Durango Wild Lands Skills Guide: Everything You Need to Know

In today’s article we are back with yet another Durango: Wild Lands guide, to be more specific a Durango: Wild Lands skills guide! In today’s article, we are going to tell you everything that you need to know about the skills in game, how to level them up and also which ones you need to focus on early in the game.

The skills depend on which character you choose, and if you have followed our guide on the best starting class in Durango, then you will probably have some of the skills which will help you later on in the game, because of the difficulty they present to level up early on. But either way, we will still explain everything.

If you haven’t chosen one of our best starting classes, then don’t worry! You don’t have to go and start with a new character, you can just read this article and learn everything you need to know about the skills!

Or check a gameplay video below first to see the game in action:

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Now, without further ado, let’s dive right into the skills guide for Durango: Wild Lands!

Durango: Wild Lands – Butchering Skill Guide

Butchering is a skill that you improve when you gather stuff from the animals that you kill, such as meat and bones. The butchering is an easy skill to level up, because there are multiple ways you can gain EXP in this field from level 1 even.

How to level up Butchering:

– To level up Butchering from level one you can go on the beaches and collect Clams, or find Crabs in the Palm Trees.

– You can also increase your butchering by collecting Bones and Meat early on in the game if you are willing to fight animals (that can be dangerous because you can die if you don’t fight well and get injured).

This is basically how you can level up your butchering to levels 10-15. After you reach level 10 you can learn Leather I, which will allow you to gather Leather when you butcher animals, and after you reach level 15 you can learn Bone II which will allow you to collect Large Bones from animals that you butcher.

Use these skills to level up butchering to level 20 afterwards, because that will let you acquire Skull I and Feather, which will then be used to craft more advanced tools and items. Keep doing these because butchering can be leveled up super fast and easy!

What skills you must get in Butchering:

– In the long run, you should focus on maxing out everything under the Deboning tab, to allow you to collect all the bones from the dead animals.

– Skinning tab should also come as a priority because it will allow you to craft better armors and costumes.

– Carving will let you gather useful ingredients for cooking and medicine, from fat to tendons and other special parts.

Durango: Wild Lands – Construction Skill Guide

Construction is a skill that is slightly more advanced and requires a little bit of investment in certain materials, as well as tools, so you will need to have plenty of stuff ready in order to focus hard on leveling up the construction.

One thing you need to know about leveling up the construction skill, is that it goes hand in hand with gathering and processing, because in order to start crafting items (which increase your construction) you also need to gather all kinds of items – simply because you need the materials.

How to level up Construction:

– To level up construction even from the very first levels, you should gather tons of leaves and craft Bundles. This is the fastest and easiest way to level it up, as all the Bundles need is Leaves, Stalks.

– Another useful way to increase construction is by crafting Baskets. The Baskets are containers which you can use to store various items, so even if you craft them you can use them as you please afterwards.

If you keep crafting Bundles with all your leaves, you can then level up the construction really quickly. The good part is that you also level up Gathering with this because whenever you collect leaves which you use for Bundles, you also gain experience for gathering them.

Depending on how much you want to dedicate to constructing and other skills, you can select various skills to go for, even if not all the way.

For example, if you want to catch fish, you can craft Fish Traps, but if fishing isn’t your cup of tea, then you might want to focus on other stuff in construction.

What skills you must get in Construction:

– Infrastructure – get this only if you want to make walls, roads, doors and other infrastructures basically. This works well if you want to improve how your tame island looks and how much functionality you attribute to it.

– Living Quarters – once your Construction reaches level 15 you should definitely get the Makeshift Taming Pen and Makeshift Pen because you can use these to tame animals and store your tamed animals. If you are really focused on getting a mini-zoo, you can level this up to get the pens.

– Construction Part – get to level 15 and unlock the Plank, because that will help you in many other fields. Other than that, it all depends on what you are focused on improving.

– Crafting Structures – this is where are the good useful tools are, and in my opinion you should level all of them.

Once your construction is level 15, craft the Small Loom, Small Drying Rack, Oven, Dyeing Bench, Basic Workbench and Dye Crafting Bench! It’s a must if you want to improve the stuff you can craft and cook.

– Traps / Containers – if you like storing a million things and the Basket is not enough for you, consider allocating some points here.

– Construction Training – If you want to increase the odds of crafting, then you can get this, else it’s not worth it in my opinion. If you are a dedicated crafter, then you should get it – else, no.

Durango: Wild Lands – Cooking Skill Guide

Cooking is yet another super important skill to survive, because it increases the quality of life you will have here in this secluded world. By increasing your cooking skills, you will improve so many things you can’t imagine.

The cooking field will let you create medicine, food, various dishes, as well as let you process food and learn to bake.

All of these are very important for survival, and they can’t really come easy if you don’t have one thing: fire. So to get this started early on in the game, you should first consider building a Bonfire.

How to level up Cooking:

– Early on in the game you won’t have much of a choice but to make endless Skewers. The best thing you can do here is collect as many fruits as you can (or meat, whichever comes easier) and a stick. Then you can go to that fire and select the Craft option and start cooking Skewers.

– Once your cooking is level 20, you can craft a Stone Plate BBQ and place it on fire to cook. Since this takes time to finish, if you want to speed up the process you can do so by crafting multiple Bonfires and make BBQs on all of them.

You should make as many skewers as you can to level this up to 20, because this is one of the easiest ways that you can level it up.

If you don’t want to tap on the craft again and again after each skewer, just increase the number by pressing the “+”.

This is what I used because it helped me empty a great deal of bag spaces and it’s also instant, so unlike the BBQ it doesn’t take time.

What skills you must get in Cooking:

– Medicine – if you fight a lot, this might come in handy to quickly recover your HP, or if you want to be the best cook out there. Else, I don’t really see it as being worth it.

– Preservation – if you aren’t a dedicated cook, I don’t suggest that you get this.

– Cooking Techniques – in this field you should get the Grilling I, Grilling II and possibly Grilling III. If you want other specially dedicated cooking skills, you can get the rest too, but else I don’t really see it as being worth it.

– Food Processing – go for the whole first row, starting with Chop Meat. If you are a farmer (or dedicated to farming) you might want to consider getting Squeeze Oil I also, and also Fermentation Culture I. If you are a dedicated animal lover and want to feed them only the best, you can go for Feed I, but in my opinion it is not worth it.

– Cooking Basics – not worth it in my opinion unless you are a dedicated chef.

– Baking / Dairy – not worth it in my opinion unless you are a dedicated chef (or farmer who want to make bread).

– Regional Dishes – not worth it in my opinion unless you are a dedicated chef.

Durango: Wild Lands – Defense Skill Guide

As previously mentioned in our best starting class, we said that the Defense is one of the toughest to level up because it requires you to successfully defend an incoming attack (time it well and everything).

Most of the skills in Defense will be useful, no matter what. These are the skills that will come in handy when you are fighting the animals and the more points you have allocated here, the more chances you have at surviving more.

Since it is pretty tough to level up this, because in order to gain exp you need to successfully use the defensive skills, there are a few things you can do to improve your defensive skill.

How to level up Defense:

– Early on in the game the only way to level up Defense is to fight (funny, right?). Since at start you only have Roll, use that as much as you can and use it correctly in the fights because that’s how you get the exp.

– After you reach level 10 Defense, you should learn Parry and use this to level up because it is going to work wonders.

What you must get in Defense:

– Recovery – is super important, especially the Stamina Recovery.

– Physical Training – these are all super important for your character overall, so definitely get them.

– Defensive Action – Parry is much better than Roll, but it all depends on which you are most comfortable with. You should definitely get at least one of them, so in my opinion – yes, level this up.

– Defensive Stance – if you fight a lot, definitely go for it as it will let you use your weapon to parry attacks.

Overall in my opinion here it’s best to go full ham on the Recovery and Physical Training, allocating points for everything in them. As for the rest, it all depends on how much you fight. Either way, you should definitely get Parry.

Durango: Wild Lands – Farming Skill Guide

Farming is another one of the skills that are a little tough to level up at start, because you need a certain item: mud.

Since farming can be pretty profitable for self-sustaining and creating a very nice terrain of your own (if you want to have your very own farmland on your tame island that is).

Since I am all about decorating and beautifying my tamed island as well as combining that with functionality, I definitely find farming as something that you can benefit from until late game.

Farming will let you not only cultivate food crops, but also plant trees, flowers and other plants that you can use for creating items such as clothes.

How to level up Farming:

– Early on there is only one thing you can do, and that is seeking mud. With mud you can create Till Small Fields and you can just start doing this as much as possible.

– One other way that you can gather Farming exp is by collecting dinosaur poop, wherever you bump into one.

– If by any chance you also find Corn seeds, go ahead and pick them. You can then cultivate them in your fields.

– Level up by getting Mud until you reach level Farming level 25 and can gather Wild Tropical Flax Seeds that you can then use to cultivate.

What you must get in Farming:

– Food Crops – this is quite useful if you want to level up Farming and focus on it, or want to try new stuff out with cooking. Else, it’s not really worth investing in it.

– Farming Facility / Tool – if you like farming, you should consider getting Till Large Field, but if you only casually farm, then the Till Small Field will do.

– Farming Basics – go for this only if you want to focus on farming.

– Wood – if you want to plant trees, this is good, but else it’s not worth it.

– Flower – this is purely decorative, so it’s your choice. It’s not a must get skill, unless you want to decorate.

– Functional Crop – this is super useful because you can cultivate plants that you can use for other stuff too (as the name implies, functional). You should get the Flax at level 25 and start using it.

Durango: Wild Lands – Gathering Skill Guide

Gathering is one of the easiest skills to level up in game because it requires you to simply collect everything that you see. You probably won’t even need a guide for this, as it can be found literally at every step in the game. Even so, we will go into detail!

Since the maximum level you can level the skills to the level that you are, there is no doubt that if you constantly just keep gathering everything that you see, you will have it maxed all the time.

How to level up Gathering:

– You can start picking up everything that you see early on, from pebbles to leaves and branches. Just do this and you’re good.

– No matter what you pick, make sure you level up Mud II once your Gathering is level 10.

What you must get in Gathering:

– Unusual Plants – it’s good, get it.

– Wood – definitely invest in this because it’s good for multiple purposes.

– Minerals – like I mentioned before, Mud II is super important because you can level up Farming with this. Go for the others too if you use minerals when crafting.

– Plants – get all of them.

– Gathering Basics – if gathering is not your life, then it’s not worth it.

– Bugs – not worth it in my opinion.

Durango: Wild Lands – Melee Skill Guide

Melee is super important because sooner or later you will need these skills to fight dinosaurs, for various reasons: be it to tame them, to get bones, meat or to simply level up Melee or Defense, you will need it.

Along with Gathering, Melee is super easy to level up because all you have to do is fight. However, choosing what skills to go for is another thing, as all of the weapons differ from each other. Some hit harder, some have other traits – all you need to do is find the right weapon for you.

How to level up Melee:

– Melee is super easy to level up. Just attack dinosaurs and you’re good. Fight as much as you can (without dying) and you are going to level this up very quickly. Use the unlocked skills to increase it even faster.

What you must get in Melee:

– Combat Stance – if you fight a lot, go for the one which matches your weapon (Berserk Stance if you are using two handed weapons and Blitz Stance if you are using lance). Else, skip it.

– Enhanced Melee Attack – if you fight a lot, use them, else skip them.

– Two-Handed Action, One-Handed Action, Lance Action – Focus on just the one that you will use mostly in battle. And judging from our article where we talked about the best weapon in the game, that’s probably going to be Two Handed.

– Melee Specialization – like previously mentioned, if you are not a dedicated fighter, then it might be better if you skip this.

– Bare-Handed Action – Body Tackle is a must, the rest are optional.

There is something that I can suggest for you to do, but this might only be useful in certain cases. For example, one thing you can try to do is learn some useful combat skills if you want to allocate one day to fight, and once you are finished you can just unlearn the skills.

Basically let’s say that for example you have a Lance and want to fight to level up. You can learn some lance skills and improve your damage with the lance, and once you are done you can unlearn them.

Since you can unlearn for free every day 15 times, you can do this for a couple skills. Well, it’s all up to you, but in my opinion this is an option.

Durango: Wild Lands – Processing Skill Guide

Processing is a skill that is used with raw materials to create new ones. Basically processing is the process of crafting. Whenever you make Rope, Nails and whatnot you increase your Processing skill.

How to level up Processing:

– The fastest way to level up Processing is to craft Ropes, Charcoal, Long Sticks and other such items.

– When you start the game you can automatically craft Ropes, so you can use this until you reach level 10 to craft Charcoal (from Wood).

– At level 15 you can make Peeled Bark, so definitely try to do this whenever possible because it’s pretty easy.

What you must get in Processing:

– Standard Processing – I would suggest getting as many as possible depending on your needs, but generally Trimmed Material is a must to craft better clothes.

– Processing Practice –  not worth investing the points.

– Material Crafting – this is where you can craft all of the basic materials needed to improve… everything basically. Definitely go for as many things here as you can depending on your needs.

– Material Processing – not really good in my opinion.

Durango: Wild Lands – Ranged Skill Guide

The ranged skill is very similar to the Melee one, following the same principles but being obviously all about ranged attacks. So if you prefer to fight from a distance, sending arrows towards your enemies and staying a bit farther away from the heat of the battle, focus on Ranged instead.

How to level up Ranged:

Just like melee combat, in order to increase your Ranged skill, you have to take part in lots of battles and used a bow or crossbow, together with your Ranged-related skills.

What you must get in Ranged:

– Ranged Action: This is one of the actions in the Shooting Stance, so definitely invest as much as you can in this one to deal more damage in combat.

– Enhanced Ranged Attack: Again a vital set of skills if you choose Ranged, since it increases damage dealt to enemies.

– Ranged Weapon Specialization: Here, you will have to focus on one of the two types of ranged weapons available in the game: Bow or Crossbow. I recommend the former since it deals more damage.

– Ranged Combat Stance: Again a vital skill to always max out as it improves your Shooting Stance.

Durango: Wild Lands – Survival Skill Guide

Survival is a skill that you will most definitely need no matter what. There are not many things you can choose here, because the Surviving Durango skills are allocated automatically every 10 levels that you advance and it’s related to your overall player level.

How to level up Survival:

You can’t level up survival in traditional ways, only by leveling up.

What you must get in Survival:

– Survival Level – they assign automatically every 10 levels.

– Exploration Skills – definitely must get all of them, as they boost your very basic stats such as stealth, energy and other useful stats that you use to discover new areas.

– Animal Taming – now this one depends on how you choose to play, but personally I like allocating to all the skills here as I like taming animals.  There are multiple branches here, so if you only want to specific on a specific dinosaur type, then follow that branch only.

Durango: Wild Lands – Tailoring Skill Guide

Tailoring is the skill that lets you craft armors and bags and jewelry, as well as other types of gear that you can use to protect yourself in certain environments. Tailoring is very useful for this, but early on it could prove a little painful to level up especially if you are lazy to gather all the materials.

How to level up Tailoring:

– Early in the game you can level up this skill by crafting plenty of Leaf Outfits and Footwraps.

– You can do this up to level 15, when you can start crafting Flower Necklace.

– Once you are level 25 Tailoring, this will go hand in hand with Farming because you will be able to use the Flax plant to create Flax Collection Outfit.

What you must get in Tailoring:

– Accessories – I don’t recommend getting these skills.

– Beginner’s Gear – if it fits in your skill tree, then you can get this only to level up your Tailoring – else, skip it.

– Bags – I don’t recommend getting these skills.

– Jewelry – I recommend getting Flower Necklace if you want to level up Tailoring with this and then you can refund the points.

– Tailoring Materials – at level 20 go for Thread and Fabric because these are two essential materials, and if you are super into tailoring, then you can allocate the other points too, else never mind them.

– Modifications – I found Attach Pouch I useful because I like gathering a lot and every extra bag slot is useful to me. If you have the same issue, consider learning this, else skip it altogether.

– Settler’s Gear – Not extremely important, as the items you can craft here don’t add too much value in combat.

– Tailoring Basics – if you plan to craft a most of your armor and other Tailoring-related items, invest in this as it increases the success rates when crafting.

– Exploration Gear – These are, as the name suggests, mostly exploration-based and I wouldn’t recommend investing many points here.

If you do want all the boosts you can have when exploring and performing different actions in the game, some of the items here will help. But really, it’s just a waste of skill points!

– Hunting Gear – These are better to invest in, as they give a massive boost to your defense and sometimes offer other boosts as well, so they’re useful in combat.

– Modified Modern Gear – we haven’t got this far, so we can’t yet talk about these two skills, but probably they’ll allow you to craft some really good defensive items.

Durango: Wild Lands – Weapon / Tool Skill Guide

This is a vital skill that you will need leveled up as soon as possible, because it’s here where you will craft all your tools and weapons in the game, basically deciding the quality of all the items you will use and gather.

(There is the option of buying them from the Island Market, but that’s going to become too expensive soon)

Therefore, try to max out this as soon as possible, but specialize afterwards, because in reality you won’t need to be an expert at crafting ALL the items available here – just some of them.

How to level up Weapon/Tool:

Simply craft weapons or tools over and over again. The easiest items to craft here are the Wooden Club (you only need two Sticks – and there’s plenty of them on your Tamed Island), or Stone Blades which only require a Stone Chunk.

I would actually recommend focusing on the latter, because you will put the Stone Blade to better use later on for crafting more advanced items which you can at least sell on the market.

When it comes to crafting tools, the easiest to craft is the Wooden Harpoon (just 1 stick required), but really you can spam-craft wooden clubs or stone blades and level this up quickly.

What you must get in Weapon/Tools:

– Cooking Utensil: If you plan to do a lot of cooking and have a varied diet, you will need this (or at least a few skills here). There are other – although less complex – recipes out there, so it’s not really a priority.

– Blunt Weapon: If you decide to use blunt weapons mostly, then you should definitely invest in all skills here. And you should, since this is our recommended type of weapon in the game! And even so, only focus on the two-handed options (since one-handed are worthless)

– Knife: Only useful if you plan to fight using knives. Focus on two-handed also.

– Axe: See above.

– Spear: If you want to go all Lances and use spears as your main weapon, invest in this. But Blunt Weapons are still better!

– Bow: This is good to invest in if you’re planning to become a ranged character. Invest only in Bows, not Crossbows.

– Crafting Basics: Increases your success rate when crafting, so definitely put your skill points in this one.

– Tool: You will need solid tools in order to get the most in the game, so definitely invest here as well. There are many different types of tools in the game, though, and you might not need them all. Get all of them at level 10, see which ones you use the most and invest in those only.

– Specialty parts: This will be needed eventually for crafting more complex weapons, so get them when needed.

– Modify weapons: You can only use these on melee weapons (and you should!) so only get this one if you’re not aiming to become a ranged character.

And this would be it for our guide to all skills in Durango. Do you have any more questions regarding the skills or want to share your insight about the skills with us? Make sure you do so down in the comments below!

If you want to read more tips and tricks to get better at the game, check out our hub here.