Choose a weapon skill to practice
Use the corresponding weapon in combat to develop One-Handed, Two-Handed, Polearm, Bow, Crossbow, or Throwing.
One-Handed Two-Handed Bow Crossbow Throwing All 167 games
© · Game artwork 01 02 03 Combat skill Combat skill Ranged combat skill Ranged combat skill Ranged combat skill Crafting skill Party and travel skill Economy skill Party management skill Party support skill Troop progression Troop progression Troop progression Troop progression Troop progression Troop progression
RPG · EQUIPMENT & PROGRESSION
Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord
Skills level through use, and focus points speed their progression. The supplied excerpts describe practice for several skills and broad outcomes for selected recruit paths. Use these descriptions as a limited guide to practice and initial troop choices; they do not provide complete skill or troop trees.
16 guidesTaleWorlds EntertainmentPC edition · Oct 25, 2022
MAKE A USEFUL NEXT MOVE
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Build toward crafting weapons
Smithing develops by creating weapons, refining materials, and smelting old weapons at a smithy.
SmithingSelect an initial recruit path
The guide gives broad outcomes for six recruit options; compare their stated roles before choosing.
Vlandian Recruit Sturgian Recruit Khuzait Nomad Imperial Recruit Battanian Volunteer Aserai RecruitKNOW YOUR OPTIONS
Equipment & progression guides
Choose a topic to see how it works, where it helps and what to consider.
One-Handed
One-Handed covers fighting with one-handed weapons, with or without a shield. It suits a character who expects to use a short weapon in close combat.
Understand this choiceTwo-Handed
Two-Handed represents mastery of two-handed weapons of average length, including larger axes and swords. It is the skill described for fighting with a two-handed short weapon.
Understand this choiceBow
Bow represents familiarity and physical conditioning for effective bow use. The supplied skill page specifically connects development to shooting enemies with a bow and arrows.
Understand this choiceCrossbow
Crossbow covers operating and maintaining crossbows. The supplied description distinguishes it from Bow and says the skill develops by shooting enemies with a crossbow.
Understand this choiceThrowing
Throwing is the skill for using thrown projectiles with accuracy and power. The skill page says to develop it by striking enemies with thrown weapons.
Understand this choiceSmithing
Smithing covers forging and assembling weapons and armor. Its description includes matching a handle to a blade, turning poles, and sewing scales, placing it among the supplied evidence's character crafting skills.
Understand this choiceScouting
Scouting concerns detecting tracks, movement, and distant enemies in the wilderness. The guide also assigns a Scout companion to finding tracks, spotting enemy parties and hideouts from farther away, and slightly increasing party speed.
Understand this choiceTrade
Trade covers familiarity with common goods and market prices, including recognizing defective goods or short quantities. The supplied guide also describes assigning a companion with high Trade to operate a caravan for more profit per day.
Understand this choiceSteward
Steward concerns settlement prosperity and estate or town administration. The party guide describes a Quartermaster with high Steward skill as contributing to maximum party size, with that bonus stacking with clan-level bonuses.
Understand this choiceMedicine
Medicine is the healing skill, and the party guide says assigning a companion as Surgeon lets their Medicine skill improve healing after battles. It describes effects during travel and waiting in cities, with city waiting providing faster recovery.
Understand this choiceVlandian Recruit
The guide describes the Vlandian Recruit's tier-five Sharpshooter path as a ranged and melee hybrid. It says the Sharpshooter has superior crossbow range plus good one-handed weapon and shield capability.
Understand this choiceSturgian Recruit
The guide says a Sturgian Recruit can progress to a Sturgian Spearman at tier four, describing that unit as useful for anti-cavalry spear-wall tactics.
Understand this choiceKhuzait Nomad
The guide characterizes the Khuzait Nomad path as progressing mostly into horse archers. It offers this as a broad initial troop-selection description rather than a complete unit tree.
Understand this choiceImperial Recruit
The guide describes Imperial recruits as progressing into good armored melee units. It does not name particular resulting units or lay out the branches of the Imperial tree.
Understand this choiceBattanian Volunteer
The guide says Battanians can progress into varied melee and cavalry units and describes them as having many throwing weapons. It also states that this recruit path has no archers.
Understand this choiceAserai Recruit
The guide describes the Aserai Recruit path as leading to good Mameluke cavalry units. Its example identifies a Desert Horse as required for upgrading an Aserai Mameluke Soldier into an Aserai Mameluke regular cavalry unit.
Understand this choiceCommon mistakes to avoid
Troop upgrades can add costs and horse requirements
The guide says upgrades usually cost gold and increase daily wages. Upgrading regular soldiers into cavalry requires an extra horse; its example requires a Desert Horse for an Aserai Mameluke cavalry upgrade.
Higher tier recruitment depends on progression and relations
The guide says early recruitment is limited to Rank One peasants and that higher tiers become recruitable as character and clan progress. It also says recruiting involves positive relations with influential local people.
References & guide scope
Character skill progression and selected troop progression in Mount & Blade II: Bannerlord. The excerpts list perk names but do not describe individual perk effects.
- The skills excerpts describe how skills are learned but do not explain the effects or requirements of individual named perks.
- Troop descriptions are broad and selective, not complete upgrade trees. The troop guide dates to 2020 and does not establish that its details match every later game update.
- Weapon crafting recipes, material costs, skill thresholds, and detailed equipment statistics are not provided.
Skills | Mount and Blade 2 Bannerlord Making Money in Mount And Blade 2 Bannerlord: Getting Started Guide Part 2
Explanations prepared with GPT-6 Luna and checked against the linked references. These are source-reviewed guides. They do not establish independently tested optimal builds or exact upgrade budgets. How coverage works.