Beating up your foes in Saints Row does seem like an easy task. After all, all you need to do is come in with guns blazing. Still, there are a few abilities that you can use as you progress to aid you in combat. Here’s our Saints Row skills guide to help you with the best level-up skills that the Boss can equip.
Note: We’ll have a Saints Row guides and features hub soon, so stay tuned.
Saints Row skills guide – The best skills for you to equip
Generally speaking, the skills in Saints Row are unlocked by earning XP and leveling up. It’s a fairly simple process. Barring some exceptions, you’ll obtain one new active skill (or passive) from level 2 onwards. However, do take note that you can only equip up to four any given time.
| Level | Skill Name | Effect |
| 2 | Pineapple Express | Drop a grenade in your enemy’s pants and throw them away |
| 3 | Smokescreen | Toss a smoke bomb at your feet to confuse enemies |
| 4 | Proximity Mine | Throw a mine that explodes when hostiles go near it |
| 5 | Health Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your health |
| 6 | Tough Mother | Gain a temporary health boost to absorb damage and negate staggers |
| 7 | Frag Out | Throw a frag grenade |
| 8 | Flow Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your flow |
| 9 | Flaming Punch | Ignites your fist for an explosive punch |
| 10 | Health Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your health |
| 11 | Transfusion | Heal yourself and your friends when you deal damage to foes |
| 12 | Overscope | Pulls out a powerful sniper rifle; headshots cause explosions |
| 13 | Impulse Trap | An anti-gravity mine suspends nearby targets in mid-air so you can line up your shots |
| 14 | Flow Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your flow |
| 15 | Health Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your health |
| 16 | Berserker | Attacks deal more damage |
| 17 | Intercession | Calls more Saints to join the fight |
| 18 | Quick Draw | Pull out a powerful revolver and gun down up to four targets |
| 19 | Death Blossom | Spin around while firing bullets in every direction |
| 20 | Flow Upgrade | Passive: Permanently increases your flow |
| N/A | Quantum Aperture – Obtained as part of the Eurekabator Criminal Venture tasks | Creates a field that lets you shoot through walls and obstacles; increases the damage of bullets that pass through the field |
The best skills in Saints Row
Here are some of what I consider the best skills in Saints Row. A couple are integral for general combat, while others are pretty decent once you get them later in the campaign:
- Pineapple Express – This allows you to grab an opponent, including shielded troopers, before tossing them away to go kaboom. It’s a good way to eliminate specialists without having to remove their shield bar for a takedown. The only downside is that you won’t be able to aim the throw properly, so you could miss most of the target’s other pals.
- Proximity Mine – If you do want a throwable explosive, choose this instead of Frag Out. The Proximity Mine is more reliable, as opposed to the frag grenade that enemies tend to dodge.
- Flaming Punch – I think this is one of the best skills in Saints Row due to its multi-kill capabilities. If you have a lot of enemies rushing you (i.e., Los Panteros or melee elites), you can send all of them flying with this blazing punch.
- Death Blossom – This one is obtained a bit later in your grind/progression. It does significant damage for crowd-clearing, and it’s flashy to boot.
Saints Row is available via the Epic Games Store.
