In Days Gone, the new game from Sony’s Bend Studio, upgrading your skills is essential to survival. But some players will wonder which skills should be acquired first, as the three separate skill trees are all quite large and not all skills help much early in the game. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered with our recommendations for the first five skills you should upgrade in Days Gone.

What skills should I upgrade first?

As you level up in Days Gone, a selection of skills open up with each new skill level. You obtain skill levels by gaining the experience gathered from missions and in combat. But not all skills are equally useful, and some skill trees should be prioritized before others. Personally, I think Ranged combat should be the initial focus. Melee combat should be the second priority, and then survival skills last: upgrade what you think you need in survival, but don’t focus on it when you start out. Here are the top five skills you should upgrade first. Three are for ranged combat, one from the melee skill tree, and one from survival.

Skill one: Focused Shot

Focused Shot should absolutely be the first skill you obtain in Days Gone. It gives you the ability to slow down time for a limited period in order to take a more precise aim. It also makes your aiming reticle smaller and makes your shots land on target more often. It’s absolutely essential for gunplay in Days Gone, and will give you a big leg up on hordes, marauders, and Rippers. But it’s not unlimited: your focus meter will start out small, with a few seconds of time to make your slowed-down shots. Luckily, you can upgrade your Focus meter with NERO injectors.

Skill two: Fight and Flight

Fight and Flight improves the accuracy of gunplay in Days Gone when you’re moving. This goes a long way to alleviate one of the biggest complaints about Days Gone’s combat: that the aiming doesn’t feel precise enough. Go ahead and upgrade Fight and Flight second, and you’ll notice a huge improvement in accuracy and responsiveness from guns in the game.

Skill three: Crowd Control

Crowd Control reduces the amount of time you have to wait on your Focused Shot ability to cooldown. This is a big help in any gunplay situation in Days Gone. It can be really stressful waiting for your Focus to recharge after you deplete it during a tense gunfight, and upgrading this skill will mean less time spent waiting and more time shooting.

Skill four: Escape Artist

Escape Artist gives you the opportunity to kill enemies after they grapple you. When you’re grappled by an enemy in Days Gone, a quick-time event will trigger that will have you ferociously mashing the square button to get out of the clutches of a blood-thirsty freaker or ferocious human marauder. But once you’ve acquired Escape Artist, there will be a second part to this quick-time event where you will have to press triangle at the exact moment you’re prompted to. If you get the timing right, you won’t just escape the enemy’s clutches, you’ll kill them too. It’s a great skill to have.

Skill five: Thorn In Your Side

This skill is one of the best early Survival skills in Days Gone. It gives you the ability to recover crossbow arrows from enemies that you’ve killed with a crossbow. There’s not much else to say here: it’s an essential skill for any crossbow user.

Thanks for checking out our guide on the first five skills you should unlock in Days Gone. I’ve also compiled a full list of all the skills available in Days Gone and their descriptions. You can find that below. Check out my full review of Days Gone here, and be sure to follow Spiel Times on social media for all the latest on Days Gone.

All skills in Days Gone

Melee skills

Level one:

Escape Artist: Kill smaller enemies after successfully escaping from a grapple.

Field Repairs: Ability to repair melee weapons with scrap.

Juice Up: Improves the initial recovery and duration of a Stamina Cocktail

Level two:

Hard Hitter: Increases the damage of both crafted and found melee weapons.

Busted Lip: Regenerates stamina for every melee kill.

Talk Shit, Get Hit: Ability to perform longer combos with melee weapons.

Level three:

Lightning Reflexes: Ability to roll quickly to recover from a knockdown.

Bull Rush: Ability to stun a normal human Enemy or Swarmer with a melee attack while sprinting.

The Reckoning: Gives melee weapons a chance for a critical takedown on humans, Swarmers, and Newts. Does not work with the Boot Knife.

Level four:

Just Roll With It: Drastically reduces stamina cost from rolling.

Rock On: Ability to stun weaker enemies by hitting them with a rock.
Home Run: Significantly increases the damage of both crafted and found melee weapons.

Level five:

Retribution: Increases the chance of a critical hit or takedown by 25%.

Switch It Up: Boot knife combos do twice the normal damage.

Executioner: Ability to stealth attack heavy Freakers. Also adds the ability to kill Heavy Freakers and large animals while escaping a Grapple.

Ranged skills

Level one:

Focused Shot: Ability to active Focus while aiming a ranged weapon.

Fight and Flight: Move and aim a ranged weapon with more precision.

Vicious Cycle: Ability to follow a melee attack with a ranged attack for massive damage

Level two:

Suppressing Fire: When in Focus, ranged weapons will have an increased power to stop weaker enemies

Crowd Control: Reduces the cooldown of Focus

Hyperfocus: Improves the initial recovery and duration of a Focus Cocktail

Level three:

On The Move: Ability to reload ranged weapon while sprinting

Iron Grip: Significantly reduces ranged weapon recoil

Nocked Up: Significantly increases crossbow bolt damage

Level four:

Under Pressure: No longer consume Focus when reloading a ranged weapon

Quick Reload: Reduces the reload times for ranged weapons

Deadshot: Increased ranged weapon accuracy

Level five:

Up The Ante: Increases ammo capacity for all ranged weapons

Two Birds, One Bullet: Increases projectile penetration for ranged weapons

Head Rush: Headshot kills recover health

Survival skills:

Level one:

Eye For Detail: Increases the time that icons display in Survival Vision

Hawkeyed: Plants are displayed on the Mini-map

Thorn In Your Side: Provides a chance to retrieve some bolts that have been fired from your crossbow

Level two:

Eagle-Eyed: Increases the range of Survival Vision

Thief In The Night: Generate less noise when moving or dropping

Green Thumb: Ability to gather double the plants when collecting them

Level three:

The Butcher: Increases the amount of meat gathered from animals

Catch Your Breath: Reduces cooldown on stamina recovery

Ear To The Ground: Outlines enemies in Survival Vision

Level four:

Monkey Wrench: Doubles the effectiveness of scrap while repairing the bike

Second Wind: Gives an extra burst of adrenaline when low on health

Carry That Weight: Increases inventory space for crafting components, traps, and throwables

Level five:

The Alchemist: Improves the initial recovery and duration of a Health Cocktail

Shape Up: Significantly increase stamina regeneration rates

Six Feet Over: Regain some stamina when taking damage