How the Skill Tree Opens
The Skill Tree sits in the lobby’s left menu and is available from Level 1, so nothing has to be unlocked first. The loop is short:
- Open Skill Tree in the left menu.
- Select the weapon you actually main.
- Read the token cost written on the next node.
- Press Buy to take it.
No NPC, quest or level gate stands between you and the first node. The cost is tokens, and tokens come from leveling and from using the weapon in runs.
The Four Branches and What Each Stage Pays
Three separately published guides carry this table and agree on every value, so treat it as the current consensus rather than one writer’s sample.
| Tokens spent | Attack | Critical | Defense | Speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Starting node | No bonus | No bonus | No bonus | No bonus |
| 1 | +15% attack damage | +3% critical hit chance | Take 5% less damage | Move 5% faster |
| 5 | +25% attack damage | +6% critical hit chance | Take 10% less damage | Move 10% faster |
| 9 | +40% attack damage | +10% critical hit chance | Take 15% less damage | Move 15% faster |
| 11 | +60% attack damage | +15% critical hit chance | Take 25% less damage | Move 25% faster |
The token column is the running total needed to reach that stage, not a per-node price: the last stage of a branch is reached at 11 tokens spent in that branch. Two of the three guides make the same point in their own words — do not add the stages together to work out the bonus your build is wearing. Read the selected node’s own value in the menu.
Which Branch to Buy First
- Attack first. It raises damage on every weapon and needs nothing else in the build to pay off.
- Critical second, while you are under the cap. The account cap is 60% crit chance, so crit nodes bought past it change nothing. Check your total in the stat panel first; the 4-slot build guide covers the caps next to accessory choices.
- Defense earlier only if hits are ending runs. The branch pays out in damage taken, so it changes how long a fight can last rather than how fast it ends.
- Speed last for most accounts. It buys movement to spawns and out of attacks, which is a farming gain more than a damage gain.
Spend node by node rather than resetting your loadout between attempts: if you change weapon, accessory and nodes at once, the next run cannot tell you which change worked.
Every Weapon Buys Its Own Tree
Tokens spent on one weapon do not carry to the next, and a new weapon starts with its own untouched tree. That is the reason to pick a main early instead of spreading nodes across every pull, and the reason a freshly pulled weapon can feel weaker than the one it replaced at the same account level. Keep the upgraded weapon available while you build the next one rather than emptying your loadout.
What No Source Settles
- Per-node prices. The published trees give the running threshold at each stage (1, 5, 9, 11) and never state what an individual node costs, so a path that skips a node has no published price. Read it on the node.
- Whether the stages are cumulative or replacements. The listed numbers read as the value of that stage, not as a sum of the previous ones, and the guides say so — but none of them shows the in-game total for a fully bought branch.
- Whether every rarity follows this table. The three published trees describe the branching by stat only. No source separates Arcane, Mythic or Lyth weapons, and the newer Trials class kits have no published tree at all yet.
- How defense stacks with accessory defense. Whether the branch percentage and accessory values add or multiply is unpublished, which matters if you are building purely around survivability.