Nightwing has access to four skill trees in Gotham Knights, these being Raptor, Acrobat, Pack Leader, and Knighthood. The first three are available from the beginning of the game, while Knighthood requires players to first complete the Knighthood challenge for Nightwing.
Best Raptor Skills
The Raptor skill tree gives Nightwing a number of skills to improve his damage output and combat mobility, notably giving him access to a potent chain-bouncing attack.
Trampoline & Aerial Bounce
Trampoline is a fantastic addition to Nightwing’s kit, allowing him to use his Pounce Momentum Ability to launch himself into the air and out of reach. This allows him to follow up with an Aerial attack, and pairing this with the Aerial Bounce skill allows him to repeat that Aerial Attack three times in a row after the Pounce.
Assassin’s Mark
Another excellent pick for Nightwing’s skills, Assassin’s Mark allows him to use AR Vision to place an Assassin’s Mark on a target. This increases the damage dealt to that target by 10% for the entire party, making it a fantastic damage buff for dealing with larger enemies and bosses. Finding time to place the mark during ongoing combat can be tricky, but use of Smoke Bombs and other means of distracting the enemy can provide the necessary time.
Critical Distance
As the capstone skill for the Raptor Skill tree, Critical Distance is a useful addition that boosts Nightwing’s Critical chance and Critical damage when he performs a melee attack from a long distance away from the enemy. This can provide him with extra damage quite easily, since he’s very good at bouncing between targets.
Best Acrobat Skills
The Acrobat skill tree gives Nightwing the best momentum generation out of all the playable heroes, allowing him to use his Momentum Abilities consistently and regularly. It also gives him a very powerful chain-dodging ability.
Aerial Damage +
This skill is right at the beginning of the Acrobat skill tree, and increases Nightwing’s Aerial Attack damage by 20%. Paired with Aerial Bounce from Raptor this extra damage quickly adds up and allows him to cripple the enemy from the air.
Evade Chain
Evade Chain allows Nightwing to perform three consecutive dodges in quick succession, allowing him to easily outpace and outmaneuver enemies. This alone is very useful, but it can be further upgraded with Haly’s Favorite and Evade Chain Momentum, which add a knockdown at the end of the triple dodge and a momentum boost at the end of the triple dodge, respectively.
Mind and Body
Mind and Body, as the capstone of the Acrobat skill tree, is incredibly powerful. It restores a portion of Nightwing’s Health whenever he uses a Momentum ability, and since this skill tree is full of Momentum boosting skills this can be used to full effect regularly throughout a fight.
Best Pack Leader Skills
The Pack Leader skill tree really shines in group combat, giving Nightwing bonuses for having other heroes in his team while allowing him to share those buffs with his allies. It also provides additional elemental effect buildup to his darts, gives him the ability to remotely revive allies using darts, and helps him build up more momentum.
Family Ties & Shared Skill
Family Ties is an excellent power boost for Nightwing, giving him +10% defense and resistance, and adding even more bonuses based on the heroes in his group. Fighting alongside Batgirl boosts melee damage by 15%, Red Hood does the same for ranged damage, and Robin provides the same boost to Stealth Damage.
These boosts can be shared at half their original power with all allies, by grabbing a skill called Shared Skill.
Momentum Regen
This skill is simple but very powerful, giving Nightwing constant Momentum Regeneration. It pauses whenever a segment of the Momentum gauge is filled, but will resume once he performs any action that generates Momentum. This allows him to keep restoring his Momentum quickly throughout the fight, allowing him to take full advantage of his excellent array of Momentum abilities.
Elemental Smart Darts +
This skill is very useful for softening up enemies, reducing their defense by 10% when they’re hit with Nightwing’s Darts. This is useful in solo play, but it also increases the damage allies deal to the target by 5%, so it becomes even more potent when working with a group.
Best Knighthood Skills
Nightwing’s Knighthood Skill Tree gives him a number of general-purpose boosts while improving the effectiveness of his Nest Momentum Ability.
Strike Distance +
Strike Distance + pairs fantastically with the Critical Distance skill from Raptor, increasing the range Nightwing can Travel when attacking an enemy in melee, allowing him to bounce between enemies with incredible speed and over great distances, giving him even more versatility and making Critical Distance easier to trigger.
Guardian & Nest Buffs +
Guardian allows Nightwing to reduce the cooldown of his nest ability by 15% whenever he takes down an opponent. In the larger fights this game has to offer, this becomes insanely powerful and allows him to deploy Nest regularly without fear of it being stuck on cooldown when he needs it. Paired with Nest Buffs + to increase Nest’s damage by 150%, and it’s healing effect by 100%, Nightwing can repeatedly and regularly deploy a field that heals the entire party while dealing constant damage to any unfortunate enemies trapped within.
Triple Darts
This is a skill that makes Nightwing’s Darts considerably more dangerous, rapid-firing three darts every time he launches a ranged attack. Paired with a decent elemental effect dart, and the Elemental Smart Dart skills from Pack Leader, this allows him to inflict elemental effects quickly and efficiently while dealing a decent chunk of damage too.
Gotham Knights is available for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S.
More: Beginner Tips for Gotham Knights
