Skills¶

Skills are a long-term character progression system that reward players for actually using the different parts of Eternal Damnation. They are not purchased with generic Skill Points and they are not awarded by the Quest system.

Instead, skills are discovered by meeting gameplay milestones: reaching player levels, earning gameplay rewards, recovering through the Apothecary, Foraging, Surveying Drellen, hunting Echos in the Ghost Town, recovering relics, and fighting in the Hellforge.

Once a skill has been learned it remains part of the player's collection, but learning a skill does not automatically make its bonus active. Players must decide which skills to equip.

The Book of Becoming¶

The main Skills interface is The Book of Becoming.

The Book records:

discovered Skill Disciplines;
learned and still-hidden skills;
skill prerequisites;
each skill's current Mastery level and progress;
the effect provided at the current and next level;
the player's six equipped Skill slots;
overall skill-discovery and mastery completion.

Some skills remain shown as ??? until the player has discovered enough of the relevant system for that knowledge to reveal itself.

The player's Profile only needs to show the currently equipped build. The Book of Becoming is where the full collection is managed.

Skill Disciplines¶

The initial Skills system contains four Disciplines:

General — broad character bonuses earned through ordinary play;
Drellen — Foraging and Drellen Surveying skills;
Echo Hunting — Ghost Town exploration, Echos, relics and Manifestations;
Hellforge — combat skills for damage, defence, critical hits and healing.

A Discipline reveals itself when the player begins interacting meaningfully with the associated part of the game.

Passive and Active Slots¶

Players have six equipped Skill slots, divided into:

4 Passive slots;
2 Active slots.

A Passive skill can only be placed in a Passive slot. An Active skill can only be placed in an Active slot.

The same skill cannot be equipped more than once.

This means players may eventually learn every skill, but they cannot benefit from everything simultaneously. Choosing a loadout is therefore part of the system: a Drellen-focused build may be very different from a Hellforge build.

Skill loadouts can be changed freely while the player is idle. They cannot be changed during an active timed activity or while the player is engaged in an active Hellforge battle.

Passive Skills¶

Passive Skills apply automatically while they are equipped. They do not need to be activated manually.

A Passive skill might:

increase Gold or Experience rewards;
increase Foraging quantity or rarity;
improve Drellen Survey XP;
improve Echo or relic discovery;
increase Hellforge damage or critical-strike chance;
reduce incoming Hellforge damage;
improve healing-item effectiveness.

Passive effects can be global or restricted to a particular activity. For example, Miser's Instinct affects qualifying gameplay Gold rewards generally, while Blooded only affects Hellforge damage.

Unequipping a Passive skill immediately removes its benefit from future calculations. Learning or mastering a Passive skill is therefore different from actively using it in a build.

Active Skills¶

Active Skills must first be learned and equipped in one of the two Active slots. They then provide an Activate control in the appropriate interface.

Most Active skills have either a cooldown, a limited number of empowered actions, or a once-per-battle restriction.

Current Active skills work as follows:

Second Wind — activated from the Book of Becoming. Restores a percentage of maximum Health, then enters cooldown.
Deep Instinct — activated from the Book. Empowers the next three completed Foraging actions, then the charges are exhausted.
Threshold — activated from the Book. Empowers the next three Ghost Town explorations while also increasing Haunting.
Battleborn — activated from the Hellforge battle page. It can be used once during that battle and does not consume the player's combat turn.

An Active skill being equipped does not mean its effect is constantly running. Its effect only begins when the player activates it successfully.

Skill Mastery and Levels¶

Every learned skill has its own Skill Mastery XP and can progress through five levels:

Level	Total Skill Mastery XP Required
I	0
II	250
III	750
IV	1,750
V	3,500

Level V is considered Mastered.

Skill Mastery is earned by performing behaviour related to that skill rather than by spending a universal currency. Examples include dealing Hellforge damage, finding Echos, recovering relics, earning gameplay Gold, Surveying Drellen and successfully activating an Active skill.

Higher levels strengthen the skill's effect. Some skills use evenly increasing values while others have bespoke progression appropriate to the effect.

Skill prerequisites can require another skill to reach a particular level. Meeting the gameplay milestone alone is not always enough if the branch prerequisite has not also been mastered far enough.

General Skills¶

Survivor's Instinct¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Reach player Level 5.

Provides additional maximum Health:

I: +10 Health
II: +20
III: +30
IV: +40
V: +50

Mastery advances through continued active play.

Miser's Instinct¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Earn 10,000 Gold through gameplay reward paths.

Provides:

I: +2% gameplay Gold
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

Gameplay Gold rewards advance its Mastery. Transfers, Bank withdrawals and other movements of existing Gold do not count toward acquisition or Mastery.

Learned Soul¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Reach player Level 10.

Provides:

I: +2% Experience
II: +3%
III: +4%
IV: +5%
V: +7%

Gameplay Experience rewards advance its Mastery.

Second Wind¶

Type: Active
Unlock: Complete an Apothecary recovery.

Restores maximum Health when activated:

I: 10%
II: 12%
III: 15%
IV: 18%
V: 20%

Cooldown is 60 minutes, reduced to 45 minutes at Mastery V. Successful activations advance its Mastery.

Opportunist¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Receive gameplay rewards from five distinct reward sources.

Provides a generalist reward bonus when no source-specific Gold or Experience skill is equipped for that reward source:

I: +2%
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

Qualifying generalist rewards advance its Mastery.

Drellen Skills¶

The Drellen Discipline is tied to Drellen Forest, Foraging Mastery, the Field Journal and Drellen Surveying.

Forest Sense¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Complete a Foraging action. Existing players with prior Foraging Mastery are recognised automatically.

Foraging quantity bonus:

I: +2%
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

Completed normal Foraging activities advance its Mastery.

Botanist¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Reach Foraging Mastery 10 and Forest Sense II.

Foraging rarity influence:

I: +2%
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

New Field Journal discoveries advance its Mastery.

Rare Specimen Hunter¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Record 12 Drellen specimens and reach Botanist III.

Specialist rare-find influence:

I: +1%
II: +2%
III: +3%
IV: +4%
V: +5%

Further specimen discoveries advance its Mastery. The current Foraging system uses one shared rarity channel, so this specialist bonus currently feeds that shared rarity calculation.

Trail Sense¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Survey five Drellen landmarks and reach Forest Sense II.

Chance for a Drellen survey movement to effectively cost no Energy:

I: 5%
II: 10%
III: 15%
IV: 20%
V: 25%

Surveying progress advances its Mastery.

Pathfinder¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Reach Drellen Surveying 20 and Trail Sense III.

Survey XP bonus:

I: +5%
II: +10%
III: +15%
IV: +20%
V: +25%

Surveying progress advances its Mastery.

Deep Instinct¶

Type: Active Capstone
Unlock: Reach Foraging Mastery 20, Drellen Surveying 20, Botanist III and Pathfinder III.

When activated, the next three completed Foraging actions receive additional rarity influence:

I: +10%
II: +15%
III: +20%
IV: +25%
V: +30%

Cooldown is 2 hours. Unused charges expire after 3 hours. Activation and consumption of its empowered Foraging actions advance its Mastery.

Echo Hunting Skills¶

The Echo Hunting Discipline is tied to Ghost Town exploration, the Echo Journal, recovered relics and Manifestations.

Echo Sense¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Discover your first Echo.

Adds to Echo discovery chance:

I: +2 percentage points
II: +4
III: +6
IV: +8
V: +10

Ghost Town searches advance its Mastery, with larger gains when an Echo is discovered.

Resonance¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Discover five unique Echos and reach Echo Sense II.

Echo Hunting Mastery XP bonus:

I: +5%
II: +10%
III: +15%
IV: +20%
V: +25%

Discovering Echos advances its own Skill Mastery.

Spirit Memory¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Discover twelve unique Echos and reach Resonance III.

Chance for a newly discovered Echo to leave an afterimage, producing an additional half-strength Gold and Experience exploration reward:

I: 3%
II: 5%
III: 7%
IV: 9%
V: 12%

Echo discoveries and successful afterimages advance its Mastery.

Relic Eye¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Recover your first Ghost Town relic.

Improves relic-rarity influence:

I: +2%
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

Relic finds advance its Mastery, with rarer relics providing more progress.

Grave Picker¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Recover a Rare or Exceptional relic and reach Relic Eye III.

Chance for a relic find to award a second copy:

I: 2%
II: 4%
III: 6%
IV: 8%
V: 10%

Rare and Exceptional relic finds, along with successful extra-copy rolls, advance its Mastery.

Threshold¶

Type: Active Capstone
Unlock: Survive a Manifestation and reach Spirit Memory III and Grave Picker III.

Threshold empowers the next three Ghost Town explorations but deliberately increases the danger at the same time.

At Mastery V it provides:

+25 percentage points Echo chance;
+20% relic-rarity influence;
+35% Haunting generated.

Lower levels provide smaller versions of all three effects. Cooldown is 3 hours and unused charges expire after 4 hours.

Threshold is intentionally a risk/reward skill: the player can improve the quality of a Ghost Town run while causing the Haunting meter to rise faster toward another Manifestation.

Hellforge Skills¶

The Hellforge Discipline is discovered through participation in Hellforge combat. Existing durable battle history can be recognised where it exists, but event-specific statistics that were not historically stored — such as old critical-hit counts or low-Health victories — only begin counting once those statistics are tracked by the Skills system.

Blooded¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Win your first Hellforge battle.

Outgoing Hellforge damage:

I: +2%
II: +4%
III: +6%
IV: +8%
V: +10%

Damage dealt and victories advance its Mastery.

Executioner¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Win ten Hellforge battles and reach Blooded II.

Additional critical-strike chance:

I: +1 percentage point
II: +2
III: +3
IV: +4
V: +5

Critical strikes advance its Mastery.

Killing Edge¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Record 25 Hellforge critical strikes and reach Executioner III.

Additional damage against an opponent at or below 25% Health:

I: +5%
II: +8%
III: +11%
IV: +14%
V: +18%

Attacking opponents in the finishing range advances its Mastery.

Iron Will¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Win a Hellforge battle at or below 20% Health and reach Blooded II.

Incoming Hellforge damage reduction:

I: 2%
II: 4%
III: 6%
IV: 8%
V: 10%

Damage endured and qualifying low-Health victories advance its Mastery.

Endure¶

Type: Passive
Unlock: Use ten healing items in the Hellforge and reach Iron Will III.

Additional Health restored by Hellforge healing items:

I: +5%
II: +8%
III: +11%
IV: +14%
V: +18%

Healing-item use advances its Mastery.

Battleborn¶

Type: Active Capstone
Unlock: Win 25 Hellforge battles and reach Killing Edge III and Endure III.

Battleborn provides additional outgoing damage and damage resistance for the current battle:

I: +5%
II: +7%
III: +9%
IV: +11%
V: +15%

Battleborn is activated from the Hellforge battle page, can be used once per battle, and does not consume the player's combat turn.

How Bonuses Stack¶

The Skills system uses the central modifier system so passive and temporary effects are calculated consistently.

Percentage bonuses are generally additive rather than multiplicative. For example, if a qualifying reward has a base value of 1,000 Gold and the player has +10% from a skill and +20% from an event, the total modifier is +30% and the final reward is 1,300 Gold.

Activity-specific modifiers only apply to their matching activity. A Hellforge damage skill does not increase damage elsewhere, and a Drellen Surveying skill does not affect unrelated Energy costs.

Temporary effects from Active skills are stored separately from permanent character statistics and disappear when their duration or charges end.

Rewards Versus Transfers¶

Not every increase in Gold counts as a gameplay reward.

Gameplay reward paths can trigger Gold bonuses and progression such as Miser's Instinct. Transfers of existing currency deliberately bypass those systems.

Examples that do not count as gameplay Gold rewards include:

Bank withdrawals;
player-to-player transfers;
refunds;
purchased Gold;
returned escrow or staked Gold;
administrative adjustments.

This prevents reward skills from creating extra currency when Gold is simply being moved between accounts or systems.

Choosing a Build¶

The important distinction in the new Skills system is between owning a skill and equipping a skill.

A player can work toward discovering and mastering the entire Book of Becoming, but only four Passive and two Active skills can be equipped at a time. The practical value of the system therefore comes from choosing the right build for what the player intends to do next.

For example, a player going into Drellen may prioritise Forest Sense, Botanist, Trail Sense and Pathfinder, while a player entering the Hellforge may instead equip Blooded, Executioner, Iron Will and Endure.

The system is designed to reward completion without allowing every accumulated bonus to remain permanently active at once.

Summary¶

Skills are acquired through gameplay milestones, not the Quest system.
The Book of Becoming contains the full skill collection and progression interface.
There are four initial Disciplines: General, Drellen, Echo Hunting and Hellforge.
Players have four Passive slots and two Active slots.
Passive skills only affect gameplay while equipped.
Active skills must be equipped and deliberately activated.
Each skill has five Skill Mastery levels.
Skill Mastery is earned by performing behaviour relevant to that individual skill.
Skills can require other skills to reach specific levels before they can be learned.
Loadouts cannot be changed during timed activities or active Hellforge battles.
Players may eventually learn everything, but their limited equipped slots force meaningful build choices.