Last of Us Part 2 – Which Skills to Upgrade

Ellie is back and stronger than ever in The Last of Us Part 2, but that doesn’t mean she can’t get even stronger. Skill upgrades have returned from the previous game, only slightly changed in terms of how they work. You’ll actually unlock different paths of potential upgrades throughout the campaign, with a hard split halfway through the game in terms of what is available. We’ll focus on the first half though, which will translate somewhat to the choices you make later. So here’s some tips on which skills to upgrade in The Last of Us Part 2.

Which Skill to Upgrade

As I said, you will gain new options for skill upgrades as you play through the campaign, so one thing to keep in mind is it can help to save up your meds to use later. Once you have them all unlocked you can pick and choose, but one big thing has changed from the first Last of Us. The skills are now in a tree of sorts, with different types of upgrades available as you progress through it. So while you may want a specific skill upgrade, you need to unlock all the ones before it first. So focus on a few and save the rest for any potential New Game Plus runs.

With all of that out of the way, let’s dive into Ellie’s skill upgrade options and which to choose. For other playable characters just adapt these tips for your play style, since many upgrades remain similar. For me, I like a well balanced character, but you can choose to focus more on stealth or combat as you see fit. So here’s which skills to upgrade overall, but modify it to suit your particular play style as needed.

In the initial Survival branch there’s a few key skill upgrades, such as faster health kits, an overall health increase and Endure. Next is Crafting, which I avoid upgrading simply because they end up mostly being time savers rather than actual game changers. Crafting melee upgrades is a huge boost though, and improving health kit efficiency is great if you’re taking a lot of damage.

Once you unlock the Stealth options you should dump a ton of meds in here as each is useful for pretty much all player types. Just buy whichever ones you can and keep jumping in here whenever you have extra meds. Finally there’s Precision which is also very useful, and since both unlock later in the game you might want to save pills for these if you’re progressing well without the skill upgrades. Aim stability, extended listen mode range, being able to hold your breath, and additional arrow crafting are all very useful.

So that’s my tips on which skills to upgrade in The Last of Us Part 2. But of course you’ll want to make your character all your own, so decide which might help most. These are really big powerups in most situations so try to get them soon though.