Stoneshard Update – Survival Skill Tree Overview

While the developers over at Ink Stains Games are working on some bigger content update for their early access RPG Stoneshard, they bring us this Steam announcement showcasing the new Survival skill tree the game will be getting in some soon to be released patch. Here’s what it will bring to the table:

Hello everyone!

Over the last couple months, we’ve received a lot of feedback and justified criticism about drastically increased travel times and long distances between Points of Interest.

We’d like to assure you that the current version of the global map is far from final. In addition to obvious tweaks to distances between locations, which will happen in the next major update along with the saves wipe, we also plan to implement a number of systems and mechanics focused on making the open world exploration less time-consuming and tedious. One of these additions is the Survival tree that will soon be introduced to the game.

The main purpose of this ability tree is to help your character weather the hardships of mercenary life, giving them a better chance of surviving the wilderness without a sizable stash of supplies. It’s worth mentioning that over the course of development Survival and Medicine ability trees were merged together, allowing us to remove unnecessary fluff and fully focus on the synergy between some of their skills.

Let’s start with the ability tree’s overall structure. It consists of 6 active and 5 passive skills[…]

Survival skills are acquired in the usual manner – first, you need to unlock them by finding a corresponding treatise or improving relevant Attributes, then you purchase whatever you need with Ability Points. There is a caveat though: the first tier of Survival is unlocked for every character by default.

On top of that, Survival skills have much lower Attribute requirements than other ability trees: in order to unlock the second tier, you’ll only need to invest 3 Stat Points into relevant Attributes, and the third tier becomes available right after you spend 5 SP.

Active Abilities

• “Skinning” was moved to the Survival tree where it belongs, and you’ll need to spend an Ability Point before you can use it. At the same time, we greatly increased the price of most pelts, making hunting so much more profitable.

  With the exception of these tweaks, the skill remains the same – the chance to harvest a pelt still relies on the damage type you kill a creature with.

• “Campfire” allows you to start a fire at any suitable location. To do so, you’ll need four sticks – a new item that is aplenty in the woods. This campfire has the same functionality as the ones you find when exploring the world: it can be used for cooking, drying your clothes, and to empower some of the ability tree’s skills.

  The campfires you make only exist for a limited amount of time: they go out after 6 in-game hours. It’s the only skill in the ability tree that doesn’t need to be purchased with Ability Points – all characters start with “Campfire” already learned.

• “Make a Halt” allows you to combine a pelt, a length of rope, and some straw to craft a new single-use consumable – a sleeping bag. Sleeping bags give you an option to sleep and save your progress in suitable locations far enough from dungeons, settlements, and points of interest.

  Sleeping this way is rather uncomfortable and doesn’t provide the benefits of resting in an actual bed: you’ll suffer a penalty to Health Restoration, won’t replenish Morale and Sanity, and won’t receive the Vigor effect. Additionally, there’s always a distinct possibility of being ambushed by brigands or wild animals that can stumble onto you while you’re asleep…

  Investing into this skill is completely optional, and it is possible to purchase sleeping bags from some traders. Still, being able to craft them yourself will save you money and inventory space – it’s fairly easy to find the required items while exploring, and the materials themselves don’t take as much space as an actual sleeping bag.

• “Cauterize Wounds” is great for emergencies: this skill allows you to instantly stop all Bleedings, suffering some Pain and slightly damaging affected body parts in the process. Using this skill will also temporarily increase your Bleed Resistance. This bonus becomes stronger and has a longer duration if there’s a lit campfire nearby.
• “First Aid” teaches your character the procedures necessary to set a dislocated limb or clean a wound without outside help. This skill stabilizes all your Injuries, but raises Pain and reduces Morale. If there’s a lit campfire nearby, this skill slightly improves the condition of Injured body parts.
• “Will to Survive” replenishes a small amount of Health and removes all physical and mental debuffs. This skill also affects persistent Conditions (effects caused by Hunger, Thirst, Pain, Injuries, etc), removing them for 10 turns.

  If there’s a lit campfire nearby, using this skill additionally replenishes some Health for every removed negative effect.

Passive Abilities

• “Pathfinder” improves the “Examine Surroundings” basic skill, granting it new functionality. Firstly, when used on the surface, it allows you to spot tracks left by beasts and other enemy types, making it much easier to locate them on the map tile.

  Secondly, “Examine Surrounding” lets your character to closely listen to what’s happening around them, displaying hidden creatures as question marks in a large radius. This skill works in dungeons as well, allowing you to better prepare for dangers that lurk behind closed doors.

  And finally, “Pathfinder” greatly increases your character’s passive chance to hear nearby creatures.

  Passive bonus: +1 Vision

• “Huntmaster” significantly improves the chance to successfully harvest a pelt. In addition to this bonus, it allows your character to extract rare ingredients that can later be sold at a high price (in the future they will have alchemical uses). Right now there are three rare ingredients: Bear Fat, Crawler Eyes, and Harpy Stomachs.

  “Huntmaster” also grants your attacks +15% Weapon Damage and 10% Crit Chance when fighting beasts. As a side note, the Ancient Troll counts as a beast.

  Passive bonus: +3% Accuracy

• “Adaptability” is a skill for those who want to shrug off anything that life throws at them. It passively improves the rate at which you recover from Pain and Intoxication, decreases the duration of Poisonings, Bad Trips, and Drug Aftermaths, while also removing Restoration penalties when using a sleeping bag. Other than that, “Adaptability” improves your Morale when resting near lit campfires.

  Passive bonus: +10% Fortitude and 10% Intoxication Resistance

• “Austerity” makes your character less reliant on food and water, raising the thresholds for negative Conditions caused by Hunger, Thirst, and Pain by 10% (these Conditions will activate only upon reaching 35% / 60% / 85% thresholds rather than 25% / 50% / 75% ).

  This skill also decreases Hunger and Thirst gain by 20% and makes resting near campfires more beneficial, granting Healing Efficiency and restoring Sanity.

  Passive bonus: +15% Pain Resistance

• “Ever Vigilant” is perhaps the most “combat-oriented” skill of the Survival tree. Once learned, it lowers the Accuracy of enemy attacks by 5% and halves their Crit Chance (this is particularly useful when hunting bears).

  It also halves the chance of ambush when using a sleeping bag, doubles the chance of evading a trap instead of activating it, and reduces the Vision penalty while in the Rest Mode.

  Passive bonus: +5% Dodge Chance

That’s all for now. As mentioned above, the Survival tree will be added with the next intermediate patch, so you’ll soon have a chance to test it out for yourself!