Skill Trees – Gotham Knights

Each of the 4 playable characters starts the game with access to 3 unique Skill Trees. These are primarily made up of ability and stat upgrades, but also serve as an opportunity to specialize your character. Skills in these trees can make your character stronger, tougher, or faster, or can modify and improve Momentum Abilities. Later in the game, players will be able to unlock the Knighthood Tree, which functions similarly but offers significantly more powerful skills.

Read on to learn more about how Skills work, or scroll down/use the Contents button to see the Skill Trees for each playable character!

This guide was written prior to the release of the game: we will be continuously updating it with new information!

Unlocking Skills in the Skill Tree

Completing missions, dealing with crimes, completing challenges, investigating mysteries, and defeating enemies will all grant you XP. (Not everything in the game will grant you XP: for example, attacking the City Police (GCPD) will not grant you rewards or experience.)

Once you gain enough points to level, you will earn Ability Points to spend in any of your Skill Trees. These abilities do not have levels, but they will cost a different amount of Ability Points and require that you unlock prerequisite skills. Navigate to the Skills tab on Batcomputer to view and unlock your Skills.

A note on switching characters: Your XP progress is shared between the four characters. If you decide to switch at any point in the game, you will have access to the same number of Ability Points that you have earned on your most played character.

How to Respec

Unfortunately, you can’t reset your Skill Tree points in the game. You should definitely give each skill you are about to purchase a thought. Our guide should help you plan ahead.

Of course, you still have New Game + to look forward to, with additional 10 levels to help you further progress in your Skill Trees.

For now, if you aren’t happy with the build you are playing, and would rather just have more points to unlock better skills — switch to a different character! The XP progress is shared, so by the time you come back to the character you switched from, you will have some Ability Points you can invest into new Skills to get you past the bump.

Knighthood Skill Trees

Aside from the 3 Skill Trees, each of the characters has a Knighthood Skill Tree, which will become available to unlock for all your characters as part of the game’s main story. A lot of Knighthood Skill Tree upgrades affect your Ultimate Momentum ability, while others serve as final upgrades for your character’s primary strengths.

Batgirl Skill Trees

Batgirl’s skill trees are diverse, with Justice making her one-on-one combat skills stronger, Grit making her tougher, and Oracle adding a multitude of useful passive effects.

• Justice
• Grit
• Oracle
• Knighthood

This tree lets Batgirl deal significantly more damage to opponents, and improves her ability to Stun and interrupt foes.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
n/a		Perfect Evade	None	Batgirl performs a perfectly-timed evade that generates Momentum and allows for a perfect attack follow-up.
1		Critical Expertise	Perfect Evade	Increases Batgirl’s Critical damage by 20%.
2		Heavyweight	Perfect Evade	Increases Batgirl’s Heavy Melee Attack damage by 10% and stun Elemental Effect buildup by 20%.
1		Elite Beatdown	Perfect Evade	Beatdown can’t be interrupted by most enemy attacks. Batgirl’s defense increases by 20% while using the Ability.
2		Precise Strikes	Critical Expertise	Increases Batgirl’s chance of landing a critical hit by 10%.
2		Piercing Beatdown	Elite Beatdown	This upgraded version of Beatdown can interrupt enemies’ Armored Attacks.
3		Critical Focus	Piercing Beatdown or Precise Strikes	Increases Batgirl’s chance of landing a Critical hit by 10%. Increases Critical damage by 10%.

This is the tree to use if you find yourself dying a lot — Grit skills add health and defensive bonuses, allow Batgirl to revive, and let her heal when defeating an enemy.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		HP +	None	Increases Batgirl’s base health by 40%. Does not apply to bonus health provided by gear.
1		Enemy Counter Focus	HP +	Batgirl receives a 75% defense bonus when hit by an enemy counter-attack.
1		Unflinching Heavy Strike	HP +	Most enemy attacks can’t interrupt Batgirl’s Heavy Melee Attacks.
3		Second Wind	Enemy Counter Focus or Unflinching Heavy Strike	Batgirl can revive herself once after her health is depleted. Restores 50% health.
2		Second Wind +	Second Wind	Second Wind also grants Batgirl a full Momentum segment and 10% increased chance of landing a Critical hit for 15 seconds.
2		Vigilante Resolve	Second Wind	Batgirl can now use Second Wind twice.
2		Sense of Victory	Second Wind + or Vigilante Resolve	Batgirl regains 4% health upon defeating an enemy or 8% health upon defeating an enemy with a Grab Strike or a Takedown.

The skills in this tree vary wildly in function: some let Batgirl disable electronics or even overload enemy weapons, or prevent Batgirl from being seen by cameras. Hacking Overload makes Batgirl’s abilities do more damage, while Super Health Packs make healing items provide more health and an extra temporary defensive boost.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Remote Hacking	None	Using AR Mode, Batgirl can disable certain devices, like cameras, turrets, mines, electronic panels, and laser control modules.
1		Shocking Devices	Remote Hacking	Batgirl can overcharge an enemy’s gun and/or device, instantly applying a Bioelectric Elemental Effect to the enemy (must wait after cooldown to re-use).
2		Digital Ghost	Shocking Devices	Electronic devices, such as sensors and cameras, cannot detect Batgirl.
2		Gear Overclocking	Shocking Devices	Batgirl overclocks her abilities to deal 10% extra damage. She can also hack her allies’ abilities to give them a 15% damage bonus for 20 seconds.
2		Hacking Overload	Digital Ghost or Gear Overclocking	Batgirl’s Hacking changes the function of security systems and makes electrical panels explode.
2		Super Health Packs	Hacking Overload	Health Packs provide an extra 20% health and grant a 50% Defense increase for 10 seconds.
2		Health Packs +	Hacking Overload	Health Pack efficiency increases by 20%. Health Packs now also affect allies close to Batgirl.

Batgirl’s Knighthood tree adds a number of quality-of-life improvements, like letting her use her grapple in combat and improving her out-of-combat health regeneration. It also buffs her drone’s damage, and improves Batgirl’s ranged and melee combos. Naturally, this tree comes with a Heroic Traversal, the ability to Glide using Batgirl’s cape.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Description
n/a		Glide	Batgirl uses her cape to glide through the air. She can adjust her pose to turn and gain or reduce her glide speed.
1		Grapple Pull	Batgirl uses her grapple to pull an enemy towards her. When used of a large enemy, Batgirl pulls herself toward the enemy.
1		Fear Takedown	Ambush Takedown inflicts Fear in nearby enemies. Critical damage and Critical chance increase by 15% for 10 seconds.
1		Health Regen +	When outside of combat, Batgirl’s health automatically regenerates up to 40%.
2		Enhanced Combo	Increases the number of attacks in Batgirl’s Melee and Ranged Attack combo by 1. The last Melee hit is a knockdown.
3		Drone Firepower	Increases firing rate of Batgirl’s drone.
3		Drone Ambush Blast	Once per summon, Batgirl’s drone unleashes a large burst of damage on all nearby enemies.

Nightwing Skill Trees

Nightwing is an acrobatic character, and the Raptor and Acrobat skill trees lean into that archetype. The Pack Leader tree has skills that improve Nightwing’s Co-Op strength, allowing him to share bonuses with his allies.

• Raptor
• Acrobat
• Pack Leader
• Knighthood

The Raptor tree is all about Nightwing’s deadly strikes: it’s filled with boosts to his critical chance and damage, and upgrades to his Pounce Ability.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
n/a		Perfect Evade	None	Nightwing performs a perfectly-timed evade that generates Momentum and allows for a perfect attack follow-up.
1		Critical Expertise	Perfect Evade	Increases Nighwing’s Critical damage by 20%.
2		Assassin’s Mark	Perfect Evade	Marks an enemy, increasing Nightwing and his allies’ damage to the foe by 10%. Hold the prompt while aiming at an enemy.
1		Trampoline	Perfect Evade	Nightwing’s Pounce ability is automatically followed by a high jump on the enemy. This ability cannot be used if Nightwing is under a low ceiling.
2		Precise Strikes	Critical Expertise	Increases Nightwing’s chance of landing a critical hit by 10%.
2		Aerial Bounce	Trampoline	Nightwing bounces off an enemy following an aerial attack to propel himself back into the air. Can be used up to 3 times in succession.
3		Critical Distance	Aerial Bounce or Precise Strikes	Hitting an enemy with a Melee Attack from a large distance increases the Critical chance and Critical Damage by 15%.

The Acrobat Tree boosts Nightwing’s sustain (momentum and, later, health), as well as his mobility skills around the battlefield, rewarding him for evading attacks.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Aerial Damage +	None	Increases Nightwing’s aerial attack damage by 20%.
1		Extra Momentum Bar	Aerial Damage +	Grants Nightwing an extra Momentum bar.
1		Momentum Gain +	Aerial Damage +	Increases Nightwing’s Momentum gain by 15%.
3		Evade Chain	Extra Momentum Bar or Momentum Gain +	Nightwing chain evades by performing a quick succession of back jumps.
2		Haly’s Favorite	Evade Chain	Completing an Evade Chain knocks down all nearby enemies.
2		Evade Chain Momentum	Evade Chain	Performing an evade chain during combat restores a portion of Nightwing’s Momentum.
2		Mind and Body	Haly’s Favorite or Evade Chain Momentum	Using Momentum Abilities restores a portion of Nightwing’s Health.

The Pack Leader tree is fantastic for co-op play. Not only do Nightwing and his allies benefit from higher damage and faster regeneration, but Nightwing himself becomes much harder to take down, and can even instantly revive an ally from a distance with enough points invested.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Family Ties	None	Increases Nightwing’s defense and resistance by 10%. Working with allies also grants him additional bonuses: Batgirl – Melee Damage +15%. Red Hood – Ranged Damage +15%. Robin – Stealth Damage +15%.
1		Health Bolstered Defense	Family Ties	When Nightwing’s Health is at least 70% or more, he gets a +5% Defense bonus scaling up to 20% when at full health.
2		Momentum Regen	Health Bolstered Defense	Nightwing’s Momentum regenerates over time. Regeneration stops after filling 1 Momentum segment. Gaining any Momentum activates regeneration again. Working with allies increases regeneration speed.
2		Shared Skill	Health Bolstered Defense	Passive Skills increasing Damage, Critical Chance, Defense, Momentum Regeneration, and Ultimate Cooldown are shared with allies at 50% of their value.
2		Elemental Smart Darts	Momentum Regen or Shared Skill	Nightwing’s darts inflict Elemental Effect build up on enemies or heal allies over time.
2		Elemental Smart Darts +	Elemental Smart Darts	Nightwing’s darts also reduce enemies’ defense by 10% and increase damage inflicted by allies by 5% for 10 seconds.
2		Revive Darts	Elemental Smart Darts	Nightwing’s darts can be used to instantly revive an ally from afar. Maximum 1 use per night.

Nightwing’s Knighthood Tree boosts his Nest Ability, his darts, melee attack distance, and gives him an additional attack for the Melee combo. When this tree becomes available, so does the Flying Trapeze, a glider which regains speed when Nightwing bounces from walls.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Description
n/a		Flying Trapeze	Nightwing uses his Flying Trapeze to glide through the air. He can also rebound off of walls to gain altitude and speed.
1		Triple Darts	Nightwing shoots 3 darts at once instead of 1.
1		Strike Distance +	Nightwing’s Melee Attacks can strike enemies from farther away.
1		Guardian	Defeating an enemy reduces Nest Ability cooldown by 15%.
2		Combat Expertise	Increases the number of attacks in Nightwing’s Melee combo by 1. The last hit is a knockdown.
3		Nest Buffs +	Nest damage is increased by 150%, and the healing effect is increased by 100%.
3		Bigger Nest	Increases the size of Nightwing’s Nest.

Red Hood Skill Trees

Red Hood’s skill trees are all relatively similar, in that they’re mainly focused on dealing more damage — the Marksman tree buffs ranged damage, the Brawler tree improves his grappling, and Vengeance adds general DPS.

• Marksman
• Brawler
• Vengeance
• Knighthood

This tree focuses on ranged damage output per second, speeding up your attacks, boosting your critical attacks, or rewarding longer aim time with increased damage.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
n/a		Perfect Evade	None	Red Hood performs a perfectly-timed evade that generates Momentum and allows for a Perfect Attack follow-up.
1		Focused Fire	Perfect Evade	Red Hood can aim longer at a target to deal 4x more damage.
2		Lucky Rounds	Perfect Evade	Every round Red Hood shoots has a small chance to deal 5x the damage. Only applies to Ranged Attacks and Precision Aim.
1		Critical Expertise	Perfect Evade	Increases Red Hood’s critical damage by 20%.
2		Precise Strikes	Critical Expertise	Increases Red Hood’s chance of landing a critical hit by 10%.
2		Focused Fire +	Focused Fire	Aiming time of Focused Fire is reduced by 50%.
3		Quickfire Expert	Focused Fire + or Precise Strikes	The critical chance and critical damage of Red Hood’s Range Attack combo is increased by 15%.

This tree boosts Red Hood’s melee capabilities, with a particular emphasis on grappling. This skills below improve his grab ability as well as their damage.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
3		Human Bomb	None	When Red Hood throws an enemy, he attaches a concussion mine to them that explodes when shot.
1		Large Grab	Human Bomb	Red Hood can perform grab moves on large enemies.
1		Extended Grab Window	Human Bomb	Enemies can now be grabbed at 50% health or less.
2		Human Bomb Enhanced	Large Grab or Extended Grab Window	Increases damage and radius of the concussion mine explosion.
1		Grip Expertise	Human Bomb Enhanced	Increases Red Hood’s damage when performing a grab move by 10%.
2		Iron Grip	Human Bomb Enhanced	Grabbing an enemy prevents Red Hood from being interrupted by most attacks.
2		Human Bomb Multiplied	Grip Expertise or Iron Grip	Detonating the concussion mine deploys 6 additional concussion proximity mines on the ground.

A strictly DPS tree, with some skills focused on doing damage to a specific type of enemy. Notably, Combined Fire lets Red Hood do more damage when aiming at the same foe as an ally.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Coup De Grace	None	Red Hood inflicts 10% more damage on enemies with 30% health or less.
1		Freak Justice	Coup De Grace	Increases Red Hood’s damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting Freaks.
2		Regulator Justice	Freak Justice	Increases Red Hood’s damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting the Regulators.
2		Mob Justice	Freak Justice	Increases Red Hood’s damage by 15% and critical damage by 5% when fighting the Mob.
2		Combined Fire	Regulator Justice or Mob Justice	Red Hood and his allies inflict increased damage when focused on a single target. Only applies to Ranged Attack combos and precision aim.
2		Unrestricted Fire	Combined Fire	After using Two-Fisted Reload, Red Hood can shoot unlimited rounds for a short period of time.
2		Double Vortex	Combined Fire	After using Two-Fisted Reload, Red Hood shoots double the number of rounds for a short period of time.

Red Hood’s Knighthood tree adds some crowd-control to his kit, causing both his grabs and his knock-out ranged attacks to inflict Fear in nearby enemies. It also adds some oomph to his headshots and weak spot targeting, and improves his ranged attack combo and his Ultimate Momentum Ability. With this tree comes the Heroic Traversal Mystical Leap, which allow Red Hood to use Spirit Platforms to leap through the air.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Description
n/a		Mystical Leap	Red Hood traverses through the air using spirit platforms.
1		Ranged Terror	Every shot that knocks out a target inflicts Fear in nearby enemies.
2		Weak Spot Damage +	Increases headshot and weak spot damage by 15%.
1		Grab Dread	Grabbing a target inflicts Fear in nearby enemies.
2		Combat Mastery	Increases the number of attacks in Red Hood’s Ranged Attack combo by 1. The last hit is a knockdown.
2		Ducra’s Training	Mystical Rounds requires 50% less time to lock on targets.
3		Shadow Vengeance	Mystical Rounds shoots 2 rounds instead of 1.

Robin Skill Trees

Robin’s skill trees are all very different, with Slugger boosting damage, Shadow improving stealth tactics, and Tinkering buffing Robin’s elemental and Pellet attacks.

• Slugger
• Shadow
• Tinkering
• Knighthood

This tree significantly increases Robin’s damage — especially when attacking enemies from behind — and also contains improvements to his decoy that allow it to reflect damage and/or explode.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
n/a		Perfect Evade	None	Robin performs a perfectly-timed evade that generates Momentum and allows for a perfect attack follow-up.
1		Critical Expertise	Perfect Evade	Increases Robin’s Critical damage by 20%.
2		Back Damage Plus	Perfect Evade	Robin deals 20% more damage when attacking enemies from behind.
1		Elemental Decoy	Perfect Evade	When attacked, Robin’s decoy inflicts a large amount of Elemental Effect damage on the attacking enemy.
2		Precise Strikes	Critical Expertise	Increases Robin’s chance of landing a critical hit by 10%.
2		Exploding Decoy	Elemental Decoy	Robin’s decoy explodes, leaving behind Elemental residue that deals Elemental Effect damage to any enemy that walks into it.
3		Elemental Focus	Exploding Decoy or Precise Strikes	Robin’s Critical damage and chance of landing a Critical Hit increase by 20% on targets with an active Elemental Effect.

This stealth-focused tree lets Robin move unheard and unseen. It also adds some unique takedowns, and allows Robin to heal significantly from sucessful takedowns.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Light Footed	None	Robins produces no sound while running and moves faster while crouched. (Does not apply to while sprinting.)
1		Stealth Damage +	Light Footed	Robin’s damage is increased while undetected. Melee and Ranged attacks by +10%. Takedowns and Stealth Strikes by 20%.
3		Turnabout Takedown	Light Footed	Robin can perform Takedowns and Stealth Strikes on large enemies.
2		Vantage Hanging Takedown	Stealth Damage +, or Turnabout Takedown	Robin can perform a special takedown that suspends enemies from a vantage point. While perched on a vantage point, tap the prompt when an enemy is below Robin.
2		Reduced Visual Stim	Vantage Hanging Takedown	Robin is harder to spot and enemies take longer to notice him.
2		Vantage Hanging Takedown Mine	Vantage Hanging Takedown	Performing a Vantage Hanging Takedown also drops a proximity mine that lures enemies.
2		Shadow Renewal	Reduced Visual Stim or Vantage Hanging Takedown Mine	Successful takedowns restore 25% of Robin’s health.

This tree, which syngergizes with the Slugger tree, boosts Robin’s elemental damage, and improves his ranged attacks, modifying them to work like a temporary mine when they hit surfaces.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Requirement(s)	Description
1		Elemental Charge	None	Elemental Effect build up inflicted by Robin is increased 25% faster.
1		Sticky Pellet	Elemental Charge	In Precision Aim, Robin’s pellet can stick to surfaces, creating a temporary mine. Placing a second mine deactivates the first.
2		Sticky Pellets x3	Sticky Pellet	Robin can place up to 3 sticky pellets at once.
2		Enhanced Sticky Pellets	Sticky Pellet	Sticky pellets inflict 33% more damage and last up to 10 seconds.
2		Elemental Resistance	Sticky Pellets x3 or Enhanced Sticky Pellets	Robin’s Elemental Effect resistance increases by 40%.
2		Elemental Burst	Elemental Resistance	When Robin deals Elemental Damage, he gains a 5% chance of dealing additional Elemental Damage in an area. Elemental Burst also reduces enemies’ Elemental Effect resistance by 50% for 10 seconds.
2		Enhanced Elemental Effects	Elemental Resistance	Elemental Effects inflicted by Robin last twice as long.

Robin’s Knighthood tree further improves and encourages the use of his takedowns, granting him buffs for sucessful ones. It also gives him a tool to reenter stealth after attacking from above, improves his microbots ability, and makes his combos stronger. Robin’s Heroic Traversal Slideways (teleportation) also unlocks when this tree becomes available.

AP Cost	Icon	Ability	Description
n/a		Slideways	Robin activates and enters a temporary portal, which he can use to relocate to a new position.
1		Stealth Takedown +	Performing a Takedown increases Robin’s damage, Critical Chance, Defense and Elemental Effect build up for 15 seconds.
1		Aerial Attack Smoke	Robin’s aerial attacks are followed by a small cloud of smoke, allowing him to re-enter stealth.
1		Microbots Cooldown Reduction	Robin’s Microbots Ability cooldown is reduced by 20%, allowing Robin to call them more often.
2		Combat Expertise	Increases the number of attacks in Robin’s Melee and Ranged combos by 1. The last Melee hit is a knockdown.
3		Slideways Takedown	Robin opens a small portal and pulls an enemy through it to perform a takedown (not applicable on bosses).
3		Microbot Target +	Robin improved the particle accelerator in the microbots’ core engine. He can now call 5 microbots instead of 3.