The First Berserker: Khazan Guide | Best Skills For All Weapons

If you’re struggling to find the best skills for the weapons you’re using in The First Berserker: Khazan, this guide will give a detailed overview of the best skills available for all three weapon types in the game.

Accessibility Options

Before you start fighting, you should know that the Easy Mode can be used after you beat the first boss. You can turn it on or off anytime if you ever get beaten for too long. You also have spirit summons available at every primary boss fight. 

Combining these two tools will almost guarantee the kill, and then you can crank your difficulty back up until you run into your next brick wall. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, but this accessibility makes the game more approachable and fun.

Combat Basics

The first skill you must pick up is Brutal Attack Execution in the standard tree, which lets you deal massive damage once you break an enemy's posture. It took me way longer than I'd like to admit to figure that out, so don't sleep on it. 

When you stagger an enemy, you want a solid rotation of abilities you can land before the little indicator on its chest disappears. Always do as much damage as you can while it's delayed, and use your execution ability to finish the combo for the most damage. 

Common Tree Skills

In the standard skill cluster, Spirit Extraction lets you gain one spirit whenever you interact with a lacrimal, usually found on the corpses on the ground. You'll get more spirit when you hit, parry, or even take damage. 

The Enduring Spirit, Indomitable Spirit, and Berserk Spirit trio are excellent. If you're not a dodge-heavy player, you can skip the middle node that gives spirit for a perfect dodge. Finally, Reflection is always good to practice if you can land it consistently, and it can completely change the tide of battle.

Dual Wield Weapon Skills

When dual-wielding, start in the guard tree with Blowback, which deals damage to a successful parry, and Ironclad, which reduces stamina cost for parries. Then grab Blowback Vengeance for a swift counterstrike. 

In the Potent Blow tree, pick up Gale and Gale Scar to charge your potent Blow and inflict bleed; the vigor stacks your build to make your damage scale higher, and the upgraded version even makes enemies explode for considerable burst damage. 

Outrage lets you sprint-attack for significant damage, often one‑shotting weaker foes. Your spirit spender here is ruthless, unleashing a massive burst you can sustain easily thanks to all the passive spirit you've banked. Fleetfooted will reduce your dodge stamina cost and keep you slippery in combat if you dodge spam.

Great Sword Weapon Skills

If you prefer the great sword, add Armor Breaker and its upgraded Heartpiercer to your guard tree so you can land a swift attack right after a perfect parry. 

Always think of charged attacks: Savage Momentum lets you charge your base speedy attacks, and Manifest Power extends the reach of your charged heavies. 

Mortal Blow isn't stellar on its own, but when combined with Bloodshed, it becomes one of the best AoE cleave abilities in the game. 

For your spirit spender, Phantom Knight's Veil is a jump attack that summons three phantoms and grants you a stamina‑use buff. Deplete your bar first, then unleash it, and you'll regenerate stamina effortlessly. 

For gap‑closing and combo‑starting, you should know that Helmreaker is a fantastic quality‑of‑life pick that often kills smaller mobs outright.

Spear Weapon Skills

The spear is the most overpowered weapon and makes your playthrough incredibly smooth. Everything hinges on Moonlight, which places you in Moonlight Stance with the last hit of your light combo, summoning additional images that damage health and the stagger bar for 15 seconds. 

Moonlight Stance Vitality boosts your stamina recovery while in stance. Then, get Zero Point to add extra hits to your base moves. These can be chained together to make a fast attack or Shadow Reveal, which sends you behind the target to do much damage. 

Don't forget to use Zero Point Fortress to make Zero Point stronger. Finally, Phantom Heatwave makes you invulnerable while active, reflects incoming damage, and further buffs your moonlight images for 30 seconds—all with just four skill points invested.

Weapon Scaling and Stats

Your dual-wield weapons scale with willpower and strength, the great sword with strength and proficiency, and the spear with proficiency and willpower (with the first stat being the primary one). 

The one stat you cannot ignore is Endurance: this game treats stamina differently than most, and if you don't sink enough points into Endurance, your experience will suffer. Your endurance stat and gear will always be vital to your success.

Boss Farming and Practice

After you beat a central boss, you can still farm that boss, and there's even a target dummy area. Farming bosses ideally is a great way to prepare for the challenges ahead because it lets you improve your offensive combos and skills while getting lacrimal, skill points, and powerful gear sets.