Rise of the Ronin: Best skills Rise of the Ronin guide, tips

Some skills from the game Rise of the Ronin are particularly useful and worth having regardless of the weapons and fighting style used. On this page of the guide you will find a list of recommended skills to purchase.

Last update: 17 April 2024

There are dozens of different skills to unlock in Rise of the Ronin, but not all of them are equally helpful or worthwhile. On this page of our guide, we provide a list of recommended skills that should be learned and unlocked regardless of the chosen build or preferred melee weapons. We also discuss the skills from the Breakthrough tree, which is unlocked once you complete the main story.

• Repel Arrows/Bullets Counterspark (Strength)
• Refill Medicinal Pills (in more than one tree)
• Ki Attack Counterspark (Strength)
• Rapid Critical Hits (Strength)
• Increased Critical Hit Damage (Strength)
• Ki Recovery Critical Hit (Strength)
• Auto-Life Recovery (Out of Battle) (Strength)
• Max. Health (Strength)
• Speechcraft Intimidate (Strength)
• Flash Attack (Strength)
• Weapon Proficiency Acquisition (Strength)
• Martial Skill Overall Attack (Strength)
• Enemy Evasion (Dexterity)
• Quietness Moving (Dexterity)
• Rapid Assassinations (Dexterity)
• Grappling Rope Jump Attack (Dexterity)
• Grappling Rope Throw (Dexterity)
• Headshot Attack (Dexterity)
• Ki Recovery Blade Flash (Charm)
• Additional Items (Charm)
• Combined Critical Hit (Charm)
• Upgraded Allies (Charm)
• Health Recovery Wave Allies (Charm)
• Ki Blaze Gauge (Charm)
• Bond Acquisition (Charm)
• Speechcraft Liar (Charm)
• Pickpocket (Charm)
• Karma Acquisition (Charm)
• Increased Aid Recovery (Intellect)
• Increased Efficacy Medicine (Intellect)
• Upgraded Performance (Intellect)
• Dodging Shot (Intellect)
• Refill (Intellect)
• Speechcraft Persuade (Intellect)
• Breakthrough Tree

Repel Arrows/Bullets Counterspark (Strength)

This skill allows you to reflect fired projectiles back at the enemies that fired them. Additionally, the weapon you used to reflect the projectile may be temporarily imbued with a positive status, e.g. be set on fire and deal fire damage.

Refill Medicinal Pills (in more than one tree)

There is a skill of this type and name on each tree from the 4 available. Each purchase of this skill increases the limit of carried Medicinal Pills by 1. This will allow you to have an additional healing charge at the ready during combat, which will be very helpful when facing the toughest bosses.

Ki Attack Counterspark (Strength)

Each purchased level of this skill increases the dealt Ki damage after a successful Counterspark. Thanks to this, you can charge the panic bar faster, which when full allows you to fire a critical hit.

Rapid Critical Hits (Strength)

This ability allows series of critical hits to be fired against enemies that have run out of Ki. This will result in faster elimination of them.

Increased Critical Hit Damage (Strength)

Each level of this skill increases the damage dealt by a critical hit. This is especially helpful when facing bosses and elite enemies that may withstand a standard critical hit.

Ki Recovery Critical Hit (Strength)

With this skill bought, you'll be able to regenerate your Ki bar much faster, as from now on critical hits will charge it up. This will reduce the risk of a situation where you're suddenly vulnerable after depleting the entire Ki bar.

Auto-Life Recovery (Out of Battle) (Strength)

This is a crucial skill and make sure to buy it at the very beginning of the game if your Blade Sharpening Origin didn't have it learned from the start. Thanks to it, your health will replenish automatically between fights and this will allow you to save a lot of Medicinal Pills and other healing items.

Max. Health (Strength)

This is a group of passive skills that increase your maximum health capacity permanently. This will give your character more survivability.

Speechcraft Intimidate (Strength)

This skill will allow you to use Intimidation during selected conversations, which may result in the hero avoiding a fight or receiving an additional reward. Additionally, during fights, fear status applied on enemies may have a longer duration.

Flash Attack (Strength)

Each level of this skill increases the damage from fast attacks. You'll feel the boost practically in any fight.

Weapon Proficiency Acquisition (Strength)

Every purchased level accelerates proficiency gain of weapons by a few percent. This is very useful when attempting to get rewards associated with reaching new weapon proficiency levels.

Martial Skill Overall Attack (Strength)

This skill increases the damage and Ki damage of used combat skills. This is very helpful, because combat skills are one of the main ways of hurting enemies.

Enemy Evasion (Dexterity)

Every bought level of this skill increases your chances of evading enemies after being detected. This may prove helpful when being detected by strong enemies which you want to avoid instead of fighting.

Quietness Moving (Dexterity)

This is a skill useful when attempting to sneak - less noise will be generated from the hero's movements.

Rapid Assassinations (Dexterity)

The skill allows you to silently kill 2 enemies standing close to each other in one animation. This may prove to be handy when attempting to silently clear an area from enemies.

Grappling Rope Jump Attack (Dexterity)

This skill adds new moves when using the Grappling Rope in combat. From now on, you can jump on enemies to instantly get closer to them.

Grappling Rope Throw (Dexterity)

With this skill, you can grab enemies that run out of Ki with the Grappling Rope and throw them.

Headshot Attack (Dexterity)

This one of several skills related to bow usage. Your headshots will deal more damage. The fear effect appearing in remaining enemies resulting from the headshot will also last longer.

Ki Recovery Blade Flash (Charm)

Each level of this skill will allow you to replenish more Ki after a Blade Flash. This is the main way of replenishing Ki and you should use this ability in combat as often as you can.

Additional Items (Charm)

There are several skills of this type in the tree and you should consider unlocking at least some of them. For example, you may find more coins and items (for further use or to sell)

Combined Critical Hit (Charm)

This skill will be useful in missions where you're accompanied by 2 allies (creating a 3-man team). Your ally can fire his own critical hit after yours, thus killing or damaging the enemy even more.

Upgraded Allies (Charm)

Each level of this skill lowers the damage received by inactive allies. Additionally, the damage they inflict is increased. This means that they have an increased survivability and will help you more when fighting opponents.

Health Recovery Wave Allies (Charm)

This skill will restore a portion of your allies' health when the main hero uses a healing item. Further levels of the skill enhance this effect.

Ki Blaze Gauge (Charm)

Each level of this skill accelerates the charging of Ki Blaze gauge. This will allow you to use this useful status that increases the damage dealt of your attacks temporarily (Ki Blaze is unlocked in the course of the main story at the end of Act 1).

Bond Acquisition (Charm)

Further levels of this skill improve the speed at which Bonds are created - with other characters or areas. You'll advance to new bond levels faster and receive corresponding rewards (e.g. free items, skill points).

Speechcraft Liar (Charm)

This skill allows to lie during selected conversations, which may result in the hero avoiding an imminent battle or receiving an additional reward. Additionally, during fights, panic status applied on enemies may have a longer duration.

Pickpocket (Charm)

The first level of this skill unlocks pickpocketing, but you can only use it on selected characters - you'll know you can perform this action when the R1 button prompt appears when near an NPC. You can further improve this skill to reach level 2 of it, which results in more coins received for a successful pickpocket.

Karma Acquisition (Charm)

Each level of this skill increases the amount of karma gained. More karma means more skill points and faster development of the hero.

Increased Aid Recovery (Intellect)

Each level of this skill increases the amount of health that is replenished after helping a knocked-down ally up. This way, they will be able to survive more after returning to their feet.

Increased Efficacy Medicine (Intellect)

Each level of this skill increased the health gain with each use of Medicine. This may be beneficial, if, for example, you don't have a large supply at the moment or use them often.

Upgraded Performance (Intellect)

This is one of several skills related to rifle usage. With the upgrade, the projectiles fired from the rifle fly faster and deal more damage to struck opponents. Additionally, aiming with the rifle will be easier.

Dodging Shot (Intellect)

Thanks to this skill, you can fire your revolver (L2) at the moment of dodging. There is a high chance that the enemy will be stopped in his tracks same as if you've used a Counterspark.

Refill (Intellect)

This is one of the skills associated with revolvers. You will carry more ammo, which will be useful mainly when facing bosses to stop their attacks.

Speechcraft Persuade (Intellect)

This skill allows to use persuasion during selected conversations (e.g. avoiding an imminent battle or receiving an additional reward. Moreover, you'll get better buy and sell prices with merchants.

Breakthrough Tree

Breakthrough tree is unlocked once you've completed the main story. There are new combat styles and passive skills here, some of them having as many as 15 proficiency levels. We recommend taking an interest in the following skills:

1. Learning Mumyo Kaishin-ryu - this new combat style offers new moves for each weapon you regularly use.
2. Max. health - buy further levels to increase the maximum health capacity of the hero.
3. Defence - each level bought will result in the hero receiving less damage from enemy attacks.
4. Secondary Attack - this skill will increase the ranged damage of Sub-weapons.
5. Poise - this skill lowers the Ki loss from enemy attacks.
6. Upgraded Allies - you can buy this skill to improve the statistics of allies that join you in certain missions. For example, their defense or damage dealt can be improved.