Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord takes RPG and strategy games and smashes them together to create something special, but with such a huge scope, levelling isn’t simple.
In this guide, we go through how to reach the max level in Bannerlord and how each part works.
Mount & Blade 2 Bannerlord Max Level
Attributes & Focus Points
As you play the game your character gains SP (skill points) in whatever you’re training up. These increase individual skills but also add to your total, increasing your character level. Every 3 levels, a character receives an Attribute Point to spend on one of the 6 main categories;
- VIG - one handed, two handed, polearm
- CTR - bow, crossbow, throwing
- END - riding, athletics, smithing
- CNG - scouting, tactics, roguery
- SOC - charm, leadership, trade
- INT - steward, medicine, engineering
Each point in Attributes increases the Learning Rate for each of the 3 skills by 0.5x. The Learning Limit is also raised by 10 for every point over the first. This allows you to train those skills faster and to a higher level before the SP gain slows to a stop.
Meanwhile, you gain a Focus Point for every character level. Focus increases your Learning Rate by 1.25x and the Learning Limit by 30 levels per point, allowing you to train skills to a higher level.
To put this in context, if you had a SOC of 3, your Learning Limit would be 20 for all 3 skills under that Attribute. If you then added 5 Focus Points to Charm, that particular skill would gain an additional 150, for a total of 170.
Looking further into this, the SOC of 3 would give you a Learning Rate of 1.5x, while the 5 Focus Points would increase it by 6.25x. Add these to the base 1.25x, and you get a whopping 9x bonus to Learning Rate.
This would make levelling up Charm extremely fast until you hit the Learning Limit, at which point it will exponentially slow until it reaches 0.
Skills & Perks
As you use a particular skill, you gain levels in it, providing passive bonuses to that skill. Take the example of Steward, a skill every main character will develop as they lead a party. This skill passively increases your party size by around 1 man for every 4 levels.
As you gain levels, you will also unlock Perks every 25 levels. 25 sounds like a lot, but with a good Learning Rate, you can easily obtain multiple levels quickly.
Perks mostly give you a choice between 2 options, each buffing a different aspect of your character, allowing for more speciality builds within a more general playstyle.
For example, the first Perk in Riding lets you pick between increasing Charge Damage or Manoeuvring. Either of these is a valid decision, but will affect how you fight on horseback for the rest of the game. Charge Damage will make you much better at smashing through enemy formations, while Manoeuvring will help you more in avoiding enemy troops.
For this reason, if you’re looking to use a polearm on horseback, Charge Damage is a great bonus, while Manoeuvring will suit One Handed swords or Bows much better. Similarly, the first Polearm Perk increases its damage on horseback or foot, so plan ahead on how you want to specialise.
These Perks cannot be changed once picked, so consider all Perks available and how they will work together if you want to get the most from your character.
Levelling
Levelling your character and skills is a balancing act. If you want a well-rounded character, you’ll need to spread your Attributes and Focus Points around and train lots of different skills.
While a diverse skillset can help deal with different situations, it makes getting to the higher levels almost impossible. For this reason, min/maxing your build will get you the best benefits.
For example, the level 275 Perk is almost always a massive percentage bump to a key element in that skill, but reaching 275 requires a lot of investment. To reliably get there at all, you will need 6 Attribute Points and 5 Focus in that skill, which severely handicaps others.
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