Skills and experience: how every skill levels up
You have 13 skills, and each one can reach level 4. Skills level up only by doing the activity they describe during a run: hitting enemies with a weapon class, carrying heavy loads, running out of stamina, spending stamina, or searching. Kills, quests, and consumables do not grant skill experience.
The short version
- Weapon skills grow per hit, not per kill. Every hit earns experience for the skill that matches the weapon, however much damage it deals.
- Two multipliers decide the amount. Experience per hit = enemy multiplier × weapon multiplier. Most enemies are ×2, while most automatic firearms are only ×0.08–×0.13.
- Low-multiplier weapons level their skill slowly. Melee weapons are ×0.34–×0.67, so melee skills level much faster than skills for automatic firearms.
- Dying wipes unfinished progress. If you die and leave the map, the experience toward the next level of every skill returns to zero. Levels you have already reached stay.
- Willpower cannot be trained. The game currently has no way to earn its experience.
What earns experience for each skill
| Skill | What earns experience | Experience gained |
|---|---|---|
| Bare Fists | Hitting with your fists | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| One-Handed | Hitting with a one-handed melee weapon | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Two-Handed | Hitting with a two-handed melee weapon | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Handgun | Hitting with a handgun | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Submachine Gun | Hitting with a submachine gun | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Shotgun | Hitting with a shotgun | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Assault Rifle | Hitting with an assault rifle | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Marksman Rifle | Hitting with a marksman rifle | Enemy × weapon multiplier per hit |
| Strength | Carrying enough weight to be slowed by a load | 1 per second while Weighted Trek, 2 per second while Burdened March, 3 per second while Overloaded |
| Cardio | Running out of stamina | 1 each time your stamina is completely exhausted |
| Agility | Spending stamina | 1 for every point of stamina spent |
| Dexterity | Finishing the search of an item in a container | 1 per item revealed |
| Willpower | Nothing yet | None |
A hit trains only the skill for the weapon class you are holding. The other weapon skills earn nothing from it.
How much a weapon hit earns
Experience per hit = enemy multiplier × weapon multiplier. Critical hits, damage dealt, and killing blows do not change the amount. A shot that lands for 1 damage earns the same as one that lands for 500.
The two multipliers are listed on each enemy and weapon page. These examples show how quickly the first level (100 experience) arrives against an ordinary ×2 enemy:
| Weapon | Weapon multiplier | Experience per hit | Hits to earn 100 |
|---|---|---|---|
| RS Veteran 47 | ×0.13 | 0.26 | 385 |
| Кулаки | ×0.25 | 0.5 | 200 |
| Бейсбольная бита | ×0.53 | 1.06 | 95 |
| Кувалда | ×0.67 | 1.34 | 75 |
| SVG Lion M90 | ×1 | 2 | 50 |
Against a ×2.4 enemy the Бейсбольная бита needs only about 79 hits for the same 100 experience, because the larger enemy multiplier applies to every hit.
Enemy multipliers
Almost every enemy is ×2, including zombies, Crumbs, Corrupted soldiers and officers, and Fallen Leaf members. A few are worth more:
| Enemy | Multiplier |
|---|---|
| Жуткий горец | ×2.4 |
| Туманник | ×2.4 |
| «Рыба» | ×2.2 |
| Stakes and wood piles | ×0.01 |
Stakes and wood piles are poor training targets: a hit on one earns only 0.5% of what an ordinary enemy gives. Apart from those targets, enemy multipliers differ only slightly, so the weapon you hit with matters far more than which enemy you pick.
Weapon multipliers
Each weapon has its own multiplier, shown under Skill experience on its page. A higher number levels the matching skill faster.
Firearms
Melee weapons
| Multiplier | Melee weapons |
|---|---|
| ×0.34 | Керамбит Aiden KB, Закалённый хитиновый кинжал, Скаутский кинжал RS, Траншейный нож WLF M Solostrike, Штык-нож Wolf W6 |
| ×0.4 | Топор горца |
| ×0.42 | AD Мачете первопроходца |
| ×0.45 | Мачете из лома |
| ×0.5 | «Чёрная рука», Серп «Рыбья кость», Топорик, Нагината, Деревянное копьё |
| ×0.53 | Бита-топор, Бейсбольная бита, Дубина с клыками зверя, Засаленная сковорода, Одноручный молот, Сковорода, Трубный ключ, Ржавая труба |
| ×0.57 | Ледоруб |
| ×0.59 | Тесак, Лом |
| ×0.6 | Мачете фермера-арбузера, Очигири, Призрачный клинок |
| ×0.67 | Топор пожарного, Каминная кочерга, Кувалда |
Bare fists are ×0.25.
Strength, Cardio, Agility, and Dexterity
- Strength depends on how full your pack is compared with your carry limit. Above 50% of the limit you are at Weighted Trek (+1 per second, stamina cost +50%). Above 75% you are at Burdened March (+2 per second, no rolling, 30% slower, stamina cost +100%). Above 100% you are Overloaded (+3 per second, no rolling, your stamina is held at zero, 90% slower). The game describes this experience as gained while moving under load, so keep moving. The two heavier tiers cost a lot of speed, so expect to move slowly if you train there. The Athelete and Motorized Infantry talents change these tiers.
- Cardio grows by 1 every time your stamina bar empties completely. Running out of stamina is the whole requirement, so a single sprint to empty counts as one point.
- Agility grows by the amount of stamina you spend, so sprinting and other stamina actions all count. It is the slowest skill by far.
- Dexterity grows by 1 for each item whose search finishes, in whichever searchable container you open.
Experience needed for each level
Each level costs its own amount, which you earn on top of the levels before it. Leftover experience after a level-up carries toward the next level. Level 4 is the maximum.
| Skill | Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3 | Level 4 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bare Fists, One-Handed, Handgun, Submachine Gun, Shotgun, Assault Rifle, Marksman Rifle, Strength, Dexterity | 100 | 320 | 1,200 | 5,000 | 6,620 |
| Two-Handed | 100 | 500 | 1,200 | 5,000 | 6,800 |
| Cardio | 50 | 160 | 600 | 2,500 | 3,310 |
| Agility | 1,000 | 3,200 | 12,000 | 50,000 | 66,200 |
| Willpower | 100 | 320 | 1,200 | 5,000 | Cannot be trained |
What each skill improves
- Strength: +5 carry limit per level.
- Cardio: +10 stamina per level.
- Agility: +0.05 movement speed per level.
- Dexterity: +40% search speed per level, so level 4 searches 2.6 times as fast. The perk text says +5%; see perks whose text differs from their effect.
- Weapon skills: each of the four levels unlocks a bonus for that weapon class, such as extra damage, attack speed, critical chance, faster reloads, or tighter spread.
- Two-Handed: level 2, Heavy Strike, raises the chance of every melee status effect by 50 percentage points on two-handed weapons.
Perks whose text differs from their effect
Most skill perks do exactly what their description says. These do not. Where the two disagree, the right-hand column is what the game applies to your character.
| Perk | Perk text says | The game applies |
|---|---|---|
| One-Handed level 1, Dominant Hand | Damage +30% | +30 damage in total, shared across the weapon's damage types in proportion. A 50-damage Одноручный молот reaches 80, where +30% would give 65. Weapons dealing under 100 damage gain more than the text promises. |
| One-Handed level 3, Armor Piercer | Armor penetration +10 | +5% Defence penetration. An enemy resists 95% of its normal resistance and Defence. |
| Marksman Rifle level 2, Achilles' Ankle | Armor penetration +50 | +5% Defence penetration, the same as Armor Piercer, not ten times as much. |
| Handgun level 2, Hit-And-Run | Penalty on movement speed −50%, reload time −20% | Reload time −20% works as written. The movement penalty goes the other way: a handgun's penalty becomes 50% larger, so one that costs 0.25 movement speed costs 0.375 instead (your base speed is 2.5). |
| Submachine Gun level 2, Special Forces Raid | Penalty on movement speed −50% | A submachine gun's movement penalty becomes 50% larger, not smaller. |
| Handgun level 3, Isosceles Stance | Recoil −30% | Spread limit −30%. Shots scatter less at their widest, but Recoil, the scatter each shot adds, is not reduced. See how Recoil and Spread limit differ. |
| Submachine Gun level 3, Firm Grip | Recoil −15% in hip-fire mode | Spread limit −15% only while you are aiming. It does nothing for hip-fire, and Recoil, the scatter each shot adds, is not reduced. |
| Dexterity levels 1–4 | Search speed +5% each | Search speed +40% each: ×1.4, ×1.8, ×2.2, then ×2.6 at level 4. |
| Willpower levels 1–4 | Dimensional Adaptability +1 and Dimensional Resistance +1 each | Nothing. Willpower cannot be trained yet, so these levels are unreachable. |
The Dexterity skill description shows your current search-speed bonus. Use it to see which figure applies to you, rather than the per-level perk text. Every other perk applies what its description says.
Losing experience
The only way to lose skill experience is to die and then leave the map. At that point the experience you had toward the next level resets to zero in every skill, along with the usual loss of equipped and carried items. Levels you have already reached are never lowered.
Extracting alive keeps all progress. No weapon or enemy gives negative experience, so a hit can only add to a skill. If you are close to a level, extract before taking a risky fight. See Death, overtime, and gear insurance explained for everything else a failed run costs.