Continuing the month long Gotham Knights blitz, we now have detailed information about their skill system.

Much of it is entirely standard roleplaying game fare but there are some twists.

Gotham Knights or The New Dark Knight?

Even though there are four playable characters and the game is called Gotham Knights, its developers want players to connect with one of those and at some point feel like they've become Batman's successor.

That moment in the game is when the Knighthood Tree opens, and you also get access to your elite ability.

Unlocking Knighthood for one character unlocks it for all of them but each character will need to complete character specific challenges associated with each Knighthood ability.

Robin's Knighthood moment comes when he's realises that Batman was part of a bigger superhero family and that Robin can tap into the Justice League satellite.

Unplayed characters don't just sit on level 1.

If you switch to another character they'll have some levels - unclear if it will be the same as your played character - and have the requisite amount of ability points to spend.

Ability Points

Ability points (to spend on trees) are earned through levelling.

In Gotham Knights abilities are what many would think of as passive abilities.

What most people would call abilities or active abilities, Gotham Knights calls momentum abilities which cost momentum to use.

Momentum abilities are unlocked by completing challenges in Gotham and can be assigned to button combos.

Presumably on PC they can be assigned to hotkeys.

Note that there are 8 momentum abilities for each character and 8 combo / hotkey slots.

Are the enough ability points to fill out all trees?

That's not explicitly answered.

It sounds like there will be but the main story content won't provide enough xp and levels to get there.

If [I'm] playing through Gotham Knights in a regular way – so, I'm going after all of the main story arcs and I'm fighting the villain arcs – I will have unlocked most, but not all of the skill tree. So your choices are always going to matter as you, at least as far as what it takes for you to beat the story.

Equipment

There is ability changing gear but they don't go into much detail.

Shown here (briefly) is Red Hood with 3 slots - Suit, Melee (in which he equips pistols) and Ranged (in which he equips ammunition).

Equipped are the New Knight Suit, Momentum Pistols and Critical Momentum Rounds.

He also has a limited number of Health Packs and Smoke Bombs.

Red Hood's Full Five Ability Trees

Marskman

• Perfect Evade : Red Hood performs a perfectly-timed evade that generates Momentum and allows for a Perfect Attack follow-up.
• Critical Expertise : Increases Red Hood's Critical damage by 20%.
• Focused fire : Red Hood can aim longer at a target to deal 4x more damage.
• Lucky Rounds : Every round Red Hood shoots has a small chance to deal 5x the damage. Only applies to Ranged Attacks and Precision Aim.
• Precise Strikes : Increases Red Hood's chance of landing a Critical hit by 10%.
• Focused Fire + : Aiming time of Focused Fire is reduced by 50%.
• Quickfire Expert : The Critical chance and Critical damage of Red Hood's Ranged Attack combo is increased by 15%.

Brawler

• Human Bomb : When Red Hood throws an enemy, he attaches a concussion mine to them that explodes when shot.
• Large Grab : Red Hood can perform grab moves on large enemies.
• Extended Grab Window : Enemies can now be grabbed at 50% health or less.
• Human Bomb Enhanced : Increases the damage and radius of the concussion mine explosion.
• Grip Expertise : Increases Red Hood's damage when performing a grab move by 10%.
• Iron Grip : Grabbing an enemy prevents Red Hood from being interrupted by most attacks.
• Human Bomb Multiplied : Detonating the concussion mine deploys 6 additional concussion proximity mines on the ground.

Vengeance

• Coup de Grace : Red Hood inflicts 10% more damage on enemies with 30% or less health.
• Freak Justice : Increases Red Hood's damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting Freaks.
• Regulator Justice : Increases Red Hood's damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting the Regulators.
• Mob Justice : Increases Red Hood's damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting the Mob.
• Combined Fire : Red Hood and his allies inflict increased damage when focused on a single target. Only applies to Ranged Attack combos and Precision Aim.
• Unrestricted Fire : After using Two-Fisted Reload, Red Hood can shoot unlimited rounds for a short period of time.
• Double Vortex : After using Two-Fisted Reload, Red Hood shoots double the number of rounds for a short period of time.

Knighthood

• Mystical Leap : Red Hood traverses through the air using spirit platforms.
• Ranged Terror : Every shot that knocks out a target inflicts Fear in nearby enemies.
• Increases headshot and weak spot damage by 15%.
• Grab Dread : Grabbing a target inflicts Fear in nearby enemies.
• Combat Master : Increases the number of attacks in Red Hood's Ranged Attack combo by 1. The last hit is a knockdown.
• Ducra's Training : Mystical Rounds requires 50% less time to lock on to targets.
• Shadow Vengeance : Mystical Rounds shoots 2 rounds instead of 1.

Momentum (with momentum cost)

• Barrage (1): Red Hood shoots multiple rounds straight ahead, hitting all enemies in his path. Ammunition is also reloaded.
• Mystical Punch (1): Red Hood charges his fists with Elemental Effect damage. Melee attacks do 50% more damage and 5x more Elemental buildup. Duration 30 seconds.
• Two-Fisted Reload (1): Red Hood performs a quick reload while hitting and shooting at an enemy.
• Harnessed Rage (1): When activated, Red Hood's next attack increases by a portion of damage he receives. Also heals Red Hood at 1% per second. Duration 20 seconds.
• Mystical Rounds (COOLDOWN 5 minutes): Red Hood locks onto enemies and shoots a Mystical Round that will hit all targets, causing massive damage.
• Mega Tackle (2): Red Hood dashes forward, knocking down all enemies in his path.
• Portable Turret (2): Red Hood deploys a mini turret that shoots at nearby enemies, dealing high damage. Duration 6 seconds.
• Spoilsport Reload (2): Red Hood jumps backward, releasing explosive magazines. Ammunition is also reloaded.

Our Impressions?

Generally speaking their system looks fine and specifically Red Hood very functional but with predesigned characters it's more difficult to really hit any individual gamer's sweet spot.

We prefer ranged combat and in this game Red Hood is the only character with that focus - a big beefy, gun-toting rage monkey.

How much do we identify with big beefy, gun-toting rage monkeys?

We got nothing.

Would require greater imaginative effort on our part to play him.

So we'd like to see what the other characters have.

Robin's stealth and technology trees referred to but not detailed here sound potentially interesting.

Aren't sold on his wardrobe but we haven't seen all of his colorways (suit colour options) yet.

Gotham Knights releases on PC, Xbox and Playstation on October 25.

[ Main Image: Gotham Knights Skills Trailer. Credit: IGN via YouTube. ]

References

IGN (August 19, 2022). Gotham Knights: How Skill Trees Work - IGN First. YouTube.

Skrebels, Joe (August 19, 2022). Gotham Knights: How Skill Trees Work - IGN First. IGN.