Sniper Elite 5: How the Skill Tree Works and Best Skills to Unlock

During your Sniper Elite 5 Campaign, you will earn XP points for completing objectives and killing enemies. When you reach enough XP, you will rank one level up and get a Skill Point. These can be spent on the Skills Menu and help you unlock new abilities, improve them and let you carry more items.

There are three Skill trees available in Sniper Elite 5, each one focused on a specific area: Combat, Equipment, and Body. Let’s see how they work and what are the best skills to unlock early in the game.

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How to Unlock New Skills in Sniper Elite 5

To access the Skill tree, you need to pause the Campaign and click on Skills. Alternatively, you can select Loadout and customization on the main menu and click on Campaign Skills. You can also access it before starting a new level.

To earn Skill Points, you need to farm XP by completing the main objective, the side missions, and killing enemies. Moreover, each level features at least one Kill List target: eliminating it will reward you with extra XP and help you rank faster. Playing with Invasion Mode enabled also awards you with extra XP.

Once you have enough Skill Points, you can spend them on the Skill Menu and unlock the abilities you need. For example, you will be able to use secondary weapons when incapacitated with No Time To Bleed or increase the carry limit for Teller Mines and Schu-Mines with Carry More Traps.

Combat Skill Tree

Unlocking your Combat skills can be highly beneficial throughout the game, especially if you are playing on Hard difficulty or higher. Depending on your playstyle, you might decide to prioritize this category or leave it aside for the first half of the Campaign and focus on other skills. If you prefer a stealth approach, you will not benefit that much from them. Otherwise, they will come in great handy.

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Here are the Combat skills you should prioritize early in the game:

• Back In The Fight: you must unlock it to have access to the others. This ability will let you use a medkit to revive yourself when incapacitated. 1 Skill Point required.
• Steady Hand: drastically reduces the scope shaking when you take damage. 1 Skill Point required.

Equipment Skill Tree

If you want to increase the amount of ammo and items you can carry with you during the game, you must focus on your Equipment skill tree. On higher difficulty levels, you won’t find many objects throughout the Campaign, so making use of these skills is essential.

Here are the Equipment skills you should prioritize early in the game:

• Scavenge Weapon Ammo: it is the first skill to unlock. Once activated, you can find and obtain ammo from found weapons. 1 Skill Point required.
• Extra Item Slot 1: you can add an extra item and carry more objects with you. 1 Skill Point required. Eventually, you can also unlock Extra Item Slot 2 later (it will cost you 2 Skill Points).
• Rifle Special Ammo: it adds one more box of special ammo for your rifle. 2 Skill Points required.

Body Skill Tree

The Body skill tree contains several useful abilities for your character. Having the right ones unlocked can save your life many times on the higher difficulties.

Here are the Body skills you should prioritize early in the game:

• Health Boost 1: it adds one extra health segment to your life bar. 1 Skill Point required. You can also unlock Health Boost 2 later (it will cost you 2 Skill Points).
• Cardio: it reduces the heart rate increase you face when sprinting. It will come in handy if you need to quickly escape from a specific location. 1 Skill Point required.
• Deep Breath: it reduces the heart rate increase you face when using Empty Lung. A must-have if you play with Empty Lung enabled. 2 Skill Points required.

You can adapt our suggestions to your playstyle and unlock other skills, such as Speedy Recovery, to make the health regeneration process start quicker. And if you are new to the Sniper Elite series and need some tips to begin the Campaign with ease, you can read our guide.