Ability Point
Ability Points (AP) are used to purchase the abilities for the characters Main Weapon, Auxiliary Weapon, or to gain or improve Augments. One ability point is earned through filling up the experience bar 1/3 of the way (every 40,000 XP).
You spend Ability Points via the "Character Ability Points" screen, which is accessed by pressing "N" on the keyboard or by clicking on the "AP" button on the main screen when it is available. When you first bring up the Ability Points screen, you will see the wheel for the Main Weapon abilities. By using the icons at the top of the screen you can then go to the Auxiliary Weapon ability screen or the Augment ability screen. (Also see GUI and Keyboard Layout for more information on accessing these screens and what is accessible from them).
There is a total of either 628 or 788 possible abilities (depending on how you count unique abilities, see Augments below).
General Information
Each of the three wheels (Main, Auxiliary, and Augments) have slightly different displays and slightly different rules, limitations and costs. However, there are several things common to all uses of Ability Points, as explained in this section.
Unspent Points
Normally you are capped at 175 unspent Ability Points. After you have reached that amount, any additional Experience gain that would normally have given you another Ability Point instead generates a warning message that you did not receive a point like you normally would have because you currently have too many points unspent. In order to resume gaining Ability Points, you will need to spend some of your points.
This cap of 175 can be raised by learning Augment Skills. The AP cap granted by each rank of each skill is cumulative, so it is possible to eventually have a cap of 515 maximum unspent points. A cap of 500 is necessary in order to buy the most expensive of the Augment abilities
Refunding Points
An individual player can learn all of the abilities available; although this process is expected to be lengthy. No abilities will be mutually exclusive to each other.
However, because of this capability to eventually purchase every ability in the game, there is no "reset" or "refund" mechanism after a player has bought an ability. It is expected that if you bought an ability you no longer desire to use, you still have to save up more points to buy a different ability. No points are truly "wasted" since in the process of buying all abilities, you would have bought that one anyways. It just means you may be delayed in buying the one you want until you have enough points for it.
The one exception to this "no refund" rule is the faction training room - where players were first introduced to weapons and got to pick their first one to keep. Characters wishing to test abilities before they buy them can do so in their faction's training room. Abilities "bought" inside the training room are considered to be merely for testing purposes. Players can buy them, equip them, test them out on the training targets in the room, and then decide if they want to keep them or not.
- Note that you must still have the Ability Points required for any ability you want to buy and test, including the cost of prerequisite abilities.
- Note that any abilities that are still purchased when the character leaves the training room will be come permanently bought.
- Note that this "refund" feature of the training room only applies to abilities bought inside the training room, and will not let you swap out, trade, refund, or reset any abilities purchased prior to this trip to their faction's training room.
Main Weapon
- Main article: Ability
Abilities for your main weapon are purchased via the Main Ability Wheel which comes up when you first access the "Character Ability Points" screen. For details about the types of abilities available and explanations of their effects and descriptions, see the main article Ability.
Ability Wheel
The Main Weapon Wheel is broken down into three major groups, one for each major weapon type - Melee (Orange), Ranged (Red), and Magic (Blue). Within each weapon type group, there is then a section for each weapon that belongs to that group (Blade, Hammer, Fists for "Melee" for example). Additionally, the wheel is comprised of an "inner ring" and an "outer ring". Within each weapon, there are two Cells that fall on the inner ring and six cells that fall on the outer ring. Each Cell contains 7 abilities.
Additionally, between each of the weapon-type groups there is a Cell for Miscellaneous (Green) non-weapon-specific abilities. Each of these cells contain 7 related abilities just like weapon abilities. Aggro-avoidance (Subversion), Aggro-generation (Turbulence) or Survival (Survivalism).
This gives 14 inner-ring abilities per weapon and 42 outer-ring abilities per weapon. A total of 56 abilities per weapon and 504 total weapon abilities. The 21 miscellaneous abilities plus the 504 weapon abilities make up the initial 525 abilities all characters have access to.
Ability Costs
The first abilities you buy only cost a few Ability Points, but become more expensive as you progress further. And abilities in Inner Ring Cells are much cheaper than abilities in Outer Ring cells.
The table below shows the costs for purchasing abilities. "Ability Number" is from 1 to 7, with 1 being the first ability that can purchased in a cell and 7 being the last available in that cell.
| Ability # |
AP Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| Inner Ring | Outer Ring | |
| 1 | 1 | 9 |
| 2 | 1 | 12 |
| 3 | 1 | 16 |
| 4 | 2 | 21 |
| 5 | 3 | 27 |
| 6 | 4 | 34 |
| 7 | 7 | 50 |
Note that the "Miscellaneous" (Green) only have cells on the outer ring, and so their abilities cost using the router ring table.
Total cost for all abilities in an Inner Ring cell would be 19 AP. Total cost to open an outer ring cell for a weapon would be 38 AP. Total cost for all abilities in an outer ring cell would be 169. Total cost for all abilities in a weapon would be 1,052 AP.
Purchasing Abilities
New abilities can be purchased at any time you have the required points and do not require visiting a trainer or going to any special shop or location. Although, the progression is not entirely free-form, and there are a few restrictions on purchasing abilities:
- Abilities within a cell must be purchased sequentially within that cell.
- If you want the 4th ability down in the list of abilities for a cell, you must first purchase the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd abilities before you can purchase the 4th.
- All abilities in both cells on the inner ring of a Weapon must be purchased before any abilities in any cell on that weapon's outer ring.
- While 3 outer cells are related to each inner cell, you cannot buy any abilities in the outer cell until you have all 14 abilities from both inner cells
- Other than Inner-Ring/Outer-Ring requirements for a weapon, the abilities within any cell are purchased independently of abilities in other cells.
- You may have purchased the 5th ability in one cell on the outer-ring of a weapon. But, to get the 3rd ability from a different cell on the outer ring of that same weapon, you must purchase the 1st and 2nd abilities in that cell.
- Progression within any one weapon is independent of any other weapon.
- If you have access to the outer ring of one weapon, that does not grant you access to the outer wheel of any other weapon. The outer wheel of the other weapon can only be unlocked by buying it's associated inner-ring abilities.
Auxiliary Weapon
- Main article: Ability
Auxiliary weapons and the Auxiliary Weapon ability wheel were added in Update 1.2 with the first Auxiliary weapon, and addition weapons have been added periodically.
The screen for purchasing abilities for Auxiliary weapons is accessed from the same "Character Ability Points" screen as used by the Main Weapon ability wheel described above. Using the icons on the main screen over the wheel lets you move from the Main Weapon abilities to the Auxiliary Weapon abilities.
Ability Wheel
The Auxiliary weapon abilities use a wheel very similar to the one used by the Main weapons - it is broken down by weapon types, which is then broken down by the weapons with in that group, and each cell contains seven abilities. There are however a couple of notable exceptions:
- There is only a single ring, there is no inner/outer ring.
- There is only a single cell on that ring
This means that there is only 7 abilities per weapon in the Auxiliary Weapon ring. (Bringing the total number of abilities up to 588 after all Auxiliary weapons are in game).
Also, you will not have any access to the Auxiliary Weapon ability wheel until you have completed at least one mission that grants you an Auxiliary weapon. (Venetian Missile Crisis for Rocket Launcher as an example). Once you have your weapon, the icon giving you access to the Auxiliary Weapon ability wheel will appear over the Main Weapon ability wheel whenever you open that page.
Ability Costs
Unlike Main Weapon abilities, all abilities for Auxiliary Weapons cost the same - 50 Ability Points. The costs do not progress as you purchase abilities.
Purchasing Abilities
Because there is only once cell per Auxiliary Weapon, there is no consideration for inner-ring/outer-ring rules or multiple cells. Abilities within the cell must still be purchased in order within that cell however.
Augments
- Main article: Augment
Augments and the Augment ability wheel were added in Update 1.8.
The screen for purchasing abilities for Augments is accessed from the same "Character Ability Points" screen as used by the Main Weapon ability wheel described above. Using the icons on the main screen over the wheel lets you move from the Main Weapon abilities to the Augment abilities.
Ability Wheel
The Augment ability wheel is modeled after the weapon wheels, but is significantly different.
There are four main sections to the Augment wheel, one for each type of Augment - Damage (Red), Support (Yellow), Healing (Green), Survivability (Blue). Within in each group, there really is no divisions or cells - clicking on the group brings up the list of abilities available for that group. There are 10 abilities per group.
Additionally, each ability can be improved up to 5 times. (Adding either 40 or 200 new abilities, depending on how you count them).
Ability Costs
Augments ability costs vary, depending on the Augment. The cost is also dependent on the rank of the the ability you're purchasing. As with the Main Weapon abilities, the table below numbers the abilities (this time up to 10) from top to bottom as they appear on the screen.
| Ability # |
AP Cost | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | |
| 1 | 115 | 155 | 195 | 235 | 275 |
| 2 | 190 | 230 | 270 | 310 | 350 |
| 3 | 190 | 230 | 270 | 310 | 350 |
| 4 | 190 | 230 | 270 | 310 | 350 |
| 5 | 190 | 230 | 270 | 310 | 350 |
| 6 | 265 | 305 | 345 | 385 | 425 |
| 7 | 265 | 305 | 345 | 385 | 425 |
| 8 | 265 | 305 | 345 | 385 | 425 |
| 9 | 265 | 305 | 345 | 385 | 425 |
| 10 | 340 | 380 | 420 | 460 | 500 |
Purchasing Abilities
Before an ability rank can be purchased, the appropriate Skill must be bought. In order to buy rank one in any of the damage abilities, rank one of the Damage Augment skill must be purchased. In order to upgrade that damage augment ability to rank two, you must first have purchased Rank 2 in the Damage Augment Skill.
Once the skill requirement is met - you must have the appropriate type and level of an augment to "harmonize" in order to learn the ability (either a new ability, or upgrade an existing ability). When the augment is harmonized, the appropriate number of Ability Points are deducted from your total number of unspent points and the ability is learned. See Augment for details on augments and harmonizing.
Abilities within a group (Damage, Support, Healing, Survivability) do not have to be purchased in order. However, because of the AP costs required to learn some later Augment Abilities, you will need to purchase multiple Augment Skills in order to hold enough APs to buy some of the more expensive Augment abilities.
As an example - In order to buy rank 1 of the 3rd ability in an Augment group - you would need to purchase at least 1 rank of that Augment Skill. At that time, your maximum AP cap is 180. Would then then need to purchase either rank 2 of that same skill or rank 1 of two other skills in order to raise your AP cap to the 190 necessary in order to purchase rank 1 of that ability.
References
Related Articles
- For more information on the Character Ability Points screen, how to access it, and what you can access from it - See GUI
- For more information about types of abilities, their terminology, and effects, see Ability
- For the default keystroke commands to access these GUI screens, also see Keyboard Layout
- For more details about how abilities work and what the different kinds do (as opposed to this page's focus on how to spend points and buy abilities) - See Ability
- For a list of weapons and links to their individual abilities - see Weapon
- For more information on Augments, learning their abilities, and Harmonizing - see Augment
