Days Gone: Skills you absolutely need

This guide to Days Gone shows you:

• How the skill system works
• What skills are available
• Which skills are the most rewarding

In Days G one, you'll be fighting zombie-like Freakers from start to finish. In order for you to slowly become stronger and stronger, and to make it easier to give the enemies their second kill, the -exclusive open-world adventure offers a light role-playing system.

A total of three skill trees with 15 skills each are available to you. In this guide, we'll show you the best way to unlock them, what skills are available, and what else you should keep in mind.

Table of contents for the skill guide

1. Days Gone: Basic information about the skill system
2. Days Gone: All melee skills
3. Days Gone: All ranged combat skills
4. Days Gone: All Survival Skills
5. The most important skills in Days Gone

1. Days Gone: Skill System Basics

Before you can invest points in a new skill, you must first earn said points. There are many ways to do this, as you earn experience for just about every action you take: For every enemy you kill, for every mission you complete.

A swipe down on the touchpad takes you to the skills menu. Here you can not only see how much experience you still need to reach the next skill point, but you can also spend the currency here.

In total, you can choose between three skill trees: Melee, Ranged and Survival. Each skill tree comes with 15 skills, so you can unlock 45 in total. Since every enemy means XP, you can also farm experience, which takes a correspondingly long time, though.

Each skill costs only one point, but you can't buy every skill right away. Each tree is divided into five sections. You always have to unlock two skills of one level before the next one becomes available.

In the skills menu you can also see your resilience, which you can improve with NERO shots.

2. Days Gone: All Melee Skills

Melee skills, as the name suggests, help you in direct combat. From getting up faster after a hit to more damage for your knife, you'll make hero Deacon better in this branch.

Melee: Level 1

• Extrication Artist: Kill smaller enemies after you've extricated yourself from a fight. You'll have to pass a short quick-time event to do this.
• Field Repairs: The ability to repair melee weapons with scrap metal. You can do this from the in-game ring menu.
• More Juice: Improves the instant recovery and duration of an endurance cocktail.

Melee: Level 2

• Another Spell, Jawbreak: The ability to perform longer combos with melee weapons.
• Burst Lip: Restores stamina for each melee elimination.
• Hard Thug: Increases the damage you deal with crafted and found melee weapons.

The melee skills are especially worthwhile against heavy enemies.

Melee: Level 3

• Lightning Reflexes: The ability to recover by rolling quickly when you have been knocked down. Simply press the roll button on the ground.
• Bull Run: The ability to stun a normal human opponent or swarmers with a melee attack while sprinting.
• Reckoning: Gives melee weapons a chance at critical eliminations on humans, swarms, and crawlers.

Melee: Level 4

• Home Run: Significantly increases the damage you deal with crafted and found melee weapons.
• Rock 'n' Roll: The ability to stun weaker enemies by hitting them with a rock.
• From the Roll: Significantly reduces stamina consumption when rolling.

Melee: Level 5

• Revenge: Increases your chance of critical hits or eliminations by 25 percent.
• Upshift: Boot knife combos do double damage.
• Executioner: Ability to perform a stealth attack on heavy freakers. Also adds the ability to kill heavy freakers and large animals when freeing from a fight.

This is how a skill tree is built.

3. Days Gone: All ranged combat skills

If you prefer to let guns and rifles do the talking, you'll be happy with this skill tree. Here you can improve dispersion, concentration and more.

Ranged Combat: Level 1

• Concentrated Shot: The ability to activate concentration when aiming a ranged weapon. Press the right stick to do so.
• Fight and Flight: Aim more accurately with a ranged weapon while moving.
• Vicious Circle: The ability to follow up a melee attack with a ranged attack, causing enormous damage.

Ranged Combat: Level 2

• Full Focus: Improves the instant recovery and duration of effect of a concentration cocktail.
• Crowd control: Reduces the cooldown of Concentration.
• Continuous Fire: In Concentration, ranged weapons are more likely to stop weaker enemies.

For silent ranged combat, use a crossbow or sniper rifle with a silencer.

Ranged combat: Level 3

• On the Move: The ability to reload a ranged weapon while sprinting.
• Iron Grip: Significantly reduces the recoil of ranged weapons.
• Harnessed: Significantly increases the damage dealt by crossbow bolts.

Ranged: Level 4

• Deathshot: Increases the accuracy of ranged weapons.
• Fast Reload: Reduces the reload time for ranged weapons.
• Under Pressure: You no longer use concentration when reloading a ranged weapon.

Ranged Combat: Level 5

• Reload: Increases ammo capacity for all ranged weapons.
• Two Flies, One Bullet: Increases the projectile penetrating power of ranged weapons.
• Head Rush: Regain health from headshot kills.

The ranged tree offers many skills that primarily improve weapon handling.

4. Days Gone: All survival skills

If you are sneaky or want to have advantages when looting, you should invest in this skill tree.

Survival: Level 1

• Eye for Detail: Extends the display time of icons in Survival View.
• Hawk Eye: Plants are displayed on the mini-map.
• Thorn in the Eye: Provides a chance to recover some bolts fired from your crossbow.

Survival: Level 2

• Green Thumb: Ability to gain twice as many plants when gathering.
• Thief in the Night: Creates less noise when you move or drop.
• Eagle Eye: Increases the range of survival vision.

You'll also need to sneak often in story missions - the Silent skill is extremely useful.

Survival: Level 3

• The Butcher: Increases the amount of meat you extract from animals.
• Breathe: Reduces the cooldown for stamina recovery.
• Ear to the Ground: Highlights enemies in survival view.

Survival : Level 4

• Carry Your Bag: Expands inventory space for crafting materials, traps, and throwables.
• New Momentum: Gives you an extra adrenaline boost when health is low.
• Wrench: Doubles the effectiveness of scrap metal in motorcycle repairs.

Survival: Level 5

• The Alchemist: Improves the instant recovery and duration of effect of a health cocktail.
• In Form: Significantly increases stamina regeneration rate.
• Stalwart: Recovers stamina when you take damage.

This skill is one of the best you can unlock.

5. The most important skills in Days Gone

Melee and ranged combat are still quite moderate, especially at the beginning of Days Gone. In other words, you won't need much skill support for the first half of the game. Especially the ranged weapons are usually very strong by default. The problem here is that you don't have enough ammunition - which can't improve a skill.

That's why the survival tree is the best place to start. First choose "Thorn in the Eye" and then one of the other two skills. Because the second level offers one of the most useful skills in the whole game - "Thief in the Night".

With this skill, you won' t make any noise while crouching. Especially when quietly taking out enemies, this is unbeatable and more useful than any other skill. Other useful skills are:

• Liberator
• Field Repair
• Upshift
• Executioner
• On the way
• Clamped
• Ear to the ground
• Carry your pack
• Wrench
• In shape

You can find plants more easily with survival skills.

More about Days Gone

If you want to know more about Days Gone, we have a few guides for you. For example, we give you tips on what to look out for at the beginning of the adventure. We also have a survival guide for you. If you have any questions about the open-world adventure, our large overview will help you.

Visit us on Facebook and Instagram and discuss your favorite games with us.