Skills (including stats) are what determines what your character is capable of doing alone.

If you type score (or sc as a shortcut) you'll bring up your character's score sheet which includes your stats and skills, among other things. Typically skills with very low totals do not show up in your score sheet.

ss will show the first half of this alone: just your stats, current implants and mutations, and total and spendable XP and IP.

sk will show the second half alone: just your skills. If you are interested in one particular skill only, you can also type sk <skill> or sc <skill> to check your total in that particular skill.

For example: sk fuck would be presented as thus:

Skill      Raw    +   +   Total  Depends  Improve
fuck        6.50  +2  +6   [13]  End,Sen   1120xp  A pretty good fuck.

• The first number (6.50) is your raw skill level; this reflects how much of the skill your character has learned, either through jobs or learning.
  • Skill raws start at 0.00 and generally max out at 15.00 via learning.
• The next two categories (+2 and +6) are modifiers; the +2 column shows temporary bonuses or penalties from buffs or debuffs, while the +6 column shows permanent bonuses or penalties from mutations.
• The number in square brackets is your total skill, which is the practical skill level used for determining stuff in-game, calculated using your stats, skill raw, and modifiers.
• The Depends column shows the stats which govern the skill.
• The Improve column shows how much XP it will cost to learn the next raw level of the skill from a teacher.
• The final column is flavor text. If your skill is very high, this will tell you your place in the world rankings with that skill, from fifth best in the world to world champ.

There is a pref to control your skills readout: @prefs shortskills is 1 will prevent sc or sk from showing very low skill totals, which helps keep your screen from being clogged with very low skills.

All skills are based on stats to the six base stats to some extent: Brains, Brawn, Reflexes, Endurance, Senses and Cool, so higher stats goes hand-in-hand with higher skills based on those stats. Swim, for instance, is based on Endurance, so any character with great End will also have good Swim.

Skills can also be influenced by buffs, debuffs, Mutations, and other modifiers. Some skills lean more heavily on stats, while others can be propped up by modifiers. For example, the focus skill has many buffing options through drugs and mutations, so it's reasonable for a character with relatively unimpressive endurance and senses to reach 30 focus, even though those are the two stats that focus is based on.

There's no way to directly check your skill modifiers, however, you can check your stat modifiers with the @buffs command.

All skills are based your skill raw plus the average of whichever stats the skill depends on, so higher stats goes hand-in-hand with higher skills based on those stats. Blades, for instance, is based on Reflexes and Cool, so a character with 4 raw blades, modified by 10 Cool and 12 Reflexes (averages to +11) will have 15 total blades.

Skills can also be directly influenced by buffs, debuffs, Mutations, and other modifiers. Some skills lean more heavily on stats, while others can be propped up by modifiers. For example, the focus skill has many buffing options through drugs and mutations, so it's reasonable for a character with relatively unimpressive endurance and senses to reach 30 focus, even though those are the two stats that focus is based on.

Skills at 0 raw will have a hidden penalty and will cost more xp to learn than the next couple of raws. Try to learn at least 1 raw in skills you'll be using frequently.

All skills must be learned from a professional NPC (for a price) or a skilled player who is willing to teach. Skill IPs gained from doing jobs can only take a character so far; to advance into real mastery of a skill, spending XP on learning skill raw is a mandatory investment. XP can't be spent on anything except for skill raw, so there's no point in hoarding it unless you're saving for a very expensive skill.

To simplify raising skills there is a Teach Finder machine located in every bar (Any Port in Freedom City is one). Simply say find <skill> near a Teach Finder and it will list every NPC teacher for that skill and their location.

Much of the actions you can take in MKUV depend on dice rolls, which are as random as possible. Having high skills stacks the odds of those rolls in your favor, often quite heavily.

Some skills govern how well you can wield a specific weapon, like fists and rifles. Higher skill levels in these skills increases your character's accuracy with those weapons, and often adds damage potential as well. These skills are used automatically whenever your character attacks something while wielding the associated weapon.

• The fists skill, for example, will increase your accuracy and damage while attacking with your bare hands.

Some other skills are passive, and don't usually require a special command to use, like dodge and sneak. These skills run in the background and govern how well you can do whatever that skill is supposed to enable.

• The dodge skill, for example, will passively decrease your odds of getting hit in a fight.

Finally, some skills require a command be typed in order to be used, such as repair and fuck. Higher skill will grant you a higher rate of success in the action you are attempting to perform with the skill.

• The repair skill, for example, will increase your odds of success when attempting to fix something that's damaged.