Buddy Skills

[RhodosGuard]

Since the starting Buddies seem to start with fixed Skills, do I have to use Hired Buddies to get better ones, or is there a way to gain new Buddy Skills on existing Buddies?

[Laughing kookaburra]

you can swap skills later, up to lv 15 skills

[RhodosGuard]

Can you specify at which point I get this ability?
Just killed Magnamalo the first time.
Probably quite a bit later, even though both my starting buddies are level 20 already.

[Laughing kookaburra]

you get that by completing sunbreak side quests, each of them let you swap LV 5 - 10 - 15 buddy skill not 20, my mistake.

[Rose Brigade]

I feel like OP means the Buddy Skills that the Buddies learn randomly, not the Support Moves that can be swapped around between roles.

If you mean Support Moves which are abilities that the Buddy uses such as Healing and Traps, then Laughing kookaburra already answered your question.

If you mean Buddy Skills, which are the RNG learned skills for each buddy that take up the diamond shaped skill slots and boost their stats, then you can eventually use the Dojo to teach multiple Palicos and Palamutes skills that are known by one of your other pets. You will absolutely need to hire more pets to do this, but if you find one that has a skill you like (such as Medic's Touch or Knockout King) then you can use that buddy til it reaches the required level for it and teach it to all other Buddies that you wish to.

I believe this becomes available after you complete the Buddy Commitment Request not far into Sunbreak.

[Scipo0419]

Originally posted by RhodosGuard:

Can you specify at which point I get this ability?
Just killed Magnamalo the first time.
Probably quite a bit later, even though both my starting buddies are level 20 already.

You can change the Lv 5/10/15 Support Moves for Palicos and the Buddy Skills once you reach Master Rank, and I believe the lv 5 Support Move side quest is at MR3 (so pretty far away).

Note: You can change the support *Moves* freely once you unlock these side quests, however Support *Skills* are different. If you have never unlocked the skill you want on another Buddy, it won't show up in the list of possible skills. For example if you want your buddy to have Attack Up L, but none of your buddies has Attack Up L (or has it, but isn't a high enough level to use it) then none of your buddies has access to Attack Up L.

This makes leveling tons of buddies worthwhile (at least until you unlock all the support skills)