Stellar Blade is finally out and players are jumping into Naytiba territory on Earth. When you first start your journey, the game does a good job of recommending you some core skills to unlock like Perfect Dodge and Parry. Beyond that, there are numerous other skills to refine your combat prowess and make you a killing machine in the early stages of the game. Here are the six best skills to unlock first that we think will give you a big advantage in the action.
Before we jump into our recommended skills to unlock, make sure you read our full review to find out if Stellar Blade is your type of game. Despite being compared to Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, Stellar Blade actually has a lot more in common with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, both in its heavy reliance on parrying and punishing difficulty during big boss fights.
The Six Best Skills to Unlock First in Stellar Blade
Now that you have your core skills locked and loaded, it’s time to flesh them out and grab some new ones. The skill trees in Stellar Blade are broken down into Beta, Attack and Survival. Each are designed to either improve your survivability, boost your attack skills while unlocking new abilities or explore new Beta skills and buffs. In our opinion, the following six skills are must-haves if you want to get a good advantage in combat as early as possible.
Counter I and II: Counter I and II is located at the top of the Survival tree and lets Eve follow up on Perfect Parries by either attacking enemies quickly from behind or head-on. This is extremely useful to have as your parries are rewarded with crucial openings to attack.
Reflection: Like Counter, Reflection, located in the bottom right of the Survival tree, gives you follow-up attack for Perfect Dodging. Another excellent skill to have as it gives you openings to quickly punish enemies after executing a Perfect Dodge.
Ambush: Located at the top left of the Attack tree, Ambush lets you stealth kill enemies in one shot if you approach them from behind. Since some tough areas can easily be overcome with stealth, Ambush is another must-have since there will be plenty of opportunities to stab enemies in the back.
Repulse: If Blink lets you dodge incoming enemy attacks marked with a blue flash, Repulse lets you dodge those pesky purple ones. We recommending picking up Repulse as soon as possible because you’ll want every dodge skill to make it through some tough fights, especially since purple flashes can often be brutal if you don’t dodge them.
Focus Boost/Reflex Boost: These two skills go hand-in-hand and can be found on the Survival tree. Focus Boost extends your Perfect Parry window while Reflex Boost extends your Perfect Dodge window. Since you’ll be doing a lot of parrying and dodging in Stellar Blade, these skills are must-haves to make things easier for yourself.
Slash: Finally, we have Slash, arguably one of the most useful Beta skills to unlock. Where Triplet does single-target damage, Slash unleashes an energy blade around Eve, dealing great AoE damage to enemies around you. This is quite useful in situations where you find yourself being mobbed by enemies from every corner.
Once you have these vital six skills unlocked, you’re pretty much set to take on Stellar Blade. You can experiment with the skill tree from here. We recommend picking up skills like Beta Energy Recharge, Beta Energy Theft, Shield Breaker and Double Dodge too if you want to improve your agility and effectiveness in combat while also making sure your Beta meter is always full.
Stellar Blade is now available on PS5.
