Romestead Skill Tree Guide: Favours & Favour Points
Last updated: 2026-06-26
Romestead's skill tree — the Favours system — is one of the least-explained parts of the game and one of the most important. It's how your character gets permanently stronger, separate from your settlement, and it quietly carries across every world you play. Here's how Favour Points work, how to earn them, what to spend them on, and how to reset if you misclick.
You earn Favour Points by leveling skills (you level a skill by using it). You spend those points on passive Favours (talents) in a large tree. The whole thing is character progression, not world progression — it follows your character into new worlds. Misclicked? Reset everything by drinking a Canteen of Youth.
On this page
Skills vs Favours vs Favour Points
Three terms get tangled together. Here's the clean separation:
| Term | What it is |
|---|---|
| Skills | Per-activity proficiencies that level through use — e.g. Mining, Woodcutting, Construction, and weapon skills (Swords, Spears, Bows, Axes, Scrolls, Throwing). The same skills your starting class gives a +5 head start in. |
| Favour Points | The currency you spend in the skill tree. You gain them as a by-product of leveling skills. |
| Favours | The passive talents themselves — the nodes you buy with Favour Points. Each one is a permanent passive bonus. |
So skills feed points, and points buy Favours. Your starting class doesn't lock any of this — every character can level every skill and unlock any Favour; the class just decides where you begin.
How to earn Favour Points
Favour Points come from leveling your skills, and you level a skill by doing the matching activity:
- Each skill has a Favour XP bar. Performing the skill's activity fills it; when it's full you gain a Favour Point and the next level needs more XP.
- Higher skill levels grant more Favour XP per level-up — so progress accelerates as you specialise.
- Using a higher-tier tool or weapon for the first time tends to dump a chunk of XP quickly (e.g. swinging a high-tier hammer/pickaxe you haven't used before).
The gathering and building skills — Mining, Woodcutting, and Construction — level fastest early because you do those activities constantly in the opening hours anyway. If you want Favour Points without going out of your way, just keep chopping, mining, and building. Combat skills come naturally as you fight through the first boss and beyond.
The talent tree: branches & categories
The Favours tree is large. From what's visible in-game (Early Access, patch 0.25.x):
- It's organised into roughly 7–8 vertical branches, each headed by a category icon and descending through several rows of nodes.
- There are 60+ talents in total — this is a deep system, not a handful of perks.
- The branches are themed by playstyle. Observed icon categories include:
- Weapon skills — sword, spear, bow, axe, and scroll talents.
- Elemental / magic — fire, lightning, frost, and holy talents.
- Utility — potion-related and other support talents.
Because each branch is themed, you'll get the most out of committing to one or two branches that match your weapon rather than spreading points thin across all of them. A spear user pushing the spear branch feels the difference far sooner than someone with one point in eight different lines.
Note Specific node names and exact bonus values are still being catalogued in Early Access and shift between patches. We're documenting confirmed talents as we capture them — the system below (how points work, how the tree is shaped, how to reset) is stable; treat individual node specifics on other sites as version-dependent.
What to spend points on first
Without locking to specific node names that may change, the durable strategy is:
- Pick your weapon line and commit. Put early points into the branch matching the weapon you actually use. Concentrated points beat scattered ones.
- Grab survivability before depth. Anything that boosts health, armor, energy regeneration, or healing keeps you alive through the difficulty spikes (the Cyclops wall especially).
- Round out with utility once your main line is online — potion and support Favours that complement how you play.
- Don't agonise. You can reset (see below), so treat early points as experiments, not permanent commitments.
How to reset your skill tree
Spent points in the wrong branch? You can refund all your Favour Points and re-spend them:
Drink a Canteen of Youth to reset your Favours and reclaim every spent Favour Point. It's sold by a level 2 merchant — so once you've upgraded a merchant, respeccing is cheap enough to experiment freely. There's no reason to fear "wasting" early points.
This is what makes the early game forgiving: try a build, see how it feels through your first few fights, and rebuild later once you know which weapon and playstyle you've settled into.
Why it carries across worlds (meta-progression)
This is the part almost nobody explains, and it changes how you should think about the whole game. Your skill tree is tied to your character, not your world.
- When you start a new world, your character keeps all Favours, all skill XP, all Favour Points, equipped gear, and carried inventory.
- What resets with a new world is the world itself: your settlement, citizens, and building progress start over.
In other words, the 60+ talent tree is a meta-progression layer — permanent character power that persists across every world you ever make. Practical implications:
- Starting over is never a total loss. Rerolling a world to try a better map or fix early mistakes keeps your character's strength intact.
- A developed character can steamroll a new world's early game, since your skills, talents, and carried gear come with you.
- It pairs naturally with co-op: each player's character carries their own meta-progression between sessions and worlds.
Common questions
How do I open the skill tree?
It's the Favours screen in your character menus. You'll see your available Favour Point count there and can spend it on any unlocked node.
How are Favour Points earned again?
By leveling skills through use. Every time a skill levels up you earn Favour XP toward a point, and higher skill levels give more XP. Mining, Woodcutting, and Construction are the fastest early sources because you do them constantly.
Can I reset my Favour Points?
Yes — drink a Canteen of Youth (sold by a level 2 merchant) to refund every spent point and re-spend from scratch.
Do my talents disappear if I start a new world?
No. Favours, skill XP, Favour Points, gear, and carried inventory all follow your character into new worlds. Only the world (settlement, citizens, buildings) resets.
Does my starting class limit which Favours I can take?
No. Class only sets your +5 starting skill and opening item. Every character can level every skill and unlock any Favour — see the class tier list for how starts differ.