Learn by doing - if you ride horses, Henry’s Horsemanship skill will improve. Pick flowers and Survival will improve. Brew potions and Alchemy will improve. You get the idea. Leveling skills provides clear benefits on its own, but you’ll also unlock perks and perk points in addition to any gains made by leveling alone. This page will discuss how unlocking and allocating perks and perk points works in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2!

Skill Level and Perks¶

As mentioned above, engaging in certain actions will earn you EXP in related stats and skills, and when you get enough EXP that stat or skill will level up. As your skill level increases you’ll get better at using that skill - brewing potions will have a higher tolerance for mistakes if you’ve a high Alchemy, the “hit” area during lockpicking will be more generous with high Thievery, your horse will consume less stamina while galloping with a higher Horsemanship skill level, and so on - the actual benefits change depending on the skill. In addition, leveling up skills will also unlock access to new perks, reward you with perk points, and allow you to spend more perk points in a single stat or skill.

During the prologue, Henry’s skills will be set to their starting level - 5 in most cases, but your choices earlier will nudge some of your skills slightly higher. By and large these changes don’t matter much, as the difference between being Lv5 and Lv6 in a skill is negligible, and in most cases it takes a trivial amount of work to level that up yourself. The maximum level of each skill is 30, so each of Henry’s stats and skills can range between Lv5 and Lv30, a span of 26 levels. To spit in the face of triskaidekaphobia-sufferers, you will gain a perk point at every even level (6, 8, 10, etc), meaning each skill and stat will eventually give you 13 perks points. Conveniently, each stat and skill (except Main Level) has 13 perks you can buy (ignoring “free” perks which are earned by performing certain actions and exclusive perks which lock out another perk when picked).

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By performing certain actions you’ll earn stat and skill EXP, which will level up a skill and earn you perk points.

Perk Point Allocation¶

Perk points can be distributed freely between skills and stats - just because you hit Lv8 in Stealth doesn’t mean you’re required to spend that perk point on a Stealth perk - all perks points go into the same perk point pool. Perk points being shared between all skills is well and good, but you’ll soon come across other restrictions, namely each perk has its own skill level requirement, forcing you to become proficient in a skill before you can unlock all of its perks. Since these requirements typically range from Lv6 to Lv20, it may seem like leveling the skill above Lv20 is a bit extraneous save for unlocking more perk points to distribute, but you’re also restricted in the number of perk points you can spend in a skill; the higher your stat/skill level, the more perk points you can spend in said stat/skill, and aside from the Main Level stat, the maximum number of perks you can spend in a single stat/skill seems to match the rate at which perk points are unlocked:

Perk Points and Max Perk Allocation¶

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(1 of 2) Perk points are shared between skills, but the number of perk points you can spend in a stat or skill tree is restricted by that stat or skill’s level.

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Perk points are shared between skills, but the number of perk points you can spend in a stat or skill tree is restricted by that stat or skill’s level. (left), If you get a stat or skill to Lv30, you should be able to purchase all 13 of that stat/skill’s non-exclusive perks. (right)

So if you’re Lv8 in Alchemy, you’ll have earned 2 perk points and can distribute 2 perks points in the Alchemy skill. Even if you end up with 3+ perk points banked, you cannot spend a 3rd perk point in the Alchemy skill until it reaches Lv10. Since each stat and skill has 13 non-exclusive perks, you should be able to unlock every non-exclusive perk in the game so long as you hit Lv30 in each stat and skill, so you shouldn’t bank too many perk points - spend them, you’ll earn more. All you really need to worry about is prioritization and exclusive perks. Even if you make any mistakes, it’s possible to respec, so spend your perks points!