Video uploaded on November 12, 2023.

“Hello, Zack Liner here! As all my viewers should already know, I was a former journalist working for the Earth Alliance news branch. I’m not going to bog you down with the specifics on that, but many of you are probably familiar with the various articles I wrote about Dungeons and Dungeoneers,” the man opened in a casual, friendly tone. The video showed a mostly blank white screen. In the corner was the webcam footage of a man with messy black hair and wearing a mask that covered his nose and mouth.

“Well, today, I wanted to do somewhat of a special video for today! You see, I’ve been getting more comments lately thinking that I go through the things a little too quickly and although you all have at least a bit of general knowledge, unless you, or someone close to you is a Dungeoneer, there is actually quite a bit of niche information. So, sorry if you have been a bit confused so far, but I am going to make it up to you by breaking down everything that you need to know about Dungeons and Dungeoneers…sounds like a game doesn’t it?”

The blank white screen suddenly showed the word “Skills” in large, bold text.

“Alright, let’s get started. So, the first thing I want to cover in this series are Skills. To explain them simply, Skills are special abilities or attributes that provide some sort of benefit to Dungeoneers. There are also some Skills that have drawbacks as well. Now, the best way I could think of to explain Skills to you is to go over the progression and how you acquire them as a Dungeoneer.

The next screen showed a small stick figure man. Above the stick man was an arrow pointing at him, and the words “New Dungeoneer”.

“So, this is a new Dungeoneer. Someone who just recently got the mark of a Dungeoneer.” The screen now shows a few boxes in the corner, each containing a different shape. “A Dungeoneer’s mark can look like almost anything, and can be something as simple as a cross or something much more complicated than that. For example, the Ruler of the East has the pattern of a dragon that spans across her shoulders and upper back. Well, it probably still looks like that. It’s been a while since there have been any public photos of her that show that part of her body…we can talk about her specifically in another video maybe.”

The screen now showed another arrow, pointing to the stick man from the side. This one ended with the words “First Skills”.

“So, in addition to receiving a mark, they will also acquire their first Skills. From what we know, you get either two or three Skills as your first Skills. These Skills can vary greatly and the data we have available shows that although sometimes the first Skills seem to be well-suited for a Dungeoneer’s character or personality, they also sometimes just seem completely random. In any case, these Skills will greatly affect how easily you can progress as a Dungeoneer.”

The screen transitioned to a new page titled “Skill Rarity”.

“So, when the first Dungeoneers realized that they could view their own Status, they were able to see all of their Stats and Skills all at once. The organization apparently varies from person to person, but they all say it is easy to read and understand. Next to each Skill name, there are apparently a number of stars, ranging from one to five. You may have heard the skills described by their star-rating, but calling them by a rarity name is also common.

The screen showed the following five rows.

1 star: Common

2 stars: Uncommon

3 stars: Rare

4 stars: Special

5 stars: Unique

“The 5 star Skills are really interesting because they are exactly as their rarity name suggests. They are Unique, meaning they are one-of-a-kind. No other Dungeoneer in the world possesses the exact same Skill. They also tend to be much more powerful than Skills of lower rarity. I will note, however, that rarity is not everything. Some argue that certain Skills are more useful, if not necessarily stronger, than certain other lower rarity Skills. And within the same rarity, their use also varies greatly. Here are some examples of Skills at each rarity.”

Unarmed Combat Training (common)

Mental Resistance (uncommon)

Insight (rare)

Layered Defense (special)

Comet! Shooting Star that Splits Heaven and Earth (unique)

“And yes, that Unique Skill’s name is apparently exactly that, according to the Dungeoneer herself. And even if it isn’t, let’s just pretend it is because, personally, I think it’s hilarious.”

Zack skipped to the next page, but then quickly went back.

“Oh, and for some added context on the rarities, I guess I can describe these particular Skills. Unarmed Combat Training does basically what you expect. It gives you knowledge and reflexes akin to someone who has some level of unarmed combat training. Mental Resistance is mainly known for allowing one to remain calm in stressful situations, but it also helps against attacks that target the mind, since some monsters are known to use psychic attacks. Insight is considered one of the most useful Rare Skills that do not directly make you stronger. Putting it kind of simply, it lets you more effectively analyze information and the environment around you. For people unused to fighting, it is very useful.”

Zack turned away from the camera and took a sip of water.

“Let’s see, well, Layered Defense is pretty interesting since it is a Skill with a drawback. It increases your Defense stat by a lot, I think 50% at Rank D, but it goes up even more as the Rank increases. However, after taking a certain amount of damage, you temporarily lose the buff and your base Defense drops to half. Finally, there is Comet! Shooting Star that Splits Heaven and Earth!” Zack said excitedly. “This is such a great Skill name. I wish I knew what exactly it did, because the only thing confirmed about it is that it lets you summon flying orbs made of some sort of semi-tangible type of energy or magic. Hmmm, well, I have some speculations but I want to just stick to the facts here.”

Zack went to the next slide, which was titled “Skill Progression”. Under the title were two boxes. The left box had the words “Acquiring Skills” and the right box had the words “Ranking up Skills”.

“First there is acquiring Skills. After those first Skills, you can also acquire Skills in a variety of different ways. You can fight monsters, train your body, meditate, or even study. Acquiring Skills through these activities are not that high though. However, there are fixed milestones in which you will automatically gain new Skills. This is when you reach certain milestones in your Stats.”

The following rows appeared under “Acquiring Skills”.

10 points in any Stat: between one to three Skills

100 points in any Stat: between one to three Skills

500 points in any Stat: between one to three Skills

2500 points in any Stat: between one to three Skills

“The first time one of your Stats reaches one of those milestones, you automatically acquire new Skills. To clarify, this is for the first time only, meaning, if say, after reaching 10 Strength, you would not gain more Skills after reaching 10 Defense. Oh, and these are the five main Stats.

The screen showed the following sentence: Strength, Defense, Stamina, Dexterity, Magic.

“I thought about making a video on Stats, but I think it’s pretty self-explanatory from the names. And yeah, the higher the number, the more of that Stat you have. Although, it apparently is not linear. It varies from person to person, but it’s a slow exponential growth curve. The factor ranges from around 1.01 to 1.09. Okay, I am not going to go any further into that, so just know that those are the main Stats, and that’s good enough.”

The screen now showed the following, underneath “Ranking up Skills”.

Common, uncommon, and rare: D - C - B - A

Special: D - C - B - A - A+ - S

Unique: C - B - A - A+ - S

Common - Uncommon - Rare - Special - Unique?

“Hmmm, this looks more confusing than I thought it would…anyways, each Skill, no matter its rarity, has a Rank. It goes from D to A for common, uncommon, and rare Skills, and then continues to S for Special and Unique Skills. You will notice that there is actually an A+ rank after A and that there are no D rank Unique Skills…there’s not much more to say on that matter than that. Finally, certain Skills can actually increase in rarity after progressing past its highest Rank of the previous rarity. For example, Unarmed Combat Training A could rank up to Unarmed Combat Arts D. Most Skills don’t work like that, though. Also, there isn’t any known example of any particular Special Skill ranking up to a new Unique Skill. I guess that makes sense; they are one of a kind, after all.”

Zack’s next slide was titled “The End”, and it had another stick man figure, but this one was drawn noticeably larger than the first one and had something like a flame-like aura radiating from it. Probably. It was a really simple drawing.

“Alright, that’s the end of this video. I…uh, wasn’t sure what to put here so I decided to draw this at the end.” Zack paused for a second. “Let me explain it anyway. See, look, this is the veteran Dungeoneer. He- or she is very powerful now, with lots of Skills and likely several high-rarity ones among them. For any of my viewers that happen to be Dungeoneers stuck in D- rank, but still dream of becoming a famous Dungeoneer, you can do it. There are a lot of cases of Dungeoneers suddenly climbing the ranks so if it’s something you really want to do, don’t give up. Ah, but please also don’t do anything reckless, either. A lot of Dungeoneers have also unfortunately died fighting the monsters, even some higher rank ones.” Another awkward pause. “All right, that’s all from me. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you all next time! Zack Liner, signing off.”