Skills are an important part of Entropia Universe. Many of you know I spent 6 months skilling nothing but defense before my rise to Entropia greatness. In that time I got to know a lot about skills. How they work, why they work and most of all the variety of ways you can use them. Let’s take some time to learn about skills in general and then we can build on that and look at individual skills.
The Obvious
There are a variety of skills in Entropia. Each has it’s own category with it’s own quantity count inside the skill menu. When you first start you have a single point in each category. That mean’s that you have no skills at all.
As you are active in the game you will be awarded various skill points in differing amounts. What skill you get largely depends on the action that you are preforming. You have to actively be doing something in order to gain skills. Simply logging in and running around is not enough. The only way to gain skills is by somehow interacting with the game. It may be something as simple as letting a large level creature kill you repeatedly. If you’ve read my guide on Farming Free Defense Skills At Zychion Citadel you know this is a great way to get skills for free.
Most of the time you will only get skills when you are doing something that cost money. It may be while hunting, crafting or mining. Alternatively it could be while piloting a space ship and taking damage. When the game registers money’s being spent you are far more likely to get rewarded with skills. That money being spent can be in the form of decay in small amounts. Or it could be losing thousands of PED crafting something unsuccessfully which is a very expensive way to try and skill.
Skills Have Value
A large part of the reason skill gains are often tied to money spent is because skills have value. A rather unique aspect of Entropia is that the game allows you to put skills into and take skills out of your avatar via implants. These skill implants can be bought and sold on auction or traded between players.
This is also why gaining skills is a logarithmic function. Each skill point is worth more than the one before it and less than the one after it. If you have 328 points of Evade then the 328th point is worth more than the 327th point. That also means that the 299th point is worth less than the 300th point.
By having this system in place you will likely gain skills quickly in the beginning. The further you progress in the game the harder it will be to get skills. You will find that at some point your gains grind to a snails pace.
Fractional Points
If you watch your screen you will see that you do not always get a full point awarded. It’s not uncommon for the system to award you fractional points. This goes back to the fact that each point is worth more than the point before and less than the point after.
By having a fractional award system in place the system can more properly award skills based on PED spent. You will only see whole numbers but the system knows down to a tiny fraction exactly how many points you have.
The further you go in the game you will notice that not only are skill points awarded less often; they are also awarded in ever smaller amounts. I have seen the system award points to a player and the message says the system has awarded you 0.0000 Evade points. What really happened was the player was awarded evade skills but the amount was so small it didn’t register with only 4 decimal points. It did however register inside the system. Whatever amount was awarded was added to that players total number of points for that skill.
Professions
New players will often confuse skill points with Professions. When people talk about your Level in Entropia they are referring to your Profession level. Not the number of skill points you have. Profession levels are determined by what combination of different individual skills you possess. To give you an easy to understand example let’s look at Evade.
Each player has the skill evade. This is a defense skill. You can get awarded evade points from hunting or from taking damage from a mob. But Evader is also a Profession. The Evader Profession is calculated by looking at several different skill points. Specifically your Evader Profession made up 25% by your evade skill. Then 14% by Athletics, 11% by Combat Reflexes, 10% courage, 5% Alertness, 5% Serendipity and 6% Avoidance. By looking at this one example we can see that it takes several individual skills to determine your Profession level.
Hidden Skills
Some skills are hidden. This means that you must unlock them in order to start earning them. Nothing beats working hard for something only to have to work harder for something else!
In order to unlock hidden skills you will need to reach certain profession levels. A hidden skill will have a specific profession or a set of professions which upon reaching a certain level will automatically unlock. Once a hidden skill is unlocked you can start earning points for that skill.
If for some reason your profession level was to drop back below the level needed to unlock the hidden skill then that skill would become hidden again. This is only achievable if you unlock a skill and then remove skills from your avatar using an Empty Skill Implant.
If you were to go back below the level needed to unlock a hidden skill you DO NOT lose the points you have accumulated for that skill. They simply become hidden again. When you reach the needed profession level to unlock it again it will unlock again. I know this for a fact because I have done it myself. You will still be able to see how many of the hidden skills points you have. But you will not be able to be awarded any more. You also will not be able to use the hidden skill until you unlock it again.
Why Skills Matter
The more skills you have the better you are at in game activities. The fewer points you have the worse you are. Skills are used to calculate professions and professions are used to determine what you can do. They also determine how well you can do it.
Skills can be the difference between using a weapon to its full capacity. Or being so bad with it you’re just wasting ammo. Having the right skills can mean successful crafting runs that fill your PEDCard with profit. Without them it could mean a wall of failed crafting attempts that will end your career.
In a very real way the more skills you have the more PED you will earn. You also have to have knowledge of the game. You’ll need to know the market, item values, usefulness and a lot more. But none of that does you any good without the right skills. You can be the smartest player in Entropia. Maybe you know the game inside and out better than anyone else. If you don’t have skills it means nothing. The amount of money you make or lose can be directly determined simply by your skills.
More To Come
Right now what you really need to understand is that skills are a game mechanism. One which is very important to your career. The more you have the better you will be at various in game activities. It can make the difference between being successful and making PED or being unsuccessful and losing PED. More importantly they have value. Because they have value the further you go in the game the harder they are to acquire.
We will look at individual skills and professions soon. For now be sure and check out the Offers and Videos we have to help you earn PED! Remember that it’s FREE to be a Member so Join Us today and start earning PED!
