CURRENT DATABASE // SKILLS
Skills are the clearest expression of a Hunter's route, but a skill icon can be misleading when it is read without the weapon, relic, and stage around it. The useful question is not simply whether the skill has a high base score. It is whether the skill creates the event the build wants, makes that event happen more often, or protects the run until the engine is online.
The current skill library groups entries by Hunter and records tags, effect text, evidence, and related planner items. That makes it possible to read a skill as part of a route instead of as a collectible in isolation. When an offer appears, name the event, name its payoff, and name the condition that would make you pivot away.
Find the core event
Most working skill routes have one event that happens repeatedly: extra shots, bombs, marks, companion attacks, Tarot cards, coins, or a protected luck window. The first skill should either create that event or make the Hunter's existing version more reliable. If a skill sounds strong but does not touch the route's core event, it may be a sidegrade or a temporary comfort pick.
Use the tags to make the event visible. Frequency and extra-shot point toward repeated output; mark and boss point toward priority targets; survival and safe point toward protecting the run; economy and growth point toward a longer route. Tags do not replace the effect text, but they make it easier to compare an unfamiliar icon with the build already forming.
Separate engine, payoff, and insurance
A skill slot can be an engine, a payoff, or insurance. Engine skills make the main event happen. Payoff skills turn that event into damage or control. Insurance skills keep the route alive when the engine is not yet complete. A balanced build often needs all three jobs, but the order depends on the run: an engine with no payoff may be weak now, while a payoff with no engine may be dead text.
When choosing between two skills, say which job is missing. If the run already fires constantly but lacks single-target pressure, a boss-facing payoff may matter more than another frequency boost. If the run has a huge payoff but cannot trigger it, take the engine. If both are present and the run keeps dying, insurance is not a detour; it is part of the route.
Use Hunter-specific skills with a general fallback
A Hunter skill can be the best answer when the run has the matching weapon or relic, and a poor answer when that support never appears. Keep a general fallback for direct Bullet Attack, Fire Rate, Reload Speed, element matching, or survival. The fallback gives the route a floor while the more specific skill searches for its missing partner.
This also prevents overcommitting to a skill just because it belongs to the Hunter. Hunter identity matters, but the current offer and stage matter more. A route that reaches the next room with a slightly lower ceiling is more useful than a perfect skill sequence that never gets its trigger online.
Judge skills across a room and a boss window
Skills should have a named job against both crowded rooms and durable targets, even if one job is clearly their strength. A crowd skill that leaves the boss untouched needs a partner. A boss payoff that cannot protect the early rooms needs a safe weapon or defensive route. Write down which half of the game the skill serves so you do not mistake a specialist for a complete build.
During testing, look for missed triggers and dead time. A skill may look powerful in the tooltip but require a timing window that is difficult to create while moving. That does not make it bad; it tells you which Hunter, weapon rhythm, or survival pick makes the skill practical.
Recheck uncertain interactions after each patch
The site labels skills as official, cross-checked, community, or needs testing. Those labels are a promise about how strongly the text is supported, not a promise that every route is solved. After patch 1.0.479, compare the in-game tooltip with the page and retest any interaction that depends on a trigger, a Tarot orientation, or a weapon effect.
Do not fill missing evidence with a made-up damage multiplier. A useful skill page tells you what to look for, why the interaction might work, how to reproduce it, and when to stop trusting the old route. That is enough to make a better pickup decision without pretending the database has measured every run.
Five questions to ask before you commit
- Is this skill the engine, the payoff, or insurance for the current run?
- What event does it create or repeat, and what item feeds that event?
- Can the route still function if its ideal partner never appears?
- Does it help a room clear, a boss window, or both?
- Which tooltip or trigger should be retested after the current patch?
Start with the most connected entries
These are starting points from the current planner database, not a promise that one entry wins every run. Open the entry for its effect text, route notes, related picks, and a direct Planner link.
Turn the guide into a live decision
Browse the full skills index, open the object you actually see, and send it into the Planner. The best choice depends on the Hunter, weapon, stage, and missing trigger in front of you.
Open the full item library Open a Planner example