Equipment skills
Active, passive and linked skill slots, the five common slot layouts, and how to read a weapon's identity from them.
A piece of equipment — usually a weapon; armour is in development — carries two or four fixed skill slots. The count is part of the item and cannot be expanded, so a weapon’s slot layout is more or less its identity.
Slot types
A Active
Fired by the player with right-click or a bound key. One per piece of equipment, never more.
P Passive
Applies on its own once its condition is met. Conditions and effects are the widest of the three.
L Linked
Reacts to your other gear, or to creatures nearby. The reason a build is more than a sum of items.
Common layouts
-
The standard
One button to press, three things that always help. The first layout designed, and still the most useful.
-
The all-rounder
Trades one passive for a link. Broad coverage without committing to a build.
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The combo piece
Two links. Wants specific partners in the other slots and pays off when it gets them.
-
The specialist
All links. Built for one specific set or one specific enemy type.
-
The off-hand
No button at all. For gear that works without being held, or that lives on passive value.
How to read a layout
The letters tell you how the item wants to be played before you read a single number:
- More A — nothing. There is never more than one Active.
- More P — the item works on its own. Good for a first weapon or a backup.
- More L — the item needs the rest of your kit. High ceiling, low floor.
An ALLL weapon in an unbuilt loadout is worse than a plain APPP one; the same weapon in a finished build can be the best thing you own.
Interaction with sockets
Skill slots and gem sockets are separate systems on the same item:
| Skill slots | Gem sockets | |
|---|---|---|
| Count | Fixed by the item | Set by its socket profile |
| Changeable | No | Yes — insert, extract, reroll, reshape |
| Unlocked by | — | Equipment level, seals |
A SKILL-kind gem socket can host a passive proc or a manually activated equipment skill of its own. It does not consume one of the item’s A/P/L slots — it is an additional line, gated by the socket rules instead.