Character Skill Tree

The skill tree turns every level past the first into one point to spend across four doctrines and twelve branches, five ranks deep, with no credits and no cooldown standing between a build and a respec.

Every point spent is a choice about the commander you are becoming.

Four Doctrines, Twelve Branches

Warfare sharpens the hulls that fight: Gunnery Doctrine raises fire, Ablative Armor and Aegis Lattice each raise durability, Target Lock raises the chance a hit crits, and Overcharged Ordnance raises how hard a crit lands. Industry grows the hulls that work: Freight Mastery widens cargo capacity, Hardened Plating and Reinforced Bulkheads raise durability on a miner or a hauler. Endurance touches every hull you fly regardless of role: Shield Capacitor speeds shield regeneration, and Evasive Maneuvers gives a flat chance to dodge an incoming volley outright, armed or not. Commerce never touches a ship at all: Hard Haggling shaves what you pay at any station's counter, Sharp Brokerage raises what your cargo, salvage and resold hulls fetch.

A branch only ever pays out on the hulls its doctrine covers. Warfare bonuses do nothing for an unarmed miner, and Industry bonuses do nothing for a gunship: the game reads what a ship actually is from its own stats, never from a choice you make. See Combat for what Warfare's stats do in a fight, and Extraction for the mining hulls Industry grows.

Ranks and the Cost Ladder

Every branch has five ranks, and each one costs more than the last: 1, 3, 6, 10 and 15 points cumulative to hold all five. Maxing all twelve branches costs 180 points in total, which is why most commanders spend their whole career spreading points across several branches rather than driving one to its ceiling. Bonuses apply to every ship you already own the moment you buy a rank, and to every ship you buy, earn or start with afterwards.

Give a Rank Back, or Reset Everything

The ladder itself is the control: click the next rank to buy it, click the top rank you hold to hand it back for exactly what it cost. Only the highest rank of a branch can be given back, so a ladder never grows a hole partway down. A full Reset clears every branch at once and refunds every point you have ever spent. Both paths are free, unlimited and instant, so trying a different build never costs more than the time it takes to click.

By the Numbers

Doctrines - 4
Branches - 12
Ranks per branch - 5
Points to max one branch - 15
Points to max the whole tree - 180
Skill points earned - 1 per level, starting at level 2

Your first skill point arrives at level 2. Everything after that is a choice, not a grind.