Every Day We Fight skills guide: Best Builds and Abilities

The Every Day We Fight skills guide covers ability trees for Vivian, Dylan, and Leo, detailing how to allocate Skill Points into decoys, crowd control punches, and action point donation while taking advantage of free outside-combat respecs.

How Skill Progression Works in Every Day We Fight

Every member of your resistance trio earns experience points independently by performing actions during tactical combat and discovering collectibles across the ruined streets of Rugosa. Reaching experience thresholds levels up that specific Thorn, awarding one Skill Point to spend in their personal progression menu. You can open the skill screen at any time outside combat by pressing K. Spending at least one Skill Point on a node unlocks access to downstream perks along that branch.

You do not need to worry about locking yourself into a rigid setup. The game allows you to refund all spent Skill Points for free whenever you are out of combat. If a specific mission requires heavy crowd control, armor stripping, or defensive shielding, you can reset your tree immediately at no scrap cost before entering the next encounter.

Vivian Skill Trees and Upgrades

Vivian focuses on long-range marksmanship, tactical distraction, and personal shielding. Her three skill pillars consist of Assist, Hologram, and Utility.

Assist Tree

Vivian's primary reflex reaction is Kill Assist. When an ally reduces an enemy Rifter's health low enough, Vivian can trigger her reflex action to take a direct shot and finish off the target. Key upgrades along this branch include:

• Health recovery on kill: Restores 50 health points to Vivian whenever she eliminates an enemy using Kill Assist.
• Bonus AP on kill: Awards Vivian 5 additional action points immediately upon securing a Kill Assist elimination.
• Free reload: Instantly reloads Vivian's equipped weapon at zero action point cost after a successful Kill Assist.

Hologram Tree

Vivian deploys a holographic decoy that draws enemy attention away from the squad. The base ability costs 10 action points and carries a four-turn cooldown. Advanced perks modify how enemies interact with the decoy:

• Retaliation Discharge / Shock: When an attacking enemy damages the hologram, that enemy receives the electrified status effect. Electrification immediately nullifies all shields on shielded Rifters.
• Flammable Decoy: Generates an oil slick around the decoy that ignites when the hologram is destroyed, punishing incoming melee units.
• Illusory Fear: Applies the suppressed status effect to Rifters within a four-meter radius upon deployment, reducing their shot accuracy.
• Virtual Motivation: Grants Vivian extra action points on her turn for each Rifter that targets the hologram.
• Cooldown reduction: Lowers the recharge time of the hologram by one turn.
• Empathic Pain: Reflects 25 percent of all damage dealt to the hologram back at the attacker.

Utility Tree

Vivian's utility branch strengthens her survivability and barrier regeneration:

• Health Insurance: Adds 50 points to Vivian's maximum health pool.
• Protective Layer: Increases total shield capacity.
• Shield Break Surge: Boosts weapon damage output by 25 percent for two turns whenever Vivian's personal shields break.
• Shield Recharge Acceleration: Reduces the shield regeneration delay by one turn.
• Electrified Synergies: Restores 25 shield points whenever Vivian attacks an enemy suffering from electrification.

Dylan Skill Trees and Upgrades

Dylan operates as the frontline brawler of the Thorns. His skillset centers on close-range disruption, crowd control, and aggro management across three pillars: Proximity Punch, Provoke, and Utility.

Proximity Punch Tree

Proximity Punch is Dylan's signature reflex ability. When an enemy steps into Dylan's melee radius during their turn, he intercepts them with a physical blow that knocks them down for up to two turns. Melee attacks bypass enemy armor and shields entirely, dealing damage directly to health. Key upgrades include:

• Dust in the Wind: Deploys a dense cloud of blinding smoke around Dylan and his target upon executing a punch, shielding him from ranged retaliation.
• Punch Regeneration: Restores health points to Dylan each time he executes Proximity Punch.
• Health Impact / Feels Good: Restores health to all allies whenever Dylan uses his reaction strike.
• Bleeding Strike: Inflicts damage-over-time bleeding on the struck Rifter.
• Smoke Blind Heal: Restores 25 health points to allies whenever Dylan blinds them with smoke.
• Smokescreen Chain: Automatically engulfs the nearest visible Rifter in smoke when Dylan kills an enemy with a punch.

Provoke Tree

The Provoke branch allows Dylan to actively taunt hostile targets to protect vulnerable squadmates:

• Taunt: Forces an enemy Rifter to focus attacks exclusively on Dylan.
• Lingering Smoke: Automatically drops smoke at Dylan's feet upon initiating a standard attack.
• Status Inflictions: Can be upgraded to inflict bleeding or suppressed status onto provoked targets.

Utility Tree

Dylan's utility skills focus on mobility and defensive evasion:

• Health Insurance: Grants an additional 50 maximum health points.
• Moving Target: Increases the distance Dylan can scramble by three meters when evading incoming attacks.
• Tax Evader: Grants Dylan a free scramble action, preserving his reflex pool so Proximity Punch remains available on the enemy turn.

Leo Skill Trees and Upgrades

Leo excels at team coordination, area suppression, and action economy management. His three branches are Covering Fire, Donate, and Utility.

Covering Fire Tree

Covering Fire allows Leo to react during enemy turns by returning fire when allies are targeted or suppressed. Upgrades in this pillar include:

• Dead Arm: Applies the Paralyzed Arm status effect to any enemy struck by Covering Fire, disabling their ability to shoot on their turn.
• Stay Put: Applies the Paralyzed Legs status effect, preventing the target Rifter from moving.
• Feel the Burn: Ignites hit enemies, causing burn damage at the start of their turns.
• Overwatch Synergy: Reduces the action point cost of entering overwatch by 3 points and increases weapon firing efficiency during overwatch sequences.

Donate Tree

Donate is an active support ability where Leo transfers 10 of his own action points to a teammate. Upgrades expand its utility dramatically:

• Enabling Healer: Heals the receiving Thorn for 50 health points when Leo donates action points (this cannot revive downed units).
• Cleanse: Strips all negative status effects from the recipient upon donation.
• Damage Control: Increases the receiving Thorn's weapon damage output by 25 percent for two turns, stacking up to a maximum bonus of 150 percent.
• Bonus AP: Awards the target an extra 5 action points at zero additional cost to Leo.
• Two for One Special: Increases Leo's donate cost by 3 action points but distributes 10 action points to both allies simultaneously.

Utility Tree

Leo's utility path enhances durability and specialty equipment handling:

• Health Insurance: Adds 50 maximum health points.
• Resonator Dart Efficiency: Reduces the action point cost of firing the resonator dart by 4 AP.

Squad Synergy Decision Table

Choosing how to combine these abilities dictates your tactical approach in combat. The table below outlines how to configure squad roles based on the tactical threats you encounter.

Practical Combat Applications

Combining complementary skills between your three fighters allows you to solve difficult encounters without taking heavy squad damage.

Pairing Dylan's close-range kit with high-impact weapons like the Rattler shotgun allows him to soften armored Grenadiers and Enforcers. Because Dylan's Proximity Punch knocks enemies down and bypasses shields, sending him into choke points creates safe firing lanes. Adding the Dust in the Wind node ensures that even if he ends his turn exposed, enemy ranged accuracy drops dramatically within the smoke.

Using Leo's Donate ability turns Vivian into an offensive anchor. When equipped with heavy rifles like the Longhaul, firing and reloading consumes large amounts of action points. Leo's Two for One Special and Damage Control nodes restore her action pool while stacking weapon damage bonuses. This setup lets Vivian fire multiple precision rounds in a single round.

Managing your reflex actions is necessary because setting overwatch cones or executing reaction abilities consumes your reflex pool. If Dylan spends his reflex on a standard reaction, he cannot scramble away when a grenadier tosses an explosive. Selecting Dylan's Tax Evader perk mitigates this drawback by granting a free evasive move.

Before initiating combat, moving your squad through stealth lets you split characters and establish elevated firing perches. Activating Vivian's Retaliation Shock decoy on round one strips shields from incoming squads instantly, allowing Leo and Dylan to eliminate remaining targets without expending high-tier explosive consumables. These build foundations remain equally viable whether playing the campaign or tackling higher cycles in Forever War mode. For additional tactical recommendations on early-game exploration and scrap crafting, read our comprehensive tips.