Heads Will Roll: Reforged: Civic Talents Tier List

Patch 1.5 to Heads Will Roll:Reforged added a new feature, Civic Talents. These extra talents give a wide variety of boosts to your character, typically in ways that don’t directly affect your combat skills. There’s a wide range of variance to these though, some of stupidly good, others are pretty much never worth taking, I’ve sorted them into a tier list, from S to F. Tier explanations are below.

S: Must have/Universally Good. I almost always take these, and typically early if able.

A: Strong Option/Situationally Good. I often take these, and they are usually very good to have. They are not as vital as S tier talents though.

B: Decent Option/Useful. These are decent, but lack the extra punch to be higher tier.

C: Mediocre Option/Usable but not a big deal. Middle of the road, can be interesting ideas held back by odd requirements, or genuinely okay picks, but lacking in power.

D: Poor Option/Rarely useful. Not useless, but either lacks effectiveness, or has an overly conditional requirement holding it back.

F: Does Nothing/Effectively a waste. You’re wasting a talent point if you take these. They’re too niche to really get any value from, and even if you can get value from them, they’re not really worth the effort.

Colossus (Grants you 1 strength and 1 vitality at the start of every chapter. Every 3 trainings of vitality also boosts your strength by 1): Free stats are always welcome, can get you a total of 7 strength and vitality in a playthrough assuming you take it in the prologue and play through a full route, which is equal to 14 time units worth of training (and spares you the time that would be needed to rest it off too). This alone would be powerful, but making every 3 vitality trainings give bonus strength is just the icing on the cake, perfect for high profile levels who can’t train other stats until later chapters (and yes, both the gain per chapter and the training gain ignore chapter limits). I always grab this in the prologue on my high profile level runs, and even lower level or random characters will get a lot from this.

Beast of Burden (+5 Inventory Capacity): 5 free inventory slots no questions asked. That’s 15 strength trainings worth of space, which is amazing value. Really helpful on low level runs to make up for poor stats, but still good at high levels, to make inventory management easier. Be sure to take this before other “clutter reducers” like Do-It-Yourself or Lucky Devil.

Huntsman (Every scavenging grants 2 bonus leather and 20 florins): Leather is the gateway to money making (via waterskins used to make potent medicine), so getting more of its is always good. The extra cash is just the cherry on top. Not my top priority usually, but one I typically grab earlier on. Stacks with other scavenging boosters like the hunting sword and hunting dagger.

Armorsmith (Removes the craftsmanship requirement for armorsmithing, and boosts your efficiency when armorsmithing): Double pronged. For low profile levels, this lets you at least toy with the armor crafting system more easily without spending as many rests on craftsmanship to remove penalties. For higher levels, this can help you reach the threshold of no-penalty armor more easily (the normal needed cap is 25, this lowers it by I believe the equivalent of 5 points, which means that you can keep craftsmanship at 20, unless you want to use the mechanical crossbow). Always a decent pick if you can spare points for it.

Sticky Fingers (Looting Grants an additional item): If you’re looting constantly, you could get decent value from this. Then again, if you can afford to loot constantly, you’re probably levelled to the point where you can get most of the cash you need from crafting. Not a bad pick though for extra money and chances at gear.

Master of Poisons (Doubled poisons when crafting are now full instead of half filled, provides additional poison ingredients when scavenging with an empty vial): A must have if you want to aggressively utilize poisons. I typically don’t (as my Estoc build can one shot most weaker enemies, and I can usually just keep some poison around for the tougher fights where it’s helpful), but you can get decent value from this. Pairs well with craftsmanship boosters.

Craftsman (Increases odds of doubling a craft result by 5%): The boost is nice, as it helps even if you’ve reached the effective cap on craft for items (20). Won’t make a massive difference, but it does reduce the odds of an unlucky normal craft.

Gambler (You are more likely to win when gambling, based on how low your virtue is. Also boosts won/lost florins by your virtue as well): Needs a lot more testing. Gambling is the best rest method prior to chapter 3 where the bathhouse is unlocked, so more chance to succeed at it is nice. It’s not clear if this counts as the lucky dice, or stacks with them. The only real problems are that it makes you lose more money when you fail, and that it requires low virtue to get best value. Tentatively putting it at B, and probably better for low profile level characters who are going to likely have poor virtue anyway.

Do-It-Yourself (You do not need a Sewing Kit or Alchemist’s tools to craft items): Sure, you could technically take it in the prologue and save the 30 florins needed for the alchemist tools and sewing kit, but that’s a pretty low priority considering there’s other talents that can give you far more money in the long run. Mainly at C tier because it saves you two inventory space, an okay option if you’re later in the game and want to maximize your inventory.

Casanova (Your first 3 brothel uses per chapter are free): Can save you 135 florins per chapter, in theory. You still eat the virtue penalty, and risk getting the toxic condition every time you use the brothel, which is not free to cure post Chapter 3. Not a bad pick if you are doing a low profile level or random character, but the bathhouse beats out the brothel if you’re rich. Would probably be B or even A tier if it reduced or removed the chance to get toxic.

Musician (The lute action in camp restores more fatigue. Using the lute in combat recovers fatigue equal to your coordination) : Needs a lot more testing. I’m unsure if the musician boosted lute action beats gambling in early chapters, if it does, this could be B tier. If not, it stays at C, for at least providing some extra in combat fatigue reduction.

Thief (You gain additional money from heists you personally partake in, your heists are more likely to succeed): I rarely use heists, so I can’t speak to how nice this is. I’m assuming based on the low virtue requirement though, that it may be a little too situational to be high tier.

Lucky Devil (Significantly increases your luck): Just use a rabbit’s foot. Only worth it if you’re swimming in points and really want to free up an inventory slot, and even then, I’m not sure if the effect of this is identical to rabbit’s foot, or just helps. More tests needed.

Herbsman (You gain 2 additional alchemical ingredients when scavenging): The weaker version of Huntsman. Alchemical ingredients are way easier to get than leather, and you don’t get bonus money either. Weak pick typically.

Marauder (Boosts gold gain when slaying enemies, based on how low your virtue is): There’s so many other civic talents that boost your gold gain either directly (Huntsman), or indirectly (Craftsman/Sticky Fingers), and none of them have the low virtue gain either. Counterproductive for low level characters due to requiring you to kill enemies to gain from it, and a waste for high level ones who can make gobs of money from crafting and looting anyway.

Good Manager (Squad Upgrades are 20% cheaper, when soldier rep is 90 or higher): Too conditional as is, requiring 90 soldier rep to even do anything (which can get tanked by random events if you are unlucky). A 20% discount on upgrades is insanely weak for how conditional this is. Even with the reworked squad system from patch 1.5, I still never take this, and my squaddies still tend to just evaporate from an unlucky hit.

Man of Faith (Doubles chance of a miracle when praying or mortifying flesh): Too conditional (miracles require very high virtue to occur at all) and requires you to use the least efficient forms of rest and hope for good luck to get a benefit. Lower level characters probably won’t have the virtue to use this, and higher level characters won’t need it, as they will have access to gambling with the dice trinket, and then the bathhouse.

S Tier: Colossus, Beast of Burden
A Tier: Huntsman, Armorsmith
B Tier: Sticky Fingers, Craftsman, Master of Poisons, Gambler
C Tier: Do-It-Yourself, Casanova, Thief, Musician
D Tier: Lucky Devil, Herbsman, Marauder
F Tier: Good Manager, Man of Faith

There are a few of these I’m still thinking about placement of, mainly due to not testing them a lot due to my playstyle. I’m definitely going to test Lucky Devil, Gambler, Musician, and Thief more, and I could easily see master of poisons going down a tier.

I do hope this helps you with picking talents in the future though, as the points are limited, and you have a lot of options to spend them on.