ICARUS Talent System Guide

Hey Prospectors! Are you’re getting ready to drop down on your first mission? Maybe you are thinking about creating a new character that complements your others? Choosing the right talents can shave hours off your mission and keep you alive among deadly predators in the harshest environments.

Getting your perks right the first time is important since you can’t refund your points, and this guide will tell you everything you need to know about the Talent System in ICARUS to help you plan. If you would like some help picking specific talents after you are done here, head over to our dedicated Builds guide.

Simply put, the talent system allows prospectors to invest Talent Points to obtain certain perks which improve their character.

Earning regular Talent Points:

These points can be used in all available talent trees (Survival, Construction, and Combat), but not the Solo category.

  • A character will earn 1 talent point with every level, up to Level 50
  • They will also earn 1 additional talent point every five levels, up to Level 50.
  • After level 50, no new talent points will be gained (you will continue earning blueprint points).
  • Including the 3 talent points you start with, the maximum number of talent points is currently 63.

Earning Solo Talent Points:

These points are used in a separate Solo track for talents that are only active when playing alone on a prospect.

  • Your character will get 1 solo talent point every 2 levels.
  • This will result in a total of 25 at Level 50.

Talent points can be reallocated by purchasing Respec Points for icon rencurrency150 each. You are provided 30 Respec Points at the start of the game which are shared between all of your characters. Each Respec Point will allow you to remove one Talent Point from a single talent. If it is the last point in that talent, you can only remove it if no other talents use it as a prerequisite.

icarus talent system guide respec point cost cropped
If respecing is possible for the selected talent, you will see a dialog confirming you want to spend a Respec Point.
icarus talent system guide respec fail prerequisite dependency cropped
You will see this dialog if you are trying to remove a talent that another one needs as prerequisite.
icarus talent system guide respec fail point dependency cropped
If removing a point will lower the Rank in that tree below what is needed for a different talent, you will have to invest another Talent Point somewhere in that Tree first.

You can use your Respec Points on the regular Talents and the Solo Talents: the process for both is the same.

It can get expensive to respec characters. Still it can be quite useful: remember that no additional talent points are awarded after Level 50, so the maximum number of talent points is limited. You can use the tools at icarusbuilds.app to plan out the talents you want to choose.

The talents are organized into several trees and sub-trees based on different specializations. These trees can be found in the Talent menu on the character screen, both in the Orbital Station and on Icarus.

In ICARUS, Talents provide a variety of ways to improve your character. You can:

  • Improve character traits, such as health and stamina, mining and harvesting yield, weapon damage, etc. Invest more than one talent point to increase the strength of their effect.
  • Learn new abilities, such as detecting the outlines of hard-to-see animals, increasing your food capacity, or stunning a predator during combat.
  • Unlock specific blueprints in the Tech Tree to provide new crafting recipes. (We will explore these later in the guide.)

Not all talents will be available to a Level 1 prospector. Like skill trees in other role-playing games, you must unlock specific talents before you can access others. The branches of each talent tree indicate which talents are dependent on others.

icarus talent system guide talent ranks
By investing in all the talents down this branch of the Combat-Blades tree, a powerful stun ability can be unlocked

Each talent also has a Talent Rank requirement that must be met before you can select it. The talent rank ranges from 1 for introductory talents to 4 for mastery talents that unlock powerful traits and abilities.

Your current rank in each talent tree is displayed by a rank insignia next to the name of that tree. Your progress toward the next rank is displayed in the black-and-gold bar below each tree name; each talent invested fills 1/4th of the progress bar.

  • Rank 1 No Insignia
  • Rank 2 icarus talent level 2
  • Rank 3 icarus talent level 3
  • Rank 4 – icarus talent level 4
icarus talent system guide talent ranks and progress bar
In this example, Bows are at Rank 3, Spears are Rank 1, Blades are Rank 4, and Firearms are Rank 2 (Image credit: icarusbuilds.app)

In other words, starting at Rank 1, every 4 talent points invested in a specialization tree will increase your rank in that tree by one level. You can learn any talent of rank less than or equal to your rank in that tree, as long as you have available points and unlocked the dependent talents.

You can mix and match talents between different specialization trees and the Solo Tree. Plan ahead so you can reach the high-tier skills you really want in your chosen specializations before you run out of points. (Just remember that talents on the Solo Tree will become inactive if you join another player on the same prospect, or if they join you.)

In addition to the specialization trees, there is a Solo Tree with Talents that are only active if the character is alone on a prospect. Having another player join your game, or joining another players game, will remove any benefits you are receiving from Solo tree talents.

There are three main groups with 3-4 specialized talent trees each, and the separate Solo Tree.

The specialized talents will be active whether you play alone or with other prospectors, while solo talents will only be active when you are alone on a prospect. Remember to invest your solo talent points in the separate Solo Talent Tree. Think of what you could use a boost on when alone on Icarus or the first prospector to land. Is it gathering, mining, hunting, building, or just surviving until help arrives?

Now let’s take a look at the different talent trees your prospector can specialize in:

Brave better the forces of Icarus with these talents that boost your character’s ability to survive the harsh conditions on Icarus and make use of its resources.

  • Resources Tree: Extract more resources faster from plant, mineral, and exotic sources and transport them more efficiently.
  • Exploration Tree: Enhance vital statistics, physical prowess, and resistance to the elements in each biome, and reduce consumption rates.
  • Hunting Tree: Boost speed and stamina, master stealth and detect nearby animals, harvest more resources from animals, and learn special armor and trophy recipes.
  • Cook/Farm Tree: Grow your own food and extract extra benefits from it. Develop an iron stomach that can process raw and spoiled food.

Improve your character’s skill in making and using tools and building materials with the talents in these trees.

  • Repairing Tree: More efficiently put out fires with more durable fire whackers. Even throw a whacker to reach vaulted ceilings (or annoying prospectors).
  • Tools Tree: Level up the durability and efficiency of axes, pickaxes, and sickles, as well as radars and exotics extractors. Learn how to throw an axe (at annoying prospectors).
  • Building Tree: Reduce the weight and cost of wood, stone and concrete buildables. Smelt faster. Store more. Master defensive structures like lightning rods and hedgehogs.

These talents enable your character to make stronger weapons, use them more effectively, and craft them efficiently.

  • Bows Tree: Wield a bow more quickly and accurately and amplify critical damage. Craft more durable bows with fewer materials. Slow, bleed, and stun with homing precision.
  • Spears Tree: Craft more durable spears, become more deadly at close and long range, move more efficiently even while aiming, and tank more while bleeding your target.
  • Blades Tree: More faster and more quietly with a knife that is more durable, critically damaging, and easier to throw. Blade masters will stun and sometimes kill instantly.
  • Firearms Tree: Craft lighter, more durable, and deadly pistols, shotguns, and rifles with smoother reloading and cheaper ammo. Also, master hunting with grenades!

These especially strong talents are only for those who are willing and able to confront Icarus mono a planeta.

  • Solo Tree: A collection of enhanced skills based on certain talents from the other trees. Many of these perks have multiple and more potent effects.

Several talents you can learn increase your crafting capability by adding new craftable items or new recipes for basic materials. The blueprints for these recipes remain locked until you learn the special talent that goes with it. (You will still need to invest a Blueprint Point to learn the recipe.)

These talents usually help you accomplish a special task. The Ghillie armor allows you to move more stealthily. Crafting sticks and rope without workbenches can help you make better use of resources, especially in scarce circumstances. The skinning bench improves hunting yield, and mounting the heads of your furry friends and foes on the wall is-well, let’s just be honest-cathartic fun.

If you ever get frustrated when a blueprint won’t unlock even though you learned the prerequisites, you may need to learn a talent first.

Here is a list of the locked recipes, where to find the requisite talents, and the Rank you will need to learn them:

Many of the talents which increase one of your character traits, such as health or weapon damage, can be strengthened by investing more than one talent point into them. However, the description of the talent does not make it clear whether these increases stack. Sometimes the listed bonuses are additive, and sometimes they simply indicate the new level the bonus has reached.

For example, the Robust Explorer talent in the Survival-Exploration tree adds +10, +25, and +50 to the base health of the character. However, these bonuses do not stack, and the Talent Menu of the character screen does not say this. After three talent points (maxing out this talent) the total bonus to base health is +50.

The interactions between talents, food buffs, and weapon bonuses can be complex, but there’s a tool we can use to figure out how these character improvements stack up. In the Inventory Menu of the character screen, pressing the Show More button on the lower right provides detailed character statistics. Doing so will take you to another screen where you can see every statistic for your character and their values, such as maximum health and stamina, weight capacity, running speed, special abilities, etc.

icarus talent system guide character sheet stats
9 columns of character sheet heaven await you. Look here to see how talents affect your character

Each time you are about to invest a talent point, eat a new food, or equip a tool or weapon you are curious about, check how they change the statistics on this screen. In this way, you can figure out how these stat boosts stack and which combinations well with each other.

  • If all the talents are grayed out, you may not have any talent points available. If you have at least one talent point available, the talents you can learn next will be highlighted.
  • Is the talent tree broken? Are your selected talents grayed out? Does the current talent point total says something crazy like -1? The “Refresh” button in the upper right corner can fix many simple graphical bugs.

We hope this guide on ICARUS Talents was helpful! If you still have questions about the Talent System or have any suggestions, you can use the comment box below!

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SurvivalSherpa
SurvivalSherpa

SurvivalSherpa is an avid gamer spending most of his time at the nexus of the survival, crafting, building, and role playing genres on any platform, especially to test indie titles in EA. AFK, life is about work and education in STEM fields, reading fantasy, and sipping great coffee in the Pacific Northwest.

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nice
nice
3 years ago

There is no indication that there is no way to respec talent points or that there is a max level. So basically players are bricking characters and can’t even complete the game.

DanielD
DanielD
Admin
Reply to  nice
3 years ago

We agree that there should be a more clear warning in-game about the lack of a respec function, (which is why we note that in the beginning of this article). That being said, it seems that most tasks in ICARUS can be accomplished with proper prep and planning… The talents make things easier, but they shouldn’t be a requirement for progressing. Have you found parts of the game that you can’t complete with your current Talents?

Last edited 3 years ago by DanielD
Siris
Siris
Reply to  DanielD
3 years ago

Parts of the game become directly UN-FUN with wrong talents. Example: I chose to focus on bows, because fun. The homing talent likely works fine in single player but in multiplayere, where desync is quite horrible, the arrows actively avoid targets that move…

Maszaan
Maszaan
Reply to  nice
2 years ago

I agree with DanielD. talents do help and it does stink we can not respec. However, I have not ran into anything that cant be done with bad talent use. You could delete and rebuild. Yeah time involved but what else do you have when you play games?

Erik ommundsen
Erik ommundsen
3 years ago

Fun game, but after i learned that u dont get talents point after lvl 40. i quit the game.

clarence
clarence
Reply to  Erik ommundsen
2 years ago

you do get talent pointse even after 50

Soridar
Soridar
Reply to  SurvivalSherpa
2 years ago

In the post it says 63 max talent points. Here you say 60. The math also says 60. So guessing a typo?

Chewy631
Chewy631
Reply to  SurvivalSherpa
2 years ago

i just added up all my talent points and i currently am sitting at 85 talent points. care to explain this??? i can provide screenshots to prove

talent points 1.png
Chewy631
Chewy631
Reply to  Chewy631
2 years ago

second part

talent points 2.png
Chewy631
Chewy631
Reply to  Chewy631
2 years ago

second page

talent points 3.png
Chewy631
Chewy631
Reply to  Chewy631
2 years ago

third and final page

talent points 4.png
Stefan
Stefan
Reply to  Chewy631
1 year ago

clearly you are cheating somehow or your game is broken….

Hobbton
Hobbton
3 years ago

players should keep getting talents. thats remarkably unfun that you don’t. to the point that once i learned this i wanted to stop playing

Maszaan
Maszaan
Reply to  Hobbton
2 years ago

Sounds like you had a tough go at it. Did you stop playing or did you put your purse down and accept that Talents are only there to “help” your journey?

Chop
Chop
2 years ago

It would have been nice to know that we don’t get any additional talent points after 40. Anywhere IN GAME should have mentioned that. It feels there is a lot of depenency on the players to look outside and get their own information on Icarus prior to playing the game.

Maybe there should be an option to respec points after level 40. You could make it really expensive to deter people from doing it, but at the same time, us first season players shouldn’t be penalized for wanting to enjoy the game without outside information.

Ev Lokadottr
Ev Lokadottr
3 years ago

That’s odd. I don’t think I have ever got 5 extra talent points at level 10, or 20, or etc. A friend who has been playing longer than me only got 1 talent point per level until level 40, when they got 2 points… and then never got a talent point again??

Fenixtorador
Fenixtorador
3 years ago

They also don’t mention that you stop receiving talent points at level 40 .. but for some reason you can go up to level 99 or something like that. You still get blueprint points from what I can tell, but no more talents. So for those of you with half completed trees, beware.

WolWo
WolWo
3 years ago

Is it a bug, that I don’t get talentpoints any more since I reached Level 43?

Last edited 3 years ago by WolWo
Hobbton
Hobbton
Reply to  WolWo
3 years ago

nope, its a terrible feature

Maszaan
Maszaan
Reply to  Hobbton
2 years ago

Why is this terrible? Why is having a game that actually has a challenge bad? I pray they do not change this. Perhaps give respecs for Mission rewards would be nice tho.

Jean Paul Massaut
Jean Paul Massaut
Reply to  Hobbton
2 years ago

I must agree with Maszaan on this, even if i would like more talents myself.
The point is lets assume we still get talents after lev 40, that would mean with lets say 1 talent point per level, going on to lev 99 as it stands now, would mean a minimum of a extra 50+ points that would mean you could max out a further 2 talent trees, and make it even easier to com pleet the game.
Right now you need to make choices and that means giving Up on some other good talents in your build.
So getting some respecs as a reward would be the best option, or make them very very very expensive to get.

Meritor
Meritor
2 years ago

hey guys its a realy good game, but you have a million talent skills and at lvl 40 it’s finish ???? that realy make NO sense at all. you please have to change that one ASAP or the game is done right now,

Takron
Takron
3 years ago

By the way, the health bonus has been changed, it is just a total of +50 health now, not +85. Same for Stamina, after 3 points a total of +40 stam

Ottervoid
Ottervoid
2 years ago

Really nice guide, I really needed this!