Skills

Skills are a type of game mechanic in Dead State.

 * Skills can be thought of as the character's knowledge base - emotional, physical, and learned knowledge. Every action in the game requires Skill checks to determine how successful the player is at achieving certain actions. There are eight Skill categories.

Skill points are used to increase skills, with more points needed for higher levels of the skill. Each skill begins at 0 and can be improved up to a level of 10. One skill point is needed for the first level of each skill. One of two Skill Perks can be selected at levels 3, 6, and 10 for each skill. Skill Perks can be active skills (such as the Kick ability gained at Melee level 3) or passive skills (such as the Survey ability gained at Survival level 3).

Stat points are granted each time a skill point milestone is reached. Defeating enemies does not yield experience, you must achieve certain goals to gain skill points.

Leveling Up and Goals 2

You gain points that you can put into your skills by completing goals. Some goals are unique one-offs (e.g. Repair the Fence) while some are repeatable (e.g. collect 150 food, collect 200 luxury items etc).All skills range from 0-10 and as you reach the higher levels the cost for increasing them also goes up. For skill level 1-2 it will cost you one point a piece, two for 3-4, three for 5-7, four for 8, five for 9 and 6 for level 10. To completely level up a skill it will cost you 30 points which translates as 30 unique goals or 1500 antibiotics found.

Repeating Goals

There are 5 basic repeating goals. Each time one is fulfilled you get a skill point and the counter is reset. They are:


 * 10 Antibiotics


 * 150 Food
 * 25 fuel
 * 200 Luxury items
 * 100 Parts
 * Decode 10 data items

Luxury items have a "value" associated with them - this tells you how much they will count towards the goal. Food is measured on a per item basis so while a 10 lb bag of rice might get you a lot of rations it only counts as one item towards the goal. Fuel is measured by the .5 of a gallon (i.e. 12.5 gallons = skill point), antibiotics and parts have a one to one ratio.

Unique Goals

These goals don't repeat. Once you achieve them you get the skill point and they're added to the list of completed goals. They are:


 * Repair the fence - Get the basic fence to 31 HP before day 3 (you lose if you don't complete this goal)
 * Build a shelter upgrade - needs to be a new one, repairing the fridge or fence doesn't count
 * Build 3 shelter upgrades - this is total, so includes the upgrade in the previous goal
 * Build 6 shelter upgrades
 * Build 10 shelter upgrades
 * Build 13 shelter upgrades
 * Explore 5 new locations
 * Explore 15 new locations
 * Explore 30 new locations
 * Explore 40 new locations
 * Explore 65 new locations
 * Find enough food to survive for a week - find 200 pounds of food
 * Find enough luxuries to make the shelter more comfortable - find 500 luxury items
 * Find 100 pounds of fresh food - oddly enough this can include food marked as "undesirable" such as the dead rat and edible insects. You must stock them and take the morale penalty for them to count towards the goal.

It is possible to completely upgrade your character by clearing the repeating goals a lot. I found that harvesting and fishing (with Nathan and Troy once you get them) can help buff your character quite quickly.

Melee
How well the character deals with close enemies (physical force)


 * less AP required for melee strikes
 * more damage caused in melee strikes
 * greater ability to Bash objects

Ranged
How well the character deals with distant enemies


 * increased accuracy/damage/critical hit chance (+5% THC per level, damage/critical relative to enemy range)
 * increased range
 * faster reload time (less AP needed)

Leadership
how well the character is able to get others to follow their example


 * dialogue skill (ranges from reasoned to intimidating), can be used to avoid penalties to the survivor's mood if you tell them to get back to work.
 * increases effectiveness of allies in combat

Negotiation
how well the character convinces others to share their point of view


 * dialogue skill (ranges from understanding to conniving). Can be used to further increase the survivor's mood if granting a survivor their request to take the day off.
 * For allies, improves the morale gain from crisis events if they chose to accept your opinion.
 * reduces Morale decay

Medical
How well the character deals with healing the human body


 * less AP required for using healing items
 * more health gained from healing items
 * can heal wounds on self and allies

Science
how well the character can reuse elements to create new items


 * crafting new items (better armor, new ammo, new thrown weapons [explosives])
 * crafting medical supplies
 * upgrades to Shelter
 * coats Melee weapons with a contact corrosive, inflicting the Poisoned status

Survival
How well the character survives in an outdoor environment


 * faster travel on foot and with horses on the Area Map
 * Harvesting on the Area Map
 * actively avoid random encounters

Mechanical
How well the character works with items with moving (machine) parts


 * Lockpicking ability
 * upgrade to Shelter
 * upgrades to weapons

Skill Perks
Skill Perks are gained at level 3, 6, and 10 of a skill. As an ally's skills increase, they gain perks as well. The player can influence what perks are received.