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 specification
| Class-specific | Not class-specific |
|---|---|
Template:Skill Template:Skill Template:Skill Template:Skill |
Template:Skill (6) Template:Skill (6) Template:Skill (4) Template:Skill (3) Template:Skill (2) Template:Skill (2) Template:Skill (1) |
The number of characters sharing a skill not specific to a class is indicated in parentheses.
Skills by class
Officer
- Template:Skill – Boosts the damage dealt and the damage resistance of nearby squad mates.
- Template:Skill – Increases damage dealt by the Vindicator.
- Template:Skill – Increases the effectiveness of all explosives.
- Template:Skill – Increases a marine's health.
- Template:Skill – Sarge's specialized skill. Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
- Template:Skill – Jaeger's specialized skill. Increases the damage dealt by the marine's melee atacks and melee weapons, and the speed of melee attacks.
Special Weapons
- Template:Skill – Increase damage dealt by the Autogun and the Minigun.
- Template:Skill – Provides a chance for bullets to pierce through enemies.
- Template:Skill – Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
- Template:Skill – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
- Template:Skill – Wildcat's specialized skill. Increase the marine's movement speed.
- Template:Skill – Wolfe's specialized skill. Increases a marine's health.
Medic
- Template:Skill – Increases the healing power of healing items and the total amount carried.
- Template:Skill – Allows the medic to heal infested marines, reducing the duration of the infestation.
- Template:Skill – Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
- Template:Skill – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
- Template:Skill – Faith's specialized skill. Increase the marine's movement speed.
- Template:Skill – Bastille's specialized skill. Boosts effectiveness of adrenaline when used by your squad.
Tech
- Template:Skill – Increases the range and rate of the movement scanner.
- Template:Skill – Speeds up welding and Sentry Gun setup for all nearby teammates.
- Template:Skill – Decreases the reload time of all weapons.
- Template:Skill – Crash's first specialized skill. Increase the damage dealt by most standard weapons.
- Template:Skill – Crash's second specialized skill. Increases the effectiveness of all explosives.
- Template:Skill – Vegas's first specialized skill. Increases a marine's health.
- Template:Skill – 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.
Synthesis
See Playable Characters#Characteristics and skills synthesis.
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Campaigns • Characters • Enemies • Equipment • Promotions • Skills • Weapons Background • Challenges • Console • Difficulty • Experience • Server setup • Speedrunning • Steam achievements • Strategy |
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