Learn how to unlock and upgrade skills, select perks, develop your character’s culture and background
What is the best character build in Bannerlord? I’ve seen complicated skill systems in the past, but I’ve never seen anything quite like the one found inMount & Blade II: Bannerlord. Every skill has a bunch of perks that you can choose from, and upgrading your attributes requires you to take multiple factors into account.
On this page we’ll help you get started with building your very own leader in Bannerlord. You’ll learn how to increase your skill level, what focus points are and how to use them, and how to create a character. We’ll also be listing the whole lot, and with good planning, you’ll make your character a force to be reckoned with in battle.
How to increase your skill level in Bannerlord
Upgrading your character in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord is incredibly complicated. It took me a fair while to wrap my head around it as it’s not very well explained in-game. There are three specific areas to explain here:Attributes,Skills, andFocus Points.
With all that explained, here is a list of all actions required to increase every single skill in the game:
As well as increasing your skill points, increasing the skill up to certain levels will unlockperks. These are additional bonuses that are applied to actions you perform or while you have equipped a certain type of weapon or armour.
These will grant you various perks that can help in battle. To unlock a perk, you will need to do the following:
Here is a list of every single perk currently in Bannerlord:
Note:If there is more than one perk listed with the same skill level requirement, you can only choose one of the two perks to unlock.
A lot of your initial skill points and perks will come from your character’s creation at the beginning of the game. Your first task when creating a character is to choose your culture.
There are six cultures to choose from and they’re all named after one of the kingdoms or regions. Your choice therefore, is the region your character grew up in.
They comes with their own bonuses. Some cultures affect how troops move in certain terrains, while others give bonuses to experience or reduction in costs.
Since you start out in areas that are not covered in snow, picking the Sturgians might give you a bit of a hard time when compared to the other cultures.
If you want my opinion on which ones are the best for beginners, go with either Empire or Vlandians, as their bonuses can help with fortifying your towns or troops. Try the Aseri if you’re looking for a more trade-focused campaign, while Khuzaits help out with amassing a superior cavalry.
It’s not just your culture that you can choose. Later on in character creation, you’ll be asked to define your background. Picking one of the options available will give you some skill level and focus points to spend on that skill.
You’ll also get attribute points which affect all three skills in that attribute’s scope (for example,Vigorhas one handed, two handed, and polearm skills).
There are six questions you’ll need to answer to create your character. It’s worth noting that question five gives some additional renown and some points in unrelated stats to the ones used for levelling up.
To make it easier for you, click the following links to go to the question you need to answer.
A Lord’s Retainers
Urban Merchants
Freeholders
Urban Artisans
Foresters
Urban Vagabonds
your leadership skills
your brawn
your attention to detail
your aptitude with numbers
your way with people
your skill with horses
herded the sheep
worked in the village smithy
repaired projects
gathered herbs in the wild
hunted small game
sold produce at the market
joined a commander’s staff
trained with the cavalry
stood guard with the garrisons
rode with the scouts
trained with the infantry
joined the skirmishers
You defeated an enemy in battle
You led a successful manhunt
You invested some money in land
You hunted a dangerous animal
You had a famous escapade in town
You treated people well
you subdued a raider
you drove them off with arrows
you rode off on a fast horse
you tricked the raiders
you organised the travellers to break out
We hope that this is helpful for deciding which skills to unlock, and how to upgrade your character in Bannerlord. You can check out our other guides for the game, such astips to get started in the campaign, and other complicated parts such assiegesandworkshops.
