If you play HZD on at least Hard difficulty (though for combat-fans I really recommend 'Very Hard' and later on Ultra for your New Game+), then the choice of Skills (or talents as other games would call them) becomes quite important.

I myself just threw myself at the game (never played it on console) and chose a lot of stuff that was, in hindsight, not really useful. That doesn't mean any Skill is useless, far from it. But there are certain CRITICAL skills that you should definitely get early on because they make fights that much more balanced. Not necessarily EASY, because HZD does a great job with enemy AI and rewards you for a tactical approach combining stealth and brute force.

These Skills will help with that.


(This guide assumes you play HZD for the first time (i. e. on PC), if you beat it on console earlier then you probably have drawn your own conclusions and know these tips.)

Silent Strike
Once you have fought the first machines you will have realized that stealthily dispatching them is really cool and a great way to preserve your precious hitpoints.
The advantage of Silent Strike is IMMENSE in the beginning of the game and while it does lose some of its power later on (because other attacks of yours become stronger and stronger), it will always be a prime option to pick off some enemies before announcing yourself.

I recommend this as first pick, always.

The direct follow-ups (Strike from Above and Below, Leader Strike) are lackluster, so do not get them any time soon. Leader Strike is kinda useful later on but cannot compete with several other skills, particularly because you need to spend 5 points into meh skills (Above/Below) to even reach it.

Lure Call
The PERFECT combination with Silent Strike. Hide in gras or behind obstacles, lure call the enemy and dispatch it quietly.
It works on all enemies but you need line of sight (so if you are sitting behind a rock, peek out for a second, call, then retreat back behind it).

I recommend this as 2nd pick.

Careful: on Ultra difficulty, using it 2 times will make enemies instantly spot you, even in grass.

Concentration
THE best ranged support skill. Slowing down time allows you to shoot arrows with pinpoint accuracy, great for removing parts off machines or hitting human heads.
It also leads to Double Shot which is another awesome ranged Skill.
This is a VERY worthwhile investment early on. I recommend as 3rd pick.

Heavy Lifter into Double Shot
5 points should be easy to get early on (fast leveling, loads of skill point reward sites) and Double Shot is extremely powerful.
Heavy Lifter is unfortunately a prerequisite that is almost useless. There are too few situations where you take up heavy weapons and even then, the increased movement speed does very little for you.

But it's worth it to get to Double Shot.
DS lets you nock TWO arrows, dealing double the initial strike damage. This allows you to remove important machine components in 1 shot in most situations. A double Tearblast or Hardpoint arrow means a lot of tear damage while two Precision arrows can do the same for impact damage. Needless to say, double headshot damage is a guaranteed kill on most humans.
Obviously this works with all types of arrow so you can also quickly build up ailments like Shock, Burning or Freeze with it.

I would recommend getting this as 4th and 5th pick.

Gatherer
It costs only 1 point and gives you a constant stream of additional resources. On the higher difficulty settings you will need more arrows, traps, bombs to deal with encounters and Gatherer helps a lot with the resource needs.
I would recommend getting it as 6th pick.

Dodge Prowess / Knock Down / Triple Shot
The 7th pick depends a bit on how you like to play.
Dodge Prowess totally changes the way you fight. Now you can do a LONG dodge roll that lets you get out of most monster melee or area attacks with 1 click. It is really MUCH MUCH stronger than the normal dodge. It even has offensive merits because you can re-focus on your enemies more quickly than if you constantly need to run and default-dodge.
It is a universally useful Skill.

Knock Down is awesome for the simple reason that most medium machines will now topple after 1 heavy strike. This includes, for example, Sawtooths, Scavengers or Croc bots.
It does not trigger with 1 strike for some of the more powerful, corrupted machines later in the game but it's super useful in a lot of situations.

Triple Shot once more increases damage or ailement buildup on your initial strike with a bow.
Double and Triple Shot can be used at all times, of course, but it takes some time to fletch more arrows onto the bow so it's harder when enemies already see you.


I would generally recommend Dodge first, then Knock Down, then Triple Shot. If you are a spear fetishist, get KD first.




And that's it. You have collected the most powerful Skills as soon as possible which will make you a force to be reckoned with.

Now it's your choice how to continue. Some ideas:
- Forager line: Scavenger and Ammo Crafter help a lot with resource efficiency. They become more useful the further you progress (stronger enemies = more ammo needs, stronger enemies = more valuable drops = more use out of extra loot)

- Leader strike: one-shotting elite humans is quite cool but remember that double or triple Precision arrow to the head does the same.

- Critical Strike: Definitely a good 8th pick. You can topple humans and many machines with heavy spear strikes (particularly with 'Knock Down' selected). Most machine also topple by applying burst arrow damage to their 'legs'.


Regarding the Skills improving machine-taming: they are useless. Machines do not follow you and the regular tame duration is enough to fight one or even two groups of machines. If you want to take your time (Ultra difficulty), the +50% duration may be nice.



Good luck hunting!