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The best skills in Rise of the Ronin

Jesse Lennox
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While you do pick a starting class of sorts in Rise of the Ronin, that doesn’t lock you out of using any of the game’s numerous weapons or abilities. That initial choice simply determines your starting stats and skills, and you can still freely mold your ronin’s proficiencies with as much detail as you can their appearance. Previous Team Ninja games have had some less-than-friendly UIs for their leveling system, and while it is much better here, it is still quite overwhelming. You have multiple branches of skills spread across the four main categories, plus most skills can be leveled up more than once. If you’re ready to learn the ways of the samurai, enter our dojo to learn which skills are the best.

The best skills in Rise of the Ronin

Skills are broken down into the Strength, Dexterity, Charm, and Intellect branches. Some skills just require normal skill points, while others must be unlocked using that section’s specific skill points.

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Best Intellect skills

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

A major part of the time period of Rise of the Ronin involves the introduction of outside influences on Japan, with firearms being one of the biggest disruptors. Along with your katanas and bows, handguns and rifles can be equipped and used in fights. The Handgun Critical Hit gives you a second option when you deplete an enemy’s ki 9basically a stamina and stagger bar). Instead of doing a powerful melee attack with whatever weapon you have, you can pull the left trigger to deal an even stronger finishing move with your pistol. It’s flashy and deadly.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

It doesn’t make a lot of business sense, but some shops are hiding their most valuable wears. The only way to get the full scope of what’s on offer is to invest in the Discernment skill. This opens up a lot more chances to buy stronger gear and consumables that are normally hard to come across.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Medicinal pills are your estus flasks of Rise of the Ronin, but these temporary buffs are crazy powerful if you utilize them right. Craft Bolstering Medicine opens up the option to use all those materials you have to make items that buff your strength, endurance, and ki. These last a decent amount of time, plus don’t cost a lot to make, so you won’t feel like you wasted one if you die.

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Best Charm skills

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Your main character is mostly silent during the game, but there are quite a lot of dialogue choices that pop up in both the main and side missions. Early on, you will notice that several options are locked behind specific skills, including “lie.” Of all the speech options, we like lie the best because it can be used to get into or out of trouble depending on the situation and is just fun to see what you can get away with.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

A lone ronin like yourself is going to be doing a lot of killing and a lot of shopping for better gear. Coins aren’t hard to come by, but tend to be doled out in small increments when you’re paid for clearing even a group of foes. Each level of this skill gives a substantial boost to the percentage of cash you get for all that killing you have to do anyway.

Best Dexterity skills

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Dexterity skills focus on the more stealthy and ninja-focused skills. Quietness is a little vague, but essentially makes your footsteps silent when moving. You will still need to crouch when you get really close to enemies, but only if they’re not isolated and someone else would notice. If not, you can walk right up behind them and get an easy and fast assassination.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Most skill trees have at least one level of Refill in there, so pick whichever you can reach faster. Or better yet, target all of them. Refill simply increases how many medicinal pills you start out with when hitting a checkpoint or reviving after death. Three is a pitiful amount to start with, so make it a priority to get at least one or two levels in these skills to have some breathing room in battle.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Getting ganged up on in Rise of the Ronin kind of breaks the combat in a way. You’re not equipped to take on three, four, five, or more enemies at once, so in some ways it makes sense. That’s why a big emphasis is put on stealth and thinning out enemy numbers before going loud. Your normal stealth attack is fine, but always leaves you exposed afterward. If you grab the Rope Assassination skill, you can stalk the rooftops and pull a Spider-Man by yanking an unsuspecting enemy up to their death without anyone else being the wiser.

Best Strength skills

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

Weapon proficiency is vital if you intend on taking on the tougher missions and difficulty levels of the game. Odds are you will want to experiment with a bunch of different weapon types at first, so grabbing this skill early will let you get a feel for which weapons you like. You can then start grinding out their proficiency levels as fast as possible.

The skill tree in Rise of the Ronin.
Team Ninja

We’ve all reached that moment where we just want to get through the trash mobs and get to the real challenging enemies. No matter how weak they may be, you always need to go through the routine of attacking, parrying, and chopping down an enemy (or stealthing them slowly) to get by. Not with Killer Blade, though. So long as that enemy can be taken down with a critical hit, you only need to approach them and hold triangle to not only strike them down in a single strike, but also cause any other enemy around to cower in fear.

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Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
The best skills for each Vocation in Dragon’s Dogma 2
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As you level up your Vocations and character in Dragon's Dogma 2, you will earn XP and Dcp. The former will contribute to you leveling up and passively getting stronger, while the latter needs to be spent on unlocking new skills for your current Vocation. There are 10 total Vocations you can eventually unlock and use, and each one has a dozen or more skills to unlock and test out, and yet you can only use four at any given time. That's a lot of possible skills to try out and potentially waste your DCP on. Instead, we'll help you min-max your build right from the start by recommending the best skills you should get for each and every Vocation in the game.
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The best skill will vary for each Vocation based on what role they are most suited to in combat. Some skills can be upgraded to better versions as you level up your Vocation, so check back in the skills menu every so often to make sure you're using the best version available.
Fighter
Airward Slash -- Fighters are limited in range, but Airward Slash gives you an option to at least attempt to attack flying enemies with this leaping strike.

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Believe it or not, your Arisen in Dragon's Dogma 2 is very skilled at crafting. We're not talking about building structures, tools, or weapons, but item crafting. By combining specific pairs of ingredients in your inventory, you can produce some extremely potent consumables. As you will discover for yourself on your first long trip across the land, there are a ton of materials to discover, leading to hundreds or thousands of possible combinations. Knowing what items are best saved to make something special can save you from having to scour the world looking for more or struggling without it. Here are the best recipes that not even the best pawns will tell you about.
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Salburious Drought
This green liquid will be your most common healing item in Dragon's Dogma 2 and also the item you will probably craft first. It probably has the most possible combinations of ingredients to make and will always be a more effective way to get the most healing out of any individual ingredients. If you have a Greenwarish and combine it with almost any fruit, you can whip this tonic up.
Detoxifying Decoction
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Exquisite Dried Spud
Stamina regenerates naturally, so you may not think an item that replenishes it would be all that important. Ask yourself that when you're clinging to the back of a Griffen 100 feet above the ground and your grip is slipping. Pop an Exquisite Dried Spud to keep climbing or running in those touchy moments. Just smash two Ripened Princess Harspuds together to make it.
Mighty Robrant
For a more flavorful and alternative healing item, the Mighty Robrant will be able to take you from close to death to full HP for the majority of the game. This is a second-level item made by first crafting a Fruit Robrant and then combining that with Cinnamon Bark.
Miracle Robrant
The ultimate consumable that you can make is the Miracle Robrant. This will heal a massive amount of HP and refill your stamina all in one. These take a bit more work to get, so save them for emergencies. Make one with any Fine Robrant and a Saurian's Tail.
Bunch of Flowers
Finally, make a nice gift for someone with a Bunch of Flowers to earn some favor. You can give gifts to almost any important character in the game, and while not all will like flowers, a good deal will, and they're free to make. We craft ours out of Sunbloom and Noonblooms, but most flower combinations will do the job.

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A ronin near a cat on a roof in Rise of the Ronin.

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Talismanic Arrow

The Talismanic Arrow's main buff is related to how much Karma you gain for everything you do in Rise of the Ronin. Because Karma is cashed in for skill points, it goes without saying that you will want to build up as much as possible. Early versions will give you low percentage increases, but when you consider how much Karam you get all the time, it adds up fast. The extra perks that come with it are less important but may end up helping your build as well.
Calabash Gourd

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