Skills (Bannerlord)

Skills are a concept in Bannerlord which control the different aspects of the player character and other troops.

Characters and Troops have a number of skills that grant passive bonuses and unlock the ability to choose perks. Skills increase with practice. The rate of increase depends on the number of focus points invested in the skill, and attribute points invested into the skills respective category. Every 25 levels various perks will become available that grant additional special benefits.

The current soft cap for skills is 330 with 10 attribute points and 5 focus points. It is possible to reach a higher number by gaining a single instance of high XP (eg. trading for a very large profit), by cheating or using mods that increase the minimum skill gain. The hard cap is 1023.

Improving Skills

List of all currently working ways to increase skills:

Vigor	One Handed Doing damage with a one-handed weapon in actual combat only	Two Handed Doing damage with a two-handed weapon in actual combat only	Polearms Doing damage with a polearm weapon in actual combat only
Control	Bow Doing damage with a bow in actual combat only	Crossbow Doing damage with a crossbow in actual combat only	Throwing Doing damage with a throwing weapon in actual combat only Increases a lot when throwing stones and pots of wildfire in a siege
Endurance	Riding Doing damage while mounted in actual combat Moving on the map while mounted	Athletics Doing damage while on foot in actual combat Moving on the map while on foot	Crafting All smithing actions Refining Smithing Smelting
Cunning	Scouting Have the clan role "Scout" and move around on the map Be a party leader and have no Scout while going through difficult terrains or spotting hideouts	Tactics Simulating battles Win battles with bad odds Run around with an army of several nobles Send people to cover your retreat To be confirmed: When you send out your troops	Roguery Raiding villages (seems to be broken) Selling captured enemies at tavern Breaking nobles out of prison
Social	Charm Release lords after battle Help lords to win battles Any relation improvement with lords seem to add charm XP Any successful barter (Trading nothing does reward XP)	Leadership Assemble an army, and use it Raise party morale (not simply maintain it)	Trade Buy and sell goods according to their rumors
Intelligence	Steward Owning a town Have the clan role "Quartermaster" and make sure your party is happy and paid. High food diversity is a must The check/increase happens at when you pay your troops each day	Medicine Have the clan role "Surgeon" and have wounded party members Be a party leader and have no surgeon and wounded soldiers Party members go down during combat (and you're the surgeon or no surgeon is assigned)	Engineering Build a siege camp Build siege engines Attain kills with siege equipment

Faster Levelling Method

One Handed: EXP is based on damage dealt, especially for overkill damage. Sprint on a horse for maximum speed. Forging high damage weapons helps.

Two Handed: Same as One Handed.

Polearm: Same as One Handed.

Bow: Shoot enemies on horseback, ideally headshot from afar

Crossbow: Same as bow

Throwing: Same as bow

Riding: Use ranged weapons on horseback

Athletics: Participate in combat (battles, tournaments) while on foot.

Crafting: Smith things that's high DPS, crafting harpoon head javelin with mahogany (if you've learned it already) seems to be the most cost-effective. Completing Orders are also more effective than not, Two-Handed Sword Orders can give 5+ levels in a single craft.

Scouting: Spot hideouts or other parties on the world map. Traveling through forest seems to be effective. But, even then it's still too slow. It appears that once your scouting reach a medium high level (around 80-100?), the skill levels up pretty fast just by traveling around.

Tactics: Give useful orders on battle area. This seems to gain experience based on your troops.

Roguery: Pillage caravans and sneak the towns. Best experience gains are from prison breaks.

Charm:

- Get into a faction/found a kingdom, and then vote for things, especially voting for a fief.

- Successfully barter with nobles, bartering is limited when the nobles is staying in town/castle

- When grinding smithing, you can sell your excess to nobility that you encounter on the map.

- Donate noble prisoners, the higher the prisoner's status, e.g. rulers or high tier clan leaders, the greater the relation/charm reward.

- Successfully convince nobles to join your side.

Leadership:

- Assemble army as large as you can and lead it.

- Recruit base-level troops and level them via the upgrade menu. You can leave higher-tiers in garrisons/other parties to repeat this as many times as needed.

Trade: Trade lots of goods - trade goods like horses and wool/flax/foods/etc. give higher bonuses to XP. Trade the maximum quantity you can afford to, for the most XP per trade. You will often get 5XP or more for big trades. High profit = high XP. Especially Aserai Horses around Askar.

Steward: Assign yourself or a party member to the quartermaster roll, assign a governor or stay in your settlement. This skill gains experience based on the number of troops and the moral bonus granted by multiple types of food. Have a large party with all available types of food for best results.

Medicine: Assign yourself as a surgeon. If you have fief, recruit disposable soldiers, store all food in the fief stash, wait on the field to starve your army, after everyone is wounded, return to fief to recover food and health. Probably the best method, but still ultra grindy. This method also can damage your traits so use sparingly.

Engineering: Upgrade fiefs and build siege machines. This gains experience best through the damage your siege engines do in a siege on the campaign screen before starting the battle. A long siege with lots of damage to enemy engines or walls works best.

Levelling NPCs' skills

All skills: having your companions do quests. It's not a very good source of XP overall but can help level up problematic skills like Charm, Roguery or Trade.

One Handed/Two Handed/Polearm/Bow/Crossbow/Throwing/Riding/Athletics - actively participating in combat.

Smithing: same as the main character - crafting the most expensive weapons.

Scouting: same as the main character.

Tactics: leading their own parties and fighting enemies on the world map. Also leading troops in battle while a part of the main character's army and the mc is knocked out.

Roguery: leading their own parties, capturing and selling prisoners in towns (can be done as a part of the main character's army).

Charm: Leave your companion as an Emissary in a town. With a small daily chance (roughly between 1% and 8.5%, depending on Charm skill) they will increase relations with a lord or a notable by 5 and gain Charm XP for it. Governors can do that too, although it's generally slower. NPCs cannot gain Charm XP for completing Smithing orders (even if they have Experienced Smith or Steel Maker 3 perks).

Leadership: getting XP for kills done by their units in combat when a part of the main character's army. Also getting XP for recruiting & upgrading units as party leaders.

Trade: leading caravans. You can also barter with family members while they lead their own parties and you're a part of a kingdom and give them a lot of expensive items for free. After they sell those items at a town, they will get a lot of Trade XP.

Steward/Medicine/Engineering: same as the main character, whether as party leaders or as main character's quartermaster/surgeon/engineer.

Learning Limit and Maximum Skill Level

The learning limit is a soft cap on how high a skill can be leveled. Beyond the learning limit skills will upgrade more slowly.

The skill limit increases by 30 for every focus point invested and by 10 for every attribute point in the relevant category, although the first attribute point is excluded. i.e.

$Learning Limit = Focus Points * 30 + (Attribute Points - 1)*10$

The maximum level a skill can reach is given by:

$Max Level = 4 + (Attribute Points - 1)*14 + Focus Points*40$