Traits are a feature in Viking Conquest. At level 13 (and if day is after 21), depending on your skill choices, you can receive one of four possible traits. Use the T key to activate your trait on the battlefield (as that is the only place where they matter).
Berserker[]
Going berserk will give you momentary improved speed and strength in the heat of the battle. This brutal ferocity will make your vision turn red.
Effect: +25% damage, +10% movement speed bonus, -50% accuracy, -50% reload penalties Shortly afterwards you become exhausted receiving -40% damage and -30% movement speed penalties until recovery. The effect is for the player only and for a limited time.
How to obtain: Power Strike is greater than or equal to Leadership, Athletics, and Ironflesh.
Inspiring[]
This acquired skill will increase your leadership in battle as your war cries strengthen the fierceness of your men in combat.
Effect: +5% damage bonus to entire player army and any allies; contrary to past online speculation, it does not affect morale
How to obtain: Leadership is greater than Power Strike, and Leadership is greater than or equal to Athletics and Ironflesh.
Tough[]
This skill will make your troops move faster and increase their agility in the battle.
Effect: +10% movement speed to entire player army and any allies; like the speed bonus from Agility, this does NOT increase attack speed
How to obtain: Athletics is greater than Power Strike and Leadership, and Athletics is greater than or equal to Ironflesh.
Strong[]
Your preoccupation with the maintenance of your men's shields and armors will make it harder for the enemy to wound them.
Effect: -5% damage penalty to entire enemy army
How to obtain: Ironflesh is greater than Power Strike, Athletics, and Leadership.
Considerations[]
Skill values can be altered after obtaining the trait. The trait is not lost or changed after obtaining it. Armor penalties will impact trait selection so plan accordingly.
Your trait should be highly considered when min-maxing a character. Some character designs may not be able to fully utilize a trait to capitalize on its benefits.
Traits are not to be confused with Special Traits.
Tactics and Usefulness[]
Press T to activate your Trait at the start of a battle. Trait activation will interrupt troops that are moving and fighting for a very brief moment. Trait activation will only apply to troops currently present on the battlefield. Activate your Trait again after ally/enemy reinforcements appear. Activate your Trait again after the enemy lord activates his Trait. You will be notified visually in the log when the enemy lord activates his Trait. Activation of player Trait after may negate an enemy lord's Trait specifically in reference to Strong vs. AI Warcry.
By far Strong seems to be the best as a golden Viking Conquest rule is to keep your troops alive, as no damage is done if the troop is dead. Strong excels at keeping heavily armored troops alive because of how damage and armor calculations function. This can be demonstrated when wearing very heavy armor yourself and taking almost no damage from weaker troops and projectiles. The benefits of strong will be much less noticeable for lightly armor troops. The player army will likely consist of many heavily armored troops while the AI army will be a mix of light to medium armored targets with a few heavily armored targets.
Inspiring is considered the second best Trait, and is arguably the best Trait. Inspiring excels for ranged troops and killing lightly armored troops. Inspiring can significantly increase throwing weapon damage. The damage values on ranged weapons is very low for troops except for the Pictish crossbow. Bows take significant investment into power draw and proficiency to do good damage. Troops do not meet that level of investment. Inspiring can ensure weaker ranged troops are still doing some damage. This is especially noticeable with sling wielding skirmishers such as the Sailor. Inspiring can also assist weaker infantry troops in dealing more consistent damage to heavily armored targets.
Tough excels for the highly tactical player on the open battlefield. Increased movement speed allows the player to command troops with more precision, to initiate charges, and retreats more effectively. It will allow you to reposition your shield wall to protect weaker ranged troops or light infantry from a shield wall advance or cavalry charge. It will allow you to quickly dispatch cavalry onto lightly armored ranged units firing at your shield wall. It will allow you to reposition your ranged units to higher ground or behind the enemy shield wall. Movement speed technically has an indirect impact on damage and damage mitigation, though a unit charging head first to his death can make this movement speed bonus work in the opponents favor. A unit that is moving away from strikes and moving toward while striking will capitalize the most. Some units will naturally fight this way on their own, though usually not in shield wall formation. Advance ten paces then fall back ten paces to strike then retreat. All of the positive aspects of Tough shine on the field, but Tough is practically useless in sieges.
Beserker is the least impactful Trait as it only effects the player instead of the entire army. The player will have plenty of damage with even moderate Power Strike and 200+ proficiency. All player ranged attacks will become useless for the duration except for wildly and blindly throwing javelins into a shield wall or crowd. Beserker is also a major liability to the player if activated at the wrong time making it the most difficult Trait to use effectively. Beserker is a challenging and high learning curve Trait for a roleplay experience instead of a flat bonus. That said, a heavily armored Beserker on a horse with a long spear, axe, or throwing weapons operated by a highly skilled player could potentially make the most of Beserker by charging in solo or with other Beserker units while the main army is told to hold position. For the duration, the Beserker will need to seek out heavily armored priority targets, especially the enemy lord. The goal here is to thin out the enemy shield wall ranks and crush their morale before initiating the main fight. Keep in mind that as you start poking the enemy, they are likely to begin their advance on your troops. Timing will be crucial for effective implementation due to inevitable exhaustion. Your horse is likely to die so an escape plan is warranted. The Beserker will benefit from an axe and throwing weapons for their bonuses against shields. The major justification for this high amount of damage is to instantly break enemy shields and one shot top tier troops. Only at the highest level of Power Draw and Archery proficiency might the bow become destructive with Beserker active while blindly firing into crowds. Even with all of this effort specifically dedicated to trying to make the most of Berserker, the flat damage bonus from Inspiring or flat movement speed bonus from Tough with no penalties empowering the entire player army will likely serve the player better.