The best skills in Cataclysm: Dark Days Ahead

Summary

• Prioritize evasion, health, and melee weapon skills to improve survivability and combat ability. Choose wisely!
• The Tailoring skill helps long-time characters craft powerful armor, while the Tools skill allows you to unlock doors and disarm traps.
• Health increases the healing rate after dealing a wound, which is very important for survival in the early game.

Cataclysm: Dark days ahead (CDDA) is a turn-based survival horror roguelike. Released in 2013, CDDA receives regular community updates to this day and can be downloaded for free from GitHub. In this game, players find themselves in a world ravaged by simultaneous apocalypses. From aliens to hordes of zombies and gruesome horrors, there's all kinds of ugliness to be found in this terrifying world. The only goal is to survive and death is guaranteed.

Skills are important to help players survive the apocalypse, improve their combat prowess, know-how, and ability to interact with the world. Choose carefully when creating a character. It really can be the difference between life and death.

8 Evasion

No hits, no damage

• Increases dodge chance.

A character's Dodge skill determines his ability to dodge incoming damage, whether it's from enemy attacks, traps, or environmental hazards. This skill also increases the success rate and effectiveness of acrobatic actions such as parkour.

Starting with a few levels in Dodging is a must. Even normal zombies pose a significant threat to the survival of new characters, as most of them have poor weapons and almost no armor. Remember, pain can quickly disable you! Evasion will allow new characters to counter many simple enemies, greatly reducing incoming damage. In the late game, high evasion will allow players to counter evolved monsters, helping them avoid their deathblows.

7 Food processing

Nutritional efficiency, now and always

• Gives more and better recipes to craft.

Food Handling increases the number and complexity of hearty food recipes that players can prepare. It also makes the slaughterhouse more efficient, and at higher levels allows you to store food.

While not vital for new characters, assigning a level or two at character creation will help make early game exploration more efficient, allowing players to make more nutritious and hearty meals from looted resources. In longer games, almost all natural food has rotted, making this an important skill. Storing food is also vital to help players avoid starvation during the winter when natural food is scarce.

6 Melee weapon skill

Kill them first

• Increases skill with a specific weapon type.

At character generation, players have three different melee weapon skills to choose from: slash, slash, and pierce. Each weapon type has its own strengths and weaknesses, and improving these skills will increase the character's accuracy and increase the damage of the respective weapon type.

It is recommended to start with a few levels of one of these skills, as new players are weak and struggle to hit, especially with improvised weapons such as kitchen knives. In the long run, high skills in the chosen type of weapon will significantly improve the player's survivability – especially against evolved enemies.

5 Health care

Heal faster, survive longer

• Increases healing rate after wound treatment.
• Reducing the number of failures of medical procedures.

Health Care increases the effectiveness of medical treatments such as bandages and antiseptics and reduces the failure rate of procedures such as compact bionic module (CBM) insertion.

In the early game, health levels will give faster wound healing even when using items that don't heal well. For poorly equipped and armored new characters who take a lot of beatings, enhanced healing greatly increases their chances of survival. It also allows players to stock up on high quality healing items for when they really need them. Long-term high health will allow players to quickly return to action. It also makes CBM experiments much less lethal.

4 devices

Optimizing survival

• Increases hacking speed.
• More chance of successfully disarming the trap.

The Devices skill determines the speed and success with which the player can interact with security devices and traps, including break and disarm traps. While not vital to survival in the early game, a high gear level will increase a new character's chances of survival by giving players access to better loot found behind locked doors, storefronts, and more.

Behind these locks can be a whole host of powerful weapons and armor. Being able to reliably disarm traps is also a huge benefit, whether the character is in their first or fifth year of survival. Such traps often contain riches, and failure to disarm the trap often results in death.

3 Computers

Robots are not (as) deadly

• Wider access to terminals.
• Higher chances of a successful hack.

Computer Proficiency measures a character's ability to navigate computers and technology, allowing players to hack terminals and even robots at higher levels. Like the Devices skill, the Computer skill is optional for new or long-term characters to survive. However, it greatly increases survival.

For new characters, successfully hacking a terminal can grant access to an impenetrable metal door and the rich loot inside. Long-term, reliable terminal hacks allow players to disable security systems, making access to robot-infested scientific facilities far less dangerous. High level characters can even hack robots!

2 Tailoring of clothes

Survival through skill

• Provides access to more and better clothing recipes.

Tailoring is a skill that measures a character's ability to make and repair various clothing and textiles. A higher tailoring skill is directly related to the number and variety of clothing a character can craft, although they will need separate skills to craft high-level items.

Early in the game, characters should have several levels of tailoring so they can keep their clothes and armor in good condition. A breach in armor, especially during combat, can quickly lead to death. In longer games, a high level of tailoring is necessary to produce and maintain defensive armor in a world filled with advanced monsters. Heavy armor can be looted, but it's often fatal.

1 Skill in shooting a pistol or rifle

Get an edge in the apocalypse

• Increases skill with a specific type of gun.

Pistol and rifle shooting skills give players greater accuracy, faster aiming, and better weapon customization. Depending on availability, location, and enemy type, it is recommended that new players specialize in one type of weapon.

While not vital to survival, starting or learning a few levels in pistols or rifles in the early weeks of the apocalypse is useful – doubly so if players intend to rely on such weapons in combat. New characters can die quickly if left to fight enemies in close quarters, as the weapon is a poor melee weapon. In the long run, pistols and rifles are vital tools to help players fight increasingly powerful evolutions.