Grinding Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord can be a lot if you’re not sure how to level up all the different skills. If you’re having trouble leveling up one and can’t quite understand why it isn’t gaining experience, this guide will help explain it all. As well as giving you some tips and tricks on the best way to level some of them. My expertise is based on over 650 hours in Bannerlord.
How to Level Up Every Skill in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord
Some skills are clearer than others in what you need to do to level them up. For example, many of the combat skills simply revolve around using weapons associated with them. Such as using a Bow to level up the Bow skill. However, others can be more complicated with tricks to level them up faster, like Engineering or Leadership. But it’s important to know that you can hit a limit for how high you can level up a skill if you don’t have enough attributes or focus points in them.
You’ll get one focus point per level and one attribute point per four levels. Otherwise, our tips revolve around leveling without cheats, but if you prefer to use them, we have a guide on enabling cheats too. Continue reading below for explanations and tips for each skill, or click on them in the table to jump to the relevant section.
| All Bannerlord Skills | ||||
| One Handed | Two Handed | Polearm | ||
| Bow | Crossbow | Throwing | ||
| Riding | Athletics | Smithing | ||
| Scouting | Tactics | Roguery | ||
| Charm | Leadership | Trade | ||
| Steward | Medicine | Engineering | ||
| Mariner | Boatswain | Shipmaster | ||
One Handed
As previously mentioned, leveling combat skills in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord mostly revolves around using them. If you want to level your one-handed skill, use one-handed weapons. With that said, you can prioritize fighting weaker parties like Looters and competing in tournaments early on. Tournaments may be too difficult, but since you don’t have anything to lose, they’re a good opportunity to level up a variety of weapons. Also, it’s worth noting that damage to horses and objects doesn’t give experience.
Examples of One Handed weapons you can use are: Daggers, One Handed Swords, One Handed Axes, Maces
Two Handed
Similar to our section on leveling up One Handed weapons, using Two Handed Weapons will level this skill. The only exception is that Two Handed Polearms won’t give experience toward this skill. As previously mentioned, you can prioritize fighting weaker parties like Looters and competing in tournaments early on. Tournaments may be too difficult, but since you don’t have anything to lose, they’re a good opportunity to level up a variety of weapons. Also, it’s worth noting that damage to horses and objects doesn’t give experience.
Examples of Two Handed weapons you can use are: Two Handed Swords, Two Handed Axes, Two Handed Maces
Polearm
Similar to our other melee weapon sections, using Polearm weapons will level this skill. You can also take advantage of couchable polearms to deal high damage. Otherwise, you can prioritize fighting weaker parties like Looters and competing in tournaments early on. Tournaments may be too difficult, but since you don’t have anything to lose, they’re a good opportunity to level up a variety of weapons. Also, it’s worth mentioning that damage to horses and objects doesn’t give experience.
Examples of Polearm weapons you can use are: One Handed Polearms, Two Handed Polearms
Bow
Grinding your Bow skill still relies on using bows, but there are a couple of ways to do it more efficiently. If you’re able to land headshots on enemies and/or hit distant enemies, you’ll get more experience. One of my favorite times to grind ranged weapons is during siege defenses. While enemies are climbing ladders or storming the castle below you, you can reliably farm them. Depending on your Bow level, you may have a good chance to hit headshots frequently too.
Another decent opportunity for leveling up your Bow skill is in the War Sails expansion. I like to hang back while my troops board enemy ships. This gives me a chance to easily take out enemies without being in danger.
Crossbow
While the in-game description for Crossbows only says to hit enemies, I’m pretty sure that leveling it works similarly to Bows. If this is the case, focus on hitting headshots and distant enemies. As I recommended for Bows, one of the best times to level ranged weapons is during siege defenses. Aside from having easy targets, almost every fief has arrow barrels along the walls.
Throwing
Similar to Crossbows, the in-game description simply says to hit enemies and doesn’t provide more information. Aside from using throwing knives and javelins, you can also use a Sling to level your Throwing skill. This may be a preferred option for some of you looking to try something different. Even though throwing axes are popular too for breaking shields.
If you’re looking for tournaments that are more likely to use throwing weapons, you can check the Aserai area. Each fief’s culture tends to impact which weapons are more likely to appear in tournaments. Also, if you’re having trouble landing hits on enemies using shields, a good trick is to aim for their feet.
Examples of Throwing weapons you can use are: Throwing Axes, Throwing Knives, Javelins, Slings
Riding
The best way to level up your Riding skill is by fighting in battle while on a horse. While you do gain a little bit of experience riding on the map and in battle, you mostly get it from fighting. Fortunately, it doesn’t matter if you’re using a sword, a polearm, or ranged weapons; all of it contributes.
Athletics
Leveling your Athletics skill is the opposite of Riding in that you’ll need to fight on foot instead. You’ll gain a tiny bit of experience while wandering the overworld map on foot, but most of it comes from fighting. Unlike Riding, I didn’t notice any experience gain while wandering in battle without fighting. Fortunately, similar to Riding, you can use any weapon to level your Athletics in battle.
Smithing
The best way to level up smithing is by smelting valuable weapons since they give a lot of experience. Although if you’re early into a run, this may not be feasible. Otherwise, you can smelt all the loot you get from battles. This will help you gather resources for crafting weapons and completing orders in towns. Which is a good way to earn money both early on and in the late-game.
Once you reach level 50 Smithing, make sure to grab the Curious Smelter perk. This will make it easier to learn new weapon parts so you can craft more valuable weapons. Aside from all that, you do get a little bit of experience from other actions, like refining materials. But it’s not that much unless you’re very low level.
Scouting
One way to level up your Scouting early on is to travel through difficult terrain like forests and snow. This will help increase your level so you can start noticing tracks and gain experience that way too. Otherwise, you can get a good chunk of experience from finding hideouts.
Tactics
The main way to level up your Tactics skill in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord is by sacrificing troops to escape. The only negative to this is that you’ll lose some troops and items when doing it. For those who haven’t done this before, it’s an option to escape from a battle before it begins. As long as you have enough troops, you’ll see the choice, “Try to get away.” Your Tactics level will influence how many troops you lose when escaping.
Aside from this, you’ll get some experience when sending your troops to simulate battles for you. I haven’t gotten a good enough idea of how it works for battles you’re in, but your troops can generate Tactics experience too. As someone who simulates many battles, I wouldn’t worry too much about winning difficult ones. It tends to organically go up for me when picking easy fights as well.
Roguery
Roguery has many organic ways to level it up over time, but there are a few aggressive strategies that will anger lords and notables. For example, selling prisoners to Ransom Brokers is a safe way to gain experience slowly. Otherwise, you can raze villages and attack trade caravans to increase your Roguery as well. Here are more methods, including these to level Roguery:
- Quietly clearing a hideout will give you a lot of experience when killing enemies.
- Defending an alley that you own inside a town.
- Forcing a village to give you recruits or goods.
- The time spent razing a village gives experience regardless of whether you complete it or not.
- Attacking trade caravans.
- Fighting with bandit troops in your party.
- Owning a clearing/alley slowly gives experience to you and your companion watching it.
- Selling prisoners to Ransom Brokers.
- Bribing a town to let you inside the keep.
Charm
One of my go-to methods for leveling up the Charm skill is easier to do if you’re further into your run. This is because it revolves around capturing enemy lords and then releasing them to improve relations. Almost anything you do in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord that improves relations with someone will increase your Charm. Other examples include completing quests, giving enemy lords to friendly fiefs that you don’t own, and marrying off family members. Early into a run, I married my brother off and gained 62 levels, hitting my limit.
Leadership
The best way by far to level up your Leadership skill is to lead armies. You don’t actually have to fight with them, since your Leadership will rise fast by simply moving around the overworld. A good way to do this without worrying about Influence is to recruit parties from your own clan. However, this requires leveling up your clan before you’re able to send them off. And that can be expensive too, depending on their wages to run a party. Otherwise, the in-game tips mention maintaining high morale and upgrading troops.
Trade
The trick to leveling up your Trade skill is primarily making profitable trades. You’ll want to balance your overworld speed with having a high capacity to carry more goods. For those newer to trading mechanics, you don’t necessarily need to buy one big expensive item to flip. You can also trade at lower margins by, say, buying hundreds of Grain for 4 Denars and then selling it for 8 elsewhere. A good strategy is to supply towns that have recently been besieged and/or taken over.
They’ll be lower on supplies for a short-time, giving you a window to make huge amounts of money selling there. By doing so, you’ll also get a lot of experience too. As you level up your Trade skill, you’ll get some useful perks that make it easier to track profits and carry more items. Once you can track profits, if an item price is green, that typically means it’s a good price.
One more Trading tip if you have the War Sails expansion is to trade by sea. This is because you can raise your capacity significantly if you have the right ships in your fleet. And then you can increase it even further with certain ship parts.
Steward
If you want to level up your Steward skill quicker for larger parties, you’ll need to carry a variety of food. From what we’ve learned, having many food types and a bigger party will give you experience quicker. Therefore, you’ll want to keep your party maxed out if you’re able to afford their wages. However, if you’re trying to level up a companion’s Steward skill for governing, you can assign them the role in your party.
Medicine
The two main methods of leveling Medicine in Bannerlord have to do with troops becoming wounded and resting at fiefs. If you or your troops are wounded, waiting at a castle, village, or town will give you experience in Medicine. Aside from that, participating in large battles will also level it up quicker. I’ve noticed army-led battles with 500 to 1000 troops have raised my Medicine by 5 levels.
Engineering
The best way to level up your Engineering by far is using siege equipment while defending a fief. If you’re having trouble operating a catapult or ballista, you can grab rocks instead to throw down at enemies. Both methods are deadly ways to slay enemies, while also skyrocketing your Engineering skill. Aside from that, you’ll get Engineering experience while building siege equipment on the overworld during a siege as well.
Mariner
The Mariner skill requires having the War Sails expansion and revolves around fighting in naval battles. Therefore, you’ll have to get your hands dirty fighting enemies. But, if you’re rocking a heavy ship with a ballista, you can use that to level up the Mariner and Engineering skill simultaneously. Just make sure you’re hitting troops and not their ship if you’re trying to gain experience.
Boatswain
Similar to the Mariner skill, Boatswain requires having the War Sails expansion. The main way most people will level up Boatswain is by repairing their ships and/or captured ships. I recommend repairing captured ones before selling them, since you’ll still profit after doing so. However, you can also get experience by sailing through storms if you have enough ships in your fleet.
Similar to leveling up your Leadership, you can create an army and then sail through storms to quickly level up Boatswain. This is a fun little trick, but it may require having Influence to pull off. As mentioned earlier, you can avoid Influence costs by creating an army with clan parties.
Shipmaster
The Shipmaster skill in the War Sails expansion, unfortunately, seems to be the worst skill to level up right now. I haven’t been able to figure out a trick beyond sailing around the ocean to level it slowly. Even with focus points and intelligence, it doesn’t make a huge difference. I’ve tested sailing with a large army, and that doesn’t have a noticeable impact either.
The developers at TaleWorlds Entertainment occasionally make balance tweaks, so don’t be surprised if things change slightly. Mostly, you’ll just see a skill like Shipmaster likely become easier to level at some point. Otherwise, be sure to check out more Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord guides we’ve written:
- Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord – War Sails Walkthrough
- How to Sneak
- 10 Best Mount & Blade 2: War Sails Tips and Tricks
Jeff is a journalist with over 10 years of experience writing, streaming, and making content about video games. With an associate degree in journalism, he’s a sucker for RPGs, survival games, roguelikes, and more.