Progression Guide

Pass the Fear splits long-term power across two progression systems that look similar in the hub menu but behave very differently in runs. Squad Points are account-wide stat upgrades purchased with Soul Shards. Character Skill Trees are per-hunter talent paths you can reset freely between missions. Confusing the two is the most common reason skilled players stall on Nightmare, Reality, or Blood Moon — they over-invest in the wrong layer for their current bottleneck.

This guide explains how each system works, what to buy first, and how to pair hub investments with in-run relic and affix planning.

Squad Points: permanent account upgrades

Squad Points modify every hunter you pick. You earn Soul Shards during runs — from elites, chapter milestones, and longer survival segments — then spend them at the global upgrade bench in the hub. Once purchased, a Squad Point tier cannot be refunded; you are committing account-wide power.

Typical Squad Point lines include:

• Maximum health and armor — the safest early investment for learning routes and surviving Storm Wall rushes.
• Damage modifiers — smaller percentage bumps that stack with in-run Growth and crit relics.
• Economy perks — shop discounts, reroll savings, or bonus currency that pair with Money Whiz routes.
• Co-op utilities — revive speed, shared buff duration, or squad-wide defensive layers documented in our co-op guide.

Because Squad Points apply no matter which hunter you queue, they are the backbone of account progression. A player who mains Iron Bucket Knight but occasionally flexes Stella for Tarot runs still benefits from health and armor bought once.

Character Skill Trees: free resets per hunter

Each hunter ships with a Character Skill Tree — usually fifteen upgrade nodes across two starting skills and branching paths. Unlike Squad Points, skill tree choices are reset at no cost before each run. That freedom encourages experimentation: swap from AoE clear talents to single-target boss talents when a chapter gate demands it.

Skill trees control how a hunter fights, not raw account stats:

• Weapon-type bonuses (shotgun spread, charge weapon speed, elemental proc rates).
• Mobility and dodge extensions — critical for bullet-hell lanes.
• Economy or support hooks that only activate on that hunter.
• Ultimate and passive synergies tied to tarot or Pearl picks.

Before a Hard or Nightmare push, open your main hunter’s tree and delete nodes that do not match your planned weapon tags. A Final Shot nuke route should not keep mid-tree AoE nodes “just in case.”

Recommended investment order

Phase 1 — first clears (Normal / Hard learning):

1. Buy armor or health Squad Points until early elites stop one-shotting you through lag.
2. Keep skill trees generalist — mobility, reload, and one clear-speed node.
3. Ignore min-max skill pruning until you can extract twice on the same hunter.

Phase 2 — Hard clear and unlock sprint (post patch 7.26):

Clearing Hard unlocks Nightmare, Hell, and Reality directly. Before jumping tiers, spend Squad Points on damage or economy lines your main hunter actually uses — not generic stats you never trigger.

Respec the skill tree to match your best build guide — Fireworks Master, One-Shot Nuke, or Dual Element.

Phase 3 — high difficulties and Blood Moon:

At Blood Moon and stacked Chaos Battle Scar modifiers, Squad Point durability stops mattering if your skill tree still lacks boss-phase tools. Invest in:

• Break or control nodes for resistance-heavy bosses (how to beat bosses).
• Forge economy nodes if Mythic upgrade cooldowns gate your power (Forge guide).
• Co-op role talents if you queue four-player Storm Cowards — see team roles.

Common mistakes

• Maxing one hunter’s tree while ignoring Squad Points — you hit a damage ceiling because base health cannot survive long enough to stack Growth.
• Buying Squad damage before survival — Nightmare kills you during the shopping phase, not the boss.
• Never respecing trees — demo habits on Explosive Cutie do not match launch Jenny rework kits; treat trees as loadouts, not permanents.
• Splitting Soul Shards across every hunter equally — focus two hunters (solo main + co-op flex) until Blood Moon is stable.

Pairing with in-run power

Squad Points and skill trees set your floor. Relics, weapons, and tarot set your ceiling. The best accounts align all three:

• Squad armor → survive to mid-run shops.
• Skill tree weapon tags → match Fragment or Growth affixes on primaries.
• Relic slots → capstone synergies from relic synergies guide.

Quick reference

Layer	Resets?	Applies to	Best early buy
Squad Points	No	All hunters	Armor / health
Character Skill Tree	Yes, free	One hunter	Mobility + clear speed
In-run relics	Per run	Current escape	Stabilizers → synergy core

When patches rebalance Soul Shard income or tree nodes — check updates after every major build — re-run this checklist before blaming loot RNG for failed extracts.