Skill board¶

The skill board holds the skill gems in the equipment window, tab Skills. Gems work through the cells they share a side with.

Put a gem from the bag on an open cell: pick it up and click the cell, or right-click it in the bag. Gems work through the cells they share a side with: a trigger starts the effects next to it, supports change their neighbours, auras work by themselves once switched on. Drag gems between cells to swap them; right-click a gem to take it back.

Cells¶

The board has 19 hexagonal cells in two rings around the centre; 4 are open from the start (filled above). Each Awakening Chisel opens one more locked cell.

A Awakening Chisel opens it: right-click the chisel in the bag, then left-click this cell. An open cell adds no capacity.

How gems connect¶

• Trigger: A gem that reacts to an event - a hit, a critical hit, a block, a parry, a kill - and starts every compatible effect next to it at once. Its effects make the attack or block that pays for them cost more stamina, whether the event happens or not.
• Effect: A gem that does something when a trigger next to it starts it: a bolt, a wave, a heal, a curse. With two triggers beside it, it takes one of them; the board window switches which.
• Curse: A debuff on an enemy: lower resistance, weaker blows, slower actions or more build-up taken. One player keeps one curse on each enemy; a repeated curse refreshes itself, a new one replaces the oldest.
• Support: A gem that changes the effects and auras next to it, with its drawback. It never changes triggers or other supports, and it reaches nothing beyond its neighbours.
• Aura: A gem that works by itself while switched on and reserves eitr. Supports next to it change it; the Circle of Gifts grants the aura forms of its supports, the Circle of Malice keeps its curses on enemies inside.

An effect takes one trigger beside it that can start it: the one chosen in the board window, or else the first in board order. A curse can take a Circle of Malice beside it instead. A trigger works only when it starts at least one effect; when it fires, it starts all of them. A support changes every effect or aura beside it whose tags it supports (listed on its page); the Circle of Gifts takes every support beside it. Auras need no trigger: they work while switched on.

Which trigger starts which effect¶

A trigger gives its effects what its event has: a living target, a shot, an incoming hit, a corpse. An effect that needs more than that stays unconnected.

✓: the trigger starts the effect; —: it cannot (hover for the game's reason). On Block also fires on parries.

States¶

A gem's tooltip on the board says what it is doing:

• Working: connected and working.
• Not connected: nothing beside it to work with.
• Incompatible: only triggers that cannot start it are beside it.
• Switched off: an aura that is switched off; left-click switches it on.
• Waiting for eitr: an aura that does not fit in what is left of maximum eitr.
• Over capacity: the board takes more capacity than it has: nothing on it works.

Capacity¶

Every gem on the board takes capacity, connected or not. A new character has 8; every 10 passive points earned add one, up to 20 at 120 points. Opening a cell adds none.

Gem	Capacity
Trigger	2
Effect	3
Curse	3
Support	1 per supported gem
Aura	3
Aura: Circle of Gifts, Circle of Malice	4

Over capacity: the board does not work until gems leave it or capacity grows. Placing a gem that would take more capacity than the board has is refused.

Stamina cost¶

Hit, critical hit and kill triggers raise the stamina cost of every attack, hit or miss; block and parry triggers raise the stamina cost of every block, once per block. It is paid whether the trigger fires or not.

The cost multiplier comes from the effect's supports: Long Seal makes it cost more, Thrifty Facet less; Long Seal's longer duration also adds half of itself on effects with the Duration tag. The attack's or block's stamina is multiplied by 1 + the sum of its triggers' costs.

Example: On Hit beside Eikthyr's Spark with two supports adds 6% + 2 × 3% = 12% to every attack's stamina.

	Name	Price
	On Hit	Each effect it starts: +6% attack stamina cost, paid on every attack, hit or miss
	On Critical Hit	Each effect it starts: +6% attack stamina cost, paid on every attack, hit or miss
	On Block	Each effect it starts: +8% block stamina cost, paid on every block
	On Parry	Each effect it starts: +8% block stamina cost, paid on every block
	On Killing a Burning Enemy	Each effect it starts: +4% attack stamina cost, paid on every attack, hit or miss
	On Killing a Bleeding Enemy	Each effect it starts: +4% attack stamina cost, paid on every attack, hit or miss

Eitr reserve¶

A switched-on aura keeps part of maximum eitr for itself while it works; each support of the aura reserves more. If maximum eitr falls, the last auras in board order wait until it fits again.

Maximum eitr is lowered by the reserve of every switched-on aura. Auras reserve in board order: one that no longer fits waits (Waiting for eitr) and the next one is still tried. A switched-off aura, or a board over capacity, reserves nothing. Switching on or placing a gem that would leave an aura waiting is refused. Reservation efficiency counts up to 75%.

The Circle of Gifts adds its own amount per support instead; the Circle of Malice also adds 10 per curse it keeps, and 3 more for each Heavy Word on a kept curse.

	Name	Price	Each one beside it
	Rune Veil	20	+5 per support
	Plague Breath	20	+5 per support
	Warm Hearth	20	+5 per support
	Steadfast Circle	20	+5 per support
	Circle of Gifts	15	+6 per support
	Storm Crown	25	+5 per support
	Answering Heat	20	+5 per support
	Rain Underfoot	12	+5 per support
	Circle of Malice	15	+5 per support +10 per curse kept

Curses¶

A debuff on an enemy: lower resistance, weaker blows, slower actions or more build-up taken. One player keeps one curse on each enemy; a repeated curse refreshes itself, a new one replaces the oldest.

One player keeps 1 curse on each enemy; Double Malice raises that (at most 8). Other players' curses do not count against yours.

A curse you already keep on the enemy refreshes: it lasts until the later end and keeps the stronger value. A new one past your limit replaces your oldest; a curse kept by the Circle of Malice is refused instead.

Passives that increase curse effect include Weight of Words.

Passives that increase curse duration include Weight of Words.

	Name	Effect
	Broken Seals	Curses the target: -(15–21)% fire, frost and lightning resistance for 6 s.
	Rotten Blood	Curses the target: -(20–28)% poison resistance for 6 s.
	Bared Soul	Curses the target: -(20–28)% spirit resistance for 6 s.
	Broken Will	Curses the target: it deals 20–28% less damage for 6 s. Bosses: 50% of the effect.
	Norns' Fetters	Curses the target: 20–28% less movement and attack speed for 6 s. Bosses: 50% of the effect.
	Bared Steel	Curses the target: 25–35% less armour against hits for 6 s.
	Trembling Bones	Curses the target: it takes 30–42% more stagger build-up for 6 s. Does not stagger by itself.
	Shattered Mail	Curses the target: it takes 30–42% more armour break build-up for 6 s.

Ranks and cutting¶

A gem has a rank from 1 to 5. Each rank above 1 adds 10% of its rank-1 value to the numbers that grow (damage shares, heals, curse values, support bonuses, an aura's whole effect). Chances, cooldowns, areas, counts, durations, costs, capacity and eitr reserve stay as they are.

An uncut gem's rank comes from the level of the creature or chest that drops it: 1 + ⌊level ÷ 15⌋, at most 5.

Right-click an uncut gem to open its cutting window: Uncut Trigger Gem cuts into any trigger, Uncut Effect Gem into any effect, curse or aura, Uncut Support Gem into any support. The gem gets the uncut gem's rank. The same uncut gem can instead raise one gem of its kind, in the bag or on the board, by one rank, up to its own rank.

Boss gems¶

These are cut only after their boss has been defeated in the world (or by the character):

Boss	Skill gems
Fader	On Killing a Burning Enemy, Flame of the Fallen
The Queen	On Killing a Bleeding Enemy, Blood Legacy, Rain Underfoot
Eikthyr	Eikthyr's Spark, Storm Crown
Moder	Night Brood
Yagluth	Flesh Rend, Answering Heat

Sigils¶

A character carrying one of these boss sigils, in the bag or set in an item, receives these items once for each sigil, gems at rank 3. A full bag keeps them waiting for room.

Sigil	Receives
Sigil of the First Storm	On Hit, Eikthyr's Spark, Storm Crown
Sigil of the Ashen Crown	Answering Heat
Sigil of the Misty Hive	Rain Underfoot
Sigil of the Last Flame	On Killing a Burning Enemy, Flame of the Fallen
Sigil of the Crimson Brood	On Killing a Bleeding Enemy, Blood Legacy
Sigil of the Oath Devourer	On Hit, Flesh Rend
Sigil of the Frost Wing	Awakening Chisel ×2, Uncut Effect Gem ×1 (rank 3)

Rules¶

• Gems leave the board only out of combat.
• One gem item goes on the board once; two gems of the same kind can both be there.
• Right-click a gem in the bag to put it into the first free open cell.

Data from Path of Valheiman 6.0.6, extracted 2026-11-09.