The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing - Hunter Perks

This post has general tips and tricks for The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing played on the PC at Heroic Difficulty. For a list of all our Van Helsing posts, click here.

Hunter Perks

Perks that are unlocked by base attribute benchmarks remain unlocked even if you respec the attribute distribution and the attribute goes down.
Defense, Deflect, Dodge, and Resistance work on percentages that are non-linear compared to the attribute score, and (except for Resistance) are scaled by the enemy level. Therefore a 10% increase to the score might translate to only 1%-2% of effect as the game progresses.
The best perks are therefore difficult-to-get bonuses such as Cooldown reduction; flat percentile bonuses such as bonuses to Attack Speed or Critical Chance; and useful bonuses such as HP and Mana Regeneration.

Best Perks
Artful Dodger +10% Dodge, +5% Attack Speed

• Unlocked by DEX 25, WILL 25.

Enchanted Body +20% HP Regeneration, +20% Mana Regeneration

• Unlocked by BODY 25, WILL 25.

Focused -10% Cooldown, +20% Mana Regeneration

• Unlocked by WILL 110.

Gunslinger +7% Attack speed

• Unlocked by DEX 110.

Perfect Aim +5% Critical Hit Chance

• Unlocked by LUCK 110.

Survivor +5% HP, +20% HP Regeneration

• Unlocked by BODY 110.

Uncanny Fighter +1 Mana per hit, -20% Mana Cost

• Unlocked by BODY 25, DEX 25

Other Perks

Agile +5 Dexterity, +5% Dodge DEX 40

• Unlocked by DEX 40.

Alchemist -10% Essence Cost for created components, +5% Gold find chance

• Unlocked by doing a lot of Essence combining and upgrading.
• A cost reduction also has a level requirement reduction.
• New components picked up do not have the reduced cost.
• One character can perform the Essence creation and leave the reduced-cost Essences in the shared storage for another character to use.
• The minimum reduction is 1 point for every 10 points in the final Essence cost or part thereof.
• The maximum Essence capacity of any item is 50, so with the Alchemist Perk, you can theoretically put in 50/0.9 or 56 Essence points. For items with no basic Essence Capacity, the limit is 20 (two Capacitative Essences) or 23 with Alchemist. But in reality, it will be limited by how Essences upgrade (their base costs of 5/7/10/15) and the level requirement of the upgraded Essence. Overall, not a very significant improvement.

Berserker +10% damage while at max Rage

Bulls Eye +10% Ranged Damage, +10% Spellpower

• Unlocked by DEX 50, WILL 50.

Bully +5 Body, +5% Selling Price

• Unlocked by BODY 40.

Collector Your hero receives an additional inventory page

• Only relevant if you are in a map you cannot exit until the map is clear, such as the night defense of Markovna.
• Completely irrelevant if you can play Scenario Mode, since you can exit Story Mode to to the main menu, enter Scenario Mode and access stores and shared storage there, then go back to the main menu and resume the Story.

Destructive +50% Critical Damage

• Unlocked by LUCK 40.

Drinker +20% Efficiency for Potions, +50 Poison resistance

• Unlocked by drinking a lot of potions (?)

Elementalist +5% to Lightning, Fire and Ice Damage, +10% Elemental Resistance

• Unlocked by using different elemental attacks? Also by wielding Excalibur and fulfilling the damage-dealt requirement..

Furious +20 Rage

• Unlocked by using power-ups ?

Ghost Whisperer -33% Respawn cooldown for Lady Katarina, +30% HP Regeneration for Lady Katarina.

• A very good Perk if you rely on Lady Katarina to tank, because Lady Katarina has a lot of health and a strong basic HP Regeneration to begin with.
• In the mid-game Katarina can have a lot more health than Van Helsing if you choose not to invest too much in Van Helsing's BODY score. Nevertheless, Van Helsing has access to more gear and abilities, and is better used to tank for her.
• If you can manage her in combat well, don't waste a Perk here.

Icicle +15% to Ice Damage

• Unlocked by having Icicle Shot and Ice Blast ?

Iron Man Bonus to resistances as your HP goes down

• Unlocked by having the Berserker Perk.

Magical Hunter +10% Melee Damage, +10% Spellpower

• Unlocked by BODY 50, WILL 50.

Marksman +40% Damage against enemies at least 15 meters away

• Unlocked by Occult Hunter Mastery level 3 and DEX 50 ?

Master 5 Skill Points

• Unlocked by having the maximum level in 3 skills in 2 skill tabs ?

Mentor 3 Skill Points

• Unlocked by 3 powerups in 2 skills in 1 tree ?

Natural Healer +2 Levels for the Arcane Healing spell, +10% Efficiency for Potions

• Generally not necessary, and not very useful because of the long cooldown of Arcane Healing.

Precise The first attack against every enemy has +10% Critical Chance

Resistive +20% Elemental, Physical and Poison Resistance

• Unlocked by WILL 40.

Salamandra +15% to Fire Damage

• Unlocked by having Embracing Flames 5 and Flaming Sphere 5 ?

Scavenger +10% Magic Item Find Chance, +50 Poison Resistance

• Unlocked by opening chests and searching bodies.

Second Chance When you die, you merely become incorporeal for 4 seconds

• Very interesting Perk to ward against sudden-death situations. If you are playing Hardcore, this is almost essential to get.

Slayer +10% Damage

• BODY 50, DEX 50.

Stormblood +15% to Electric Damage

• Unlocked by having Lightning 7, Lightning Strike 7.

Teacher 3 Skill Points

• Unlocked by learning many skills?

Veteran Hunter 2 Skill Points, 3 Ability Points, Counts 1 level higher for wielding items

• Unlocked at level 15.

Scholarly Ghost Lady Katarina receives 6 Skill Points

• Unlocked the first time Lady Katarina wears Rare (yellow) items in all equipment slots.

Wight Lady Katarina receives 10 Ability Points and 2 Skill Points

• Unlocked at level 10.

Wraith +10% Damage for Lady Katarina, +10% HP for Lady Katarina

• Unlocked at level 5.