Talents and Inspirations
The chain runs like this:
- Inspirations keep count of what you do: trees chopped, bodies buried, pockets picked, items studied.
- When a count hits its goal, that level can be bought, usually with Faith.
- Buying it gives talent experience in one of the five branches (see Mastery).
- Enough experience levels the branch and awards a talent point to spend on that branch’s tree.
How inspirations count
- Counts are cumulative and never reset. Each goal is a running total, so a long stretch of work can finish several levels in one go, although you still buy them one by one.
- First levels are mostly free. Later levels cost Faith, and it has to be in your backpack.
- Hidden inspirations are counting too. Some stay invisible until a technology, a quest or another inspiration reveals them, and by then they may already be a few levels along.
- Church and graveyard quality inspirations only count new records. Knocking something down and putting it back up won’t count a second time.
Experience per talent level
The thresholds are the same in all five branches:
| Level | Experience |
|---|---|
| 1 | 2 |
| 2 | 3 |
| 3 | 4 |
| 4 onward | 5 per level |
Nearly all first levels, and the majority of later ones, are worth 1 experience. In practice your first point in any branch costs two inspiration levels from it.
A single purchase can lift a branch by no more than one level. Leftover experience isn’t lost, but it’s only applied the next time you buy an inspiration in the same branch.
Doing the work never grants experience directly; it only advances the inspiration’s counter. Buying the inspiration is the sole source of experience.
The tree itself
Each node costs 1 talent point and becomes available once every node above it is owned. Every branch starts with a “Branch mastery +1” node and has five of those mastery nodes in total; the remaining nodes are perks.
Unlocking the inspiration page
At the start, the inspiration page and the talent tree are both locked. They unlock automatically as soon as any one branch has two finished, free inspiration levels ready to buy.
You can manage this during your very first burial. Last Respects completes after one body is buried, and Pickpocket after one pocket is picked at the autopsy table. Both are free Anatomy inspirations, and between them they supply the 2 experience for your first Anatomy point.
Notes
- Pickpocket before the first burial. It unlocks the inspiration page at the earliest moment and points you straight at Anatomy mastery +1, which you need before any organ can come out.
- Surgeon’s Errors pay off once. Each one counts toward Oops Surgeon, the only inspiration that rewards a failed autopsy.
- Unconfirmed: the game files suggest zombie work and self-running workbenches also feed inspirations, since the game never checks who did the job. Not yet verified in play.
- Holy Routine is impossible to finish. Nothing in the current game increases its count.
- No message appears for inspirations finished before the page unlocks. Their progress is kept all the same.