, lets you live out your dreams as a noble in the medieval era, sacking enemy factions and stealing plunder, all while dealing with political intrigue and the occasional plague.
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Life in a medieval simulator is expectedly hard, and much like today, you need skills to survive or thrive. Thankfully Mount & Blade 2 lets you start out as an adult with all the skills you need ready at your disposal. We're here to suggest which ones to take and develop if you want to become a brutally effective warlord, because peace was never an option.
Updated on February 14, 2023 by Christopher Argentino: With the latest game update, we couldn't leave out some of the best perks to take advantage of at the beginning of your playthrough. Even though we had most of our bases covered, we want to make sure you started investing your time in some of the best long-term perks to keep your future kingdom solid and successful. You can only go on to become the Bannerlord if you have enough money and soldiers now, can you? So make sure to invest some time in each of the perks in this list, and you'll be the best to ever hold the Dragon Banner in all of Calradia's history.
13 Medicine
As you might imagine from a skill called 'medicine', it's one that should be prioritized early in the game, due to its effectiveness at dealing with your wounded clan members. It's quite easy to get bogged down with injuries in this game, especially during the more punishing large skirmish battles.
The medicine skill offers up the role of surgeon or doctor, and allows you to deal with injuries such as bleeding, broken or displaced bones, and even preventing infections. It's important to have your battle party in the best shape possible, so it's encouraged to obtain the medicine skill early on.
12 Charm
Would you think that a skill called 'charm' would be considered useful in a medieval battle simulator? Unexpectedly, this skill is vital. Simply put, it's incredibly useful when it comes to negotiations and developing your clan.
Being able to charm people will allow them to trust you which in turn makes them more likely to follow your lead. You can obtain this skill by speaking with as many different citizens as possible. The more you learn to interact with others, the higher your proficiency will become, thus leading to the charm skill.
11 Riding
Back in the middle ages, dogs were knocking around, but the actual man's best friend were horses. These valiant steeds will accompany men blindly into the maw of death itself.
Having a horse is also the difference between being a lord and being collateral damage. This is one of the most essential skills ever in a game with 'mount' in its title. Because four legs are always better than two, and you practically double your HP with a horse.
10 Polearm
The choice of a two-handed weapon is not something to take lightly in Mount & Blade 2. Greatswords are simply awesome, but, after much practical math and pragmatics, we have to say that the Polearm is the best choice.
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It's a weapon class where all the options would have made your caveman ancestors proud, since they're practically long sticks with pointy ends – except shinier and stabbier. Pair this one with mounted combat, and you'll realize just how unfair cavalry was before guns were invented.
9 One-Handed
As for the second choice of melee weapon, we recommend the old-fashioned sword and board setup. You could go with the greatsword as the second melee weapon proficiency, but doing so is a recipe for disaster. In Mount & Blade 2, your HP is the same as everyone, king or beggar.
That's why having a shield is the best insurance plan a noble can have back in the day and one-handed weapons allow such safety. We don't recommend picking more than two melee weapon proficiencies unless you want to be a medieval commando.
8 Bow
Speaking of medieval insurance plans, why not go the extra mile and fire pointy death sticks at your enemies, instead of getting up close? You're the commander anyway, so self-preservation (or cowardice) is a must on the battlefield. The bow is a good way to avoid getting crushed in the scrum on the front lines.
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Even better, stay on a horse and shoot the enemies instead of dirtying your hands – that's what your poor and underfed foot soldiers are for. Do bear in mind that the enemies can also do the same, though.
7 Tactics
Let's be realistic, most of the time, you won't do much of the fighting in Mount & Blade 2. That responsibility falls to your army. That doesn't mean you can blame them if you lose while outnumbered, of course, as you'll be commanding them. One way to prevent this is by improving your tactics.
The tactics skill allows your troops some impressive bonuses, such as additional damage or inflicting morale loss on the enemy. All of these add up to help you have better chances of winning all kinds of battles, particularly the ones where you're outnumbered and are being bullied by the richer nobles.
6 Leadership
The Leadership Perk is one of those perks that you might take for granted early on in the game, but the only way to not rely solely on your allies to win later battles is by having this perk boosted.
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Already in the first steps of the perk tree, you'll find that you can passively increase your troops' experience points, and early on, that's a pretty safe way to get some of your recruits to at least Tier 2.
5 Athletics
Most of the time, this could be a situational skill, especially if you prefer to spend the majority of combat on horseback. However, there are still instances where being a fit individual on the battlefield is the difference between life and death.
Besides, your horse isn't immortal, and once you've obtained your own castle, it's only a matter of time before someone who wants to be like you will besiege it. Horses simply don't do well in siege battles, especially if you're defending. For that, you need to be more reliant on your own muscles instead of animals.
4 Engineering
The Engineering Perk is probably one of the most forgotten Perks in all of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord. It doesn't seem that exciting, but you know how you spend all that time besieging an enemy stronghold, only to leave because you took too long to finish that last Siege Tower, and the enemy's army is visible?
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Now, if you start investing some time early on in Engineering, you'll begin to cut time on the construction of siege weapons and town improvements. There's also 60 percent speed increase rate for city upgrades at the end of the perk tree.
3 Smithing
It's a medieval game, and if you miss your chance to forge your own weapon, then you bring shame to your craftsmen ancestors. Smithing not only gives you the chance to craft legendary items but also bonuses for weapon damage.
Moreover, some of its bonuses allow you to become stronger and more vigorous, making it a good skill to have if you also took Athletics and Riding. You might as well put that energy into making weapons in your downtime.
2 Steward
Once you start conquering settlements and establishing a country of your own, you'll want to make sure that these settlements or castles are doing their part like the tyrannical noble lord you are. You can improve your management and the output of each settlement with the Steward skill.
This allows your regions to contribute better to your war efforts. It involves perks such as increased villager tax, farm production boosts, and less food consumption, so you can focus better on imperialism and maintaining the feudal status quo like a proper medieval lord.
1 Trade
Trade falls under the Social skill in , and, at the beginning of your journey, it is one of the most critical skills to invest your points in. You will only have a decent army if you have the gold for it, and it won't be feasible if you can't pay the 30 soldiers in your party.
Make sure you're spending a lot of time bartering for a profit because this is the only way to increase points in the perk early on in the game. Then, later on, invest in caravans for gain and an increase in skill points.
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