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The best skills to get first in Black Myth: Wukong

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A boss knocks over the main character of Black Myth: Wukong.
Game Science

As an action RPG with some Soulslike elements, Black Myth: Wukong has a deep and expanding skill tree to explore. Unlike a lot of other skill trees, this one only has a few stat-buffing skills while the rest add or modify your existing moves. This makes each skill feel more impactful, but also puts a lot more pressure on you to make good choices early on to know what will or will not help you beat the early bosses. And make no mistake, these bosses won’t go easy on you. You have a long journey ahead of you in Black Myth: Wukong, so make sure you get off on the right foot by knowing which are the best skills to get first.

Robust Construction/Rampant Vigor

The skill tree in Black Myth Wukong.
Game Science

The easiest stats to recommend putting a few early points into are Robust Construction and Rampant Vigor. These are the only two pure stat-increasing skills, with the former being one of the few ways to increase your health and the latter adding more stamina. It will be a while before you find more options to increase either of these stats, or improve your healing gourd, so these are a safe way to muscle your way through tough bosses.

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Crash
The skill tree in Black Myth Wukong.

The first spell you get access to in Black Myth: Wukong is Immobalize, which almost feels overpowered from the start. It allows you to freeze any enemy or boss in place so you can wail on them without fear of retaliation, or give yourself a moment to heal and regain your composure. It is best used offensively, and the Crash upgrade makes it even more effective. You can invest two levels into this skill that each increase the amount of damage you deal to an enemy you have frozen with Immobilize.

Composure
The skill tree in Black Myth Wukong.

Composure will take a little bit of investing to reach in the Stamina branch of the skill tree, but it is well worth it. Normally when you dodge while in the middle of a combo, you will start over once you start attacking again after the dodge. This prevents you from doing the powerful finisher to your combo in most cases since bosses don’t generally hold still long enough for you to get through the entire string of hits. Composure gives you what is sometimes called dodge-offset, where dodging in the middle of your combo and immediately attacking will continue from where you left off in the combo to more easily land finishers.

Simian Agility
The skill tree in Black Myth Wukong.

There’s no blocking or parrying in Black Myth: Wukong, so dodging is your one and only defensive option. Naturally, that means you’re going to be dodging almost all the time. Stamina management is key during boss fights where you need to avoid long attack strings before getting a chance to counterattack. If you dodge too much, though, you might not have any stamina left to attack. Simian Agility lets you cut down on the stamina cost of dodging so you are always able to dodge or attack when needed.

Mobile Spin
The skill tree in Black Myth Wukong.

You might write Mobile Spin off when you first look at it, but this will become an almost essential skill after the first few hours and ranged enemies start showing up more often. You can always hold down the spin button to deflect incoming arrows like a Jedi, but it locks you in place. Mobile Spin lets you keep moving while knocking arrows away so you can make a safe approach. It won’t be long before multiple rangers are shooting at you in an almost constant stream that you can’t break through without this skill. Snag it early, and you’ll be happy you did when the archers start spamming you.

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Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox
Jesse Lennox loves writing, games, and complaining about not having time to write and play games. He knows the names of more…
The best vocations in Dragon’s Dogma 2
Dragon's Dogma 2 key art featuring a knight with a fiery hole in their chest.

Your Vocation defines your role in combat in Dragon's Dogma 2. Everything from your skills to what weapons and armor you can use is tied to this class. You will pick from just a handful at the beginning of the game, but can easily change Vocations later on, as well as unlock more than twice as many new options than what you start with. It can take a while to really get a feel for a Vocation and how it performs in combat, as well as to look through all of its skills and augments, before knowing if it's worth sticking with to level up. Personal preference will play a part to some degree, but these Vocations have the most potential to make you the strongest Arisen in history.
The best vocations in Dragon's Dogma 2

You can pick from 4 Vocations at the start of Dragon's Dogma 2, but will end up with a total of 10 by the end of the game if you unlock them all. New Vocations are unlocked by completing quests, but they are almost unmissable. Four Vocations -- the Magick Archer, Mystic Spearhand, Trickster, and Warfarer -- can only be used by your character and not any Pawns.
Warfarer
There's very little downside to being a jack-of-all-trades in Dragon's Dogma 2, which is exactly what the Warfarer is. This is the only Vocation that can use any weapon in the game AND learn any skill from other Vocations. This is the only Vocation that really lets you build whatever class you want and gives you the ability to adapt to any situation you find yourself in. The main downside to this class is it has the lowest base stats, but that is a small price to pay for how versatile you can be.
Mystic Spearhand
Hybrid Vocations are all quite powerful, but we put the Mystic Spearhand at the top of the heap. This class turns you into a fighter that can take advantage of magic to output crazy damage. The two almost overpowered abilities you get here are the ability to slow enemies for a short time and to create a magical mimic that doubles all your actions. It is great for both crowd control and large single targets, but takes a while to unlock and lacks some range.
Warrior
If you're going to be a straight-up melee fighter, you might as well hit with the biggest weapon you can, right? The Warrior swings swords large enough to make Guts blush and is a full-on tank. You won't be doing anything fancy with this vocation beyond charging up and swinging as hard as possible. The obvious drawback is any flying or ranged enemy will counter you, so bring some Pawns in those classes to cover your bases.
Sorcerer
For those who fancy themselves a pure mage, stick to the Sorcerer over the actual Mage vocation. While the Mage is more focused on healing, it is the Sorcerer who gets the best offensive spells you will want to be casting. If you have a second Sorcerer with you, you can even sync up and decrease your casting time. If not, you will need some tanks to take aggro while you deal with some slightly long casting times and low total health.
Thief
As far as the starting Vocations go, the Thief is the one we find the most fun and viable for the entire game. This is a light and speedy build focused on critical hits and being able to climb and hang on to large beasts. Once on, you have a number of great skills to stagger and knock down an enemy so the rest of your squad to gang up on it. Just don't get hit because you're one of the squishier Vocations.

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My most anticipated game of 2024 is getting the full Nvidia treatment
A character gearing up for battle in Black Myth: Wukong.

As if I wasn't already looking forward to Black Myth: Wukong enough, Nvidia just announced that the game is getting the full RTX treatment when it launches on August 20. We see new games with ray tracing and Nvidia's Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) all the time, but Black Myth: Wukong is joining a very small list of titles that currently leverage the full suite of features Nvidia has available.

The game comes with, as Nvidia describes it, "full ray tracing." That undersells the tech a bit. As we've seen with games like Alan Wake 2, "full ray tracing" means path tracing. This is a more demanding version of ray tracing where everything uses the costly lighting technique. It's taxing, but in the new games that we've seen with path tracing, such as Cyberpunk 2077 and Portal with RTX, it looks stunning.

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All Ancestor Skill locations in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
An Ikran flies towards a ship in Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora.

After being raised by humans up until the start of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, your Na'vi has a lot to learn about where they come from and their lost heritage. Part of that is learning how to actually survive and navigate Pandora, but another major aspect is learning new skills. You have your standard five skill trees to invest points into, as well as a set of 12 Ancestor Skills that you can't get by normal means. These skills are far more meaningful when it comes to adding new gameplay options, and can only be obtained by hunting down specific plants to connect with on the map. It's a big world out there, Na'vi, so call your ikran (a dragon-like creature) and we'll guide you through the wilds to the location of every Ancestor Skill.
Where to find all Ancestor Skills
You will get the first Ancestor Skill early on in the game as part of the main story, which unlocks a short double-jump ability. The remaining 11 are completely optional as to whether or not you go out of your way to find them. We recommend waiting until you get your ikran before going after any skills other than the first as the ability to fly will not only make the process infinitely easier, but some skills can't be reached without it.

1. Eject
Eject makes short work of those dangerous RDA soldiers piloting power armor suits by letting you rip them right out of the cockpit. You do have to get close enough to do it, though, so be careful.
2. Drop Impact
Melee attacks are already strong considering you're a giant Na'vi, but you can make them downright deadly with this skill. Any jumping attack you do gets a damage multiplier, up to a maximum of 3, depending on how fast you're running when you melee in the air. As a nice little cherry on top, any nearby enemies also get staggered when you pull off this move.
3. Deeper Connection
Get in touch with your ikran and strengthen your bond, which gives it more stamina for whatever reason.
4. Soft Landing
Falling to your death is a real concern on Pandora. You're constantly climbing trees, mountains, and even floating islands. While it won't save you from a fall from the latter, Soft Landing lets you slide after a long fall to avoid breaking a leg.

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