Last of Us 2: The Best Skills Build for Ellie

Over the premise of The Last of Us 2, Ellie builds up several skills, but which ones are the best to invest in? The Last of Us 2 has crafted 10 skill lines that are spread between the two main characters, Ellie and Abby. Ellie has always been built more on strategy, and stealth and these skill lines play to her advantage.

Ellie’s skill lines consist of five major points; survival, crafting, stealth, precision, and explosives. She starts out with survival as a base skill line and can gain the other four through upgrade manuals along her journey. These four manuals are found within her first three days in Seattle.

What Are Ellie’s Skill Trees?

Before getting too far into Ellie’s build, let’s discuss what all her skill lines do and how they affect her playstyle.

Ellie’s Skill Lines:

Survival

• Listen Mode Movement Speed I (+50% Movement Speed)
• Faster Health Kits (+100% Speed)
• Increased Health (+25% Health)
• Listen Mode Movement Speed II (+100% Movement Speed)
• Endure (Causes Ellie to survive one-hit kills)

Survival, as the base skill line, is a decent one. It mainly covers Ellie’s health, health kits, and the ability to hear her enemies. Investing in this skill line early on is a good step to help Ellie jump her early hurdles, but investing past the third level may be wasteful.

Crafting

• Craft Melee Upgrades (Restore melee weapons and craft upgrades on melee weapons at full health)
• Faster Crafting (+100% Crafting Speed)
• Craft Smoke Bombs
• Craft Improved Health Kits (+50% Healing)
• Craft More Smoke Bombs (Craft two at a time and carry up to four)

Crafting is a fairly useful skill line. Allowing you to upgrade and repair your melee weapons, create smoke bombs, and make beefy health kits. This skill line is a great one to invest in up to the fourth level. Unless you use smoke bombs often, getting the fifth and final level isn’t much use for Ellie when her points could be invested elsewhere.

Stealth

• Craft Silencers (Lasts three rounds)
• Listen Mode Clarity
• Faster Prone Movements (+50% Movement Speed)
• Improved Silencers (Lasts five rounds)
• Faster Stealth Kills (+100% Speed)

Stealth is the most useful skill line in Ellie’s arsenal. Enabling her to use silencers on her pistol, quickly crawl, and pounce on her enemies. This is the only skill line that should be fully invested in.

Precision

• Aim Stability Increase (+100% Stability, +100% Accuracy)
• Faster Aim Movement (+50% Movement Speed)
• Listen Mode Range (+50% Range)
• Hold Breath (Steadies Aim Further)
• Craft More Arrows (Craft three at a time)

Precision is a very helpful skill line that is great for those who want to use guns often and keep the fight a good distance from her. This line allows for better stability, and accuracy when shooting along with better detection. Investing in this skill line up to the third level will be the best for Ellie.

Explosives

• Craft Explosive Arrows
• Improved Trap Mines (+50% Blast Radius)
• Improved Molotovs (+50% Flame Radius)
• Craft More Trap Mines (Craft two at a time and hold up to four)
• Craft More Explosive Arrows (Craft two at a time and hold up to four)

Explosives is an interesting and more chaotic skill line for Ellie. This line is for those who aren’t afraid to be loud, making better mines, Molotovs, and allowing Ellie to even craft explosive arrows. This skill line is worth investing in the third level for maximum payout on all of Ellie’s explosive weapons.

With all said and done, these improvements will make Ellie not only more efficient but also make her play through more quick and enjoyable.

The Last of Us 2 is available on PlayStation 4.

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