Skills denote a character's areas of expertise. Each character has 5 skills, 2 of which are unique to his/her class. Furthermore, to differentiate marines belonging to the same class, each has 1 specialized skill, except for Techs, who have 2. Specialized skills are not unique to any marine or class; they merely serve to make marines of the same class attractive to different play styles.

Skills are purely passive and never need to be activated. As long as you use a weapon or item or perform an action that falls within a skill's domain, you receive that skill's bonus. For example, if you are playing a character with the Damage Bonus skill, firing an Assault Rifle will automatically deal more damage depending on the skill's level. Normally, skill levels are fixed for each character and cannot be increased or decreased, but there is a console command that lets you modify them (as in Alien Swarm 2K4) if used in the lobby before other players connect:

asw_custom_skill_points 1

The above command is a "cheat command", which prevents players from earning experience points.

Altogether, there are 15 different skills currently in the game.

Skills by specificationEdit

The number of characters sharing a skill not specific to a class is indicated in parentheses.

Skills by classEdit

OfficerEdit

• Leadership – Boosts the damage dealt and the damage resistance of nearby squad mates.
• Vindicator Damage – Increases damage dealt by the Vindicator.
• Explosives Bonus – Increases the effectiveness of all explosives.
• Health Bonus – Increases a marine's health.
• Damage Bonus – Sarge's specialized skill. Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
• Melee Damage Bonus – Jaeger's specialized skill. Increases the damage dealt by the marine's melee atacks and melee weapons, and the speed of melee attacks.

Special WeaponsEdit

• Autogun Damage – Increase damage dealt by the Autogun and the Minigun.
• Piercing Bullets – Provides a chance for bullets to pierce through enemies.
• Damage Bonus – Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
• Reload Speed Bonus – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
• Speed Bonus – Wildcat's specialized skill. Increase the marine's movement speed.
• Health Bonus – Wolfe's specialized skill. Increases a marine's health.

MedicEdit

• Healing Bonus – Increases the healing power of healing items and the total amount carried.
• Infestation Curing – Allows the medic to heal infested marines, reducing the duration of the infestation.
• Damage Bonus – Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
• Reload Speed Bonus – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
• Speed Bonus – Faith's specialized skill. Increase the marine's movement speed.
• Combat Drugs – Bastille's specialized skill. Boosts effectiveness of adrenaline when used by your squad.

TechEdit

• Scanner – Increases the range and rate of the movement scanner.
• Engineering – Speeds up welding and Sentry Gun setup for all nearby teammates.
• Reload Speed Bonus – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
• Damage Bonus – Crash's first specialized skill. Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
• Explosives Bonus – Crash's second specialized skill. Increases the effectiveness of all explosives.
• Health Bonus – Vegas's first specialized skill. Increases a marine's health.
• Melee Damage Bonus – Vegas's second specialized skill. Increases the amount of damage dealt by the marine's melee atacks and melee weapons, and the speed of melee attacks.

SynthesisEdit

See Playable Characters#Characteristics and skills synthesis.

Marines • Enemies • Classes • Playable characters • Weapons • Equipment Achievements • Challenges • Difficulty • Experience • Leveling • Promotion • Skills • Speed running • Strategy Campaigns • Console • Custom maps • Maps • Mapping tutorials • Modifications • Patches • Server setup