Skills and You

Intro
The purpose of this article is to list and categorize all skills, as well as rate them from 1 to 5 in terms of how important or valuable they are to your Skyrate. Skills with a rating of 1 are something probably worth skipping, whilst skills with a rating of 5 are very important, and should be prioritized over other skills with lower ratings. Do not consider this to be a full guide, however - it is merely here to help you decide, and inform you of the effects of some skills, as well as reasons not to take some, and finally, reasons to only take certain skills to certain levels at certain times.

Flight Skills
Flight skills are levelled up using Flight Points, which are gained for flying. You get one flight point for every half hour of flight. Easy. Just make sure you keep well queued and don't spend too much time sitting around doing nothing.

Flight License
Rating: 5/5 A major point sink, but absolutely necessary, as it allows you access to a greater range of Skylands. As one of the core Flight Skills it's one you should focus on early on, though it is best to leave the last two levels aside for some time, unless you desperately need access to places like Uurwerk or Grottopolis.

Aerobatics
Rating: 5/5 A must for any combat pilot, as it decreases the plane's turning circle, essentially making you turn faster. The effects are mostly felt around the third level, so leave off on the fourth and fifth until you're mostly done.

Fuel Efficiency
Rating: 3/5 Considerably less valuable with the advent of the range changes, but still useful early to mid-game, and even a small percent of a large number can be a decent boost.

Cartography
Rating: 3/5 A must for any traders who want to make the most of a trade route. You'll want at least a few ranks to be able to queue 12+ hours. Leviathans can queue nearly two solid weeks of flight with max Cartography.

Perception
Rating: 3/5 Great if you hunt a lot, effect is most pronounced after you master it. Level four is enough to reliably get combats nearly every five minutes during hunts, according to some.

Skyland Trust
Rating: 3/5 Another point sink, but an absolute must for anyone running missions, as the non-Skyland Trust missions give rather poor amounts of influence.

Afterburner
Rating: 5/5 Being able to escape is always good, and Afterburner also makes a good maneuver for 'pouncing' on passing planes. Also useful for burning after those pesky Performance Planes who think they can outrun you. One or two ranks is plenty, three is probably the upper limit.

Airbrake
Rating: 3/5 Being able to stop dead has it's perks, especially versus the zeppelins/blimps, or to let some overconfident perf plane overtake you. Just be careful; it's easy for them to airbrake behind you as well, and that's highly unpleasant.

Sideslip
Rating: 2/5 A more refined Barrel Roll. Elegant and stylish, one gracefully moves out of the line of a charging foe like a bullfighter. It's also about the only maneuver you can use in a Barracuda, not that it'll help you much.

Trade Skills
Trade skills are vital to any would-be merchant. You get one trade point for every 3,500 profit made, so get cracking! TP are slow to come at first like any other, but become more and more plentiful as time goes on.

Cutthroat Business
Rating: 5/5

The 4% tax cut per rank on sell on all goods is amazing. An absolute must for any self-respecting trader or merchant prince-to-be. Note that for any given rank, you should get always get Creative Storage first.

Creative Storage
Rating: 5/5

Another absolute must for traders. More cargo means more profit!

Trade License
Rating: 5/5 Self explanatory. Required to access better goods. Due to the current market, Unobtanium is something of a point sink and the lux market is very fickle, though unlocking diamonds is highly recommended.

Industry Tycoon
Rating: 4/5

Oil trades well in FL4-5 skylands on the occasions routes come up and tools have become something of a staple item to the current economy - one could say that they are the most traded commodity in Skytopia at current... so this skill is worth it if you have the spare points.

Trade Prestige
Rating: 3/5

TP are much easier to earn later on, so not as bad of a sink. Good for mission runners, as it unlocks some particularly beneficial transport missions at higher levels.

Luxury Schmuxury
Rating: 3/5

The 4% tax cut per rank is very good if you are a luxury trader; unfortunately the lux market is, as said before, fickle and tough.

Black Market
Rating: 2/5

Important if you find yourself regularly trading in catnip and grog. They may not be true luxury resources, but they are nevertheless quite profitable when routes do emerge.

Negotiation
Rating: 1/5

Terrible skill, and a waste of perfectly good Trade Points despite their abundance. Reduces the time taken for trades on queue and decreases the cost to bribe pirates.

Farm Mogul
Rating: 1/5

Wood, fish and food don't exactly trade for much, so the 4% tax cut per rank isn't quite as visible.

Combat Skills
Combat skills. You can't hope to call yourself the greatest fighter pilot to grace Skytopia without these. To begin with, it'll be hard to pull enough Combat Points in to get anywhere fast, but by the end of things you'll be rolling in so many you could build a 1:1 scale replica of the Fuseli with all the spare Combat Points. To increase your flow of Combat Points, get a better plane, fly in more dangerous areas, and invest in the Combat Infamy skill.

Precision Fire
Rating: 5/5 Absolutely vital for combat pilots, as it considerably increases your firepower, adding 5% per level up to a maximum of 25% extra damage per hit.

Eagle Eye
Rating: 5/5 Another skill vital to combat pilots, Eagle Eye increases your accuracy, and is thus highly valuable to any self-respecting air combatant.

Crack Shot
Rating: 5/5 Increase critical damage by 15% per level. Base critical damage is 150% normal damage, and maxes at 225%. An absolute must due to the way crits work.

Combat Infamy
Rating: 4/5 Don't get this one too early - you don't want to bite off more than you can chew - but for combat pilots this skill is a must later on. This is because it increases combat levels - and higher level combats pay out more, as well as give extra combat points for every certain amount of levels.

Gumption
Rating: 4/5 A very important skill for pilots who use lots of maneuvers or hard turns. Increases the quantity of gumption in the meter by approximately 20% per level and boosts the rate at which it regenerates.

Barrel Roll
Rating: 4/5 A great attack and defense maneuver, especially when you're making attack runs on zeppelins or mobs of enemies in Approaching combats.

Immelman
Rating: 4/5 For planes lacking rear arcs, it is a useful way to turn the tables on any craft persistantly tailing you. It should be noted that you come out of the Immelman at minimum speed however.

Split S
Rating: 3/5 Nicknamed the "Reverse Immelman", useful for the same purposes. Unlike the Immelman, you come out of the Split S at full speed. Whether this is good or bad is up to you.

Loop
Rating: 3/5 A useful offensive and defensive maneuver that allows one to turn the tables on a particularly persistant pursuing pirate, or deal out a lot of damage to a large, slow moving target like a Leviathan with minimal risk to yourself.

Wingover
Rating: 4/5

A superb defensive maneuver, will get you out of all sorts of trouble. Your mileage may vary.

Smuggling
Rating: 0/5

Reduces losses when shot down, but again extremely expensive as it has two CP/TP prereqs. Note:Due to certain issues in the game, cargo loss is not currently implemented, and therefore this is a TOTAL waste of points.

Salvage Operations
Rating: 4/5

Great for the combat pilot with Trade points to spare as it decently increases payouts, though it's not easy on your TP. Adds a 3% salvage bonus per level to combats.

Tax Evasion
Rating: 3/5 A 4% tax cut per rank on buy tax is decent, but the FP cost is a significant expense at higher levels.

Leadership
Rating: 3/5

Fairly useless until taken to rank three or four, but it increases crew experience gains, and can be most useful for levelling them up faster.