Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords/Skills

In Puzzle Quest, the bulk of your progress comes from increasing skill points. These points can be acquired either by spending skill points achieved from levelling up, or through purchase at the citadel (after a Temple has been built).

Each skill is aligned with a different type of gem:

The different skills also affect different attributes:

Elemental Mastery
The elemental mastery skills only affect mana and gems of the appropriate colour.

Basic stat as listed in the Skill Progress Table:
 * x% bonus to mana from matching gems.

Other effects:
 * x bonus to maximum mana.
 * x bonus to starting mana.
 * x% chance of an extra turn when matching gems.
 * x% chance of a wildcard when matching gems.

Battle
Battle affects Skulls and inflicted damage.

Basic stat as listed in the Skill Progress Table:
 * x% bonus to inflicted damage (from all sources).

Other effects:
 * x% chance of an extra turn when matching skulls.
 * x% chance of a wildcard when matching skulls.

Cunning
Cunning affects Gold and Wildcards.

Basic stat as listed in the Skill Progress Table:
 * x% bonus to wildcard effects.
 * x% bonus to experience/gold earned from defeated foes.

Other effects:
 * x% chance of an extra turn when matching gold.
 * x% chance of a wildcard when matching gold.

Morale
Morale affects Purple Stars and Life Points.

Basic stat as listed in the Skill Progress Table:
 * No basic stat

Other effects:
 * x bonus to life points.
 * x% bonus to all spell resistance.
 * x% chance of an extra turn when matching stars.
 * x% chance of a wildcard when matching stars.

Skill Progression Table
In order to limit duplicate information, this table is divided

into four sections:

Basic/Common Attributes
 * Rank
 * Turn = x% chance of an extra turn when matching gems of the appropriate colour.
 * Wild = x% chance of a wildcard when matching gems of the appropriate colour.
 * Base = x% bonus to the appropriate "basic stat".

Elemental Specific Attributes
 * Max  = x bonus to maximum mana of the appropriate colour.
 * Start = x bonus to starting mana of the appropriate colour.

Morale Specific Attributes
 * HP = x bonus to life points.
 * Res = x% bonus to all spell resistance.

Training Costs
 * Cost = n gold required to train this rank
 * Total Cost = n gold required to train up to this rank (starting from 0).

A Note on Accuracy
There are two caveats to the accuracy of the above table:

i) Rounding: Excel formulas were used to calculate the above values, and Excel always rounds up, but Puzzle Quest is inconsistent in its rounding; sometimes rounding up and sometimes rounding down. Accordingly all (non-even) values presented in the above table may be off by +/- 0.01% of what's displayed in-game.

ii) Game Version: All the above stats were based on the Nintendo DS version of Puzzle Quest. They have not been checked against other versions of the game, though its assumed that they should be the same.

Skill Farming
Skill farming is a fairly contentious issue: Essentially, you farm gold which you the use to purchase skill upgrades from your citadel's temple.

For a more detailed explanation of skill farming, please refer to mikedn8c's Wizard Guide.

mikedn8c's guide: http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/ds/file/934598/48860

WHEN RIDING A SLOW MOUNT, it takes 8 days to go between Bartonia and Enmoth, 9 days to go between Bartonia and The Trarg, and 9 days to go between Enmouth and The Trarg. Thus, going in the cycle: Bartonia -> Enmoth -> The Trarg takes 26 days, so almost every cycle you'll get gold from each city.

Please note that riding a slow mount is required. This is the fastest way of gaining gold in Puzzle Quest since mount speed affects the in-game time it takes to travel between locations, but NOT the real-life time it takes. Thus, the slower the mount, the quicker (irl) the month will reset.