Star Wars Jedi: Survivor offers multiple massive skill trees that really allow you to make some interesting character builds. That’s great, but the sheer amount of options available can lead to analysis paralysis. What you really want to know is “Which skills should you buy first” and “What are the most powerful skills in the game?”
So, those are the questions we’re here to answer. Just note that this guide is written under the assumption you’re playing on the best difficulty level for you. If you’re playing on a much easier difficulty level than you can handle, then you can pretty much pick up whatever skills you want.
Jedi Survivor: Best Skills to Unlock First
Here are the skills you should grab at the start of Survivor in the order that you should grab them:
Survival Skills
Survival Skills should probably be the first skill you purchase at higher difficulty levels. It’s not fancy, but immediately increasing Cal’s maximum life is an upgrade you’ll be happy you have for the rest of the game.
Improved Stim Formula/Teamwork
For your next two skills, stay in the Resistance tree and grab this powerful combo. Improved Stim Formula increases the amount of health you get from a Stim. Teamwork reduces the amount of time it takes for a Stim to heal you. Again, both are going to be used for the rest of the game, so grab them early.
Gathering Tempest/Vortex Dive
I’m a big fan of the Double-Bladed stance, and you’ll definitely be using it a lot early in the game. So, why not invest in it early?
Gathering Tempest allows you to quickly damage a single target by holding the attack button. It greatly improves the stance’s single-target damage, which makes it essential. Vortex Dive lets you dive forward while spinning your blade and doing damage. It’s useful against groups and single targets, which again makes it an essential upgrade.
Backstep Slash
This skill from the Dual-Wield tree allows you to perform a quick attack and leap backward while guarding. It’s a fantastic way to compensate for this stance’s natural lack of defenses, and it’s especially good during boss fights. You’ll use it for the entire game.
Attunement/Greater Hold
At this point, you’ll want to start investing more points into your Force powers. So far as that goes, these are your best early upgrades. Attunement increases your Force meter, while Greater Hold extends the amount of time you can stay in “Slow” mode. They’re just two fantastic utility abilities that you’ll get a lot of value out of.
Channeled Energy
This absurdly powerful ability allows you to recharge your Force meter by defeating enemies or by attacking blocking enemies. It’s one of the best overall abilities in the game, and you can justify picking it up even sooner if you’d like.
Double Orbit
You’re about to reach the point of the game where you’ll probably want to start spending skill points based on your preferences and new unlocks. Before you get there, though, I highly recommend picking up Double Orbit from the Double-Bladed tree. It’s a very powerful ability that lets you throw your saber around you twice and quickly dispatch groups of lesser foes. Very useful for some of the early parts of the game.
Jedi Survivor: Most Powerful Late Game Skills
Are skill points no longer an issue? Feel free to spend them on these incredibly powerful late-game skills and upgrades:
Confusion Mastery
Do not overlook the Confusion tree just because Survivor’s lightsaber combat is so much fun. Some of the Confusion abilities pretty much break the game once you unlock Confusion Mastery. This ability allows you to confuse otherwise resistant humanoid enemies. With the other abilities you take to get to this skill, it pretty much lets you instantly neutralize powerful late-game foes.
Howling Push
This incredible skill increases both the strength and radius of your Force Push ability. Even if you’re not able to do something like knock an enemy off a cliff with it, this skill will still allow you to stagger multiple powerful targets.
Mass Slam
Just an unbelievably strong AOE skill, Mass Slam lets you lift up large groups of enemies and slam them into the ground. If the landing doesn’t kill them, your follow-up attack will.
Sundering Swipe
This skill from the Crossguard tree lets you perform a wide attack from the Crossguard Stance. It can tear through large groups of foes in a single strike, which makes it a fantastic complement to Crossguard’s single-target abilities.
Quick Draw
I’m not a big Blaster Stance fan, but this skill really is absurd. Quick Draw lets you line up multiple targets in a row (think Red Dead’s Dead Eye mode) and blast them all away. It’s the Blaster Stance’s best multi-target ability, and it almost makes learning the stance worth all of the pain.
Rising Storm/Repulsing Burst
This Double-Bladed skill combo lets you gather all nearby enemies towards you, jump into the air, and then perform a powerful AoE attack upon landing. It’s the Double-Bladed stance’s best multi-target ability, which means it’s probably the best multi-target ability in the game.
Twin Vipers
This Dual-Wield ability allows you to throw a second blade at an enemy that does double damage. It’s an invaluable fight starter that shines during boss fights. Honestly, you can win some boss fights by spamming this ability.
Dash Strike/Aerial Dash Strike
For Single-Blade Stance fans, this is what you’re working towards. Dash Strike lets you perform a quick strike on an enemy that’s out of your range, while Aerial Dash Strike lets you do the same while in the air. Really strong combo for the Single-Blade Stance.