Skill

Horizon introduces a hybrid skill system between all previous Fallout games and the Elder Scrolls. Skills can be raised by leveling up SPECIAL attributes, by picking Perks, by reading Magazines and Guides, by finding Bobbleheads and performing activities (dynamic skill gain). Similar to classic Fallout games (Fallout 1/2/Tactics), skills can go over 100. Most cap at 200.

General[]

Skill usually goes from 0 to 200 points. Crafting recipes usually require Skill instead of perk ranks.

On the more technical side, skills enable pseudoperks every 10 points, one could say a skill is actually a perk with more ranks. A skill of 90 and 99 has the same effect as technically, the scripts only know the player has at least 90.

Skill Gain[]

Skill can be acquired through a number of specific sources. Perks are the most reliable source, magazines offer an important if random boost, and dynamic gain is slow but can amount to much.

Dynamic Skill Gain[]

Dynamic Skill Gain system allows player go realistically gain skill by practicing them, like:

Activities: Lockpicking etc.
Shooting: all kinds of Enemies (NPCs)..
Crafting items: Ammo in the Weapons Lab etc.

All skill gains can be tracked anytime using the Skill Menu. There is a column of blue numbers which shows current/remaining skill gain. The amount of skill gain by activities such as crafting is capped. While crafting items a suffix such as [+Skill/10] signalize the recipe will stops giving skill at 10 points for the specific item. Up to 50 skill points can be obtained from activities and/or crafting items and up to 90 skill points from weapon specific skills.

Activities & Crafting Gains[]

Most skills are unified to allow for +50 skill from activities and crafting to avoid confusion. Crafting an item that gives skill will prompt a message after a 5 second delay. Every crafting specific item has it's own self-cap in the skill gain pool. Example: Crafting cloth linings raises skill up to 20 points and then it stops giving skill, but ballistic weaves can go to 50 points max. A suffix such as "[+Skill/10]" means this recipe stops giving skill at 10 points in the Gain Pool. Generally speaking, if no skill gain messages is displayed on the HUD, it probably means that item no longer gives skill.

Shooting Gains[]

Allow up to +90 skill from activities and are gained upon killing enemies, based on the current equipped weapon type:

Synths are worth 2x skill gain
Robots are worth 1.5x skill gain
Legendary enemies are worth 5x skill gain

Weapons can only be 1 skill at a time. Messages will show in intervals every 10 skill points. Totals will update shortly after the skill gain message. The skill menu (see below) can display the skill the currently assigned weapon is tied to.

📝 Note: Killing enemies with explosives or other means, still gives the "credit" to the main equipped weapon. While this isn't a perfect system, it's acceptable enough considering the tracking method is fast, and should keep combat efficient.

SPECIALs[]

A small amount of skill (~10-20 pts) can be gained from points spent in SPECIALs.

Perks[]

Up to 100 skill can be obtained from the perks (usually). In some cases perks might only net +80 skill, if 20 can be obtained elsewhere, including another perk tree).

Magazines[]

Up to 50 skill can be obtained from Magazines.

Bobbleheads[]

Up to 5/10 skill can be obtained from Bobbleheads.

Settler Skills[]

Settler Skills can sometimes grant a small bonus to skill, but that is considered an extra bonus.

Specializations[]

A few skills also gain some from Specializations, but that is considered an extra bonus.

Skills[]

Core Skills[]

Chemistry[]

Grants access to certain crafting recipes, increased by crafting certain recipes.

Exploration[]

Affects your loot chance for finding extra ammo and junk in containers ^{[info needed]}. Increases from exploring locations and clearing dungeons.

Fitness[]

Grants you bonuses to your sprinting AP drain, power attack AP drain, breath holding for scopes, swimming, and jumping.

Fitness skill 10-100 gains 2-20% reduced AP while sprinting
Fitness skill 100-200 gains 20-70% reduced AP while sprinting
Fitness skill 60-200 gains +5-45% reduced AP while holding your breath for scope aiming
Fitness skill 40-200 gains +5-25% Swimming speed
Fitness skill 80-200 gains +2-14% Jumping height
Traveling around a lot will grant you a moderate gain to Fitness Skill
Killing enemies will grant you a small gain to Fitness Skill
Killing enemies with Melee will grant you a large gain to Fitness Skill
Only doing the "minimum" effort will cause you to break even (no loss, no gain)
Not doing enough activity will cause you to lose Fitness Skill over time (i.e. skill decay)
The amount of skill you lose does NOT change the permanent skill you gained from stats or perks
Below +25 Skill gain, your decay amount is very small
At 25-50 Skill gain, your decay amount is moderate
At 50-75 Skill gain, your decay amount is large
At 75-100 Skill gain, your decay amount is very large
What this means is: the more fit you are, the faster it will decay if you stop doing stuff

You should never worry too much about losing some skill here and there, because you can regain it back.

Hacking[]

Allows you to hack computer terminals and electronic Lockboxes of higher difficulty. Grants access to crafting recipes for hacking tools. Gains up to +50 from hacking terminals.

Skill above 75 gives a chance when crafting hacking devices to gain an extra device from the materials
Skill at 200+ allows you to never get locked out of a terminal

Lockpicking[]

Allows you to pick locks and Lockboxes of higher difficulty. Grants access to crafting recipes for lock breaching tools. Gains up to +50 from picking locks.

Skill above 75 gives a chance when crafting lock breaching tools to gain an extra tool from the materials
Skill at 200+ allows you to never break bobby pins

Hacking and Lockpicking are not critical in Horizon, since easily crafted tools can take care of any lock. However, having these skills gains you valuable items from Lockboxes and grants access to one of the early Workshop Technology upgrades.

Hunting[]

Increases your chance to harvest meat and other parts from animals and creatures. Gains up to +50 from killing animals and creatures.

Hunting, while not strictly necessary for survival, is a great source of meat, adhesive and rare crafting materials like Mutated Leather.

Leadership[]

Grants access to certain crafting/trading recipes. Up to +20 from successful speech checks, +5 per Trailblazer (35 total possible - this perk is not accounted for to reach 200). Eating corpses, murdering, and stealing has a negative effect on your leadership skill. All skill gained from magazines, charisma, and speech checks, are effected by this penalty. Local Leader and Trailblazer are applied after the penalty, so these perks always work.

Companions gain +1% XP per skill point (up to +240%)
Skill 100-200 reduces Settler Missions by 5-30%

Medical[]

Grants access to certain crafting recipes, Up to +30 from using stimpaks/radaway, or crafting certain medical supplies.

Salvaging[]

Affects your loot chance for harvesting parts from appliances, machinery, robots, and synths. Increased by harvesting these and Field Scrapping.

30 Skill, 60 Skill, and 90 Skill add a chance for extra parts from scrapping weapons
If have 20 Salvaging Skill, you can salvage weapons/armor directly from corpses
If have 40 Salvaging Skill, you can salvage cigarette machines and news stands out in the world
If have 60 Salvaging Skill, you can salvage large appliances (washers and dryers)
If have 80 Salvaging Skill, you can salvage refrigeration machines (frigs, iceboxes, milk machines, etc.)
If have 120 Salvaging Skill, you can now salvage intact cars out in the world

Survival[]

Grants access to crafting recipes. Increases your chance to harvest twice as much from wild plants. Up to +40 from harvesting plants and cooking food.

Trading[]

Grants access to certain crafting/trading recipes. Up to +40 from successful speech checks.

Skill 10-200 gains 2-40% Buying price discount at vendors
Vendors gain additional inventory/caps at: 20, 60, 100, 140, 200 skill (5 tiers)

Advanced Skills[]

Engineering[]

Grants access to certain crafting recipes. Up to +35 from disabling robots and crafting engineering tools and devices.

Skill above 75 gives a chance to craft extra tools, turret parts, maintenance kits, auto-repair devices, and other items.

Engineering also is required for some useful mods for melee weapons, such as Ripper.

Explosives[]

Grants access to explosives-related recipes, is one of the options to disarm mines of increasing difficulty. Up to +40 from disarming mines and crafting certain explosives.

Aside from explosives themselves, the skill allows to craft some sidegrade mods, like Fiery Plasma for Plasma Rifle. Given usefulness of even low level explosives and mine disarming, any character will benefit from some Explosives skill.

Gunsmithing[]

This skill lets you upgrade your ballistic weapons' mods for damage and efficiency. Up to +30 from crafting ballistic ammo and certain items.

Skill above 75 gives a chance to craft extra ballistic ammo

This skill is most important for a character focusing on ballistic weapons.

Metalworking[]

Used for upgrading your Power Armor and melee weapons. Additionally required for some normal armor upgrades. Increased by crafting metal platings and other items.

This skill is most important for a character focusing on power armor and/or melee.

Science[]

This skill lets you upgrade your energy weapons' mods for damage and efficiency. Up to +30 from crafting energy ammo and certain items.

Additionally, required for various high-tech weapon and armor upgrades.

This skill is most important for a character focusing on energy weapons.

Tailoring[]

Allows to upgrade and craft armor mods. Increased by crafting cloth/leather/polymer/ballistic patches.

This skill is most important for a character focusing on normal armor.

Covert Skills[]

Stealth[]

Helps to remain undetected.

At 50+ Stealth Skill, Power Armor no longer allows you to gain a bonus to sneaking at normal movement speed
At 90+ Stealth Skill, Power Armor no longer gains increased movement speed while sneaking
At 140+ Stealth Skill, Power Armor no longer gains the light detection bonus to sneaking

Assassination[]

Adds up to +40% sneak damage at 200 skill. Gained from sneak attacks. Required for various silencer mods.

Weapon Proficiencies[]

These skills are gained exclusively from using the weapons. They are required for high-end upgrade mods and increase damage.

❗ grip-related ones (Pistol/Shotgun, Rifle/MG) do not do anything as of 1.9.3 and exist by mistake

Energy Weapons[]

Incendiary[]

Melee[]

Special Skills[]

Crafting: gained by crafting weapons and reverse engineering them.
Disarming: gained from various traps and mines can only be disarmed by characters with appropriate Skills.

Skill Menu[]

The "Skills Menu" can be opened either using the Field Kit or Training Desk.

The skill menu or skill manager provides information about skill and everything tied to skill functions. The player is able to recalculate skill manually, to gain information about the combat skill on the current assigned weapon and enemy kill tracker. Messages concerning updates and enemy ambush can be turned on/off under "skill options".

Skills recalculation isn't done in realtime, instead skill gain is only checked once in a while to keep the system efficient. Skill is also recalculated automatically in exceptional cases:

After the level-up perk chart is closed.
Every 6 game hours, if they haven't been checked by then.
Briefly after game re-load.