KCD2 can be played in so many ways. Nearly every skill has utility, making all kinds of diverse builds usable. One of our favorite builds in the Sly Rogue, who makes use of the dark to slay enemies from stealth. You’ll also become incredibly rich via burglary. If you want to steal everything and kill everyone without making a sound, this is the build for you. Here is our Sly Rogue build for KCD2.

Player Skills

As you level up your Sly Rogue version of Henry, there are several important skills to pick up to make this build sing. Below, we’ll focus on those skills, but keep in mind that you’ll also earn skill points in some of the other trees by playing normally. If it’s not listed below, your skill choices don’t matter for the build, so you’re free to pick whatever you want. With that in mind, here are the skills you’ll want to target for the Sly Rogue build.

Main Level Skills

• Driven by Vengeance - This gives you a boost after killing opponents in close range. This build is built on that, so you might as well grab this one.
• Burgher - Take this skill to give you a +1 bonus to agility when in town.
• Night Crawler - You’ll want to do most of your damage in the dark to help stay hidden. That makes this an easy recommendation because you get a boost to agility and stealth at night.
• Criminal Element - You’re going to be stealing a ton of loot with this build, so you’ll want to take this and make your criminal brand disappear faster. Plus, you can sell your stolen gear at 10% higher prices.
• Warmonger - Yes, you’ll be doing your killing from stealth, but you’re still killing people. Grab this to get a boost to agility and combat after each fight.

Strength

• Tight Grip - This skill makes it easier to kill someone from stealth. You won’t use many strength perks, but you should get this.

Agility

• Featherweight - You take 30% reduced fall damage, which can come in handy if you need to get away from trouble without being spotted.
• Nimble Stance - This makes your dodges cost 40% less stamina. A no-brainer.
• Creeping Phantom 1 & 2 - You should always be crouching with this build. These skills make you move faster while crouching.

Speech

• Polished Wares - Grab this and sell quality gear for even more money.
• Silver Tongue - This makes it easier to haggle, so you’ll get even better prices.
• Hustler - This makes it easier to sell stolen gear. Plus, you’ll get stealth and thievery experience when you successfully sell anything you’ve nicked.
• Partner in Crime - You can sell your stolen goods without worrying about being detected.

Alchemy

• Poison Specialist 1 & 2 - If you want to use bows or poison to make killing enemies from stealth a bit easier, consider grabbing these alchemy kills to make your poison more potent.

Craftmanship

• Well-Fitted - Gear you repair yourself will make less noise, helping you stay silent.
• Locksmith - This gives a boost to your thievery while picking locks, making it easier to unlock them.
• Totally Legit - Anything you’ve stolen will lose its stolen status much faster with this skill.

Drinking

• Beerfoot - You don’t have to take this one, but if you want to drink a lot, this will make you 20% quieter indoors.
• Drunk’s Luck - Again, you’ll need to get drunk for this to activate, but you will get a +4 boost to thievery with this skill while intoxicated.

Houndmaster

• Bark! - You can command Mutt to bark at a location, drawing attention away from you. You can use this to sneak into a building without being spotted.
• Dog’s Best Friends - Grab this to make sure dogs won’t bark at you when you’re trying to be stealthy.

Stealth

• Ordinary Man - When you commit a crime, people will forget about it more quickly, and guards will give up their search sooner, letting you escape.
• Fleeting Shadow 1 & 2 - If you’re wanted for a crime, you get a boost to your stealth and agility, making escapes even easier.
• Rodent - This skill makes you make less noise sneaking indoors. Always a bonus.
• Escape Artist 1 & 2 - This also makes people more likely to give up on their search for you, which comes in handy any time you’re sneaking around.
• Quickhand - Grab this, and people won’t notice you pickpocketing to picking locks nearly as much.
• Ambusher - You’ll deal 20% more damage when attacking unaware enemies. That should be nearly every person you attack.

Survival

• Leshy 1 & 2 - With this skill, your stealth and agility will gain a boost in the forest. Since we took Rodent over Weasel Boy, this should make outdoors stealth much easier.

Thievery

• Nimble Fingers - This gives you more time while pickpocketing.
• Silent Fiddler - When picking locks, you’ll make much less noise, so you’re less likely to be interrupted.
• Rapid Flight - If you fail at pickpocketing, you won’t be detected. However, this ability only works every three minutes, so be careful diving back into their pocket.
• Tool Master - Makes your lockpicks 15% stronger, so you’ll break fewer picks.
• Thief’s Eyes - You can now spot which stolen items you can sell at stores, making it easier to offload stolen goods.
• Back Alley Skirmisher - Since you aren’t using a shield, you should grab this for the 10% more damage.
• Mischief Artist - After successfully picking a lock or pickpocketing an item, you gain a bonus to thievery and stealth.
• Stamping Ground - When in towns, your stealth gets a boost.
• Trafficker - Stolen gear loses its stolen status much quicker.
• Master Thief - You can now unlock simple locks instantly.

Combat Skills

For the most part, you’ll be killing enemies with your dagger from stealth, so you don’t need to worry much about combat skills. That said, you might consider picking up some marksmanship perks so you can thin out your opponents from afar. Here are the must-have warfare perks you need to add no matter what.

Warfare

• Against All Odds - Just in case you mess up a stealth kill, you’re less likely to be overwhelmed by your opponents.
• River - This makes your dodges much more powerful by boosting your warfare and stamina when you successfully pull one off.
• One Man Army - This goes hand-in-hand with Against All Odds, with a 10% damage boost when you’re outnumbered.

Gear

The biggest goal with your gear is to get your conspicuousness, noise, and visibility scores as low as possible. The gear we’ve listed below gets all three scores into the teens, making this a great starting base. If you have the Catpurse set from Twitch drops earlier this year, that’s the best stealth gear, but we’ll assume you don’t have that. Here is the gear our Sly Rogue is wearing.

Armor

• Head - Narrow straw hat, Wanderer’s hood
• Body - Burgher pourpoint, Courtier’s coat, Hunter’s pouch
• Arms - None
• Legs - Courtier’s hose, Legate’s shoes
• Jewellery - Pavlena’s necklace

Weapon

• Melee Weapon - Dagger

This build isn’t focused on ranged combat, but if you want to add that aspect, you can take out most opponents from distance with this build. We’d recommend getting the Ash Hunting Bow because it is almost completely silent.

On top of that, consider using poisons (it’s why we recommended a few alchemy perks). If you can stab an enemy and run into the darkness, you won’t have to risk getting hit as much. Just let the poison do its work for you.

That wraps up our Sly Rouge build. Get used to crouching all the time. Henry’s knees can take it, and being able to attack from stealth helps you make short work of your opponents.