Skill point

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Version 0.32: This article is up to date for the latest stable release of Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup.

Skill points are used to level up skills, rather than direct XP.

General mechanics

When you gain XP, you gain a corresponding number of skill points which are then distributed amongst your active skills. The ratio of skill points to XP changes with the total XP (or, analogously, the total skill points) that your character has ever gained. At the beginning of the game, the ratio will be roughly 1:10, but it will gradually decrease until it hits a cap of 265:10, which will almost always be reached by XL27. This effect is particularly notable when quaffing potions of experience - they give considerably more skill levels early on.

For a given set of skills, the total XP required remains the same, independent of order. If you decide to go for L15 Fighting and L27 Axes:

  • Training both skills to L15 first,
  • Training Axes to L27 first,
  • Or training Fighting to L15 first,

have the same raw XP cost. While the first skill might require less XP, keep in mind that there's also just less XP available earlier on - or the reason why XP scaling exists.

Skill costs

The table below shows how many total skill points must be allocated to a skill for it to reach each skill level, from 0. The percentage column shows the amount of experience required to reach a given skill level from 0 as a percentage of the amount of experience required to reach level 27.[1] If you press m to go to the skill menu, you can look at relative costs for each of your skills. These are given in multiplies of the "baseline cost", which is the cost of taking a skill from level 0 to level 1 with a +0 aptitude.[2]

Level Total skill points Percentage Level Total skill points Percentage Level Total skill points Percentage
1 50 0.2% 10 2,775 11.4% 19 10,900 44.8%
2 150 0.6% 11 3,375 13.9% 20 12,225 50.3%
3 300 1.2% 12 4,050 16.6% 21 13,650 56.1%
4 500 2.1% 13 4,800 19.7% 22 15,175 62.4%
5 750 3.1% 14 5,625 23.1% 23 16,800 69.1%
6 1,050 4.3% 15 6,525 26.8% 24 18,525 76.2%
7 1,400 5.8% 16 7,500 30.8% 25 20,350 83.7%
8 1,800 7.4% 17 8,550 35.1% 26 22,275 91.6%
9 2,250 9.2% 18 9,675 39.8% 27 24,325 100%

These amounts are then adjusted based on your character's aptitudes. An aptitude of n means you'll need 2^(-n/4) times as much XP to advance as a character with an aptitude of zero for that skill would. The resulting multipliers are in the chart below.

Aptitude +11 +10 +9 +8 +7 +6 +5 +4 +3 +2 +1 +0 -1 -2 -3 -4 -5
XP Multiplier 6.73 5.66 4.76 4.0 3.36 2.83 2.38 2.0 1.68 1.41 1.19 1.0 0.84 0.71 0.59 0.5 0.42

Strategy

Absolutely none. The old learndb entry for skill points was "Only galehar [a developer] should know or care what these are." It may not have been the most illuminating, but it is correct in its message: skill points are something the player has no control over, and cannot use to their advantage.

History

  • Prior to 0.28, higher levels of skills cost more skill points.

References

  1. skills.cc:2312 (0.32.0)
  2. skills.cc:185 (0.32.0)