Stars Reach Skill Tree: What to Learn First in the Live Build

How the system works in the live build

Every skill belongs to a profession tree: Mineralogy, Botany, Ranger, Crafting, a tree for each weapon, and so on. Professions group related skills, but they do not lock you into a role. Nothing stops a miner from also learning Pistol and Cooking.

You earn XP in a tree by doing that tree's work with its tool. You spend it at a Skill Kiosk, and each skill also costs Klaatus. The first Skill Kiosk new players meet is on Haven. The Kiosk shows the prerequisites, XP and Klaatu cost before you buy.

A learned skill is in one of three states. Active means its benefits work and it counts against your limit. Out of Practice means you still know it, but its benefits are off. Reactivating means it is coming back, which takes time but does not cost a second purchase. GUNC's Skill Tree Forge models the limit as 80 active skills, 22 of which start active on a new character.

Recipes follow your active skills. Since Better Together 8.6.0 (15 September 2026), every recipe has a qualifying skill, and you can craft it whenever that skill is active. Recipes granted by skills are learned automatically. If the qualifying skill falls out of practice, the recipe stays learned but shows red in Collections, and you cannot craft it until the skill is active again. This is the most common reason for 'I learned it but cannot make it'.

Two smaller changes also matter. Skill chits were removed from the game in 8.4.0 (August 2026). Each tool has two ability slots, bound to Q and E, and you change what sits in them through the tool's loadout rather than by crafting a new tool.

The 19 trees: how each one earns XP, and whether you can level it alone

The rule column below quotes each tree's in-game description as mirrored by GUNC's planner. The count column shows how many skills you can learn today and how many are still marked in development. Read the two columns together: a tree with almost nothing playable is not a starting choice, however good it sounds.

Where the 2024 design blog and the live game disagree

Most of what is written about this system online quotes Playable Worlds' October 2024 post 'Advancement and Skill Trees'. The ideas behind it still hold: you are paid in XP for useful or risky action, you can learn everything, and a limited active set forces you to specialise. Several of its specific examples, though, describe a design the shipped build has since moved away from.

What to pick first, in order

Work backwards from what you want to do, not forwards from whatever is cheapest. Find the skill you want at the Kiosk, trace its prerequisites, and add up the XP and Klaatus for the whole path before you commit. A cheap last step can sit behind an expensive chain.

Check your belt before you leave the safe area. GUNC's mission guide notes that tools and weapons cannot be moved between backpack and toolbelt out in the open. Make swaps at a portal, camp, homestead or zoning lot.

1. One gathering tree: Mineralogy if you want metals and terrain work, Botany if you want fibre, wood and farming. Both level from your own actions, and both feed every crafting chain.
2. One weapon tree plus Combat. Missions are offered for the tools on your belt, and kill missions need a weapon. The weapon trees are fully playable (74 skills, none marked in development), while the shared Combat tree has only 2 of 15 learnable today.
3. Constructing once you have a homestead. Since 8.5.0 (3 September 2026) every character gets one free Homesteader on first reaching a Space zone, and Fabricators are free at the Homestead Console. Constructing is what turns those into a base.
4. Crafting for repair kits and core technology, then Engineering when you want to make your own Harvester, Xyloslicer or Trowel instead of buying them.
5. Ranger or Xenobiology if you explore. Ranger already gives the Camp Kit, and its upcoming upgrade is the largest planned change in the game (77 skills in development).
6. Leave Business, Leadership, Humanities and Vehicles until they open up. Business has one learnable skill and needs trading partners; the other three have none.

Skill points, the active cap and respeccing

There is no single pool of skill points. Each tree banks its own XP from its own activity, and you spend it at the Kiosk together with Klaatus. A character who only mines will have plenty of Mineralogy XP and nothing to spend on Pistol.

The cap is on active skills, not on learned ones. GUNC's planner sets it at 80. Moving a skill out of practice frees a slot. The build notes for 8.5.0 confirm that this also deactivates the recipes tied to that skill.

There is no paid respec screen, and in practice you do not need one. The 8.4.0 notes do mention unlearning a crafting skill, in a fix that removes the recipes it granted. Whether unlearning refunds XP or Klaatus is not documented anywhere we can find, so treat Out of Practice as your respec. It is reversible: reactivating takes time but costs nothing. GUNC's practical tip is to start reactivating a skill before the trip that needs it.

Remember the wipe. The Steam store page commits to a progression wipe before the game leaves Early Access, with founder pack and Kickstarter items kept. Every skill you hold now is practice for the build you will make after 1.0.

What is coming next: Ranger, Stealth and Leadership

On 10 October 2026 (Pacific time), Raph Koster listed the work planned for 'the next two updates' in a Steam post. Fleshing out Ranger comes first. Its roadmap card adds Wall of Fire, Ring of Fire, Cold Snap, Frost Grenades, Wall of Ice, Light Sticks and local waypoints from novice Ranger. It also names two advanced professions still in progress: Orienteering (climbing speed and grip, pitons, swimming bonuses) and Survivalism.

A Stealth specialty under Ranger is also on the board. It adds Mask Scent, Hide, Sneak, Hidden and Sneak Attack, Surprise Attack, Area Awareness and Detect Hidden, equipped in the Pathfinder loadout and earning Stealth XP. The card is explicit that it hides you from creatures only, not from other players.

Leadership is planned as three professions. Leadership itself gives banner-based inspiration. Strategist rewards party members who hit a marked target together. Tactician, for formations, comes later, and Politician is still planned as an advanced profession above them. The first abilities are a passive Inspiration aura and an active Encouragement buff, both of which speed up wound regeneration for nearby players and are stronger in camps. None of these cards has a date.

Planning a build without guessing

For a full plan, use GUNC's Skill Tree Forge at gunc.org/skills. It shows every node, lets you build against the 80-skill limit and gives you a share code. We link to it rather than copying it, because GUNC updates it as patches land and its data is theirs. GUNC itself warns that its tools can lag a patch, so check the in-game Skill Kiosk before you spend.

What this page adds is the decision layer: which trees can be levelled today, which XP rules need another player, and which older claims to stop believing. Patches have moved this system almost every month since launch, including 8.1.5 (loadouts), 8.4.0 (Xenobiology, Business, Tailoring), 8.6.0 (recipes tied to active skills) and 8.7.0 (painting skills and Carpentry). Check the build notes before trusting any guide older than the current patch, this one included.