Which skills should I take, and do their bonuses work?

Start with one problem you actually meet: running out of stamina while retreating, lacking enough safe incantation slots, carrying too much weight, or needing more damage for your main weapon type. Choose a skill that solves that problem instead of copying a universal build.

Open the matching branch and select a node. Read the listed effect at the exact rank you can buy, then check prerequisites. A later rank’s maximum number is not the bonus you receive from the first point.

Some nodes are shown but marked unavailable in the current Demo. Do not reserve points or plan equipment around them until the game lets you learn them. Use the availability label on the skill page as the first check.

Use available nodes as the current planning set. If a skill page has no direct stat bonus listed, do not invent one from the name. An availability label and an effects list answer different questions.

The character page lists 300 health, 200 stamina and a corruption cap of 100. Normal movement is 5 m/s and unmodified sprint speed is 10 m/s. Stamina recovery and sprint cost are both listed as 7.5 per second before other bonuses or penalties.

Use these numbers to compare two skill choices from the same starting point. Equipment, encumbrance, actions, delays and temporary effects can still change what happens, so test the chosen build before committing more points.

Take the smallest rank that should change the named problem, keep the rest of the loadout stable and repeat a comparable situation. If the difference is not visible, recheck whether the node is available, whether the prerequisite is learned and whether another modifier hides the change.

For magic, safe incantation slots are a concrete example: the base is two, and nodes such as Dark Pacts list additional slots. That does not add missing schools to the conduit. Skill effect, conduit schools and spell sequence must all be checked separately.