Tainted Grail character build guide: Best skills and starting bonuses

If you saw Tainted Grail – a game that bases a lot of its mechanics on the Elder Scrolls series – and immediately wondered if you can be a stealth archer, then we have good news for you. Tainted Grail’s levelling and skill system allows for a great variety of builds right from the word go, when you get to choose your starting skill bonuses.

We’ll explain some of the best builds you can find in the game, what starting bonuses you should pick, and what skills you should focus on once you’re out in the world. If you're just starting your adventure, check out our guide on whether or not to tell Caradoc about Arthur's soul.

Best Warrior build in Tainted Grail

Starting bonuses

Saying you were “On your way to enlist in the army” during the opening will give you solid bonuses to all the skills a Warrior needs: One Handed, Two Handed, Blocking, Heavy Armor, and Athletics.

You then get a second choice between what rule you were after in the army. Here a Warrior build has two solid options, Infantry or Battlemages. The Infantry choice gives you a big bonus to One Handed, and a small one to Blocking and Heavy Armor, while Battlemages trade the Block bonus for one in Magic instead, as well as a Burning Ember spell to start out with, making it good if you want to be a Spellsword.

Unfortunately for Barbarians, there is no starting option that further enhances your Two-Handed, so if you want to go down that route you’ll need to dedicate a bit more time and effort.

Best Warrior skills

As a Warrior, Strength and Endurance are the stats you should focus on the most as they increase your damage and HP, plus, the majority of heavy armor and weaponry in the game will have those two stats as requirements.

As for skills, getting your hands on the unique bonuses for your weapon type is a must. If you’re going for one-handed weapons, then focus on the Consecutive Hit abilities, as it’ll reduce the stamina cost, damage, and critical chance of all your strikes. If you prefer two-handed, then go for the Stun-based skills, as slow attacks are much easier to hit if your opponent can’t move.

The Stamina tree in the Endurance tab should also be a big focus for Warriors, as every swing of your weapon costs stamina, so increasing your max capacity and the rate at which it regenerates is essential to staying in the fight. Don’t ignore the Dexterity tree either, though, as things like attack speed and parry windows can be extremely useful if you build them up.

Best Mage build in Tainted Grail

Starting bonuses

Rather than the Elder Scrolls’ many different schools of magic, Tainted Grail simplifies things by just splitting things between combat spells and summoning spells, and it’s a good idea to have both on hand as a sorcerer. Spending some mana at the start of combat to summon a minion will help keep attention away from you while you get some distance and unleash elemental attacks.

Your first choice of starting bonus only has one magic option, so go with that, as you’ll also get a boost to One Handed and Light Armor into the bargain which can be very useful in the early game, as you’re likely not going to have the mana or powerful spells to sustain a magic-only build. As for the second choice, go for the offensive option every time. The healing option gives you a boost to Alchemy and Cooking, which is nice, but you can easily buff those skills quickly when you get out into the world, so the extra boost to your combat magic is much more immediately useful.

Best Mage skills

Spirituality is going to be your main attribute to focus on as a mage, as it increases your magic damage and mana capacity, however, spells will often use both Dexterity and Practicality as stat requirements, so don’t neglect them.

The good news is that as a mage, you don’t need to worry about Stamina at all, as magic attacks don’t consume it, so you can put much more of your focus into increasing your mana and spell damage. As for the skill trees, you should be splitting your attention between combat and summoning magic, as they will be your bread-and-butter for your entire playthrough.

If you want to go down the Spellsword route, then a proficiency in one handed weapons is a good option, though that will force you to spread your attributes a bit more thin.

Best Stealth Archer build in Tainted Grail

There are a few different thief options in this game, but let’s be real, Stealth Archer is where the real fun’s at.

Starting bonuses

For your first starting bonus, say that “I was avoiding the city guards, trying to sell some…goods,” as that will start you out with all the skills you’ll want to focus on: One Handed, Archery, Light Armor, Agility, and Sneak.

For your second choice, go for the archery option as the bonus to your Archery and Evasion skills is invaluable. The other option does give you a solid buff to Stealth, but ultimately, maximizing your damage with a bow early on will be more valuable.

Best Stealth Archer skills

Dexterity and Practicality are your best friends attribute-wise. Dexterity increases your attack speed and ranged damage while decreasing your noise and visibility, while Practicality increases your critical chance and sneak damage. Plus, most bows and daggers will have these two attributes as stat requirements.

You’ll find the bow skill tree in the Dexterity tab and you should dedicate a lot of your skill points to it. In particular, we recommend taking skills that decrease the stamina cost of drawing a bow and increase your damage based on how far you are from your target. As using your bow costs quite a bit of stamina, we also recommend focusing on that tree.

If you want a melee option on hand then go with daggers, as they actually have a dedicated skill tree in Tainted Grail. With just a few skill points, you can get a near-guaranteed critical hit when backstabbing enemies, which stacks on top of your stealth damage bonuses. Naturally, if you want to be getting close with daggers, then your Stealth tree will also be crucial.