6 weapon skill slots explained: how to set up, swap skills, keyboard shortcuts and best combos.
6 Weapon Skill Slots Guide: Setup & Combos
Title Update 3.2 raised the weapon skill limit from four to six for every vocation, and Dark Arisen fills the extra slots with new skills and higher tiers of old ones. Set all six at a Vocation Guild or inn, fire them with a skill key plus attack inputs, and remap anything awkward under Options, Controls, Button Mapping.
How the 6 Skill Slots Work
Before Title Update 3.2, every vocation in Dragon's Dogma 2 could equip four weapon skills at a time. The update expanded that cap to six, listed under Action Adjustments in the official patch notes.
Official source: Title Update notes — "Expanded the number of assignable weapon skills from four to six."
The same update cycle reworked the Button Mapping screen for the two new slots, and Capcom's developer Q&A confirms the intent: six equipped skills instead of four, plus new higher tiers and completely new skills for every vocation. Note that Dark Arisen adds no new vocations, so the six-slot system is about depth inside the ten vocations you already know.
A few grounding facts, as of the Dark Arisen launch on October 9, 2026:
With four slots, most builds were two damage skills plus one utility plus one flex pick. Six slots let you carry an opener, two damage tools, area control, a defensive answer, and a flex pick at the same time — no more leaving your favorite skill unequipped.
How to Equip and Swap Weapon Skills
Assign skills outside combat through the vocation menu at a Vocation Guild or an inn. Community testing describes the flow as: open the skills screen, pick a slot, pick a learned skill. New skills, including Dark Arisen additions and appraised Relic skills, appear in the same list once unlocked — check how to start Dark Arisen if they have not appeared yet.
Swapping mid-fight works differently from swapping in the menu: in combat you hold the skill key and press the mapped attack input to fire a slot, and rearranging the loadout requires reopening the menu. Revisits to a guild or inn cost nothing, so experiment freely. Warfarer exception: the Rearmament skill swaps your equipped weapon set on the fly, effectively swapping which vocation's skills you can fire — details below.
An empty slot 5 or 6 usually means the skill is not learned yet, not a bug. Buy or unlock the skill first, then return to the equip screen — freshly learned skills never auto-equip into the new slots.
Controller Inputs for Skills 5 and 6
Slots 1 to 4 keep their classic bindings: hold L1 (LB on Xbox) and press one face button each. Slots 5 and 6 sit on two-button chords, which is the part that trips up returning players.
| Slot | PlayStation | Xbox |
|---|---|---|
| Skill 1 | L1 + Square | LB + X |
| Skill 2 | L1 + Triangle | LB + Y |
| Skill 3 | L1 + Cross | LB + A |
| Skill 4 | L1 + Circle | LB + B |
| Skill 5 | L1 + Triangle + Circle together | LB + Y + B together |
| Skill 6 | L1 + Square + Cross together | LB + X + A together |
These chord bindings are documented in community-tested control references such as the keymap.io controls page, and every one can be moved in Options, Controls, Button Mapping. Title Update 4.0, released alongside Dark Arisen, fixed several Button Mapping bugs around these slots, so update the game before remapping if your chords behave strangely.
Test-fire all six slots on weak roadside enemies before heading into the level-40 Forsaken Dominion. A misfiring chord discovered mid-boss is a lost Wakestone. Our level requirement guide explains what to finish first.
Keyboard Setup: Single-Key Skills
The keyboard default mirrors the controller logic: hold Left Ctrl and press an attack key (Mouse 1, V, Space, or F by default) for skills 1 to 4. Pawn orders sit on 1 to 4, so the classic complaint is finger gymnastics during big fights.
Title Update 3.2 addressed exactly that with two new keyboard-only control types, confirmed in the official patch notes:
- A control type that fires each weapon skill with a single button, no held modifier.
- A control type that switches weapon skills with a single button.
Both live under Options, Controls, Button Mapping — look for the control-type selector rather than individual key rows. As of the Dark Arisen launch, no community reference this site could verify publishes the exact default keys for skills 5 and 6 on keyboard, so confirm in-game. The official web manual controls section covers the remapping flow if the in-game labels confuse you.
Suggested keyboard approach: enable the single-button skill control type, keep movement and dodge untouched, and leave pawn orders on 1 to 4 — with six personal skills you will lean on pawn commands more, not less. Our pawn guide covers the new Explore and High Five orders added in the same update line.
How to Build a 6-Slot Loadout
Dark Arisen's per-vocation skill additions are still being catalogued, so think in functional roles rather than named skills. A balanced bar covers one answer per row below; drop the role your vocation already handles with basic attacks.
| Role | What it does | Who needs it most |
|---|---|---|
| Opener / gap-closer | Gets you onto the target fast | Melee vocations |
| Single-target burst | Burns down bosses and elites | Every vocation |
| Area control | Handles packs and goblin crowds | Staff and bow users |
| Defensive answer | Counter, block, or escape tool | Front-line vocations |
| Stamina or buff utility | Keeps pressure up longer | Long-fight builds |
| Flex pick | Matchup tech: ranged poke, elemental coverage, or a second burst | Everyone, swap per hunt |
Three practical templates to start from: melee takes a gap-closer, two damage skills at different speeds, one counter or guard tool, and one area sweep; ranged takes a quick shot, a heavy single-target shot, a spread or status arrow, a mobility skill, and a trap or zone tool; magick takes one fast cast, one big nuke, one defensive barrier, one area denial spell, and one support skill. Rank your options with the best vocations tier list for Dark Arisen, since a top-tier skill on a weak weapon still underperforms.
Appraised Relic gear from Norgan can carry skills with random parameters, per Capcom's Q&A. A strong Relic roll can justify rebuilding a whole bar around it — appraise first, then finalize slots.
Warfarer and Rearmament: How Extra Slots Interact
Warfarer, the vocation that borrows skills and weapons from every other vocation, interacts with the six-slot system through its signature Rearmament skill. Community testing since launch describes the rules as follows:
- Rearmament occupies one weapon-skill slot, like any other skill.
- Activating it swaps your equipped weapon set to the next one in order at a small stamina cost.
- Firing a borrowed skill automatically draws the weapon that skill belongs to — you do not manually swap first.
With six slots, spending one on Rearmament still leaves five combat skills — Rearmament plus two skills from one weapon set plus two from another is now possible with a slot to spare. The tradeoff is stamina management and menu complexity: every borrowed skill must still be learned on its home vocation first.
Because Warfarer builds pull from the whole skill pool, they benefit most from the Dark Arisen additions.
FAQ
Do pawns get six weapon skill slots too? Early community reports indicate pawns show the same expanded layout after Title Update 3.2. If your pawn's equip screen still shows four, update the game to the latest version and check again.
Can I use skills 5 and 6 on a controller that mashes inputs? Yes — remap them. Options, Controls, Button Mapping accepts the chords on any buttons, and Title Update 4.0 fixed mapping collisions around the two-button skills. Move skills 5 and 6 to shoulder combinations if face-button chords misfire for you.
Do I need Dark Arisen to get six slots? No. The six-slot expansion arrived in Title Update 3.2, a free update that predates the DLC. Dark Arisen adds new skills to fill the slots, but the slots themselves are available in the base game once updated.
Why are my new slots empty after the update? New slots start empty and never auto-fill. Learn or buy the skills you want, then assign them at a Vocation Guild or inn.
Where do Dark Arisen's new skills come from? Capcom confirms new skills and higher tiers of existing skills across vocations, plus random-parameter skills from the Norgan Relic appraisal loop. Per-vocation unlock steps are still being mapped by the community.
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