Note:This trophy is only missable on the PS4 version as the skill system has been changed on PS5 with update 2.0. Here you can find the description for both versions. Also, make a manual save before attempting this trophy to get back all of your items, cash, and attribute points if you're playing on PS4.
Skills are another character progression system that depends on doing certain actions repeatedly to level it up instead of using a traditional "points to upgrade" system. It's important to first point out that the 5 categories in the Character menu (Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence, Cool) are not skills, they are attributes! The things that are within those attributes are skills, for example, Athletics, Annihilation, and Street Brawler are all skills within the Body attribute. Each attribute has 2 or 3 skills within it, and you only need to reach level 20 (max) in 1 skill out of the 12 skills available.
However, each skill level is connected to its attribute ability, which means before you'll even be able to work on maxing out a skill, its attribute ability must be at level 20 first which also requires attribute points, and since there are not enough attribute points to max all attributes, this trophy can be missable if you don't have enough Attribute points to max an Attribute unless you have a previous manual save in which you have 17 unspent points at most (the maximum points required to max any attribute).
Below is a list of all the skills and their attribute abilities:
Attribute | Skills |
---|---|
Body |
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Reflexes |
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Intelligence |
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Cool |
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Technical |
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Since skills depend on specific actions to level them up, here is a list of how you can level up each skill:
Skill | Action to level up |
---|---|
Athletics | Dashing, sliding, jumping, climbing, and descending |
Annihilation | Kill using shotguns and Machine guns |
Street Brawler | Kill using melee weapons |
Assault | Kill using SMG, Assault Rifles, and Sniper Rifles |
Handguns | Kill using Pistols and Revolvers |
Blades | Kill using Blades |
Breach Protocol | Execute Breach Protocol quickhacks on various devices. |
Quickhacking | Use Quickhacks on enemies and devices |
Stealth | Stealth takedowns or kill enemies while in stealth |
Cold Blood | Defeat enemies ( must buy Cold Blood perk) |
Crafting | Craft items |
Engineering | Kill using Tech Weapons |
This is by far the easiest way to earn this trophy. You can set it up and walk away from your console and you will automatically get the trophy. Here are the steps to do it:
- Go to a Ripperdoc and buy a "Moore Tech Berzerk MK.2" for your operating system.
- Upgrade your Body attribute to Level 20.
- Run, and activate Berzerk while you're running. You can activate Berzerk by pressing and . This will only work if you activate it while you're running.
- While running, slide and pause the game mid-slide. Make sure to pause it with the touchpad so you can go onto the map. Being on the map is also needed for this.
- That is all! Your Athletic ability will Level up. This will take around 30 minutes to reach Level 20.
Credit to James Bullock for the video.
In the new 2.0 update, skills have been redesigned and changed significantly compared to before the update. They are no longer tied to improving a specific attribute, making this trophy NOT missable. Additionally, there are only 5 skills compared to 12 in the previous update, but these 5 skills can now be upgraded to a maximum level of 60 instead of 20 as before.
Leveling up these new skills will give you passive abilities for your character regardless of your personal attribute choices. To upgrade them, you still need to perform specific actions related to that skill category, as was the case with previous updates. The Shinobi category is probably your best option for this trophy for having an easy requirement (described below). Here are the 5 new skill types, requirements, and all the rewards you can get.
As the name might imply, progressing in this category is mostly by doing headshot kills. It can also be upgraded by performing stealth takedowns and using some melee weapons like the axe.
As you progress through this skill, you'll earn passive abilities every 5th rank. Here is a list of what you'll get from the Headhunter category:
Rank | Skill progression Rewards |
---|---|
5 | Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%. |
10 | 10% Headshot Damage and 10% Damage Against Vulnerabilities |
15 | +1 Perk Point |
20 | No Weapon Sway When Crouched |
25 | Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10% |
30 | 15% Headshot Damage and 15% Damage Against Vulnerabilities |
35 | Gain a perk point |
40 | Optical Camo Is Active While Grappling Enemies |
45 | Decreases Recovery Time After a Throw by 30% |
50 | 30% Faster When Crouch Walking and Crouch Sprinting |
55 | Damage Bonus From Being Undetected Outside of Combat Persist for 3 Seconds After Entering Combat. |
60 | 15% Optical Camo Charge when Neutralizing an Enemy in One of the Following Ways: During Focus Mode, During Deadeye Mode, With a Thrown Weapon. |
The Netrunner skill tree is mostly associated with the Intelligence attribute, which means doing actions that rely on the Intelligence attribute will get you XP for Netrunner. Quick hacking enemies is one way to get XP but killing hacked enemies will give you even more XP. Hacking Access points and using smart weapons for killing enemies while locking on them also gives you XP for this category.
As you progress through this skill, you'll earn passive abilities every 5th rank. Here is a list of what you'll get from the Netrunner category:
Rank | Skill progression Rewards |
---|---|
5 | Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5% |
10 | Increases RAM by 1 |
15 | +1 Perk Point |
20 | +20% Lock-On Range With Smart Weapons |
25 | Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5% |
30 | Increases RAM by 1 |
35 | +1 Perk Point |
40 | -20% RAM Cost For Quickhacks Used on Devices and Vehicles |
45 | +15% Duration For Control and Convert Quickhacks. +5% Damage With Combat Quickhacks. |
50 | +40% Duration For Overclock |
55 | -10% Health Loss From Using Quickhacks During Overclock. |
60 | When Active, Overlock Now Reveals Enemies Within 10 meters and Allows You To Quickhack Non-Netrunner Enemies Through Cover |
Leveling up the Shinobi category is probably the easiest one of them all. You get XP for any movement maneuvers you do like (Running, Sliding, Dashing, or Climbing). However, this is not the only way to level up as you can also get XP by killing enemies with SMGs, ARs, Katanas or even the Mantis blades.
As you progress through this skill, you'll earn passive abilities every 5th rank. Here is a list of what you'll get from the Shinobi category:
Rank | Skill progression Rewards |
---|---|
5 | Increases Movement Speed by 5% |
10 | -5% Stamina Cost From Dodging and Dashing |
15 | +1 Perk Point |
20 | Better accuracy after dodging or dashing |
25 | Increased Accuracy For a Short Time After Dodging and Dashing |
30 | Decreased stamina cost for dodging and dashing |
35 | +1 Perk Point |
40 | Increased Mitigation Chance The Faster You Move |
45 | +25 Damage With Fast Attacks |
50 | Air Dashing and Sliding Automatically Reload 20% of Your Equipped Weapon |
55 | When Attacking From Midair or While Time Is Slowed, Low Stamina Does Not Affect Ranged Accuracy or Melee Attack Speed |
60 | When Sandevistan is Active: +40 Crit Chance and No Stamina Cost For Any Type of Movement |
The Solo category depends on brute force (using fists) and close-ranged weapons like shotguns and clubs or any other blunt melee weapon. Sharp melee weapons like katanas will get you XP for the Shinobi path and not the Solo path so be mindful of that.
As you progress through this skill, you'll earn passive abilities every 5th rank. Here is a list of what you'll get from the Solo category:
Rank | Skill progression Rewards |
---|---|
5 | Increases Carrying Capacity by 50 |
10 | Increases Health by 10 |
15 | +1 Perk Point |
20 | Fists and Gorilla Arms Have: +20% Damage and +20% Attack Speed. Fists also have a Chance to Apply Bleeding. |
25 | Increases Carrying Capacity by 100 |
30 | Increases Health by 15 |
35 | +1 Perk Point |
40 | +10% Crit Chance Against Enemies Within 5 meters |
45 | +25% Damage With Strong Attacks and Quick Melee Attacks |
50 | +25 Health After Performing a Finisher |
55 | When Adrenaline Rush is Active, Adrenaline Decays 50% Slower and Cannot Decay Below 10% |
60 | When Berserk Is Active: +30% Enemy Health Threshold to Perform Finishers, +50% Health From Performing Finishers, and +30% Bersker Duration |
There are many ways to progress through this path whether by using weapons or other things.
- Using the overload quick hack will surprisingly get you XP for this path and not for Netrunner.
- Crafting any type of gear or disassembling will help you progress more.
- Using charged tech weapons will get you XP for this category.
- Explosive damage whether from grenades or environmental explosions is another method to progress this path, in addition to any elemental damage you deal to enemies.
As you progress through this skill, you'll earn passive abilities every 5th rank. Here is a list of what you'll get from the Engineer category:
Rank | Skill progression Rewards |
---|---|
5 | Increases Armor by 15 |
10 | Increases Cyberware Capacity by 5 |
15 | +1 Perk Point |
20 | +10 Grenade Damage and Explosion Radius |
25 | Increases Armor by 25 |
30 | Increases Cyberware Capacity by 10 |
35 | +1 Perk Point |
40 | Increased Shock Chance From Charging a Tech Weapon or Electric Baton |
45 | +15% Item Health Effectiveness |
50 | +30% To All Cyberware Stat Modifiers |
55 | 10% Damage With Bolt Shots and +40% Burn Chance With Bolt Shots. Chain Lightning Now Sets Enemies on Fire. |
60 | When Fury is Active, You Occasionally Release an EMP Blast |