Perks, Perk Trees / Anti-Cowardice Guide (War Sails Update)

Hello I am Sethja

PG-13 warning. The use of swearing in this guide is primarily intended for comedic effect.

This guide will help you decide between perks in Bannerlord to become BANNERLORD.

DISCLAIMER: Some perks may be out-of-date. Taleworlds (TW) seem to adjust them at random.

It feels a bit like TW interns put little sticky notes in an idea box and they used those for perks.

This guide is relevant only to Bannerlord vanilla singleplayer and focuses on the good, mediocre, and poopy perks available in the character skill tree.

Why read my guide? I have extensive and purposeful hours in the original M&B, Warband, and F&S. I have significant hours in Warband multiplayer and its mods and DLCs. I also used to s𝚑𝚒tpost on FSE so I'm essentially an honored veteran.

If you're here for a TL;DR on what perks to pick, look for the icons before perk names. Here is a label guide:

• ★★ Objectively best choice. Generally good results. Always pick.
  
• ☆ Subjectively best choice. Your choice, but my favorite.
  
• 💩 Perk is bad-to-terrible or needs serious rework. Sometimes both perks are 💩-tier and you have no choice but to choose something that sucks.
  
• If neither choice is marked, it's player's choice.

I will give a brief summary (final verdict) of every perk choice.

I am not going to review any of the governor perks. If you want to kit out an NPC for governing, that's on you. This is all about player-character perk building and governor perks do nothing for the player character. However, I will add; there are too many perk tiers where one perk has exclusive governor benefits.

I play on the hardest difficulties minus recruitment which I put one difficulty easier.

I will not be covering the final perk of every perk tree unless I have specific thoughts. Most of them are just continued overpowering to your already super high skill level.

I refer to Taleworlds multiple times in this guide by writing TW.

I am open to constructive criticism and my opinions can change if I'm presented with good reasoning. I'm not trying to tell you you're wrong by how you play the game, this is still a subjective guide after all, but I think my reasoning is mostly objective.

Fortunately for us, the first few perk sets aren't so bad. The nice part about the weapon skills is that the base skill is so beneficial (extra speed + damage) you don't outright benefit or lose from the perks. That being said:

Basher

• +50% shield bash damage and stun time
  
• -4% damage to troops in "shield wall" formation

Shield bashing is a meme, but I suppose if it's what you want go for it. It's not reliable for efficiently killing swarms of enemy AI. The -4% damage for troops is lackluster because it locks the tiny damage modifier to a single formation type. This only escapes 💩-tier due to being tier 1.

★★ Deflect

• +20% one-handed weapon handling
  
• +30 one-handed skill for troops

Weapon handling is very good. It is one of the more "felt" stat bonuses. +30 level for troops is essentially raising them by a tier. It's a great perk for a tier 1 perk.

Final verdict: Deflect is much better than Basher. Go Deflect. If you HEAVILY use "shield wall" Basher could possibly be viable, but you shouldn't be that way.

Swift Strike

• +2% swing speed with one-handed weapons.

The base swing speed is 0.93. This increases that swing speed by 0.02. You can guess about how much benefit that gives.

To Be Blunt

• +5% damage on axes and maces.

5% damage is still a pretty low amount but better than a tiny flat swing speed bonus.

Final verdict: If you're an axe or mace user To Be Blunt is clearly better than Swift Strike. If you're like me and only like swords, go Swift Strike.

☆ Cavalry

• +5% weapon damage while mounted.
  
• +5% melee damage to cavalry troops in your formation.

I personally find one-handed weapons on horseback are s𝚑𝚒t. There are a handful that are long enough to actually hit troops on the ground, but most of them are so flaccid and small (my ex wife knew a lot about this) you can't hit anything. I like polearms for swiping through enemies if I'm choosing to fight melee on horse. The 5% melee damage to cav troops is what I consider better with this perk.

💩 Shield Bearer

• Wielding (must be held) a shield no longer encumbers you by 1.5x the shield's weight.
  
• Troops in your formation are 3% faster.

This is a recurring theme through this guide, but movement speed % bonuses are 𝚊𝚜s. The % difference means nothing in both field and siege battles. For the player, your mileage may vary - a slight boost to speed when holding your shield up is so-so.

Final verdict: I guess if you love using sword+board you should go Shield Bearer, but Cavalry is a better perk. Not by much though, both of these perks are just above the 💩 line.

Duelist

• +20% damage one-handed when no shield is equipped.
  
• +Double renown gain (200%) in tournaments.

20% damage is a margin that isn't insignificant if you plan on going one-handed without a shield. Most applicable would be if you're one-hand cavalry. Renown gain is OK. If you specialize in one-handed early it can help you to get your clan level up quicker. But I also think doing tournaments is a massive time waste after the first few days of the game.

Trainer

• +2 hit points.
  
• +5% XP per battle to melee troops.

+2 hit points is ass. Your default is 100 hit points. The extra hit points from this will save you from a peasant throwing a rock at you. +5% XP however is a decent boost and Bannerlord is somewhat notorious for slower troop progression.

Final verdict: Both options are user choice. Just don't take Trainer for a health boost.

💩 Arrow Catcher

• Larger shield protection area (+0.01)
  
• Larger troop shield protection area (+0.01)

The default for this is apparently 0.3 of base body size. So that means this perk is increasing it to 0.31. Wow. I'll be honest, I've never had a projectile hit me in bannerlord if I have my shield up correctly. Maybe if you are really bad and block left and face your character right you will get hit by s𝚑𝚒t. Just don't do that.

💩 Shieldwall

• -20% damage from blocking the wrong direction with your shield.
  
• Larger troop shield protection area (+0.01) when they are in "Shield Wall" formation

Someone at TW really liked the shield wall concept, huh?😭 Okay so -20% damage sounds good on paper, but if you just block correctly with a shield, you will never get the benefit from this perk. How often have you actually had your shield destroyed? I can think of maybe one or two times I lost my shield, and in both cases having the shield would not have changed the outcome of the fight.

Final verdict: Both perks are 𝚊𝚜s. I suppose I would still take Arrow Catcher to help my troops. One thing to note - why is it that "Shieldwall" has the same perk as "Arrow Catcher" for your troops, but worse due to being locked behind a specific formation? That sucks man.

★★ Corps-a-corps

• +10% XP earned after battles for your infantry.

This isn't bad. Especially if paired with the previous 5% you start to get good returns on multiplied infantry XP. Keep in mind battle XP is far-and-away the best way to train troops in Bannerlord.

💩Military Tradition

• +2 XP per day to infantry troops.

This is super underwhelming for tier six and is really only helpful for getting tier 1 troops out of their s𝚑𝚒t combat values. For an easy check, just look at the amount of XP needed for troop levels past tier 2. This will never help you reach heights like the training skill did back in Warband.

Final verdict: Corps-a-corps; battles are always better for quickly leveling troops. Maybe if merged with every other +# XP perk, Military Tradition could be interesting?

★★ Lead By Example

• +5% XP to all troops in your party.
  
• +5 Starting Battle Morale for troops in your party.

+5% XP to your troops is OK. +5 morale is... OK? The effect of morale on battles is pretty much unmeasurable. Honestly, I'm not sure I've ever won or lost a battle because of my party's morale.

💩 Stand United

• +8 party morale if outnumbered.

This perk is 𝚊𝚜s. You're getting +3 party morale compared to Lead By Example and only in bad situations, otherwise missing out on 5 morale. And as mentioned above, how impactful is morale really?

Final verdict: Stand United is s𝚑𝚒t, 100% Lead By Example. And let's be honest; morale bonuses are hardly felt, so just go with the one that's consistent.

💩 Fleet of Foot

• +4% movement speed for you.
  
• +4% movement speed for your infantry troops.

Movement speed bonuses are 𝚊𝚜s. Even if you want fast infantry, this will save you mere seconds on the most massive maps. The player's movement speed levels better through high agility.

★★ Steel Core Shields

• -10% damage to your shield
  
• -10% damage to your infantry troops' shields.

Okay, maybe I don't fight the nords enough, but I rarely see my troops' shields break. If they do, I don't care. I never lose my own shield if I'm using one. This perk actually does SOMETHING for combat unlike Fleet of Foot.

Final verdict: Steel Core Shields is better simply due to not being Fleet of Foot.

Deadly Purpose

• +5% one-handed weapon damage.
  
• +10% melee damage for infantry troops.

The %s look good on first glance but think about the numbers here. If your infantry troops are doing 40/swing (very common when they're facehugging the enemy) this adds just 4 damage. For you, your damage multiplier is better affected by your attributes and one-handed skill. It's not bad by any means but I consider the next perk better.

★★ Unwavering Defense

• +5 hit points.
  
• +10 hit points to infantry troops in your party.

+10 hit points is decent for troops. +5 hit points to the player character is a "whatever", but giving all of your infantry an extra +10 HP to help tank random arrows or glancing blows can be effective. Consider this; compared to Deadly Purpose, tanking 10 damage is a lot more feasible than dishing out 10 extra damage from +10% damage bonus.

Final verdict: Unwavering Defense feels better for the infantry in your party than Deadly Purpose is.

Crack in the Armor

• Your one-handed attacks ignore 10% of enemy armor.
  
• Infantry troops are 20% cheaper to recruit.

10% armor ignore is passable, especially for slashing one-handed weapons since armor is most effective against slash-weapons. However, 20% cheaper recruiting is awful for this being a tier 10 perk. By the time you have this much one-handed skill you should be running a massive party and holding a s𝚑𝚒tload of denars.

Prestige

• 50% more damage against shields when using one-handed weapons.
  
• +15 party limit.

Party limit is king stuff. Pretty questionable on shield damage. If you want to break shields you'll be better off using a two-handed axe or hammer.

Final verdict: Player choice. Armor penetration is quite good, but 15 extra party limit is also nice to bulk your party up.

Same as one-handed; two-handed weapon skill is good, so perks can't drag it down.

★★ Strong Grip

• +10% handling on two-handed weapons.
  
• +30 two-handed skill to troops in your formation.

As with one-handed, having extra handling on two-handed weapons is great. +30 two-handed skill to troops is good, essentially raising their tier by 1 with weapons.

Wood Chopper

• +30% two-handed damage vs. shields
  
• +15% two-handed damage vs. shields by troops in your formation

As with one-handed, I'm going to argue that shield destruction is a bad skill compared to flat damage. I don't find my troops destroying shields often and if they do the enemy is so swarmed they would lose whether their shields were there or not. The only best-use for this is if you stack shield-bashing damage across all perk trees.

Final verdict: Strong Grip is objectively the best here unless you want to try to heavily stack bonus % damage to shields across all perks for a meme.

Head Basher

• +10% damage with two-handed axes and maces.
  
• +2% damage to infantry troops in your formation.

Similar to the one-handed perks, the damage here for you is only good if you use axes and maces. +2% damage to your troops is essentially non-existent.

On The Edge

• +3% swing speed with two-handed weapons.
  
• +2% swing speed with two-handed weapons to infantry troops in your formation.

Both of these percentage ratios are so tiny you will hardly feel them, but it's only a tier 2 perk.

Final verdict: Head Basher is good but only if you use the correct weaponry. On the Edge feels like a better pick for upgrading your troops? Player choice here.

☆ Baptized In Blood

• +5 experience (flat) to infantry in your party when you get a two-handed kill.
  
• +5% extra XP to melee troops in your formation for battles.

The flat 5 experience is hardly felt, but could go crazy style if you get some cheesy spot in a siege? Similar to the one-handed equivalent perk, 5% extra XP per battle to troops is decent. Stacking it with other perk trees can make it better.

Show of Strength

• +30% knock down against enemies.
  
• -20% recruitment cost to infantry troops.

Knock-down can only be done with weapons that are actually able to knock down enemies, so this is just a bonus for what is already a % chance. Stacked recruitment cost can be OK, and at just tier 3 a 20% decrease isn't bad.

Final verdict: Baptized in Blood is better through all phases of the game past very early. Show of Strength can save you some recruitment money early.

☆ Beast Slayer

• +50% damage with two-handed weapons against mounts.
  
• +10% damage to mounts for infantry in your formation.

This is a solid perk. Most two-handed weapons will already do good damage against mounts. Having more damage is nice since horses are so f𝚞𝚌king tanky and your infantry will get swarmed by them.

Shield Breaker

• +40% damage to shields with two-handed weapons.
  
• +10% damage to shields for infantry in your formation.

I've mentioned before and will continue mentioning, I think trying to bash through shields is asking for failure in most cases The 10% given to your formation is negligible. The 40% given to you should be avoided if you're simply hitting around shields which is often doable. Maybe if you just permasiege this is the better perk.

Final verdict: Beast Slayer all the way unless you want to heavily meme additional shield damage across your formation.

☆ Berserker

• +20% damage with two-handed weapons when below 50% health.

This skill would be better if the damage scaled when below 50% health. So it goes.

Confidence

• +15% damage with two-handed weapons when above 90% health.

When you're in battle you often get randomly nicked by light damage that sets you below 90% health.

Final verdict: Both of these perks are annoying to gauge usefulness, but I think Berserker is better. It's much more likely you're going to lose Confidence's bonus by randomly getting hit by an attack.

💩💩 Arrow Deflection

• You can deflect projectiles with two-handed swords by blocking.

For one, if you're using a two-handed weapon and getting shot at, you should be wiggling and running into killing range. For two, this skill only works for swords (per the writing).

Final Verdict: A𝚜s. Skill issue perk. Just don't put yourself in a situation to be shot when using a two-handed weapon. Too bad there isn't another perk to pick instead of this one.

💩☆ Hope

• Kills with two-handed weapons have 30% higher AOE morale boost on friendly troops.
  
• +5 party limit.

I can't accurately measure how effective the AOE morale bonus is for friendly troops, especially with how "ghost stat" morale is. But also, oh yeah give me more party limit baby. Wait, just 5? This is 7 tiers up dude!

💩Terror

• Kills with two-handed weapons have 20% higher AOE morale hit on enemy troops.
  
• +10 prisoner limit.

I couldn't say exactly how much the 20% higher hit is compared to the boost in "Hope". I also think that party limit is better used than the prisoner limit here. I mean 10 prisoners for 7 tiers of a perk tree? You know how many dudes I've killed with a two-handed sword to this point?

Final Verdict: The party limit bonus in Hope is nice and presumably the 30% bonus is more beneficial than the 20% from Terror. Really something when the tier 7 perk is just "yay I get 5 more troops" with a question mark at morale bonus.

💩Reckless Charge

• +20% speed damage bonus on foot.
  
• +2% move speed and +2% damage to all infantry in your formation.

Speed damage is best mounted, and the small percentage boost on foot is not going to be felt much compared to the damage you're already doing. The tiny baby percentages for your troops is worthless for a tier 8 perk.

☆ Thick Hides

• +5 hit points.
  
• +5 hit points to troops in formation.

It'd be nice to get more out of this, but it affects your formation better than Reckless Charge. Underwhelming for working your 𝚊𝚜s off leveling two-handed, but it's giving something.

Final Verdict: Thick Hides is best, Reckless Charge is rather underperforming.

Blade master

• +10% two-handed weapon damage.
  
• +2% attack speed to infantry troops in formation.

If you plan to only use two-handed weapons the extra percentage damage can be better than ignoring armor depending on your weapon and specs. The 2% speed to troops is negligible and terrible for a tier 9 perk.

☆ Vandal

• Attacks ignore 25% of armor (presumably only with 2h weapons).
  
• +20% damage to destructible objects for troops in your formation.

Ignoring 25% armor with all weapons makes this a decent synergy tool and does increase damage by a measurable amount. However, +20% damage to objects for troops is... pointless? Will that really affect a siege?

Final Verdict: I prefer Vandal to cut through heavy armor troops, but the best two-handed weapons can sometimes get ludicrously high damage counts with percentage boosts.

Continuing the melee weapons trend, the skill for Polearms makes up for any true grievance with perks.

Cavalry

• +2% damage with polearms while mounted.
  
• +2% melee damage for cavalry in your formation.

Negligible damage for both you and your troops. As the first perk (essentially free) that's acceptable.

Pikeman

• +2% damage with polearms (dismounted)
  
• +2% damage to infantry in your formation.

Negligible damage for both you and your troops. As the first perk (essentially free) that's acceptable.

Final verdict: Player choice. The realistic expectation of bonus damage on these is mostly intangible.

★★ Braced

• 15% dismount resistance ignored with polearms that can dismount.
  
• +10% damage against cavalry to infantry troops in your formation.

Dismounting enemies is cash money. If you're not shooting them off their horses this is the next best thing. Infantry troops tend to get chopped up by enemy cavalry, so giving them help is nice.

💩 Keep At Bay

• 25% knock back resistance ignored with polearms that can knock back.

If you're fighting enemies in attempts to push them back with polearms you're doing it wrong -- go for the kills to the head or slash their backs as they fight your infantry.

Final verdict: Additional damage and dismount chance with Braced is better than Keep At Bay.

★★ Clean Thrust

• +10% thrust damage to polearms.
  
• +30 polearms skill to infantry troops in your formation.

Even if you don't use thrust polearms, the polearms skill your troops get is beneficial similar to 1HW and 2HW perks of the same type.

Swift Swing

• +5% swing speed with polearms.
  
• +2% swing speed to infantry in your formation (any weapon).

Handling is more important for polearms, but at least we're done with the 2% stuff. If you don't care about your formation's benefit, go with this I suppose.

Final verdict: Clean Thrust all the way for a better overall party. The 5% swing speed is negligible to a skill tree you're already leveling naturally.

💩 Footwork

• +2% movement speed with polearms.
  
• +2% movement speed to infantry troops in your formation.

This is horrible. The 2% lets you get from one edge of the entire battle map to the other on foot a few seconds faster.

💩★★ Hard Knock

• +25% knock down potential for polearms that can knock enemies down.
  
• +3 HP to infantry troops in your formation.

Knock down is better than knock back so it gets less hate from me, but it's still a percentage thing no matter what. +3 HP isn't really much for your formation, but this perk is better than Footwork.

Final verdict: Footwork is sewage. Go Hard Knock.

Lancer

• +20% speed damage bonus with polearms while mounted.
  
• +30% speed damage bonus to troops with polearms in formation.

Speed damage bonus is decent on horseback so the 20% boost will multiply well. Because the speed bonus to your formation is all-encompassing, it's better than the previous perk which only gave it to foot troops.

☆ Steed Killer

• +70% damage against mounts with polearms.
  
• +30% damage against mounts with polearms to infantry troops in your formation.

Extra damage to mounts is great because you already kick their ass both mounted and dismounted. 30% extra damage from infantry is very good for protecting against heavy cavalry which will f𝚞𝚌k up your silly little army.

Final verdict: Steed Killer is preferable for making your troops better. Lancer is if you want to make your own damage scale better on horseback (or if you want a large cavalry army). Your choice, but I like Steed Killer more.

Guards

• +50% damage with polearms when hitting the head.

Depends on your build. If you're trying to go poleaxe-over-infantry-heads this might be better. I tend to use the flanks and swing sideways, and most polearms will oneshot enemies to the head anyway.

Skewer

• +30% (up from 5%) chance to remain couched after a couch-kill.

I think the idea behind this is getting that perfect crossbow-line annihilation as you couch through all of them with good RNG. I don't like this in preference to Guards because Guards is always active where this is niche to just couching and still relies on RNG.

Final verdict: Whether you intend to use it specifically or not, Guards is more consistent than Skewer. Skewer is like the higher ceiling "POG MOMENT!!!" skill tho, so you do you boo <3

☆Phalanx

• +30 to weapon skills when infantry are in shield wall.
  
• +3% polearm damage to troops in your formation.

+30 to weapon skills is no joke, and from my understanding this affects all melee troops. The only problem is being forced into shield wall formation to get the bonus out of it.

💩Standard Bearer

• -20% morale loss to friendly troops.

I honestly feel like morale is a "ghost stat" where the measurement of impact of a perk like this is almost impossible to do. I mean really, does this do anything?

Final verdict: I lean phalanx but I am annoyed by it being micro-manage-locked behind the shield wall formation.

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Drills

• +1 daily XP to all troops in your formation.

Yup it's really this bad folks. Can you tell me which troops would benefit from 1 XP per day? Oh, what's that? You need 5,000 days for any of them to level up? Hmm... Interesting.

★★ Generous Rations

• +5 HP to troops in your party.
  
• -20% recruitment costs for infantry troops.

This is so close to being 💩-tier but saves itself from Drills being that bad. If you can stack the -20% with other reducing bonuses it's OK, but this comes late in the list. +5HP to all troops in your party is at least OK, especially compared to dogs𝚑𝚒t Drills.

Final verdict: If you pick Drills you should uninstall your game. Go Generous Rations.

★★ Sure Footed

• -40% charge damage taken.
  
• -30% mount charge damage taken by all troops in your formation.

Mount charge does a s𝚑𝚒tload of damage to you if you are on foot. That being said don't get hit bro teehee. Better here is the -30% damage to your troops, which will be hit by horses often once cavalry gets to them.

💩 Unstoppable Force

• Triple damage against shields with couched lance.
  
• +30% speed damage with polearms to cavalry troops in your formation.

I know what you're thinking. "But bro, 30% speed damage"! It's almost always unnecessary for your cavalry troops. Their speed bonus and weaponry (if they're troops worth owning) will already do roughly 43 billion damage to enemy troops if they hit properly at speed (I confirmed this number with a team of six algorithmic complexity theorists and two quantum information scientists). The extra damage you get against shields is almost a joke unless you spend the entire battle couching into anything that can be couched. Couch enemies you can kill, not shields looking your way.

Final verdict: I guess if you manage a 100% cavalry army, best would be Unstoppable Force. Go for Sure Footed, it's better for a more average party to gain benefits.

★★ Counterweight

• +15% handling to swingable polearms.
  
• +20 polearm skill to infantry troops in your formation.

Handling is the most important skill for the largest polearms for speed. You can make hilarious long polearms in smithing to discover this -- the swinging is essentially slow motion. The additional skill to infantry troops is icing on the cake of an already solid personal skill.

💩 Sharpen The Tip

• +5% polearm thrust damage.
  
• +5% thrust damage to infantry troops in your formation.

Extremely low bonus damage to a bad attack type (for AI). If you're thrusting on foot I suggest you stop doing that, and thrusting on horse usually leads to kills because of speed. Infantry troops with stabbing polearms are generally worse than infantry troops with swinging polearms.

Final verdict: Counterweight is much better because thrusting attacks are bad in general for AI.

Oh yeah baby everyone's (and TW's) favorite ranged combat specialist. Bow as a skill is insane and will allow you to kill entire armies, but some of the perks... well, you'll see. To note, bow is by far the best ranged weapon in the game and it's not even close.

Bow Control

• +30% accuracy with bows while moving.
  
• +5% damage to troops in your formation with bows.

On foot this is 𝚊𝚜s. I think the 30% works on horseback, so if you plan on being a full-speed horse archer (usually not necessary) you could go with it. The 5% troop damage is fine.

★★ Dead Aim

• +30% headshot bonus with bows.
  
• +20 archery skill to bow-equipped troops.

As with the melee weapons, weapon skill is great for party troops because it increases all skills to do with the weapon. Bows are very easy to rapidly headshot with later in the game, so the 30% bonus is solid for heavily armored targets or hitting infantry off walls.

Final verdict: For both the player and the party, Dead Aim is preferable. For the horse-archer solo-only build, Bow Control is fine.

★★ Bodkin

• Bow attacks ignore 10% of enemy armor.
  
• Bow troops ignore 5% of enemy armor.

Pierce is already the most effective damage against armor, so this is less effective than other weapon types, but it will still increase your damage and your formation's.

💩 Nocking Point

• -50% movement speed penalty during bow reloading.
  
• +3% movement speed to bow troops in your formation.

As with all perks previous and future, tiny movement speed percentages to your troops means nothing. Going to again remind you that even a +10% movement bonus would only save SECONDS moving across the largest battle maps in Bannerlord. In the same way, a movement speed penalty that is already hardly felt isn't useful.

Final verdict: Bodkin gives you solid additional damage. Nocking Point is just terrible.

💩 Quick Adjustments

• -50% accuracy loss during rotation.
  
• +5% accuracy to bow-equipped troops in your formation.

If you're shooting correctly with bow, you find your target and charge to fire in sequence. If you're spending long amounts of time aiming to the point of accuracy loss, you need to identify targets and aiming points quicker. Accuracy bonus to your troops is negligible when party archery is all about quantity>quality.

★★ Rapid Fire

• +25% bow reload speed.
  
• +5% reload speed to bow-equipped troops in your formation.

Very solid perk. 25% reload speed on player is good and reload speed makes your bowmen more lethal. Even the most accurate bowmen are better in massive numbers, and in Bannerlord quantity is king for ranged kills.

Final verdict: Rapid Fire all the way. Quick Adjustments is the "skill issue" perk, while Rapid Fire benefits both you and your troops.

💩 Merry Men

• +5 party size.

Party size is always king s𝚑𝚒t. But why did TW not give this perk anything directly for the bow?

★★ Mounted Archery

• -30% bow accuracy penalty while on horseback.

Obviously specialized for horse archer build but not 100% necessary with correct positioning in field battles. Definitely makes life easier.

Final verdict: Unless you aren't ever going to be on horseback with a bow, Mounted Archery is the clear winner here.

★★ Strong Bows

• +8% damage with bows.
  
• +5% damage with bows to Tier 3+ troops in your formation.

8% damage can at least help somewhat with high damage rolls against super-armored enemies. The +5% to your Tier 3+ troops (they're the only ranged troops that will be killing anything anyway) is OK.

💩Trainer

• +6 XP per day to lowest bow-skill hero in party.
  
• +3 XP per day to bow-equipped troops.

For stacking XP purposes this perk is better compared to the others, but it's still terrible. I worked directly with a cryptographer and an astrophysicist to confirm that it would take, quote, "like a bajillion years bro" to get any companion or troop levels out of this perk.

Final verdict: Strong Bows is mediocre but acceptable. Trainer is a passive teacher but XP counts required for levels are so high it's pretty terrible.

💩 Discipline

• +50% time until bow accuracy is lost.

As previously, bow firing should have a rhythm which means you are never "waiting" to fire on a target. If you get to the default accuracy loss point, you are aiming for too long.

💩 Hunter Clan

• +30% bow damage to mounts.

It takes like 500,000 (I tested this extensively) arrows to kill an armored horse in Bannerlord. Just shoot the rider in every case.

Final verdict: Pick your poison. I guess mount damage is better, but both perks are disappointing for tier 6.

Eagle Eye

• +50% zoom using bows.
  
• +10% sight range on campaign map.

I've never practically used anything but the default zoom and I think only achievement hunting would change that, but it's something. Extra sight on the campaign map is OK but uh... how about that Scouting skill?

Skirmish Phase Master

• -10% damage from projectiles.
  
• -5% damage from projectiles to bow-equipped troops in your formation.

Consider that enemy projectiles won't be doing a lot of damage to your troops unless they get lucky headshots, so this -5% damage is hardly felt in a sizeable party.

Final verdict: Despite Skirmish Phase Master being just about 💩-tier, this is player choice I suppose.

☆ Bulls Eye

• +10% total XP earned to ranged troops after battles.

This is a good amount of extra XP following battles but comes pretty late in the list.

Renowned Archer

• +10% morale to ranged troops at the beginning of battle.
  
• -30% recruit/upgrade cost for ranged troops.

Although by the time you make it this high in the tree you should be commanding armies and overloaded with denars, upgrade costs can still be expensive. The +10% morale will not be felt at all.

Final verdict: Player choice, but I like speedier upgrades. You either have the option of extra XP or cheaper costs.

💩 Deep Quivers

• +3 arrows per quiver.
  
• +1 arrows per quiver to troops in your formation.

Both of these should be sub-perks for other perks. +1 arrows to your troops is virtually always meaningless and +3 for yourself is only truly great if you have three stacks of arrows as a full-time horse-archer... except Horse Master exists.

★★ Horse Master

• You can use any bow on horseback.
  
• +30 bow skill to mounted archers in your formation.

Much better than Deep Quivers and that's all that matters. A better bow means better damage and less arrows needed, while +30 bow skill is significant to bonuses for horse archers.

Final verdict: Unless you intend to (1) never use horse archers and (2) plan on never being mounted in your battles while using a bow, Horse Master is the obvious pick.

Quick Draw

• +25% bow aim speed.

Pretty decent, but at tier 10? Underwhelming at best. Are you going to need this extra aim speed for your already rapid aiming?

💩 Salvo

• Equipped bows do not slow you down.

Is your athletics skill so bad you need this? If you're in a field battle with bad athletics, I suggest being on a horse.

Final verdict: Blue-balls tier ending to the tree, Quick Draw always helps while Salvo doesn't.

Ok big thing to look out for on Crossbows is that if you want better ranged troops and you want to ride a horse early on and you want straight up a completely better weapon in every single respect, go Bow 100% of the time. If you think they're freakin' cool as heck and want to be off your horse early, Crossbow is the way. But WOW is it worse than bow.

☆ Marksmen

• +25% aiming speed with crossbow.
  
• +10% ranged troop morale at the start of battle.

Extra aiming speed is good and the tier 1 perk of better troop morale is fine. You can't discredit a perk when it's essentially free.

Piercer

• Crossbow attacks ignore armor below 20.
  
• 20% cheaper to recruit ranged troops.

Ignoring armor below 20 for crossbow is rather niche since that is most often bottom tier troops, who you'll already deal lots of damage to. Cheaper recruiting could be useful early game at tier 1.

Final verdict: Marksmen has better utility throughout all stages of the game while Piercer is better for the early game.

💩 Unhorser

• +40% damage to mounts when using crossbow.
  
• +20% damage to mounts to crossbow-wielding troops in your formation.

Horses have 50,000,000 effective health against bows and crossbows (I have done extensive research to get this true fact). Do not shoot horses, shoot riders. If the rider has a shield, shoot someone else. Your troops don't benefit from this either since AI aiming against cavalry is all about quantity.

★★ Wind Winder

• +25% crossbow reload speed.
  
• +5% reload speed to ranged units in formation.

This is the kind of quantity that fixes battles. More shootey = more win, and the long reload speed feels less hurtful with the perk.

Final verdict: Wind Winder is better for both the player and party members.

Donkey's Swiftness

• -30% movement accuracy loss on crossbow.
  
• +30 crossbow skill to crossbow-equipped troops in formation.

Accuracy loss during movement is mostly unfelt unless you're running around shooting for some reason. +30 crossbow skill is a solid bonus for troops, as are all other +30 bonus perks.

Sheriff

• +50% headshot damage with crossbows.
  
• +10% crossbow damage to foot soldiers for your formation.

Headshot damage is already great but an extra 50% can get you over the top-tier armored troops. The 10% damage to foot soldiers is debatable in comparison to Donkey's Swiftness +30 skill.

Final verdict: The 10% modifier puts Sheriff just high enough to be on-par with the crossbow skill to troops in Donkey's Swiftness. I think headshots already do good damage on xbow so IMO I always prefer the skill perks, but this is a true player choice.

💩Peasant Leader

• +10% morale to troops tiers 1-3.

So you're giving all your doodoo troops (I guess tier 3s aren't so bad) a little more of the completely unfelt stat during battle. Great!

💩Renowned Marksman

• +2 XP per day to all ranged troops.

This helps you get your troops out of tier 1 but is completely worthless otherwise.

Final verdict: How much will either perk be felt? It's the core question to this verdict. If you don't believe in morale modifiers you're still stuck with a poor perk in Renowned Marksman.

Fletcher

• +4 quiver stack size.
  
• +2 quiver stack size for crossbow-equipped troops in your formation.

Better than the bow equivalent but still just above 💩-tier. The extra ammo on friendly troops is still terrible.

★★ Puncture

• Ignore 10% of enemy armor with crossbows.
  
• Formation troops ignore 5% of enemy armor with crossbows.

Crossbows already do a lot of damage (pierce) to armor, but ignoring more armor is going to benefit you and your troops.

Final verdict: Puncture for damage, Fletcher if you plan on heavily stacking quivers. I think Puncture is objectively better in most cases.

★★ Deft Hands

• Double interrupt threshold for loading your crossbow.
  
• Troop interrupt threshold is doubled.

Interrupt threshold is terrible for the player (don't get shot bozo!) but if you run a very heavy crossbow skirmish line it can support their ability to out-fire other ranged formations.

💩 Loose and Move

• Crossbows do not slow you down when equipped.
  
• +5% ranged troop speed to your formation.

Train athletics to get faster on the ground. The 5% speed, as with every other speed perk, is awful for your troops.

Final Verdict: Deft Hands at least does something to support your party, and is more effective if you want a really heavy crossbow formation.

💩 Counter Fire

• -10% damage from projectiles.
  
• -3% damage to crossbow troops in your formation from projectiles.

Fart butt. Poopy 𝚊𝚜s. For 7 tiers up you're going to take a rock-throw worth of damage less. The 3% damage to crossbow troops will more than likely never soak more than 1 damage.

★★ Mounted Crossbowman

• You can now reload any crossbow on horseback.
  
• +5% XP for ranged troops after battles.

Well, this is the only option at this perk. And it's nice because it cuts off a gameplay mechanic if you avoid it, while making future perk choices in this tree worthless. 5% extra XP is OK.

Final Verdict: Mounted Crossbowman is the only option here. Not only is it mechanic locking but Counter Fire also sucks.

💩 Sniper

• Double zoom on crossbows.

I mean if you're going for super duper long range shots, sure I guess? Even at what I consider max range for falloff and drop I don't usually need extra zoom, and it gets annoying if you're like me and don't want to move your mouse as much at medium range.

Steady

• -50% accuracy penalty while on horseback.

Alright well if you now fully man your crossbow on a horse, this is good. If you don't it's useless.

Final Verdict: Steady is good if you ride a horse. Sniper is only good if you want to make ludicrously long shots or have bad eyes (no judging here).

★★ Hammer Bolts

• Crossbow hits can dismount and ignore 50% dismount resistance.
  
• +10% damage with crossbows to troops in your formation.

Dismounting is a nice benefit if you don't kill a rider through a well-aimed shot. 10% damage mixed with troop armor pen could potentially lead to more deadly crossbow troops, but YMMV.

💩 Pavise

• Your shield on your back can block projectiles 75% of the time.

Don't put yourself in situations where you're going to get flogged by ranged fire, and this perk is useless -- as it should be.

Final Verdict: Hammer Bolts does something while Pavise is a "skill issue" perk. Take Hammer Bolts.

★★ Picked Shots

• Tier 4+ ranged troops have 50% less upkeep.
  
• +5 HP to ranged troops.

+5HP is pretty lackluster when this is all the way up the perk tree, but still helps. As well, by this time in the game (battling so much you now have full crossbow skill) you should have enough money to not care about high-tier troop costs. It's a stinkier perk but evades 💩-tier.

💩Terror

• +20% chance to increase bombardment (siege) casualties by 1 unit.
  
• +25% morale loss to enemy on crossbow kills to troops in your formation.

A tiny RNG modifier to siege bombardments is a genuine joke to me. Morale is a "nothingburger" stat the majority of the time, practically irrelevant.

Final Verdict: I'm pretty sure Picked Shots is much better here, but it's hard to tell what morale impact Terror has. Go Picked Shots if you think I'm epic (wow, thanks).

OK so throwing is for Chad Gamers, let's just jump right in:

★★ Quick Draw

• +20% drawing speed with throwing weapons.
  
• +10% drawing speed with throwing weapons to troops in your formation.

Drawing speed presumably is the main stat for the "reload" of a ranged weapon, meaning this is pretty OK for tier 1.

Shield Breaker

• +40% damage to shields with throwing weapons.
  
• +8% damage to shields with throwing weapons for your troops.

Well, if you're chucking axes at shield walls, this is pretty good. It's much better than alternate weapon trees' shield breaking perks. We give it a pass because it's tier 1.

Final verdict: Go for Quick Draw unless you really, really hate shields.

☆ Flexible Fighter

• +10% melee damage on thrown weapons.
  
• +15 Control skill to infantry troops, +15 Vigor skill to ranged troops.

10% extra melee damage on weapons that blow 𝚊𝚜s to use in melee is questionable, but boosting your troops' skill values is always worthwhile.

Hunter

• +40% extra damage against horses with throwing weapons.
  
• +8% extra damage to horses for troops in your formation.

This is better than alternate weapon horse-damaging perks, but it's still underwhelming.

Final verdict: However you want to kit out your party will affect your decision, but extra skill to troops of multiple types is great, so Flexible Fighter is my choice.

💩 Mounted Skirmisher

• -20% mounted accuracy penalties for throwing weapons.
  
• +10% throwing damage to mounted troops.

I can't think of a single f𝚞𝚌king time I've had a mounted troop kill a dude with a throwing weapon and I'm a proponent of the "cavalry f𝚞𝚌kfest army" so I have some experience in this regard. I suppose if you are going to have 4 stacks of throwing weapons on you, the -20% accuracy penalty could be nice for high-speed throwing?

💩Well Prepared

• +1 ammo for throwing weapons.
  
• +1 throwing weapon ammo to troops in your formation.

Maybe I'm pessimistic, but at most this is giving you four extra throws and that's only if you're a based throwpilled individual. Better to me would be if it really amped up your formation by giving them 3 or 4 extra throws each, with the idea being some sort of shield-walled roman-infantry type skirmish line.

Final verdict: Well Prepared is the lesser of two evils, but still pretty lackluster.

Knock Off

• Thrown weapons can dismount at 25% chance when "heavy hitting".
  
• +5% throwing weapon damage to troops in your formation.

If you hit a rider and don't kill them, your throwing weapon isn't epic enough. The 5% throwing damage to troops is better than other weapon percentage boosts, but is still underwhelming.

★★ Running Throw

• 0.3% increase to damage by throwing speed.
  
• +30 throwing skill to troops in your formation.

No idea how to calculate that 0.3 to "normal" damage, my assumption is late game it applies well but early game does next to nothing. +30 throwing skill to troops is great, like other troop boosters.

Final verdict: Running Throw makes your party better. Take it.

★★ Saddlebags

• +2 ammo on throwing weapons in battle if mounted.
  
• +1 daily XP to infantry troops in your party.

+2 ammo per stack is actually pretty good but I don't get why TW decided you only get it on a horse. I guess because the skill is called "saddlebags". Get s𝚑𝚒t on, cringelord athletics players! +1 XP is a literal nothing effect.

💩 Skirmisher

• -10% damage from ranged attacks when holding a throwing weapon.
  
• -3% ranged damage to troops in your command.

Alright so if you don't think this perk is doodoo, go into a battle and get shot by an arrow and do the math to see how much 10% less damage would affect you. Is it going to save you from a single hit before dying? Hey, at least you can take an extra rock thrown by a peasant. -3% damage to troops is awful and will amount to 1 damage at most unless they get hit by a cannonball.

Final verdict: Skirmisher sucks. Go Saddlebags, but always bring a horse. Obviously.

💩💩 Focus

• +25% zoom when using throwing weapons.

Really? Just a 25% boost? I mean what situation are you throwing where this makes an actual difference to gameplay?

★★ Last Hit

• +50% extra damage to enemies with less than 50% health with throwing weapons.
  
• +5 morale for the party at the start of battle.

Executing damage is fine and is a decent threshold at half unlike every other weapon perk in the game. +5 morale is a nothingburger.

Final verdict: Go Last Hit. It does something, where Focus doesn't.

☆ Head Hunter

• +50% damage to thrown weapon headshots.
  
• Tier 2+ troops are 20% cheaper to recruit.

Distance throwing can be improved by headshots, so this benefits that. Recruiting troops by the time you get this high in the tree should no longer be an issue.

💩 Slinging Competitions

• Sling weapons can penetrate head armor.

Slings are omega garbage trash weapons so unfortunately by association this perk is also bad.

Final verdict: Head Hunter is better, but if you're totally in on slingmaxing (probably shouldn't do that!) I guess slinging competitions is the go-to?

Resourceful

• +2 ammo for throwing weapons.
  
• +10% XP to troops with throwing weapons after battles.

If you continue stacking with all the extra ammo perks, you can have a high throwing ammo by the end of the list. The extra experience for troops is fine. I would call this a disappointing perk for tier 8 though.

Splinters

• 3x damage to shields with throwing axes.
  
• +50% damage to shields with throwing weapons to troops in your party.

This is the only solid anti-shield perk for damage multiplication but is a huge investment at tier 8. If you took the previous anti-shield perk in the throwing list this one becomes kind of hilarious, but otherwise just aim at dudes who aren't holding shields at you, brother!

Final verdict: Player choice. Resourceful is a better generalist pick by far, but Splinters has the potential to be hilarious if you build your army and yourself correctly.

💩 Long Reach

• You can pick up weapons from the ground while mounted (double interaction reach)
  
• +20% morale and renown from winning battles.

This perk is basically "+20% renown from winning battles" because everything else is pointless, but even then, is that super useful? At some point your renown is just a pooled resource. IT just doesn't fit a throwing skill tree, you know?

☆ Perfect Technique

• +25% projectile speed on your thrown weapons.
  
• +10% projectile speed on troops' thrown weapons.

Projectile speed creates higher damage and supports better accuracy especially for AI. Normally the 10% changes are underwhelming but in this case it can create a better throwing army.

Final verdict: Renown from Long Reach is... fine, I guess, but if you want to actually throw s𝚑𝚒t better go for Perfect Technique. I like Perfect Technique a lot more.

Impale

• Javelins now penetrate shields if damage is greater than 30+3x (x=shield armor value)
  
• +10% throwing damage to troops in formation.

If you can consistently kill through shields that's pretty cool, but obviously, uh, just aim at dudes who aren't holding up a shield. 10% formation damage is OK.

☆ Weak Spot

• Throwing weapons ignore 30% of enemy armor.
  
• Throwing weapons in your formation ignore 10% of enemy armor.

If you don't deal with heavily shielded enemies often, go for this, the damage increase is palpable.

Final verdict: Weak spot is better if you work around shields and is better in general for your troops.

As with weapons, dogs𝚑𝚒t perks cannot bring down the Riding tree because Riding as a skill is so useful. But that's not going to stop me!

💩 Full Speed

• +20% horse charge damage.
  
• +10% horse charge damage to troops in your formation.

Generally as the player you shouldn't be going for actively "horse charging" enemies because you're going to get yourself killed if you keep it up. Use weapons. The extra damage to NPCs is OK, but not as effective as riding skill.

★★ Nimble Steed

• +10% horse maneuvering.
  
• +30 riding skill to mounted troops in your formation.

Riding skill for party members is always good. AI isn't very good at maneuvering horses but will benefit in all facets instead of just horse damage.

Final verdict: Nimble Steed is better for both the player and AI in the party.

★★ Veterinary

• +20% mount hit points.
  
• +10% hit points to troops' mounts in your command.

Mounts as they scale get high HP values, so this is always decent. Troops in command is icing on the cake of a decent tier 2 perk.

💩 Well Strapped

• -50% chance of a lame or dead horse after it dies in battle for you. (from 20% to 10% lame, from 5% to 2.5% death)

Other than Humpsphrey, what mounts are you that worried about replacing? I have never had a serious issue with replacing a mount if it goes lame or dies. This perk also doesn't completely negate horse loss, so you're still at the fate of RNG. SAD!

Final verdict: Veterinary beats Well Strapped which would only be good if you could BOTW customize your mount. Just buy another one! Also, fun fact - did you know that for some reason TW 1:1 swapped the effects of these perks some point after the initial creation of this guide? Weird, no?

☆ Deeper Sacks (previously Filled To Brim)

• +20% carry capacity of pack animals.
  
• -10% trade penalty for mounts.

Extra carry capacity is always good for staying fast and war mounts can be expensive in excess if you plan on having a lot of cavalry. Solid perk.

Nomadic Traditions

• +30% party speed to mounted infantry (from 1.3 to 1.4)
  
• +10% speed damage bonus to melee cavalry.

The +30% is deceptive because it really only increases a decimal point, but in theory if you have a lot of mounts you can speed up your map movement of an infantry heavy army. Extra speed damage to cavalry is the best mix for speed damage, so it gets a pass.

Final verdict: Player choice, though I prefer Deeper Sacks. I think both perks are fine.

★★ Sagittarius

• -15% accuracy penalty while mounted.
  
• -15% accuracy penalty for mounted troops.

The difference of this and other accuracy perks is that Sagittarius affects all accuracy, not just rotation and movement. It's solid for the player but it's true use is for your mounted archers.

💩 Sweeping Wind

• +5% mount speed.
  
• +2% party speed on the map.

These percentages are tiny and meaningless. Higher tier mounts already become fast enough and your riding skill only helps that -- the 2% map speed is arguably useful, but is so little % that it becomes negligible.

Final verdict: Unless you never use ranged horsemen and never use mounts yourself, Sagittarius is the clear winner.

💩Relief Force

• Joining an ongoing battle with allies grants +10 battle morale to your troops.

Rarely do you get the opportunity to join a battle where your party will even make a significant difference, but even rarer will you win that battle due to your morale rating. This effectively does nothing.

Final verdict: You have no choice but to take Relief Force unless you really value the 5% mount speed. Relieve my 𝚊𝚜s from sh𝚒t.

☆ Horse Archer

• +10% ranged damage while mounted.
  
• +5% ranged damage to mounted archer troops.

Small bonus damage percentages. Take your pick.

Mounted Warrior

• +5% mounted melee damage.
  
• +5% melee damage to mounted troops in your formation.

Small bonus damage percentages. Take your pick.

Final verdict: Both perks are middle-ground compared to other perks. I prefer the ranged damage because generally I am playing heavily ranged on horseback with a melee weapon more as backup. Pick your poison.

💩 Breeder

• 1% chance per day of any animal in your inventory reproducing.

You would think the 1% chance would scale with number of mounts, meaning more mounts = more 1% chances, but it works extremely weird. It's basically always 1% chance but scales with number of animals; for example, >75 means you will get two animals, >125, three. It at least does something, but the amount is so low and inconsistent you effectively gain very little.

💩(?) Shepherd (previously Riding Horde)

• -50% herding penalty for having more pack animals than men.

The only time I get the pack animal penalty is if I just got my s𝚑𝚒t rocked and am escaping prison with the 7 horses they gave me in prison, where I then drop them and run off. Apparently you can do some memey stuff with this utilizing pack animals, but I still don't see it worth the investment and time.

Final verdict: Honestly not fully sure. I think Shepherd has its uses, but Breeder can potentially RNG you some war mounts. Pick your poison.

💩Annoying Buzz

• 20% more battle morale penalty with ranged kills while mounted.
  
• 5% more battle morale penalty from ranged kills for mounted troops.

Self-explanatory percentage bonuses for morale, which is basically impossible to measure.

💩Thunderous Charge

• 20% more battle morale penalty with melee kills while mounted.
  
• 5% more battle morale penalty from melee kills for mounted troops.

Self-explanatory percentage bonuses for morale, which is basically impossible to measure.

Final verdict: Player choice. Hey, what do these morale perks even do? Do you seriously feel the effects of these two perks? If you do, let me know. Genuinely.

★★ Cavalry Tactics

• +30% cavalry troop volunteering rate in towns your clan governs.

This is only truly good if you're trying to run heavy cavalry armies, but the governing specific is a little irritating. It also can give less chance for special troops since they only spawn in towns.

💩Mounted Patrols

• -50% prisoner hero escape chance.

I may be unfair to rate this 💩-tier, but my issue is the chance is still up to RNG and if you drop prisoner heroes off into settlements the perk doesn't matter anymore.

Final verdict: Cavalry Tactics is the go-to if you intend on your party composition being cavalry heavy. Which you should.

💩☆ Dauntless Steed

• -50% stagger damage threshold while mounted
  
• +5 armor to mounted troops in your formation.

I think stagger damage is the rearing when hit by polearms -- just don't let that happen bro. +5 armor is pretty negligible when most troops' shoes are going to have double that by later tiers.

💩Tough Steed

• +20% mount armor.
  
• +10 mount armor for mounted troops.

Sounds a little weird but I feel like this isn't that great of a perk since mount armor at higher tiers is already so high. Your lower tier troops won't benefit much from it and your higher tiers already have great mounts. For you, just don't lose your horse bro.

Final verdict: Player choice but I like Dauntless. Mounts already have a high amount of armor, but I suppose your bottom tier troops might benefit a bit.

Athletics is the gamer's true skill tree since you have to run everywhere for the entire singleplayer campaign to actually level it well compared to riding. Some of these perk trees start to get really s𝚑𝚒tty at this point. Can't wait!

Let's preface talking about movement speed for troops, and why it's bad. First, it does not affect speed on the map (to my knowledge). Second, a high percentage bonus (let's say 15% for example) will save you mere seconds moving across the largest possible battle maps in Bannerlord. They are just not good perks.

💩 Morning Exercise

• +3% movement speed.
  
• +5% foot troop movement speed.

Percentages this low barely affect your effective movement speed in battle and do nothing towards contributing to win/loss. Poopoo.

★★ Well Built

• +5 HP.
  
• +5 HP for foot troops in your formation.

For tier 1, +5 HP isn't bad across your whole foot troop cast.

Final verdict: Well Built has a purpose and Morning Exercise does not.

💩 Form Fitting Armor

• -15% armor weight.
  
• +4% movement speed to Tier 3+ foot troops in your formation.

As with previous, these small incremental increases to movement speed are not going to win or lose battles for you. If you plan on going heavy in athletics anyway, the armor weight percentage doesn't make you much faster or slower than you already would be. High athletics will out-do the perk.

★★ Fury

• +10% weapon handling on foot.
  
• +10% weapon handling to foot troops in your formation.

Weapon handling is one of the key skills to contribute to speed damage and swing/recovery speed. It's great for infantry.

Final verdict: Fury has a purpose. Fitting Armor just makes you... slightly faster at insignificant rate.

💩★★ Imposing Stature

• +30% persuasion chance.
  
• +5 party size.

Persuasion in Bannerlord is 𝚊𝚜s. It appears TW quickly ran out of things to do with the athletics tree because there's randomly other trees plotted in here, this being one. Getting better chance with it is a bonus. I love party size increase, so +5 party size is OK too.

💩 Stamina

• +50% crafting stamina recovery.
  
• +5 prisoner size limit and -10% prisoner escape chance (from 10% to 9%)

If you don't plan on using smithing this is 100% a useless perk. If you do smithing, it's only slightly better as it increases your stamina recovery with a whopping 2.5 extra points per hour (hardly felt). +5 prisoner size limit is negligible and the escape chance only affects oversize, so has a true 1% difference. Wow.

Final verdict: Stamina is a pick if you are going to smithmax, but Having Going has better overall benefits. And to be honest if you're smithmaxing then I would just get the "no smithing stamina" mod to keep your composure.

💩☆ Powerful

• +4% damage with melee weapons.
  
• +2% damage with melee weapons to troops in your formation.

Your personal melee damage should be funneled through the one-handed tree, not the athletics perk tree. The 2% bonus to your troops is nothing. If they swing for 50 damage they will do 1 additional damage. Incredible.

💩 Sprint

• +5% movement speed when you don't have shields or ranged weapons wielded.
  
• +3% movement speed to infantry troops in battle.

Who the f𝚞𝚌k is running around in battle without these things wielded? What a great bonus for travelling around a Town! As with all previous troop movement speed bonuses, this doesn't have a true effect on battle.

Final verdict: I guess go Powerful since it at least adds something.

★★ Braced

• -40% charge damage taken.
  
• -30% charge damage taken to foot troops in your formation.

This is actually pretty decent because enemy cav will race through your infantry lines in almost every battle. Troops taking less damage from that is good.

💩 Surging Blow

• +30% speed damage while on foot.
  
• +30% speed damage to foot troops in your formation.

Speed damage is the least effective on foot and most effective when you're racing through lines on a horse. Even though this percentage is good, it's not significant.

Final verdict: If the entire map is owned by the Battanians, Surging Blow is good since you won't fight cavalry. Otherwise go Braced.

A Good Days Rest

• +10% hit point regen while stationary.
  
• +10 XP to foot troops in your party while waiting in settlements.

+10 XP is surprisingly high compared to other +# XP perks which are low as h𝚎𝚕l. This synergizes well with smithing skill since waiting around doing nothing is 95% of gameplay when you main smithing.

Walk It Off

• +10% hit point regen while moving.
  
• +3 XP to foot troops in your party while traveling.

Gives benefits to movement, which you're doing all the time.

Final verdict: Player choice. I do more traveling than waiting so I prefer Walk It Off, but a Good Days Rest has understandable use and a much more felt XP bonus for those times you'll be sitting in a settlement.

Durable

• +1 Endurance Attribute.

At least this does something, but still very underwhelming for a tier 7 perk.

💩Energetic

• -20% speed penalty when overburdened.

A 20% speed upgrade when moving slow as f𝚞𝚌k isn't enough for this perk to truly change anything IMO. It's even worse that it's 7 tiers up!

Final verdict: Durable can actually benefit your character while Energetic is a perk that might never activate.

Steady

• +1 Control.

Yep that's it. TW really knocked it outta the park with this perk.

☆ Strong

• +1 Vigor.
  
• +5% party speed from foot troops.

A bonus to player stats and a bonus to party movement speed is an acceptable perk, but 8 tiers up for just 5% is a low blow from TW.

Final verdict: Strong can get you a small amount of extra map speed, so that's cool. Just take whichever perk you need more attribute in, but I like Strong more.

★★ Strong Arms

• +5% damage with throwing weapons.
  
• +20 throwing skill to troops in your formation.

Well, I hope you plan on teching into throwing, because otherwise this perk is useless to you. The skill to troops is decent. Tier 9?

💩💩💩 Strong Legs

• -50% fall damage taken.
  
• Double kick damage.

This is one of the worst perks in the game. This perk is so bad it's funny. Kick damage is already low enough to the point kicking anyone with meaningful armor is 1 damage. Why are you even kicking? How much are you taking fall damage that you actually need to lower it? Why are you even taking fall damage? Who made this perk? Was it a joke?

Final verdict: Strong Legs is atrocious. Go Strong Arms.

★★ Ignore Pain

• +10% armor while on foot.
  
• +5 (flat) armor per equipment piece to foot troops in your formation.

The flat armor amounts are decent for foot troops. 10% armor for you is actually pretty impressive with high enough armor.

💩 Spartan

• +50% stagger resistance on foot.
  
• -20% food consumption for your party.

Stagger resistance is already pretty high. To need the benefit of having a slightly higher threshold is useless if you're playing melee correctly with your party. -20% food consumption is a joke. By any perk reaching tier 10, you should be at a stage of the game where food isn't a concern for you anymore. Food should never be a concern for you.

Final verdict: Ignore Pain is an actual upgrade while Spartan is a fake upgrade. Choose correctly.

Oh boy my favorite skill tree in the whole game (no). It's a shame that Smithing is only good once you have 95394539493 levels of it because the method to upgrade it is tedious as f𝚞𝚌k and you'll be spending a s𝚑𝚒tload of time doing nothing or spamming left click. If you didn't know, the pro-gamer move is to give yourself half the skills and give an NPC who you slave around the resource-creating skills, and puke out nothing but top tier javelins until you can make what you actually want. The ACTUAL pro gamer move is to get a mod that makes smithing better.

★★ Efficient Charcoal

• Hardwood to charcoal recipe goes from 2:1 to 2:3.

You're going to need 5,000,000,000 charcoal by the end of the game if you're levelling up smithing from low levels, so this is a great pickup to save clicks out of your mouse.

💩 Efficient Iron

• Crude iron produce from 1 iron and 2 charcoal goes from 2 to 3.

Crude iron comes off of so many weapons in smelting that you should do that all the time instead of smelting iron down into crude iron and using extra charcoal.

Final verdict: Charcoal good. Crude iron not needed when you'll get s𝚑𝚒tloads from bandit weaponry smelting.

Curious Smelter

• +100% part design learning when smelting.

Steel Maker

• Can now craft steel.

Final verdict: If you have a 2nd NPC to do half of things, give them Steel Maker and put Curious Smelter on yourself. If you're worried about "missing the boat" and have no NPCs, put it on yourself.

Curious Smith

• +100% learning on part designs when smithing.

Steel Maker 2

• Can now craft fine steel.

Final verdict: Same as previous tier. Give NPC the metal making s𝚑𝚒t and give yourself the learning s𝚑𝚒t.

Experienced Smith

• 10% chance to create a 'fine' weapon.
  
• +2 relationship with notables for successful orders.

Steel Maker 3

• Can now craft Thamaskene steel.
  
• +4 relationship with lords and ladies for successful orders.

Final verdict: Same as previous tier. Give NPC the metal making s𝚑𝚒t and give yourself the learning s𝚑𝚒t.

Practical Refiner

• Half stamina spent on refining.

Practical Smelter

• Half stamina spent on smelting.

Final verdict: Once again ideally you have an NPC friend to split the workload here, but just pick whichever one you do more.

Controlled Smith

• +1 Control.

Vigorous Smith

• +1 Vigor.

Final verdict: Attributes are very difficult to get with normal leveling so this perk tier is OK. Pick whichever suits your build. Bit of a lackluster creativity count on TW's part.

Artisan Smith

• Half trade penalty for selling smithed weapons.

I don't really have money issues at most points in Bannerlord so I think this skill is weak, especially since most "throwaway" smithed weapons are not worth selling in the first place. I think it can be exploited to make serious bank, but usually I just melt the weapons I smith down to continue leveling Smithing.

★★ Practical Smith

• Smithing stamina is halved.

Anything to make the process of smithing easier is good.

Final verdict: Practical Smith makes smithing less torturous.

Master Smith

• 10% chance to create 'Masterwork' weapon.

Final verdict: Decent perk considering there is no choice. If you have the 'fine' weapon perk you essentially have a 20% chance to create an above-normal weapon.

Enduring Smith

• +1 Endurance.

☆ Fencer Smith

• +1 focus point to one-handed and two-handed.

Final verdict: I like Fencer Smith because it allows you to upgrade your infantry through party-upgrade perks. If you need the endurance, go for Enduring Smith.

💩💩💩💩 Sharpened Edge

• +2% swing damage of crafted weapons.

💩💩💩💩 Sharpened Tip

• +2% thrust damage of crafted weapons.

Final verdict: What kind of ending perk is this? For your efforts you get 2% extra damage. Think about this: You make a polearm that deals TWO HUNDRED damage. For your efforts, you gain FOUR additional damage. Sickening.

Scouting has some interesting concepts in the perk tree and the nice part is that even if a perk is total s𝚑𝚒t, having high scouting level is nice to travel across the map.

★★ Day Traveler

• +2% movement speed during the day.
  
• +10% increased sight range during day time.

Decent perk bonuses even though 2% hardly means anything.

Night Runner

• +5% movement speed during night time.
  
• +30% sight range during night time.

Good perk bonuses but keep in mind night time is only about 1/4 of a Bannerlord day.

Final verdict: Because night is so short in Bannerlord, Day Traveler is better overall. No matter what you take it will only increase your party speed by 0.1-0.2. OK for tier 1 perks.

Pathfinder

• +2% movement speed on steppes/plains.
  
• 50% chance to get +1 relation with a notable when you enter a town.

Very low percentage bonus but we give it a pass for tier 2 "freeness".

Water Diviner

• +10% sight range bonus on steppes/plains.
  
• 50% chance to get +1 relation with a notable when you enter a village.

Sight range is better felt than the movement speed and notable relationship is good.

Final verdict: Choice has to be made if you want bonuses for entering villages or towns. Movement speed is always nice.

Desert Born

• +5% movement speed bonus on deserts/dunes.

If you're in the Asurai area this is decent, but otherwise it's effectively useless. Doesn't that mostly suck?

Forest Kin

• -50% speed penalty in forests if your party is >75% infantry.

This is a surprisingly OK perk, but also only favors early game when you don't have much cavalry.

Final verdict: While i consider Desert Born 💩-tier for myself, I do think this is a mostly subjective pick based on your playstyle.

💩Forced March

• +2.5% party movement bonus when morale is higher than 75.
  
• +2 XP per day when morale is higher than 75.

2 XP is far too low and +2.5% speed is underwhelming for how long it will take you to consistently hit and maintain >75 morale.

💩 Unburdened

• 20% less penalty from being overburdened.
  
• +2 XP per day to troops when overburdened.

You should never want to be overburdened because it sucks. Making it slightly less s𝚑𝚒t is okay, but this perk could be much better.

Final verdict: Forced March is better, but still not good. Unburdened is bad.

🤷‍♂️Ranger

• +20% track spotting distance.
  
• +10% track detection chance.

I don't use tracks as much as I did in Warband, but I can't say off that alone that this perk is bad. Tracks can give you some insight to parties but I tend to not use them. 🤷‍♂️

☆Tracker

• +20% maximum track life.
  
• +2% speed when following a hostile party.

I like this solely for the 2% bonus following a hostile party. Even though it equates to only 0.1 extra speed, it can help for chasing annoying enemy parties down.

Final verdict: I like Tracker but these seem like flavorful player-choice perks. They're both a bit underwhelming.

★★ Mounted Scouts

• If your party is >50% cavalry, gain +10% sight bonus.
  
• +5 party size.

The sight bonus isn't terrible, but up 6 tiers we'd hope for some more creativity. I like that party size s𝚑𝚒t tho!!!💯

💩💩Patrols

• +5 battle morale against bandits.
  
• +10% advantage in simulated battles against bandits.

This perk is insane 𝚊𝚜s. When do you need advantage in sim? Bandits are cannonfodder once you have more than 30 trained troops. Why would you ever need this perk?

Final verdict: Mounted Scouts is actually useful. Patrol is gonorrhea. Pick wisely.

★★ Beast Whisperer

• 5% chance of finding a mount daily when moving through steppes/plains.
  
• +10% carry capacity for pack animals.

Compared to the riding 1% perk, the 5% is actually felt as you'll get the occasional additional mount. +10% carry capacity is decent for pack animals.

💩 Foragers

• -10% food consumption when moving through steppes/forests.
  
• -15% disorganized state time.

While disorganized state time bonus is OK, the food consumption is massively useless.

Final verdict: Beast Whisperer is best. Mounts are always useful, food consumption should not be your concern.

💩 Rumour Network

• -5% trade penalty within cities of your faction.
  
• +30% hideout detection range.

City/town trade bonus is fine and dandy but this is pretty d𝚊mn far up the perk tree to be just giving you a 5% bonus. As with other perk trees, once you get this high up ONE, you should be raking in denars like a fat ba𝚜t𝚊rd in Praven. Hideout detection range at tier 8? Hello TW? Are you alive? Do you feel?

💩 Village Network

• -10% trade penalty within villages of your faction.

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I mean denars are so easy to come by I don't know why you would need this unless you're spamming an iron village or something? Maybe spamming a horse village?

Final verdict: I mean holy SCHMOLY these perks are ineffective for anything significant. Are you really 8 tiers into scouting and you need the assistance these perks provide? Pick your poison.

Keen Sight

• -50% sight difficulty while inside forests.
  
• -50% chance for prisoner lords to escape your party.

By this point in scouting your vision is already really solid. Is the 50% sight difficulty in forests really an issue here? Less chance for lords to escape would be OK if it wasn't still up to RNG.

Vantage Point

• +25% sight range after being stationary for 1 hour.
  
• +10 prisoner size limit.

+25% sight range is no joke but I don't find myself needing that kind of sight distance. +10 prisoner size limit is acceptable but nothing special for tier 9.

Final verdict: Player choice. Both perks are very underwhelming for tier 9.

💩 Rearguard

• +20% troop wounded recovery ratio when in an army.
  
• +10% damage during simulation when defending the siege camp.

Slight extra wounded recovery ratio is nice, but why here in scouting? The secondary should be in the Tactics tree, not here.

💩 Vanguard

• +5% damage in simulated battles when on the attack.
  
• +10% damage in simulated battles when sallying out.

So this is straight up a Tactics perk and it's not terrible, but why here in Scouting?

Final verdict: Why are both tier 10 Scouting perks basically just Tactics perks? I would say Vanguard is better, but both receive the 💩 of shame for being confused about what skill tree they should be in.

Disclaimer; over my singleplayer games, I have found and decided that the Tactics tree as a whole isn't necessary. Every simulated battle I play is an auto-win. I never simulate battles that are "close". I would never win a battle because my simulation tips me over the edge. So I'm going in here with negative bias. I intend to flesh out this section... someday.

☆ Loose Formations

• -10% infantryman damage by ranged troops in sims.
  
• -25% morale penalty from using line, loose, circle, scatter formations.

This perk is essentially free, so cool -- the morale bonus, however, is basically nonexistent.

Tight Formations

• +10% damage to cav by infantry in sims.
  
• -25% morale penalty from using shield wall, square, skein, or column formations.

I assume damage to cav by infantry is already low so this percentage bonus doesn't do much, and the morale bonus is nonexistent.

Final verdict: I assume loose formations is a better damage bonus for sims.

☆ Decisive Battle

• +5% sim damage plains, steppes, deserts.
  
• +5% movement speed to troops in plains, steppes, and deserts.

The percentages are pretty low, but it's much more common to fight on plains when compared to Extended Skirmish.

Extended Skirmish

• +10% sim damage in snowy or forest terrains.
  
• +2% movement speed to troops in plains, steppes, and desert battlefields.

2% movement speed is awful. The 10% sim damage is better than 5% but is only in specific areas. If you choose this, you'd better make sure you always sim battles specifically.

Final verdict: I like Decisive Battle more due to the higher consistency of fighting on flatter terrain.

★★ Horde Leader

• +10 party size
  
• Army cohesion drops 5% slower.

Party size is great and army cohesion dropping slower saves influence. Decent perk!

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Small Unit Tactics

• +1 troop during hideout raids.
  
• +5% battle speed to troops in your formation when you have less than 15 Soldiers.

You never need 11 troops for hideout raids. If you have tier 3+ troops, hideout raids are a literal AFK->win. The +5% battle speed is so little speed for such a specific niche (less than 15 troops). Terrible perk.

EDIT: Now that hideouts are a button press + 6 hours to instant clear, or a minigame of stealth (gets boring after like 2 times, but hey!), hideouts are no longer a chore, but it also makes this perk even worse.

Final verdict: Horde Leader every single time. Small Unit Tactics is so terrible.

☆ Coaching

• +3% damage bonus in all sims.
  
• +1% damage to troops in your formation.

The 1% damage is actually laughable. Consider a 100 damage headshot doing 101 damage instead. The 3% sim damage could potentially stack well with your tactics level, making it acceptable.

Law Keeper

• +10% damage in sims against bandits.
  
• +4% damage to bandits for troops in your formation.

Instead of your 100 size party losing 1 troop to a 20 stack bandit you will lose 0. Amazing!

Final verdict: So, in my playbook, neither of these are useful, but that's because I don't value Tactics. My thought is Coaching stacks better with the skill it's supporting. You should never have trouble with Bandits, so Coaching always helps where Law Keeper doesn't.

💩 Improviser

• No morale penalty for disorganized state, sally out, or when being attacked.
  
• -25% fewer men lost when breaking into and out of a settlement under siege.

Rarely do I break into and out of a settlement under siege, but the less men lost generally is insignificant -- the main reason to do this would be to tip a battle by being the player in the defense IMO. The morale penalty is a "who cares" bonus and will likely have no effect on outcome.

★★Swift Regroup

• -15% disorganized state time after breaking sieges and raids.
  
• -50% Soldiers lost when escaping battles.

Escaping battles with less Soldiers lost (by an actually effective 50%) can be useful if you're okay with totally annihilating your "honor" trait. Don't expect to use disorganized state time reduction on small-window battles, it's just a slight timesaver for when you're slow as h𝚎𝚕l after sieges.

Final verdict: Swift Regroup is a felt bonus where Improviser is only for if you're making bad decisions by breaking into/out of settlements.

Disclaimer; over my singleplayer games, I have found and decided that the Tactics tree as a whole isn't necessary. Every simulated battle I play is an auto-win. I never simulate battles that are "close". I would never win a battle because my simulation tips me over the edge. So I'm going in here with negative bias. I intend to flesh out this section by speccing heavy in tactics in my next playthrough, whenever that comes.

Call To Arms

• +10% movement speed for parties called to your army.
  
• -15% influence required per party called to your army.

Some extra speed to parties is "meh". Initially I thought influence down was good, but really at some point you'll stack influence so heavily you probably don't need this perk - the worst part is, it doesn't support "Tactics" as a tree.

★★ On The March

• -20% fortification bonus in simulations.
  
• +20% fortification bonus in simulations.

The best part of this perk, like others in Tactics, is saving time. If you don't want to spend so long fighting, hit that auto-resolve.

Final verdict: Tactics as a skill is benefited more by On The March than Call To Arms. If you're skilling Tactics anyway, you should really go On The March.

💩 Make Them Pay

• +25% damage to defender siege engines.
  
• +20% damage to besieger siege engines.

Generally you are one or two shotting siege engines if you're building the correct way. It's all about hit RNG and less about damage values. This perk is at least acceptable but absolutely not worth seven tiers of unlocks, and from my understanding it only affects the siege minigame part of a siege, not actual battles (let me know if I'm wrong about that).

💩☆ Pick Them Off The Walls

• +25% chance to double casualties (1 to 2) when destroying an enemy defensive siege engine.
  
• +25% chance to double casualties (1 to 2) when destroying an enemy besieger engine.

You kill 1 (ONE) troop when you destroy a siege engine regularly. Maybe this lets you pluck the numbers down, but consider how many engines you'd have to destroy to really make a difference. AND it's not even confirmed - just 25%!

Final verdict: This is tough because I consider both of these perks weak. I think it's down to your playstyle, but I see consistent siege engine damage as better than a 1/4 chance to do very little in a different way.

☆ Elite Reserves

• -20% damage to Tier 3+ units.
  
• +5% damage reduction to troops in your formation.

I don't know if the -20% is in-battle or in-sim only, but it's much better compared to other damage percentages in perk trees.

💩 Encirclement

• +5% damage in sims when outnumbering the enemy.
  
• 10% less influence needed to boost army cohesion.

Avoid boosting army cohesion regardless; the 10% change won't help.

Final verdict: Elite Reserves' 20% damage change to your expensive units is much preferred to a little extra damage in what should already be winnable fights for being 8 tiers up the Tactics tree.

☆ Besieged

• +10% more damage in sims when you are besieged.
  
• +50% influence gain from winning sieges.

The +50% influence gain from winning sieges is solid. The 10% extra damage in sims can help your already titan-level Tactics.

Pre-Battle Maneuvers

• +25% influence gain from winning field engagements.
  
• If your tactics skill is greater than the enemy, gain +1% bonus per 100 levels in tactics.

+25% influence is OK. The "greater tactics" portion reads well in-game but when you see the stat (1% per 100 levels) you realize it's less impactful than what it feels like.

Final verdict: Both perks are OK.

☆Counter Offensive

• +10% sim damage when attacked in a field battle
  
• +10% sim damage when outnumbered.

If you're already this far up the tactics tree, this only adds to how much ass you're going to click by simulating the battle. A consideration as well would be the outnumbered percentage being flat; if you have one less troop, you're whooping biscuits.

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Gens d'armes

• +2% damage to infantry for cavalry units in your formation.

I think even with tactics stacking this perk sucks. Let me know if anyone has seen otherwise.

Final verdict: I think that these are mediocre for tier 10 perks, but Counter Offensive is the better choice either way.

I am going to rip a new 𝚊𝚜shole into the Roguery tree. If you like Roguery it is now your time to get angry at me. The only purpose of the Roguery tree is to roleplay as a Bandit -- surprise surprise, doing that sucks. A lot. I suggest for a normal playthrough to not put any points into this tree. Do not spend any time with this tree. Stay away.

No Rest for the Wicked

• +20% xp gain for bandit units in your party.
  
• +5% faster raiding.

Bandit units suck in most cases and you no longer gain the XP benefit if they convert to regular troops. Slightly faster raiding is OKish, it does take a long time.

💩 Sweet Talker

• 20% easier bartering for peace with bandits.

If you need to barter peace with bandits you need to regain control of your life.

Final verdict: Pick your poison. No Rest can at least level terrible bandit troops.

💩 Deep Pockets

• Double the amount of betting you can use in tournaments.
  
• -20% wages for bandit troops.

This perk is only useful very early when you're using tournaments to gain money and need extra cash away from your troops, but becomes mostly unfelt quickly.

💩☆ Two Faced

• 50% better chance of disguise missions.
  
• No morale penalty for bandit prisoners being recruited.

I can only remember ever doing one disguise mission in Bannerlord, but at least the perk helps? Again, if you roleplay a bandit leader and get massive crime rating, this might be useful? Morale penalty hurts for bandit prisoners, but the "recent events" morale hits go down quick enough you shouldn't truly have a huge issue with this.

Final verdict: Two Faced is OK. I can see a world where you take Deep Pockets but note that if you're truly going to field a bandit army, you want the perks that allow you to convert them to normal troops later, mostly losing the effect of Deep Pockets.

💩 In Best Light

• Notables give 4 volunteers, up from 3, when forced.
  
• Your owned villages recover 20% faster.

Well, as previously mentioned, if you are fully roleplaying a bandit dude, this is OK. But I pretty much never use the "force recruits" action if I'm playing a normal singleplayer game. Village recovery is terrible if you're roleplaying a bandit since you likely won't own anything, but even if you do it's not felt often. Villages recover faster than they did in Warband, so a percentage on top is less felt.

💩 Know-How

• Defeated villagers and caravans give 52.5% (up from 50%) of their inventory.

Oh wow what an increas- 😴

Final verdict: Yeah.

💩Slave Trader

• +20% ransom broker deals for regular troops.
  
• +10 (flat) prisoner limit.

This used to be a 20% bonus to prisoner limit which was actually useful especially into the later game, but TW nerfed it to be a flat 10 rate of prisoners, making the skill essentially useless as broker deals are not a consistent method into almost any level of the game for progression.

💩 Promises

• -50% food consumption in your party from bandit units.
  
• Bandit prisoners can be recruited 30% faster.

If you plan on recruiting bandit prisoners anyway, you can probably afford to wait. Food consumption should never be a problem for you. Bad perk.

Final verdict: Somehow Promises comes on top here, because they inexplicably nerfed Slave Trader. Wow.

💩Scarface

• +30% chance of surrender in bandits, villagers, and caravans.

Honestly this isn't the worst perk solely because for some reason tiny parties refuse to surrender no matter what. However, you can also just sim these battles if you want to rapidly end them. As with others it's probably only best if you're roleplaying a bandit.

💩 White Lies

• 20% faster crime rating decrease.

Great if you roleplay as a bandit. Terrible otherwise. Even as a bandit, this percentage is surprisingly low in felt effect due to how crime rating decay works.

Final verdict: Well roguery is continuing its trend of having mediocre to bad perks. Pick your poison. This entire tree is peepee.

★★ Partners in Crime

• Bandits always offer to join you.
  
• +2% damage dealt to bandit units in your formation.

Having bandit parties instantly join you is pretty neat because it allows you to rapidly build a party. This is a cool perk and is the main interesting one in the entire tree. On the flip side, 2% damage bonus is negligible and pointless.

💩 Smuggler Connections

• +10 armor when wearing civilian armor.
  
• Half trade penalty when you have a criminal rating.

So why are you banking on civilian armor when looking for extra armor value? I honestly don't know how bad the trade penalty is, does it scale?

Final verdict: Partners in Crime is a cool mechanic and much more interesting than Smuggler Connections.

★★ One Of The Family

• +10 Vigor and Control to bandit units in your party.

This perk is interesting. Bandit units are generally terrible but giving them +10 to stats can put them closer to "par" with other units. If you've bothered to go this far up this perk tree I guess this is a must-pick.

💩Salt the Earth

• +20% resources from demanding goods against villages.

Just raid the village bro who cares holy s𝚑𝚒t.

Final verdict: If you're psycho enough to go up this perk tree One Of The Family is a must-take to keep your troops relevant. However, at the end of the day, you want to just convert them to normal troops... so even the tree can't save itself and misses out on its own perk benefit.

💩💩 Carver

• +10% damage with civilian weapons.
  
• +2% damage with one-handed swords to troops in your formation.

Holy s𝚑𝚒t this perk SUCKS. If you're at tier 8 on any perk tree you should no longer be dealing with adversity when having a random fight in a town. +2% damage to troops is nothing -- and all the way at tier 8!

💩 Ransom Broker

• +25% gained from ransoming hero prisoners.
  
• -30% hero prisoner escape chance.

Hero prisoner escape chance is alright, but are we really considering ransoming a great way of getting money back? This perk is too weak for tier 8. Especially with your looting bonuses simply training the bandit skill, are you really in need of more money?

Final verdict: Both perks are flaccid. Roguery is rough, man. Just pick one.

💩 Arms Dealer

• 20% better sell price for weapons.

Wow, a tiny tiny tiny tiny baby-tier denar increase at a tier 9 perk! That's grea-😴

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Dirty Fighting

• +50% kick stun time.

Some dude at TW was laughing his 𝚊𝚜s off imagining someone picking this perk.

Final verdict: Arms Dealer at least does something so I guess go with that. 🤮

💩 Dash and Slash

• +50% speed bonus effect while on foot.
  
• +2% damage to two-handed weapons for troops in your formation.

I guess speed bonus is OK. Not for a level 10 perk tho lol. It does a bit of extra damage for you. What is with all the 2% bonuses in the Roguery tree? Tier 10 for that little damage bonus?

💩 Fleet Footed

• +10% speed while no weapons or shields are equipped.
  
• +30% escape chance against mobile parties.

What a great buff, now I can run around towns at a negligible speed! GREAT!

Final verdict: To wrap up the perk tree TW made even more terrible perks. Surprise surprise. Dash and Slash gives you something, Fleet Footed gives you faster speed when... wandering around towns. Because I guess you're doing that a lot.

💩 Rogue Extraordinaire
I know I mentioned I wouldn't talk about the top-tier perks, but was the best thing for the f𝚞𝚌king Roguery tree really just a multiplier for what the skill already does? If you're at 275 Roguery do you really need EVEN MORE LOOT from random field battles?

Roguery was so terrible I have to type at least one more sentence saying how bad that tree is. Okay, on to Charm. Charm is an OK perk tree. I think the big problem is that putting focus points into charm is so difficult when there's way better s𝚑𝚒t out there.

★★ Self Promoter

• +3 renown after winning a tournament.
  
• +1 morale when besieged.

This used to be +5 influence, early game renown is really solid for spending time in a tournament. +1 morale is insignificant.

💩Virile

• +30% chance to have children.

The +30% is a dishonest. This increases your lady's (or yourself) chance to get pregnant from a default 24% to 31% per day (24*1.3). Because women in-game essentially have a hard-limit to children, unless you are swapping out your wife after 3 children over and over, this perk amounts to 3 kids -- the normal amount, just perhaps a little quicker. Completely useless perk if you are playing as a female.

Final verdict: Self Promoter is an interesting perk for early game strategy to farm extra influence.

Oratory

• +1 renown and influence for each issue resolved.
  
• +1 relationship with a random notable in your faction after defeating an enemy lord.

Extra renown is good early since it takes long to level your clan up. The random relation is any notable, which is worse than any lord, but is still OK for a tier 2.

Warlord

• +30% influence gain from battles.
  
• +1 relationship with a random Lord in your faction after defeating an enemy lord.

Arguably better if you've got a good method to max renown, particularly in the later game. +1 relationship with lords is better than "notables" from Oratory.

Final verdict: Player's choice based on intentions. If you don't think you'll have renown issues (I always like speeding up the process) go for Warlord, otherwise go Oratory.

☆ Forgivable Grievances

• 20% chance to avoid critical fail in persuasion.
  
• 5% chance per day while in a settlement to increase relations with an NPC of negative relation.

RNG continues to be RNG in the persuasion system, but a small chance per day to make NPCs actually allow you to do quests for them can be beneficial.

Meaningful Favors

• 10% better chance for double persuasion success.

The RNG nature of persuasion makes this perk less effective than it could be, and the skill bonus from leveling charm outdoes this perk. I wouldn't say it's 💩-tier but it's not good.

Final verdict: While both perks are weak, Forgivable Grievances gives you more opportunity both on the RNG side and not.

In Bloom

• +20% relationship gain with the opposite gender.
  
• +2% chance per day to increase relations with a notable of the opposed gender in the settlement.

See Final verdict.

Young and Respectful

• +20% relationship gain with the same gender.
  
• +2% chance per day to increase relations with a notable of the same gender in the settlement.

See Final verdict.

Final verdict: Alright so the 2% chance is 𝚊𝚜s. Go for whichever relationship gain helps you get better relations with men. These perks are OK (+20% is a good amount bonus).

Firebrand

• -25% influence cost to initiate kingdom decisions.
  
• +1 recruitment level from rural notables.

-25% influence cost is decent.

Flexible Ethics

• -30% influence cost when voting for proposals made by other people.
  
• +1 recruitment level from urban notables.

Spending more influence on other peoples' proposals is the easiest path to making them love you, so this is a solid perk if that's your gameplan.

Final verdict: Player choice. If you get to this skill quickly, Flexible Ethics will help you to rapidly increase relations with other characters. If you're already a king, Firebrand is arguably better.

💩Effort For The People

• +3 relation with the nearest town owner clan after clearing a hideout.
  
• -25% item barter penalty with lords of the same culture.

Relation with clans is OK, but it's pretty terrible when applied only to hideouts. Bartering is painful so I don't use it often and consider this a bad perk because of it.

💩 Slick Negotiator

• -20% mercenary recruitment cost.
  
• -10% item barter penalty with lords of different cultures.

If you're purchasing mercenaries you shouldn't be worried about investment. The percentage differences here are not effective in virtually all scenarios.

Final verdict: I don't know man. I guess hideout boosting with Effort For The People? Your choice.

★★ Good Natured

• 100% of influence is recovered when a proposal you support fails.
  
• +1 relation with merciful lords.

Full influence recovery is great on failed proposals for relationship gain and influence maintenance.

💩 Tribute

• +20% chance for relationship bonus when paying more than enough in barters.
  
• +1 relation with cruel lords.

The extra chance is just that. It's not a passive bonus, it's a 20% chance to get JUST +1 relationship after a good barter.

Final verdict: Good Natured is awesome, Tribute sucks.

💩 Morale Leader

• -1 persuasion success needed for characters in your own culture.

This perk wouldn't be bad if Natural Leader weren't better.

★★ Natural Leader

• -1 persuasion success needed for characters outside of your own culture.
  
• +20% experience gain on companions.

+20% experience gain on companions is decent, and -1 persuasion success needed on other cultures means A LOT of other characters.

Final verdict: Taleworlds. Common math here. You get more benefit from getting every culture but your own in bonuses. Because there are more cultures than your own. So why did you give Natural Leader the decent side-perk? Go Natural Leader.

★★ Parade

• +5 loyalty per day when you are in your own settlement.
  
• 5% chance per day to gain +1 relation with a lord in the same army.

+5 loyalty per day allows you to "stockpile" loyalty in an otherwise unloyal settlement relatively quick and do clever things. The 5% chance part of this perk is... something. Not terrible, but something.

💩Public Speaker

• +30% renown gain from battles.

Alright, in the one case you are at tier 9 Charm and have atrocious renown, you're gonna need this. Otherwise, it's useless.

Final verdict: Parade is a clear choice here for having actual use. I don't know how you would get to this point in a perk tree without having decent renown already.

Camaraderie

• Double relations with lords when aiding them in battle.
  
• +1 companion limit.

+1 companion limit is great. Double relations is... okay for battles. This is an OK perk. Is it worth 10 tiers of Charm? Probably not.

Final verdict: OK perk for there being no other option.

Leadership's default bonuses are OK. The perks here are... eh. You'll see.

💩 Combat Tips

• +2 xp/day to all troops in party.
  
• Extra recruit slot from same-culture notables.

+2 xp/day is fine for tier 1, but still useless overall for all troops that aren't tier 1.

★★Raise The Meek

• +4 xp/day to tier 1-2 troops.

The benefit of this perk to Combat Tips is that it's still useless, but it's twice as effective for the troops it will actually have some use for. Getting your bottom feeder troops up slightly quicker.

Final verdict: The amount of XP is insignificantly low both ways, but Combat Tips edges out. Haha.

💩Fervent Attacker

• +4 morale when attacking.
  
• +50% rate of recruiting tier 1-3 prisoners.

Recruitment rate of lower tier troops will be used more, but is also less useful quality-wise -- and really, if your plan is to recruit lower tier enemy troops, you can probably afford to wait a little longer.

💩★★ Stout Defender

• +8 morale when defending.
  
• +50% rate of recruiting tier 4-6 prisoners.

As with all morale bonuses there is no felt effect, but having faster recruiting for these higher tier prisoners will be more beneficial. I still consider this doodoo because it's just a slight time saver and does nothing else.

Final verdict: Stout Defender is good only due to the prisoner recruitment rate.

★★Authority

• +5 party size.

Party size kicks 𝚊𝚜s but more than 5 would be cool. At least it's something.

💩Heroic Leader

• 10% more morale penalty when an opponent is killed by your formation.

Morale is a practically unfelt stat adjustment, so what does this actually do? Does someone have evidence they can share?

Final verdict: The 10% morale penalty is completely unfelt, where it's always easy to feel additional party size affecting gameplay.

Famous Commander

• +50% renown gain from battles.
  
• +200 xp to recruited troops.

Renown gain is possibly the most irritating leveling structures in the early game, so an extra 50% is solid at that time. +200 XP is negligible but an OK sub-perk.

Loyalty And Honor

• Troops tier 3+ do not retreat due to low morale.
  
• 30% faster non-bandit prisoner conversion.

This perk used to be only for troops tier 3 or below, but with it now being high tier troops, this could get you a change of momentum? I've seen high tier khuzait troops literally go 1:10 because of their ludicrous armor, but how many have I seen actually run away?

Final verdict: A choice for the player depending on when you unlock this perk. If early game, I would take Famous Commander.

☆Leader of the Masses

• +5 party size for each controlled town.
  
• 5% of experience gained by heroes is gifted to troops.

Party size is nice and can rapidly multiply if you target towns - however, the one-town strat would obviously greatly hurt this perk. XP to troops is actually pretty decent since the player character will get loads of XP as compared to troops.

Presence

• +5 security in a town per day while waiting.
  
• No morale penalty for recruiting prisoners of your culture.

The security s𝚑𝚒t is 𝚊𝚜s but no morale penalty on own-culture troops could be OK -- keep in mind you'd need to recruit a LOT of prisoners to actually trash your morale. I don't tend to notice the "recent events" morale hit from recruiting prisoners kills my party morale so bad I would need this perk.

Final verdict: I can see the use of Presence if compared to Leader of the Masses, but I like the party size and XP bonuses more than temporary morale bonuses. Your choice.

💩Citizen Militia

• +20% morale gain from victories.

Honestly I just don't value morale enough and victories only give you temporary morale boosts. Assuming you're keeping your morale in good order this doesn't boost it enough to matter significantly.

☆Veteran's Respect

• You can now convert bandits into regular troops.

Converting bandits is quite good but can also be niche. The real kicker of this perk is the ability to convert units and acquire faction elite units.

Final verdict: I initially thought Veteran's Respect wasn't so good in my disdain for bandit troops, but the ability to create high tier units out of them can bring success if you look for it.

☆Inspiring Leader

• 20% less influence needed for calling parties.
  
• +5% experience to troops from battles.

Less influence is a good perk choice, and the +5% experience is acceptable.

Uplifting Spirit

• +10 battle morale during sieges.
  
• +10 party size limit.

Party size is like gateway drugs, but the battle morale is... eh.

Final verdict: Both perks have their reasons for choice. I think Inspiring Leader has an edge on Uplifting Spirit for the utility use of calling parties for cheap later in the campaign, but party size is funny... so. You do you brother.

💩Lead by Example

• 50% melee prisoner recruitment rate.
  
• 5.5% experience (up from 5%) shared to cavalry troops.

While melee prisoners are the most likely to be recruited by you, this is just too little for a tier 8 perk. A time saver at best.

💩Trusted Commander

• 50% ranged prisoner recruitment rate.
  
• +20% simulated experience gain for troops.

Same as the above. While these percentages are higher, the felt effects of them are mostly insignificant since it's a time saver at best.

Final verdict: Underwhelming and doodoo-like perks, pick your preference.

💩Great Leader

• +5 battle morale to troops.
  
• +5 battle morale to troops with the same culture.

Morale is hardly measurable in terms of battle impact and this is also at tier 9. POOPY!

💩Make a Difference

• 100% higher morale effect for kills by you.
  
• 5.5% experience (up from 5%) shared to ranged troops.

Uhhhhh what is even the effect of your impact on morale kills? I mean it's doubled here, but if I'm killing like 40 enemies we're going to win the battle regardless of the enemy running away or not.

Final verdict: Player choice. Poopy choices.

★★ Talent Management

• +10 party size.
  
• +1 clan party available.

This is good. Clan parties are versatile and useful. +10 party size is acceptable.

We Pledge our Swords

• +1 companion.
  
• Up to +10 morale (max) for each tier 6 troop (+1 morale).

+1 companion is great but this is outperformed by Talent Management. +10 morale is bad. If it had no morale cap it'd be cooler.

Final verdict: We Pledge our Swords would be a great perk if it wasn't up against Talent Management. Go Talent.

I hate trade as a skill. it's a huge pain to get the first two perk levels of trade so that you can level easier, and even then it wastes so much time. The perks aren't significant to make an appreciable benefit to you. This entire tree just sucks to level and you hardly feel the effects.

Seriously, if you want a TL;DR of this entire list, just don't spec trade in any specific way - the skill itself is decent, the perks are ehhhhhhh.

Taleworlds please just make it so buying caravans gets you some passive trade XP. Oh wait you won't do that because it would be good, my bad, sorry.

☆ Appraiser

• 15% decrease sell price penalty for equipment.
  
• Profits are marked.

Whole Seller

• 15% decrease sell price penalty for trade goods.
  
• Profits are marked.

Final verdict: The difficult part here is if you don't go for trade goods you'll have a harder time with getting trade bonuses since they won't tell you if equipment is cheaper or more expensive elsewhere through rumors. That being said, equipment is the majority of your selling game, so I like Appraiser more.

★★ Caravan Master

• Party can carry 30% more weight.
  
• Item prices are marked.

Party weight gain is nice. As is obvious, item prices being marked is good.

💩Market Dealer

• -50% cost of bartering for safe passage.
  
• Item prices are marked.

This perk used to make workshop income slightly increase. It's better now, but still pretty bad -- if you do end up using this perk, I hope it's not more than once a campaign since you shouldn't be getting caught so easily and trying to weasel out of it.

Final verdict: While Market Dealer is marked 💩-tier, I don't think it's that egregious since it's only a tier 2 perk, but the effective use of it is so much less felt than Caravan Master - go Caravan Master.

☆ Local Connection

• Workshops gather rumors.
  
• 15% decrease in sell penalty for animals.

Rumors are ehhhh but workshops are always around whereas caravans might not be. Workshops can allow you to "trademax" by strategically placing them.

Traveling Rumors

• Caravans gather rumors.
  
• 15% decrease in buy penalty from villages.

The village penalty decrease is decent for horse villages but nothing else really.

Final verdict: Playstyle matters here since you won't be following your caravans around everywhere. I think Local Connection is better to strategize rumors from planned workshop placement.

💩 Distributed Goods

• Double relationship for artisans from resolved issues.

Unless you are specifically maxing out on quests (both RNG dependent and area dependent) this is a completely ineffective perk.

💩 Toll Gates

• Double relationship for merchants from resolved issues.

Same as above.

Final verdict: Both perks are lackluster due to not being able to control issues. Pick one at random and it's the same as if you thought it over, and the effects likely won't be felt.

Artisan Community

• Profitable workshops give +1 renown/day.
  
• +1 recruitment slot with merchant notables.

Workshops are limited in numbers but can keep your companions free. Vanilla workshops suck at making real money, but if they make you renown, at least they do something right.

Great Investor

• Profitable caravans give +1 renown/day.
  
• Companion hiring is 30% cheaper.

Companion hiring is useless, but caravans giving renown can increase your renown nicely.

Final verdict: If you would rather send your companions off to do missions for you, go with Artisan Community. Otherwise, Great Investor is better for passive renown gain since there's no caravan cap.

Content Trades

• -50% wages when waiting in settlements.

This is a nice amount of wage reduction for what it's worth.

💩 Mercenary Connections

• +25% workshop production.
  
• -25% mercenary troop wage.

Vanlla workshops suck so a 25% boost sucks. Mercenaries are expensive but it might benefit you if you're meming around with a full mercenary party.

Final verdict: Both perks are 6 tiers up the tree and both are only good for some monetary gain. Pick whichever fits your playstyle, I think Content Trades is better.

Insurance Plans

• Caravans return 5000 gold when destroyed.
  
• 25% less trade penalty for food.

If you run lots of caravans this is great since they will get f𝚞𝚌ked up all the time.

Rapid Development

• Workshops return 5000 gold when captured by an enemy.
  
• 25% less trade penalty for clay, iron, cotton, and silver.

This is a solid investment return for workshops but workshops suck anyway. At least it gives you something back.

Final verdict: Pick based on playstyle; lots of caravans, go Insurance Plans. The trade penalty sub-perks are mostly meaningless at this point if you are playing the game right. Workshops are POOPY!

💩 Granary Accountant

• 20% food trade good penalty decrease.

💩 Tradeyard Foreman

• 20% pottery, tools, cotton, jewelry trade penalty decrease.

Final verdict: At this point you should be completely fine on denars so having percentage bonuses feels mostly insignificant. Tradeyard Foreman is probably better since food is so easy and relatively cheap to come by, where trade goods can be expensive.

💩 Self Made Man

• -50% barter penalty for items.

If NPCs ever had items worth bartering for, this would be great. They don't.

💩 Sword For Barter

• 20% cheaper mercenary hiring.
  
• 15% lower wage for caravan guard troops.

How many caravan guards are you going to have in your party? Cheaper mercenary hiring is a terrible perk for being 9 tiers up.

Final verdict: Self Made Man is better but both are pretty bad perks.

☆ Silver Tongue

• -15% gold required to persuade lords to defect to your faction.

This is decent, but being 10 tiers up the Trade list makes it very difficult to bother advancing to.

💩 Spring of Gold

• 0.1% interest per day on gold you have, capped at 1000 per day (max gained by owning 1,000,000 gold).

If you've actually spent this long leveling your trade, I certainly hope you have a better method for gaining money outside of stockpiling 1mil and banking on this tiny perk. By the time your perks are this high, you should have better means of making money.

Final verdict: Spring of Gold is an interesting mechanic but gives you pennies for way too much effort and hassle on your part (in leveling trade). I suppose go Silver Tongue to save some on irritating NPC acquisition for your kingdom.

💩☆ Man of Means

• Minor faction recruitment into your kingdom is 20% cheaper.
  
• 30% reduced ransom offer for you.

This is OK I guess. It's at tier 11 of the f𝚞𝚌king trade perk tree though. I mean at this point you're probably swimming in like 1000000000000000 denars so why do you need percentage boosts to random costs?

💩💩💩💩💩💩💩 Trickle Down

• +1 (yes really just 1) relation with merchant nobles if you buy more than 10,000 denars worth of trade goods in a town.

Can you imagine spending double digit hours REAL TIME to level trade and selecting this perk? I hope you never subject yourself to such a thing.

Final verdict: Why did TW give this perk tree 11 slots over other perk trees but then give you these options? Man of Means is better.

Steward as a skill kicks 𝚊𝚜s. Party size is always great. You can easily defend having 5 focus points in steward. Some of the perks are stinkier, but the party size bonus from the skill is enough to make up for any bad perk.

Even if you don't use the party size, nothing else gains party size outside of companion debauchery.

Even though I crap on some perk tiers here, the nice part about Steward is that you essentially get it for free by playing an "average" game. Steward also levels quickly.

★★ Frugal

• -5% party wages.
  
• -15% recruitment costs.

This is a solid tier 1 perk. Effective through the whole game due to a percentage boost and always has felt impact.

💩 Warrior's Diet (previously Spartan)

• -10% food consumed.
  
• No morale penalty from having a single type of food.

10% food consumed is such a small value for how the game calculates food. You should never have only one type of food after the extreme early game if you're playing with a noggin.

Final verdict: Frugal is the clear choice.

★★Drill Sergeant

• +2xp/day to all troops.

It's incredibly mediocre and will only impact your tier 1 troops, but that's why it's better over Seven Veterans.

💩 Seven Veterans

• +4xp/day to tier 4+ troops.

Tier 4+ troops need 7,549,613,345 XP to level up (I have done extensive testing to verify this accurate number). This is likely as unfelt as +2 would be for them, so just go with Drill Sergeant.

Final verdict: The difference of 2 and 4 xp is minimal and neither will help any troops with tiers behind them. Go Drill Sergeant.

💩💩💩 Stiff Upper Lip

• -10% food consumption when in an army.

Are you having that many problems with food that you need this?

★★ Sweatshops

• +20% workshop production.
  
• +20% siege engine build time.

Siege engine build time is good because those f𝚞𝚌kers build slow as h𝚎𝚕l. Workshops are terrible as always, so that part sucks, but at least it's some extra money.

Final verdict: Building siege engines faster with Sweatshops is good. Stiff Upper Lip is terrible.

Efficient Campaigner

• Double food item gained from village raids (+1 extra food item).
  
• -25% troop wages when in an army.

Food item gain has massive 😴-energy and does hardly anything. -25% troop wages is OK and can be exploited by creating an army for yourself only.

Paid In Promise

• -25% companion wages and recruitment fees.
  
• Discard armors to gain troop XP.

Discarding armors as a mechanic is locked behind this perk which saves it from 💩-tier but is still rather annoying. Companion wages can be RIDICULOUS for how sometimes mediocre they can be as field troops, so Paid in Promise is solid if you plan on keeping a number of companion fighters.

Final verdict: Paid in Promise has less value if you don't use companions in your party but maintains a mechanic you might use. Efficient Campaigner can be exploited with solo armies, but also you shouldn't have so much trouble with upkeep. Pick your poison.

★★ Giving Hands

• Discard weapons to gain troop XP.

It's OK. I'd rather use weapons for sale or smithing.

💩💩 Logistician

• +4 morale if mount count is higher than non-cavalry troops.

So this gives you a nothingburger unfelt stat in a morale boost and is just +4 at that. OK?

Final verdict: Take the game mechanic of Giving Hands and use it at will or don't -- a small morale boost is not worth the potential XP.

Save me from H𝚎ll.

☆ Aid Corps

• No wages paid for wounded troops.

This is OK. Compared to other passive bonus percentages for wages across other perk trees, this one is always useful since you'll have plenty of wounded troops after most battles.

💩 Relocation

• +25% influence gain from donating troops.

Donating troops has a pretty poor influence turnaround as it is and you end up losing -- you know, one of the winning methods of playing by amassing a veteran army. It's easier to just join armies and doodle around than it is to train up troops and spit them away for influence shavings.

Final verdict: Player choice, but Aid Corps seems much better. Keep your troops to use in gaining influence rather than pi𝚜sing them away.

💩 Gourmet

• Double morale bonus from diverse food.

The morale bonus for diverse food is OK, but morale is a difficult-to-feel battle decider. I mean will the morale bonus you get from diverse food win you a battle? Be honest.

💩☆ Sound Reserves

• -10% cost of upgrading units.

Upgrading units is expensive but -10% is pretty lackluster for tier 7. Either way, it at least saves you something.

Final verdict: Sound Reserves saves you some dosh from upgrading troops which can be quite expensive, where Gourmet is like Schrodinger's morale perk.

💩Contractors

• Mercenary troops' wages and upgrade costs are decreased by 25%.

Only truly good if you use loads of mercenaries. It can stack well with other mercenary perks but is otherwise useless.

💩 Forced Labor

• Prisoners provide carry capacity.

Often useful since you'll have prisoners a lot, but if you're already under capacity and manage your inventory properly, you'll literally never feel this perk.

Final verdict: Contractors is good if you are choosing to only hire mercenaries, but it's difficult to maintain an entire army of them for a few reasons. Forced Labor always gives you a free benefit, so I usually go with it. YMMV.

★★ Arenicos' Horses

• +10% carrying capacity for troops.
  
• -20% mount trade penalty.

Arenicos' Mules

• +20% carrying capacity for pack animals.
  
• -20% pack animal trade penalty.

Final verdict: Mounts are better than pack animals most of the time. You can use them to upgrade cavalry and they carry enough you shouldn't end up overburdened. Arenicos' Horses turns out the better perk.

💩💩💩 Master of Planning

• -40% food consumption if in a siege camp.

Does anyone really fully siege out a town? I find that a fun concept, but if I go to siege with an army in one of my player-kingdom games I'm going to lose literally every other settlement I own by the time the town capitulates due to starving them out. I consider this a pretty bad perk when you should be managing your food instead of hoping perks do it for you.

★★ Master of Warcraft

• -25% troop wages while in a siege camp.

This one is at least helps you out compared to losing less food. Did you know this was just -15% when I first made this guide? They buffed the better one.

Final verdict: Master of Warcraft is better only because Master of Planning is bad.

Similar to Steward, Medicine is a great skill with good bonuses but some of the perks can be lackluster. That being said -- if you get the top perk, Minister of Health, you will kick everything's 𝚊𝚜s. That is a killer perk.

★★ Preventive Medicine

• +5 hit points.
  
• 30% of health points healed after each battle.

30% health points regained after battle is great. It allows you to end up in any level of combat (downed or alive) and be able to continue battle soon afterward.

Self Medication

• +30% healing rate.
  
• +2% movement speed.

While 30% healing rate is good, it's totally outclassed by Preventive Medicine. 2% movement speed is 𝚊𝚜s.

Final verdict: Preventive Medicine is great, especially for a tier 1 perk.

Triage Tent

• +30% party heal rate when stationary.

Can be useful if in towns a lot. If you're into smithing this is a good perk because you're going to be doing a lot of nothing the entire game.

★★ Walk It Off

• +15% party heal rate when moving.
  
• Heroes regain 10 HP after an offensive battle.

10 extra HP is nice after battle when you can get it which allows heroes to rejoin battles over and over. I move more on the map so I feel this is the better perk.

Final verdict: Me like Walk It Off. I can understand taking tho.

★★ Doctors Oath

• Medicine skill applies to enemies, increasing potential prisoners and applying XP to your medicine level.
  
• +5 HP.

A must-take. Extra prisoners is decent, but what makes this a must-take is the leveling bonus you get from applying your medicine level to defeated enemies. Other than that, +5 HP is OK for tier 3.

💩💩 Sledges

• -50% wounded party speed penalty.
  
• +15 HP to all mounts in your party.

This is more of an issue of game mechanics. Doctors Oath is a must-take while Sledges only gives you unfelt health change to mounts and a percentage change to a small percentage debuff.

Final verdict: Doctors Oath is the must-pick if you want to continue leveling Medicine. Sledges is simply not effective enough to consider taking.

💩 Best Medicine

• +15% healing when above 70 morale.
  
• +1 relation per day with a random notable over age 40 while in a town.

This is both difficult/annoying to acquire (with high morale being grating to maintain) and won't really speed up your party healing by a significant enough amount to actually feel it.

☆ Good Lodging

• +20% heal rate when resting in settlements.
  
• +1 relation per day with a random notable over age 40 while in a town.

Final verdict: I consider Good Lodging better due to the higher healing rate and consistency. You are always able to sit in a settlement and gain the benefit.

💩 Siege Medic

• Siege bombardment deaths have 50% chance of being wounded instead of killed.
  
• 30% chance that siege engine being destroyed will end in wound and not death.

Siege engine and bombardment deaths are extremely low in count compared to actually fighting sieges. On top of that, it's still RNG dependent so you could end up getting hardly anything out of it.

★★ Veterinarian

• 30% chance per day to recover a lame horse.
  
• 50% chance to recover a mount from lost cavalry in battle.

You shouldn't care about lame horses and just buy a new one, but recovering horses from your cavalry units can be very useful in the long-term for keeping a cavalry-heavy army.

Final verdict: Veterinarian is the ideal perk for usability.

Bush Doctor

• 20% bonus healing in villages.

Who stops and waits in villages when towns are available? Though I will say if you expect to be at war with everybody this arguably has better use since you can hang out in villages without trouble.

☆ Pristine Streets

• 20% bonus healing in towns.

This is decent.

Final verdict: You might be someone who does spend time in villages more than towns, but I think most players aren't. Towns offer more things to do while you wait to heal and there are no shortage of them.

💩 Health Advice

• The first time a clan member rolls old age death, they won't.
  
• Wounded troops do not decrease morale in battles.

I hope you aren't banking on characters living past a certain age in Bannerlord, because their death rolls will rack up and kill them anyway. What is the morale effect of wounded troops? Is it significant? I have never felt this effect.

☆ Perfect Health

• Food variety increases recovery rate by 5% for each point.

If you have basic food variety this is a solid healing booster.

Final verdict: I prefer Perfect Health since morale penalties are (majority of the time) not felt while the healing bonus will be almost automatic assuming you're managing your food properly.

💩 Clean Infrastructure

• This perk only has governor benefits, meaning you will get nothing from it if you pick it for yourself.

★★ Physician of People

• Tier 1 & 2 troops have 30% higher chance to recover from fatal wounds.

Tier 1 & 2 troops are terrible and will be killed constantly. So getting a 30% bonus for them to survive is decent to try to get them up to the "useful troop" tiers.

Final verdict: Physician of People is solid for increasing the potency of your party while Clean Infrastructure does nothing. Hmm...

💩 Cheat Death

• Ignore a single old age death roll. Stacks with Health Advice.
  
• -50% hero death chance in battle.

You only really die in battle if you take massive head damage. Just avoid it bro lol. If you are concerned about character death, turn death mechanics off, don't try to out-perk it.

★★ Fortitude Tonic

• +10 max health of heroes in your party.
  
• +5 HP.

Very weak for a tier 9 perk, but HP is acceptable for a bonus and if you have a heavy companion party it could be solid.

Final verdict: Fortitude Tonic is a perk you can feel the effects of in-game. Cheat Death is an RNG perk.

💩Battle Hardened

• +25 XP to wounded units at the end of battle.

This is a flat XP rate of +25XP. That is seriously insignificant unless you want to constantly raise peasant armies and get BTFO'd by every major force on the map. Even then, after tier 2 the felt bonus of this will be zilch.

★★Helping Hands

• Every 10 troops in the party increases troop recovery rate by 2%.

If you have a decently sized party this will massively increase your party's recovery speed.

Final verdict: Perhaps if Battle Hardened were 25 PERCENT it would have serious use, but just isn't very effective compared to the troops simply battling. Helping Hands lowers your recovery time to negligible levels and can be easily felt - take it.

Engineering is... alright, but shouldn't be specced into. You can get through any siege by performing "siege meta" (explained in the below paragraph).

Siege meta is very basic. Build a trebuchet; once complete, immediately "stow" it. Repeat that three times. Build a fourth (your spaces should still be empty). Once it's finished, put the other three trebuchets down right away. You now have four full health trebuchets and the enemy walls shouldn't beat them unless you happen to be attacking a very high engineering enemy lord (rare). Even if you lose your engines, repeating the process will eventually lead to success. If you need a guide, check out "How to SIEGE" by TRGGRD.

Scaffolds

• +10% non-ranged siege engine build speed.
  
• +30% shield hit points.

If you need that extra shield health you are not playing the game right and should lern2block lmao xd. Non-ranged siege engines don't need saving or rebuilding, so it shouldn't be as time heavy as the ranged weapons.

★★ Torsion Engines

• +10% ranged siege engine build speed.
  
• +3 flat crossbow damage.

Most of the time spent building for a siege is to build the ranged weapons, save them, and then deploy them all at once. This will save you more time. Bonus damage on the crossbow is better than shield hitpoints.

Final verdict: Both perks are OK for tier 1, but Torsion Engines as a perk performs much better.

💩 Dungeon Architect (previously Prison Architect, wonder why they changed that :^) )

• -25% chance for ranged siege engines to be hit while bombarding.

The reason this is poopoo is that siege meta is to build your items, save them, and then deploy them all at once. You do not need bonus miss chance when you autowin from placing all trebuchets at once.

★★ Siegework

• +10% siege engine hit points.

Due to the meta build order, hit points are acceptable as a bonus. This can also help you when you can't out-shoot enemy siege engines and need your towers to not be one-shot in battle.

Final verdict: Due to meta building for sieges, Siegework is the go-to. You f𝚞𝚌ked it, Taleworlds!

💩Carpenters

• Rams & Siege Towers have 33% more hitpoints.

Because of siege meta, this is useless. If you attack a castle and the enemy has siege engines up, they will destroy your towers prior to them getting to the walls. It happens so often. Sometimes rams die, but rarely. If you play a siege correctly, this will be a useless perk.

💩 Military Planner

• +50% ammunition to ranged troops when besieging.

Have you had troops run out of ammo during a siege? Due to the new AI for picking up ammo, I have never noticed this and if it has happened I don't feel that an ammunition bonus would have saved or lost the battle for me.

Final verdict: Military Planner is probably better(?), but both perks are rough.

Dreadful Besieger

• +10% hit chance to siege engines.
  
• +5% troop crossbow damage.

This is good if you have a massive crossbow army. Which you probably don't.

★★ Wall Breaker

• +25% wall damage during sieges.
  
• +10% damage to shields for troops.

Walls have 29,533,295,924,324,923,492,394 health. I have extensively tested and verified this number with a team of trained scientists. Any extra damage you can get on walls is a bonus because it wastes less of your time.

Final verdict: Wall Breaker is best objectively, but Dreadful Besieger is funny if you want a full crossbow army.

💩💩 Foreman

• Mangonels and trebuchets gain 10% accuracy.

💩💩 Salvager

• Ballistas gain 20% accuracy.

Final verdict: Slightly better accuracy is fine and dandy but it still feels down to RNG whether your engines will hit or not. Foreman is better because trebuchets are the king engine.

💩 Siege Engineer

• Can craft "fire versions" of siege engines.

💩 Stonecutters

• Can craft "fire versions" of siege engines.

Final verdict: So fire versions of engines are cool and all, but in practice you don't need fire engines to perform better or not during a siege.

💩 Battlements

• +1 pre-build ballista for siege camp.

Siege meta. Build trebuchets and deploy them all at once. Don't need any ballistas.

★★ Camp Building

• Army loses 50% less cohesion during sieging.

Maintaining army cohesion is always good. Sieging takes a lot of time and is the #1 reason for creating an army. This is a solid perk.

Final verdict: Camp Building is the objective choice due to siege meta.

💩💩💩💩💩 Apprenticeship

• +5 flat experience to entire party when you build a siege machine.

WOW, 5 flat XP! This was certainly worth EIGHT (8) tiers of dogs𝚑𝚒t Engineering perks! Now my tier 1 farmers will upgrade to tier 2 after I build... uh.... like 50 siege machines!

💩💩💩💩💩 Engineering Guilds

• +1 recruitment slot from artisans.

TW gave up with this perk tree. They couldn't think of anything to give to it so they just gave up and gave you +1 recruitment slot to random NPCs. Thanks TW.

Final verdict: Both of these perks are actually horrible. If you could avoid picking either of them I would recommend that, but since you can't, just randomly pick one.

☆ Improved Tools

• +20% faster camp preparation.
  
• Troops in your formation gain +5 flat melee damage.

See final verdict.

Metallurgy

• 80% chance that "tattered, crude, etc" items will be normal instead.
  
• +5 flat armor to your troops.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: 9 tiers down the line, this is underwhelming. That being said, the player has an option here. Getting equipment that isn't broken is really solid for both smithing and selling, but Improved Tools saving you time is probably best?

Architectural Commissions

• 25% faster reload time for mangonels and trebuchets.

This is the better perk due to siege meta. Trebuchets, baby. But guess what? Doesn't matter, you'll win if you use siege meta regardless of reload time.

💩 Clockwork

• 25% faster reload for ballistas.

Siege meta makes this completely useless.

Final verdict: Go Architectural Commissions. Hey wait, why are you 10 tiers into the engineering tree?

Ahh, fresh new DLC! For 22 USD?? Uhhh.. Okay. Well, Mariner starts off a bit slow but has decent skill benefits (sim advantage and naval combat penalty negation) and has a few interesting perks available. Uh, by the way, this perk tree is literally bugged? Simulating naval battles doesn't level it. At all.

A big disclaimer of all of these DLC perks is that on-ship combat was maybe like 5% of my total playtime in the campaign I tested everything out in. I'm not saying you'll get the same low percentage, but how effective is this stuff really in the grand scheme if you're not fighting a lot of your battles on ships? Keep that in mind.

★★ Pirate's Prowess

• +25% melee weapon handling (on ships)
  
• +30% loot from defeated merchant convoys.

For the record, I am assuming the benefits in the Mariner tree are all only when you’re on your ship. 25% melee weapon handling is great. Handling is a very important skill for almost all melee combat, so this is impactful. Extra loot from merchant convoys is OK.

Rolling Thunder

• -30% accuracy from ship roll.
  
• +50% conformity gain for pirate prisoners in your party while at sea.

I wouldn’t call this awful, but I haven’t noticed enough accuracy loss to really matter in the few ship fights I’ve done. If I’m shooting or throwing I’m generally close enough that a little bit of accuracy penalty isn’t so bad.

Final verdict: Pirate’s Prowess is the clear go-to unless you plan on not using melee weapons at all in your ship combat.

💩 Brute Force

• +50% kicking and bashing damage.
  
• +50% melee knockback dealt by crew.

Kicking and bashing damage are basically nonexistent since any enemy with a reasonable amount of armor will take literally 1 damage from it. Melee knockback is an interesting concept, but so far in ship fights I’ve not seen a lot of enemies fall unless they’re pathing incorrectly, never hit off by my troops.

💩☆ Forceful

• +30% shield hitpoints.
  
• +30% damage to shields by crew.

If blocking correctly your shield should almost never break. Damage to shields is OK, but rather lackluster.

Final verdict: While I 💩-tiered Forceful, it’s the best of two.

Axe of the North Wind

• +20% damage with axes (on ships)
  
• +20 morale for mariner troops at the start of battle (on ships)

See final.

Sunny Disposition

• +20% damage with swords (on ships)
  
• +20 morale for regular troops at the start of battle (on ships)

See final.

Final verdict: This is pretty much just a “do you use swords or axes” question for which to pick. The morale bonus is insignificant, but the damage bonus is a’ight. Best of luck!

💩 Enemy of the Wood

• -10 morale to each enemy for each ship destroyed in battle.
  
• +25% fire damage dealt by your ship and crew to enemy sails.

The enemy rarely uses sails and I never see troops shoot them. A damage bonus of any kind to sails seems totally junk, and morale perks across the board are insignificant.

★★ Naval Fighting Training

• +10% xp gained by party companions after each naval battle.

As compared to Enemy of the Wood, this is OK, but you’d need to rely on a heavier party of companions

Final verdict: Naval Fighting Training does something while Enemy of the Wood does not.

Rallying Cry

• +20% morale boost for crew while on own ship.
  
• -10% melee damage taken by crew while on own ships.

This is very close to 💩-tier for me, but if you choose to play defensive which IMO is the best in many cases it at least soaks some damage for your troops.

Terror of the Seas

• +20% morale loss suffered by enemy ships in battle.
  
• -10% melee damage taken by crew while on enemy ships.

Also very close to 💩-tier for me, but it does something. Playstyle dependent.

Final verdict: If you board a lot, go Terror of the Seas, if you play defensively, go Rallying Cry.

Shattering Blow

• +50% armor penetration on melee weapons.
  
• +50% armor penetration for melee weapons by your crew.

See final verdict.

Shattering Volley

• +50% armor penetration on ranged weapons.
  
• +50% armor penetration for ranged weapons by your crew.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: These perks (from my understanding) only affect you while on a ship. Choose based on your weapon of choice (and walk without rhythm). 50% armor pen is no joke.

☆ Arr!

• Surrendering pirate parties can be recruited.
  
• +15% xp for mariner troops under your command.

Pirate parties are kinda poopy in my particular personal pirate-playing perspective. +15% xp for mariners could be pretty good with a full nord crew, but is OK either way if you plan on leaning into the playstyle.

Pirate Hunter

• +20% bonus when crew is sent to confront pirates.
  
• +10% xp for regular troops under your command.

The confronting bonus is a big “whatever” to me, but if you don’t plan on having a mariner-heavy party, this is the obvious go-to.

Final verdict: Choose based on your playstyle, but I like “Arr!” more for the idea of spamming mariner bonuses on a land nordic party. Player choice.

Boarding Master

• +15% melee damage for you when fighting on other ships.
  
• +15% melee damage for crew when fighting on other ships.

See final verdict.

Home Turf Advantage

• +20% melee damage dealt for you when fighting on your ship.
  
• +20% melee damage for crew when fighting on their own ship.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: Another “pick your playstyle” choice here. The 5% difference of the two perk subsets isn’t really going to sway one over the other, just choose one for what you do most.

Crew of Spears

• Impale shields with thrown javelins. Throwing axes deal damage if they break a shield.
  
• +15% damage dealt by crew with throwing weapons.

The “Throwing” tree also has a perk that does exactly this (javelins penetrating), but this one also has the axes thing. It’s interesting? How often are you breaking shields with throwing axes tho? Like 9 times at most in one fight if you have three stacks of the d𝚊mn things right?

Mighty Blows

• Better cleave with two-handed weapon swings (2H lose 50% less damage when they cut through one opponent)
  
• +15% melee damage dealt by crew with two-handed weapons.

Ooo, an actual mechanic changer in a perk tree? Impossible!

Final verdict: I personally see more use out of Mighty Blows but only if you spec heavy into 2H weapons like I do. Player choice.

The Sky’s Fury

• +15% ranged damage dealt by you.
  
• +15% bow and crossbow damage dealt by crew

See final verdict.

Warrior’s Might

• +20% melee damage dealt by you.
  
• +20% throwing damage dealt by crew.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: Again, another “what do you use and what do you have your crew spec into” choice. Pick your playstyle.

I don’t mention final perks normally, but this is the only perk tree in the entire game that doesn’t give you something at the top which combines the attribute for a bonus. Why?

Boatswain is sort of the stewardey-leadershippy mixed skillset for ship captains so it is what it is. I think a bit of nudging to some of these perks could make for a more interesting tree as well.

Master Shipwright

• -30% cost of ship upgrades.

This is a good percentage saving for upgrades, but you’ll only get to feel the benefit once.

★★ Merchant Prince

• -30% ship repair cost.

Ships get damaged simply by moving, so this is always applicable.

Final verdict: Merchant Prince because you will always need to repair ships, while upgrades are a buy-and-forget.

💩 Streamlined Operations

• 10% faster ballista reload time.

Do you really think you’ll feel the effects of this small percentage bonus to your ballista?

★★ Well Stocked

• +30% ammunition per stack for crew under command.
  
• +2 ammunition per stack on thrown weapons in crew.

I haven’t had my crew run out of arrows ever so far, but the extra throwing weapons can be nice if you kit your party appropriately.

Final verdict: Well Stocked can possibly be felt while Streamlined Operations will never be felt. Go Well Stocked.

Naval Horde

• -30% wages for cavalry troops while at sea.
  
• -30% weight of mounts when in ship’s cargo.

Near 💩-tier, this is just really niche in effectiveness; if you’re rocking a full cavalry army and have an absolute s𝚑𝚒tload of horsies.

💩 Optimization

• -10% wages to non-mariner troops while at sea.
  
• -30% weight of pack animals and livestock when in ship’s cargo.

Even if you’re running an entire non-mariner party, these perks together add up for very little when it’s unlikely you’ll be rocking like 600 pack animals and 500 cows for some reason.

Final verdict: Player choice even though I rated Optimization 💩-tier. Choose based on your party composition (you aren’t a Khuzait mounted archer spammer, are you?)

★★ Gilded Purse

• 25% extra chance of capturing ships after battle.
  
• -15% weight of trade goods in ship’s cargo.

Eh it does something at least. Still down to RNG for ships captured but hey, it’s not Veteran’s Wisdom!

💩 Veteran’s Wisdom

• +10x(character level) xp to companions per day.
  
• -20% overburden penalty for ships.

A unique perk for the character level multiplication but how about you go take a look at a level 15ish companion. Do the math and realize it will be a short… 2700 days until this perk gains them 1 single level if you're above level 20. Wow.

Final verdict: Go Gilded Purse. The Veteran’s wisdom in this case is a toilet.

★★ Shipwright’s Insight

• +30% damage to hulls of enemy ships by ballistae.
  
• +25% extra ammo for crew

Ballista shots do decent damage to enemy hulls so this does something but the true impact is going to be hit-or-miss (LOL). 25% extra ammo is whatevs when you can just get arrow buckets.

💩💩 Special Arrows

• +5 armor for “low-tier troops”.
  
• +40% damage dealt by crew to enemy sails.

First off, what is “low-tier troops?” Second, 5 armor is practically nothing. Third, who cares about sail damage?

Final verdict: The damage you’ll get from Shipwright’s Insight is going to benefit you more than the tiny baby armor and sail damage (SNORE).

💩 Accuracy Training

• +30% damage dealt to shields by crew ranged weapons.

Interesting name for something that does damage and doesn’t impact troop accuracy at all. In my naval battles so far I tend to notice an average total of zero shields broken (I have a trained classroom of doberman pinschers who watch my game and press a button when they detect a broken shield, and not one has pressed the button yet) in naval combat with or without this perk.

Smooth Operator

• +5 ammo for ballistae.
  
• -30% food consumption while at sea.

Food consumption should be a never-issue but I suppose the little bit of extra ammo is OK.

Final verdict: Smooth Operator is better even though I don’t respect it.

Efficient Captain

• -30% upgrade cost to mariner troops..
  
• +5 morale while waiting in port.

Upgrade costs can get really expensive over time so this isn’t bad, especially with the obvious synergy of having an entire-nord party.

☆ Popular Captain

• -30% recruitment cost for mariner troops.
  
• +10% combat deck size for the ship under the character’s command.

The combat deck size is good for stuffing your ship up to the brim, though you lose out on the nicer upgrade cost reduction for a lesser recruitment cost reduction.

Final verdict: I lean Popular Captain due to the benefits of having a larger combat deck size, but it’s player choice.

Blessings of the Sea

• +1 ship command limit.

See final verdict.

Port Authority

• +1 ship command limit.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: This is a tough choice, you’re on your own.

Salvage

• Discarded ships provide influence.

See final verdict.

☆ Shipwright’s Hand

• Discarded ships repair party ships.

See final verdict.

Final verdict: Again, basic player choice at a playstyle question. I personally don’t value influence as much nowadays since it’s a permanently stacking pool, so I prefer Shipwright’s Hand for easy on-the-water repair, but player choice here.

★★ Merchant Fleet

• +1 ship command limit.

You ought bring an extra ship if you can I suppose.

💩 Resilience

• 30% of health points lost in battle are recovered after a victory.
  
• +30% troop healing rate while at sea.

A niche use due to only being at sea, I don’t tend to notice my troops healing particularly slow compared to whatever my medicine level is at, and have yet to need HP immediately after a fight for another.

Final verdict: I think Merchant Fleet is better by association.

Shipmaster, I feel, is a rather weak tree outside of the basic skill benefit of increased sailing speed.

★★Master Angler

• 25% chance per hour to catch fish while sailing.

Yeah this is actually a little funny and a cool oddjob mechanic.

💩 Old Salt’s Touch

• +2% travel speed at sea.
  
• +30% to swimming endurance of crew.

I don’t consider 2% a palpable bonus to speed and in my experience so far if your crew (or enemy crew for that matter) fall off the ship, they’re f𝚞𝚌kin dead because they can’t find their way back to the ladders and bunch up with each other.

Final verdict: Take the fishpill.

💩☆ Ghost Ship

• 20% fewer troops lost when running a blockade. 20% chance to avoid leaving ships behind when escaping engagements.

I have yet to run a blockade or escape engagements, but the troop loss is mediocre unless you have like 400 troops and the 20% chance is just a chance - all down to RNG!

💩 Wind Rider

• -50% to deck movement penalty.
  
• -50% to deck movement penalty for crew.

As with my opinion on land battles, movement speed is a “who cares”. When boarding enemy craft or being boarded your troops bunch up anyway, so this is useful for literally (yes, literally) 2 seconds per battle. I verified that number with theoretical physicist Roger Penrose BTW.

Final verdict: Ghost Ship does something and Wind Rider doesn’t. Go Ghost Ship.

Night Raider

• -50% night spotting range penalty.

Yeah I mean this is OK I guess.

💩 River Raider

• -3% to coastal movement speed penalty.
  
• 10% chance of capturing enemy troops as prisoners.

What does 10% extra chance of capturing enemies even mean? Like a flat bonus or a bonus to the current amount? Feels like you’d never “feel” this perk. -3% to a movement speed penalty is tiny baby numbers that really aren’t going to benefit you in 99% of cases.

Final verdict: Uhh, I guess Night Raider? These are both rather underwhelming IMO.

★★ Shock and Awe

• +30% morale boost when ship rams enemy ship.
  
• +10% speed on campaign map when against the wind.

You’re going to be against the wind like 99% of the time because the tiny little baby indicator you get on your f𝚞𝚌kin movement position is annoying as s𝚑𝚒t to pay attention to, so this is essentially 10% extra speed a lot. The morale bonus is a literally nothing perk though.

💩 Windborne

• +20% to sail forces in missions.
  
• -50% duration of “disorganized” while at sea.

Sail forces in missions make no difference at all to the outcome of the battle ala every movement perk ever, and disorganized duration should be something you avoid rather than hoping a perk saves you from it.

Final verdict: Shock and Awe is the best.

★★ Raven Eye

• +20% spotting range.

Spotting range can be a little annoying on the sea so this is appreciable.

💩 The Helmsman’s Shield

• -50% ranged damage suffered while steering your ship.

Skill issue perk. Don’t get hit, nerd!

Final verdict: Raven Eye will help you see enemy parties to either attack or GTFO of there, while Helmsman’s Shield is for sad little birthday boys who can’t handle being MANLY men and taking arrows and javelins like they don’t give a d𝚊mn.

💩 Crowd on the Sail

• +10% travel speed when running before the wind.

This is 💩-tier solely because paying attention to the tiny movement indicator for which way the wind is blowing is annoying as f𝚞𝚌k and you only get a 10% bonus for the rarer instance you’re traveling in the right path.

★★ Nimble Surge

• +5% travel speed.

It’s a tiny baby bonus, but it’s always on.

Final verdict: 5% travel speed all the time will more than likely beat 10% travel speed when you happen to have wind going the 1 of 8 possible directions you’re currently traveling.

💩💩💩 Shore Master

• -50% ship recall time.
  
• -30% fleet size penalty for campaign map movement.

It takes 2 hours ingame to recall your fleet, AKA literally no time at all. Fleet size penalty is only useful if you steal a load of ships after a naval engagement, but this bonus isn’t significant to truly boost your slower fleet speed from that scenario.

💩☆ Unflinching

• +100% to disembarkation speed.

I personally think this is almost useless but disembarkation takes like 4-5 hours where ship recall time only takes 2, so at least it has a purpose. Still, I have yet to have an epic river chase where my disembarkation time is the only thing stopping me from some epic battle.

Final verdict: Unflinching has a purpose while Shore Master pretends to have a purpose.

💩 Chain to Oars

• +20% to oar force in mission
  
• Prisoners help meet skeleton crew requirement.

Unless you’re running a ludicrously large fleet and actually need prisoners to help, you should never have skeleton crew issues. Oar force in missions means very little to battle resolution.

★★ Fleet Commander

• -30% to fleet size penalty for campaign map movement.
  
• -20% to skeleton crew requirement for any ship in party.

A better skeleton crew adjustment than needing prisoners to do it, the fleet size penalty is still underwhelming here but both perks synergize in the event you steal like 10 ships after a battle.

Final verdict: Fleet Commander is better due to the basic skeleton crew requirement in the event of stealing a boat load (HAHAHA, OH, SETH, YOU’RE SO FUNNY AND SEXY! Thanks babe.) of ships.

★★ Master and commander

• +1 xp gained by each troop per hour at sea.
  
• +1 ship command limit.

So close to being 💩-tier but at least +1 ship command limit does something. The XP per hour will get at least a decent amount of random XP to your troops.

💩💩💩 Stormrider

• +30 xp gained by each troop once per day when entering storms.
  
• +1 ship command limit.

Mainly 💩-tier because Master and commander (lowercase) exists. Good luck getting this 30xp to mean literally anything when you’re unlikely to hit a storm per day, where Master and commander (lowercase) has the potential for 24/day.

Final verdict: Both extremely meager xp bonuses, but Master and commander is the no-brainer.

💩 Seaborne Fortress

• -10% damage sustained by ships in simulated battles.
  
• -20% to ranged damage taken by crew if not boarded.

If you don’t want your ships in more danger, don’t simulate battles. -20% isn’t bad for damage reduction but in my naval battles it is surprisingly difficult to get “skirmisher boats” ala Shogun 2 bow kobayas to work without them getting boarded at some point in the fight.

★★ The Corsair’s Edge

• +10% damage to one-handed weapons while at sea.

An OK always-on bonus. Could be a little better for tier 10 but ehhh whatevs I guess.

Final verdict: The Corsair’s Edge is obviously terrible if you don’t use 1H weapons, but if you do, it’s always better for “feel” IMO than Seaborne Fortress would be.

Some perks are pretty kick𝚊𝚜s, but there is a surprising trend of poopoo, doodoo, and peepee tier (i have worked with NASA to devise this advanced rating system) perks. Taleworlds really needs to revamp some of these.

If you have constructive criticism or you want to call me a big peepee head for my Hot Takes, comment below. Just know that you're always wrong and I'm always right no matter what (that's a joke, lads). As mentioned in the intro, I will gladly change my opinions if presented a good counter-argument.

I hope you didn't read this entire thing. If you did, thanks for reading. CTRL+F gaming is probably king here.