One of the most important ways to survive in Souls games like Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn is to invest a lot of points in skills. Not only does each skill give you a useful new active or passive ability, but each one also improves your damage with one of the game’s three main attack types, Powder, Magic, and Steel.
Learn more: Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn: Kotaku Review
You can invest points in any of these skill paths that suit your tastes and build, but we think the following six skills are essential early purchases that will benefit you no matter your playstyle.
Dodge Attack
Skill Tree: Steel
Start with Dodge Attack. This is a no-brainer.
Dodge is the first skill in the Steel tree, and since you’ll be doing a lot of dodging in Flintlock, it’ll come in handy right away. This skill allows you to immediately launch a follow-up attack after dodging, meaning you can stay mobile and avoid attacks while still pounding your enemies into submission.
Charged attack
Skill Tree: Steel
After picking up Dodge Attack, you can pick up Charge Attack, which lets you hold down the attack button to, you guessed it, charge up a powerful attack. The longer you hold the charge, the more powerful the hit will be.
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This devastating attack can demolish many small enemies in one hit and is a great option against larger enemies who have just finished their attack streaks.
Momentum
Skill Tree: Steel
After purchasing the previous two Steel skills, you will be able to purchase Momentum. This passive ability gives you a 10% damage bonus and increases your strike speed every time you press the attack button at the exact moment your last attack hits the enemy.
It can be difficult to time this right in the heat of battle, but once you get into the rhythm you’d be surprised how quickly 10% extra damage per hit adds up, especially against bosses.
Spirit of rupture
Skill Tree: Magic
The first skill in the magic tree is called Rend Spirit. It allows you to hold down Enki’s attack button to allow him to suspend an enemy in the air. Doing this will not only give you a quick breather, but it will also fill up Enki’s Wither gauge. This will allow you to unleash powerful attacks that can completely change the course of a tough battle.
Mockery
Skill Tree: Magic
Once Rend Spirit is purchased, take Taunt from the Magic skill tree. With this skill, Enki will taunt your opponents into combat when there is more than one enemy. This helps keep the battlefield under control during large-scale encounters, making it one of the most useful skill purchases in the game.
Restrict
Skill Tree: Magic
After purchasing Taunt, you will be able to pick up Hold. Enki will then jump on enemies in combat and hold them for a while. How often he will do this depends on how much danger you are in, but rest assured that when you are overwhelmed by enemies, he will frequently step in and help you free up some energy.
While there are many interesting skills in Flintlock, and you should mix and match them as you can easily refund them, these six skills will provide a great foundation for a variety of playstyles.
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