How to Level Up Skills and Learn New Moves in Bayonetta 3

In the first two Bayonetta games, you learned your new moves either through story progress or by purchasing them from Rodin at the Gates of Hell. Bayonetta’s always been a pretty self-sufficient lady, though, so why should she have to buy moves from a store when she can just learn them herself? Here’s how to level up skills and learn new moves in Bayonetta 3.

How to Level Up Skills and Learn New Moves in Bayonetta 3

Unlike in the first two games, where you bought moves from Rodin with Halos, in Bayonetta 3, you have access to a Skills menu. The Skills tab becomes available on your pause menu a short ways into the game’s story, presenting you with separate skill trees for Bayonetta and Viola themselves, as well as Bayonetta’s various weapons and summoned Demons.

Related: How to Find Halos in Bayonetta 3

To level up these things, you need one of the game’s three main currencies, Orbs, the crystalized souls of demons. No relation to the Orbs from Devil May Cry, I’m sure. Rather than being collected like Seeds or Halos, Orbs are rewarded to you after combat encounters based on your performance, with bonuses for high combos, no damage, fast times, and defeated bosses. Think of Orbs like experience points.

Bigger and Better

Bayonetta’s sub-tab on the Skills tab has her personal abilities, most of which are unlocked by default. You can use the far right nodes to spend Witch Hearts and Moon Pearls to raise your health and magic, respectively. Viola’s tab is mostly the same, though most of her skills do need to be unlocked with Orbs. Do note that Viola’s health and magic need to be leveled up separately from Bayonetta’s.

On the individual weapon tabs, there are separate skill trees for the weapons themselves and the summoned Demon they represent, which connect in the middle. For instance, Colour My World’s associated Demon is Madama Butterfly, G-Pole’s is Gomorrah, and so on. The left side of the tab gives Bayonetta new moves to perform with the weapon, while the right side unlocks moves that Demons can perform while summoned.

You can funnel your Orbs into whatever moves strike your interest, though you will need to unlock any moves preceding it first. Some moves do require you to use a particular move a certain number of times to unlock, and every weapon has one special skill that can only be unlocked after every other skill for that weapon and its Demon are unlocked. Also, if you have a temporary contract with a Demon during the story, you can’t get new skills for them. You can only level up a Demon’s skills and moves once you’ve obtained their associated weapon.

Carefully consider where you allocate your Orbs based on which weapons are working for you, as well as which Demons you may need in the heat of the moment.