Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 – Best & Most Essential Perks You Need To Unlock

The best perks in Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 transform your Henry from a weak, pitiful beggar into an unstoppable knight. Some of the perks in this medieval RPG are absolutely required if you want to have a good time, and after 250+ hours of playing we’ve selected the perks we can’t live without. These are the perks you must, absolutely get.

But they aren’t the only perks you should get. Whenever possible, you’ll want to unlock the perks listed below — but everything else is also useful. Depending on your build and what weapons or skills you want to use, there may be invaluable perks not listed here. These are just the perks we think are ridiculously good, but don’t let that stop you from grabbing any perks you think are worthwhile. Remember, you can always respec with Lethean Water.

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Main Level | Best Perks

Well-Built: For each level of Strength, you gain 12 points of carrying capacity. Every little bit of extra carrying capacity is worth it.

Burgher: +1 Strength, Agility and Speech in settlements. Very useful for the entire game and especially in Kuttenberg where you’ll be stuck in the city for many long quests.

Night Crawler: +2 Strength, Agility and Vitality at night. +3 Stealth at night. Very useful for any build that wants to use stealth.

Martin’s Heritage: +10% Sword Fighting, Crafting and Survival skills. Just an extremely useful perk to collect at Level 10.

Warmonger: +2 Strength, Agility and Combat skill for 6 in-game hours after a fight. You’ll be fighting enemies a lot, making this skill almost required for late-game main quests.

Strength | Best Perks

Hard-Working Lad: Bags and dead bodies only count toward half their normal weight. Gain +8 Carrying Capacity. A very simple and effective skill that makes moving bodies easier. Incredibly handy if you’re performing stealth kills.

Pack Mule: +12 Carrying Capacity. That’s it. Every bit of extra carrying capacity is basically required.

Strong As A Bull: +20 Carrying Capacity. You get the gist.

Heracles: +1 Charisma for every 5 levels of Strength. An essential, effective perk that’ll guarantee your Charisma is just a little higher.

Agility | Best Perks

Creeping Phantom 1 & 2: +15% movement speed when sneaking. At Level 2, gain +35% movement speed when sneaking. Incredibly useful when sneaking — allows you to move faster than a soldier patrolling, so you can get close enough to perform a takedown or rob them.

Finesse 1 & 2: Deal 5% and 10% more slashing damage with all melee weapons. Required if you’re using swords.

Viper 1 & 2: Deal 5% and 10% more piercing damage with all melee weapons. Just a straight upgrade. You’ll want them both.

Vitality | Best Perks

Next To Godliness: Gain +10 HP when washing at a trough. If clean, heal +25% faster while sleeping. Incredibly useful at any point in the game. If you remove clothing tactically you can heal yourself over and over again by washing up.

Well-Dressed: Clothes and Henry will get dirty 20% slower. Useful for keeping your Charisma stat higher.

Revenant 1 & 2: Health regenerates up to 50 HP or 75 HP. Only happens outside of combat. A great way to heal up without wasting essential healing potions.

Creative Soul: Energy replenishes when doing Alchemy, Sharping, Blacksmithing or Playing Dice. If you want to do alchemy or craft, you’ll want this perk. It allows you to craft much longer — and farm longer — before having to sleep.

Speech | Best Perks

Hustler: Gain Stealth and Thievery XP for selling stolen goods — selling stolen goods is also easier. Very useful, as most items you get in the game count as stolen goods. Try to always sell them one or two towns over.

Jack of All Trades: Gain +2 to all Skill Checks. Very useful for progressing quests and you’ll earn bonus XP for succeeding at the skill checks.

Dreaded Warrior: Weakens enemies after using a Battle Cry. The second version makes this effect even stronger. Very useful for debuffing enemies in combat — especially good when you’re outnumbered.

Partner In Crime: Allows you to sell stolen goods to all vendors without being caught. Very useful for the same reason the Hustler perk is useful.

Alchemy | Best Perks

Lab Dweller: Potion effects last longer and hangovers from alcohol will be shorter. Very, very useful for all potion types — you’ll be using a lot of potions, so making them better is a good idea.

Art of Preservation: Raw food spoils slower. Also, very good. Food will spoil pretty fast if it hasn’t been cooked, dried or put in a smokehouse. Get this perk to give yourself more time to preserve your food.

Secret of Matter 1 & 2: Gain +1 Potion for every successful brew. Get both for +3 Potions. Insanely useful. One of the best perks allows you to craft more Potions for every brew. You’ll need fewer ingredients to crafter more faster.

Water of Life: Healing potions are 25% more effective. This is just a very useful, simple perk.

Craftsmanship | Best Perks

Razor-Sharp: +10% Damage when Sharpening a weapon on a grindstone yourself. Gets you an extra incentive to always use those grindstones — it saves you money and gives you a big damage bonus. Activates at 98% condition and stays until the condition drops below 75%.

Well-Fitted: Armor and clothing you repair yourself make less noise. Very useful for late-game sneaking when you’ll be wearing a full set of armor. Allows you to stealth even in plate armor.

Thorough Maintenance: Gear condition is damaged 10% slower. Less damage means you’ll be spending less money on repairs or repair kits.

Hardened Steel: Weapons forged by Henry are damaged 20% slower. Very useful if you plan on crafting your own weapons.

Locksmith: Buff to Thievery when lockpicking. Whenever you forge at a blacksmith you’ll gain free lockpicks. This perk is essential for lockpicking, especially early on when lockpicks are rare. You’ll get them for free and pick locks easier.

Totally Legit: Stolen items will lose stolen status 20% faster. Very useful if you want to actually keep your gear. This way you don’t have to remember where you stole what from — you can wear your stolen stuff freely after the tag is removed.

Martin’s Secret: Unlocks the fourth quality level. Essential for crafting. You’ll want to get this ASAP if you’re using the forge often. Fourth quality gear is far better than standard crafted weapons.

Drinking | Best Perks

Nightcap: Sleeping prevents hangovers and when drunk, beds gain +10% comfort. Very useful for sleeping off a bender, which you’ll do surprisingly often. I recommend crafting Hair of the Dog potions to cure drunkenness and keeping a few on you at all times.

Horsemanship | Best Perks

Good Old Pebbles: Ride Pebbles, your starting horse, for 35km to unlock this secret perk. It increases his stats and makes him the best horse in the game.

Saddler: Cobbler Kit repairs are 20% more efficient and you’ll gain +1 Thievery when pickpocketing. Really, the pickpocketing is what makes this perk useful.

Head Start: Double tap ride to gain a speed boost. Very useful when trying to get away from an encounter in the early game.

Final Stretch: Tap ride when almost out of stamina while mounted to regain a burst of stamina. Very good for escapes or for simply riding around the wilderness quickly.

Houndmaster | Best Perks

Lifesaver: Your dog will attack enemies to defend you. Mutt is extremely good at distracting enemies or holding them in place so you can perform a killing blow. Extremely good when you’re outnumbered.

Charming Companion: Gain +3 Charisma with Mutt. Very simple. Just a great perk that makes everyone love you more.

Dog’s Best Friend: Enemy dogs will only growl instead of barking at you. Incredibly useful for thievery, as dogs will quickly alert anyone nearby. If you have this perk, dogs only make a little noise and don’t attack you for trespassing.

Scholarship | Best Perks

Liberal Arts: Allows you to see the relative difficulty of all Skill Checks. This is an essential perk and required if you want to pass Speech Checks in dialogue — it won’t tell you if you can pass, but it will show all your skill levels and tell whether the check is Easy, Medium, Hard or Very Hard.

Explorer: Reveals the entire map. Nothing else to say here. Reveals all POIs, fast-travel markers, enemy camps and hunting spots. This saves you a lot of time when exploring late in the game.

Stealth | Best Perks

Ordinary Man: Any crimes you’ve been accused of will be forgotten faster. This is essential for criminal builds — but the severity of your crime will make the effects last longer.

Rodent: Make 25% less noise when sneaking indoors. Opening doors is half as loud. Doors are the main reason you’ll be caught, so remember to close doors and get this perk ASAP if you plan to rob people.

Escape Artist 1 & 2: Enemies will give up faster when searching.

Survival | Best Perks

On The Poacher’s Trail: Doubles the price of herbs, game and hides. Very useful for early game when you have no money and you need as much as possible. Selling herbs is almost viable with this perk. Only useful in the early game, though.

Flower Power: Carrying 30+ fresh herbs will increase Charisma by +2. If you plan to do alchemy, you’ll easily always carry more than 30 fresh herbs.

Master Cook: Cooking, drying or smoking food will raise condition to 100%. Extremely useful as spoiled food can be “repaired” with this perk.

Leg Day: Gain Strength XP for collecting herbs. Getting stronger is very, very useful.

Leshy 1 & 2: +1/2 Strength, Vitality, and Agility, +2/4 Stealth and +15%/25% stamina recover when in a forest. Most of your gameplay in Trosky will be in a forest. And this perk becomes insanely good if you get…

Wild Man: Leshy and Leshy 2 effects apply literally anywhere outdoors. This is one of the best perks in the game, making Leshy absolutely essential.

Thievery | Best Perks

Thief’s Eyes: A marker will appear showing what items are stolen and what isn’t. A gray hand will appear when selling to a merchant where a stolen item isn’t considered stolen. This is essential for thieves trying to make money with crime.

Stamping Ground: +3 Stealth in a human settlement. Goes very well with the Burgher Main Level skill. Gives you an additional boost, especially in the city of Kuttenberg.

Trafficker: Stolen items will lose their stolen tag faster. Very useful if you want to keep and use stolen goods for yourself instead of just stealing them.

Master Thief: All Very Easy locks will automatically open when attempting to lockpick. Save yourself some time.

Hidden Pockets: 35% chance a guard won’t find stolen goods when searching you. The odds aren’t great, but they’re worth it if it means you don’t need to reload a save. One in three isn’t the worst odds in the world.

Warfare | Best Perks

Head Protection: -20% damage to attacks on your head if you’re wearing head armor. Damage to your head is easily the most lethal in this game, so more protection can’t hurt.

Against All Odds: +2 Strength, Agility and Warfare skills when outnumbered in combat. You’ll be outnumbers a lot, any extra edge you can gain is worth it. Ironclad: Worn armor is considered to weight -20 pounds less. You’ll use less stamina. If you plan on wearing heavy armor, which everyone should for later combat encounters, then you’ll want this perk.

Unbreakable: +20% faster stamina regeneration when outnumbered. Again, anything that gives you a boost when outnumbered is required.

Knight In Shining Armor: Gain +1 to +4 Charisma when wearing Plate Armor. Very good if you don’t want to swap outfits (or forget!) during a quest and run into a dialogue skill check.

One Man Army: Deal +10% more damage when outnumbered. Again, being outnumbered in a battle is the worst so you need every little extra boost.

Swords | Best Perks

Master Strike: One of the best skills in the game. Learn this from Master Tomcat in the Nomads’ Camp as early as possible by completing the Combat Tutorial quests. Once you learn this, you’ll be able to auto-parry enemies and guarantee damage. One of the most essential skills in the game.

Showtime: Gain stamina after a successful sword combo or master strike. Keeping the stamina flowing means you can attack (or defend) more in combat.

Arm of Beowulf: Longswords become far more popular in the Kuttenberg region. These weapons can’t normally be held one-handed. Use this skill to wield them one-handed or with a shield, making defense easier with one of the most powerful weapon types in the game.

Unarmed | Best Perks

Sting Like A Bee: Gives you +30% more powerful attacks and +30% faster stamina recovery for the first 30 seconds of a fight. Very useful for unarmed brawling tournaments, which are the only reason you’ll need to fistfight in the game.

Sandman: Makes takedowns easier. Useful for any stealth — the takedown minigame usually only determines how much noise you make, so making less noise is ideal whenever you’re taking out guards in a camp or castle.

Marksmanship | Best Perks

Crippling Shot 1 & 2: Debuffs stamina recovery and combat ability when hit with an arrow. One of the best ways to soften up an enemy is with an arrow, then swap weapons to finish them off.

Salvo: Gain a buff to reload speed after each shot, allowing you to load and fire faster. Absolutely essential for using any type of ranged weapon.

Skirmisher: While on foot, gain +25% faster stamina recovery and 50% reduced stamina cost when sprinting. Basically you can sprint longer and faster after shooting. Another essential bow skill.

Eagle Eye: When lining up a shot, time will slow down for a moment. Very useful for scoring headshots in close quarters combat.

And that covers all the perks we think you need. Please note that these aren’t the ONLY good perks — there are dozens of bread-and-potatoes perks that help you deal more damage or improve your stats in ways you absolutely will want, but these are the perks we personally believe are completely invaluable. Don’t miss them.