A full XP and skill progression system for Road to Vostok

Earn XP as you play, level 13 passive skills, read Skill Books to train individual skills directly, and eventually Prestige to unlock permanent stat bonuses that carry across runs.

Earn XP by playing

• Searching containers - 1 XP per container (fractional values like 0.3 are supported if you want a slower grind)
• Killing enemies - 25 XP per kill
• Killing bosses - 100 XP per kill
• Trading with merchants - 10 XP per trade
• Completing tasks - 50 XP per task
• Reading Skill Books - 200 XP straight into a specific skill's pool (auto-levels when the pool covers the next cost)

All values are configurable via MCM.

13 Upgradeable Skills

Skill	Default bonus	Max level
Vitality	+5 Max HP per level	10
Endurance	−10% Stamina drain per level	10
Pack Mule	+2 kg Carry Weight per level	10
Hunger Resist	−8% Hunger drain per level	10
Thirst Resist	−8% Thirst drain per level	10
Iron Will	−8% Mental drain per level	10
Regeneration	+0.02 HP/sec passive regen per level	5
Cold Resistance	−8% Temperature loss per level	10
Stealth	−5% AI hearing detection per level (note: currently cosmetic while the mod runs without an AI.gd override)	10
Recoil Control	−5% Weapon recoil per level	10
Athleticism	+4% Movement speed per level	5
Scavenger	+5% bonus loot chance per level, better finds at higher ranks	5
Composure	−10% Camera shake from hits per level	5

Upgrade costs scale with current level (base cost × next level), so rushing any one skill gets expensive fast.

Skills tab appears inside your inventory alongside Crafting, Notes, and Map. XP updates in real time. Individual skills can be enabled or disabled via MCM - disabled skills hide from the UI and don't apply their bonuses.

Prestige (new in v2.2)

Once every skill you have enabled is fully maxed, a "Prestige" button appears at the bottom of the Skills panel. Clicking it lets you pick one stat - Vitality, Athleticism, Pack Mule, whatever - and in exchange for wiping all your XP and skill levels, that stat gets a permanent bonus that persists forever.

• Prestige bonuses are added on top of the skill tree - they're a permanent floor that your re-leveled skills stack on
• Vitality is uncapped - keep prestiging it as much as you want, you'll just get tankier
• All other stats cap at 10 prestige ranks to keep late-game balance sane
• Each skill tracks its own prestige count, shown as a ✦N badge on the skill row
• Prestige ranks survive death by default (hardcore "Reset on Death" toggle available in MCM)
• Starting a new game wipes prestige along with XP, as you'd expect
• Every prestige bonus is individually tunable in MCM

Skill Books (new in v2.5)

9 dedicated skill books that spawn as Rare civilian loot, show up in the Generalist trader's rotating supply, and train specific skills when read:

Book	Trains
Fitness Manual	Pack Mule
Athletic Training Guide	Athleticism
Meditations	Iron Will
Art of Moving Unseen	Stealth
Scavenger's Almanac	Scavenger
Field Medical Handbook	Vitality + Regeneration
Wilderness Survival Primer	Hunger Resist + Thirst Resist
Combat Marksmanship	Recoil Control + Composure
Arctic Field Guide	Cold Resistance + Endurance

• Right-click a book in inventory and hit Read - uses the same 4-second progress bar as any other consumable item.
• Solo books grant a configurable base XP (default 200) to their one skill. Dual books grant base × 60% total, split 50/50 across their two skills.
• The XP goes into a per-skill pool (separate from your spendable XP) and auto-levels the skill whenever the pool covers the next level's cost, using the same cost curve as a regular XP spend. Surplus at max level is discarded.
• Books ship with hand-authored cover textures on the vanilla book mesh and per-book inventory icons.
• Reading a book for a skill that's disabled in MCM redirects that XP to your general spendable pool instead of wasting the read - the total XP granted stays the same either way.
• Books dropped in the Cabin or Tent persist across shelter reloads.
• MCM sliders: Enable Skill Books, Skill Book Base XP, Dual-Skill Book Multiplier (%).

Compatibility

• Mod Configuration Menu (optional but recommended) - exposes every XP reward, skill bonus, prestige bonus, and cap as a configurable slider
• Patty's Profiles - each profile keeps its own separate XP, skill levels, prestige progression, and skill-book pool. Switching profiles or dying on one profile doesn't affect the others
• HellMAI - kill XP works correctly with HellMAI's custom AI via a pending-kill grace window
• Injuries System Rework (and other Character.gd override mods) - every overridden method (Health, Energy, Hydration, Mental, Stamina, Temperature, Clamp, Consume, Death) chains via super() so other mods' custom logic runs correctly when both are installed. At default MCM values our drain math is bit-identical to the pre-chain behaviour; with custom multipliers expect slight rounding differences.
• Aim Punch Modifier (and other Damage.gd override mods) - Composure scales camera hit-shake in a post-process _physics_process rather than via a script override, so any reduction that mod applies is preserved and Composure stacks on top
• Cash System, Run Summary, Quick Stack & Sort, Secure Container - all work alongside without conflict; Interface.gd override chains via super() on the methods we touch (Open, Drop, ContextPlace, UpdateStats, lifecycle), so another mod stacking on top of us keeps its logic
• Any mod that edits LT_Master.tres or vanilla book items - skill books are our own items (not repurposed vanilla books). We only append to the loot table, never remove or mutate existing entries

Save behavior

• XP and skill levels save automatically after every action
• Skill Book XP pools save per-profile in XPData.cfg alongside your regular XP
• Prestige ranks save to a separate file so they survive death wipes
• All state is per-profile when Patty's Profiles is installed
• Death resets XP + skills + skill-book pools by default (togglable in MCM); prestige is preserved unless you opt into the hardcore toggle
• New-game detection uses two independent signals (marker file + Character.tres.initialSpawn), so starting a new game reliably wipes old progression even if one signal is masked by save-load races

Report a bug

GitHub Issues

Credits

• The community bug reporters who DM'd me on the workshop and Discord - this mod is much more stable thanks to you
• DSGG1994 - Skill Books concept (v2.5): readable books that grant XP toward specific skills, with solo and dual-skill split
• Sr Rinite - RPG-flavored direction (v2.5): per-skill XP pools + auto-leveling, and the "perks / legendary stats" framing that nudged the mod beyond flat XP rewards