Skill progression in Blacktail, a fantasy adventure first-person shooter, has an implementation as unique and interesting as the game's story. In Blacktail, a young archer named Yaga is seeking to rescue her sister and friends who were kidnapped by the evil witch Baba. Equipped with a bow, a handful of tools, and only a little bit of magic, a large part of the gameplay is built around gathering resources to improve Yaga's repertoire of skills.
Instead of the traditional 'level up, earn skill points' common to video games, Yaga's skills require spending resources scattered around the map. In other words, the player is crafting their skills. In some sense, the gameplay can feel like farming rabbit skins in The Long Dark or gathering charcoal in ARK: Survival Evolved. Gathering materials to craft tools to improve damage or gain new skills.
How To Craft New Skills
Skills can only be crafted by bringing materials to The Cauldron inside The Hut, a place the player is introduced to early on and which can always be traveled back to by interacting with the Black Cat. The basic materials needed for this are Red Herbs, Eyes, Honey, Wood, Feathers, Crystals, and Shellocks, all of which can be found almost at a glance at any location. Then there are two special materials, Lost Pages and Teeth, that are harder to find due to being well hidden.
The different skills are all valuable, especially the different arrow-type recipes, which, like in Valheim and other games, can make difficult enemies much easier to deal with.
How To Get Lost Pages and Teeth
Lost Pages unlock the recipe for a handful of specific Skills, such as the Lost Page of Sticky Arrows, and are consumed on use. Teeth are the one ingredient required for every skill in Yaga's tree. Usually, it is only one or two, so not on the level of the basic materials, but it quickly adds up. Both Teeth and Lost Pages can be found in normal chests and Chest Beasts. Lost Pages can also be found by opening Warden Treasures or progressing through Blacktail's main story.
While collecting all the materials for skills, players will quickly find they have limited Inventory Space, like in Coral Island and other resource games. This can also be upgraded at The Cauldron but is not too big an issue thanks to Blacktail's Bag Toad automatically collecting excess material and storing it away for later access.
Source: YouTube.com/PlayStation