Skills
Overview
BONKERS uses an Ultima-Online-style skill model: 7 skills, each running from 0 to 100, raised by using them rather than by spending points. There is no class and no level — what you do is what you get good at.
Skills are stored per player and synchronised across multiplayer, and reset to zero when you start a new character.
The skills
| Skill | Raised by |
|---|---|
| Wrestling | Unarmed strikes. Gains only when no weapon is equipped. |
| Swordsmanship | Swords, maces and axes — all three route to this one skill. |
| Archery | Bows. |
| Sorcery | Staves and spellcasting. |
| Shields | Gains on a successful block. |
| Smithing | Crafting. Gains on a craft, not on a swing. |
| Harvesting | Every gathering action — wood, stone, greenleaf, cactus — routes here. |
Harvesting is deliberately one unified skill — there is no separate Mining or Lumberjacking. Every gathering action feeds the same track.
How skill is gained
Each use awards XP; every 40 XP converts into one skill point. Gains slow as you approach the cap: the multiplier runs from 1.0× at skill 0 down to 0.15× near 100, so the last points cost far more use than the first.
Unarmed hits raise Wrestling only when no weapon is equipped — the starter punch is not a weapon proficiency.
Mastery at 100
Skill points give a flat +0.5% damage per point (+50% at cap) for the matching weapon. There are no 50/75 milestones — the curve is flat, and reaching 100 unlocks a mastery perk:
- Swordsmanship — 25% chance to ignore the target's armour, and a 20% chance on a bladed hit to apply a bleed.
- Sorcery — 10% spell crit chance at 1.5× damage.
- Wrestling — unarmed damage doubles at cap (+0.5% per point).
- Wrestling 100 + Sorcery 100 — a 25% chance to fully block any direct attack.
- Shields — a 50% block chance is defined in code but marked gameplay TBD; treat it as partial rather than settled.
Harvest yield
Harvesting rolls the number of items a node gives:
| Harvesting skill | Result |
|---|---|
| ≤ 50 | 50% chance of 1 item, otherwise nothing |
| ≤ 75 | 75% chance of 1 item, otherwise nothing |
| < 100 | Always 1 item |
| 100 | 1 to the node's maximum, rolled |
Smithing separately scales crafted output, from 1.0× at 0 to 1.5× at 100, and gates recipes by rarity: Common 0, Uncommon 25, Rare 50, Epic 75.
Source & verification
Source status: generated from the current BONKERS repository on November 8, 2026. Every figure on this page was read out of the files below at generation time — nothing is estimated, remembered or predicted.
Verification: Implemented in code, not yet playtested. Shield mastery is flagged "gameplay TBD" in source.
Code/Combat/SkillBook.cs
Regenerate with
python tools/make_wiki_articles.py after the code changes, then
python build.py.