Achilles: Legends Untold – Best Talent Tree Skills

Amidst the soulslike combat of Achilles: Legends Untold is the staple talent tree that accompanies any action RPG worth its salt. As far as talent trees go, this one has enough variety to make your initial choices compelling and important, especially about your weapon of choice as you play.

The talent tree is a large constellation chart made up of 13 constellations, each with (for the most part) its own unique cluster of talent points. Some are more interesting than others to be sure, offering new abilities or ways to add to the playstyle of a specific ability.

Others are simple stat buffs, and even though these are a bit more boring than the alternatives, they can ultimately lead to much more powerful upgrades for your character when taken in bulk.

Also, strictly from an artistic perspective, the fact that the talent tree is a constellation chart is a phenomenal and intriguing visual that trumps many talent trees I’ve seen in the past.

Key Info Upfront

The capstone talents—which are talents you unlock automatically by putting at least one point into all the talents within a given constellation—are generally the best talents to shoot for (as visual indicators, there are no lines connecting them to the other talents).

There really aren’t any exceptions to this, due to the level of power each one holds when compared to all the other options. Thus, this guide aims to list all the capstone talents from best to worst, and on top of that, offer you some advice on which talents to go for after you’ve unlocked the capstone talents. So, let’s jump right in.

What do the Stars Mean?

To start, I want to list all 13 constellations of the talent tree (in no particular order) and briefly mention their gameplay focuses to offer a solid foundation for the information that will follow:

• Whale: increases your total health (a.k.a. Vitality).
• Wolf: increases special weapon skill damage (a.k.a. Precision).
• Dog: increases loot and experience gained from fallen enemies (a.k.a Luck).
• Lion: increases your stamina (a.k.a. Endurance), with some additional, varied talents.
• Bear: increases damage dealt (a.k.a. Strength).
• Hydra: increases your stamina (a.k.a. Endurance).
• Eagle: betters your Thrown Shield ability.
• Bull: increases your total health (a.k.a. Vitality).
• Pegasus: increases your maximum fury (a.k.a. Wrath).
• Centaur (probably Chiron): increases damage dealt (a.k.a. Strength) and betters your Counterattack ability.
• Achilles (central constellation): no focus here, as there are talent points to increase almost all your stats.
• Archer to the right of Achilles (maybe Orion?): increases special weapon skill damage (a.k.a. Precision).
• Archer to the left of Achilles (probably Hercules): grants you the Life Drain ability and increases your maximum fury (a.k.a. Wrath).

The Best Talents to Aim for: Capstone Talents

There are a few constellations that have capstone talents built into them (seven so far), and the way to snag them is simple: gain all the talent points within a given constellation and you will automatically unlock the corresponding capstone talent.

And let me be clear: these talents are what you want to aim for. That said even though some are better than others, there is one key thing to consider before ranking them:

What type(s) of talent points are required to learn to unlock your desired capstone talent?

Although one capstone talent may, by itself, be better than another one, the talent points required to learn it may be vastly inferior to those required to learn the other one.

Consequently, this can cause a capstone talent that, alone, is superior to another one, to be ultimately worse due to the resources needed to unlock it. Bearing all that in mind, let’s hop into the ranking.

1: Hero Ethos

Hero Ethos is the capstone talent of the dog constellation and by far the one you want first. Since it gives Achilles more experience from defeated enemies, the sooner you unlock it, the more experience you will gain the rest of the way.

Simply put, more experience means more levels, and more levels means more talents. Remember, this talent gets better the earlier you learn it and worse the later you learn it, so be sure to snag it quickly.

2: Rage

Rage is the capstone talent of the lion constellation, and although it’s not the best in itself, the talents that lead up to it increase its value a great deal.

Rage increases the damage of a combo-chain with each swing of your weapon within said combo, making this particularly well-suited for weapons that have fast attack animations (i.e. one-handed swords). However, there are two talents within the lion constellation that are powerful as well:

• Vengeance: this talent restores health to Achilles every time he kills an enemy, making taking on large numbers of enemies safer and easier.
• Endurance: all the regular stat-increasing talent points here increase Achilles’ stamina, which, as mentioned earlier, allows you to attack, sprint, and dodge more at once.

Because of these two things, Rage makes it to number two on the list.

3: Gift II

Gift II is the capstone talent of the Achilles constellation and grants Achilles access to his second Special Weapon Skill slot. These abilities can be quite powerful, making this an incredibly valuable talent and one worth grabbing.

That said, the reason it’s up as your third capstone talent to grab instead of your second is only because you may not have unlocked a second Special Weapon Skill that you want to use. By saving this as your third capstone talent, chances are you’ll have two Special Weapon Skills you enjoy playing with.

4: Not Today

Not Today is the capstone talent of the whale constellation and, by the time you get to a high enough level to unlock this one as your fourth capstone talent, chances are you will start needing it.

Not Today allows you to revive after dying on the spot (for a small sum of gold), instead of having to run all the way back to wherever you died. The best part is, all the talents within the whale constellation increase your Vitality, and what could be bad about more health?

Nothing. The answer is nothing.

5: Crushing Blow

Crushing Blow is the capstone talent of the centaur (Chiron) constellation. This talent, while not the most essential, is very helpful down the line, especially as enemies become more difficult to deal with and said enemies are wielding shields that block most of your attacks.

Crushing Blow allows you to breach an enemy’s block with a big swing of your weapon (a swing that can hit more than one enemy as well). Furthermore, the centaur constellation is made up of talents that better your counterattack, which, again, isn’t essential but is great to have.

Additionally, it’s also made up of talents that increase your Strength. Even if you’re not wielding a Strength-scaling weapon, the stat nonetheless increases the damage you deal all around, making it pretty decent.

6: Absorption

Absorption is the capstone talent of the Hercules constellation, which increases your health regeneration after drinking a potion. This isn’t the best talent, but it lands number 6 instead of number seven because the Hercules constellation is made up of Wrath points, which increases your Fury levels.

High Fury paired with High Endurance can allow you to keep attacking, dodging, and running for quite a while. That said, the Soul Drain talent and the talents that buff built into this constellation are remarkably underwhelming, which is why Absorption is as low as it is on the list.

7: Heroism

Heroism is the capstone talent of the Orion constellation, which increases your damage dealt by 5% when below 30% health. This talent is quite bad unless you have high health, making it an endgame goal, and is therefore why it’s last up on the list.

Heroism increases in value the more health you have, for if you have relatively low total health, sticking around the 30% range is dangerous because you can easily get one-shot by almost anything. Not until you have been putting points into Vitality talents, which consequently gives you a high max health pool, is Heroism worth the investment.

Life After Capstone Talents

Once you have unlocked all the capstone talents, all that’s left for you to do is fill out the constellations that don’t have capstone talents and put your overflow points into raw stat-building talents.

With this knowledge, the best general type of talent to go for are those that increase your Endurance. Since Endurance directly correlates to your stamina, which in turn directly correlates to how much you can attack, sprint, and dodge, it makes the most sense to have as much Endurance as possible.

That way, you minimize the chances of being overrun by a swarm of enemies or being one-shot by a boss because you’re out of stamina and can’t dodge its big-boy, unblockable attack.

As such, focus on the Endurance talents available to you in the Lion, Hydra, and Achilles constellations. And don’t forget: for raw stat-building talents, you can put a point in each skill up to three times.

Past Endurance, Vitality talents are your best bet. The only reason I would consider going for Strength, Wrath, or Precision instead of Vitality is if I were to main a specific weapon that had very high scaling in a particular one of the former stats.

For example, if I really enjoyed using a specific legendary spear that had A-level scaling in Wrath, I might choose to max out my Wrath points before maxing out my Vitality points.

That said, even if this is a course of action you choose, I would nonetheless recommend putting at least some points into Vitality as soon as you can. It just adds an extra layer of protection from death and will generally make you feel safer.

Of course, if you are elite at this game and fear nothing at all, then by all means, take the fully offensive route.

The Eagle Constellation

The last thing worth mentioning is the Eagle constellation. This group of talents focuses entirely on Achilles’ Thrown Shield ability and is incredibly powerful if you choose to wield a shield.

So, if a shield is a weapon you want to commit to, I would recommend picking up all the talents in this constellation after you’ve acquired Hero Ethos, Rage, and Gift II. If you don’t want to wield a shield, then save these for last as they are a waste of points in that case.

FAQs

Wrapping Up

Talent trees can always be daunting, especially when opening them up for the first time in a brand-new game.

As such, I hope this guide helps you navigate this beautiful constellation chart of a talent tree, for even though it may look grandiose in its appearance, when it comes down to it, it’s one of the easier ones to get into.

With all that being said, enjoy your hack-and-slash adventure through ancient Greece as one of Greek mythology’s greatest heroes!