having extra pistol ammo. This skillincreases the capacity of all your pistols by one, making it that much less likely that you’ll be out of shots when you need them.
Yes, that includes the Marauder’s Pistol, which normally has only one charge.
It’s easy for your trigger finger to get itchy, especially during tense boss fights, so that spare round could be the difference between interrupting an enemy attack and taking it on the chin.
6Momentum
Speed And Precision
One of your biggest liabilities in the game isgetting caught in an attack animation, leaving yourself vulnerable to a hit that you can’t dodge or parry. Momentum not only helps reduce that risk, but lets you get more melee hits in as well!
With Momentum,pressing the melee buttonat the exact moment your previous attack landsincreases the speed and damage of the following strike.This is great for getting fast combos with weapons like Nor’s Axe or the Herald’s Blade, or speeding up slow weapons like the Judge’s Hammer.
Momentum has the added bonus ofadding to your Reputation multiplierandbuilding your target’s Priming Gaugefaster as long as they’re afflicted with the Curse of Death. Speaking of which…
5Curse Shot
The Perfect Opener, Perfected
Normally, the only way to start building Prime is tohave Enki attack a foeor to use one of your limited stock ofShock Grenades.Once you unlock Curse Shot, though, it’s a whole new game.
With Curse Shot, yourranged attacks inflict the Curse of Death automatically. This means that, Enki or no Enki, your melee attacks will build up the target’s Prime, letting you get a shattering Critical Attack on them… assuming they survive that long, of course.
4Withering Cuts
At Last, A Proper Combo Meter
Enki’s Witherings serve as finishers, and as such theytake a long time to charge.This can be especially frustrating if you die after using one during a boss fight, since that means you probably won’t be able to use it again unless you risk going out and fighting in the field for a while.
Withering Cuts solves that problem bymaking Nor’s melee attacks build Enki’s Withering Gauge.That means that melee strikes now restore Black Powder Charges, build Prime, increase your Reputation multiplier, and charge Witherings! Oh, and deal damage, of course.
3Curse Siphon
Tag-Team Combo
By the time you unlock Curse Siphon, you should already be adept attiming your melee attacksto land at the same time Enki strikes an opponent; the previous skill on the Path of Magic gives you a damage bonus for doing so. Now that you have Curse Siphon, there’s even more reason to score that perfect hit.
Landing an Enki Sync Attack willheal Nor for two percent of her maximum healthfor each Curse on the target - including any placed on them by the attack you just made. That means that if you swing away with the Harbinger’s Axe while Enki is equipped with a Curse Stone of any kind, you can get back a minimum of six percent of your healthwithout wasting any of your Healing Flask. It doesn’t sound like much, but watch your health bar as it happens and you’ll see what a difference that six percent can make.
2Armored Poise
They Don’t Call Her The God-Killer For Nothing
Perched at the top of the Path of Steel, Armored Poise is practically a must. Normally, equippingtwo pieces of armor from the same setwill grant you that set’s Synergy Bonus. The third piece doesn’t matter, regardless of whether or not it matches.
With Armored Poise, equipping a third piece of armor fromoutside of your main set grants you its Synergy Bonus as well. That means that you could, for example, equip the Sapper’s Gauntlets and Sapper’s Pauldrons with the Warlock’s Helmet, and get the Synergy Bonuses for both the Sapper and Warlock sets!
Armored Poise is a huge part of devising your final build for the confrontation with Uru, as it unlocks a ton of strategic options. If you have a lot of Reputation left over, though, or you don’t mind a lot of grinding, you should take the time for at least one more Skill.
1Shadow Self
Down, But Not Out
Expensive but worth every single point of Reputation, Shadow Self is nothing short of miraculous. Once per rest,Enki can resurrect Nor on the spot if she falls in battle,and at full health, no less! Considering how many times you’ll probably die - and lose your stockpiled Reputation - just getting to the point where you’re able to even think about unlocking this skill, you probably don’t need much more convincing than that.
!Flintlock is the kind of game where it’s very possible to die right as you’re about to deal the finishing blow to a boss. With Shadow Self, it can be you that gets the last laugh in the end.
