Many of the skills in Darkwood are finicky, underwhelming, or explained poorly. This is the information I wanted to have before my first playthrough. I have added spoilers where appropriate, which I recommend avoiding until after your first playthrough.

There are three types of Skills: Negative, Passive, and Active. You must pick at least one Negative Skill per tier, and get to two choose two positive skills per tier. Once you have one negative and two positive skills in a tier, the remaining options in that tier are permanently locked.

Passive skills are always active without the player needing to remember to use them. Active skills must be activated using the skill menu, which by default is bound to "Q" on the PC. Pressing "Q" won't do anything until you have at least one active skill.

While in the skill menu after pressing "Q", time is slowed but is not stopped. The skill menu is NOT a pause button, but it does provide more than enough time to think and select the most useful skill for the situation.


A note on time: One "day" lasts 9.6 minutes, or about 10 minutes, where one in game "hour" has 48 IRL seconds. One "night" lasts 4.5 minutes, where one in game "hour" lasts 22.5 seconds. This means that an ability with a duration of 60 seconds lasts for over an hour during the day or almost three hours at night. That's roughly 1/10 of the day and 1/4 of the night, respectively.

60 seconds, or even 30 seconds, might not sound like much IRL, but time is convoluted in the DarkSouls Darkwood.

The only negative skill available at tier 1. Adds a possible event at night. This event is much easier to deal with than the events found later in the game, so there are no significant "downsides" to this negative skill.

Strategy to deal with Shadows: Every night the Hideout might get attacked by shadowy ghosts. They are invincible and nearly impossible to dodge, but vanish in the presence of strong light, such as the lamps powered by a generator or a Flare.

If generator powered lamps aren't working for any reason, a single Flare lasts long enough to fend off a single Shadows event. Shadows events may occur more than once per night, the most I've seen is 3.

Passive Skill. Allows seeing about 10-15% farther.



Pros: Seeing enemies before they spot you is incredibly useful for sneaking in the early game, and shooting long range guns in the late game. Being able to see landmarks from farther away helps prevent getting lost.

Cons: Not very useful at night, indoors, or on melee-only challenge runs. There is an item that temporarily grants the same effect as this perk, theRed Egg which grants Sight and Endurance for 60 seconds. A single Red Egg can be bought for a moderately expensive 70 Reputation every morning.

Active Skill. Grants 45 seconds of the "Moth" effect, which slowly heals you if you are standing next to a powered electric light source, such as the lamps in Hideouts. The healing rate is about the same as a bandage, and is just enough to heal two pips. (For reference, the Protagonist's healthbar starts out at 2 pips).

Pros: Unlike all other sources of healing in the game, Moth stacks with healing items. That means you can use Moth and a Bandage to heal twice as fast as Bandages alone for 45 seconds. Or you can just use Moth by itself as a free heal, almost like having an extra well.

Cons: Like all active skills, it can only be used once per day, and the Protagonist can't use a different active skill until the full 45 seconds is over. The healing speed is only as good as Bandages, the first healing item in the game. Requires standing still, which isn't the safest thing to do during combat. Healing is plentiful in the late game, rendering a 1/day heal mostly useless.

To Do: Does the Moth perk lose any effectiveness when combined with the Weak Regeneration perk?

Active Skill. Once per day, drop a body part on the ground. The position of this body part can be seen on your Map. This is useful to prevent getting lost and to mark spots you wish to return to. The body part, like the Meat item, might distract carnivores for a short time. If you kill a carnivore that has eaten your body part, you might find a partially digested finger, nose, or ear in it's corpse.

Pros: If you get lost, this is an instant way to gain your bearings. Very useful on a first playthrough. Also helpful for marking chests, which are often much harder to find than the larger landmarks.

Cons: If you don't get lost, this isn't that useful. Trying to distract carnivores with this perk is not reliable.

Passive Skill. You can heal by eating mushrooms. Odd Looking Mushrooms, such as those harvested in the wild, heal slightly faster than bandages but only heals for 40 seconds. Glowing Mushrooms, such as those bought from the Trader, only heal for 30 seconds.

Pros: Once you have unlocked the last skill and no longer need essence, keeps mushrooms useful. You can intentionally avoid harvesting mushrooms until you need them to keep them from rotting.

Cons: In the late game, you are unlikely to run low on healing options. Mushrooms rot over time, and must be eaten the same day they are picked. Any mushrooms not eaten the same day turn into inedible Rotten Mushrooms, which are used to craft powerfully noxious Gas Bottles. If you prefer throwing gas bombs to redundant healing, you won't use this perk often.

Poison Vulnerability: Take twice as much damage from poison. The most common source of poison is from stepping on mushrooms. There are no enemies that deal poison damage.


Pros: Poisonous traps are easily avoided in the early game, can be outhealed with late game healing items, and can be entirely negated by the Antidote item. No enemies deal poison damage, so this perk only makes certain traps and environmental effects more dangerous.

Cons: Poison normally depletes over half your health. When you take this perk, that damage doubles, so a healing item or an Antidote MUST be taken immediately to prevent death. Some night events deal Poison damage, and will need to be evaded more quickly. Poisonous traps become extremely common in the late game, though they can also be negated by a specific late game item.


Fearful: Vision briefly becomes worse after being hit by an enemy.



Pros: With enough experience and skill, you'll know roughly where enemies are even with limited vision. If you are using guns in the late game, nothing should be getting close enough to hit you in the first place. While running away from an enemy that is too close, you won't be able to see them anyway.

Cons: While learning melee combat, losing your vision every time you make a mistake makes it difficult to learn the movement patterns of enemies.

Passive Skill. Enemies receive a small amount of damage every time they hit you with a melee attack.


Pros: Like any passive, it will still help you even if you forget it's there. A potential lifesaver if stunlocked, provided that your enemies have already been heavily damaged by normal weapons first. A potential lifesaver against weak but numerous enemies. Helps barely win fights that you would otherwise barely lose. Trivializes the Burning Villagers event.

Cons: The damage is single target. Despite the animation, your blood does NOT form acid pools. The damage is extremely low, and unlikely to kill even the weakest enemies without help from other weapons. Intentionally relying on this skill WILL get you killed.

To Do: How much health is lost to kill a single Banshee Baby?

Active Skill. Once per day, for 60 seconds, have 360 vision.



Pros: It's difficult to learn the movement patterns of enemies while running away from them, making this a vital skill to pick up if you plan on mastering melee combat against the more difficult enemies. Trivializes the Spider enemy, as they can only move quickly when you can't see them.

Cons: If you are surrounded by multiple enemies, you should probably be running away, not fighting. Like all Active skills, you won't be able to use another active skill for the full 60 seconds. Like all active skills, it can't help you if you never resort to using it.

Active Skill. Once per day, for 60 seconds, sprinting does not cost stamina.



Pros: There are very few problems which cannot be solved by running away. Unlike stamina items, using this skill doesn't require swapping held items, can be activated instantly, and works even if you are completely out of stamina. If you don't encounter an emergency you can use this to save time on your daily commute as well.

Cons: <Insert sarcastic comment about people who never run away from danger.>

Weak Lungs: Stamina regenerates half as fast.



Pros: The downside of this perk can be mostly negated for a short time by any endurance item. Rumor has it that this only slows stamina regeneration if you run completely out of breath - it doesn't slow down stamina regeneration if you have the discipline to never let the stamina bar empty completely.

Cons: Makes crossing the map slower and more tedious, in a game that is all about time management. Makes it harder to run away, especially if you either ran out of endurance items or don't have time to use them. It takes longer to recover stamina from dodging and melee attacks, which will easily empty your entire stamina bar if you aren't extremely careful under pressure. In short, the only reason to take this skill is for a Weak Lungs+Melee Only Challenge Run.


Weakness: If stamina is less than about 1/3rd, melee attacks deal half damage.



Pros: The time it takes to wind up a normal attack is enough time for stamina to regenerate to full. The "Light Materials" upgrade allows using 2-3 secondary attacks in a row before running low on stamina. Completely irrelevant to ranged combat. Even on a melee-only challenge run, this is a LOT better than having Weak Lungs.

Cons: If you like spamming rapid attacks while fighting more than one enemy at a time, this will halve your dps. Of course, if you are cornered by multiple opponents and out of stamina, you are probably dead anyway.

Passive Skill. Once each day, the first trap you step on won't do damage.



Pros: Stepping on a bear trap while being pursued by the weakest enemy in the game is a death sentence, even in the late game. This is a get-out-of-death-free card.

Cons: Useless for people that never accidentally step on their own beartraps, and never fail to spot and disarm beartraps that RNG hid inside bushes or logs. [/sarcasm] Note that some traps, such as poisonous mushrooms, sometimes overlap in a way such that the moment you step on one, you step on two, so you still get poisoned.

Passive Skill. Lets you eat wood. Unlike all other items in the game, you CAN'T eat wood by putting it in your hotbar and using it. Instead, you have to open your inventory (using a container or by opening your backpack normally), hover your mouse over the item, and hold left click for about 1 second.

Each board heals 1/3rd of a pip in 5 seconds, and is the cheapest and most plentiful type of healing in the game. The speed of healing is almost as fast as Alchohol Bandages.

Each log heals 1 and 1/6 of a pip in 15 seconds, and heals just as fast as boards.

Pros: Cheapest and most plentiful healing in the game. Great for healing small amounts of health without wasting an entire bandage or pill.

Cons: Can't heal during combat, due to needing to stop and open the inventory to eat wood. With careful play and thorough looting, normal healing items like pills and bandages are plentiful enough to make this perk irrelevant in the late game. Warning: If you take the Weak Regeneration perk, boards heal 1/6 of a pip and logs heal about 1/2 a pip.

Active Skill. Once per day, emit a scream that scares away nearby enemies. I have not fully tested this skill, but I have heard the following rumors: Enemies must have line of sight and be aggro'd to be affected. Centipedes are immune to fear and will continue to attack you while the scream animation has you temporarily paralyzed. Enemies that you scare away will attempt to flee 2 screens away before returning to their original patrol.

Pros: This is a Get-Out-Of-Death free card that works on large groups of enemies while surrounded and stunlocked. No other skill can do that. Many players swear this ability has saved their hides countless times.

Cons: Rumor has it that this skill doesn't work on certain late game enemies, doesn't work through walls or barricades, doesn't always work, and has a short range. Many players swear this ability is useless and never works.

Weak Regeneration: Healing items heal for half as much.



Pros: In the late game, healing is relatively plentiful. Even the most basic healing item, the Bandage, can heal you to full more than 3 times over, so halving that to "only" heal you to full twice over isn't a big deal.

Cons: Even if the healing AMOUNT is more than enough to heal to full, the healing SPEED becomes abysmal. This means you can no longer tank the damage from certain night events by sitting still and applying a single bandage. This also makes the "apply bandage before melee combat" tactic much less forgiving.



Guns are less accurate, even when fully aimed.



Pros: For obvious reasons, this is a great pick for a melee-only challenge run. If you take this perk and still want to use guns, you will either have to waste ammo with a little spray'n'pray or let enemies get much closer before shooting them.

Cons: The whole point of firearms is to shoot enemies before they get close without wasting ammo.

When health is at or below 25%, the damage of your melee attacks is doubled. This means that a fully upgraded shovel and fire axe can kill a Red Chomper in two normal swings instead of 4 and 3, respectively.


Pros: If your health is low enough that a Red Chomper can kill you with a single bite, it takes half as many melee attacks to kill it! Great for One-Hit-Kill+Melee-Only challenge runs! On a less sarcastic note, this can be the difference between life and death on melee-only runs.

Cons: If your health is low enough that you can be killed by pretty much anything in a single hit, you should probably be doing something other than melee... like running away, screaming, or pretending that you're a chameleon.

Increase hit points by 25%. Instead of having 2 pips of health, you get 2.5 pips of health. This is enough to survive one additional hit from some enemies.


Pros: Health is good, dying is bad.

Cons: Useless if you never get hit, by anything, ever, in which case you should be attempting a One-Hit-Kill+Melee-Only challenge.

For 30 seconds, be invisible to enemies as long as you stand still. Touching any movement key immediately cancels the effect, cancelling the remaining duration. Being pushed by enemies does not cancel the effect. You can use any item including guns, melee weapons, and bandages at no penalty. This skill does NOT prevent enemies from finishing attack animations that they have already started.

Pros: Nothing is more OP than standing in the middle of a room right before enemies break in, popping chameleon, and leisurely shooting everything from 5 feet away with a pistol. 30 seconds might not sound like much, but it's more than an "hour" of night time.

Cons: If an enemy had line of sight on you before you used chameleon, they will probably launch an attack animation on the spot you stand on even if you disappear. Once they hit you at least once in melee, they don't seem to need to see you to know that you are right next to them. Doesn't seem to affect enemies that don't rely on vision in the first place, like centipedes

Rating skills is highly subjective and based on playstyle, but if you want a quick and dirty tier list, here you go. If this is your first playthrough, I recommend skipping this section and forming your own playstyle and opinion.

Tier I Negative: Shadows (only option)
Eagle Eye: S Tier
Navigator: B Tier
Moth: B Tier
Mushroom Eater: B tier

Aside from the amazing Eagle Eye, all the other tier 1 perks are equally situational.

Tier II Negative: Fearful

Runner: S Tier
Acid Blood: B Tier
Third Eye: C Tier

Poison damage adds up fast, and I enjoy being able to outheal night events I'm theoretically supposed to run away from, so for me Fearful is an easy pick. Third eye is useful for learning melee, but isn't exactly a lifesaver like the other active skills.

Tier III Negative: Weakness

Careful Step: S Tier
Scream: A Tier
Appetite: B Tier

I don't think the Tier III perks were playtested properly, because Weakness is far, far better than Weak Lungs. Scream is technically better than Appetite, since it is a lifesaver as opposed to a resource saver, but since Scream isn't as reliable as I'd like I usually wind up taking Appetite instead.

Tier IV Negative: Weak Regeneration

Vitality: S Tier
Chameleon: A Tier
Adrenaline: C Tier

Guns are too good to pass up, but if I were good enough at melee I'd be tempted to avoid that hideous 50% penalty to healing. Both negative skills are so bad that there is an argument for stopping at Dose 6 and not grabbing any Tier IV skills.

Adrenaline is pretty situational and gets skipped. Even on a melee only run, I'd rather have +25% HP and emergency invisibility than a damage boost while on the verge of death. If I were that good at melee, I wouldn't need the damage boost - and would never get hurt badly enough to get the damage boost in the first place.

This guide was written while bored during the time history will remember as World Sick Day One. I apologize for any unwarranted or poorly written sarcasm. I am perfectly aware that some people really are that good at melee combat - I've seen the speedruns that prove it.

If you want more information (and spoilers) on the skills, you can consult the Darkwood wiki on fandom. I am unlikely to ever update this guide, so in the unlikely event that the game ever updates past 1.3, don't expect this guide to be accurate.