Jedi Fallen Order Abilities and Skill Tree Guide and Tips

Beginners guide to all Abilities and Skill Tree upgrades in Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order. Includes tips to maximize your skill points usage!

I have done a complete overview of every single ability and skill tree upgrade. At the end you will find a section with useful tips for new players – things like which skills and upgrades to unlock first, which ones are the most valuable and useful over all and how to plan your progression for maximum efficiency!

Note: This article contains minor spoilers related to the abilities and locations on the game. No major storyline plots are revealed, of course.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order is the first single player story-driven action adventure game in the Star Wars universe since… a long time. It reveals before you, the player, a brand new canon storyline.

Cal, the main character, is a Jedi padawan when Order 66 destroys almost all Jedi. He has to constantly look behind his back for incoming danger. Through the game he learns a lot of new skills and master the ones he has gained during his training. It is up to you to help him learn as fast and as efficient as possible the skills that he (and you) will be using the most during the playthrough.

As you get past the initial tutorial-like mission, you are thrown into the story. The game does not do the best job to help you learn how all the gameplay elements function, what all the keys and key combinations do.

With a little help from this guide and some practice, you will become a great Jedi Knight and master your skills with the lightsaber. That’s right – Jedi Fallen Order offers almost exclusively a melee lightsaber-centric third person combat experience. The type you will either love from the first moment or struggle to enjoy until the very end. I fell into the first category and hope you will too.

The game splits Cal’s skills into Abilities and Skill Tree. This guide details each one of them below!

ABILITIES

Below is a screenshot of what the Abilities menu looks like. Note, this is after the end of the game, so my Cal has unlocked everything. Yours will not look so full.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order - Skill Tree

Each ability is granted to you or your droid companion automatically at a specific moment of the story.

Cal’s Basic Abilities

On the left side you will see Cal’s basic abilities.

Here is a list of each one and what it does:

Lightsaber – Cal’s Lightsaber is his main weapon. He will be able to use it as a melee weapon for the most part, but later on, he will also learn to throw it and even use a double-bladed one.
Slow – the initial ability allows you to target and slow one enemy. Later on, by pressing the same button and holding it pressed, you will be able to achieve a much greater effect. This becomes possible if you unlock the next tier(s) of that ability using Skill Points. More on Skill Points later.
Wall Run – typical for Respawn’s style, wall-running is included in Jedi Fallen Order too. You will not be able to reach certain areas until you learn that ability.
Underwater Breather – you will get this ability a bit later in the story. There will be hidden items and locations you will want to go back to already visited planets to explore further and unlock even more secret cool rewards.
Double-Bladed Lightsaber – Switching between a single-bladed and double-bladed saber will become available in the later part of the story. The double-bladed saber is great for AoE situations and crowd control.
Push – one of the fundamental force abilities that Cal will need not only for solving puzzles, but for navigating through the terrains and, of curse, for defeating enemies.
Pull – the final of Cal’s force abilities. It will allow you to pull enemies towards you, but more importantly – it will allow you to visit areas on the planets you have previously not been able to reach. Experiment with Push, pull and slow. The combos between these three are fantastic. Including a lightsaber into the mix makes things even more fun and cool-looking.
Jedi Flip – A fancy name for a simple double-jump. Also very useful for reaching new places when you go out to explore.
Climbing Claws – this one allows you to climb walls that are covered with slime or other slippery materials and will also unlock pathways and locations previously unreachable to you.
Split Saber – a very powerful lightsaber attack. Cal splits his double-bladed saber and strikes the target infront of him with great strength using both his hands holding a lightsaber in each one.

BD-1 Abilities

The droid you meed very early on will be absolutely invaluable to you throughout the whole journey. BD-1 will learn to unlock crates and doors for you and even help you in combat.

Here is what the little guy can do, except for looking cute and cool 100% of the time:

Holomap – you will only be able to open up the area map while BD-1 is with you and while you are not sliding through narrow spaces. If you press the key and the map does not open, it’s not a bug, but a gameplay decision from the devs.
Stim Canisters – BD-1 is your only life-saver when you are low on health. Through an upgrade with Skill Points, you will be able to replenish not only your HP with a stim, but your force too. Again, more on that in the next segment. Cal can discover special crates that will give you an extra Stim, thus expanding the number of stims BD-1 can hold for you. Every time you rest, you get out with full HP, force meter and stims.
Overcharge – There will be a lot of crates and other things you would want to go back to to open up and pick up the goodies inside after you learn that skill.
Slice Probe Droid – BD-1 will learn to slice into Probe Droids’ threat detection protocol and disable it.
Slice: Security Droid – those lovely K-2SO-look-alike KX model Ssecurity droids can be forced to attack your enemies instead of you once you take enough of their “HP” and allow BD-1 to go hack them.
Powered Zipline – you learn this one relatively early on and it allows BD-1 to travel up ziplines, not only downhil.
Scomp Link – An ability that you get quite late in the game. You will definately want to return to the many crates you have passed by unable to open before. Now you can get the rewards hidden inside!

SKILL POINTS AND SKILL TREE

A sub-element or an expansion of Cal’s basic abilities is the Skill Tree. You can access it from the Abilities menu. Click the button at the bottom center of the screen to open up something that would definitely not look like the image below (because certain abilities are revealed and become available for learing after you pass a specific moment in the story).

Everything is related to the story, I told you in the beginning of this article, didn’t I! Cal earns skill points each time the experience bar fills up. Skill points can be saved for later or spent as soon as you earn them. Some higher tier abilities would cost two or three skill points to unlock.

You do not see all Skills and Skill Upgrades at first. This guide will be of great use to you as you can now plan ahead what and where to spend points first. I have a full list of all skils right next and below that I have a section with tips on which to purchase quickly and which are not so vital for your… success in the game.

The Skill Tree is split into three categories: Force, Lightsaber and Survival. You can pick skills and upgrades from any tree at any time. Certain skill upgrades require you to have unlocked the previous one on the line.

Reminder: Certain skills will only appear on the screen after you reach a specific moment in the story.

Force Tree

The Force tree has eleven skills available for you to learn. They are all related to your force meter and force abilities. Here is the full list:

Force Attunement – 1 Skill Point – Cal’s Maximum Force is increased
Mass Push – 1 Skill Point – Holding Push allows Cal to push groups of enemies and stagger large ones.
Howling Push – 2 Skill Points – A powerful Push allowing Cal to send groups of enemies flying and known down large ones.
Enhanced Force Recovery – 1 Skill Point – Cal regains more Force when he defeats an enemy, and regainst some Force when he hits a blocking enemy
Empowered Slow – 1 Skill Point – Holding Slow allows Cal to slow his target for a longer duration.
Burst Slow – 1 Skill Point – Holding Slow allows Cal to slow all targets around him. Increases slowed duration on target enemies.
Grasping Pull – 1 Skill Point – Holding Pull allows Cal to pull and hold most enemies. Large ones can be yanked towards Cal.
Howling Pull – 2 Skill Points – A powerfull Pull that yanks groups of enemies towards Cal.
Greater Force Attunement – 1 Skill Point – Cal’s maximum Force is increased.
The Power of Friendship – 3 Skill Points – BD-1’s stim canisters completely refill your Force Meter.
Ultimate Force Attunment – 2 Skill Points – Cal’s maximum Force is increased.

Lightsaber Tree

The Lightsaber tree has fourteen skils available for you to learn. They are all related to your melee weapon and what/how you fight with it. It’s my personal favorite tree. Here is the full list:

Overhead Slash – 1 Skill Point – Unlocks a powerful strike that is deadly against weaker enemies. Very useful against slowed or incapacitated targets
Dash Strike – 1 Skill Point – Cal dashes forward and attacks his target. Jump while dashing to flip over the target. Great ability to close the distance to your target and surprise them, if possible.
Improved Dash – 1 Skill Point – Increase the distance that Cal can travel when using Dash Strike.
Leaping Slash – 2 Skill Points – Cal can perform another powerful attack after an Overhead Slash. Press the same button again after the first one lands. Note, you need twice the force as each attack of this combo requires 1 chunk of force
Whirlwind Throw – 2 Skill Points – Thows the double bladed lightsaber in an area around Cal. This ability unlocks only after you reach the moment of the story where Cal gets the double-bladed lightsaber. The same attack combo is available for the one-handed saber, but with a different effect, described above.
Repulse – 1 Skill Points – An airborne attack that allows Cal to push away nearby enemies when he lands. Quite powerful against swarms of enemies. Good example are the undead Nightsisters on Dathomir.
Evasive Kick – 1 Skill Point – Attacking after a quick evade allows Cal to quickly perform a kick attack.
Sprint Strike – 1 Skill Point – – Attacking out of a sprint allows Cal to perform a special lightsaber attack. It deals good amount of damage too.
Ligthtsaber Throw – 3 Skill Points – Cal throws his lightsaber forward before pulling it back to him, hitting any enemies along the way. Not as useful as I want it to be. Quite expensive too.
Delay Thrust – 1 Skill Point – Waiting longer to press attack after Cal swings his lightsaber allows him to perform a special attack with increased range. Quite a situational, but very impressive visually combo. The second attack also hits quite hard.
Power Throw – 2 Skill Points – Increases the range of Cal’s Lightsaber Throw. A straight-forward upgrade to the Saber Throw skill located right before it on the same white line.
Lightsaber Mastery – 3 Skill Points – Increase all lightsaber damage. Noticeable improvement and upgrade to your melee attacks’ damage.
Delay Combo – 1 Skill Point – Waiting longer to press attack after Cal swings his double-bladed lightsaber allows him to perform a continuous string of high-damage attacks.
Switch Attack – 1 Skill Point – Cal performs a special attack while switching his lightsaber type. Very cool visually and very effective if you can actually perform the full animation before your target moves away, jumps on you or evades/blocks it.

Survival Tree

The most passives-filled tree is the Survival one. It contains the least number of skill upgrades – only eight. There are some invaluable perks in this tree, though. Do not underestimate it, especially if you plan on the higher difficulties.

Survival Skills – 1 Skill Point – Cam’s maximum Life is increased.
Superior Blocking – 1 Skill Point – Cal’s defenses are improved, allowing him to take less block stamina damage from incoming attacks.
Improved Stims – 1 Skill Point – Cal recovers additional Life when using a stim. The more you expand your HP bar (through skill upgrades or gameplay rewards), the more you will find this perk to be useful as your stims will become useless otherwise.
Precision Evade – 2 Skill Points – When performing a Precision Evade, Cal briefly slows enemies and recovers a small amount of Force. You have to click the evade button at the very very exact moment to proc this.
Enhanced Survival Skills – 1 Skill Point – Cal’s maximum Life is increased (again).
Expert Survival Skills – 2 Skill Points – Cal’s maximum Life is increased (one final time, through the skill tree at least).
Agile Deflection – 1 Skill Point – Cal automatically deflects blaster bolts while he is sprinting or wall-running.
Personalized Stims – 2 Skill Points – Cal recovers additional Life when using a stim canister.

Tips: Which skills and upgrades to pick first and why

The most important question most of you are about to ask, I guess, is which skills to pick first and which ones are the most important and vital to have as soon as possible. The tips I have below might help you decide for yourself, because your gameplay style might be different than mine.

My number one tip is to not overspend skill points focusing on only one tree or even worse – on only one perk and improve it to the max as soon as possible. Spread your points. You cannot reset them, so plan carefully what you want to unlock next.

Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order - Meditation — Rest often and do not be afraid of re-spawning enemies.

There are no gamebreaking mistakes you can make in Jedi Fallen Order when it comes to unlocking skills. You can always defeat the next encounter (or boss) with whatever you have available as unlocked upgrades and perks from the Skill Tree. It’s just that on higher difficulties it does matter how well prepared you are facing the challenges ahead.

Spend your initial points on unlocking as many different active abilities from the Lightsaber and Force Trees. The active skills you gain access to will help you diversify your gameplay and give you more options when you face different types of enemies. In the second half of the game you will start meeting mixed groups of enemies and being able to perform more and different actions in combat is more beneficial than, say, having one ability or passive maxed out in the tree.

Great skills to have as early on as possible include Dash Strike, Sprint Strike and Repulse. The last one can be of great use when you are surrounded by the undead Nightsisters on Dathomir or a bunch of Troopers on… well.. various places and planets.

From the Force tree I recommend you pick up as soon as you can the Enhanced Force Recovery and Mass Push. Of course, The Power of Friendship is incredibly good at higher difficulty, but it costs 3 Skill Points and thus cannot exactly be classified as “get as soon as possible”. However, I strongly suggest you prioritize it if you play on higher than Jedi Knight difficulty.

Increasing your Force will do nothing for you if you don’t have a full set of skills to spend it on. Similarly with the HP expanders. If you get good avoiding damage, which the game is all about, you will not need the expanded HP bar or the better effect of the stims.

The Superior Blocking from the Survival Tree is my first recommendation for you to pick up when you can. The Agile Deflection can be of great use if you want to run past certain groups to reach the ranged enemies, usually sitting way in the back or up on the high grounds in the area. You definitely want to focus them first.

If you find yourself taking a lot of damage, it may be wise to ignore my advise and go for the max Life upgrades as well as the Stim upgrades sooner. There are plenty of places for you to rest and refill on stims. The re-spawning enemies, as I said, are rarely of a big concern. Often you will be traveling forward following one path and returning back after a completed mission through a different path.

They die quicker and easier, but are a lot more annoying for you, because you have to constantly rotate the camera to see when, where and what they throw at you.

Unless you explore every corner of every place and planet you visit, you will likely not end up with all skill upgrades unlocked. This is perfectly normal and it’s really no trouble at all. After you complete the story, Respawn allows you to go back to the save right before the final mission and continue to explore.

Discovering everything and completing 100% for each planet is very satisfying, but you can save yourself some distractions if you want to purely focus on the story. Every secret you skip, will still be there for you to return to it after you defeat the final boss and see the end-credits.

If you plan on high difficulty, however, the extra skill points you will earn from exploring and discovering the secrets will significatly lower the amount of wipes you are about to experience on the tougher boss encounters.

Jedi Fallen Order is all about player maneuvers and movement. The higher difficulties make the timers for you to evade or block much more narrow. This is the beauty of the game. You are wielding a Lightsaber and this shows from every swing you make. Troopers and lesser enemies will always die after one of a couple of hits. They will not become “bullet sponges”. Or, if you prefer it in more appropriate terms for this game – the enemies will not become “nearly lightsaber immune” on high difficulties. They will just hit you much harder, evade more and not leave you huge number of opportunities for you to strike them freely and easily.