Creatures of the Deep Skill Tree & Skill Points Guide

Your Creatures of the Deep skill points guide: how skill upgrades work, every skill in the tree, and community-ranked best skills for each playstyle.

Skill Tree

Skill points, skill upgrades, and the five-branch skill tree are central to Creatures of the Deep. This skill points guide explains how each skill upgrade works, lists every skill and perk, and helps you compare paths to find the best skills for your playstyle.

Understanding the Skill System

Understanding the Skill System

At each level up, the player can spend a skill point in one of the 5 branches available: Luck, Strength, Perception, Charisma and Reflex. Each branch has 10 levels, and the player can spend up to 10 skill points per level (note: the use of potions/elixirs or the clan monument bonus allows to exceed 10 but the exceeding does not seem to have a major effect in most cases).

In practice, this means that a player of level N will have N -1 skill points to spend as they wish (ex: a player of level 21 will have 20 skill points).

Skill upgrades & respec

Skill upgrades & respec

Be extremely careful with the allocation of your skill points. You cannot recover them once assigned. The only possibility to reallocate your points is to use a "transformation elixir" which allows to reallocate 1 point every month (!). The transformation elixir is available in the shop at the price of 50 gems.

Usage of skills

You have 5 skill slots. These slots are only configurable at the Marina. Concretely, this means that you can freely choose which skills you want to activate, and as many times as you want, as long as you are on the Marina map. Once the Marina is left, the skills are fixed and cannot be modified.

Note: players who reach 75% of DNA extraction receive an additional skill slot.

Skill branches & perks

The interactive skill tree below lists all Creatures of the Deep skills by branch and tier. Community polls rank the best skills for F2P, performance, and exploration — use both views to plan your next skill upgrade.

Best skills in Creatures of the Deep

Community-ranked best skills by playstyle

Real players voted head-to-head on All Our Ideas. The skill tree below highlights what the community prioritizes, and what it avoids, for each playstyle.

Choose the direction that matches how you play:

Voters were asked: Which perk would you prioritize first without spending money?

5252 head-to-head votes collected · 2026-06-01

View raw Free-to-play vote results on All Our Ideas →
Top 5
Bottom 5
Hover or tap a perk icon for details. Click or tap the card to jump to its rank below.
How were these votes collected?

Players voted on All Our Ideas in « versus » mode: two perks appeared side by side, and the voter picked which one they would prioritize first for that playstyle. Each perk's score is its win rate across all duels. Rankings on this page are final exports from June 2026.

Creatures of the Deep skill tree — all skills & perks

Luck

Strength

Reflex

Perception

Charisma

Full ranking list

Complete head-to-head results for the selected playstyle. Click a perk in the tree above to jump here.

Top 5 priority perks

  1. Smile of Fate

    Higher chance of catching truly impressive fish

    Luck · Tier 8

    84.9% 196W / 34L

  2. Epic Catch

    Increased chance of epic and rare fish

    Luck · Tier 6

    83.8% 180W / 34L

  3. Durable Gear

    Your rods endure more fishing trips

    Reflex · Tier 3

    73.7% 145W / 51L

  4. Eye of Rarity

    Rare and epic fish have different shadows

    Perception · Tier 6

    69.3% 146W / 64L

  5. Four Leaf Power

    Lucky clover effects last twice as long

    Luck · Tier 7

    69.3% 155W / 68L

  1. Master of Reaction

    More time to react after the float submerges

    Reflex · Tier 2

    68.5% 160W / 73L

  2. Gift of Fate

    Higher chance of catching big specimens

    Luck · Tier 2

    67.1% 146W / 71L

  3. Potion of Luck

    Higher chance of attracting a fish with bait

    Luck · Tier 5

    63.4% 146W / 84L

  4. Trader of the Year

    Sales bonus

    Charisma · Tier 2

    57.3% 121W / 90L

  5. VIP Transfer

    Leave like a boss - from anywhere

    Charisma · Tier 1

    53.3% 112W / 98L

  6. Persistent Grip

    The fish gets tired faster when reeling in

    Reflex · Tier 5

    49.2% 92W / 95L

  7. Strong Hands

    Faster reeling of regular fish

    Strength · Tier 2

    46.9% 83W / 94L

  8. Fish Magnet

    More fish swim around your boat

    Perception · Tier 3

    46.2% 95W / 111L

  9. Touch of Luck

    10% chance to catch a rare fish without fighting

    Strength · Tier 5

    45.7% 78W / 93L

  10. Pure Focus

    Easier fight with tough fish

    Reflex · Tier 4

    45.6% 93W / 111L

  11. Iron Grip

    Faster reeling during tough fights

    Strength · Tier 4

    44.8% 89W / 110L

  12. Whisper of the Depths

    You hear a subtle sound near rare and epic species

    Perception · Tier 5

    44.7% 88W / 109L

  13. Aura of Dread

    Higher chance to summon a monster with bait

    Charisma · Tier 10

    40.1% 70W / 105L

  14. Steel Line

    Increased line resistance during fights

    Strength · Tier 6

    39.5% 80W / 123L

  15. Sharp Vision

    Better visibility of fish schools

    Perception · Tier 2

    36.8% 73W / 126L

  16. Creature Charmer

    Increased chance to catch a creature

    Charisma · Tier 8

    35.9% 70W / 126L

Bottom 5 perks to avoid

  1. Eyes of the Night

    Better visibility of fish at night

    Perception · Tier 4

    33.3% 65W / 131L

  2. Titan's Arms

    Faster casting

    Strength · Tier 3

    30.9% 59W / 133L

  3. Local Favorite

    NPCs give 10% more XP

    Charisma · Tier 4

    23.1% 38W / 129L

  4. Negotiator

    Cheaper in Hermes's shop

    Charisma · Tier 6

    13.2% 27W / 183L

  5. Marathoner

    You walk faster

    Reflex · Tier 6

    10% 19W / 180L