Skills

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A character's skill trees.

Skills are each character's passive upgrades. Every character has a skill tree of branches (five in XC1), each holding five skills learnt strictly top to bottom. Characters earn skill points (SP) from kills; the SP flows into the one branch the player has selected, and the selected branch also grants that branch's trait, a stat bonus that grows as the branch fills. Progress is owned by the same component that owns levels, Game/BP_XenoCore_Progression (UXenoCoreProgressionComponent), and is stored per character, keyed by the member definition. The one idea: a tree is a Data Table and a save only ever stores counts. "Branch row X, 3 skills learnt, 240 SP into the fourth" is the whole record, so you can rewrite, rename or rebalance skills without breaking saves, and every stat a skill gives is re-derived from that record whenever anything changes.

At a glance

In play: the Skills screen (main menu › Skills) shows each character's branches; pick one, and the SP from every kill fills its skills top to bottom.

What you can change, no code:

• A character's tree, a new branch or a new skill: Add a skill or a skill tree
• SP costs, trait ladders and SP per kill: the three shared tables in Battle/Skills
• How fast SP comes in overall: Skill Point Reward Scale on Game/BP_XenoCore_Progression
• Every setting: What you can change

63 shipped skills are stand-ins

Every one of the 100 shipped skills, and every branch trait, does something. But 63 of the skills keep their Xenoblade Chronicles name, shape, colour, scope and cost while doing a different, simpler thing, because the system their original effect needs is not built yet (tension, visions, chain attacks, counters, equipment weight classes, gem crafting), or is built without the hook the skill needs (aggro modifiers on arts, Party Gauge fill and revive bonuses). Stand-in skills lists each one, what it does, and what it waits on.

How it fits together

Piece	Asset or class	What it does
Skill tree	Battle/Skills/DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_*, rows of XenoCoreSkillBranchRow	One row per branch. The row name is the branch's id; row order is the order the branches are drawn in.
The character's tree	Skill Tree on the character Blueprint (XenoCore › Skills)	Which table this character uses. Read from the class defaults, so a benched character (no body) still has one.
Cost curves	Battle/Skills/DT_XenoCore_SkillCostCurves	SP to learn each of a branch's five skills. Two rows: Starting (300, 700, 1,000, 2,000, 3,500) and Quest (200, 500, 800, 1,000, 1,500).
Trait ladders	Battle/Skills/DT_XenoCore_SkillTraitLadders	A trait's value at 0, 1 ... 5 skills learnt. Six rows, for example AgilityFlat 2, 5, 8, 10, 12, 15.
SP per kill	Battle/Skills/DT_XenoCore_SkillPointRewards	Flat SP by level difference: Trivial 1, Easy 5, Even 10, Strong 15, Dangerous 20.
Stat carrier	Battle/Skills/GE_XenoCore_SkillStats	One infinite effect per body that carries every stat skill and the trait, one channel per stat.
Skill abilities	Battle/Skills/Abilities/GA_XenoCore_Skill_*	Behaviour for skills that react to something (battle start, a kill, an ally falling). Blueprint children of XenoCoreSkillAbility_TimedBuff.
Progression component	Game/BP_XenoCore_Progression	Holds every character's record, awards SP, applies skills to bodies, answers "how big is this bonus?".
Skills screen	UserInterface/Skills/W_XenoCore_SkillsScreen (UXenoCoreSkillsScreenBase)	The menu screen, opened from the Skills entry of the main menu.
Icon set	UserInterface/Skills/DA_XenoCore_SkillIconSet	How every skill icon is drawn. No skill has its own icon art.

The shipped trees and who uses them:

Tree	Character (pawn)	Branches open at start
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Shulk	Kael (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_L) and Blue (Game/B_XenoCore_Player)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Reyn	Mira (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_K)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Dunban	Nia (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_S)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Fiora	Dorran (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_C)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Arcanist	Isolde (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_M)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Trickster	Sabine (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_Q)	3 of 5
DT_XenoCore_SkillTree_Medic	Tamsin (B_XenoCore_Party_VRoid_Y)	3 of 5

A tree can be shared: Kael and Blue point at the same table, but each has their own progress, because progress is keyed by the character, not by the table.

A branch

Each row of a tree table is one branch:

Field	What it does
Display Name	The branch's name on the screen.
Trait Description	One line shown when the branch header is focused.
Trait Stat	A XenoCore.Stat.* tag: the stat the trait raises. Empty means the branch has no trait.
Trait Operation	Add (points, or percentage points for a rate) or Scale (a percentage of the stat).
Trait Ladder	A row of DT_XenoCore_SkillTraitLadders.
Cost Curve	A row of DT_XenoCore_SkillCostCurves.
Unlocked At Start	Open from the start. Otherwise a quest opens it.
First Skill Prelearned	The first skill starts learnt, at 0 SP.
Skills	Exactly five skills, top to bottom.

A skill

Each of a branch's five Skills is one entry. A skill does its work in up to three ways, all optional and all driven by one number, Value:

Field	What it does
Display Name, Description	Shown on the screen. The description may contain {Value}, which is replaced with the formatted value ("Reduces equipment weight by {Value}.").
Shape	The icon's frame: Circle, Square, Hexagon, Star or Diamond. Only the future Skill Links feature reads it (Diamond means "this character only").
Timing	Always (blue icon) or In Battle Party (orange icon): the skill works only while its owner is an active member.
Scope	Self, Battle Party (every active member) or Whole Party (everyone, benched included). The icon's glyph.
Value	The skill's strength. What Stats add, what a Bonus is worth, what an Ability reads.
Duration	Seconds, for a skill with an Ability that applies a timed buff.
Stats	Stats raised by Value while the skill reaches the body. Each entry is a Stat tag and an Operation (Add or Scale). A skill can raise several.
Condition, Condition Threshold	When the Stats hold: Always, Health At Or Below or Health At Or Above a percentage of max HP, or No Armour (nothing in any armour slot; the weapon does not count).
Chance	Percent chance that an Ability's trigger fires. 100 is always.
Bonus	A XenoCore.SkillBonus.* tag another system asks about (see below).
Ability	A skill ability class, granted to the body while the skill reaches it.
SP Cost Override	−1 uses the branch's cost curve. Anything else replaces it for this skill.
Link Cost	Reserved for Skill Links, which are not built. Read by nothing.

Lifecycle

Seeding. The first time anything asks about a character's skills, their record is filled in from the tree: every Unlocked At Start branch is opened, a First Skill Prelearned branch starts with one skill learnt, and the first unlocked row in table order becomes the selected branch. Seeding only ever adds: a branch you add to a table later appears for existing saves too, and progress on existing branches is never touched.

Earning SP. When an enemy dies, SP is awarded before the EXP:

1. The party's level is worked out per Skill Point Level Basis: the active party's average (default), the leader's, the lowest active member's, or each character's own.
2. The level difference (party level − enemy level) picks a band in the reward table. The first row whose range contains it wins.
3. The band's SP × Skill Point Reward Scale × the enemy's Skill Point Multiplier is paid to every roster member. Benched members get Reserve Skill Point Rate of it, which the sample sets to 0, like the EXP rate, so a benched character earns nothing (XC1 pays 90%).

Quests do not pay SP. Anything else can, by calling Award Skill Points (see Extending it). After a kill, each party member's HUD plate shows the EXP, AP and SP they earned together.

Spending SP. SP flows into the character's selected branch only. It fills the next unlearnt skill; when the skill's cost is met, the skill is learnt and any remainder carries into the next. The icon on the Skills screen fills from the bottom as SP arrives. On each skill learnt:

• "Skill Learnt" floats over the character (if they have a body), and
• XenoCore.Skills.Message.SkillLearnt is broadcast carrying the Member, Branch (row name), Index (0 to 4) and Skill Name.

SP earned by a finished branch is thrown away

Once all five skills of the selected branch are learnt, any further SP for that character is wasted. Nothing warns the player; the screen shows ---- / ---- against the branch. This is deliberate, it is what makes choosing a branch a decision, but test it as a player would.

Selecting a branch. On the Skills screen, focus a branch header and press accept (Change Trait), or click it. Switching is free and unlimited. Learnt skills stay active whichever branch is selected; only the trait follows the selection. Selecting a locked or unknown branch is refused with a warning in LogXenoSkills.

Unlocking a branch. A quest opens a branch when it is turned in, through its reward's Skill Branches list (Member plus Branch, the row name). Blueprint can do the same with Unlock Skill Branch. The party member sees a notice over their head (Branch Unlocked Text), and the Skills screen gains a column. The quest offer screen and the turn-in banner both list branch rewards.

Applying skills to a body. Whenever something changes, the progression component re-derives every body's skills from scratch:

1. It removes the stat effect it applied last time.
2. For every roster member whose skills reach this body, it adds up each learnt skill's Stats (checking Condition), plus the trait of this body's own selected branch.
3. It applies one GE_XenoCore_SkillStats carrying the totals, one channel per stat.
4. It grants any skill Ability that newly reaches the body and removes any that no longer does. Abilities already granted are left running, so a buff counting down or a "once per battle" latch survives a refresh caused by something unrelated.
5. It keeps HP as the same fraction of max HP, so a Max HP skill never quietly takes HP away.

This runs when a body spawns, when a skill is learnt, when a branch is selected, when the party changes, when equipment changes, after a level-up, and when a body's HP crosses a skill's condition threshold. Nothing about it is saved; it is always rebuilt from the record.

Who a skill reaches. A skill owned by one character applies to a body when:

• the owner is that body, or the skill's Scope is Battle Party and the body is an active member, or the Scope is Whole Party; and
• the skill's Timing is Always, or its owner is an active member.

So an orange (In Battle Party) party-wide skill buffs the active party only while its owner fights, and a blue (Always) whole-party skill works even from the bench. The same rule decides who a Bonus counts for.

Level-ups. A level-up re-applies the statline and then refreshes skills, because a Scale skill is a percentage of a stat that has just moved. A level-up still heals to full, including any extra max HP a skill adds.

How a skill takes effect

Stat skills and traits

Most skills are just Stats plus a Value. They arrive through GE_XenoCore_SkillStats, whose twelve channels are the list of stats a skill can raise:

XenoCore.Stat.Strength, .Ether, .Agility, .PhysicalDefence, .EtherDefence, .CriticalRate, .BlockRate, .Weight, .WeaponAttackMin, .WeaponAttackMax, .MaxHealth, .MoveSpeed.

• Add adds Value as points. For Critical Rate and Block Rate the value is a whole percentage (15 means +15 %). Move Speed is a percentage over the character's authored walk speed.
• Scale adds Value percent of the stat as it stands without skills (statline plus equipment), so it grows with gear. Timed buffs up at that moment, such as Strength Up, are left out of the price.
• A negative Value lowers the stat (Weight −5). The screen labels it "Weight Down".

A skill naming a stat the effect has no channel for does nothing and logs a warning naming the skill.

Bonuses other systems ask for

A Bonus skill adds nothing to a character by itself. Instead, a system asks "what is this character's total bonus for this tag?" with Get Skill Bonus and applies it. The answer is the sum of the Value of every learnt skill with that tag that reaches the character, as a percentage. Shipped systems ask with these tags:

Tag	Asked by	Effect
XenoCore.SkillBonus.QuestExperience	Quest turn-in	% more EXP from quests
XenoCore.SkillBonus.BattleExperience	Enemy kill	% more EXP from enemies
XenoCore.SkillBonus.ArtPoints	Enemy kill	% more Art Points from enemies
XenoCore.SkillBonus.HealingPower	Healing arts	% more HP restored by the caster
XenoCore.SkillBonus.PhysicalDamageTaken	Damage formula	% less physical damage taken
XenoCore.SkillBonus.EtherDamageTaken	Damage formula	% less ether damage taken
XenoCore.SkillBonus.CriticalDamage	Damage formula	% more damage on a critical hit
XenoCore.SkillBonus.FirstStrike	Damage formula	% more damage on the attacker's first hit of each battle

Because the answer is read from the record, a bonus works for a benched character too.

Skills with behaviour

A skill that reacts ("when an ally falls", "at the start of a battle") names an Ability: a Blueprint child of UXenoCoreGameplayAbility_Skill. It is passive: granted while the skill reaches the body, active from the moment it is granted, removed when the skill stops reaching it. It can read its own skill with Get Skill, Get Skill Value and Get Skill Duration.

The shipped behaviour skills all use one ready-made class, UXenoCoreSkillAbility_TimedBuff: when this happens, apply that buff for the skill's Duration. A Blueprint child with two fields set is a new skill; there is no graph.

Setting (XenoCore › Skills)	What it does
Trigger	Ally Incapacitated (another active member goes down), Battle Start, Battle Start Vs Higher Level (the battle is against an engaged enemy at least Level Gap levels above), On Kill, On Miss (this body's attack is evaded), On Critical.
Buff	The status effect to apply, a GE_XenoCore_Status_*.
Additional Buffs	More statuses applied at the same time, with the same strength and duration.
Level Gap	For Battle Start Vs Higher Level. Default 3.
Battle Start Window	How long after the battle starts an engaged enemy still counts as "starting a battle against it". Default 1.5 s.

The skill's Value is sent to the buff as its strength (a status that reads a percentage turns 20 into +20 %), its Duration as the buff's length, and its Chance is rolled each time the trigger fires. A battle-start trigger fires at most once per battle; a failed roll is that battle's answer. Because the buff is an ordinary status, it shows on the HUD and over the character like any art's buff.

The On Kill, On Miss and On Critical triggers listen for gameplay events on the character: XenoCore.Event.Combat.Kill (sent by a dying enemy to whoever damaged it last), XenoCore.Event.Combat.Miss and XenoCore.Event.Combat.Critical (sent by the damage formula).

Your own attacks must send the combat events

If you add an attack that does not use XenoCore's damage execution, on-miss and on-critical skills never fire for it, and nothing reports it. Send XenoCore.Event.Combat.Miss or .Critical to the attacker with Send Gameplay Event To Actor and they will.

Condition gates Stats only

Condition decides whether a skill's Stats hold. It does not gate a Bonus or an Ability. A skill with a condition and no stats does nothing more than an unconditional one; Data Validation warns about it.

Stand-in skills

All 100 shipped skills have an effect. Each character's tree mixes three kinds:

• Faithful skills (37) do what the original game's skill does.
• Stand-ins (63) keep the original skill's name, shape, colour, scope and SP cost, and use an effect that already works in XenoCore. Each is the nearest live effect in the spirit of the name: a taunt raises defence, a tension skill gives a combat buff at a similar moment, an equipment-class skill reduces Weight.
• Traits all work. Three branches whose original trait was counter rate (_Reyn Impatience, _Dunban Bravery, _Fiora Rashness) raise Block Rate or Critical Rate instead, on the same ladder.

A stand-in is ordinary data. To give a slot the original effect once its system exists, or any effect of your own, edit the skill's entry in its tree table (see Changing a shipped tree).

Every stand-in (63)

Tree	Branch · slot	Skill	What it does	XC1's effect	Waits on
_Shulk	Bravery 1	Fate Evasion	EXP from enemies +10 %	EXP when a vision tag breaks	Visions
_Shulk	Bravery 2	Hero's Privilege	AP from enemies +20 %, whole party	Trades 20 % more generous	a trade hook
_Shulk	Bravery 5	Glorious Future	Strength Up 15 %, 30 s, at the start of a battle vs. a stronger enemy	Talent Gauge fills after a vision	Visions
_Shulk	Humanity 2	Kind Encouragement	Healing arts +10 %	Encouraging heals	Encourage
_Shulk	Humanity 3	Friendship Heals	Battle party healing arts +10 %	Party heals after a Chain Attack	Chain Attack
_Shulk	Humanity 4	Cheer of a Friend	Battle party: Strength Up 20 %, 20 s, when an ally falls	Burst Affinity fills the Party Gauge	Party Gauge
_Shulk	Humanity 5	Chain of Friendship	Critical rate +5 %	Chain link chance +15 %	Chain Attack
_Shulk	Integrity 1	Medium Equipment	Weight −2	Medium armour allowed	weight classes
_Shulk	Integrity 2	Secret of Life	Battle party Max HP +5 %	Revived allies +10 % HP	Party Gauge revive
_Shulk	Integrity 5	Ultimate Teamwork	Critical damage +25 %	Chain Attack damage +25 %	Chain Attack
_Shulk	Intuition 1	Battle Cry	Battle party: Strength Up 15 %, 20 s, at battle start	Tension +20 at battle-start affinity	Tension
_Shulk	Intuition 4	Fever Pitch	Quest EXP +10 %, whole party	Gem-crafting Fever	Gem crafting
_Shulk	Intuition 5	Element of Surprise	First strike +30 %	Positional art bonuses improved	positional arts
_Shulk	Pessimism 1	Fight the Future	Battle party: Phys. Def Up 20 %, 30 s, vs. a stronger enemy	Visions warn 4 s earlier	Visions
_Shulk	Pessimism 2	Stealth Warrior	Agility +10 %	Arts draw 10 % less aggro	Aggro
_Shulk	Pessimism 3	Epic Evasion	Agility +10 % at half HP or below	Burst Affinity after evading	Affinity
_Shulk	Pessimism 4	Forced Mercy	Physical damage taken −10 %	Sheds 25 % more aggro when hit	Aggro
_Shulk	Pessimism 5	Immunisation	Ether damage taken −10 %	Immune to stat-lowering debuffs	debuff immunity
_Reyn	Camaraderie 1	Ties of Friendship	Block rate +5 %	Chain link +5 %	Chain Attack
_Reyn	Camaraderie 2	Shoulder to Shoulder	Battle party Max HP +5 %	Party heals 10 % after a Chain Attack	Chain Attack
_Reyn	Camaraderie 3	Flying Start	Battle party Haste 15 %, 30 s, at battle start — only the affinity condition is dropped	Battle party Haste 15 %, 30 s at battle-start affinity	Affinity
_Reyn	Camaraderie 5	Friends Forever	EXP from enemies +10 %	Affinity +30 on encourage	Affinity
_Reyn	Enthusiasm 1	Heavy Equipment	Weight −4	Heavy armour allowed	weight classes
_Reyn	Enthusiasm 2	Courageous Taunt	Physical defence +10 %	Taunt arts +10 %	Aggro
_Reyn	Enthusiasm 3	Healing Inspiration	Healing arts +10 %	Encouraged ally heals 10 %	Encourage
_Reyn	Enthusiasm 5	Heroic Taunt	Physical damage taken −15 %	Taunt arts +15 %	Aggro
_Reyn	Impatience 1	Ultimate Taunt	Phys. & Ether defence +10 %	Non-targeted taunt arts +20 %	Aggro
_Reyn	Impatience 3	Rampage	Strength Up 20 %, 30 s, on a kill	Double-attack rate +10 %	Counters / double attacks (parked)
_Reyn	Impatience 5	Channelled Pain	Strength +15 % at half HP or below	Talent Gauge when hurt	an on-damage talent hook
_Reyn	Spirit 1	Medium Equipment	Weight −2	Medium armour allowed	weight classes
_Reyn	Spirit 3	Unrelenting Spirit	Phys. Def Up 20 %, 30 s, when an ally falls	No low tension when an ally falls	Tension
_Reyn	Spirit 4	Feel the Heat	Agility +10 % at 75 % HP or below	Tension +5 when hurt	Tension
_Dunban	Bravery 1	Medium Equipment	Weight −2	Medium armour allowed	weight classes
_Dunban	Bravery 3	Warrior's Ambition	Battle party Agility Up 15 %, 20 s, at battle start	Tension +25 at battle-start affinity	Tension
_Dunban	Bravery 4	Overwhelming	Strength +10 %	More aggro from damage dealt	Aggro
_Dunban	Enthusiasm 2	Counter Rage	Critical rate +5 %	Counter rate +10 %	Counters (parked)
_Dunban	Enthusiasm 3	Ardent Strike	Strength Up 10 %, 10 s, on a crit	Tension +10 on a crit	Tension
_Dunban	Enthusiasm 4	Deadly Determination	Agility Up 15 %, 20 s, on a kill	Tension +10 on an art	Tension
_Dunban	Enthusiasm 5	Blazing Aura	Battle party Strength +5 %	Party Gauge on aura use	Party Gauge + auras
_Dunban	Obstinance 3	Heavy Equipment	Weight −4	Heavy armour allowed	weight classes
_Dunban	Obstinance 5	Solid Foundation	Physical defence +15 %	Blow-down immunity	knockback / Topple resist
_Dunban	Prudence 1	Sustained Spirit	Haste 10 %, 20 s, at battle start	Auras last +10 s	Auras
_Dunban	Prudence 2	Steel Protection	Ether damage taken −10 %	Spike damage −20 %	Spikes
_Dunban	Prudence 3	Mind of the Warrior	Battle party Agility +5 %	Party Gauge kept between fights	Party Gauge
_Dunban	Prudence 4	Lightweight Expert	Phys. & Ether defence +10 %	Light armour's defences +15 %	weight classes
_Dunban	Prudence 5	Critical Drain	Haste 15 %, 10 s, on a crit	Heal 2 % max HP on a crit	an on-crit heal
_Dunban	Wisdom 1	Spiritual Awakening	Strength +15 % with no armour	More aggro with no armour	Aggro
_Dunban	Wisdom 3	Twin Swords	Critical rate +5 %	Double-attack rate +5 %	Double attacks (parked)
_Fiora	Courage 1	Mechonis Equipment	Weight −3	Mechonis gear allowed	weight classes
_Fiora	Courage 2	Desperate Daggers	Critical rate +15 % at half HP or below	Counter rate +15 % at half HP	Counters (parked)
_Fiora	Courage 3	Second Wind	Battle party Haste 20 %, 20 s, when an ally falls	Revived allies +20 % HP	Party Gauge revive
_Fiora	Courage 5	Unwavering Courage	Battle party Phys. Def Up 30 %, 30 s, when an ally falls	Party Gauge +50 with two allies down	Party Gauge
_Fiora	Innocence 1	Maiden's Power	Critical damage +20 %	Chain damage +50 % with Shulk	Chain Attack
_Fiora	Innocence 2	Maiden's Courage	Strength Up 30 %, 20 s, vs. a stronger enemy	Attack arts +50 % when Shulk warns	Visions
_Fiora	Innocence 3	Maiden's Blessing	Physical damage taken −10 %	10 % chance to heal on hit, with Shulk	Damage Heal
_Fiora	Innocence 4	Maiden's Zeal	Ether damage taken −10 %	Cancels very low tension, with Shulk	Tension
_Fiora	Innocence 5	Maiden's Miracle	All Stats Up 25 %, 20 s, when an ally falls	All Stats Up 25 %, 20 s when Shulk encourages	Encourage
_Fiora	Rashness 1	Vision Mode	Strength Up 25 %, 20 s, on a kill	Attack arts +25 % when warned	Visions
_Fiora	Rashness 2	Ultimate Counter	Critical rate +10 %	Counters always crit	Counters (parked)
_Fiora	Rashness 3	Vital Force	Agility +20 % at 25 % HP or below	2 % chance of a full Talent Gauge when hurt	an on-damage talent hook
_Fiora	Rashness 4	Critical Combo	Haste 20 %, 10 s, on a crit	Double attacks always crit	Double attacks (parked)
_Fiora	Rashness 5	Explosion of Energy	Haste 20 %, 20 s, at battle start	Tension +1 level on talent arts	Tension
_Fiora	Zeal 5	Strong Links	Battle party Haste 20 %, 15 s, at battle start — only the affinity condition is dropped	Battle party Haste 20 %, 15 s at Burst Affinity	Affinity

The pre-learnt first skills are stand-ins

Each character's free first skill is an equipment-class skill (Medium or Mechonis Equipment). Until equipment weight classes exist, it reduces Weight, so every character starts with a learnt skill that works. Weight is subtracted from Agility when hits are rolled, so less of it means better evasion and accuracy (see Stats and damage).

The Skills screen

The screen is opened by the main menu's Skills entry (Open Skills Screen). It shows one character at a time, starting with whoever you are controlling:

• L / R step through the whole roster, benched members included, with a strip of portraits.
• The card shows the character's portrait over one column per unlocked branch, in table row order; locked branches are left out, not greyed. Each column is a header over five icons.
• An icon is composed from the skill's data: Shape is the frame, Timing the colour (blue Always, orange In Battle Party), Scope the glyph (one figure, three figures, ALL). An unlearnt skill is a dark silhouette; the one being learnt fills from the bottom.
• The selected branch's header is drawn in the button style's Selected state (the same blue as every selected row in the project) and shows a second line, SP 200 / 700, or Complete. That line is the character's SP: there is no SP balance, only progress into the next skill.
• The cursor is XC1's: a yellow frame with an arrow on each side, the same on a branch header and on a skill icon, so it never looks like the selection. Its colour and sizes are Cursor Colour, Cursor Frame Width, Cursor Arrow Size and Cursor Arrow Gap on the header and icon classes.
• Focusing a branch header shows its trait, the trait's current value, Selected or Not selected, skills learnt, and SP into / cost for the next skill (or ---- / ---- when the branch is complete).
• Focusing a skill shows its stat and value, SP cost or Learnt, Active (Always / In battle party), Affects (Self / Battle party / Whole party) and Effect Time if it has a duration.
• Change Trait appears on the action bar only while the cursor is on a branch that is not already selected.

The screen derives from UXenoCoreCharacterMenuScreenBase, a shared base for any menu screen about one character. The Arts screen uses the same base. It owns roster cycling (benched included), the portrait strip, the bumper glyphs, an optional pair of tab triggers (ZL / ZR), and Menu input mode. A screen built on it overrides On Member Shown to paint, and always reads records by member definition, never from a pawn, because the shown character may be benched.

What you can change

Setting	Where it lives	What it does
Skill Tree	Character Blueprint › XenoCore › Skills	The character's tree. Empty means no skills; the screen shows "No skill tree".
Skill Point Reward Table	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills	SP bands per kill.
Skill Point Reward Scale	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills	One multiplier over all kill SP. 1.0 by default; raise it for a shorter game instead of editing the bands.
Reserve Skill Point Rate	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills	Benched members' share of kill SP: 0 in the sample (the C++ default is XC1's 0.9). A separate setting from the EXP rate, so the two can differ.
Skill Point Level Basis	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills	Whose level sets the band: Party Average (default), Leader, Lowest, Own.
Skill Stats Effect	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills	The stat carrier, GE_XenoCore_SkillStats.
Skill Learnt Text, Branch Unlocked Text, Skill Learnt Colour, Skill Feedback Scale	BP_XenoCore_Progression › XenoCore › Skills › Feedback	The line floated over a character. Empty text turns it off.
Skill Point Multiplier	Enemy Blueprint or placed enemy › XenoCore › Enemy	Scales the SP this enemy pays. 1.0.
Skill Branches	Quest definition › Reward	Branches the quest opens on turn-in.
Costs, ladders, bands	DT_XenoCore_SkillCostCurves, _SkillTraitLadders, _SkillPointRewards	Shared by every branch that points at them.
Icon Set, Icon Class, Header Class, Header Style, Accept Action, Show Skill Links Tab, sizes and colours	W_XenoCore_SkillsScreen class defaults › XenoCore › Skills	The screen. Header Style is the branch headers' button style, ButtonStyle_XenoCore_Menu; restyle that asset and the headers follow. Empty falls back to the header's own plate colours. Leave Show Skill Links Tab off; Skill Links are not built.
Portrait Size, Unselected Portrait Opacity, Max Visible Portraits, the four actions	W_XenoCore_SkillsScreen class defaults › XenoCore › Menu	The character strip and bumpers, from the shared base.
Shape Textures, Glyph Textures, Always Colour, In Battle Party Colour, Unlearnt Colour	DA_XenoCore_SkillIconSet	Every icon. Restyling all skills is a texture swap here.

Every table checks itself when saved or validated. You get a Data Validation error for a branch without exactly five skills, a branch with no Cost Curve, a trait stat with no Trait Ladder, a skill with no name or a Stats entry with no stat, a cost curve without five costs, a ladder without six values, or an SP band whose minimum is above its maximum. You get a warning for a skill with no Stats, Bonus or Ability (it does nothing) and for a Condition on a skill with no Stats.

The row name is the save's id

A save stores branches by row name. Renaming a branch row after players have saves resets that branch for them: the old progress is kept under the old name and never shown, and the new row starts fresh. Nothing is logged. Choose final row names before release, and change Display Name instead.

Reordering skills changes what a save has learnt

A save stores how many skills of a branch are learnt, not which. Swap skills 2 and 4 and every save with three learnt now has the old skill 4 instead of skill 2. That is how skills stay editable, so reorder only before release, or accept the change.

Save

On load, each record is re-seeded from the current table (additively), so new branches appear. If the saved selected branch no longer exists or is locked, the first unlocked row is selected instead. Skill effects are never saved; they are rebuilt when the bodies spawn. See Save and front end.

For programmers: the saved fields

Each member's saved record carries:

Field	Meaning
bSkillsSaved	False for a save made before skills existed; that character is seeded fresh on load.
SelectedSkillBranch	Row name of the selected branch.
SkillBranches	One entry per branch: Branch (row name), bUnlocked, SkillsLearnt (0–5), SkillPointsIntoNext.

Console commands

Command	Effect
XenoGiveSP 2000	Pour SP into the leader's selected branch, then print the tree. SP past a complete branch is wasted, as in play.
XenoSkills	Print the leader's tree, selected branch, and each branch's state, learnt count and SP into the next skill.

Both are cheat-manager commands, so they work in PIE and development builds. Output is under the LogXenoSkills log category; skill abilities log under LogXenoSkillAbility.

Extending it

• Give a character a tree, or add skills: see Add a skill or a skill tree.
• Award SP from anything else (a landmark, a cutscene): call Award Skill Points on Get Party Progression with the member and amount. Tick Apply Reserve Rate to pay benched members the reserve share.
• Open a branch from script: Unlock Skill Branch (Member, Branch row name). Safe to call twice.
• Make your own system skill-aware: add a tag under XenoCore.SkillBonus in your own gameplay tag config, set it as a skill's Bonus, and in your system call Get Skill Bonus (member) or Get Skill Bonus For Actor (a body; returns 0 for anything that is not a party member). No skill code changes.
• Let skills raise a new stat: add a modifier to GE_XenoCore_SkillStats for the attribute, with magnitude Set By Caller and your XenoCore.Stat.* tag as its data tag (copy an existing channel). The channel list is the effect's modifier list, and the screen labels it from the tag. This edits a shipped asset; note it for template updates.

A new percentage stat added as a channel is 100 times too strong

The conversion from a whole percentage in the data to a 0–1 fraction on the attribute is applied only to Critical Rate and Block Rate. If you add a channel for another attribute stored as a 0–1 fraction, a skill's +15 lands as +15.0, which usually clamps to 100 %. Store such a stat as a whole percentage, or ask a programmer to add it to the conversion in XenoCoreProgressionComponent_Skills.cpp (AddStat).

• Behaviour that TimedBuff cannot express: create a Blueprint child of XenoCoreGameplayAbility_Skill. Set Evaluate Interval to poll and override On Evaluate, or listen for gameplay events in Activate Ability. Use Apply Buff To Self to apply a status with the skill's value and duration. Keep the base empty: no tags or effects of its own.
• React to a skill being learnt: listen for XenoCore.Skills.Message.SkillLearnt. Refresh anything that shows SP or skill counts on XenoCore.Progression.Message.Changed, which is sent on every SP award and branch change. See Events you can listen to.
• A new menu screen about one character (programmers): subclass UXenoCoreCharacterMenuScreenBase in C++ and override On Member Shown, Reset For Show and, if the screen has tabs, the tab handlers.
• Never edit DT_XenoCore_SkillPointRewards' bands to make a demo faster; change Skill Point Reward Scale instead, so the reference numbers stay intact.

Why it's built this way

For programmers: the design reasons

• Data Tables, not one data asset per skill, because a designer sees a whole character in one asset, tables round-trip CSV and JSON in the editor, and they can be filled from script. The trade is that a row cannot hold a Blueprint graph, which is why behaviour lives in a separate ability class the row points at, the same "data pointing at behaviour" split as an art definition and its ability.
• Saves store counts, never skill ids, because skills are learnt strictly in order. Designers can rename, rewrite and rebalance skills freely.
• One stat effect per body, rebuilt from scratch, following GE_XenoCore_EquipmentStats: no stat name is hard-coded, the effect's channels are the list, and "remove, sum, re-apply" cannot drift the way incremental adds and removes would. It is additive on top of the statline, never an override, so it survives a level-up re-stat.
• Bonuses are asked for, not pushed, so the damage formula, the quest turn-in and the healing art each read one number when they need it, a benched character's bonus works without a body, and a new bonus is a new tag rather than new skill code.
• Skill abilities are diffed, not re-granted, so a refresh caused by an SP award or a gear change never restarts a buff that is counting down.
• The record lives on the progression component, beside levels and Art Points, for the same reason those are there: progress is per character and half the roster has no body at any moment. No new component was added.
• The Skills screen and Arts screen share a base because they were the second and first screens of the kind; the base holds only what both need.