Talents

Talents

Every class has a small talent tree, learnt at the Class Table: its Talents button opens a cabinet with the six classes in the lower drawer, the chosen class's tree on the wooden panel and the talent under the cursor (or the one you picked) on the red panel, with its Learn button. Your souls wait by the lantern in the left niche, your Shell Shards in the right one. Learnt talents are kept on the player: they survive death and follow you into every world.

How a tree works

• Each class has three branches of four talents. A branch is learnt from the top down: a talent needs the one above it. Talents of a branch add up (Plated and Unbroken give 1 armor toughness).
• A talent costs souls, and the last two of a branch also cost Shell Shards. Each tier also waits for your group's progression:

Tier	Souls	Shell Shards	Opens once your group has beaten
1	20	0	the Block Guardian
2	50	0	the Ash Titan (World 2)
3	120	1	the Light Eater (World 5)
4	250	2	the Master of Seasons (World 8)

A whole tree costs 1,320 souls and 9 Shell Shards. Creative players learn for free. You must stand within 6 blocks of a Class Table.

• A class's talents act only while you wear or hold at least one item of that class (any tool wakes the Prospector's). The cabinet shows a glow behind the plates of the classes your gear wakes right now, and every talent's tooltip says so.
• Forget unlearns every talent and gives back half the souls spent on them (never the shards).

Attribute talents (armor, health, speed, reach and so on) become modifiers on the player while their class is awake. The others act on blows, kills and mining. Survivor resistance adds up to 25% on top of the gear's 60% cap, and Reaper soul gain adds to the gear's.

The trees

Guardian

Tier	Bulwark	Rooted	Warden
1	Stout: +1 max health	Planted Feet: +10% knockback resistance	Hardy: World gauges rise 5% slower
2	Plated: +0.5 armor toughness	Broad Back: +1 max health	Slow Mending: Out of combat, regain 1 health every 2 seconds
3	Unbroken: +0.5 armor toughness	Immovable: +20% knockback resistance	Hearty: +1 max health
4	Last Wall: Below 30% health, take 10% less damage	Thornshell: Return 20% of the damage you take to the attacker	Lacquer Skin: Every 30 seconds, gain 2 absorption health

Berserker

Tier	Fury	Frenzy	Shellbreaker
1	Heavy Hand: +3% attack damage	Quick Arm: +3% attack speed	Opener: Your first blow on a creature deals 10% more
2	Bloodied: Below half health, deal 10% more damage	Momentum: A kill gives Speed for 4 seconds	Giantkiller: Deal 3% more damage to bosses
3	Cleaver: +4% attack damage	Flurry: +4% attack speed	Finisher: Deal 10% more to foes below a quarter of their health
4	Red Mist: Below half health, deal 12% more damage	Rampage: A kill heals 3 health	Shell Splitter: Deal 5% more damage to bosses

Prowler

Tier	Shadowstep	Featherfoot	Ambush
1	Light Foot: +3% movement speed	Soft Landing: Fall 2 blocks more without harm	First Cut: Your first blow on a creature deals 10% more
2	Slip Away: +3% chance to dodge a blow	Climber: Step up 0.5 block higher	Stalker: Blows struck while sneaking deal 10% more
3	Fleet: +5% movement speed	Springheel: +10% jump strength	Vanish: A kill turns you invisible for 3 seconds
4	Phantom: +6% chance to dodge a blow	Cat's Fall: Fall 5 blocks more without harm	Assassin: Blows struck while sneaking deal 20% more

Reaper

Tier	Harvest	Leech	Omen
1	Gleaner: +5% souls from every kill	Thirst: Heal 2% of the damage you deal	Lucky Coin: +0.5 luck
2	Thresher: +8% souls from every kill	Feast: A kill heals 2 health	Blight: Your blows wither the foe for 2 seconds
3	Shell Gatherer: 25% chance of one more Shell Shard from a boss	Bloodletter: Heal 4% of the damage you deal	Fortune: +1 luck
4	Great Reaping: +15% souls from every kill	Gorge: A kill heals 4 health	Doom: Your blows wither the foe for 4 seconds

Survivor

Tier	Endurance	Recovery	Grit
1	Tough Lungs: World gauges rise 5% slower	Second Wind: Out of combat, regain 1 health every 2 seconds	Stubborn: Below 30% health, take 10% less damage
2	Weathered: World gauges rise 8% slower	Scavenger: A kill heals 1 health	Deep Breath: +1 oxygen bonus: your breath lasts longer
3	Thick Skin: +1 max health	Rally: Out of combat, regain 2 health every 2 seconds	Ember-Proof: Burn 50% shorter
4	Unbowed: World gauges rise 12% slower	Iron Heart: +2 max health	Never Down: Below 30% health, take 15% less damage

Prospector

Tier	Delver	Lode	Tunneler
1	Keen Edge: +2 mining efficiency	Ore Nose: 5% chance to mine an ore twice	Long Arm: +0.5 blocks of reach
2	Swift Pick: +10% block breaking speed	Lucky Strike: +0.5 luck	Wet Pick: +50% mining speed under water
3	Deep Cut: +4 mining efficiency	Rich Vein: 10% chance to mine an ore twice	Longer Arm: +1 blocks of reach
4	Gold Fever: Haste while you hold a tool	Motherlode: 20% chance to mine an ore twice	Mole: +20% block breaking speed

Details

• The values are checked by tools/balance.py (see Balance): a class's whole tree may move the hits to kill a creature, the hits you survive and the length of a solo boss fight by a quarter at most.

• "Out of combat" means no blow taken or struck for 5 seconds.

• "First blow on a creature" is the first player blow that creature takes, from anyone.

• The extra damage of Bloodied, Red Mist, Giantkiller, Shell Splitter, Opener, First Cut, Finisher, Stalker and Assassin is dealt as a second, smaller blow right after yours.

• Slip Away and Phantom roll on their own, on top of Prowler gear's dodge, at most 30%.

• Shell Gatherer rolls when a story boss falls within 64 blocks of you, never for a trial boss.

• The Lode talents work on vanilla ores and on every Matriochka ore block.

Stored data

Each learnt talent is a player flag talent_<class>_<id> in the Matriochka player state; the souls spent are counted in talent_spent for the refund. The trees are generated from tools/content.py (TALENTS, TALENT_TIERS, TALENT_EFFECTS) into content/ReplayContent.java; the behaviour lives in replay/Talents.java.