Skill points may come more freely in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora than they do in many other games, but that doesn’t mean spending your points wisely isn’t of the utmost importance.
Unlocking the correct skills in the correct order can be the difference between life and death, or the difference between gathering materials feeling like a breeze or a total headache. This guide will walk you through some of the best skills to pick up early on in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora any why you should be unlocking these ones.
Which skills should you unlock first in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora?
Be aware this list is subjective to a large degree—if there was an objective best choice in an RPG game, it really wouldn’t be fun. That said, some skills are more beneficial than others, and some stick out as must-haves regardless of your playstyle and build. My goal with this guide is not to tell you exactly how you must play Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, as there is no way you “must” play. Rather, I want to provide you with the skills I found myself frequently looking back on and thinking, “Wow, I’m glad I picked that up.”
Eye for Quality: Hunter
Finding mature animals is normally a complete pain, but this skill makes it streamlined. Mature animals are the fastest way to ensure you are getting Exquisite crafting materials, however, you normally have to inspect each animal individually to learn what age that animal is. With Eye for Quality, Mature animals are given an intense purple glow when viewed from any distance with Na’vi Senses, which allows you to immediately pick them out of a pack. Before I had this skill, I spent about 45 minutes searching for a mature Viperwolf. After picking it up, the same hunt took under five minutes.
Light Footed Hunter I and II: Hunter
If you are interested in using stealth in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, these are must-have skills. The first rank allows you to move quieter and faster while crouching, and the second rank causes you to make no noise at all—even when running. Without these skills, stealth feels damn near impossible in this game. After picking them up, it becomes pretty simple to take out an entire RDA oil site without being spotted.
Tactical Awareness: Warrior
Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of the Warrior tree. However, Tactical Awareness causes you to deal 15 percent more damage to Tagged enemies. How do you tag an enemy? You look at them while activating Na’vi Senses. In other words, it takes less than one second, and there is no limit to how many times you can do it. This skill really might as well just say “deal 15 percent more damage,” as it is beyond easy to constantly make sure all of your enemies are tagged. If you don’t get any other skills from the Warrior tree, get this one.
Larger Healing Pouch: Survivor
Survivor may have an awesome Apex Skill (a bonus life), but generally speaking, I don’t find the Health buffs in this tree worth it. The bonuses are great of course, as this is a hard game even on normal difficulty settings, it’s just the amount of Belsprigs on the map makes spending Skill Points on bonus health harder to justify. Go to any POI on the map, and it feels like there is a 75 percent chance you’re picking up a max health increase from it.
Larger Healing Pouch simply increases the amount of Dapophet Pods you can store from two to three, and a second rank later on allows you to carry four. Because Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a genuinely challenging game, storing some extra health items is invaluable, and will constantly save your life.
Best skill tree overall: Maker
Out of every skill tree in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, Maker is my pick for the absolute best. Why? Because of the Apex Skill you earn from unlocking all 12 Maker skills and completing the Apex Skill quest. Doing this unlocks Master Crafter, which massively increases the bonus effectiveness of all newly crafted weapons and gear.
After getting Master Crafter, I made an Armguard that was supposed to give me 150 Health. Instead, it granted 217 because of Master Crafter. Following this logic through all five gear slots, you can receive almost 300 extra health, which becomes more beneficial than any of the Health bonuses found in the Survivor tree. Crafting is already a huge part of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and leads to some of the best weapons and gear possible. Combine that with the Master Crafter skill, and you have an objectively more powerful character. This should be the first skill tree you rush to complete as soon as possible.
Other great skills in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
I left out any skills from the Rider tree from this list, simply because I find Samson Helos are some of the easiest enemies to defeat, even without putting any points into Rider. There are, however, some incredibly stylish skills in there, as well as some that make hunting from the back of a Direhorse a lot more convenient. If mounted combat is your thing, you will definitely want to take a look at the Rider tree.
I also didn’t mention very many Warrior skills, mostly because I found Hunter to really just be a similar but better variation. However, that’s partly because I don’t personally care for human weapons in this game; I’m Na’vi through and through. If you want skills that increase your prowess with human weapons such as the Assault Rifle of the Shotgun, then you should definitely spend more points in the Warrior tree.
