Wanted: Dead is the latest hack-and-slash title to come from the mastermind group of developers who have worked on similar titles like Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive. When playing Wanted: Dead, the opposition you face will be powerful and cuts you down just as quickly as you can take them down. With that said, there is a skill tree to even the playing field, which is the focus of this guide. Without further ado, here are the best skills in Wanted: Dead.
Best Skills to Get in Wanted: Dead
Unironically, the best skills you should immediately focus on when playing Wanted: Dead are going to be in the Defense skill tree. No matter what difficulty you play on, the enemies you’ll face are very cheesy, as they’ll interrupt your combo in mere seconds or “stunlock” you to the end of time, a motion that renders you unmovable for seconds.
You’ll want to be able to mitigate the “stunlock” potential or be able to heal to your maximum output, so focus on these below perks for the best course:
- Guard Strength Increase (500 Skill Points): Can maintain guard against one attack before guard breaks.
- Armor Reinforced (800 Skill Points): Improves armor, reducing damage taken.
- Stimpack +1 (1200 Skill Points): Increases max number of Stimpacks by 1.
- Stimpack Recovery Up (1300 Skill Points): Increases the amount of HP recovered from Stimpacks by 60%.
- Evade Window Increase (2000 Skill Points): Increases invulnerability window during evasion by triple.
- Power Parry (800 Skill Points): Able to parry unguardable melee (red) attacks.
- Parry Window Increase (2500 Skill Points): Increases parry window when guarding by double.
Once you tackle the above skills, here are a few other suggestions that will make your life easier. The offensive melee skills will make your life easier as the shooting does very little damage, and you’ll often find yourself relying on melee and using the “Bullet-Time,” the in-game slow-motion ability, to cheese enemies with finishers or quickly mop up fodder.
On the flip side, your in-game companion Doc can revive you up to a few times if you die. Grabbing the highest utility perk related to Doc, he’ll revive you to full HP, give you an extra Stimpack, and boosts your adrenaline gauge to the max for more “Bullet-Time.”
Offense
- Severed Leg Finishing Strike (1300 Skill Points): Guaranteed Finishing Strike on enemies with severed legs.
- Severed Arm Finishing Strike (600 Skill Points): Guaranteed Finishing Strike on enemies with severed arms.
- Melee Damage Up (3000 Skill Points): Increases the power of melee attacks by 15%.
- Parry Adrenaline Rate Up (2500 Skill Points): Adrenaline Gauge gained from parrying attacks increases by 30%.
- Melee Adrenaline Rate Up (2500 Skill Points): Adrenaline Gauge gained from melee attacks increases by 15%.
Utility
- Doc: Revive Overdrive (1300 Skill Points): In addition to Doc’s revival when HP reaches 0, Adrenaline Gauge becomes Max and you receive an extra Stimpack.
How to Earn Skill Points in Wanted: Dead
If the above costs for the skills recommended scare you, fear not, getting Skill Points is painless as there are ample opportunities. Defeating enemies will earn the in-game currency, although you’ll earn way more by defeating them with melee kills or finishers. You’ll also partake in mini-games such as the “Crane Game” with plenty of collectibles that will also grant Skill Points.
Provided you stylishly slay your foes and partake in the mini-games, you should have zero issues maxing out your skill tree before you finish the game.
That’s all you need to know about the best skills to unlock in Wanted: Dead. For more content related to the game, be sure to check out the related section below.
